Adois S.A.!

Is it time to go already? As they say, time flies when yer havin’ fun. And so it is, we are into our final days on this continent they call Sur America. After arriving back in Santiago from Rapa Nui (Easter Island; see last post) we took a few days to venture into the Andes for some camping and hiking. One last look at Los Andes, and one last time to freeze our butts off in our little air-conditioned tent before heading to warmer climes.


Santiago, population 6 million, elevation 520 m, is remarkably close to the Andes. In fact, when the smog clears (seems to be rarely unfortunately), the Andes put on a pretty good show as a dramatic backdrop of rock and ice immediately behind the shiny glass buildings of downtown Santiago. Having a bit of time before we fly north, we decided to head towards the Cajon del Maipo, a beautiful steep valley relatively near town – in fact, we were able to take public transport right to the gate of our campsite! Santiago’s metro (subway) system is surely one of the best in the world. The camping was good, the hiking even better. The only serious drawback is that “camping season” is over. Night time temps are near zero in this part of the world these days. Oh...so that’s why we were the only ones camping – actually one other couple from New Zealand as well, who were equally naive. Silly gringos.


So a bit of time here in Santiago. Not a bad place all in all. Clean, modern, great metro system as mentioned. Our hostel, Castillo Surfista, is wonderfully cozy, like sharing a nice house with 10 other people. The two Dutch girls running the place have it dialed, so everything runs like a clock. The down duvets are an especially nice touch. Last night was barbeque night. Fun times with the 2 Dutch girls, 3 English girls, and 2 Aussie bros on a surf trip, and us, auntie Amy and grandpa Rob. Amy’s daily routine includes a pulpit-rock-like hike up to the 22-metre Virgin Mary statue – she wants to be buff for the beach phase of our trip J A recent highlight was a Sunday bike ride through the city. One of the best South American traditions we come across is the closing off of streets and boulevards in big cities on Sunday, and turning the entire city into one big bike lane. What an amazing concept. We went for a 32-km ride entirely within downtown Santiago. Rob Ford...are you paying attention?


As is customary for this blog when leaving a country, we have, wait for it, the Chile summary and Amy/Rob’s top-3 lists. As alluded to previously, Chile wasn’t our fav. If we could have changed our flight to leave sooner, we would have. Not that there is any one specific thing to despise, it’s simply a combination of the lack of “wow factor” combined with travel costs that exceed most countries in the developed world, including Canada. Still haven’t figured out why. Sitting here in Santiago, we could be in Toronto, but paying twice as much for the morning Starbucks (except for the freezing house thing). Although, to be fair, we are here in the off season, and did not extend our travels beyond middle Chile. Patagonia, for example, would surely be a different experience. Next trip! Gotta leave something on the table, as they say.


Ok, the Chile top-3 lists:


Amy’s top pros/cons on Chile:

         +                                             —

Easter Island                     low value for money

Good bedding                   freezing houses

avocadoes                         their obsession with hot dogs (completos)

Rob’s top pros/cons on Chile:

         +                                                                —

They have Easter Island              WAY too expensive

Good beds                                 street dog problem is out of control

You can drink the water             too normal


So, we’re outta here. More on the next mission further down. First, a little overall trip summary for S.A. -- the land of instant coffee, car alarms, and no bathmats (what's with that anyway?).  In a word, a Spanish word, FANTASTICO! No translation necessary I would assume. Overall, the trip from the Columbian Caribbean, through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and now Chile (with side mission to Rapa Nui), has met and exceeded our expectations. We really didn’t have any, so hey, mission accomplished! From the sweaty nights of Cartagena Columbia, to the indigenous markets of Ecuador, to the ancient Inka city of Machu Picchu Peru, to the austerity of the Bolivian altiplano, to the wine and steak of Argentina, to the towering heights of the Andes, to the Pacific sunsets of Chile, it’s been a grand ride – all 7302 km of it. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. My only regret is that I didn’t pack more socks (man I went through a lot of socks!). Amy might have set a record for the most books ever read by a traveller in SA (at least 50).


