Hello Old Friend –

I am once again on the road, this time in South America, on a motorcycle tour from Santiago, Chile, to the southern tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia.  As time and internet connections permit, I will send a few updates and photos.

Here we go!
Best Regards,
MikeP
 

In Vina del Mar:

Our Seattle group (Frank Leonard, Jerry Ivy, Dan Mclaughlin, me) have arrived safe and sound, well, except for Jerry (more later) in Vina del Mar, Chile.  It’s sunny, clear, 80 degrees, perfect weather, we have confirmation that the bikes are here, all in all, an auspicious start for our trip.

We spent over 34 hours door to door getting here, a rather convoluted itinerary: Seattle to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Lima, Peru, Lima to Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires to Santiago, so even before setting foot in Chile, we have crossed the South American continent twice – by air anyway.  This was fortunate, as we were able to view the Andes Mountains from 30,000 feet in daylight, quite a sight!

We’re forever in Frank’s debt, as he used his frequent flyer miles to obtain First/Business class tickets of us all the way down, and I must admit, the service, flight crews and equipment of LAN Airlines are all top shelf.  Our seats had more controls than all those in my Sprinter combined, and the food was amazingly good.  The drinks were also endless and free, which led to Jerry spending his 6-hour layover in Lima like this:

We spent our first night at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Santiago.  First impressions of Chile, laid back people,  friendly and helpful staff, a clean and modern city, good drivers.  Should be fun riding as we’ve arrived just after the finish of the Dakar Rally, so I *assume* everyone is hyped-up on “motos” (as motorcycles are called here).  Our cab in from the airport proudly displayed the following sticker on the windshield:

This morning, we chartered a Mercedes Sprinter for the 2-hour drive from Santiago to Vina del Mar, the official start of our tour.  Modern tollways all the way, winding through the Chilean vineyards, looking amazingly like northern California.  We stopped at a winery en route for lunch:

Jerry is noticeably lacking in the photo as he was out “guarding” our luggage in the van, from a position sprawled across the rear four seats in the Sprinter.  Although they didn’t get the order quite right, we had a flight of 3 wine samplers, and I opted for the “sampler” plate of shrimp/cheese filled “fingers”, goat cheese with toasted walnuts on roast zucchini, octopus ceviche, avocado blended with limes, and a tuna/pineapple salsa, all for about $20.00.  The exchange rate is about 600 Chilean Pesos to the Dollar:

I forgot to take a picture until I was half-way through the plate!

There’s a chance we can reclaim the bikes tomorrow, though the schedule has us doing so the day after.

The owner of our tour company, Skip Mascorro of MotoDiscovery, made an unexpected flight down to see us off.  Helge, Skips sends his regards.  We are 9 participants total, 8 bikes, one couple riding two-up.  We meet the rest of our group tomorrow.

More coming at ya’ as things develop.

Best,

Mike P.

For the next adventure   => In Los Andes, Chile