After a relatively stress free night, knowing that I had a box sorted for the bike, I awoke early and finished up packing my bags for the flight. Rodrigo from the bike shop got in touch to let me know that he was in early, so when I checked out of the hotel, I headed straight there.

He was friendly and helpful, and spoke excellent English, helping me out with some tools that made dismantling the bike easier than it would have been with just my multitool. He also phoned me a taxi, and directed me to the nearest cash machine, things were finally coming together.

The time he’d booked the taxi for gave me quite a long time to dismantle the bike, which wasn’t really required, especially when he started helping himself, so by the time I arrived at the airport, there wasn’t much more than one hour until the flight. Fortunately it was a very small airport and they were prioritising the 11 o’clock flight at the check in desks, when I arrived.

Although I had an aisle seat, for the 3 hour flight back to Santiago, I could still make out the impressive shapes of the spires of Torres Del Paine, out of the window – shortly after the plane took off – partially making up for the fact that I’d missed them during the trip itself. I was taken aback to see the scale of the icecap and glaciers that were situated to the west of the route that I had taken, features I had only really caught glimpses of.

Arriving into Santiago airport, I was glad of the decision I’d made to book into the Holiday Inn hotel at the airport, which lay directly between the National and International Terminals and allowed me to wheel my bike and equipment to and from the hotel on an airport trolley, with an onwards flight the next day.

The hotel had been recommended to me by Marlen, when I had been travelling with her and Pablo at the beginning of the trip, but what we hadn’t realised at the time was that we would both be at the hotel on the same day. They had arrived in Chile on the 24th of December – the day after me – and Marlen was flying back from Santiago on the 23rd of January, the same day as me. Pablo, was leaving her at the airport in Balmaceda and continuing down the rest of the Carretera Austral with some friends from Argentina. He was then taking a long route back to Switzerland via Buenos Aires, and Barcelona, where he also used to live.

So, after a quick shower at the hotel, I messaged Marlen to see if she had arrived yet, and quickly got a response to say that she had taken a ‘Cabify’ taxi into town, was sitting in a café at the bottom of Cerro San Cristóbal and was planning to take a cable car to the summit to drink a Mote con Huesillo. Although I had no idea what that was, it sounded like a good plan.

It was about 10 miles across the city to the base of the mountain, and it was nice to pass by the Santiago skyscrapers on the way.

Meeting her at La Subida cafe, she had just finished and paid for her lunch and drinks, but was in no rush, so we ordered another couple of drinks. It was great to catch up on the last few weeks, having not seen each other for almost a month at this point, but I monopolised the early conversation with my tale of delayed boats and fully booked buses. You should tell this to Pablo she said, and sure enough, before the afternoon was out, I had messages from Pablo asking about the Villa O’Higgins boat.

Marlen and Pablo had had a great trip, although both of them had suffered for a few days with the fever that had initially struck down Marlen, and Pablo’s knee had remained a problem. They had taken numerous side trips to see glaciers, and to see a glacier calving into the sea, as well as a boat trip to the caves that Desiree and I had kayaked to.

Eventually, we took the cable car up to the San Cristóbal summit, where there was a church and some drinks stalls, and a very impressive view of Santiago spreading out beneath us.

Marlen recommended the Mote con Huesillo, which she’d already had earlier, and thought I should try for the novelty value if nothing else. The drink was an unusual one, featuring dried peaches, husked wheat berries, and syrup. It was super sweet but pleasant enough, until I got to sampling the wheat berries at the bottom and decided that I’d had enough.

That evening we had dinner at the hotel, one last opportunity for me to have Merluza Austral (southern hake) served on a bed of risotto and coriander, a delightful combination.

The next morning we met again for breakfast, and after we’d checked out, and headed the short distance to the International terminal, we quickly discovered that not only were our British Airways and Iberia flights at the exact same time, of 1:05 in the afternoon, but the planes would be at neighbouring gates, so we didn’t have to say goodbye until the last few moments before the flights.

On leaving Santiago, my flight hugged the west coast of Chile, before crossing into Peruvian airspace, and starting to turn east at Arequipa and heading towards Lake Titicaca. Names and places firmly being planted into my consciousness for the future.

What a trip it had been, the scenery, the weather, the people. I had allowed myself more time on this occasion, and it had only served to increase my enjoyment of the trip. I hadn’t needed rest days from a cycling standpoint, but ultimately it had allowed me to spend more time with the people I’d met on the way, and ultimately those relationships are always what make these trips worthwhile.

Special thanks must go to those who I shared the road with, but in particular Marlen, Pablo, and Desiree, who I hope won’t mind me sharing her beautiful words about her trip here, translated from a Spanish language vlog:

And well, I realised that it has its charm, really, going slowly and taking your time is a luxury, taking your time, forgetting about time, no longer knowing what day of the week it is. Even though we live in a society that sells time like currency, not everything has to be fast and instantaneous, so slowing down is a luxury.

Wise words indeed, and also an explanation as to why she never needed to apologise for slowing me down.

Thanks for reading,

Michael

• bikepacking
• cycle-touring