An amazing 7 days as I finished my cycle journey in South America before hopping my way across 4 continents to get to Oman in the Middle East.

After spending the last 3 days battling the wind more than the incline as I climbed 4000m over the Andes Mountains it was time to finish my South American adventure by riding the final 120km or so to the Chilean capital of Santiago where I would be catching a flight in 3 day’s time.

The storm that had followed me across the border from Argentina had blown through and in the morning the skies were blue. 

The Paso Internacional Los Libertadores pass was at 3200m and I had an adrenaline filled descent down the amazing switchbacks which lay on the Chilean side of the Andes Mountains. 

When I set off that morning it was a 45km downhill run following the Rio Juncal to the town of Los Andes. The valley that I was following was breathtaking

It was Saturday and as I descended at +40kmph I passed a continual line of cyclists ascending who were either out on training rides or were heading to the switchbacks just for fun. 

On the western side of the valley, which caught the most sun, they were busy drying fruit

It took me just over an hour to cover the 45km to Los Andes which shows you just how steep the descent was.  A quick check of the map showed that I could either take the Autopista which would loop around the southern edge of the city or cycle through the city centre.  I decided that the city centre was a better option than taking the motorway and cycled into town.

On the 45km cycle to Los Andes I had dropped nearly 1000m and was back in wine country

Once I was through the city my only option was to get onto the autopista as it was the only road to Santiago.  As I cycled onto the motorway there were signs saying no cycling

As I had no other option I joined the motorway

Up ahead there was a police van parked under an overpass. As I approached they waved at me to pull over.  I did so thinking that they were about to tell me to turn around but all they said to me was “Santiago?” and I said “Si”.  They then waved me on my way even though I had just passed another sign saying no cycling.

Once out of the city my first climb of the day started and it went on and on and on as I climbed back over 1000m elevation.

At the top of the climb there was a tunnel and at the entrance there was a big sign indicating no bicycles.  A man came out of the control box and called me over.  He told me that I couldn’t cycle through the tunnel, and I really was hoping that he wasn’t going to tell me to cycle back down the hill that I had just spent the best part of the last hour climbing.  Instead, he told me to park my bike and to wait for a truck to come and get me. 

After 20 minutes a van turned up and I loaded my bike into the back.

We then drove through the tunnel

Before he dropped me off on the other side

I have no idea why all along the road there are signs saying no bicycles given that the police aren’t bothered and the workers at the tunnel even give you a lift.  I wasn’t complaining though as the 80km Autopista road which ran straight over the mountains was much quicker than the nearly 150km detour that I would havehad to cycle on side roads.

Once I was through the tunnel it was payback time for the climb.

For the first time in South America I was now cycling with the Andes on my left hand side which kind of seemed like I was heading in the wrong direction.

It seemed that it wasn’t just bicycles that were ‘banned’ from using the Autopista

Since I had crossed the border I had lost my ‘connectivity’ with the world as my Argentinian SIM did not work in Chile.  On the outskirts of Santiago I pulled over at Mcdonalds to use their wifi to find which part of the city I should head for to find somewhere to stay. 

Looking at the map there didn’t seem to be one central place and each area had it’s own selection of attractions.  Whilst searching I got a message from Natacha, who I worked with in Vietnam, to say that she had just moved into a flat in Santiago and that I was welcome to stay.

Natacha lives to the north of the city in an area called Providencia which lies in the shadow of Cerro San Cristobel (Hill).  The highway skirted around the city and would take me through another tunnel so instead of having to wait for another lift through the tunnel when I reached the outskirts of the city I pulled off the highway to ride through the centre.

As with most cities the outskirts tend to be the cheaper housing and everybody here lived behind bars.  I pulled up at a shop to get a drink and the front of the shop was closed off with a floor to ceiling iron fence.  You told the person what you wanted and they fetched it for you before handing it to you through the bars.

I had seen this before while travelling through Central America but never in South America.  Thankfully, it seemed that it was just the neighbourhood that I was riding through as once I reached the centre the shops were open fronted. (all except some of the liquor shops)

The area that Natacha lived in had wide tree lined streets and seemed like a million miles away from the places that I had cycled through in the north of the city.

Her apartment block had a lovely pool and barbecue area.  Natacha lived on the 8th floor and had a great view of the
Statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the Cerro San Cristobel.

The day I arrived was Natacha’s birthday and that night she had a party.  I have no idea what time I eventually got too bed but the sun wasn’t far off coming up.  Natacha’s flat was a 1 bed and as the evenings were cooler than Argentina I rolled my sleeping mat out and slept on the balcony.

One of the people that I had met at the party was Ricardo who was a fellow cyclist.  I had arranged to meet him at 11am the following morning to go cycling but when I woke up it was already nearly 11.  I phoned him to re-arrange to meet at 12 and Natacha and I went to get a quick breakfast.

