Joe

Saturday 3 December 2011

Got the bikes from depot Valparaiso

We finally getting to see our bikes.  After getting notification that the ship was arriving in the Port at Valparaiso at 10pm we walked from the Hostal out toward the sea only about 200 metres away. Along the water front and we ccould see the container ship Budapest Bridge slowly coming into port.

Pretty exciting for Joe and I as its been just over two weeks that we have had to wait.
The next day we went down to the Port to watch the ship being unloaded but they were already loading containers back on. We have both wondering where we are going to put every thing weve bought with us on the bikes.
We walked back along one of the main streets where students were marching in protest to university fee increases. The police had layed down tear gas toi diperse the students. I was still lingering around 4 hours later. The Police don't muck around over here. 

Yesterday we went about 12 kilometres on the main road out of Valparaiso toward Santiago to small area called Plascilla where the storage company Textel is based.

Lil from the back packers/hostal where we are staying has been in touch with customs and TGL the Chillian and Textel the local storage and transport company. We were met at the gate by chance by Andrea who had been pre warned that we were coming. Andrea's english is very good and she was very helpful but we still had to wait 3 hours in reception before we could get the documentation we need to take back to customs in Valparaiso this was get the temporary import licence which allows to you to ride around. Another bus ride back to Textel more waiting and we got to see our bikes.

We were given our bill $840 and nearly had a heart attack. We managed to get the bill down to $220 which what I was expecting.
The next problem was neither bike would go. Joe had a flat battery and I had no power to my ignition. Joe had also lost his Clutch cable adjuster some where betwen Takaka and Valparaiso. So we had to leave our bikes and come back the following  day with a charged up battery and a clutch cable adjustor.

Went out for tea with Lill and Rich our hostal hosts, great people and very helpful.

Arrived back at Textel feeling a bit under the weather because a few beers and lack of sleep for the last few nights. Will the freshly charged battery got Joes bike going. I discovered I hadn't connect the main cable to the battery doah !. The bike went straight away. We got about 1.5 km down the road and I ran out of petrol. So Joe's tow rope did the trick and I got towed to a service station.

Decided not to travel on today because it was getting late in the day and we were both knackered. Parked our bikes in front of the hostal and got told to move it or get a ticket from a gorgoues cop on a moped.

We have telethon concert right near our hostal tonight very noisy . Spanish rap music sounds quite cool but no idea what they are saying. Will try and stay up right tommorrow. We both put arrows on our bike to day remindin gus to stay right.






  

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