At Sunday we had 5:40am flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago so we got up already before 3am with Mikas iPhones psychedelically ringing and flashing alarm.
It was easier to wake up because the shower provided only cold water. The breakfast was few cookies which big-hearted Mikko shared with us.
The packing at last night had been quite an episode in a 10 square meter room but we managed to stuck all the stuff back in the Ikea sacks. Some extra duct tape was needed due the sacks had got some hit already.
The hosteria lady took us to the airport. It was dark as hell and of course, already windy. Check-in wasnt open yet so we had to wait a bit.
This was the first day without the bikes so the trip was already at its final but we were still exited to experience Santiago cause no one of use had visited the city before. It had been a good idea to book the flights so that we could spend one night in sunny Santiago before heading back to Finland, where winter was at its coldest. The last days rides hadnt been so warm anyway.
Somehow it felt a bit weird cause for 14 days our main goal had been to ride certain amount of kilometers on a bike saddle and now we didnt have those goals anymore. I think that the memories and moments will come to mind more strongly later after the trip. Then this blog will get usefull for us writers also. The best thing with this kind of blog is that it keeps the memories alive till the eternity and when speaking about the trip with someone, its easy to show things from the blog. I think that in the future we will see more of this kind of trip blogs from the authors of this one.
(To reveal a little secret, we already started to plan the next trip which would be arranged to the South-East part of Africa at 2017. That would be a grade 5 level trip when this Patagonia had been grade 4 when it comes to difficulty of the route. But more about the future plans later on..)
Flight to Santiago took about four hours and in the middle we made a stop at some smaller city.
At Santiago airport we tried to find a bigger taxi and we had decided to find one with a good price also. You know how it usually goes at the airports; of course the most proactive sales guy tried to convince us and actually took our luggage trolley and started to take us to his associates vehicle, which naturally was missing. After yelling to his phone for a while the minivan actually arrived to near by parking lot.
The price didnt end up to be the best one but at least we got to our next accomodation smoothly. And the accomodation was actually the best one we had had so far. Four bedroom and three bathroom apartment at a great location beside the Santiago National Library and beautiful parks.
The owner recommended us some restaurant areas and sight seeing places.
After walking a few minutes through a nearby lush parks, beside the river which flew through the city to a near by restaurant area, we already got a feeling that Santiago is a beautiful city which should be explored with much more time. There lives about about 5 million inhabitants in Santiago, which is third of the whole Chiles population. Santiago de Chile was founded by mr Pedro de Valdivia at February 1541. It became the capital at 1818.
After enjoying the first cervezas we took the 'Funicular', which is a special made cable railway, to a hill called Cerro San Cristobal. The railway was opened at 1925 and is one of the main things to experience in Santiago.
From the hill opened a beautiful scenery over the city. The hill was full of religious icons, including a 22 meter tall Blessed Virgin Mary statue on the top.
When coming back down from the hill, we decided to take a shortcut through the bushes. It was plus 30 degrees so even going downhill got us to swet in the sun.
When almost down, we faced actually the first injury at the whole trip when Manu hurt his toe when sliding down the hill with his flipflops. The injury was a major one, as you can see from the picture, but Manu bravely continued without crying at all. Fortunately we had a surgeon in team so he got a proper medical care fast.
Actually we had been fortunate that after riding with motorcycles almost 20000 km together in a strongly variable terrains for two weeks, this was the biggest injury. And happened while walking, not with a bike.
We ate a great lunch at a nearby outside restaurant street and enjoyed the sun and lively Sunday afternoon atmosphere.
After the lunch we met our old friends Chewbacka and Startrooper who were also traveling in Chile.
We got back to the apartment where some of us took a short nap while the others continued enjoying some refreshments and good music.
Later on at the evening we had the last dinner on this amazing trip at a nearby dinner place.
The day ended with a great conversation about life and business between a heart surgeon, economic, car brand manager and entrepreneur who all shared a strong passion for motorcycling. And that passion had only grown bigger during the last two weeks.
This Patagonian project was about to end but in our memories it will definitely stay forever.
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