Empanadas (dough folded over a filling that are then baked or fried) in Chile are sold everywhere and are different to the rest of South America.  Here they are much bigger and tend to be baked rather than fried. They come in a wide variety of flavours – steak, cheese, mushroom, vegetable, chicken, mince, fish or even fruit flavours like apple and pear. 

In Chile, the most traditional empanada filling is called “pino”. Pino is a seasoned mixture of ground beef, onions, raisins, black olives, and hard boiled eggs. 

The empanada is considered the most symbolic food of the country.  Salvador Allende,  the President of Chile from 1970 to 1973, emphasized the national character of his political project saying that it would be a “revolution with the flavour of red wine and the scent of an empanada”.

After eating a very tasty breakfast of steak and cheese empanadas I met Ricardo

and we cycled north out of the city to climb to the top of Cerro San Cristobel to see the Virgen Mary. 

As it was Sunday a number of streets in the centre had been closed to vehicles

There were thousands of walkers, cyclists, runners and rollerbladers out in the city.  Along the side of the roads there were pump and puncture

And stalls selling cycling and running accessories

The road up to the top of the hill was a 300m climb and as it was also closed to traffic it was full of walkers, runners and cyclists as we all climbed our way 5km to the top where the statue was located.

The road wound it’s way to the top (or you could cheat and take the cable car!!!!) and was fairly steep in places.  The higher we climbed the better the view of the city got

Half way up there were exercise come dance classes going on

Sundays really was the best day to be cycling through the city, even my hangover had gone away.  

Once we reached the top the view was even better and I could see all the way across the valley that Santiago was crammed into

Another tradition is that when you get to the top you need to drink Mote con Huesillo, a local (nonalcoholic) drink made of reconstituted peaches and wheat kernels.

After one final pic at the top it was time to descend

As we reached the bottom of the hill it was 2pm and they were opening the roads again to vehicles.   As you descend off the hill there is a sculpture park at teh bottom that is worth a look as there were some pretty impressive pieces

Take a look at the sky in the last photo – when I lay on the grass and looked up it looked like the sea with wave after wave of clouds all in straight lines. (either that or I was still a little drunk!!!!)

After visiting the park we headed to a cafe for coffee and then it was time for me to head back to Natacha’s to give her a hand clearing up from the party the night before.  

That night we were both in bed by 9pm, or at least one of us was as I was back out on the balcony enjoying the beautiful cool summer breeze.

My plan for my final day in South America was to meet JD, the Canadian cyclist that I had been stalking for the last 1000km !!!!, for lunch and then cycle out to a hotel next to the airport to sleep as I didn’t want to have to fight the morning rush hour the day I left.

I packed up my stuff and cycled with it into the city to meet.  After lunch we headed for a café for one last drink – pisco sours (ice, egg white, Chilean Pisco, sugar syrup, and lemon juice) to which I can thank Natasha for introducing me to. 

These were soon followed by a jug of beer served in salt rimmed glasses that had an inch of lemon juice in the bottom (another Chilean speciality apparently)

One thing led to another and before we knew it was gone midnight and we were sat in a bar with 3 Germans who were drinking another Chilean speciality – Terremoto. This, I kid you not, is the recipe and how to make it (no measuring instruments required):

  1. Put a large scoop of pineapple ice-cream into a jug.
  2. Fill the remainder of the jug up with pipeño (fermented white wine)
  3. Serve in a glass and drink.

The story of how this drink came about is rather a good one and is perhaps why our new German friends were drinking them:-

The story goes that a group of German reporters were in Santiago reporting on the damage caused by the major earthquake that had struck the city in March 1985. Due to the heat, the reporters asked for something refreshing so a waiter added ice-cream to a glass of pipeño (fermented white wine). When they tried the concoction, they supposedly said “Esto sí que es un Terremoto”  which translates as “This truly is an earthquake” due to how strong it was and the name stuck even since.

Not sure if it was the +10 hours drinking or what but they tasted pretty good.  However, as it was now past midnight and I had a plane to catch in the morning I decided to call it a night.  I still had to cycle nearly 20km out of the city to my hotel at the airport and the quickest way to get there was down the motorway.  Perhaps not my best decision especially seeing as I was 3 sheets to the wind and didn’t have any lights but I got there in one piece.

It was nearly 2am by the time I had checked in and decided that it would be easier to pack my bike up before sleeping so that I could have a lie-in in the morning and so I got out the rolls of cling film that I had bought earlier that day and wrapped up the bike.

The next morning after breakfast I caught the courtesy bus to the airport.  I was not flying directly to Oman – firstly I flew to Panama City where I had a 20 hour connection before flying to Istanbul for a 3 day stopover.   

When I reached the airport there was a 2 hour delay on my flight to Panama City.  I had arranged to stay with a friend of a friend, Abbie a fellow teacher who works in Panama, rather than wait for 20 hours at the airport but with the delay it meant that I would not now be arriving until after 7pm rather than 5pm. 

