January 5 - day 1 Carretera Austral

We left Puerto Montt just a few minutes before 8am and drove 45 minutes south of town.   As we arrived in this little village we saw a ferry loading.   We walked to the ticket booth but it was unattended.  As we stood around trying to figure out what to do we noticed a car just drive right up and on to the ferry, so we decided to do the same.  Was a good choice, as we pulled on to the ferry,t hey started to close the ramp behind us, and a guy came over and charged us the $15.

  The ferry was about 30 minutes long, and although this area is usually windy and rainy, the beautiful sunny morning made the scenery quite spectacular.   The ferry dropped us off on a peninsula that we needed to drive across to Hornopiren, about 50 km away, to catch the second ferry.  Our research had shown that it either had 1 sailing a day at 11 am or 2 sailings a day at 10am and noon.  Chile can be quite vague with these things.  Also, signs seemed to indicate that reservations were required for vehicles, but since the website you had to reserve on uses "flash" all our apple products couldn't work.

   The drive across the peninsula was going well then all of a sudden, after about 10kms, the pavement ended and it was a dirt road.  We slowed to a reasonable speed and bounced around on the road, avoiding potholes the rest of the way.  We arrive at about 10:50.   Turns out the ferry is at noon, and they let us buy tickets right there.

  While waiting for the ferry, we started talking to a guy from Southern California.  He has been backpacking South America for about a year, and planned on at least another year more.  He was also going to Brazil for the world cup, and had a job lined up for it.  Later on in the day, we would see him again in Chaiten.   Seems hitching is just as fast as riding small motorcycles. 

  We also see a family, man and wife, with 2 small boys, walking on to each of the ferries. They seem to be poorer, and it appears they are carrying most of their belongings with them.  Once on board the ferry, Al notices the parents put life vests on the children.   Al, who is eating peanuts, goes over and and shares them with the family, who seem most grateful. 

Another stunning and scenic ride, this ferry lasted 4 hours, and was only $15.  I took out my air mattress and put it out in a seat on the upper deck.   Probably got a good hours sleep up there.  Upon docking from this ferry we had a 10 km ride before catching the last ferry.  The road once again was gravel, but in decent condition.  While waiting for the last ferry, Al had what he thought was a bee hovering around him. He swatted at it, it didn't leave.  He swore at it, but it still didn't leave. Next, he ran from it, so it followed,and invited some of it's insect friends to join.  He now had about 8 or 10 chasing him.  All the Chileans were laughing away.  All I was thinking was that as long as they all liked him they would leave me alone.  Turns out they aren't bees, they are a gigantic biting black fly, common in the area. 

  We board our last ferry, a short 30 minute trip, which was included in our previous fare.  At 5:30 in the evening, we arrive at Caletta Gonzalo, a port that contains a ferry ramp and a lodge, nothing else.

As we make our way along the gravel road, it truly is a different scenery from anything i have seen before.  We see the family Al had shared his peanuts with standing by the road, hoping to get a ride the 60 kms to civilization, and I wished I could have obliged.  The road is about a lane and a quarter wide, and the vegetation on each side is lush, like one would imagine the amazon to be.  Although this area would be the southern equivalent to lower Alaska, the constant rains help things grow densely.  Every once in a while through the trees, a snow capped mountain appears, or a river flowing in the greenest colour water can be.  60 kms and an hour and a half later we near Chaiten, where our gravel one lane "highway" does a strange thing.  All off a sudden the road has an open gate on it, it widens to about 6 lanes wide, still all of gravel, and signs guide us to a little strip to the far right.  About a half kilometer later, the reverse happens, and it is back to one lane. I stop at the end and look back and see a small control tower and a wind indicator flag.  This was the Chaiten airport... They just use the road!  As we neared Chaiten, we pulled over to take photos. A minivan came past us, honking and waving...looks like the peanut family had found a ride!  Not surprising, since so far in Chile everyone has seemed so nice, friendly and helpful.  Hopefully I can learn from this.

  In Chaiten, the road turns to pavement.  We motor along for about 50 kms, and then decide to look for somewhere to camp.  The road once again turns to gravel about now, and as we ride along it starts to get pretty rough.  About 15kms along the road, with my gps batteries dead, I ask Al to check on his gps.  Apparently we missed the main road,which made a 90 degree right, and had continued straight instead. We turned back, found the main road again, and appreciating the pavement, drove about another 30 kms until Lago Yelcho.  We crossed the huge, one lane suspension bridge, and then parked underneath it to camp for the night.  As we set up our tents, the wind picked up and darkness set in.  The sun sets here at around 10:30 this time of year.  As we all quickly tried to eat something, Chris once again drops his food on the ground.  I let him use my can opener, and it is one of those odd ones that removes the entire top of the can, so as it finished opening, the whole can dropped to the ground.   A short time after this, we all settle in to our tents.  It had been a beautiful day, with fantastic weather and something to look at around every corner.

Bikes on board the ferry

View from the boat

January 4th arrived in Puerto Montt

We made it to Puerto Montt.  Mostly an uneventful day today.  We took the fast highway, and I noticed many of the chilean drivers giggling and taking pictures of us on our overloaded little bikes trying to lie down as much as we could to get 100 kph out of it.   Was looking forward to seeing Vulcan Osorno, but it was a little clouded over ant the top oft he mountain was hidden.  Tomorrow we try to navigate the 3 ferries we have to take to get to the Carretera Austral.

