Title is from a TOOL song. But kind of describes the state
of this trip. The end wrapped up remarkably quickly. A
week ago we thought we would get to Santiago around Friday, and figured
it would take a week to get the bikes shipped and ourselves flown
back to the states. As it worked out, I could conceivably have
landed in San Francisco an hour ago.
We arrived Santiago on Tuesday as mentioned in the last post, and
yesterday (Wednesday) morning we had the bikes washed at the garage
across the street, and then rode them to the cargo section of the
airport, arriving about 11am. My bike was making scary grinding
noises the whole way, and I was nervous as hell and stuck to the right
lane in case anything drastic happened. I tightened the chain
before the ride since it has basically gone bad in the last few hundred
miles, hoping the grinding noise was just the loose chain. It
wasn't.
The bike made it the whole 12 miles out to the airport, and we went
straight to LAN Cargo, which we knew from the horizonsunlimited.com
web site had shipped bikes before, and was most competitive.
In fact, we made it there without taking a single wrong turn, which
may be a first. The guy we'd been in contact with wasn't in
until noon, but the other guy working the international desk started
the paperwork, and by the time Nataleo arrived the paperwork was well
under way. We took the bikes to another warehouse down the street
where they packed them before our eyes - 2 pallets nailed together,
strapping holding the bikes upright, and then shrink wrap round and
round. It took them about 4 hours and they charged us $40 per
bike.
From there we walked back to the LAN office and more paperwork was
filed. We had to walk to yet another warehouse and pay for something,
not sure what, maybe it was the storage until the bikes fly tomorrow.
And then it was back to the LAN office, and more paperwork.
I was starting to get a pocket full of copies. Then we had to
pay a cashier in another building, and then go to one customs office,
and then for some reason another customs office. Then back to
the LAN office. More paperwork. And then we had to walk
the paperwork to another LAN office in another building and hand it
all to Senior Salinas, and we were done. It was 7pm, 8 hours
and the whole process was complete. I had figured it would take
days, like in Panama.
From LAN Cargo we walked to the passenger terminal and priced plane
tickets. I could have flown home at 11pm yesterday evening and
possibly been sitting at my own computer right now, but we didn't
know how fast everything was going to happen so Dick had left all
his stuff back at the hotel. Anyway, waiting a day gave us a
chance to check out travel agents this morning, to see if we could
get a better deal. We couldn't, but we got an American Airlines
flight with a slightly better schedule, saves about a whole 2 hours,
for about the same price, and so that is the one we are taking.
Dick is going to fly into San Francisco, pick up his bike when it
comes in and then continue on to further motorcycling adventures.
Perhaps he will start a web log if y'all ask him nicely. About
all you will get from me in the near future is ¨whaaaaa!
I'm flat broke and need to find enough work to pay my bills and taxes."
Hopefully I will make is up to Tahoe to do some snowboarding this
weekend, a big cold storm is coming in tomorrow evening, and I'm already
trying to find a ride. I may drive my truck, but it will need
a new battery before I can even get it out of the driveway.
Could also use some new tires. Yikes, the Real World is getting
Too Close!!!
Final mileage, Oakland to Santiago International Airport - 18,459
miles. Miles travelled in South America - 10,818 miles.
Final mileage on the bike - 30,184. And that's all the stats
I kept. I don't know how many liters or gallons of gas I used
(lots) or how much the gas cost (lots). I don't know how many
miles per gallon or kilometers per liter I got, but I could guess.
I don't know how many hours we rode, but it was a lot. Not sure
how many miles of unpaved road, but I'd guess 2500-3000 miles.
Average temperature in South America - wayyyyy colder than anticipated,
I swear it didn't warm up hardly at all until we were within sight
of the Santiago cloud of Smog. It's in the high 80's out right
now. Trip time until I assumably get home tomorrow, 19 weeks
and 4 days. That's all for now, folks...
