January 17, 2018
Back to Santiago: Closing remarks
Our cycling tour has come to a close. It has been an amazing adventure of great cycling, good friends, good food and accommodation in a beautiful country. The Chilean people were very friendly and welcoming, the roads were great with a few exceptions, the traffic was light, the drivers were respectful and even encouraging with a gentle toot, toot of the horn as we struggled up some hills. The culture here is very different from what we North Americans live by but if you don’t fight it, rather embrace and assimilate in it (remember you can’t push a wet noodle) you will have a much better experience. Hard core coffee drinkers might think about switching to something else to get there caffeine fix.
I have to offer a special thanks to Deb and Ron for taking on the coordination of this tour and for including me on their invitee list. It has been an absolute blast and I hope to travel more with them. Also to our two drivers/SAG support Bernardo and Aladeo who although they spoke very little English they were always there when we needed them. They slept our baggage, pumped our tires, secured and transported our bikes on a trailer that was well designed by Bernardo. Their Mercedes vehicles were very nice and impeccably clean each day.
Lastly to our tour leaders and guides I also offer my heartfelt thanks. Ernesto the amazing cyclist who tackles 18% grades standing up while I can barely grunt to the top in my 34/32 rings. He did double duty as a cycling and tour guide. He speaks 5 languages and being highly educated is well versed in the history, culture and of course the ecology of Chile. He is one of the best cycling guides that I have encountered. As for Cristian I especially like the philosophy upon which he runs his business. He employs local drivers with their own vans rather than run the transport fleet by himself so he can create more employment for the local people. He visits small local restaurants to give them the business and us a true cultural experience rather than use the large hotel restaurants wherever possible. He stopped along the road to offer food and water to a lone cyclist who was struggling on a hot day. When we passed an older man with 3 dogs he stopped to offer some left over food to him. He is a very kind and gentle man but he leaves no stone unturned to make sure his clients have a good time. He is very proud of his home country and he wants to show case it at its best, and he did. He arranged this amazing tour giving us the best possible experience in 10 days that he could. The meals in particular were enjoyed in places that the average tourist would either pass by or not find because they were off the beaten path. I know there are many large cycling tour companies that come here but I would highly recommend Ecotours Chile to anyone. It might be my Canadian sensibilities but I would rather support a small local operator who needs the business rather than some of the large US tour companies like Backroads or Trek. Once again thank you to all. I will post a couple more entries on my last bit of touring before heading home on 25 Jan. Thanks to all who have followed along it makes writing the blog worth while.
Off to my next adventure which is France in May/June and yes there will be a blog.
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