Street Cart Medicine 😱💊 Dark Reality of Santiago, Chile 🇨🇱 Ep 32

We may have grown old, but we are still lions. Hey, you shouldn’t say things like that! Tell me this — in Chile, who has sat on the Pan-American National Highway and eaten parathas with vegetable curry? From that alone you can guess how things are here. Even Chinese people have started setting up street stalls here. So today I stopped just because someone was selling bhindi (okra) curry. And there it is — the punch has landed! Even the house here belongs to an Indian. This mall is also owned by an Indian. Someone is even selling medicines on a small street stall. They are sitting with boxes of Tramadol. Back in India it is totally banned.

Namaskar, Salaam, Sat Sri Akal, Ram-Ram to everyone. Once again, welcome to Santiago, the capital city of Chile. I have spent quite a long time in Chile now. In Santiago alone, I have been here for about 10–12 days. In between, I did not make any videos. I took proper rest because my body really needed it.

Right now I am standing under a 95-year-old tree in the middle of the road. The road actually bends around the tree, but they did not cut it down. There is even a sign here that says “95 years”. They have decorated it with lights and preserved it.

In the last video you saw that I finally got my Bolivia visa. Now I have two options to reach Bolivia from here. One route is through Chile, and the second route is through Argentina and then to Bolivia. The Argentina route is a little longer — about 600 kilometres extra. However, the Salta region of Argentina is said to be very beautiful. The Chile route, on the other hand, is easier. Most of the way the wind will be behind me, which is good for cycling. But it is not as scenic as the places we covered earlier.

In the previous seven days we covered about 1,000 kilometres, and this route will be somewhat similar.

I had been staying here because there is an Indian restaurant called Mandala. It belongs to Vinod bhai, and his staff stay here as well. For the past two or three days I have been staying with them. I had already left my Airbnb, as it was getting quite expensive. You might have seen Vinod bhai in some of my previous videos.

Now we will go and greet everyone here because there is another Indian restaurant nearby. In Santiago you can find around 10–12 Indian restaurants, and they are all running quite well. Indians are doing good business here.

First we will go say hello, then we will go to Mandala, and after that we will continue our journey. Today I will not ride much — only about 40–50 kilometres. The proper ride will start from tomorrow. Besides, today is Sunday, and Sunday is usually a day to relax.

“How are you?”
“I’m good, sir. Welcome back!”

You have set this place up really nicely. Many congratulations. Your restaurant’s name itself says it all — “Sabko Namaste” (Greetings to Everyone).

We will have some tea here and then leave.

Thank you so much. We will miss you a lot.

“No, no. Don’t say that. Nobody misses anyone for long. The world keeps moving. Keep moving morning and evening, and we will meet again somewhere on a new road, in a new place.”

From here the story in the video takes a different turn.

After leaving Santiago and riding about 10–15 kilometres, I entered the highway. But as soon as I got on the highway, I was stopped by the authorities. So I had to turn back.

I returned and stayed again in a hostel in Santiago. This was the hostel where I stayed. I had checked out earlier, but now I had to come back again.

The reason is that for the next 500 kilometres, there is a tunnel where bicycles are not allowed. That is why they stopped me. After the tunnel, cycling is allowed again. This is the same Route 5 that we used earlier when we travelled from Puerto Montt to Santiago. Now we are going from Santiago to Calama.

From here there are two routes. One goes through Argentina, and the other goes along the Chilean coast. I could not decide for a long time which one to choose. I spoke to many people about it. Finally I decided that I will continue through Chile, because my Chile visa is still valid for another 20–25 days.

In those 20–25 days, I will cover about 1,000 to 1,500 kilometres on the Chilean side. After that, I will enter Bolivia.

To be honest, I feel a little shy when making videos on the road. Even if someone simply walks past me, I feel awkward filming. That is probably why I cannot make videos the way some other YouTubers do.

Yesterday after returning, I messaged Karan bhai and told him that I needed a cloth scarf — what we call parna or angochha in Haryana. It helps protect from the sun because the heat here is quite strong, and sunlight comes through my cap.

Karan bhai then gave me the number of Sahil bhai, and Sahil bhai gave me the contact of Manoj bhai. Yesterday I had dinner with Manoj bhai and spoke with him for a long time. He is from Kaithal in Haryana, which is actually close to my hometown. I had no idea that someone from my neighbouring district was living here.

Now we are going to his shop in the city centre. I need to buy a few things — my reading glasses broke, so I need new ones. I also need some bicycle equipment, and of course I will pick up that angochha.

After that I will ask them to drop me at the bus station, because I need to take a bus for the next 70–80 kilometres of the journey.

