Last maintenance before Ushuaia

Date: 21/03
City: Santiago, Chile
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 39113
Street: –
Weather: sunny, warm

We went to the bike shop and discussed what we’d like to have done with Antonio,
the owner. He spoke English and could translate it into Spanish for his mechanic, which made it much easier for us. 🙂

Then we went to a small hardware store nearby to buy some material for building another tube to hang in front of my bike. I hope that all my heavy tools will fit into it and that the bike gets a bit less top heavy. The guy was interested in my small project and helped to come up with some solutions to lock the tube.

After we bought the material we left it at the workshop so we didn’t have to carry it all today. When we went back, Gabriella told us that there are difficulties in getting the back tyres today and that they could only be delivered and fitted tomorrow evening. So we attempted to extend our stay in the hostel. However it was fully booked for tomorrow, as we found out. Before we left the workshop I had a brief look what Boris the mechanic was doing on our bikes J.

Then we walked to the next restaurant with WiFi and looked for other hostels close by. All this couldn’t be done without brain food, so I had a nice beer before we walked to the next subway station.

We found out that a trip only costs US$1.50, which was ok. The train station looked very clean and relatively new and so did the train.

You can walk in the wagons from one end to the other end, which felt a bit odd.

Arriving close to our hostel we organized another hostel for our stay tomorrow night, so we’ll move tomorrow around lunchtime and pick  up the bikes at night.

Date: 22/03
City: Santiago , Chile
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometres: 39113
Street: –
Weather: sunny, warm

Not much happen today, we moved hostels, Gabriela had organized the rear tyres and Boris fitted them, so our bikes were ready to get picked up.

After all the problems that we had after changing tyres, I looked at the tires a bit more careful. They are fitted in the right direction, the valve was straight, the valve nut was not too tight and the tyre pressure was correct on both bikes and the rear axle was set to the same position on both sides. As it turned out, Boris had the same bike we had, so he knew exactly how to service it correctly J
At the end the bikes even got a wash, they looked so much better after that.

Date: 23/03
City: Santiago, Chile
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometres: 39113
Street: –
Weather: sunny, warm

In the morning I booked my visa fee for Argentina which has to be done online BEFORE we enter Argentina. This fee only needs to be paid by US, Canadian and Australian citizens, since these countries also ask for a fee from Argentinian citizens. Unfortunately I made a mistake when entering my passport number, so I sent a mail to ask if that could be rectified. Then I started to build the new tool box and nearly all tools fit in.

I had to stop since we had an appointment with Javier, a fellow motorcycle rider we met in the workshop. He had some suggestion for our trip to Ushuaia, particularly about the Carreterra Austral. He picked us up on the train station and we went to his flat to have a look at maps and get some more info about places to see, the ferry, accommodation and road condition. He had so much information and suggestion that we had to trim them otherwise we wouldn’t arrive in Ushuaia this year J

After we have planned the next couple of days, we went out for dinner. He showed us some nice places in Santiago.


and we ended up in a market, which looked very similar to our central market in Adelaide. The meal that we had was great and reasonably cheap, it was so tasty that we forgot to take a picture of it. In this market there were some fish stalls and when we finished they started to pack up. Have a look what we found in one of the empty fish trays (right picture), I guess the cat liked the smell of it.

Javier brought us to the train station where we took a picture before we said good bye.

Date: 24/03
City: Santiago, Chile
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometres: 39113
Street: –
Weather: sunny, warm
Today we took a maintenance day. I fitted all the tools into the new toolbox and at night we went to the Plaza de la Aviación just to see the water fountain by sunset and at night.

Tomorrow we will start our trip to Carretera Austral.

2 comments

  1. Enjoyed reading your update and share the bike maintenance activities/challenges. Glad to see you are still smiling and traveling well. Good luck on the last push south!!! We will miss you at Overland Expo this year. We are stopping there on our way home. Tad

  2. Interessant, wieder von Eurem Abenteuer zu lesen. Hoffe, es geht Euch gut. Sind eigentlich noch Auswirkungen von dem großen Erdbeben von 2010 in Santiago oder dem Umland zu merken? Alles Liebe von Ria

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