Santiago, Chile

So You want to open a pet store, but you are lacking a store. What do you do? This enterprising fellow decided not to let his lack of a location keep him from following his dream. And what a happy face he has.

I've been riding my recumbent bicycle through the streets of Santiago, and am surprised at how safe it is, compared to an American city. They do look out for bicyclists here, and will yield the right of way. I was a bit skittish at first, because of the large number of buses, but have developed a system of staying off the roads that have a lot of bus traffic. If the road looks good, comfortable and well maintained, it is to be avoided at all costs. You would be surprised how uncomfortable cobblestones are after the first three blocks.

Speaking of public transportation and the free market, did you ever wonder what it would be like if bus drivers were not paid a salary, but received a percentage of ticket sales instead? If you incentivized public transportation? That's what they do here. The busses fly down the streets, and it is not uncommon to see three at a time dive into a bus stop, trying to snare passengers. If you flag one down, he will stop, even if you are nowhere near a bus stop, which would be nice if you were the guy on the street, but given the fact that he will literally slam on the brakes from 50 mph, can be a bit disconcerting as your body wants to fly forward, the people behind you are experiencing the same sensation and the only thing keeping you from losing your balance is the death grip you have on the handle hanging from the roof of the bus. Of course they don't follow the schedule, and I have seen three of the same route travel in a pack, zooming in and out of traffic, racing to the next stop. Riding one is an adventure. After much deliberation, the city of Santiago has decided to put the drivers on a salary and make them follow a schedule. Apparently there have been too many accidents and banged up buses.

There are a lot of feral dogs here in Santiago, and they seem to find motorcyclists and guys on recumbent bicycles particularly enticing to chase. After an incident with a pack of the beasts one night on my motorcycle and another on the recumbent, I have decided to carry around a bottle full of soapy water and ammonia. Dogs don't like to be sprayed in the face with this solution, and tend to back off. They still bark, but they do stop chasing the bike.