THE ADVERTURE STARTS

  SANTIAGO, Chile
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Karyn and I arrived in Santiago Wednesday Nov. 15th. Checked into the hotel, paid for with Safeway Air Miles. Our room was on the 16th floor of the Holiday Inn which was where we stayed for the first two nights of our vacation. After that we moved to a hostel which was very cheap and very clean, if somewhat small. In fact the entire room was smaller than the bed at the holiday inn. That is not counting our private bathroom, but that was only about 3 feet by 3 feet. The bathroom did have hot water, even if it was just a small stream. But when you plan to hotel for almost 6 months, staying at the Holiday Inn is just beyond our means. I might also add, that in two days at the Holiday Inn we met no one, while we have met all kinds of people at the Hostel.


Karyn is standing outside our first Hostel in Chile. In fact this is our first Hostel we have ever stayed in. What makes this type of accomodation so special, is the people you meet.
 
During our stay at this Hostel we met a man who spends 4 months a year at his home in London Ontario, 4 months at his home in France, and 4 months travelling on a tight budget. We also met a couple from Germany who are traveling through South America. And we met an attractive young women who is a vet in the UK and is taking 3 weeks vacation traveling through Chile and Argentina by herself.


Santiago is a beautiful city, very modern and exceptionally clean. The transit system is great and we made great use of the Subway system during our first 5 days here. We felt very safe wandering the streets, and enjoying the outdoor cafes. Seafood is excellent, and affordable by North American standards. However Chile, and Santiago in particular are the most expensive places in South America, so from here on things should just get better.

I could not really start enjoying this trip until my motorcycle arrived. And it did arrive on Monday November 20th. The box looked like it fell off the airplane, but the bike was fine. I was almost crying as I tore open the ctn to get a look at the bike. I guess Harley Davidson knows a thing or two about packing a bike for shipping, as it was a factory shipping ctn that we used. I can not believe that the bike did not have any damage based on what was left of the cardboard ctn.


                 THE HARLEY ARRIVES SAFELY IN SANTIAGO CHILE

In this picture, Karyn thinks all those guys are standing around her because they want to be in the picture with her. I am not going to be one to tell her that the only reason she is getting all that attention, is because these guys want to get close to my Harley.



Karyn's Spanish lessons sure paid for themselves as we processed the bike through Customs. I just sat in background and let Karyn do all the communication. I do not know what she was saying to all these guys, or want she was promising them, but I really didn't care, as long as I got my bike. And she did get me my bike, with her lousy Spanish and her great smile.

They let me do the needed assembly on the bike and then fill the gas in the warehouse. We certainly created a little attention as we drove the bike through and out of the warehouse. Couldn't resist giving a couple of extra blurbs on the throttle, just to hear it echo through the entire warehouse. Everyone in that warehouse now knew we were in Chile.


In Leonard's mind, the adventure starts tomorrow. We are leaving Santiago Tuesday morning and crossing the Andes into Argentina. From here on in the Vacation should hold a lot more adventure, which comes from a lot more uncertainty.