Hey guys! I hope everyone’s winter/summer is going well. I’ll have to say right now that the next month and a half will have to be heavily summarized as I could write a novel on everything that has happened in my life since leaving Uspallata. With that, keep in mind that of the 40ish days I’ve written about, 7 were spent cycle-touring. When I left you on the last blog, I was feeling a bit homesick there in tiny Uspallata, longing for the city and preparing to make the crossing over the Andes to Chile. I left early from Uspallata on the 11
th, riding west into the canyons that lead up to the Cristo Redentor pass over the Andes separating Argentina from Chile. It was my first day riding solo on this trip and in the evening, my first time wild-camping solo while touring since Europe in 2009!
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| Uspallata |
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| I've been on this general route for a good long time... |
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| Camping in the flowers |
It is prohibited to bring fruits and vegetables over the
border and I took advantage of this law by helping myself to all the dumped
produce on the side of the road. A light
wind started blowing across my face and progressed throughout the day into a
hellfire of headwind, which accompanied an already fierce steep climb. I stopped after only 70km, afraid I wouldn’t
find a good place to camp down the road out of the wind, and had a nice evening
to myself, going down and washing at the river, cooking a huge, delicious meal,
and watching a movie before bed.
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| Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak in the America's |
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| Sea-creature fossil here at 10,000ft - evidence that we live on an insane planet |
The next day, I stopped off and did a little hike in the
Aconcagua National Park to get a good view of the highest mountain outside of
the Himalayas. On my way back down to
the bike and my stuff, I randomly ran into Aurora, the French lady I had
originally met in La Paz, Bolivia at the Casa de Ciclistas. If you recall that far back in the swampy
wasteland of words and pictures that is my blog, you’ll remember that she is
traveling with her dog that she brought to South America by plane! With all the weight, headwind, and steepness,
she pedaled pretty slowly, so I was able to take my time, and Lela (her dog)
just trotted alongside us.
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| Aurora and her dog Lela from France |
The border was the most beautiful I have ever seen, with
huge snowy mountains shooting up away from the canyon that held the tiny
buildings and people controlling each country.
All the vertical landscape made it difficult to keep my camera tucked
away! Getting back into Chile was pretty
straightforward, though my lentils were taken from me. And on the other side, a huge downhill
awaited us from some 11,000ft to 2,000ft.
I could hear Lela whining from her little bed above Aurora’s front wheel
as we wound down the 50-something switchbacks.
Nowhere near the bottom, we found an incredible place to camp, with
grass, winding streams, trees, rocks, and even a bathroom to use! It was close to the road, but the sound of
the water drowned everything out.
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| Getting close to the border |
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| Hello again Chile |
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| Winding down |
In the morning, we continued downhill to Los Andes, the first city in Chile on this route. I saw a cycle-tourist climbing the hill while going down, so I went over to his side of the road, stopping in the dirt next to him and not only did he not stop, but didn’t make eye contact. Some cyclist-tourists are like this – too driven to even have a conversation and too passionate about their journey that they forget the best part – its relationships.
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| Most beautiful border crossing ever |
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| Lela |
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| Camp |
We arrived in Los Andes, got some money, used
internet, and picked up groceries. I was
able to find everything I needed and even more than what I could find in
grocery stores in the States! Powdered
soy milk, store-brand chocolate granola cereal, PB&J, German biscuits, soy
milanesas, even seitan! Aurora and I
rode our separate ways thereafter because it boiled down to the fact that
riding through cities is something I love and she hates. That night, I found a fantastic grove of
Eucalyptus trees near an irrigation canal to pass my last night before
Santiago. I rolled in early and caught
the moonrise, enjoying bowl after bowl of chocolate granola cereal.
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| Jumbo: The greatest supermarket south of the U.S.A. |
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| Chilean suburbia... bleh |
Cycling into Santiago from the north wasn’t too bad, the
traffic was horrendous but I managed to somehow avoid lots of ghettos that I
had heard about in the north. This
wouldn’t be the case when cycling back out of the city a few weeks later
through a different part of North Santiago.
Once downtown, I obtained a map and made my way to Nastasia’s house, the
sister of a French girl I had met in Sucre, Bolivia. She is studying and living in an awesome
little house in a nice area of the city with other foreign students and a few
locals. Her roommate Fanny was even nice
enough to give up her whole room for me to use for a few days while I was at
their house!
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| Riding the autopiste... Definitely blaring my music on this part |
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| Moonrise in Santiago |
SANTIAGO (mid-November to early December):
Santiago is no walk in the park, it’s an enormous city; you could
combine the population of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, and
you’d still fall short of Santiago’s 6+ million residents! Keep in mind though that Chile is pretty
developed, so it reflects an urban city with skyscrapers and financial districts,
cultural and artistic neighborhoods, and everything else a city can offer. Many people use Santiago as a base to explore
the giant mountains to the east, or the beach which is equally as far to the
west. I was there to get my city-time
in, I’ve missed it! My first few days
there were spent finding new clothes, shoes, and a good tattoo artist, plus learning
how to get around the city on the crazy bike paths and through the parks.
