Camino Farellones - by bike

One of the tourist attractions of Santiago are the ski resourts in the Cordillera east of town. At this time of the year, of course, they are pretty dead and ugly, i.e. ski lifts dotting a dusty hillside next to a couple of ghost towns. There isn't a lot of traffic going to and from, which in turn means the road leading there has become a reasonably popular bike challenge.

On a nice summer day there'll be a few dozen cycists climbing their way from the outskirts of town (ca. 1000m asl) to the village of Farellones (2300m asl). We had arranged with a new friend we made a few weeks back in El Arrayán to attempt exactly that, and so we set off at 7:30am today.

After leaving Santiago behind, for the first few kilometres the road follows Río Mapocho, slowly ascending a narrow valley to about 1300m asl. There, the road splits and the branch that goes to the ski resorts ascends another 1000m via a windy road with 40 switch backs.

As one ascends higher and higher, one goes past Yierba Loca and a few nice viewpoints from where one can see Santiago in the not so distant smog.

 

In a few other places one can also see some of the 5000+ m mountains of the area, that is if one isn't too exhausted to look up. (o:

 

 

It took us about 5 hours from our door step to Farellones, where we nearly had a little lunch. Nearly, because then the only restaurant we found couldn't quite cope with catering for a couple of vegans. Oh well...

 

Of course we also had to take another photo at the last of the 40 switch backs before heading down again. (o:  By the way, other two people in the photos are Chris who we meet in El Arrayán and his mate Felipe.

The down-hill bit was a lot of fun and super fast, although we did take a few more photo breaks, such as this one...

... and that one:

 

Total distance cycled about 80km and ca. 1600m ascended. A Sunday well spent! Although, tomorrow Patricia may catch the bus to work, let's see... (o: