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Capital Sights

By Dan Wallace - 2009-06-27

Santiago seemed to enter my mind each day. After the ferry-ride across the choppy Straight of Magellan, my first step onto mainland South America brought the Chilean capital into view, even though it was still thousands of miles and months of riding in the distance. By the time I was pedaling on the homestretch to the capital of Chile, with Temuco in my rearview, my anticipation had grown so much, that it was nearly enough to act as the fuel my legs needed to ride the last 700Km (435 miles). Making the trip in four days, I arrived at the Campbell’s residence, a grimy, sweating, and more than happy mess.

We had met our hosts, Ian and Alister Cambell, months ago on the streets in Puerto Natales. We told them we would be passing through Santiago, and they immediately invited us to stay in their house. We were more than relieved to hear that the offer still stood when we contacted them two weeks before arriving to the big city. Ian and Alister live by themselves mostly, in their dad’s house. Papa Cambell is an architect, and has been working in southern Chile for the last three years. He spends about a week at home in Santiago for every month of work in the south.

After arriving at the “casa de Cambell”, I needed a long, hot shower, and about a day to re-hydrate and recover from the demanding ride. During this time I made plans with Ian and Alister. We talked about visiting the downtown when the rest of the guys arrived, and they had plenty of interesting places and things for us to see. Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar, two beautiful coastal towns an hour northwest, were also thrown into the mix. I was particularly excited to visit center city, and just be surrounded by the buzz of seven million people all in one place.

The next two weeks saw the arrival of the rest of the team, the departure of Mike and Chris by bus to places north, hours of internet work, and lots of great times with our friends/hosts. We went downtown, uptown and cross-town. We traveled to the coast and joined thousands of screaming soccer fans cheering on their beloved pro-player icons. We hiked up out of the smog, into the eastern mountains that still harbor mummified secrets of the ancient Incans. We looked upon the majestic Moneda, the workplace of Chilean government. We ate the food, got lost in the jazz, pulsed with the nightlife, meandered in the parks, and did a million other things. But still, after all this, I felt longing.

Maybe I had built up too much excitement, and given Santiago expectations too grand to fill. Maybe I felt like I was intruding on the lives of Ian and Alister. Maybe the capital was too much “sugar” and not enough “spice.” I’m just not sure. Don’t get me wrong, I had an amazing experience there, and won’t ever forget it. But somehow I feel that the busy Chilean capital has more to offer than what I found. Maybe it wanted to save some of its secrets for my next stay. All I know is that of all the places in Chile that have fallen to my rearview as I ride north, Santiago is the only one that is still in my sights.