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| Santiago from Cerro San Cristobal |
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| Providencia Neighborhood of Santiago |
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| Some flowers |
The people I was staying with had a party, where I met and
talked with Ivan, the owner of a hostel nearby.
He said that I could move there and begin working, so I did. In exchange for work in the evenings most
days, I lived at the Ventana Sur hostel for a few weeks, which was a fantastic
experience. Unlike most hostels, Ventana
Sur attracts many people looking to live in Santiago, so of the 19 beds, 7 or 8
were usually occupied by people staying for over a week, sometimes over a
month. My sleep schedule quickly became
waking up at noon and falling asleep around 4 or 5 every day, which persisted
until the end of December.
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| I have dozens of street-art photos, but I chose this one |
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| Making STGO BIKE |
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| Nastasia's place |
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| Surrounded by delicious Chilean wine |
Coco and Gregg told me over email that they had arrived in
Santiago a few weeks prior and were still there, so I spent many nights where
they were staying at Francesca’s, the apartment of a Chilean girl they had met
a few months back. Always a good time
with lots of people at Fran’s. During
the day, I explored the city by bike, and in my last week in Santiago, I began
recording short clips of cycling through beautiful parks, heavy traffic, past
walls of street-art, and through all the various neighborhoods I could
find. I’ll use my movie-maker when I get
back home to compile a STGO BIKE short film if any motivation still
remains. On one of my descents down the
big Cerro San Cristobal in the middle of the city, I hit a patch of water and
crashed the bike, but thankfully only injured my skin, whew! Unfortunately, I should have been recording
the crash on video, but I accidentally pressed ‘record’ twice at the top of the
hill. Next time.
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| Oh yea, it's that time of year |
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| Making STGO BIKE |
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| Checking out the cemetery with Nastasia and Fanny |
A friend I had met on another trip was living in Santiago,
so with a few of the folks from the hostel, we all went to Valparaiso one
weekend. Valparaiso is a very artsy
port-town near many of Santiago’s closest beaches. On the bus ride over, I had a sudden urge to
change the hostel we had booked for another one that I had heard about from the
folks at Ventana Sur. We arrived at the
new place ‘Planeta Lindo’ and were immediately taken in by good people. After less than one evening in Valpo, Poroto
offered me work and I realized I wanted to relocate here from Santiago, for now
at least. The owner of the hostel is
Poroto (Spanish for bean) and is one of the most chill, friendliest guys
around. Also working at the hostel is
Luke from Colorado, Dave from England, and there was a guy Rafa from here in
Valpo that left for Brasil while I was there.
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| Heading up to Cerro Alegre in Valparaiso, Chile |
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| Wicked old electric buses |
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| The view from Pablo Neruda's house |
I saw a lot of the city, which is built on a steep hill,
making for not a single flat street, and I even found a little hiking trail up
in the forests above the city with a fantastic view out to the Pacific. The beach is right up the coast 20 minutes by
bus so we did that one day; how I missed the ocean! The weather here is a lot like San Francisco,
so there was no swimming to be had, but by the brave. It was a hazy weekend, and one night we all
went to a place Poroto knew about where there was live Reggae several times a
year. The show was located at the end of
the only pier in downtown Valpo, out on the deck above the water – it was incredible. Sunrise even crept up on us a bit when we
were leaving to get munchies.
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| Valpo |
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| Neruda about Valparaiso: "You never finished combing your hair, life has always surprised you." |
I returned to Santiago Monday afternoon, taking it easy and
hanging out with Fran, Yuri, Pablo, and their friends, then packed my stuff on
Tuesday and saw a few museums. I took
care of some last-minute stuff in the city on Wednesday and left for Valpo by
bike after breakfast, which happened to be around 2:30pm… I wanted to take a really obscure route that
went over a mountain pass and dropped me into a National Park, so that’s what I
did. I fought Santiago traffic including
some rich parts and a few ghettos for 3 hours or so until I finally reached
vineyards and eucalyptus groves again.
At one point leaving the city, I felt in one area that if I stopped I’d
be robbed, but I just kept whistling and kept comfortable, trusting in the
city, and everything was fine. I saw
some heavily-laden cycle tourists pass me while I was taking a roadside juice,
but didn’t stop them as I had looked forward to cycling alone for a while
now.