What were our primo top-10 experiences in America del Sur you ask? That’s a hard list to make. But, in a tribute to David Letterman’s recent retirement (hey, we read the news out here too), we give you Rob-Amy’s top-10 things to see and do in SA:

10. Sipping cold beer on top of the city wall on a hot sweaty night in Cartegena, Columbia
9. Cycling the shores of Lake Titicaca from Copacabana to La Paz, Bolivia
8. Cycling through the coffee zone of Columbia

7. A week of Spanish lessons in Sucre, Boliva

6. Cycling over the Andes from Mendoza, Argentina to Valpariso, Chile

5. Quilotoa traverse in the highlands of Ecuador

4. Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, Peru

3. Steak and wine every night in Mendoza, Argentina

2. Mountaineering trip in Cordon del Plata, Argentina

And Rob-Amy’s number-1 thing to see and do in South America:

1. Watching the sun set behind the Moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)


Hmm, sounds kind of exciting when you list it like that. Oh ya, IT WAS EXCITING! J


So now what? Time to switch gears. As mentioned, we are now setting our sights northwards towards the Caribbean. First, it’s directly in line with our path back to the motherland, so hey, might as well stop in. Second, it’s hot and sunny. And third, it’s hot and sunny. Based on a tip from an American expat we meet in Ecuador, our target is the town of Las Terranes in the Dominican Republic. According to Marshall, the expat, Las Terranes is THE place in the Caribbean (from an expat perspective). So that’s where we’re going, for a month. The plan is to reassemble the bikes at some point and continue the cycle journey and tour the entire island, with the possibility of boat travel to other islands/countries in the region. Not entirely sure. We may just never come back J As usual, more on all of that soonish. Adios S.A....you’ll be missed.

Check out Duke, the skateboarding dog at Castillo Surfista hostel, Santiago Chile:

Rapa Nui - aka Easter Island

Wow! Where to start? For a place that wasn’t part of the original plan, Rapa Nui – the Polynesian name for the island – has turned out to be a trip highlight, or perhaps, even a top-ten lifetime highlight. If you ever get a chance to go to Rapa Nui, take it!! You will not regret it. Take Tahiti, mix it with Newfoundland, sprinkle with Stonehenge and Machu Picchu, and then place it in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as far away from people as you can get – that’s Rapa Nui. As a relatively undeveloped and out-of-the-way place, it’s a magical traveller’s playground. From cliff-edge hiking, to caving, to mountain biking, to chillin’ on white-sand palm-lined beaches, and of course, watching the sun set behind ancient statues from a past island civilization, the list of things to see and do typically exceeds the amount of time you have. We did not give it enough!


So, hmm, let’s start with “the story of Easter Island” – a fascinating and wondrous tale. The island, all 12 by 24 kms of it, basically not even a dot in the Pacific Ocean, is the eastern corner of a triangle with the other 2 corners being Hawaii to the north and New Zealand to the west – the triangle known as Polynesia (“many islands” in greek). Over 3700 kms directly west of the Chilean coast, with nothing but blue ocean in between, Rapa Nui is considered the most remote inhabited location on earth. The closest human settlement is another dot called Pitcairn Island (from “The Bounty” fame), population 50, a mere 2240 km away. It is really really really out there.

It was a surreal moment getting our first glimpse of the island through the porthole windows of our 737 after 6 hrs of cruising across nothing but the infinite blue expanse of the Pacific. It was even more surreal, no, actually quite unnerving, when the plane passed over the island in all of about 10 seconds and continued into the nothingness of the Pacific on the other side, only to finally turn about after a few minutes for the final landing approach. “Umm, hello, Mr. Pilot...did you see the island back there...pretty sure that was it!” J

It all started sometime back between 400 and 700 AD, during what is called the “Polynesian Expansion” – an event marked by indigenous people west of what we now call Polynesia getting into their canoes and paddling east into the Pacific Ocean and settling the countless islands in the south Pacific – no small feat when one considers navigating canoes across thousands of kms of open ocean! Easter Island, being on the eastern fringe of anywhere, was one of the last islands to be settled. In doing so, from a few canoe loads of people and things, sprang the Rapanui – Rapa Nui not only refers to the name of the island, but is also the name of the unique people, culture, and language that evolved over the next 1000 years. The Rapanui are thought to have peaked at about 15,000 people between 1200 and 1500 AD.

The most famous and awe-inspiring aspect of Rapa Nui are the hundreds of huge stone statues – referred to as Moai – scattered throughout the island (go through your old National Geographic mags...it’s in there). Now, here’s where the story gets juicy. On Easter Sunday (hence the “Easter Island” thing), 1722, a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen landed and became the first European (or anyone else for that matter) to make contact with Rapa Nui. As the story goes, what Roggeveen found was a treeless, relatively barren island with a couple thousand ragtag inhabitants eking out a meager disorganized existence. Afterwards, things just got progressively worse as European diseases and slave raids thrashed the population down to a low of 111 in 1877. The big question therefore was: how could a bunch of starving ragtag people be responsible for carving, transporting, and erecting such a magnificent array of enormous statues – hundreds of them, often weighing up to 50 or 80 tons each – without any of the presumably required organization and natural resources like rope and timbers...not to mention food?

