From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

We stayed three days in Vina del Mar with Vanina and her daughers, who were excellent hosts. After saying goodbye to them we headed towards Santiago. We ran into trouble right away – no bikes on the highway and there was no alternate road to take. Most of the highways in Chile allow bikes – I say most, because this one definitely did not! We spent quite a while looking for a different route, but in the end we got on the highway anyway. We weren't on it long before we were stopped by a official highway patrol. We explained our situation, and they let us continue on the highway... continue straight to the next exit that is. Cheers, thanks!

After 40 km on a country road, we had to get on the highway again, luckily one that allowed cyclists. We camped by a service station, with bathrooms and most importantly, running water!

The next morning we had two new problems: two tunnels ahead, no bikes allowed. But the Chileans had it all figured out. We put our bikes in front of the cameras and an "Assistencia" car came to pick us up and take us and our bikes through the tunnel. Impressive!

By the time we got to Santiago we were, understandably, a little tired. But there was one more obstacle to overcome. The Santiago buses would have nothing of us two cyclotourists and would cut us off regularly. Sébastien quickly reverted back to his old Parisian reflexes, but I had a little more trouble.

We finally made to Seth and Kirsten's, an American couple who've settled in Chile for a while. They're warmshowers members, and they were both warm and welcoming. They offered us everything a cyclist could need!

We've been in Santiago since Monday now, and we've been busy. We had two microfinance meetings, saw a little of downtown, and fixed my back wheel that was still making noise (it was the free wheel!). We were also able to use Seth's sewing machine to fix a couple of things, we changed quite a few things on the bikes (the cassette, a gear wheel, and the chain – after more than 18000 km!),  we put together a package to send back to France, and we cleaned our panniers. The week flew by, and our hosts were super helpful. Seth wasn't working and he was happy to help us out. We really appreciated it!

Heather arrives this morning, my friend from Canada and the translator of our English blog. Tomorrow we're all going to Easter Island, which you can only get to from Chile and Tahiti. We'll be back on our bikes in a week, and all three of us will head South to Patagonia.

Sara