In The South Of Chile

January 29, 2010
Friday
I have arrived in Chufquen, my Aunt’s ranch, the ride from Los Angeles this morning took about two hours as I expected, putting me here at around 10:30am. When you are here, you need to learn to slow down. It’s not like the big city where there’s all kinds of things to do. Here you are far from almost everything except peace and quiet, save the occasional rooster crow. It’s a very laid back atmosphere. The grounds surrounding the house resemble a well manicured park with a rose garden and too many other kinds of flowering plants to mention, mostly because I have no idea of their names. As soon as the battery on this computer is fully charged, I’m going to go to the other side of the house to see if I can capture the WiFi signal coming from the office a few hundred feet away. Until then!

Motel HELL!!

The Pacific Ocean town of Constitucion

January 29, 2010
Friday
After leaving Santiago at about 11:00am yesterday, I headed south on the Pan American Highway, Route 5 in Chile. I rode about four hours before turning off Rt. 5 and heading west toward the Pacific Ocean town of Constitucion. Constitucion has some very nice beaches with black sand a jagged shoreline. After leaving there, I rode along the shore until in the town of Chanco the road headed back east and eventually back onto Rt. 5 once again. By the time I started back south on Rt. 5 it was quite late in the afternoon, and it was a tossup whether I could make it to my Aunt’s ranch at a reasonable hour or not. They tend to close up shop there around nine at night, so I chose to find a place for the night in the city of Los Angeles, even though I was only about two hours away. The Motel looked nice enough, a safe place to park my bike, a good size clean room, nice bathroom, and WiFi, always a plus! Now comes the “good part”. What I wasn’t aware of was that there was a small window left open in the room with no screen on it. Now, I’ve been going to Chile for many, many years now, and I had never seen a New York size mosquito let alone any Mosquito here in Chile because it’s generally a rather dry climate for the most part. But this hotel room was full of Mosquitoes. They had the market cornered, and I think they were all in my room. Well, after spending a considerable amount of time killing these nuisance critters, I figured I was home free and could get a good night’s sleep. Boy, was I wrong! There must have been a little Mosquito Commander in charge of this squadron of menacing marauders , that was sending them my way, one at a time, because as soon as I killed one, there soon would appear one more, and it went on this way all night long. Now, if the Skeeters weren’t enough to keep you awake all night, there was some kind of infernal whistle that kept going off every five minutes, like clockwork. As soon as you ducked your head under the sheet to keep that last Mosquito from attacking, and you started to drift off to sleep, TOOOOOOT! This damn whistle would go off and jolt you from your sleep, and it continued until at 4:30 in the morning when I woke someone up in reception and complained. Soon after, the whistle was gone! But I still have to ask, why the hell do they have to have a whistle going off every five minutes when you pay so that you can have a place to SLEEP? Guess I should have bitched sooner!

What Do You Mean It's Closed?

The whole restaurant to myself




January 27, 2010
Wednesday
It’s looking like tomorrow I am going to start heading south to my Aunt’s ranch about seven hours away. I’m planning on taking the scenic route along the Pacific Ocean, so I figure it will take me all of tomorrow and part of Friday. If you’ve read my Blogs from past years, you know that I can’t leave Santiago without enjoying a great Argentine steak at one of my favorite places to eat. I’m talking about “El Rancho Del Che” in the foot hills of the Andes, not far from Santiago. Last year I took Sharon there for the first time, and she talks about that experience ‘til this day. At El Rancho Del Che they specialize in meat, all kinds of meat and let me tell you, it’s worth the drive. It seems though, that the last couple of times I’ve been there, I’ve hit their slow time. They told me today that January is typically their slow month, and today when I arrived the doors were locked, but there were two people working in the dining room. As the door opened, I asked Arturo if they were open and he indicated that they were not and I think he must have felt my disappointment, because he told me that if I wanted to eat, he would prepare me a nice meal. Now, let me ask you, has anyone ever opened a restaurant just for you, so you wouldn’t go away disappointed? I didn’t think so! This is the kind of hospitality you can expect here in Chile. I’m sure that if you’ve been reading this blog for the last few weeks, you’ve picked up on the fact that people here in Chile will go out of their way to help you. That is the way it is here.
Arturo let me in and led me to the dining room where I had my pick of the tables. Since it had to be close to 90 degrees today, he suggested I sit in the area where the fan was, and he turned it on producing a gentle breeze that made it quite comfortable in there. Arturo took my order and promptly set a cold Cristal Lager in front of me for starters. Not long after, he appeared at my table with a Chilean salad and shortly after that arrived the Steak cooked just the way I like it. I had a nice conversation with Arturo while I enjoyed the meal talking about his brother who also works there and of all the times I’ve been to the Restaurant. I assured him I would be back before I return to the USA in February.