Enter Jared Diamond – the “Guns, Germs, and Steel” guy. His explanation, and the leading theory, has become a classic tale of human overexploitation leading to the collapse of civilization (for the full story, read his book “Collapse”). The basic storyline is this. When the Rapanui first arrived, they landed on a virtual garden of Eden – a fully forested oasis full of the plants and biodiversity that go along with that. For a thousand or so years, life was fantastic as the islanders had all kinds of natural resources, specifically wood, from which to fuel their growing population and evolving culture. Most importantly perhaps, with large timbers they were able to make seafaring canoes which allowed them to fish the open ocean and therefore obtain a critical source of protein. Large timbers, along with rope made from native trees, allowed them to...wait for it...carve, transport, and erect their beloved Moai. From all accounts, life was pretty good.

OK, so what happened? According to Diamond, in a classroom example of suicidal deforestation, the Rapanui essentially liquidated the forests they so desperately depended on (the parallels to contemporary deforestation of the Amazon, for example, not going unnoticed). Once gone, among other things, they lost the ability to make boats and therefore could not venture into the ocean for fish, resulting in a downward population spiral. Evidence suggests that as things got worse and food more scarce, their society disintegrated into war and cannibalism and ultimately total collapse. The last kick in the groin was in the midst of the final chaos, they toppled every single Moai on the island – apparently just to piss each other off. Hmmm, hard to get happy after that story.

However, cheerfully, today Rapa Nui, population approx 6000, about a third Chilean/European, has rebounded somewhat, obviously. Annexed by Chile in 1888, it is a territory of Chile – although calls for independence are out there – and therefore enjoys the conveniences of the modern world like daily flights to Santiago, ATMs, and espresso machines. As such, the island has one foot in Polynesia, the other in Chile. Traditional outrigger canoes ply the waters in front of the central futbol park. Dark-skinned men with long black hair tied in a topknot and adorned with traditional tattoos call their wives on smart phones while eating an empanada. Despite the smart phones and things though, the Rapanui are fiercely proud of their Polynesian roots. It’s an interesting mix that seems to be working for them.

Culturally, things appear to be moving along well. The vast majority of the island was designated a national park and prohibits all the usual bad stuff that parks typically prohibit, including development and harming historical artifacts in any way. And, thankfully, the job of restoring, protecting, and re-erecting the Moai, and the rest of the Rapanui culture, is well underway. As we experienced more than once, you haven’t really been to see the Moai unless you’ve been whistled after by a Rapanui to “get off the no-go areas ya big oaf!” Honestly, I did not see the barrier! J UNESCO, ever-present on our trip (seems to be a prerequisite before we go anywhere), declared Rapa Nui a world heritage site in 1995.

Our 9-day mission was fantastico...but WAY too short. In fact, Rapa Nui could be Amy’s new favourite place on the planet. We did not want to leave. It’s that special mix of good semi-tropical weather (at 27^oS latitude, it technically lies just below the tropics), white-sand beaches, palm trees, and endless hiking and biking to ancient ruins from a past civilization. The most stunning sunsets and sunrises you’ve ever seen are a dime a dozen. The added bonus is having the island to ourselves much of the time.

Ironically, the island is known to be expensive, for obvious reasons (oh, maybe the 4000 kms from the nearest brewery?), but was actually remarkably affordable for us. Our campsite, which has actually become the cheapest per-night accom we have had in Chile, was a fantastic setup. With drinkable tap water, full kitchen, hot showers, and right beside the ocean, it was among our best accommodations of the trip. Then, unbeknownst to us as we set up our tent, it’s THE sunset spot on Rapa Nui with nightly shows right outside our door. Sometimes you just get lucky eh. And really, while groceries were a tad higher than the mainland, wine and beer is still WAY cheaper than the BC Liquor Store. How crazy is that?

The real highlight, aside from the endless hiking, biking, exploring, and lazing on beaches, were the Moai. You just can’t get enough of them. They are quite simply, incredible. Gazing upon them, in the context of “the story” behind them, they just give you that tingly back hair feeling. Sunsets and sunrises are nothing short of magical. Sometimes it doesn’t seem real. The 2-litre tetrapac of Chilean cabernet beside us was an added bonus (sunset only, of course). J


We really didn’t want to get back on the plane yesterday. Our pleas to the airline to change our flight went unanswered. So here we are back in smoggy drizzly Santiago. Amy’s in bed reading with a cup of tea while I type (it’s 2 pm). This morning we had to dig out our cold-weather clothes that we happily buried and forgot about for the past 8 days. As someone once said, all good things come to an end, unfortunately.


