On the road.

We have been on the road now for two weeks and this is the first opportunity we have had to put something on web page.

We left Valparaiso and travelled south while its still dry and before the holiday season starts. The goal being to get down south to Usshia and then head north onto the Salar Dar Undyuni before it gets water all over it. Then check out the Dakar Rally that starts in Buenos Aries on the 5th January.

We were late leaving Valparaiso because it took a while to sort out to pack every thing and we eventually got going. The first issues we had were reading the Chillian road signs then stopping and reading our maps. We ended up in a nice little sea side village calle Pitchilumu. About the size of Takaka but more run down. The major industry being tourism - lots of horse rides and some fishing...We stayed in a back packers.
We had a nice younger couple next door who were keen to talk about the motos but we couldn't communicate that well, who were interested in our bikes. I sent my firt spot signal so Judith could keep track of us.

The next day we went south along the coast hardly any traffic with nice tar sealed roads. To a small fishing village hen headed east toward the Andes and our goal of trying to ride as many gravel bqack roads as possible. We stopped in a small town called Curico where we came across a Yamaha dealership so I changed my back tyre to a trail tyre which I had bought in Santiago. Unfortuately they put the tyre  on backwards and we had to wait for the two 1-3pm siesta to finish. Oscar the manager gave me some coolant for nothing and a Yamaha key ring.
Nearly got taken as we left the store as I was trying to get on the Tenere whilst the bike was moving and looked the long way. Fortunately the cars that were coming weren't too close.
We camped up a valley from there leading into the Andes we had three or four dogs for company which is normal in this part of the world. Camped close to the centre of the town. Two of the locals wanted to to know all about us and managed to converse abit.

The next day it was up the valley with steep mountain closing in all around you abit like heading into Otira -Arthurs pass. Then we started to climb and there were no vechicles at all. We stopped at the Chillian border control and dragged 8-10 staff away from there DVD's. We had our Temporay vechcile import licences taken from us. That was also the last time I saw spot personel tracker which had been in my tank bag.
We climbed up a steep gravel road and onto to the top actual pass 2500 metres Then down to the Argentine border control where we were asked for our Temporary vechicle import licence. The Argentine border guards spoke no English at all.

 I think he must have something wrong to get that posting. He looked at some temporary vechicle licences from a box that should not have even got them in the first place and assumed we should have on also. So he sent us back to the Chillian boarder again to get the temp import licence.Nice ride but it took 25 minutes to go back. We played table tennis and watched a DVD with subtitles while Chile phoned Argentina to sort it out. We went back with a typed stamped document and got through. The Argentine guard didn't give us a temporary import licence into Argentina ???.. Off we shot with a thunder storm about to in golf us by now. Great scenery and it was nearly one hour before came across some farmers with scraggly goats being farmed. Inciently this area was where the Urgunary plane crashed with 45 people 0n board in 1972 and they had to sart eating the there dead companions to survive.

We eventually we ended up in a nice ecco hostal recommended to us by Andre a fellow adventure we had met in Pitchidangi 10 days before. We also met him at the Chillian boarder a friendly face who could help with the translation issues we were having.

The nex tday we tried to buy some Argentine cash at the local bank I estimate there were 120 people queing maybe more waiting for money so we gave up. Qued for petrol 10 minutes and went south on Ruta 40. Didn't find out later that they have waiting for there pay nobody trusts the banks. Its a cash society all there notes are worn out.

We went spent most of the first half of the day on gravel at 35-40 degrees celius. Not much traffic on Ruta 40 on this part of the Alto Plano. Not good place to have a break down.

Went on tell 8pm and camped at little town by the river called las Lajas our biggest day 510 km.

The next day started with a flat tyre(nail) outside an Argentine bank with no que.

We couldnt buy petrol because the local service stations fuel wasn't arriving tell 4pm so went onto to a nice Settlement called Alumine near the boarder and went for a swim in lago Alumine. We then went back into Chile we had issues with the Argentine customs who wanted to see our temp vechicle import licence. So we showed them the little two person crossing we had come across that had nos customs and they let us go.

Nice green alpine country with beach forest and norht end of the Chilian lake district. Stayed in another hostal run by a couple who were in the room next door. More like a bed and breakfast really. Cool volcanoe out the back door-Melipueco.

