I reached Santiago in the late afternoon. I didn’t actually want to stay in Santiago for more than a few hours but the fact that there was no big enough green patch on the map that looked like I could hide a tent made me decide to go find a hostel in Santiago for the night. This also gave me some time to explore the city a bit. Before I could go sight seeing or start searching for a hostel I needed to take care of my bike. It badly needed the chain adjusted. And because I thought I had forgotten the wrench I had prepared for this kind of maintenance task at home in London I started looking for a tools shop which carried the 24mm wrench I needed. After two hours of searching I found one and could finally stop worrying about my chain which had been a concern for the last few hundred kilometers.

I parked the bike somewhere on the sidewalk as everybody does and walked to the main square where the goal of many catholic pilgrims is. Unfortunately the church to which many pilgrims travel by foot from far away was largely covered up for restoration but it still looked impressive.

The view from the opposite side.

 

There were many beautiful little medieval streets and buildings in the old part of the city.

After enjoying the quiet peaceful village feeling for a little while I decided it was time to take care of my accommodation for the night. Unfortunately I was a bit late to find out that all hostels had been booked a long time ago. After all this was one of the most important catholic pilgrimage sites. I put all my hopes into the last hostel on my list but they were also booked. However they had this old shack in their garden which they offered me for 5 Euros. It was just as comfortable as camping but at least it meant I didn’t have to get out again and start looking for camp site knowing that it was unlikely to find one withing the next 100 kilometers.

Instead of sleeping on one of the mattresses in the shack and having some spiders under my cover in the morning I decided to put up my tent inside the shack.

It was actually a very comfortable solution.

Before going to bed I decided to take care of my bikes chain.

I first loosened the rear wheel axle and pulled the wheel back a few millimeters thus tightening the chain.

From this…

… to this

The discoloration of the chain is not rust but soil particles. However the chain and sprockets were still in bad shape.

Lastly tightened the screw which limits the distance the wheel can move to the front and also the nut I had loosened first to reposition the wheel.

The next morning I also lubricated the chain.