Alan Bloom
| Day 0 | March 6-7 | Mon-Tue | Concepción |
| Day 1 | March 8 | Wednesday | Concepción to Coelemu |
| Day 2 | March 9-10 | Thur-Fri | Coelemu to Chillán |
| Day 3 | March 11 | Saturday | Chillán to Yungay |
| Day 4 | March 12 | Sunday | Yungay to Los Ángeles |
| Day 5 | March 13 | Monday | Los Ángeles to Angol |
| Day 6 | March 14 | Tuesday | Angol to Curacautín |
| Day 7 | March 15 | Wednesday | Curacautín to Melipeuco |
| Day 8 | March 16 | Thursday | Melipeuco to Villarrica |
| Day 9 | March 17 | Friday | Villarrica to Panguipulli |
| Day 10 | March 18-19 | Sat-Sun | Panguipulli to Valdivia |
| Day 11 | March 20 | Monday | Valdivia to Nueva Toltén |
| Day 12 | March 21 | Tuesday | Nueva Toltén to Pto Saavedra |
| Day 13 | March 22 | Wednesday | Puerto Saavedra to Tirúa |
| Day 14 | March 23 | Thursday | Tirúa to Cañete |
| Day 15 | March 24 | Friday | Cañete to Lebu |
| Day 16 | March 25 | Saturday | Lebu to Coronel |
| Day 17 | March 26 | Sunday | Coronel to Concepción |
| Conclusion | |||
| Miles |
In March 2006 I did a 3-week cycling tour in Chile, starting in Concepción, a city of 200,000 people located a little over 300 miles south of the capitol, Santiago. I had several reasons for this trip. First, I am a bicycle-touring enthusiast. Since I retired in November 2005 from a 30-year career in electrical engineering, I wanted to get my touring "fix" by visiting some of the places I never had time to see while I was working. The second reason was to learn some Spanish. I have been trying to learn by listening to tapes and reading, but there is nothing like traveling alone in a foreign country to force you to sink or swim in a new language.
My final reason was to check out Chile as a possible future home. I am thinking of starting a second career teaching electrical engineering at the university level, and I think it would be more fun and challenging to do it overseas. I picked Chile as my first choice because it is a prosperous stable country with a strong emphasis on education. I picked the area south of Concepción because it is at roughly the same latitude as my current home in Santa Rosa, California which means it should have similar temperatures, suitable for cycling year-round.
During this tour I kept an extensive diary on my AlphaSmart Dana computer. Unfortunately, due to an unexplained computer glitch after I came home all that data was lost. So the following was written from memory a few days after I returned.
Last updated November 23, 2021