Puerto Montt waterfront

 

a small market in Puerto Montt

 

more 4 legged friends

January 3rd, We get fingerprinted!

We get up a little bit later than we wanted to (note to self: too much beer will do this, try just once in your life to remember this).  When we purchased the bikes, we had 5 days to do all the paperwork.  Because of weekends etc, today is our last day.

 First, we go the the registro civil and take a number.  After waiting about an hour, each on of our numbers is called.  Here, we get what is called a premera inscripcion, which is basically a registration of the bike in our name.  In chile, your signature is used for smaller things, but for a vehicle registration, they have you sign it with a fingerprint. So, just when all the paperwork is done,  the registro lady takes my thumb, sticks it in ink and then puts my thumb print onto the document. There....signed!  $75 please.  We also now have license plates (placas)

Next we need insurance and once we have that we can get of permission to circulate, at yet another office, the municipality  building.   We wander around for a bit looking for insurance without success.  Finally, we end up in front of the municipality office but still without insurance.   A lady walks up to us and asks us if we need insurance!  She guides us over to a street corner where 3 women are hanging out.   Now, in Canada 3 women on the corner would probably translate into something else, but in chile these women sell you insurance!

We quickly buy the insurance ($75) and go running back in to the municipality office, which is just closing.  The nice people in here actually stayed a little late to process our paperwork through.  Again something you wouldn't see in Canada.  Our paperwork is complete!  Before leaving Chillan we drop by the motorcycle shop to say goodbye to our friend Paulo, who also helps us out once again and attaches our license plates for us.

At about 3pm we head our of Chillan and continue south.  A couple hours down the road, Al gets pulled over by the carabineros... Just a random paperwork check, so it was good we had finished it all.

340km from our days start we find a nice little campground at about 9pm.  The nice folks here take our photos to help promote their campsite.

Another excellent day!  Tomorrow is 340 kms to Puerto Montt.  Maybe i will meet my first penguin.

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.

New years day

Happy new year to all my friends and family.  First, let me apologize for all the typos and spelling mistakes in this blog. Updating this from a phone can be tough.

  Today, we left Pichelemu and continued down the coast of chile.  What seemed like an uneventful and short ride quickly turned to shit... Or as the optimist would say, "an adventure" .  About an hour into our ride,the gps and road signs veered us off on to a gravel road.  We followed this road for about 25km until reaching a gate that blocked the road.  Apparently this road goes through valle de los artestes, and since the road goes through there, when this small artist community is closed, so is the road.   

We could see through the compound to the other side, but couldn't get through it.  We turned back the 25km and then went about another 50 km from that point just to get back to basically where we were.   Was fun though still, and we saw even more of the countryside.  We continued on  from there to Conception, another seaside community.  About 75 kms of this route was gravel and a little hairy at times.Chris's bag almost fell off his bike during this, and was completely hanging to one side.   Of course, once we got to conception, we discovered that a paved highway existed the entire way, almost parallel to the road we were on.   

   In Conception we went to grab some food to cook while camping that night.  Being new years, all the larger stores had closed, and we had to go in to the little market stores, which usually only offer a few things.   We went to 3 or 4 of these just to find stuff.  Then, with darkness approaching, we headed off to find a camp spot in the outskirts of the city.   Riding out of the town, all i hear is a bunch of people honking.  Turns out,Chris's bag is loose again and his newly purchased groceries have been falling out all over the road.   We pulled over and chris walked back to collect them.  He looked like quite a freak walking down the sidewalk with his bright yellow helmet on.   With all the street dogs here, i was amazed none of them ran out ahead of him and ate his cheese etc.    At about 10 pm we pulled up onto a beach and pitched our tents.  

Cooking in the dark without a table can be quite hard, Chris first had a wiener fall off his fork, and then spilled his cooking just as it finished.  Al and I laughed pretty hard, which is kinda cruel since we had already eaten.  Between luggage issues and food falling, Chris was a big part of Al and I's entertainment today.

New years eve post2

Left Santiago at 3pm and headed towards the coast.  Santiago freeways are nuts!  Once we got off the freeway and on to the back roads all was nice, and the speed of the little bikes was sufficient.  They manage to go about 90kph, which was decent enough to keep up with traffic, in fact, we even passed some people!

  Beautiful scenery, kinda like  northern California in a lot of ways. At about 9 pm we arrived in Pichelemu.  A beautiful little seaside town.  Tons of people headed out to here for new years, transforming a town of perhaps 5000 into a town of 20,000.  The thing that amazed us was all of these people in one place and nobody was being an idiot. Families were out, couples... It was an all ages event.   We found a little hotel and joined in the fun until about 1am.  The Chileans continued until 5am!  Pichelemu normally is a fishing village and apparently famous to surfers.

Chris meets some new friends

New years eve

Ready to hit the road. Bikes are packed up, pretty loaded down too.  Happy we decided to go with the whopping extra 25cc's on the 150s.  Even  Though Santiago is one of the cleanest and nicest cities i have ever been in,   Driving in it makes me a little nervous. The drivers are totally crazy and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the taxi drivers we had over the past few days takes one of us out.  I think the best idea is to find the fastest route out of the city traffic, even if it means a longer ride.