Called into Pucon and got some food and we were sitting by the Lake when David Sinclair from Nelson who manages a back packers stode pass and was looking at our bikes so we had a cuppa with him and set off on a trail ride around VolcanoeVillarrica. Cool ride on the edge with a fully laden bike.Meet some Chillian adventure riders who had all fallen off and hey weren't carrying as much stuff as us. So quite proud of our selves. Found the nicest hot springs with a water fall in the back ground.  We unloaded a ute full of rocks and pumice for the women running the place and she let us have a free swim.


Pushed on to Simon Harwoods house near Frutona where he is sharemilking for a NZ syndicate, great dairy farming county green and lush and plenty of rain.  

   

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.

  

 Valparaiso censores (elevator)

Port Valparaiso

another censore

KTM race truck

hanging out with team ktm

George, Kate, Martyn, Joe and Rob

 

In an effort to improve our Spanish we've been trying to fit in a few self-taught lessons. I have enough trouble with English so don't find it easy at all. Mary who works at Hostel De La Bara where we stayed in Santiago was in the process of learning some English so we helped her out a bit and then reversed her learning work books and she helped us out, we had a lot of laughs and after several sessions actually come away with a few new words.

During one of our days out exploring the city of Santiago we just happened to see a nice KTM 990r which stuck out among all the commuter bikes. We decided that we had to go and have a chat with the owner. Turned out that we had bumped into Martyn an ex pat pommy now living and working in Santiago, who had contacted us earlier through the ADV rider offering some assistance with our bikes on arrival in Chile. One in a few million chance of that. Martyn has been fantastic offering us a bed and after 3-4 days and a few beers and BBQ, swimming in the pool, map reading and just general bike talk we had a great time.

Martyn also hooked us up with a local adventure bikers meet up the coast a couple of hours north west of Santiago at Pichidangui. We felt like gate crashers without our bikes and when we walked into the site in our shorts and sneakers we were promptly told that the place was fully booked out for the event and to leave. Once we managed to convince the organisers that we were actually bikers from NZ we were welcomed with open arms and met a bunch of great people, got a lot of advice for our route planning and had a super BBQ evening. Over 120 people present lots of BMW adventure and KTM 990's.

The KTM Chile crew kindly offered us a bed in there sweetly set up transporter race truck and also gave us a ride back to Santiago. The same vehicle is used to support the Chilean Dakar KTM team. We helped pull down there display tent and load the bikes and then hit the road. With 5 brand new ktm's on board, two 990 adventure's, a 990 supermoto, a 690 enduro, and a 150 motocrosser, we had the ultimate bike collection and vehicle to get us any where and we laughed about a high jacking. Francisco the driver was just too nice, the DR and XT will have to do the job! A big mucho gracias to Martyn and Kate for giving us a great few days.

We are now out at the port city of Valparaiso where we are staying at the Hostal Casabella. The owners Rich and his partner Lilly have been helping us out with customs and freight here in Chili and have been exceptionally helpful. We are really grateful as we know that with out there help we would be really struggling with our limited Spanish. Valparaiso is a Unesco World Heritage site and is an interesting place. Colourful houses, lots a bit rough and half broken cover the surrounding steep slopes which can be accessed by famous censores (elevators). The main streets are full of markets and people.

Our ship is due in port today so we may have the bikes by the end of the week? Simon, the third amigo in our crew is still missing in action( last seen in Vancouver and heading south) but with his big 990 we're confident that he will catch up with us at some point. Looking forward to opening up our boxes. Off down to the port now to see if we can spot any NZ ships anchored up with our container.

Touch down in Chile

I'm writing this blog looking out the 2nd story window of our hostel here in Santiago. This is a city alright, the street is full of traffic, lots of cheap Chinese motor bikes dicing with trucks and cars, everyone jumping on there horns at first chance. And it doesn't stop until late. It's loud and on top of that the hostel is pretty much right on top of a fire station. I guess with 5 Million people in the vicinity if everyone just as much farts it's going to be bloody loud. It sure is a different world here from sunny little Nelson.