Look at this hostel — it is very beautiful. Both of these buildings belong to the same hostel. My room was on the top floor.

Now we are leaving the hostel and heading towards Route 40, and soon we will reach Route 66.

Stay with me until the end of the video.

Right now I am not using my 360-degree camera, because the area where Manoj bhai’s shop is located has some safety concerns. I will start using the 360 camera later on the road. Editing 360-degree footage takes a lot of time, and honestly I already struggle to find enough time for editing.

Look at this road — it is amazing. There is a dedicated bicycle lane in the middle. Cars move on both sides, and in the centre there is a cycling path. There are even separate traffic lights for bicycles, just like for cars. Everything is properly organised. If you want to explore the city, you can do it by cycling as well.

Now we are heading towards the city centre. The city centre is a bit crowded and somewhat unsafe.

I pushed my bicycle straight inside the shop because it is not safe to leave it outside.

This is a wholesale shop, and the building has three or four floors.

“How are you, brother?”
“I’m good.”
“This is Sahil bhai.”

Now we are going to another shop. Punjabi songs are playing in the background.

Most of the goods here are Chinese products.

“How long is this market?”
“About 5–6 kilometres.”

The entire market is wholesale, and from here goods are supplied all over Chile.

In this area you will also see many Indian-owned shops, but about 70–80% of the businesses are run by Chinese traders.

“This is our second store,” he says.

“Namaste.”

“This is Gurpreet bhai.”

“How are you?”
“All good.”

“Where are you from?”
“I’m from Rajasthan.”

And yes, this entire area has a strong Indian presence.

Here is the English (UK) translation of your text, keeping the tone close to the original travel narration.

This house also belongs to an Indian, and this entire mall is owned by Indians as well. Look over there — someone is selling medicines on a street stall. They are sitting there with Tramadol tablets. In India, it is completely banned.

Most of these medicines are probably made in India. Yes, they are Indian-made. Look — pick up any one of them and check. This one says Salbutamol. Let me see where the Tramadol is made.

We were walking around the shops.
“How are you, brother?”
“All good.”

“What is your name, brother?”
“My name is Aamir.”

Aamir bhai is from Pakistan. So you see, we even meet people from Pakistan here.

Across the world, most second-hand Toyota cars that come from Japan — the resale business for those vehicles is largely handled by Pakistanis. I think this must be the 10th or 12th country where I have met Pakistanis working in the car business. They deal with all kinds of vehicle work.

Thank you so much for the tea and coffee. Black tea and black coffee.

I was standing at the shop when another person came over.

“Brother, how are you here?”

“I am actually a yoga teacher here,” he said. “Along with that, I also work in a shop. When you live abroad, one job alone is not enough. I am telling you the truth because I don’t want to lie to anyone.”

“How long have you been here?”

“I have been here for four years.”

Then I went with him to a bicycle shop, which is next to the shop where he works. I wanted to see if I could find something useful because the bottle holder on my bicycle has broken and I need to replace it.

I thought I would leave in the morning by bus and then continue riding further, but now it is almost 2:00 pm and I have not managed to do anything yet. These things happen sometimes. The next 1,500 kilometres of the journey are going to be important, so I need to think carefully about the route.

We walked through the market. Traffic here is very chaotic. You never know from which side a vehicle might suddenly appear, so you have to stay alert.

At that moment I was standing at my friend’s shop. He told me to stay one more day.

I had met him yesterday at Manoj bhai’s place, and he said, “Come and stay with us.”

The truth is that I am a simple person, and I got tempted. Do you know what the temptation was? He promised to cook bhindi (okra) curry for me. Bhindi is one of my favourite vegetables, so I stayed back for that.

Now it is 5:00 pm in the evening. The shops are starting to close. This is a wholesale market, and by 6:00 pm everything shuts down.

There are many thefts in Chile. Look at this clever security system they have made. They installed these strong iron pipes in front of the shop shutters. Sometimes thieves ram a car into the shutter to break it and enter the shop. But with this iron barrier in front, the car will break before the shutter does. It is a solid safety measure.

After closing the shop, we walked a little further to eat something.

“Thank you so much,” I said while saying goodbye.

They even gave me a beautiful Indian scarf (angochha).
“Take care, brother. We will meet again.”
“Yes, hopefully we will meet soon — maybe in India.”

I noticed something interesting. On both sides there were dragon symbols, showing the influence of China here.

Now Billa bhai has come to drop me at the central bus station. Look at this bus terminal — it is huge and impressive. The railway station and the bus station are connected together.

