From Quito, Ecuador to Santiago de Chile!

The First Up-date!

The beginning of our great trip from Quito was a little exhausting, it was 2am in the morning on Thursday the 8th of November. After many days in the bus we arrived in Lima, Peru, on Saturday, and we were able to rest there one night. We left Lima on Sunday at 2pm and went straight to Santiago, 3 more days in the bus, of course with stops for food and border crossings. The advice I can give is that for this kind of journey is to bring food with you (the stops are expensive!) and the documents that you need for border crossing. I tell you, I had problems crossing the Chilean border, I as an Ecuadorian. I didn’t have any problem crossing the Peru border, but to cross the Chilean border I had a lot of problems and they almost sent me back to Ecuador! The motive is that in this moment Chile has problems with illegal immigrants from other countries in Latin America (especially Peru) so they are very strict on the border. So if you are thinking about traveling to this country I recommend that you have all your papers in order and if a citizen from Chile can help you out (with a letter of invitation) it will serve you well, so that you can peacefully arrive at your final destination. (Note from Claire: Of course, I had absolutely no problems crossing the border as a USAer... it's mind blowing the privileges a US passport brings) After fighting and struggling at the border, we finally could pass and we left for Santigao de Chile. We were still very far, but very excited to know that there would be no more obstacles to arrive. Now we were more chill and able to work on Claire’s presentation, which we had been working on during the whole trip, for the exposition for Bicicultura, which she will talk more about later….

Now we will tell you that after passing so much time in the bus, we arrived at the big moment! We were arriving in Santiago to meet the founding women of Las Macletas, who helped organize the great event of Festival de Bicicultura. We knew that they would meet us at the bus terminal so we were very excited to arrive. It was the first time we would talk in person because we only knew them over the internet before (how amazing is the internet!) and it was over the internet that they invited Claire to do the presentation on women and bicycles for Bicicultura. It was amazing to arrive, because they were waiting with open arms, and on both parts we were very happy to meet each other personally. A surprise for us was that … they proposed that we put together our bikes (they were packed in boxes) and all our panniers right then and there in the terminal in order to bike to Mario’s house, a friend of the Macletas' who was so kind as to share his home with us these past days. It was so wonderful to be able to do this kind of thing after so many days (90 hours total) sitting in a bus. It felt so great to pedal again, especially immediately after arriving in this great city. And after we arrived at Mario’s house we had a long conversation and discovered that he’s a wonderful person, very smart, and a bike activist as well. (by Cristhian)

For the next 6 days we had an amazing time here in Santiago. We attended the Festival de BiciCultura, and it was very awesome. We saw a presentation from a man from I-CE (Interface for Cycling Expertise, one of the biggest bike think-tanks in the world, based in Holland). He talked about the bike culture in Holland and what we need to do as bike activists to promote the bike in our own cities. That same night we met some youth who run a community bike shop at the University and they came over for dinner. We’ll be visiting their shop this week. On Friday was the big day for Women and the Bicycle, and the event was very well organized by the Macletas (Andrea, Elba, Fabiola, Leslie and many others) Andrea Cortinez from the Macletas presented about gender and the bicycle in Santiago, I presented on “Bike Feminism: Towards Accessibility and Equality in Cycling” with a focus on a casestudy of GearUP from the Twin Cities, and Marieke De Wild did a presentation about gender and the bike in Holland, which is a case that is very different from the rest of the world (MORE women than men bike there!!). Afterwards we had a question and answer session, and the audience asked very good questions. It was extremely interesting and amazing to have the chance to have an exchange with others, from various countries (US, Chile, Holand), on this issue that is SO important but also is still (unfortunately) very obscure and unknown.

Saturday was a bike ride for authorities, in an effort to get them interested in promoting biking and after we got VIP passes to go to SudAmericaExtreme an extreme sports competition and we got to watch young people do crazy things on rollerblades, skate boards and BMX bikes. Sunday was a wonderful day as well for Bicicultura. There was a bike fair in the park Florestal with stands from all the different bike organizations and companies in Santiago. It was huge! The Macletas had a stand and we helped disperse information. In addition, I taught 2 classes on basic bike maintenance to about 60 people of all ages. It was an amazing experience to get to know so many cyclists from Santiago! Cristhian and I started with our interviews and we did 3 that afternoon. The next day we went to a meeting with the city and a young man, Daniel, who is planning a Public Bike program for Santiago. We have met so many bike activists in Santiago, and it’s incredible to see all the different experiences and perspectives. We have met people who only work in the area of bike infrastructure who want to make change happen by teaching privileged college students to plan bike-friendly cities when they have power in the city, and we have met people who are more involved in creating safe spaces for new cyclists to better their confidence in cycling, and many others. It was been incredible to spend time with women who also are working to promote the bike as a means of transportation for all different genders. All in all, the people in Santiago have been so kind, and generous, and we have been exposed to large segments of the bike movement and have learned a lot, and have had the chance to teach a little as well. It’s been a great experience and we are very grateful to everyone we’ve met in Santiago.

Next up: This weekend we’ll bike to Valparaiso with Mario, Elba, Pepe and other Santiago cyclists to visit with bike activists there and learn what they are doing to promote biking in this coastal city. Then, on Monday or Tuesday we will head off with our bikes all loaded up, to Mendoza, Argentina!

Note: We will give a more complete summary and analysis of the bike movement in Santiago in the future, after we have complied all the interviews.

We wish you well and hope to hear from you soon! (by Claire)