Before I begin the story of our first day on the bikes the saga of when the bikes were to arrive must be told. Arrive on Tues 8th, no the 9th , no the boat is just out of the harbour waiting to come in but due to El Niño the seas are to high and it can’t dock, could be Monday. No, boat is in Thur 10th Should get them out 11th. Friday Enzo organises customs papers and down to customs we go, finally see the crates out of the container, stacked on top of each other, lucky the crates indicate not to stack things on top of them! Customs leave work at 5.00pm it is now 5:15, come back tomorrow. Back at 8.00, bikes out, unpacked, fuel in, 162,000 Chillean Pesos for taking them from the port to the storage place and customs etc. thanks Ivan at Bikes Abroad!! On top of that 180 Euros for Enzos, Martinas and Hectors help, the plane looked pretty good and we wouldn’t have had to hang around for 2 weeks.
Worked rest of the day to get bikes and gear ready. Oh and during the week, after I had told Paul on numerous occasions to close the door properly, the dog which cocks it’s leg on everything, everyday, came into the room and urinated on Pauls towel. Villa Kunterbundt stank a little like dog piss! It was rustic. The shower couldn’t be temperature controlled having one rogue spray which shot out at right angles covering the floor, your gear and anything else you didn’t want to get wet. The place had character and Enzo was sensational, a great story teller and incredibly friendly with a hot pot of coffee most mornings. His helper Hector was great, always with a ready smile and helping hand. Nothing was too difficult for Hector you just had to point him in the right direction, or he didn’t see it, like the broken toilet seat, even when his brown eye was on it! In the end we got the bikes and we were ready to go. We had a great time and enjoyed Valparaiso and all the people we met.
Left around 9.00am on the 13th, hugged Enzo in the traditional Chilean man way and my camera hit the deck, I gave it back to him and he took all the obligatory leaving photos. Up the road we went, took a wrong turn and we were lost. Great start. Corrected ourselves and headed off down Ruta 5 Sur (South). Turned off at Casablanca and rode a really fun windy road through the hills on an asphalt road with hairpin corners that were dirt and sections pockmarked with massive potholes, this was the beginning of our adventure riding! To add to our South American experience we passed a group of Gauchos, then another and another to finally arrive in Melapilla. Around and around we rode to find the route out to the main highway until finally stopping for a bite to eat and a drink. Not understanding what was on the menu I looked across at what another patron was consuming with gusto and indicated to the lady behind the counter I would like the same. I managed to get what I considered to be a hotdog with the lot, a rather massive hotdog with the lot. The Chileans seem to love fast food and with their fast food is a humungous helping of mayonnaise and ketchup which I discovered makes the item of food rather unpalatable in my view. So, it is the last time I eat one of these as it repeated for the next few hours and only added to my inability to have a decent number two since I arrived in Chile. I am seriously considering taking medical action in the form of a tablet, not manual extraction!
Back on the bikes, following Paul’s GPS and Maps. Me on my IPhone, we headed through Melipilla to end up at a Peaje (Toll booth), one route went to San Antonio and one to Santiago. Which way to go? No map you see, we didn’t want to buy one as we were leaving Chile in a couple of days and it was simple to get to where we wanted to go. I conversed with a snack seller and she gave me a quick lesson on what was my right (derecho), left (izchierdo) drawing on my hand to assist with this, then we moved on to corner (esquina) and straight ahead (adelante). Once we had that straight she gave directions. Paul and I discussed the directions and the woman realising our confusion stopped a police car which then gave us an escort through the Peaje, which cost us 1200 pesos, along the freeway to an exit off the freeway. The policeman then gave us instructions to where we were suppose to go and which we didn’t quite understand. We waved good bye with appreciative smiles on our faces and went through another Peaje costing 2300 pesos for our 1km ride on the freeway. Then following the GPS and IPhone up down and around and around we went though Melipilla again and low and behold we were back at the original Peaje!!!
This wasn’t great and there was no way we were paying another toll or losing face with the seller so we quickly turned the bikes around and proceeded to find a way out of town in the general direction of where we wanted to go. Paul has it sorted and still sceptical I follow. We come up to an intersection which allows us to select several options, I say to Paul down the intercom to just head for Santiago on the freeway so we can then exit from this down Ruta 5 Sur, he says the GPS indicated the opposite direction. Lots of discussion as we near the intersection at speed resulting in confusion and conceding of ideas on both our parts and Paul goes the way I suggested and I go the way he suggested, now we are separated!! I decided to sit tight and luckily Paul managed to do an Illegal turn and ride back down the one way road the wrong way and head up to where I was illegally parked. We took a chance and continued in this direction for 2 hours and finally ended up on Ruta 5.
By the end of the day we travelled 400 km to find ourselves in Talca. Paul and I then proceeded to persevere with the IPhone and GPS to find a hotel. Around and around we went not finding the hostal as it didn’t seem to exist or we didn’t end up where we were supposed to! We then tried another and due to the one way streets missed it completely! I chose another and we managed to navigate by our highly successful and favoured electronic devices to the Mandragora hotel. We parked, flipped a coin to see who would try to negotiate a room, I lost! Ringing the bell brought out the proprietress who informed me that she did not have estacionamento (parking) for the bikes. She did give me directions to an establishment that did, luckily I still had the derecho and izchierdo on my hand and figured out where to go. As I walked away she then offered to have the bikes in the lobby of the hotel! Great I thought, she then gave me the grand tour and a price of 48,000 pesos. Too expensive although a great place. I went to discuss it with Paul as it was getting late. Paul shot off to another place on foot and came back with an offer of 29,500. We were just leaving when the proprietress of the Mandragora came out to see what our decision was. I let her know the deal and with a little haggling we were moving the bikes into the lobby for 30,000.
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