First Up-date, Santiago de Chile!
Claire Stoscheck
Please forward to anyone who might be interested!
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)