January 2nd, on to Chillan

We woke up to discover that the beach we decided to camp on was amazing and beautiful.  After camp coffee and a can of fruit, we hit the road.  For about an hour we followed the coast, then we stopped quickly near a little fishing village to take some pictures.  Chris wandered away from his parked motorcycle to take a phot or two, and a gust of wind came up and blew his motorcycle over onto the ground. We picked it up, and luckily, very little damage was done.   Looks like Chris may have another one of those days!

  Our route turned inland, heading back towards the main north-south highway in chile, ruta 5.   Our first service on the bikes is due at 750 km, and we are already close to that, so we decide to stop in the city of Chillan and get it done.   When you buy a Honda motorcycle in chile, the first 2 services are included in the original sale.

We arrived in chillan just before 5 pm and found the motorcycle shop. Fully expecting to make an appointment for the next day, the guys in this shop (moto faxtory) surprised us by offering to do it right away and we could get the bikes back at 7pm.  We left the bikes and walked around town for a bit, locating a small hotel in the cetral district. We need to finalize all our bike paperwork in the morning, so this area should be good.

  We returned to moto faxtory and Paulo,  our service guy told us we were all done. As we are preparing to leave, another guy touring chile by motorcycle starts talking to us, while changing his own oil in Paulo's shop.  Claudinei is traveling chile and Argentina on a Honda 700 and is from San Paulo, Brazil.   He is traveling with marcelo, his friend, who is off in another corner of the shop doing his oil as well.  These guys had a pretty good laugh at us and our attempt at long distance travel on such small bikes.  

At one point, they ask to take our picture with the bikes in view.  Claudinei even moves Al a little bit to one side just so the 150 marking on the side of the bike shows up.  After a few more laughs in the shop, we decide we are going to meet up with our new Brazilian friends for a few drinks that night at 9.  We also invite Paulo from the shop, as he was quickly becoming one of our favorite people in chile.  

  At 9 pm we all meet in front of the catedral at the center square.  Paulo recommends a restaurant right next door for food and drinks.   We have dinner and way too many cervezas, and even with the language barrier (Brazilians speak Portuguese), have a ton of laughs and find out quite a bit about one another.  Paulo, as we near the end of the evening, brings each of the 5 of us a gift "my present to you" as he says. He gives us each a bottle of wine to bring home with us.  First the guy gives us awesome service, then he becomes a friend and gives us gifts!  Certainly not like Harbour City Motorsports used to be!

   We trade email addresses with our 3 new friends and head back to the hotel quite late.  Another wonderful night with more new South American friends.