With immigration and customs it would be gone 8pm before I was out of the airport so I decided to book into a hotel at the airport instead of having Abbie ‘Moo’ Holmes (no idea why she is known as ‘Moo’ by the way) hang around at the airport waiting for me to arrive.

The Crowne Plaza runs a courtesy shuttle to and from the airport and as it is only less than a kilometer away within 20 minutes of clearing customs I had checked in and was sat in the pool with a beer.

As there was such a long connection between flights I had to collect my luggage at Panama City and check it in for the Istanbul flight the following day.  When I did they wanted to charge me 100 USD to fly my bike. 

I knew that they were going to charge me but the advertised price for Turkish Airlines was 60 Euro (65 USD).  I even spoke with the regional manager of Turkish Airlines who is based at the airport and he agreed that it should be 60 65 USD, but as the computer said the cost was 100 USD (in Panama they use USD as their currency) then that is what I would have to pay if I wanted to fly my bike.

As I had no other choice I paid the money and told manager advised that I would take it up with head office when I arrive in Istanbul. 

When I landed in Istanbul it had already been sorted as I received an email from the manager in Panama saying that they he had refunded my credit card for the cost of the bike due to the problems that I had had at check-in. The reason that they gave for the mix up in pricing was that they had charged me for a return flight rather than a one way flight, which made no sense as my ticket was only one way, but as they had eventually flown my bike for free I wasn’t about to complain.

As I only had 3 day layover in Istanbul I had pre-booked a hotel in Galata and a taxi to pick me up when I landed.  There is something nice about coming out of customs to find somebody holding a board with your name on it.  The other reason that I had booked a taxi though was that it was cheaper to pay for the taxi to take my luggage with me to the hotel than it was to leave it at the airport for 3 days.

If you have never been to Istanbul I highly recommend going as it is a great city and I have always had a great time when I have been there in the past.  Most people who visit for the first time tend to stay in Sultanhmet as that is where the ‘wow’ places to visit are – Hagia Sophia, The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the ‘Blue Mosque’) the Grand Bazaar to name just a few.

Galata is a 5 minute walk across a bridge which spans a tributary arm of the Bosphorus which marks the continental boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey.

The Bosphorus is the world’s narrowest strait and connects the Black Sea to the north with the Sea of Marmara to the South.  Although Galata is still on the European side it has more of a local feel to it than Sultanhmet and is also considerably cheaper. If you ever go to Istanbul you will spot where Galata is in the city as there is a tower poking out of the top of it.

The medieval stone tower stands at 66m and was built in 1348. Today you can visit the top for a spectacular view over the city.  It also contains a restaurant and café and plays host to a cultural dance show in the evening. 

At night the tower looks even more impressive than it does during the day.

My hotel was just down the hill from the tower and was in a great location.  Like in Ho Chi Minh, where I used to live before starting this bike ride, you get streets that all sell the same thing (my favourite in HCMC was scissor street – shop after shop after shop just selling scissors) The street that my hotel was on was ‘light’ street – a whole street dedicated to all forms of lights.

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what a fascinating city Istanbul is:

The food in Istanbul is another highlight – a blend of east meets west with it’s own twist (and no it’s not all doner kebabs, although they do sell a few)  My favourite lunch was fish kebabs down by the river.

Barbecued fresh fish is wrapped up in a flat bread with salad and cooked onions. 

The outside of the bread is then basted in soy sauce, lemon juice and spices before the kebab is put back on the barbecue for the bread to crisp. 

They were fantastic and at 10 TKL (about 2 GBP) a bargain to boot. 

Istanbul is also full of tea houses – small glasses of sweet tea. 

Forget the notion that Britian is a country of tea drinkers –  in Turkey it is a way of life

The other amazing thing about Istanbul are the ferries that run up and down the Bosphorus.  The ferry costs 3 TK per trip but as long as you don’t walk through the main gate at each terminal you can get off one ferry and jump onto another for free. 

It is a great way to see the city and by mistake I even ended up taking a ferry from Europe to Asia !!!!

My final job before leaving was to find a barbers and the guy on reception recommended that I went for a full Turkish and it wasn’t what I was expecting.  Not only did I get a haircut but I also got a free ear and nose wax.

First they smeared hot wax over my ears

Then they dipped cotton buds in the wax and stuck one up each of my nostrils

Once cooled and hardened it was time to peel the wax off my ears and pull, yes pull, the cotton buds out.

I may have been smiling at the end but it was definitely a painful experience To show you just how painful it was here is a short video:

It was a great few days in Istanbul and I even got to watch England destroy Scotland in the 6 Nations ‘live’ in an Irish Bar (not sure that I will be watching the Ireland v England match in quite the same setting when I land in Oman !!!!).

The next morning I caught my taxi back to the airport and with no hassle, or charge for my bike, flew Gulf Air to Oman in the Middle East where it was now time to cycle through the desert !!!!!

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The road to Oman (via Chile, Panama and Turkey)
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