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| Parque O'Higgins, Santiago |
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| Every individual has a right to life, freedom, and personal security |
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| Chile |
I found a ‘3-star stealth’ (as I’d like to call it) camping spot
in a sheep-grazing area and luckily managed to fall asleep around
midnight. The next morning I met an
Argentinian working in Chile who had a son who cycle-tours, so I think I might
stay at his house and have a barbeque when I get back to Santiago for at least
one night. I climbed up and over the
pass, meeting the cyclists from yesterday at the top, a couple from Buenos
Aires – very cool people. Going down the
hill, I recorded some awesome footage of the crazy curves and scenery, then
rode up to the La Campana National Park.
After some negotiating, I was able to stay for free next to the ranger
station, in place of having to spend 6,000 pesos ($12) just to camp!
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| Cerro La Campana |
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| Sunset from the national park |
The next day was one of the longest of my trip, using
exhaustion as a measurement. I woke up
late because an earthquake in the night rocked me awake and I was a bit spooked
to fall back asleep so easily. After
getting all my stuff ready, I started climbing Cerro La Campana, a 6,000ft peak
in the national park. I walked as fast
as I could, knowing I wanted to be in Valparaiso for Friday night and made the
top after a few hours. There were many
biospheres going up, and I got to see the color of lizards change from black to
bright green/blue when I got near the top.
The flowers, types of trees, etc also changed as I got near to the top,
which really reminded me a lot of Mt. Si in Washington as it’s a low-elevation
mountain near a lot of flat land and a big mountain range on opposing sides.
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| Heading up |
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| At the top |
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| Mr. Blue Lizard |
I met some cool people at the summit, and then started down,
making it back to the bike by 4:30, where I quickly switched gears, changing
shoes, shorts, packing my panniers, etc and I left. I cycled hard towards the coast and down to
Valparaiso, stopping once to pick up some empanadas. I hit the ocean and followed the boardwalk
down through the evening and arrived at Planeta Lindo around 9pm, where the
magic started. I thought that after a
10-mile hike up a mile-high mountain and 70km of cycling in rolling hills would
do me in, I was wrong. We all went out
around midnight to a rooftop house-converted-club that allows you to bring your
own – whatever you’re consuming – and went crazy. I’ll just say, it was a beautiful sunrise
from the hostel terrace and I really never went to bed – just kind of floated
through Saturday in a haze.
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| After six months, the Pacific again |
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| Coming up on Viña del Mar |
VALPARAISO (early December to ???):
I started working at the hostel the next day, and a few days
later Poroto gave me my own room in his big antique house down the street! Luke and I have a lot in common so we’re
always walking around or getting into some kind of trouble. Dave is a vegetarian cook and has tons of
incredible music, so we also have tons in common. Being at the hostel seems to be what we all
love to do, hanging out with the people, taking them on walking tours around
the city and showing them the local nightlife…
Poroto has lived here his whole life and so knows the city well, from
parks to cultural centers, to nature sites, to the best secret nightlife.
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| Cerro Concepcion, Valpo |
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| The beach |
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| Hostel is the pink place on the right corner |
It’s great to just go down to the beach in Viña del Mar or walk around the cerros of the city. Cerros (hills) are the names given to the neighborhoods in Valparaiso as each is atop a different hill and thus changes dramatically in between. The hostel is on Cerro Alegre and the house on the more popular Cerro Concepcion. I went for a few long day bike rides to other nearby towns, beaches, or mountains nearby, but the city itself is pretty impossible to get around by bike as all the hills are insanely steep and made of cobblestone.
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| Riding around cities with Luke |
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| Terrace Times |
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| BANKSY |
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| Valpo |
The relationship Poroto, Luke, Dave, and I have is really close, always having ‘hostel meetings’ to jam on the drums/guitar/piano or have a round of Fifa (soccer video game). Music is always playing somewhere and lots of time gets spent sitting the afternoon away on the front stoop. There is no check-in time, no check-out time, no sign out front, no shifts for us, no ‘duties list’ or something. We just keep the place clean when it looks dirty and take turns sleeping at the hostel at night, because we are otherwise usually there anyway. Whoever hears the doorbell does the check-in and the new guests become a part of the family for however long they stay (which is usually at least double the days they intend to stay).
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| Poroto getting the hostel bar ready |
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| Eduardo, who sometimes comes and plays guitar with us |
Poroto is a really incredible person – he is relaxed about
everything and is positive about everything in life, strongly believing in the
law of attraction which he implements in his hostel by not having a sign, by
always keeping extra beds available should someone want to stay longer,
etc. He doesn’t like money so shares it
with people who need it in the city; he would rather lose some potential money
than to let in someone aggressive or sketchy, unlike most hostels. He keeps everyone at the hostel smiling and
is very trusting of us, knowing we’re all good people. He even offered me his pickup truck to use
when I was thinking about going to Viña del Mar. I know that when I leave Valparaiso, it will
be a ‘see you later’ kind of goodbye with a lot of the people I met here. And for now, I am living in the now, excited
for Christmas and New Years! I’ll send a
Christmas blog, so keep an eye out for it, Chow!
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