Day 1 – Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Immigration went smoothly – and I activated my eSIM card that I had purchased; that worked fine, too. My luggage arrived, the issue was the bike box. There were two other bikers from other flights impatiently waiting – a lady from Portugal and a Frenchman, one heading south, the other east – and they had mentioned having waited quite a while (I had even chatted with the Frenchman).

After about two hours, I felt my blood pressure going up. The staff at the airport confirmed it had landed in Santiago, but it simply wasn’t where it should have been (at the bulky luggage counter). What if someone had taken the bike out of the arrivals hall while I wasn’t looking? What if an airport worker showed a liking for it? I felt really lost and the worst part was that the arrivals hall was getting empty – all the flights from Europe had been cleared.

I went to the counter for more information, then went back to the belt – and there it was! What a relief! I suddenly felt a lot better. What took so long? Guess I shall never find out.

I navigated my way out through customs – no issues there either – and then decided to find a bike shop near the airport. With some help from Chilean people – first of the many times that they proved to be indeed very friendly – I managed to find a mechanic and ordered an Uber. It is apparently prohibited in Chile, but it still operated; a large-size car came and for €15, it drove me through rather heavy traffic to a satellite town of Santiago.

The mechanic turned out to be a cool lady, who operated out of her own house. She charged €15 for the assembly, which she did professionally. I was impressed – she mentioned Chile was an "inclusive country".

Chile is an "inclusive country"

From there, I had about an hour’s ride to my hotel in the center. I first rode through some well-maintained, but not too pretty residential area – gardeners of the municipality were busy watering the plants separating the lanes. There I got a haircut for €7 (in Georgia, I paid a fraction of this); if I recall correctly, the barber was from Haiti.

Then I followed Google’s instructions. It was a bit of a let-down; it navigated me first through an industrial area, then I had to ride through something that was a favela. Hmmm, I heard Chile, and especially Santiago, was developed; it was not a sight I expected.

Back in Austria, I invested quite a while to find a centrally located hotel, close to bike shops (which I no longer needed). I thought that the central station would be close to the historic center of town. Wrong! It was a busy, but not pretty area – lots of buses, quite heavy traffic. Even though the hotel was not bad, I did not really fancy it.

Central Train Station in Santiago

Then came another sign of Chilean kindness, of which I would experience a lot more. The receptionist welcomed me with a big smile, helped me park my bike in the garage and when I told him I would have preferred to stay in the center, he told me he would cancel the reservation for the following day – as I had booked two nights. Thus I had to pay just one night.

I went to my room, took a shower – and even though it was relatively early, like 4 pm, retired for the day, showered, then sank into the pillows.

Google Timeline tells me the bike ride was some 17 kilometers long.