So now what? We're in Santiago for a week to catch our flight out (tried to move that flight up, but no-go there either). We're hoping to head into the mountains for a bit of camping/hiking in the next few days, but there might be snow already. Not sure on that one just yet. The real objective on the radar is getting ourselves organized for our return journey northwards. Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but the plan for our journey back to the motherland includes a few months of exploring in the Caribbean. Hey, we’re flying right over it! First stop, Dominican Republic where we have a house booked to use as a base for a month. Shouldn’t be too hard to take. As always, more on that soon. Hasta luego.

End of the road in SA

Bittersweet...that's the word, or perhaps anticlimactic. Either way it always seems a bittersweet victory getting to your destination. On one hand, hey, we made it, mission accomplished! On the other hand, it’s over, booo! Yesterday we pedalled into downtown Santiago, Chile – our final destination south of the equator – and thus signifying our last day of riding in South America. Sitting here this morning sipping my nescafé, I already miss it.


Our ride out of Pichilemu and away from the coast was fantastic. Mostly because we waited out a few days of hard rain and ended up with a picture-perfect bluebird day to leave town. We had great views of the coast and, unknown to us, the Andes which loom large over this part of the world. Funny what you don’t see when shrouded in cloud and rain. The riding has actually been quite good here in Chile. It just seems so easy. No wind, no midday heat to deal with, no gigantic mountains to climb. Oh ya...we remember this, it’s just been a loooong time since we haven’t had to deal with wind, heat, and mountains. It’s been a nice treat.


From Pichimelu we made our way towards the Colchagua Valley – one of Chile’s premier wine valleys – and the town of Santa Cruz. We were tempted to stay a while and scope out some of the local wineries, but were then reminded of the price tag that goes along with wine tasting in this country. A cheapie is 20 bucks per head. Waking up to drizzle and fog, we packed up and headed towards the town of San Fernando and the Pan American highway leading back to Santiago. All in all, a nice area with great views of the Andes. A highlight of this time of year is the colours – who would have thought a vineyard could be so colourful?


The one exception to our serenity, however, was yesterday’s ride into Santiago. We both agree it was our 2nd-most heinous, and dangerous, day of riding of the trip (worst day was riding out of Guayaquil, Ecuador). The road leading into town is the Pan-American highway, also known as La Autopista – a 4-lane divided highway with the usual high-velocity, high-volume traffic, most of it industrial. 99% of the time there is a nice big paved shoulder, which provides a life-saving buffer between you and the transport trucks travelling 120 km/hr. However, 1% of the time, say for a bridge or tunnel, the shoulder disappears and makes cycling a life-threatening situation. And so it was for one 20-second ride through the one tunnel on the road. The highway authorities are kind enough to place a “no cycling” sign at the entrance to the tunnel. However, fail to provide any alternative. It was head down, legs pumpin’...no choice but to do it. It was, by far, the most terrifying 20 seconds of the trip. Our hands are still shaking. But alas, we survived, made our way through this city of 6 million souls, and are currently sitting comfortably in our downtown hostel enjoying the desayuno incluido (breakfast included). Whew.


So that’s a wrap. We’re putting the bikes aside for a while. It’s been a good haul through the backbone of South America. One we will always look back on with a smile on our faces – even the wind, heat, and mountains. The plan from here is a bit mixed, and evolving daily. We had originally planned on cycling south through Chile as far as we could, but as discussed in previous posts, changing seasons, cold rainy weather, and an insanely expensive wine scene has prompted us to rethink Chile – basically to cut it short. Not that there’s any one specific thing to dislike – nice scenery, good roads, good (if not expensive) accom –  it’s simply that Chile for us, at the moment, seems a tad uninspiring (too normal?) and has failed to capture our imaginations. Admittedly, it has a lot to do with the comparative highs and inspirations we have come from in the past 9 months. Combined with a doubling and tripling of costs, Chile is just not lighting us on fire. Hey, if we’re going to pay these kinds of prices, we might as well be somewhere special. And then, in a moment of brilliance, we thought of Easter Island, AKA Isla de Pascua (spanish), AKA Rapa Nui (polynesian) – a famous Polynesian island in the middle of the Pacific owned and operated by Chile (I believe “annexed” is the technical term).


As a territory of Chile, Rapa Nui is shockingly connected to the mainland by a relatively inexpensive domestic flight from Santiago, and therefore represents a unique opportunity to travel to one of the most remote (6-hr flight!) and intriguing places on the planet. So that’s the current focus. A few days exploring the sights and sounds of Santiago, and then organizing ourselves for a mission to Easter Island. Gotta keep that adrenalin flowing. We fly out on the weekend. As always, more on all of that soon. Chau.