Author: sidecaramerica

Days 1 to 4 (25th – 28th Nov.)

Whilst waiting for our bike to arrive on the 29th, we’ve spent the last few days walking around the city and being tourists!  We’ve found there’s a mixture of splendid old Colonial buildings, Cathedrals and plazas next to run-down, neglected buildings and blocks of dilapidated flats….potentially lots of work for Mark!  There’s also a lot of graffiti art which hugely improves the appearance of the empty buildings and gives a bohemian feel to the area.

 

We are constantly amazed at the availability of things in all the little shops, which are everywhere.  We haven’t had to go far to find plug adapters (ours were just for USA!), WD40 and rubber glue for punctures (which we weren’t allowed to take on plane), and a small warning triangle which we left behind!  There appear to be certain zones where all the shops sell the same type of products.  When in Barrio Brasil, every shop sold car parts and we even saw an Africa Twin exactly same make and colour as ours, outside one of the shops!  A relatively big bike like this, at 750cc’s, seems to be quite a rarity, with most being around 125cc’s, many of which are of Chinese origin.

We had a massive climb up to 880m above sea level to visit the San Cristobel statue of the Virgin Mary, where we had spectacular views of the city and the Andes. We tried the local drink called ‘Mote con Huesillios’ which is made of a peach and cinnamon syrup with a whole peach and wheat (or maybe corn) grains in the bottom of the glass, which was refreshing after the climb in 30 degree heat!

We also visited the rather gruesome no. 38 Londres, the property which was used in the Pinochet era for detaining and torturing dissidents.  It was actually quite a pleasant house which has been preserved in the rather dilapidated state in which it was left after the dictator was toppled from power some 30 years ago:

We pick up the bike from the cargo area of the airport tomorrow and will have to complete paperwork and put back the wing mirrors etc. which were removed before crating.  Then we ride over to Valparaiso, an historic port town, which is about 60 miles away on the Pacific coast, to stay for 2 nights.

 

 

We left home for Heathrow on 24th November, to catch our flight to Santiago in Chile via Rome.  Our friends Sheila and Nick Terrett who presently live in Switzerland were flying in from Zurich and we met up for a brief lunch in the terminal prior to our departure. We had been planning this trip for years and I think they thought we would never do it!

We arrived in Santiago on Saturday morning after an 18 hour journey and were quickly transported via taxi to our accommodation in the centre of the city, where we are  staying for 4 nights prior to collecting the bike from the cargo area of Aeropuerto Internacional Arturo Merino Benitez on Wednesday 29th .

Weather is 30 degrees and our apartment has a roof top pool with distant views of the Andes.  So we are spending the time by the pool or sightseeing the many places of interest nearby, including the Plaza de Armas, Japanese Gardens at St Lucia with views of the Cerro San Cristobel and the Andes in the distance.

 

 

 

With our boat having been cancelled a few days before we were due to sail on 5th November, and no sea-based alternatives being available in the near future, we’ve been actively pursuing the air freight options.  Yesterday, we rode the bike up to the packers depot at Heathrow to have it crated, and the helpful people at Motofreight are arranging to have it flown to Santiago, Chile, hopefully later next week.  Santiago is on the same latitude as our original port of destination – Montevideo, Uruguay – albeit it’s to the west side of the continent rather then the east.  That’s fine for us, and we can now make our way south to Tierra del Fuego and the ‘End of the World’ on the Carretera Austral, the remote and picturesque road which runs down to the southernmost parts of Chile, and then ride back north through Argentina. It’s much the same as our original plan albeit the other way round.

Meeting up with Tim, the very helpful chap from Motofreight.  He has a good taste in bikes, owning an Africa Twin the same as ours albeit a couple of years older.

We took off the bike’s mirrors and screen as these would leave it taller than the 1.6m high crate, plus we took off the top box and stowed it in the sidecar foot well.  Then we pushed the bike into the depot to await crating-up early next week.

We received some bad news on Monday 30th October from The Cruise People (the UK agent for Grimaldi Line) that our boat departure had been cancelled.  We were all packed up and ready to go.  Apparently, our boat had been deployed to a different route due to a lack of cargo booked onto our scheduled crossing.  They gave us 2 alternatives which included catching a different boat from Antwerp or another from Hamburg, neither of which were viable for us.  We had been working towards our given date of Sunday 5th November and although packed up, we still had a few important last minute commitments to do, so not enough time to get to the other suggested ports.

The agents have been trying very hard to book us onto other boats from Antwerp, as it seems Tilburg is being used less frequently now, but so far nothing has become available. The worry with this is that we could wait for a boat only to find it cancelled again and more delay getting away. The next step is getting a refund and looking at air freighting the bike from Heathrow. Mark has been in contact with Motofreight (an air cargo specialist) and we await availability from them. We will get there sooner or later!

 

 

We set up this blog over the last couple of days and will start adding to it nearer to our departure on or around the 5th November.  I say ‘around’ since, with a cargo boat, the date of sailing may be delayed depending on weather, itinerary and so on.  Indeed, our original departure date of on or around 25th October was quite recently revised when the updated sailing schedules were published a week ago.

We have put up our tent – last used at Le Mans 24 hour race in 2011 – and will spend at least a night in it with new sleeping bags, mats and Jetboil stove to make sure everything’s (hopefully) up to scratch.  So, this will probably be our home for much of the trip, weather permitting.  It’s a Vango Sigma 300+ with room for three and porches both ends: