Santiago in Andes…>>

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To arrive at a big capital is always an adventure. I skipped the preparation pause I usually make before diving into caos but I was lucky to pick the correct cardinal point. The goal was the headquarters of the Catholic University. There I would find Francisco, my host for two days.

If prices in Chile are generally high, in Santiago they reach their peak. Stopping the bike at a parking lot would cost one euro for each half hour if I resigned myself to the normal price. I managed to get a bicycle price at the third try: two days in the parking lot, twelve euros. One must make a lot of money around here.
 
Francisco found me in the college bar, half asleep from the waiting. Kind and generally nervous, he disguises the slight stutter with an exaggerated dragging of certain syllables, but he avoids repeating himself. He likes everything straight and I make an effort to keep the order in the living room, invaded by a huge pile of luggage and gear. Later on I get lost on foot in the city traffic. It feels good to wander in sneakers in the tide of people that swarm at the centre and I end up playing a delicious chess match in Plaza de Armas. It's a distracted stroll without any major purpose. I don't go through any list of sites to see, I don't even have a map, I just came to feel this agitated pulse in which the city vibrates. I go back by subway, within a flood of people that makes me wait for the second train.
 
The main mission in Santiago is taking care of the bike. ...
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