Goodbye Motos

We ended up picking a good location to hang out in Santiago de Chile. We were very close to downtown in Barrio Paris Londres. It turned out to be very inexpensive compared to other parts of the city. Probably half price for food and drinks here. That's good because it took a few days of internet searching to find someone to get our bikes home. I figured it would be cheaper to have them go home on a boat but it was difficult finding somebody to forward them and those that would were getting too expensive. We eventually found E-Plus Cargo here at the Santiago airport who would forward the bikes to Air Canada for shipping to Vancouver. We went out to the airport on Wednesday to meet the people at E-Plus and get a feel for the company so we would be comfortable letting our babies go with them. All was good so we returned to the airport Thursday morning and spent pretty much all day getting the bikes ready and all the paperwork done. All the people at E-Plus were great as well as the cargo handlers at the airport. It ended up being a little less than US$2300 per bike to get them home. Not too bad I guess considering how far it is and the preparation involved.

Parking spot inside the hostel. They were very accommodating.

The street outside the hostel. Very quiet and relaxed around here.

Our home for 6 nights in Santiago

Starting the export process at Aduana (Customs) at the airport in Santiago

Stripping the bikes down to make them smaller. Windshields, mirrors and panniers all had to come off and be packed in tight around the bike on a pallet. We were being charged for volume so every centimeter counted. We also had to drain fuel (had to siphon it out the top of the tank, yuk), disconnect our batteries and let all the air out of our tires.

The cargo handlers did a nice job of securing....

...both of our bikes to their pallets.

A little bit of shrink wrap to keep fingers out.

In the warehouse and ready to go.

Making the final payment. About $2,300,000 in Chilean Pesos

 After making the payment we headed back to town on the bus and Metro system. They have an awesome transit system here. By the time we got home it was time for a late dinner

The MetroRed in Santiago

I had to put this in because I think Chile has a cool flag.

On Friday, after getting tickets to get our sorry butts home, we spent the day being tourists. We used the Metro again to get across town to the bottom of Cerro San Cristobal. Its a small mountain in a big park right in the city. We took the tram up and saw the zoo and then up to the Santuario del Cerro San Cristobal. It's a giant monument on top of the hill overlooking the city.

Close to downtown Santiago

The tram up Cerro San Cristobal, built in 1923 I think.

At the Zoo. They seem quite social. Anyways...

Even the real ones look fake.

It was a pretty nice zoo as far as zoos go. There were lots of trees and the hillside setting made it interesting for walking around as there was always a different view of the city.

I thought this was kind of funny. The Evolution of Mankind.

View of the city from the zoo.

Santuario del Cerro San Cristobal

Looking west from the Santuario

And looking east across the city towards the mountains.

There is a lot of green space in the city

A little bit of street entertainment

One of the many moto parking lots downtown

3000 pesos for two 750 ml bottles of very good wine. That's about 6 bucks US.

Neils' guide book. It served us well but it's done.

So, here we are on Saturday the 19th of March and we're all set to get on our plane back to Vancouver tonight. It will be nice to see the family again but I'm not really ready to go home. It felt really good to be on the bike when we rode to the airport for the last time the other day. I could have just kept on going; still not sick of it after almost 26,000 kilometers.
Somebody made the comment that we made it to our final destination without too much drama. That's true. There were a few trying or exciting times but all in all it went pretty good. We had very few hassles with people or the police. It pays to be polite and treat people with respect.
We were also having a good laugh about readjusting to riding at home. There's a few things we can't do at home that we have gotten used to here. For example:

Passing even when there is oncoming traffic as long as it looks like there is room for the other guy to move over. They almost always do.
Passing the police doing well over the speed limit and on a double solid line. Well, they did it first so...
When stuck behind a slow moving semi-trailer truck climbing a hill, passing on the inside of the curve at a switchback.
Lane splitting at traffic lights until there is no road left. Sometimes five or six lined up on a two lane road.
Going where ever you want as long as nobody with a gun tries to stop you. Even then there could be exceptions.
Always go to the front of the line-up.
We didn't do it but the limit seems to be about five people to a bike.
I could go on.

I'll let you all know how things end up in Vancouver. Hopefully the bikes get there safely. Well, us too but we can take care of ourselves.