northlandboy...and his girl

That’s right folks, you better watch me closely now.

Yesterday I was on the road, cycling down the dual carriageway that runs down the middle of Chile, the Ruta 5, aka the PanAmerican highway. Here it’s a relatively recently constructed road, perhaps a bit dull to ride on, but safe for the cyclist, since there’s a wide paved shoulder, so you don’t have to worry about making room for vehicles. The on/off ramps every 5km or so are well constructed too, making them quite easy to negotiate, with plenty of room to move, and work out when it’s safe to cross the off ramp. Regular bus stops also provide shade. Still, a couple more days of it and I’ll be getting pretty sick of it.

Anyway, this section had a concrete ditch running alongside it. Like most of the countryside until the last day or so, it’s hot and dry. I’m riding along, and I see something in the gutter – I then realise it’s moving, and making noise. Other times I might have just left it alone, not wanting to get involved, but 10 metres down the road, I realise what it is, and what I need to do.

I put down the bike, and go back. There’s a small black puppy lying there, paws akimbo, attracting flies. It seems to be dead. But near it is a white puppy, struggling, mewling pathetically, turning its head in my direction, even though it’s eyes aren’t open. I pretty quickly summed it up – someone has thrown a couple of unwanted puppies off a moving car, and the fall has killed one of them. The other was severely dehydrated, lonely, confused, and probably internally injured from the fall.

Dogs are not treated well here. Towns have strays running around, and clearly they are beaten by the locals, as they are timid. Patting one the other day, it was clearly grateful for a simple touch (although it would probably have preferred food…). There is no SPCA. The next town, 10km away, would not have facilities for an animal like this.

Before going back, I had picked up a rock. I use it. Hmmm, not sure that rock was big enough. A second time. It is done for certain.

Not the easiest of things to do, but better than the alternative of leaving it.

Now those dogs here better continue to leave me alone, so there doesn’t have to be any more casualties…

I’ve been in Santiago a few days now, and I’m starting to get the hang of it, so here’s a bit more on what’s happening. Yesterday got off to a slow start, as I didn’t even wake up until noon. Usually I can tell the time to within about 10 minutes, without a watch, but my body clock is a bit messed up right now. It’s coming right, and should be sorted soon. Hope so, because waking up hungry at 4am, way too hot to go back to sleep, is not fun.

Haven’t done too much in the way of typical tourist stuff, other than going up the cable car, to the top of the hill overlooking the city. It was quite weird walking through the markets selling tourist tat, and be completely ignored by the hawkers. They were focussing on the Spanish-speaking touristas. Other than that there’s been a lot of walking around, and getting a few things sorted out. Ordering food/drink is easy, but when you need to carry out slightly more complicated transactions, such as getting a new SIM card setup, things get a bit more interesting when you don’t share much language. I’d forgotten how much fun that can be.

People think that travel to exotic locations is glamorous, and maybe it can be, but if they saw me yesterday, sitting in a bright orange restaurant, eating fried chicken that was more skin than meat, off a bright orange plastic tray, watching an Adam Sandler movie dubbed into very loud Spanish, well, they might just think again.

Today I went for a bike ride around Santiago, covering about 35km. Surprisingly, the city has some useful bike facilities, with many bike paths through the parks, and along the riverbank. Many Chilenos were out and about on their bikes too. With it being a Sunday, and an election day, most shops were closed, so there was not much traffic. As an aside though, can you imagine a Western service station closing the shop part (but still selling petrol) just because it’s an election day? Hasn’t anyone told them that most of their sales margin is made in the store, not at the pump?

The vague outline of the ride I did was to follow the river through the city, from east to west. This corresponded with a significant decline in the money in each area. In the east was a huge shopping mall, full of rich Western brands, but closed. Very odd seeing a carpark listing spaces available: 1415. It was all Gucci and Prada out there, but sterile. As I went west, the money dropped, but once I passed the city center, things got much more interesting. Far more drunken bums passed out on the grass. Many shops were still closed, but there were still markets and things going on in the west. I guess when you’re poor, you can’t always just take a day off.

Tomorrow I’m going to get a bus to Chillan, and ride from there. This will save me some time, and avoid some dull riding through industrial areas, and busy roads.

Just a quick post, to say that I’ve arrived in Santiago. Bike seems to have made it through the flight OK too – first thing I did was to put it together. Nothing seems damaged. I took the easy option of getting a minibus taxi to get me and my bike from the airport to the hostel. Purists would of course assemble the bike at the airport, and ride from there, but I couldn’t be bothered. It’s not the easiest to find the non-motorway route in from the airport either.

I arrived around noon, and although I could have probably done with a nap, I decided to get out and about in the sunshine, to help reset my body clock. Plenty of sunshine there was too, with no clouds and temperatures around 30°. Lots of walking around the city centre, dodging the crowds in the shopping areas. I’m getting sorted out with provisions now, and working out how I’m going to get out of town. Current plan is to get a bus to Chillan, to save some time, and avoid riding through busy industrial areas.