Bikepacking Cusco to Santiago

It took longer to write up this post than I intended. With Christmas and new years celebrations and some hitch hiking I didn't really get into the writing mindset until now, the 3rd of January, while sitting on a beach in Uruguay.

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The final day of my trip ended up being one of the longest ones and could have been even longer if only the wind had been in my favour for once 🤷‍♀️

I woke up in Las Cuevas with a heavy heart, knowing it was going to be the last day on the bike for the next couple of months, but felt also energetic and eager to make it the longest ride of the trip.

The start was not as early as I had hoped for, as it was "impossible" (according to the refugio host) to have breakfast before 8.30 am and I was not going to leave for an 8h+ day of cycling without having had at least a coffee and some little bits of bread.

When I started cycling I was faced with the same headwind that had been tormenting me the day before...which is weird as it usually only picks up in the afternoon. But it looks like the wind gods like to challenge me.

2 km into the ride I reached the Paso Cristo Redentor, a 4 km long tunnel connecting Argentina and Chile. Knowing that bikes are not permitted inside the tunnel, but there should be some sort of pick-up van taxi for cyclists, I walked up to one of the border officials and asked how to get an escort for the tunnel crossing.

It took some back and forth with a couple of other border officers to get my passport cleared and 20 minutes later my bike and I found ourselves on a pick up truck and on the way through the tunnel into Chile ✅️

From here started the longest downhill section of the trip, with 3000 m of (almost) continuous descent. 6km after the tunnel, after having passed through many more galeries, it was time to cross the official imigrations and customs.
This took quite some time and included taking off all my bike bags and having them x-rayed. Strange how different the individual border crossing points into Chile are. When entering from Bolivia 2 months earlier noone even cared to look into my bags, let alone scan them.

Once I was cleared the descent continued, battling a constant, strong headwind. The wind had me paddle the whole way down, while passing first through some sharp and steep switch backs and then further and further down to Los Andes, the first proper town about 50km after the border. On the way there were a lot of road works, temporarily blocking parts of a lane, which meant tons of random but nice conversations with roadworkers while waiting for our side of the traffic to be let through.

Once in Los Andes I had to make a decision: cycle another 160 km to Valparaiso on the Pacific coast or continue as planned the 120km to Santiago?
As much as I would have loved to make it in one day from the top of the Andes to the Pacific Ocean the late start and strong headwind, which was supposed to last all the way to the coast, forced me to stick to the original plan...🥲

Shortly after Los Andes followed a 15km stretch of highway on which, contrary to what all my mapping-apps said, cycling was not permitted...but, unfortunately, there was also no alternative road around it.
This meant it was hitch-hiking time once again 👍

So I stuck out my thumb in the scorching 30°C+ midday heat - what difference 2000m of altitude can make in terms of temperatures 🥵 - and waited for a ride.
The very first car that passed me stopped and gave me some much needed water but was far to small to take me and my bike. After this it took another 45 min before one of the cars soaring by stopped to give me a lift.
I tried my best to have a decent conversation with the friendly and chatty driver, but his strong Chilean accent had me feel like listening to a completely new language once again and so I was quite happy this was a rather short ride.

When I got dropped off the wind had changed directions (now coming from the south), just in time to insure I had headwinds for 100% of the ride 🥲

The remaining 60km of the ride were not too exciting, battling against wind and hazy air (it turned out there was a large wildfire that day, making the air look especially bad).

Just before reaching the outskirts of Santiago I stopped at a little shop to refill my water bottle and get a small bottle of poweraid (Chilean prices are 3-4 times those of Argentina 😰) and had a lovely chat with the shop owner and her 5 year old son who were both fascinated by the sight of a foreign cyclist coming through their town and excited to get to know everything about my life in europe and the journey.

The it was time for the last stretch, leading through dodgy looking outskirts of Santiago and into the centre, reaching my Hostel just as the sun was going down. Clocking in at 170 km, the longest ride of the trip.

And that's it folks.
3.5 months, 4000 km and 52 cycling days later I have reached Santiago and the end of my ride throughand along the Andes. 🥲🚵‍♀️

For now.✌️

🚴‍♀️ Distance cycled: 170 km
⏲️ Time on bike: 7.5 h
🚗 Distance hitch hiked: 15 km
🚇 Number of tunnel escorts: 1
🛃 Borders crossed: 1
💬 Number of chats with locals: 4
😞 Sadness level because the cycling is over: immeasurable
😀 Happiness level for all the great memories: endlessRead more