{"id":49864,"date":"2019-09-16T22:29:37","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T19:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gurkangenc.com\/?p=49864"},"modified":"2019-09-16T22:29:37","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T19:29:37","slug":"continuing-from-antafogasta-in-chile-to-atacama-san-pedro-and-then-towards-bolivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gurkangenc.com\/en\/2019\/09\/continuing-from-antafogasta-in-chile-to-atacama-san-pedro-and-then-towards-bolivia\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuing from Antafogasta in Chile to Atacama San Pedro and then towards Bolivia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When writing again after a long pause, it is worth to remind what happened. Why did I stay in Chile for such a long time?<\/p>\n

I had set off for my South America journey from Buenos Aires on January 2017 and had arrived in Santiago after one month on February 2017. At that time our ambassador Gokcen Hanim (Mrs\/Miss in Turkish<\/em>) had hosted me. I had some opportunity to learn Santiago. Thanks to embassy secretary 2Basak, her husband Yigit and our consulate employee Recep who helped me in many issues. Then, I set off and arrived in Ushuai, the town at the southernmost of the continent in September 2017. Afterwards, I had returned to my starting point to Buenos Aires. Then, rode through south of Brazil, Paraguay and north of Argentina respectively before returning to Santiago once again in March 2018. This time I was to stay longer and thank to our ambassador Gulin Han\u0131m who hosted me. Together with Mine Poge we had decided to finish the children\u2019s books composed of 4 series, which we started to write in February 2017. In May 2018 I learned that my father had cancer. I left all the projects I was doing and returned to Turkey after 6 years on the road. My father got sorry to my return and was crying: \u201cWhy did you return?\u201d I just smiled. I spent two months just with my family and then returned to Chile on August 28th<\/sup> 2018 and went to Eastern Islands which my father wanted me to visit before heading to the north of the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0I had to return to Santiago due to a bicycle damage just 500 km away from the border, November 15th<\/sup>. I chatted every day with my family, especially dad 5 days long. On November 20th<\/sup>, 2018 my father passed away in his sleep at night. He was buried the next day in family cemetery at Golbasi in Ankara.<\/p>\n

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The date I\u2019m writing this article is February 12th<\/sup>, 2019. I was away from my father for years due to my world journey. My childhood and youth had passed also this way. He was working out of town during my prime and high school years and then I was out of Ankara during my university years. Then after we were always apart from each other, but our connection was always strong. At every single opportunity we had, we were traveling together, chatting and thought over various things. Now, I can\u2019t send him messages or don\u2019t receive any messages from him. He had sent me books to read just before he passed away. You may ask: \u201cWhat did your father left for you?\u201d That\u2019s all, 15 books. I had such a father. To know that I\u2019ll continue on my world trip without receiving any messages from him, to know he won\u2019t be among the people who will welcome me when I\u2019m back at home makes me feel sorrow. It is hard to get used to the fact that I\u2019m not going to see him anymore. I had written him that I had fallen so many times in this journey, but this now wasn\u2019t a physical fall. It is hard to put yourself together when you have a psychological fall. What can I do? I\u2019m ready to depart, being on the road would help me. It always helped me, whenever I feel bad cycling does good. I would like to thank our ambassador Gulin Hanim, our diplomat Yeliz Hanim, undersecretary of internal affairs Ahmet Bey and our consulate employee Recep Bey for supporting me during that time. Also lots of thank to Elif, Gonca and Viviana who never let me alone.<\/p>\n

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Some people think that I\u2019m also made of iron due to saying \u201cGurkan Genc the man with iron horse\u201d. \u201cWhy are you in Chile? Didn\u2019t you stay more than enough in Chile? Why Chile?\u201d If you don\u2019t read my articles, you may not know what\u2019s going on. Well, nothing to do. In the end, I\u2019ll keep on my journey the way after my own heart as I do for years.<\/p><\/div>\n

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This time I returned to Antofagasta on my own. After a long time, I\u2019m hitting the road solo. However, I always say that I\u2019m traveling solo. Before giving that long break\/ARA I had pedaled with Johnny for a while. The I stopped at Santiago to finish the books with Mine where I had stooped for while before. This was my second long stop-over in Santiago. During this time our ambassador Gulin han\u0131m (mrs in Turkish) hosted me. With the bike the welder messed-up we could only arrive Antofagasta the last big city in the north and from there returned to Santiago together with Elif. I returned to the point I had left. Since I didn\u2019t have time to stroll around in the city at time, I decided to stay more for a couple of days.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It is known as the capital, the biggest city of the northern part of Chile. A long shore line with a nice bicycle lane stretching along the shore, nice fish restaurants, a big port and a bad smell with the port. Just after 3 meters away from the coast the altitude rises and just after a kilometer you start to climb side streets with 10% slope in the city. During my few days\u2019 stay I strolled around in the city and looked far-off sitting at the seaside. Antofagasta was a place where I watched the see for a longtime, doing nothing without dreaming, questioning or thinking.<\/p>\n

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Returning to my room I touch my bike:<\/p>\n