Chile 6-11 December 2013
So decision made, we went off to Pro Curcuit, in av.
Vitacura to purchase our motorcycles !
Total cost for 2 brand new Honda XR125L = 1, 290 000 Pesos (R25
000) x 2 = 2580000 Pesos (R50000)
This included a free helmets and 15% off a jacket for Nick.
We could have got about 5% off if we had paid cash, however it was going to
cost us more than the 5% to draw the money in bank charges.
After long discussions about all the paperwork that needs to
be done, we left happy that all should be in order to collect the bikes in 2 –
3 days.
That afternoon we decided to look around for another hostel.
We took a long walk around the town and the area called Barrio Brasil which
seems to be a cheaper area in the city. When walking around and looking for
these hostels we noticed that the signage for the buildings where the hostels
is are either very small or in some cases non-existent! Which leads you to
knock on a door in the vicinity of where you think the hostel is… and when you
walk in it opens up to a grand, high ceiling, old building with amazing space,
even a pool inside the one hostel.
That night we celebrated the purchase of our motorcycles
with a few beers and met a Dutch couple Rutger and Ellis who have done a lot of
traveling in South America. We got a lot
of tips and some advice from them on tours to do in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
Right time to move hostels, so off to Cienfuegos a hostel part
of Hosteling International, where we could get a private room for 20 000 Pesos
per night (R390) with a shared bathroom. The staff here are very pleasant and helpful
and the facilities are very nice. The breakfast is unfortunately simple ie. breadroll
, coffee and some jam ! The other down side is that there are no kitchen
facilities here either. We were informed
that, that night (Saturday) there was going to be a braai the cost was 3000
Pesos per person (R58) so we signed in for that.
We spent the rest of the day trying desperately to get hold
of Navimag to try and get on the ferry down to Patagonia…this had become quite
a mission! Eventually we learnt that they were full on Tuesday the 10th
December so had to look at our travel plans again. That evening we enjoyed a wonderful braai
(Asado in Chilean) which is quite common in Chile and chatted with a local lady
and her friend who spoke good English. So
we practiced some of our Spanish with them over a few glasses of red wine,
which became a bit of Spanglish in the end !!!
Sunday morning we awoke to a partly cloudy day which worked
out to our advantage as we were going to do the 10km hike to the top of a mountain
called Cerro San Cristobal, where there is a large statue of the Santa Maria. Walking through the city was so lovely and
peaceful compared to during the week because not only were most of the shops
closed but the roads had been closed to vehicles for a bicycle ride organised
by the city.
As we reached Bellavista neighbourhood at the bottom of the hill
we noticed there were lots of people, and only once we had walked with the hordes
up the hill did we know there was a mass being celebrated below Santa Maria
statue. When we reached the top we
enjoyed some of the amazing views of the town of Santiago as well as all the
statues and the small chapel which is situated under the large statue of Santa
Maria. Before heading back down we tried a local drink called Mote con Huesillos
, it is a very sweet drink, almost like ice tea with a lot of soaked grain in
it as well as a peach. We decided to
take the tar road back down which loops around the mountain instead of straight
up and it was very scenic and a lot less crowded. From there we wandered
through the parks and landed up having a siesta in Parque Forestal…what seems
to be a common occurrence in Chile.
Monday morning we both woke up and the flu that had been
looming for a few days kicked in with full force ! So we spent the day loading
up on drugs and sleep hoping to shake it off as soon as possible. While we were
in bed we spent the time trying to confirm our trip to Patagonia with Navimag
on the 17th December as well as confirm that we could collect our
bikes the following day. With Navimag we were unable to get a response
through their online query however we did get a rather delayed response by
sending a direct email to sales@navimag.cl
and eventually made contact on the number 56-65-2432360. We are now confirmed
for a 3 day tour (from 17th Dec) on a ferry through the fjords from Puerto
Natales to Puerto Montt at a cost of US$510 per person.
Monday evening we had to get out of the room for a few hours
so decided to go out for dinner. Near to
the hostel is Plaza Brazil where there were a lot of stands and people around,
we figured out it was a comic fare with pictures of comic characters and comics
for sale. There was also a live band
setting up to play. We decided to eat at a restaurant across the road so we
could enjoy the band as we had dinner…well we got a little more than we bargained
for! As we were enjoying our dinner and
listening to the band all was rudely interrupted by a man sprinting down the
street screaming on the top of his voice, closely followed behind by another
man running at him with a knife !! and it was almost a croc dundee knife for
hunting gators !! fortunately the man running for his life had quite a bit of
speed on him and the man chasing him dropped his knife so the pursuit ended
there however by the look on the mans face who was being chased, I think he may
be in North America by now !!!
Tuesday morning was spent loading GPS maps onto the GPS to
be able to navigate our way back to the Hostel.
We also double checked online all the paperwork that would be needed from
the dealership for the rest of the trip. With all this in tow we left excited
and a little nervous to collect our motorbikes. Alas the little piece of paper
known as a ‘Homologado’ had not arrived from Honda headquarters…they wrote us
up another factura (receipt) which they said we ‘should’ be ok to drive back to
the Hostel with. However as we were about to mount the bikes we were advised
not to drive through town…a little difficult considering the Hostel was on the
other side of town! So we left disappointed without the motorbikes back to the Hostel.
That evening we met with Mr Venter (a friend of James
Perkins), a South African gentleman that has been living in Santiago for the
past 8 years. He was very interesting to
talk to and gave us a lot of exciting places both around Santiago and down
south to visit. He also had some interesting facts about Santiago to share and
gave us a lot of do’s and don’t’s while in Chile. Dinner that night consisted of Quesadilla’s,
a tortilla sandwich with cheese, red peppers and basil and a guacamole dip.
Delicious!
Wednesday we set off to explore more of Santiago city
centre. We found a Claro! Office where
we bought a local sim for CL$2990. Local
calls are about R2 a minute here so looks like we’ll be texting some more and
relying on whatsapp through our travels in Chile. We then successfully
navigated our way to the Mercado Central y Mercado Pescado (central market and fish
market) – sans map – and checked out all the fresh fish for sale. There are lots of restaurants inside the fish
market with salesman approaching you all the time. What is interesting is that the original
building still exists with another outer wall built to extend the market.
We are now back in the Hostel and await good news from Honda
with regards to the Homologoda and processing our paperwork tomorrow. We should
fly out of Santiago on Saturday to explore Patagonia…really looking forward to
that.
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| Santiago city view |
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| Santa Maria |
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| Lekker Braai bru !! |
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| We walked all the way to the top of that ! |
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| Not sure how you read the street name ?? |
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| Nativity |
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| Just before the disappointing news |