For the third day, I was struggling to decide whether to go or not. There was a bus available after 7:00 pm, but it would drop me at around 9:00 pm in a place that the bus driver said was unsafe at night. So I cancelled the plan.

Instead, I decided to go through smaller roads and dirt tracks.

So finally, I left the city. Now I have reached Route 5. You can see the highway below.

There are even electric buses by BYD running here.

There is a sign that clearly says bicycles and pedestrians are not allowed on the highway. So I cannot enter the highway with my bicycle. I will travel as far as I can using smaller side roads.

After going 40–50 kilometres outside the city, the traffic becomes lighter and sometimes cyclists enter the highway quietly, but officially bicycles are not allowed for about 100 kilometres.

I am hoping things will work out somehow. Unfortunately, I could not find a bus.

I have been quite stressed — going up and down, crossing roads, trying different routes. I am now 20 kilometres outside the city, and this is the Route 5 bypass.

Let me explain the situation. This is Santiago, and we came from somewhere here. This road is like the outer ring road, similar to the Kundli–Manesar Expressway near Delhi. There is another smaller road running parallel to it for some distance, but after a certain point that road will end.

Now I have two options:

1. Travel along the Chilean coast route, which will eventually lead me into Bolivia.
2. Ride about 34 kilometres on this expressway and then cross into Argentina, travel around 2,000 kilometres in Argentina, and then enter Bolivia from there.

The Argentina route is longer and has many steep climbs, but it is said to be very beautiful, with colourful mountains and interesting landscapes.

A friend from Argentina, who is actually a devotee of Indian culture and Hinduism, has also advised me many times to take the Argentina route because it is extremely scenic.

But the police here keep stopping me, saying I cannot ride on the highway. I did not know what to do. Because of this confusion, I have already wasted four days in Santiago.

Eventually I decided to do something simple — like a cricket toss.

I took out a 100-peso coin. If the side with “100” appeared, I would go through Chile. If the other side appeared, I would go through Argentina.

I tossed the coin.

It landed on 100.

So that means I will go through Chile.

After wasting four days, the decision finally came from a simple coin toss.

Now I am on the bypass road. I will ride 10–20 kilometres and see what happens. If needed, I will stand by the road and ask for a lift for 10–20 kilometres until the expressway section ends. After that the road becomes easier for cycling.

Eventually I reached a Shell petrol station and parked my bicycle there for a while.

I have already travelled about 30 kilometres from the city, but bicycles are still not allowed on the highway. There is another 10 kilometres of side road ahead. After that I am not sure what will happen.

Overall, my time in Santiago was a good experience. I originally planned to stay one week, but I ended up staying more than two weeks. I arrived around 24–25 January, and today it is about 12 or 13 February.

So I stayed almost 15–20 days here. Some days were lost because of the visa process, some because I needed rest, and some because of these travel complications.

I also realised something else. My neck has become very stiff because I spend the entire day in the same cycling position. So I stopped and did some stretching exercises here.

From now on, I will make it a routine to do some evening exercises so that this stiffness goes away.

Here is the English (UK) translation of your text, keeping the original storytelling style of the travel vlog.

Otherwise my neck becomes completely stiff. If I press it like this, it feels as if I am hitting a stone. And in this city there are so many Chinese people that I honestly cannot believe how so many Chinese can be here. You can judge from this one thing — they have even started setting up street carts selling Chinese food here. What more can I say? I have not seen so many Chinese people in any other country outside China.

So friends, I have been sitting here for about one and a half hours. It does not seem like I will get a lift from here. Everyone is telling me not to go onto the highway. There is another rough road going from here that eventually leads towards the Argentina route. So I might try going around from there. Somehow I will find a way out. Otherwise I will have to take that route.

It is proving very difficult to leave this city.

Now look at this — the air has gone out of my tyre. It looks like a puncture. The air has not completely gone yet. I am wondering whether I should repair it here or a little further ahead. Sometimes you have those strange days when nothing goes according to plan. Today is one of those days. I cannot even decide which route to take.

First I will fix the puncture. Then I will see what to do next.

To repair the rear tyre, I have to remove all the luggage because the wheel needs to be taken out. My bicycle has a belt drive instead of a chain, so the belt also has to be removed.

Look at this — I even spotted a eucalyptus tree here. Normally I had not seen many eucalyptus trees in Chile, though there were plenty of them in Australia. When we were children we used to play with the seeds of this tree.

I have removed all the luggage. Now I will open the tyre.

Here it is. First I clean the tube properly. When there is a puncture, the first thing to check is where the leak is. After finding the hole, we can fix it.

Now I have found it. I will apply the patch.

There we go — the puncture is fixed.

