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04-02-2013 Adendum

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When travelling by plane, I usually manage to doze quite a bit and sometimes even sleep. Flying from Buenos Aires to Madrid however, was not successful when it came to resting. Arriving in Amsterdam at last found me more tired than usual. Nevertheless, I was glad to be back and found my brother and mother waiting for me. They were so kind to indulge me in spending some more time at the airport, figuring out where the cargo area was. It was already clear to me that the motorbike arrived 1 day before me, so it was supposed to be somewhere around the airport. After trying two cargo areas, I found out where it was. This really made my day. 😉

When I arrived home in the afternoon, I called my best friend and he was immediately prepared to lend me his car. After picking it up, I went to other friends to pick up my trailer. Around 20:00h this same Monday, I was back at the airport warehouse where my bike was stored. They handed me a form which I needed to have checked with customs at the passenger terminal. Fortunately customs stayed open until 22:00h. The customs officer asked for my ticket or booking confirmation, passport and Airway bill. Once she had all the details, everything seemed fine and within 15 minutes I was on my way back to the warehouse.
Here I was presented with the invoice for unloading and storing, which I paid promptly. Only 10 minutes later they loaded the pallet with my motorbike on the trailer and I was on my way back.

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12 Hours after I landed in Amsterdam, my bike was back at the barracks it started from. It is really great to experience how smooth everything went, from dropping of the bike at Buenos Aires Airport to picking it up at Amsterdam Airport. If there will be a next time, I will not think twice about shipping the motorbike by air cargo !!!

I got home about 1 hour after midnight. The next day I went to work for the first day after my holiday. In the afternoon I got really tired and went home early to catch a little sleep. In the evening however, I went back to the barracks, put the bike back together with a little help and rode it back home through the freezing cold. It’s safely back home now in my own garage 🙂

I had a wonderful experience and a really nice adventure with my own motorbike, travelling on another continent and I’m already dreaming of a next time….  🙂
Of course I also learned a lot that I will use as preparation for a next time.

I’d like to thank you all for reading my blog and commenting from time to time. I have had many positive reactions and I honestly did not expect it. 🙂 Feel free to comment or ask details.
Maybe you’ll find useful information, like I did on other blogs, like:
http://www.harenmaropreis.nl
http://www.proyectomapear.com.ar/
http://www.houseofmotorrad.com/Riding_south.html
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com (here you can find a wealth of information of all kind of travels throughout the whole world) and many more….

SAtrip

 

17-01-2013 Arriving in Concepción

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Leaving Santiago was pretty straight forward, thanks to the Garmin maps I downloaded in La Serena. However, it seems that they are really very complete. When requesting a nearby fuel station, it sent me over a small dirt track just outside the ring of Santiago. So close to the capital of Chili, and yet the smallest dirt track is documented…  peculiar i.m.h.o.

At the fuel station I cleaned the bike roughly with a high pressure water gun. This was quite over due. Now that the dirt was off the tail light, it must be a little safer to ride…. 😉
Roads are still excellent but not all drivers are. On this trip particularly, many people seem to think it’s perfectly normal to stay in the left lane, driving way under the speed limit while the right lane is completely empty. On all the other trips, it happened, but rarely. On this trip it seemed to be the new habit !!

Crossing through the valley of San Fernando, it got really hot again, and that makes me drowsy. Also my camel bag ran out of (cool) water, so I’d better stop. At a small fuel station with cute restaurant, I filled up and parked in the shade. For lunch I had a solid meal which costed all but around US$ 3,-

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After having filled the camel bag with cold water, the journey continued. Slowly the landscape transformed in to more woodlands and the air became cooler, fresher. There were more hills and everything felt like spring.
This must be the beginning of the green south of Chile.

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The wind had increased and it was definitely cooler when I arrived in Concepción. The hotel I found in the Lonely Planet was hard to trace in the city. However, in the same street where supposedly that particular hotel should be, I found another one that was affordable and I could park the bike in front, somewhat hidden.

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The room was sort of crappy and the shower doesn’t work like it should be, but it’s dry and affordable, so it’s fine.

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Around diner time I called Juan Paolo to consult where we would meet. At 22:00 he picked me up and we had a good night in the city, catching up with Katia and Daniel, whom I all knew from Brazil in 2011.
They convinced me to try the Pisco-cola, a Chilean drink that, like Pisco-sour in Peru, had it’s main  ingredient, the Pisco grape, as base. The Pisco-cola is distilled like whisky as opposed to the Peruvian Pisco-sour.

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Next on the agenda, is evaluating how many days I have left and therefore what is realistic in planning to travel. I will also check out a few sights in Concepción that Juan Paolo recommended.