RTW North to South: First Camp and Santiago

CN - Thursday, Friday, Saturday

I slept until 9:00am again this Thursday morning - the time change has really screwed up my internal clock for some reason. Upon looking at my phone I see a Facebook message from Mauricio Bolivar - we had worked together in Vail about 15 years ago. I knew he was back in Chile but didn't know exactly where. Well turns out he is in the town of Copiapo, about 2 hours south of where we were. I quickly sent him a message back that we would be there around lunchtime and hoped we could meet up to say hello. He sent me back the address of the hotel he manages and we were off to meet up with him. We arrived to his ibis Hotel around 1pm and were promptly greeted by a smiling Mauricio. The main thing I remember about Mauricio is that he is always happy and smiling. A super great guy and it was awesome to catch up with him over lunch. Being the gracious host that he is, he also offered us comp stays at ibis Hotel properties along our route south! Thanks Mauricio!!!

After a two hour lunch and some tips from Mauricio on travel itinerary in Southern Chile we were off on the bikes again. My chain has been continually stretching over the past couple of weeks and only has one adjustment left to go before the final setting. I'm going to need a new chain soon. My clutch has also been slipping so need to replace the clutch plates at some point as well. We stopped for gas on the way to our way to La Serena where we finally hoped to set up camp on the beach. While airing up the tires a guy rolls up on a big BMW 1200GSA and turns out he is an American from North Dakota on a two year RTW trip. The big BMW is made for a guy like Andy - he is 6'6" tall! We decided to ride together for a bit as he was headed the same way as us. He really has to be easy on the throttle not to blow by our little 350's! We arrived at the outskirts of La Serena where we started looking for the campground the Mauricio suggested but we couldn't find it. The knew the beaches in Chile are pretty much open to public use so we just rode out and set up camp on a small dune. We found a small restaurant just up the beach from camp so ended up eating there and sharing stories with Andy from North Dakota. It was good to finally be camping on this trip. Now that it doesn't get dark until 9pm it is perfect for camping!

We woke up Friday morning to a bit of a drizzle (again around 9am) so packed up quickly and hit the road. Mauricio had sent me a text that Sebastian, who also worked with us in Vail, was in Santiago and had insisted that we stay with him. He owns a sort of hybrid long term hostel in the city catering to university students. We needed to cover 475k quickly as he as leaving for the coast to visit family for the weekend that afternoon. After tightening my chain to the last adjustment setting (still super loose), we were off. The road from La Serena to Santiago is pretty much all 4 lane interstate so we were able to make good time at around 100k per hour - pretty much my max speed unless I have a tailwind and downhill due to my clutch slipping in 5th and 6th gears. I had sent Sebastian a note to see if he could recommend a motorcycle shop where I could buy a chain. Not a problem he says. We arrived to the edge of Santiago around 4:00pm expecting heavy traffic but it surprisingly wasn't bad at all. We found Sebastian's place easily and he led us to a lot where we could park the bikes. We then all went in a cab to the "Moto District" of town where all the shops were. In Central and South America stores of the same type are clustered all in the same area. You want auto parts go the the "Auto District", shoes the "Shoe District", etc. Pretty convenient. I bought a chain and we headed back to Sebastian's. It's too bad Sebastian had plans for the weekend as I would have been fun to hang out and have a tour guide for Santiago - in fact that is exactly what Sebastian did in a previous life so he is an expert! Thanks so much for the hospitality Sebastian and allowing us to stay in your home - we really appreciate it! After saying goodbye to Sebastian we headed out to find some dinner (and beer). It wasn't too difficult as just around the corner from his place is a bunch of neighborhood bars and restaurants. We ended up staying out until almost 2am, again sharing stories from the road with Andy. He has quite an adventure thus far also!

Saturday morning Andy was off the the BMW dealership for some parts and Ken and I went in search of a lavanderia to get some clothes washed. I'm down to just a couple of things that don't smell completely disgusting, so it is much needed. Google said there was on 0.7 miles away so we set off on foot to find it and hope it was open. It was so we dropped off the sacks and were told to return at 6pm to pick-up. We then walked back, grabbed the tools and my new chain, had some lunch and went to work replacing the chain on my bike. We were planning replace the clutch plates with the newer ones I have been carrying since Mexico, but the lot closes at 2pm so we would only have about an hour - and I don't think the lot owners would appreciated us dumping oil in there lot. They have a little hut right there so would definitely see the mess. We decided to save the clutch plates for another day. The chain replacement took about 45 minutes and we headed back to Sebastian's to relax and enjoy the day off the bikes. Sunday we will out towards the Lake District of Chile which is some of the most beautiful parts of the country. If all goes as planned we will be in Argentina on Tuesday. Mauricio has us set up with hotels the next two nights but we may decide to camp as the lake area has campgrounds everywhere.

Big thanks again to Mauricio and Sebastian for their generous hospitality. You guys are the best!!!