What To Do?

The Nikon S-570

January 26, 2010
Tuesday
Ever since the “Disaster in the Desert” I’ve been trying to come up with a good solution to the loss of the lens that was on my Nikon D-300 digital SLR camera. I have a second lens with me, but it's a Macro lens best used for very close up photography, like taking pictures of bugs and flowers. It doesn’t work well for the kind of photos I generally take. Since losing my lens in the Desert, I’ve ordered and received a new Nikon lens to replace the broken one. Problem is, I’m in South America and the new lens is in western New York USA. I looked into having the new lens shipped to me, but found it would be a bit pricy, between $200 and $300, not to mention the pissiblility of having something happen to the new lens in transit. What to do? I still have about a month and a half here in Chile. That’s when the lights came on, take the money I would spend shipping the lens and buy a good Point and Shoot camera for the time being, so off to the Mall I went. In one of the camera stores in the Mall Alto Las Condes, I found a small, compact Nikon S-570 12 Mega Pixel Point and Shoot camera. My big expensive Nikon D-300 has 12.1 Mega Pixels. Just what I wanted, so I walked out the proud owner of yet another Nikon. I spent a day or so familiarizing myself with the camera, and yesterday rode the bike into the Andes Mountains to take some serious pictures with the new little Nikon. I took multiple pictures to later join them together into Panoramas. I took pictures from nealy half a mile away of rafters in the River Maipo, using the Telephoto Zoom. I took pictures of mountain flowers in Macro mode. I took regular snap shots, and when I say this little camera is fantastic, I’m not kidding! The pictures that you see in the post titled "Embalse El Yeso", are all taken with this impressive little camera, and although they are reduced in size for ease of uploading, they still look great. There are more shots taken with the S-570 if you look in “My Photo Gallery” Chile 2010 gallery, taken on yesterdays trip to the Andes.

Embalse El Yeso

Reservoir El Yeso



Mountain flowers in the Andes

Rafting on the Rio Maipo


January 25, 2010
Monday
First of all....A very Happy Birthday to my son Tom!!
Embalse El Yeso was my destination today. This is a reservoir to the east of Santiago up in the Andes Mountains. If you’re on the short list to receive my S.P.O.T. check in messages, then today you received an email showing exactly where the reservoir is located. (Lat: 33°38'55.03"S, Lon: 70° 4'24.65"W) It took me about an hour and a half to two hours to get there, as once you leave the blacktop there’s about twenty four kilometers of dirt road to contend with. I found myself a little gun shy on the dirt road today given the experience I had in the Atacama Desert a week or so ago. The road was good and I noticed the bike temperature raising the higher up into the mountains I went. I attributed it to a couple of things, first the wind was to my back on the way in, and I kept the speed down to keep from falling on my ass again! I would stop every once in a while to let the bike cool down before moving on. I took the new Nikon S-570 camera with me today, and after reviewing the pictures this evening, I must say, and you can quote me on this, The S-570 is one hell of a little camera! I uploaded quite a few of the pictures to my SmugMug gallery (that you can get to from this blog) at a reduced size and I have to say they still look fantastic. They rival the pictures from my Nikon D-300 12.1 Mega Pixel camera. I’ll be interested to see how the new Nikon lens I have waiting for me back home will compare. Back to the story, it was a totally clear sunny day as usual, and the road leading to the reservoir offered many opportunities for great picture taking. The reservoir is quite large, and with the mountains as a backdrop, it’s breathtaking. Crystal clear blue water surrounded by some very rugged mountains. Just beautiful!

