Sunday in santiago

Sunday is a day of rest for most of Santiago.  I suppose this is from the heavy catholic influence.  Pretty much everything is closed which has a certain charm to it.  We took the metro to plaza de armes and the catedral de metropolitana santiago. This was pretty much the only area that was open.  Lots of small shops and the church was amazing.  Walked around the area for hours.  Fantastic fun! 

Buying the bikes

Well, things can never quite be easy.  Looking for 3 bikes with all the paperwork ready is a task!  Apparently the bike shop (Colvin y Colviin) had been in contact with for months is a bit flakey. When we arrived, he didn't have the bikes "in stock and ready for us to look at" like he had said.  He did however have 3 in stock of a model we didn't like.  We gave him a second option but he told us that they weren't available.  

We went to a second shop, pro circuit on vitacurra avenue.  Juan, our sales guy, said he could arrange for 3 bikes so we decided to shop there.  Chris of course has to make the joke of Juan, two, three when we meet the guy!

Monday morning we went to the servicio de impuestos internos.  This is chile's version of the IRS and you need a tax number to be able to buy a bike.  I had been warned thru my internet research that nobody would be able to speak English and the process could be time consuming and difficult.  We got there right at their 9am opening.  Walked up to the counter and the guy spoke perfect English, with a british accent!  He highlighted about 4 spots on a form, had us fill it out, and then handed us a piece of paper with the number.  Total time of about 15 minutes.  Next, we returned to Pro Cicuit to arrange the bikes.  we suddenly found ourselves forgetting ours sales guy's name, then we remembered the tactless joke, so I suppose it actually helped!

Juan spent most of the morning on the phoning around and getting papers in order.  In chile, you need a homologacion certificate ( i have no idea why or what this is) and a factura, which is a piece of paper that functions like a pink slip/ bill of sale.  Sometimes these aren't at the dealers yet and they need to get them from the factory.  After a few hours, Juan had paperwork in hand. Tomorrow at noon we go and pick up the bikes!  We still have more paperwork to do, but we will do that on the road, we apparently have 5 days to get it done.

  We will be on the road and out of the city tomorrow, so updates might be less frequent.

First night in Chile, - Santiago

Well, it's late, and we just got back to our hotel after our first full night in Santiago.  Sometimes, things just happen that make you have a warmer feeling for humanity in general.  It all started at about 10pm. We decided to go to zonal Bella vista.  This area of Santiago is the nightlife zone.  While walking thought it, we saw these strange tubes out on the tables, filled with beer.

We passed a table of Chileans and asked if they minded us taking a picture, which they were more than happy to do,and invited us to sit with them.  4 hours later, we can now proudly say we have 6 wonderful Chilean friends, all of whom I would gladly invite into my home and would love the opportunity to reciprocate the hospitality one day..  Javier, Gabriel, Jose, Felipe and rapper dude whom I never quite got the name of,thank you for a fun night, and I will see you again, even if only on Facebook.  Most of the time, it's the wonderful people you meet that provide the best travel memories.

Arriving in chile

Well, we have arrived safe and sound.  A little over 16 hours of flight time, add to that another 12 hours of layover time during 3 stops, we made it.  From nanaimo to Vancouver, then a 4 hour wait, next on to Los angles, where we made a terrible attempt to sleep the 6 hours in the airport (those damn announcements sure do keep you up, and the lady driving the sweeper next to us was unnerving)

From LA we took Copa airlines to panama and then on to Santiago.

I have to say, I was originally worried about flying Copa air.  Visions of those South American Airlines you see on tv cam to mind.  Sitting on the floor of a twin prop cargo plane with chicken coups to lean on.  Couldn't be further from the truth.  Copa was nice, newer planes with tv entertainment systems that had games, musicandgps tracking to show where you are at.  Great service too, would fly this airline any time.

Chris, who arrived 12 hours later than us, met us on time and at the correct Starbucks!  He navigated his way around the city on his own without any issues.

  Went ou today to look at the bikes.  It seems the ones we will go with are 150cc Hondas.   We can get these for about $2000 and the dealer has already expressed interest in buying them back when done.  Of the 3 dealers we saw, Pro circuit on vita curare was the most professional.  They also offered us the service of doing all the paperwork and insurance for $120,000 Chilean pesos ( about $240).  We could spend 2 days running around ourselves, but it would still cost about $200 so that is a decent deal.  We now need to get our tax Id number Monday morning and can then buy the bikes.  Tonight, we will go out for a dinner, and then probably crash for the night and catch up on all our missing sleep. Tomorrow, we will do the tourista version of Santiago, and go see the sights.

Getting ready for South America

   Getting ready for South America.   All the camping gear is packed, flights booked.  There are three of us going, Chris, Al and myself.  Al and I will arrive in Santiago, Chile on December 27th, late in the evening.  Chris is booked on a slightly later flight and arrives the following afternoon.  Keep an eye on this site to read more.   We will update as we travel.
 Once we arrive, we will have 3-4 days to explore Santiago, while also working on obtaining our bikes. Santiago is a very modern and safe city (the crime and safety index for Chile/Santiago is closer to that of Canada, and ranks quite a lot higher than the United States).
  

   The plan is to purchase small bikes, most likely the Honda CGL125, which is available in Chile for around $1500 brand new.  We will be loading these little things up with everything we need for almost 4 weeks, including camping gear.
 We have tentatively planned a 4500km journey, but of course, who knows what exactly will happen.  The "general" idea is to head south from Santiago (with Mediterranean temperatures) towards southern Chile.  Being the opposite hemisphere to Canada, this time of year as we head south it would be similar to Alaska in our summer.


   Our planned route is to include the famous Carretera Austral (Southern road).  This road connects many small towns in Southern Chile, and goes through many areas untouched until the last 10-20 years.  Most of this "highway" is single lane gravel, with the Andes Mountains and volcanoes on one side, and fiords and glaciers on the other.  Parts of this road are by ferry only, and the road travels through numerous Patagonian parks.  We hope to camp beside lakes and rivers.

  At the southern point of our trip, we hope to make it to see the marble caves, carved out of rock by the waves of the lake they shore.  At this point we may turn into Argentina and head back to Santiago while straddling the eastern side of the Andes.

 Once we hit the road, who knows what will be around the next corner.  Check back and stay tuned to find out!