After a late night getting our bikes back only at 11:00pm, we had an early start to pack everything back onto the bikes – it was the first time that we had taken the panniers off and it took a while to get it all securely attached again. We left at 12:30pm and made it through Concepción, fuelled up and followed a rural road out through more forestry areas with pine and eucalyptus plantations and later with orchards and vineyards. We stopped on the side of the road for a snack and charged my phone. The hotel owner Carlos messaged and said he was going out to buy supplies and that he would be back by 5:30pm. We enjoyed the sunshine a bit longer and continued our trip after the phone was charged over 70%. The road was lovely with many curves but also with psycho Saturday drivers – one oncoming vehicle overtook and we had to break hard and veer to the edge of our lane to allow him to pass without a head on collision with us and meanwhile I was almost rear-ended by the next idiot behind me – only a few kilometres later a car pulled off to the right indicating to the right but about to do a hook turn to the left again almost taking both of us out – riding in Chile is definitely never boring and there is always plenty of excitement 😉😂👍

The bikes are riding very nicely and I forgot what it feels to have working front suspension and Andrew is enjoying being able to park on level ground now and not having to find a ditch to lean the bike into to stop it from falling over. They had put higher viscosity oil in the rear suspension to alleviate the problem. We did notice that my fork brace had been installed the wrong way round with the roo whistle facing the wrong way 😂- I will have to try to take that off and make sure it is facing the right way to deter any animals near the road. My pin lock is almost as clear as it was brand new and my kidney belt fix is also holding up well👍

We arrived at 5:15 at Hotel los Artesanos and the owner Carlos had already returned from his shopping and let us in the courtyard to park the bikes. Vila Alegre is a town of winemakers and it could almost be a small village in Austria. The hotel is 100 years old and in Colonial style with a beautiful internal garden. We went for dinner in the only open restaurant in town which was a Mexican restaurant and had nice dinner. Back in the hotel room we turned the electric heater on and the shower only had hot water long enough for one person to shower 🥹😂