The flight over from NZ was not too painful, helped hugely by the fact that we got upgraded free of charge upon boarding. When we got pulled aside at the counter both Rob and myself thought we where in trouble with attempting to overstay our 3 month tourist visa as the lady at check in had already given us a hard time with or 4 month return flights. Not to be, instead we felt like VIP's as we cruised in style up front in the big air bus. Rob thinks our travel agent may have pulled a few strings ( thanks a bunch Rhonda, we owe you) but I tried to explain that I was due for some good luck with flying after having a heap of LAN flights cancelled due to volcanoes earlier in the year.

A week before departing we found out that our bikes had been delayed 2 weeks at sea so we have a wait here in the city. Usually 2 days in a city is good for me so I'm sure by 2 weeks we will be itching to hit the start button on the bikes and get out of the smog. We've managed to get a few things sorted during our wait, Rob dropped by the NZ Consulate and voted for the legalise cannabis party and I visited my surgeon here that screwed my elbow back together when I broke it while mtn biking earlier in the year. We also went to TGL freight who are handling the unloading of our bikes at this end. We walked into the office expecting a difficult time due to our not so good Spanish but we were instead welcomed in the door and greeted by our first names! Thanks to Rich at Casabella Hostel (out near the port where we will stay later next week) who had already been in contact with TGL and warned the office that 2 very good looking Kiwi's with bad Spanish would be turning up.

So we still have a heap of time to kill, thinking of heading out of town for a few days of exploring. Hopefully we have no further delays and get the show on the road soon.

Packing

Its been more than 18 months since we decided to to take on this mission of riding our motorcycles in South America and now its nearly time to leave New Zealand and fly to Santiago-Chile. Yeah!. We have had a few hiccups along the way.
Firstly, Joe (cousin) broke a piece of bone off his elbow in a mountain bike accident & wondered if his nerve damage in his hand would improve enough to make the trip.... pleased to say that he has recovered  - not 100%, but can ride his motorbike.
Once we knew Joe was able to go, we had 10 days to get our bikes boxed (along with any gear that we wanted shipped in the crate) & transported to Mainfreight in Christchurch. I did some of the Customs declarations myself & got my own valutation which was needed for the insurance - this reduced the cost.

Fortunately,  the two bikes were shipped off 10 days before the MV Rena got stuck on the reef off Tauranga. Although I was informed by one of my helpful work mates that a male Maori with a moko was seen riding my bike at a beach in Tauranga a couple of days after the event! The container ship with our bikes has gone to Busan in Korea, then across the Pacific to South America. We were informed the voyage would take 55-60 days, however, last week I was checking on the boats progress & was told that they are not expecting the ship to arrive in Valparaiso till the 2nd December.

We have no option but to fly to Santiago as planned & wait for the bikes to arrive, it was too expensive to change tickets. We will make use of this down time to get some spanish speaking lessons in Valparaiso, get familiar with the Freighting people and do some route planning. Hopefully, Simon (brother  who is meeting us from Canada) will meet up with us in that first week.. not certain of his plans as we haven't heard from him recently.

Had a barbeque last night, with family & to say thanks to the people who have helped me get my bike ready to go. Last minute purchase of spare bike parts tomorrow & final pack. Have to be at Nelson Airport 8.30am  Wed am. Getting excited!

Simon's new bike

Simon has bought a new KTM 990R from Fairbanks, Alaska. As you can see in the photo he's pretty pleased with it. He has attached a few extras, hand warmer, different exhaust, tyres, crash bars. Panniers and racks still to come. Simon is flying his bike to Santiago-Chile.

Crated bikes to Christchurch

Well the time has come to send the bikes off. Transit time is 60 days so that means they have to go now to have them ready for our arrival in Valparaiso on 16th Nov. I kept the bike crate from the factory for the DR and Rob managed to source a Triumph Tiger base for the Tenere. We've lined our crates with some light plywood for a bit of extra protection and included most of our riding and camping gear in the crates. All up mine weighs in at around 230kg and 1.3 meter cube.

It's been a busy period in our trip preparation, making sure the bikes are sorted and happy with luggage and all the other modifications and arranging all the shipping requirements. Due to breaking my elbow earlier in the year we left it to the last minute to confirm our departure which has made for a bit of a rush, but looks like things are finally falling into place. Am driving the bikes down to Christchurch today to deliver to the Mainfreight depot. The next time we see them will be in Chili.