Always Take the Bike Tour - Part 1
23 March, 2023 | Santiago Chile Day 2
As my partner can attest to, I can sometimes get myself into a mood. Any combination of lack of sleep, food, adequate hydration, or ingesting political news can easily bring this on. What is less known is that beyond fixing these problems directly (drinking water, eat more locally), getting me on a bike is an instant mood elevator.
My lack of sleep from the flight in was immediately remedied by jumping on one of these first thing in the morning.
There were two legs of the tour - morning and afternoon - and I signed up for both. I was not entirely alone in this - a German woman and a Dutch gentleman did the same, but more on them in the second half of this.
First leg involved a brief spin by Pablo Neruda’s house; specifically the one he build in Bellavista (we started out there) explicitly for cheating on his wife, and then an extensive walk through the massive markets at Mecardo Central.
Zero rats in this market thanks to the hard work of the 89345 cats I observed napping while walking through.
If there is anything that will compel me to have a much lengthier stay in Santiago it will be this place - just an insane quantity of fresh produce, meats, and other goods in a seemingly endless collection of enormous warehouses. Check out TripAdvisor for the single dumbest tourists on the planet giving reviews.
This portion of the market was rebuilt after an earthquake, with the support beams meant to give a feeling of being under a forest canopy. It works surprisingly well in this regard.
Carlos, our guide, directed us to a particular restaurant in the market that was filled with material on the largest indigenous population in Chile, the Mapuche. So successful were the Mapuche at resisting the Spanish attempts at conquest that it was not until the late 19th century that their territories came under permanent occupation. Contemporary views of the Mapuche within Chile vary by the individual, but it’s worth noting a quarter of the national flag (the star bit) is meant to represent Venus - of great significant to the Mapuche.
