Chile, Patagonia and the Trans Andes

Chile

A land strange and unknown to me at least; what do I know about this remote South American -end of the world country. Long thin, it's border defined by the Andes, water falling on the west is Chilean water falling on the east is Argentinian. Easter Island, Patagonia, the Allendes and Pinoche, some vague concepts of travel, writing, politics and many conflicting views. What I really know is that I didn't know anything. Some rumours abounded; they had mountains and ski resorts so all the ingrediants for a mountain bike adventure were there.

This trip is a multi-part story that will not see a conclusion until after the Trans Andes on January 24-29th. But for the first part and the common theme, the Trans Andes, the route, the area and the culture are all to be captured in a Ride Guide segment.

Some time earlier this year, Juan Pablo Santiagos the director of the TA had dialed me up and invited me down to Chile. Naturally I figured if going all that way, lets crank up the excitement and make the most of it, so I contaced RideGuide and put together a team.

Viola, Chile in November - actually not so chilleee, actually quit warm about 25 degrees. Our goal, segment 1- to get the lay of the land for Ride Guide and secondarily a Rocky Magazine Road trip, segment 2-would be to follow up with the race in January. For the second part of the initial November trip I figured there must be some other people looking to explore and create some adventures. I threw out some invites, contacted some guiding companies and mixed in a little flavour I call Chile, ha. But lets put that pot on the back burner for a bit and get on with shooting the Ride Guide segment.

Josh the cameraman for Ride Guide and I met in LA, flew LAN Chile via Lima to Santiago. Piece of pie, easy, and only a 5 hour time change to deal with. We met Juan Pablo in Santiago, who by the way is an x-World Cup DH racer and grabbed a domestic flight south to Tecum on the northern edge of Patagonia. Patagonia is an undefined geographical region in Chile, not to be confused with their states, provinces or as they call them regions (12). We were in the Araucania region considered to be the middle south of the country. While the majority of the wine growing takes place in the arid Santiago area (800 K north), here it was lush rainforest, logging and mucho Volacanic activity.

As usual the rideguide.ca is about culture as much as wicked riding, so

we ventured out to visit a traditional Mapuche Indian village. They are very representative of global aboriginal struggles to maintain traditional ways in the maelstrom of moderm conveniences. The particular Senhorita that we conversed with was very sharp and very tourism savvy, she expressed some concern with the governments involvement, but let us know she was open to sharing her ways with us and finding some mutualy agreeable ground with the officials. This was on a whole the shocking example of Chile; advanced, calm and reasonable; from the Mapuche natives to the not stressed out airline people, Chile is a first class nation of warm hosting people.

Juan took us out to the sponsor hotel, the start of day 1, in a land reserve and area know as Huilo Huilo. This alone is enought to consider your holiday goals achieved; a full eco-resort in a rainforest built like the ewok village of Star Wars. The next day it was out to explore the course and the land, we were in the middle of a lush rain forrest with Volcanos rising in every direction- we only saw 3 from our vantage point, but apparantly there were a possible 13 to be seen on a clear day above the green canopy.

We spent a number of days exploring the resort and the first few days of the route before our time ran out and it was time to exit stage one of Chile. We had met Louis the director of operations, we had met the local course designers and we had a much better deeper understanding of what Chile is all about. Much of the philosophy of the Trans Andes is similar to that of the BC Bike Race, not to mention Juan was riding a Rocky Mountain Bike, it was very comfortable and reminded me of home.

As we headed back to Santiago we stopped at Stage 3's finish, a natural Volcanic hot spring with a resort built around it, then a night in Pucon, checking out the lay of the land of this Whistler type village the host of the final stage and party.

I was sad to leave having only spent 6 days ripping around such a big country, but knowing this was only the first part of an overlapping trip and that once back in Santiago I would be picking up part 2, I cheered up, grabbed a beer with Juan and promised to be wayyy fit by the time TA arrived in January.

It was only a matter of one night before the boys arrived and the gong show would ensue again. The snow was flying at home in BC and we were in shorts and jerseys down in South America, maybe the old adage "snow birds" is taking a new direction -Chile anyone?

Cheers

Dre