Climbing out of Santiago

Someone once told me that the best thing about Santiago is that it's easy to get out of.  Chile is a spectacular country with so much to see and do, and Santiago is its central hub, in terms of geography and population:

• Chile is 2700 miles long, with Santiago about 1000 miles south of the northern border.
• 6 million out of Chile's 18 million people live in Santiago.  

Santiago is the largest city that I have ever called "home", and to me, it feels very urban -- subway, taxis, traffic, smog, noise.  Yet early in the morning, especially on the weekends, the city quiets down. The perfect time for a bike ride out of the city.

From Santiago, it appears to be a local favorite to ride into the Andes mountain range, the Cordillera de los Andes.  This (Saturday) morning, numerous cyclists converged at the eastern side of the city, where an uphill climb of about 40 km, 30-something switchbacks, and 6000-8000 feet of climbing begin (Santiago has an elevation of about 1700 ft -- my ride today reached about 7000 ft). The road is called Camino a Farellones, which leads to the ski areas Farellones, La Parva, Valle Nevado, and El Colorado.  Perhaps there will be a post about those when winter-time comes.  But for now...

"Bienvenido al Centro Cordillera", the beginning of our climb into the mountains.  A dash of springtime flowers added a special touch.

The horses thought they had right-of-way, and they were pretty much correct.  The cyclists gave them the lane.  Fortunately, the (few) cars were attentive to the (numerous) cyclists, and gave us plenty of space.  Bikes were certainly the preferred mode of transportation this morning.

The curves (mostly switchbacks) were numbered, although at the time I had forgotten how many to expect.  Fortunately at this moment, we were approaching the final curves.  38 in total (I think).  

Possibly the photos tell most of the story.  Our group planned to ride (uphill) until 11:30 am, regroup (put on a light jacket), and make the quick descent back to our starting point.  As you might expect, the ride uphill took about twice as long as the descent.  Either way (up or down), there were fantastic views of the still-snowy mountains in the background, and it was fun to catch a glimpse of switchbacks above and below to anticipate or mark our progress.  Mostly, it was special to be on a path with so many other cyclists, riding in small groups or alone, but part of one larger movement to tackle that climb, then return to our lives in Santiago.

In retrospect of today's cycling challenge, I do agree that Santiago has unique access to adventurous getaways.  I don't know many major urban, regional hubs in the world that can access world-class skiing, hiking and biking within such a short distance.  The way the mountains tower over the city and invite us to come and explore keeps me from feeling too stuck in the urban grind, so indeed I understand my friend who thought Santiago's greatest asset was its easy escape.

Interestingly, I used to have the same escape-hatch theory about New Haven, until I discovered unique charm within its city limits.  I found a community that really cared about making New Haven a thriving, livable city (think bike lanes, local businesses, town-gown relationships, etc). A campaign was even started to brand New Haven as the "greatest small city in America" (#GSCIA).  So realizing that I came to love New Haven just as I was leaving it, I won't spend all of my time trying to escape Santiago.  In fact, riding back toward the apartment with another cyclist in our club, we used a pretty extensive network of bike lanes (the good kind, entirely separated from the car lanes) that certainly impressed me.  Close to "home", I hopped onto the sidewalk momentarily to buy a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice (literally, in front of my eyes, from a juicer attached to a shopping cart full of oranges).  I'm sure I'll find that there's plenty to Santiago -- outside of the city, and within.