What To Do In Santiago

LAN Chile DC-3

Cessna 195

Beech 18

Grumman Albatros

January 23, 2010
Saturday
This morning I was sitting here trying to figure out where to go, so I decided to go to the top of San Cristobal Hill here in Santiago. Santiago has grown in all directions and now San Cristobal sits almost in the middle of the city, so if you go to the top you get a spectacular view of the city in all directions. While I wandered around looking at all the little tourist shops, I glanced out to the south and spotted the now closed Los Cerrillos Airport, and it was then that I remembered there was an Air and Space Museum there. Well, some of you that know me, know that if there is an aircraft anywhere in the vicinity, I want to see it! Off to Los Cerrillos I went, working my way thru the busy city streets not knowing exactly how to find the Airport. But with a little dead reckoning and the GPS unit, we where there in about an hour or less. The museum has some very old and some not so very old aircraft on display, one of my favorites was the LAN Chile Douglas DC-3, dating back to the early 50’s I’m sure. For all I know, it might have been the plane LAN Chile started out with. LAN Chile Airlines is my favorite airline. On no other airline that I’ve flown, do you get such wonderful service, good food and real knives and forks. You don’t pay extra for the wine or the beer and LAN has probably the most modern fleet of planes in the world. OK, the commercial is over! Back to the Museum. There where planes from all over the world in the collection and from almost every manufacturer as well. I saw a Grumman Albatros as well as a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, a Beechcraft 18, a Cessna 195, a Consolidated PBY Catalina, just to mention a few. All in all, it was a great way to spend the warm sunny afternoon in Santiago.

Don Carlos Restaurant

January 22, 2010
Friday

I’ve been in Chile now two weeks, and I thought it was high time I went for an Argentine steak dinner, so tonight I headed down the block and across the street to the “Don Carlos”. This is a high end restaurant in the Argentine tradition. Waiters in white jackets, décor that gives the feel of a Hacienda in Argentina, and top notch service. I ordered a Bife Chorizo, which is a good size juicy Rib Eye steak, accompanied by a Ensalada a la Chilena, a very traditional Chilean salad consisting of sliced tomatoes and thinly sliced onions dressed with Olive Oil, Lemon Juice and a touch of Balsamic Vinegar. Throw in an Escudo, a Chilean beer, and we have a meal!
I asked for the meat “well done” and I have learned that it will arrive at your table a little pink in the middle, something I have learned to live with, because the meat here tastes so good! The meat in the USA has NO taste compared to the meat in this part of the world! It’s always one of the highlights of my trip, and to top off a wonderful meal….an Espreso Coffee. I can’t wait to get to Argentina!

What Can I Say?

If you click on the picture, it makes the 93 degrees even bigger! Warmer tomorrow!

Back On Two Wheels

January 19, 2010
Monday

After a marathon 21 hour drive, my bike and I are back in Santiago. Johan Schulin and I left Calama, Chile, yesterday morning, just after 10:00am and arrived in Santiago at the BMW motorcycle dealer at 7:00 am this morning, an hour before they opened. I was a bit shocked when I was told by Claudio, the service manager, that I would have the bike back by 3:00pm the same day. I guess my good friend and General Manager of the dealership, Mauricio Vergara, had suggested to his people that they get right on my bike. Mauricio takes good care of me whenever I need something there. Mauricio has invited me to go along on a motorcycle ride, to the Pacific Ocean, with him and some representatives from the BMW motorcycle factory in Germany while they are here visiting in Chile, in a few weeks. Sounds like a good time to me.
By 4:00pm I was at the dealership picking up the bike, but as I was about to leave, I found that the battery had died, and the bike would not start. Turns out the battery had an internal short in it and had to be replaced. I had some suspicions about that battery last year, because I had problems with it on my trip to Ushuaia. I even mentioned to Mauricio one day last week that I thought the battery was a bit weak, and I had Mauricio listen to the bike as I started it, but he thought it sounded normal. Looks like I might have been right after all! Anyway, we have a brandee new battery in the bike now and it starts just fine. The adventure continues.

It's All Part Of The Adventure

Guillermo

Isabel and Johan

January 17, 2010
Sunday

I’ve been replaying the events of the past few days in my head, and thinking that as bad as things could have been, I couldn’t have been rescued by nicer people. First off, I met Guillermo Troncoso who rescued me from the Desert, drove me and my bike all the back to San Pedro De Atacama. He then took the time to find me a way to get me back to Santiago using all his connection. He found a friend of his, Johan Schulin, who happened to be heading to Santiago tomorrow and was willing to take me and all my baggage along. Johan drove all the way from Calama to San Pedro De Atacama, a two hour round trip, on Saturday to pick me up and take me to a hotel in Calama, and we will be leaving Calama in the morning heading to Santiago. A 1000 mile trip. This afternoon, Johan invited me to his house for coffee and Empanadas, and to meet Isabel. Empanadas are a very Chilean food, like a turnover filled with ground beef with spices, an olive, a piece of egg (I take that out first thing!!) and raisins, Baked in the oven. Very good!
I could have done without getting so up close and personal with the Desert, but I have met some of the nicest, kindest people ever, due to this event. I now have two new friends in Chile. It’s all part of the adventure!

