Day 3 – Thursday, January 29, 2026

As mentioned, I was eager to start my "real" biking trip, so I packed everything and thus kicked off my adventure towards Lima at 8 am. Leaving downtown was easy, there were even bike paths, but soon I got to the northern outskirts of the city, which was anything but bike-friendly – there was lots of construction going on. Here a friendly bike commuter, David, caught up with me and he gave me directions to avoid the unpleasant road. The first town outside Santiago was called Colina, where I had a race with a horse rider...

Race with the horse rider

The road became friendlier for a while, but I saw that to the north of town there was nothing but a highway, where cycling is prohibited. Still in Colina, I talked to yet another friendly person, him responsible for the security of the town. He told me to simply ignore the restriction – so I rode on, pretty much uphill, in quite some heat. As a farewell gift, he filled up my water bottles. Later, I reached a small village, Chacabuco, which played a part in the Battle of Independence in the 19th century – and boasted a wonderful church.

Small village, wonderful church

The road kept inclining and I saw on the map that I was approaching a narrow tunnel. It would have been mighty dangerous to ride through it. I rode past a huge "biking prohibited" sign towards the entrance, when I heard someone whistling and waving. It turned out to be the tunnel supervisor; he first offered some soothing cold water and told me to wait. Some 10 minutes later, a truck with yellow flashing signs showed up – and they loaded my bike and hauled it to the other side. Did I mention Chileans are really nice...?

My heroes and saviors

From there on, it was downhill to the town of Los Andes, where I had some fast food (salad with a fajita) – which was pretty tasty. The bistro I ate at was in a mall, with a dedicated bike parking, with a bike-parking attendant ensuring that things stay safe.

Refreshed, I started riding towards the east, with a secret (well, as of now, it is no longer one) plan of hopping over to Argentina over the Andes. The only issue is that a pass – the one I had seen from the plane – lay ahead, with over 3,800 meters elevation.

The pass road was open – why, should it be closed?

So it was yet again an uphill ride and while there was still daylight, the next village would have been some 25 km away. Better to find a place to rest in the village I was at, in Valparaiso (San Esteban). There I found a really pleasant Hostel Berta – it was a hip and cool place with lots of room to chill, with simple but comfy rooms. I paid around €20 and five more for getting my laundry washed.

Bertha´s hostel

Bridge to Bertha

That day, my "production" was 100 km and around 1,000 meters of climbing – quite OK, all things considered, I was happy.