Now I will take a short rest and have lunch. I had brought lunch with me from Manoj bhai’s house. They have a cook who had prepared their food earlier, and I asked him to make a few plain parathas for me so I could eat them during the journey.

So today I do not need to cook anything.

Look at this — parathas and vegetable curry. And here I am, sitting beside the Pan-American Highway in Chile, eating parathas and sabzi. Who else has done that?

These are the kinds of moments that make this journey special.

The puncture is fixed, lunch is done, and now I am back on the road. I am riding along the side of the highway. I will try to reach the next petrol station and see if I can get some help there.

There are a lot of farms and vegetable fields here. I can see onions and other crops growing.

I just hope the tyre does not puncture again because there are pieces of glass scattered everywhere.

So I have taken a route through villages and small streets. Instead of travelling 10 kilometres directly, I am going around almost 15 kilometres because I could not find a way onto the highway.

Inside the village I saw a very beautiful house. It even had cameras installed for security.

Up ahead there is a Copec petrol station, and I will try to rejoin the highway from there.

Even 30–40 kilometres outside Santiago, you can see many large farmhouses. Wealthy people build farmhouses near capital cities everywhere in the world — just like in India.

Finally, I managed to enter the highway. I rode another 10–15 kilometres, and now there are no signs stopping me. So I will continue riding.

From here the road is mostly downhill, because I am heading towards the sea.

Now I am about 60 kilometres away from Santiago. After another 20–25 kilometres, there will be a tunnel. I will reach there and wait. Perhaps someone will help me cross the tunnel, because bicycles are not allowed inside it.

The heat is strong today. The weather is not exactly cold, but the sun is very intense.

We have reached a place called La Milla (or something similar). The tunnel is about 34 kilometres ahead. Once I cross that tunnel, the landscape will change completely.

Often the construction companies or tunnel management teams help travellers cross such tunnels.

Here the road becomes wider before the tunnel entrance.

Finally I reached the tunnel area. Some people helped me cross it. I had to wait for about one hour. After the tunnel they dropped me on the other side.

I thanked them — “Thank you so much, amigo.”

There were three young guys, very friendly and cheerful. They were going to the beach. They helped load and unload my bicycle as well.

Now it is 6:00 pm, but the sunlight is still very strong. Today I will try to reach a small town called La Ligua by around 8:00 pm.

Now that the tunnel is behind me, there are no more restrictions. The traffic is already becoming lighter. As I move further north, the population becomes very sparse.

The landscape is also changing. Earlier everything was green, but now I am seeing acacia trees and eucalyptus, which reminds me of Australia.

The small hills ahead look like they are leading into the desert. Right now I am passing through a small valley, and after this valley the desert will begin.

There are people selling things near the road — I am not sure exactly what they are selling.

About 10 kilometres remain to reach the town.

I saw a hotel, but it was very expensive — about 8,000 rupees per night, so I decided not to stay there.

From here onward petrol stations appear only every 100 kilometres, and towns are also very far apart. So I will need to ride carefully — either long rides during the day or starting early and finishing early.

The wind is in my favour, which is helping me ride faster.

Finally, around 7:30 pm, I reached La Ligua, where I will stay tonight. Tomorrow I will head towards Los Vilos, which is about 90–100 kilometres from here.

Now the wind has turned against me, so it is better to stop for the night.

Welcome to La Ligua. It is roughly 120–150 kilometres from Santiago. I left at 9:00 am, and now it is 7:30 pm. Apart from the short lift I got earlier, I did not take any other breaks.

Now the challenge is to find a place to stay.

I noticed an old railway track here that looks abandoned. It seems trains have not run here for a long time.

There is also a dedicated cycling path leading into the town.

Along the road you often see memorials where someone lost their life in an accident. People place teddy bears, bicycles, or flowers there to remember them.

Let us go inside the town and see if I can find a hotel.

Finally I found one. It costs $40 per night. I even brought my bag inside because theft can be a concern here.

The good thing is that the owner allowed me to park my bicycle inside and also promised breakfast in the morning.

I have brought all my luggage inside the room. The sun is still very strong even though it is almost 8:00 pm.

This video must have become quite long. It covers almost five days of travel from Santiago to here.

The ride has finally started — after many difficulties.

Your support and blessings mean a lot.

The next 1,200 kilometres are going to be very challenging. First I will ride along the sea level, and then eventually climb up to around 4,000 metres altitude, similar to Ladakh. The landscapes will look just like travelling in Ladakh.

We will meet again in the next video.

Until then, stay happy, stay busy, stay cheerful, and stay healthy.

Jai Hind. Jai Bharat. 🇮🇳