Desert Rescue On The Bolivian Border

The scene,.....can you guess where the bike landed?

My savior, Guillermo

His helpers

Success

January 16, 2010
Saturday

I just found a way to get the pictures off my iPhone without having to “Sync” the phone, so I thought I would share these with you since my Nikon camera is out of order for the moment and the iPhone is the best I can do.

Change Of Plans

January 16, 2010
Saturday
Slight change of plans! Guillermo, who was the guy that rescued me from the Desert, made a bunch of phone calls and found a friend of his that is going to Santiago on Monday, so he arranged for me to ride with him as well as the bike, for a price of course. But it’s the best thing that has happened in this whole disaster. I also looked the bike over and found that I could fix the two directional’s and all I will need are the lenses. Also, I spoke with the BMW dealer in Santiago, and they have the valve cover in stock. So this might not take as long to fix as I thought.
I will be in the hotel in Calama until Monday morning, because tomorrow is Presidential Elections day here in Chile, and it is compulsory that everyone vote.

San Pedro De Atacama

January 15, 2010
Friday

I made it to San Pedro De Atacama this morning, and found myself a place to stay for the night because they told me in town that it gets filled up in a hurry in the afternoon. Once I was settled, I decided to take a ride to the Geysers of Tatio about 53 miles away in the Chilean Altiplano. It was a nice ride at first as the road was a hard packed oiled surface. The farther into the Desert I went, the road became a typical Chilean dirt road, something I have ridden many miles on. About 50 miles into the trip, I suddenly encountered a deep section of sand on the road that caught me by surprise. The bike suddenly began to swerve to one side, then the other, and it was then I realized there was no saving this. The bike was going down, and since I was headed in the same direction, I followed close behind. Once the cloud of dust settled, I could see….this wasn’t good! Right away I saw oil spilling from under the bike. There’s only one place for that to come from, so I shut it down quickly. As I stood the bike up, I could see a substantial hole in the right side cover of the valves. It was at this time that the possibility of being stuck out here in the Atacama Desert for quite a while became evident. I took stock of my physical condition, and found no broken bones, although I had taken a pretty hard hit. I looked back in the direction I had come, and saw a debris field the likes of the Titanic. One of my saddle bags was ripped off the side of the bike, as well as both directionals on the right side. As I looked back, to my horror, I saw my expensive Nikon camera lying in the sand in the middle of the road. As I picked it up I could see that the lens had pulled away from the camera body. The end of that lens. Well, to make a long story short, after composing myself, I took out my S.P.O.T. Emergency Locator Beacon that I carried for this very possibility, and hit the 911 button to summon help. The cell phone was of absolutely no use out here, and since S.P.O.T. relies on satellite communication, it was my only hope. Last year in the Dakar Rally that ran thru Chile and Argentina, one of the competitors died in a very similar incident. He spent a few days in this very same desert, and didn’t make it.
By a stroke of luck, after being stranded in the Desert for about four hours, a pickup truck came by. I explained to the gentleman what had transpired, and right away he said “We’re going to load the bike in the truck”. Guillermo, as I later found out owns the same kind of bike, and was on vacation with his family. Well, they all got out and proceeded to unload the back of the truck to make room for the bike. After a lot of work, we managed to load the bike, and headed back to San Pedro De Atacama. On the way, we encountered the police that where responding to the message sent by satellite to the emergency center in the USA. The Emergency Center contacted authorities here in San Pedro and the police responded.
Today Guillermo is going to take me to Calama, the nearest city, to try and rent a pickup truck to take the bike back to Santiago for repairs.

Off To Calama

Mano Del Desierto

Sea Lions on the Pacific

January 14, 2010
Thursday

I had a great deal of time to think as I rode thru the desert today, and one irony came to mind. How can the driest desert on Earth be right next to the largest body of water on Earth? I do know the answer to this one! While driving north along the coast there was abundant evidence that the Pacific Ocean isn’t always pacific. In at least two places there was evidence of the mighty Pacific coming a quarter mile inland to claim a piece of the Pan-American Highway. I’d love to see that storm! Took the road right out!
How do you say Jack Ass in Spanish? This morning, as I prepared to leave the place I stayed at last night, I found my motorcycle blocked in by a car. I mean this guy left me no way to get my bike out, at all! It was nearly nine in the morning, so I went and knocked on the door of the cabin to which the vehicle belonged, and an older guy answered the door. I explained, very nicely, that his vehicle was blocking my bike and I had no way to get it out, to which he proceeded to bitch me out for waking him at that hour of the day, and then told me he was going back to bed and I would get out when he was ready. Oh boy! If you know anything about me, you know that ain’t gonna fly! I didn’t take him seriously so I waited for him to come move his car. Five minutes…Ten minutes. OK times up! I wound up having to get someone from the office to wake Sleeping Beauty up so he’d move his damn car. He finally did! I guess some people around here must get up at the crack of noon! What a Jack Ass!
The rest of the day was a long ride across the desert. I did stop at a few interesting places along the way. You can see them in the Photo Gallery. One thing I can say is, I have see all the dirt and rocks I want to see for quite a while. I’m hoping the next day or two will be a bit more picturesque. We’ll see!

In The Atacama

January 13, 2010
Wednesday

I left Valle Del Elqui early yesterday morning and headed north into the heart of the Atacama Desert, leaving just about anything green behind. This is an interesting landscape of what appears to be only two kinds of vegetation, some kind of a scrubby bush, and Cacti. Nothing else! As I rode farther north into the Atacama there was nothing growing, and I had to laugh as I passed a sign that had a Deer crossing symbol on it. The Deer down here must be pretty tough, because the only two things to eat in this area are rocks and dirt!
I reached Bahia Inglesa (English Bay) late in the day. From all I have heard about Bahia Inglesa, it’s big with the tourists, especially the ones from Argentina. Bahia Inglesa is right on the Pacific Ocean and it has a beautiful crescent shaped beech. This is where I stopped for the night. This morning I will push on northward toward Antofagasta, not knowing where I’ll end up.

Off To The Desert

Valle Del Elqui


Dakar rider waves to me as he passes by

Tuesday January 12, 2010
10:00am

As I headed north out of Santiago this morning, it was a beautiful clear day with not a cloud in the sky. As I expected, it wasn’t all that easy to find Route 5 North, the PanAmerican Highway. I could see it on my GPS, and I watched as the bike passed over it, but you think they might put up a sign telling you how to get to it, NO. I stopped to ask a taxi driver, and he told me it was possible, his hand flew in all directions as he explained how to get on to Rt. 5. Anyways, I kinda got the general idea of how to find it, and after a little dead reckoning, there I was, heading north on Ruta 5 Norte. Piece of cake from here! Just stay on Ruta 5.
About an hour out of Santiago, I noticed hundreds people lined up all along the road side, honking their car horns, and waving Chilean flags and waving at me. People gathered on all the pedestrian overpasses. I thought to myself, how did they know I was going to be passing this way? They were so exited and enthusiastic. So being the nice guy that I am, I waved back. It was then that I realized, you idiot, they’re waving at the Dakar Rally participants. How did I know? I was on a motorcycle, many of the Dakar drivers were also on motorcycle…it’s all good!
Anyhow, I drove farther north for a while, then found a place where I could pull off the road and get some good pictures as the Dakar Rally passed by. There were motorcycles, 4X4’s, massive support trucks and even 4 wheeler ATV’s competing. Quite a sight! Something you don’t see every day.
My aim was to get to "Valle Del Elqui", near the city of La Serena, Chile. I had been to La Serena a few years ago, with my Aunt Eliana. She invited me to spend about a week at a beach side resort in La Serena, but for some reason, I thought it only took us about four or five hours to get here that time. Even though I stopped only for gas a couple of times and once to get a sandwich, it took me a good seven hours to get here! Guess I thought it was closer.
Once in the city of La Serena, I headed east, into the Andes Mountains following the Valle Del Elqui (Elqui Valley) incase you hadn’t figured that one out. As I drove farther into the valley, I came across a large reservoir called "Embalse Puclaro" (Embalse means reservoir) this looked like a nice place to stop and take a picture. Continuing on, I noticed it was now passed six in the afternoon, and I thought to myself, I might want to start looking for a place to stay for the night if I didn’t want to pitch a tent. The town of Pisco Elqui was about seven miles away, and I had read that it was an interesting town to explore. So, I’m in Pisco Elqui at a nice little cabin for the night. Tomorrow I will explore the Valley a bit more before heading farther north.
On another note, I was thinking, as the day drew late and I rode farther and farther into the ruggedness of the Andes Mountains, this is a strange feeling riding a motorcycle alone in some pretty remote parts of South America, not knowing where or if I would find a place to stay for the night. It kind of puts the sense of Adventure Riding into perspective. Sorta puts the “Adventure” in Adventure Riding!

The Adventure Begins

Monday
January 11, 2010

Early tomorrow I plan on starting the bike trip to the dryest desert in the world. I'm first going to go to a place called "Valle Del Elqui", that should take about five hours to get to. Valle Del Elqui is a very picturesque valley on the border of the high desert, and it runs east into the Andes Mountains. I'll spend a day in that area, and then continue north to Bahia Inglesa (English Bay). This is on the Pacific coast and is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Chile. I will probably overnight there and continue to San Pedro De Atacama the following day. Probably a day there to see the salt flats and geysers, and then start heading back to Santiago, before heading south to my Aunts ranch.

All eMail Communications

A reminder to anyone sending me eMail while I am in South America. Please send ALL eMail to: thebmwrider@live.com I can not respond to eMail sent to my Roadrunner account while overseas. Thanx

Not Much Happening

Sunday January 10, 2010
Santiago, Chile

It's the weekend and I don't have much to report at the moment. I've been to the Mall a few times to buy stuff like a cell phone, Mobile Internet Norrowband (not pleased with the performance) and a 16GB pen drive to load my pics on. Monday I have to go to the DMV to reregister the bike. I forgot I'm riding an unregistered bike at the moment. Ooooops! You might see me on "Locked Up Abroad".
I'm hoping to start the trip north early this coming week. Oh, by the way, The "Chile 2010" photo gallery (to the right of this page) is now active, so please take a spin over to see what I've been photographing.

Getting Stuff Done

Friday January 8, 2010

Today was a "buy day". A day dedicated to getting stuff done that I needed to do, like get the headlight of the motorcycle replaced because part of it came lose last year on the trip to Ushuaia, and there was no way to repair it. I also spent part of the day trying to locate a Mobile Internet Service for my Netbook. Finally I succeeded, even though it's a little slow. Better than nothing, I say! That's it for now.

P.S. Pictures have now been uploaded to the Gallery.

Santiago, Chile

Tallest building in South America, for now!

Thursday, Jan 7, 2010

The plane touched Chilean soil at 9:45am (local) this morning, about ten minutes ahead of schedule, which was OK with me because sleeping on the plane last night was a chore, as usual. In just about an hour, I managed to get thru the long lines of Customs and Immigration, and then the final bag screening. At the last bag screening, I was stopped by one of the Immigration agents because it seems I had forgotten to sign my Declaration form. That was easy to remedy, and then I went out into the main part of the airport and into the hordes of Taxi drivers trying to give me a ride into Santiago at twice the price. Since this isn’t my first rodeo, I pushed my way thru the crowded airport until I found the “TransVip” counter. TransVip is a company that runs shuttle vans from the airport to any place in Santiago, and since they can carry numerous passengers, the fare is much more reasonable. It cost me 6,200 pesos ($12.40) to get me and my entire luggage into Santiago. A fair price in my estimation.
So, by 11:30am local (9:30am EST) I arrived at my Aunts in Santiago. Door to door….22 hours! Once I was settled, I went over to my other Aunts, where my bike is stored, and proceeded to remove the cocoon that the bike had hibernated in for the past ten months. As expected, the BMW started right up. As not expected, I had a nearly flat front tire, but I managed to, very carefully, drive a few blocks to the gas station to take care of that. (note to self….bring the air pump you spent $100 on last year, next time you go to unwrap the bike) I have the pump here, but it was at the other Aunts house at the time.
Now it is 7:10pm here and my Aunt and I are going to go on the nightly ritual walk, something I could really use!

the Flights

Wednesday Jan 6, 2010

The flight from Buffalo to Boston left on time, and as we climbed out of the heavy overcast that covered all of New York State, we broke out of the clouds to a glorious sunny day on top. It was a strange feeling as we broke out of the clouds. The tops of the clouds looked so still and peaceful. Like a huge sheet of white cotton candy. The flight to Boston took just about an hour. There was a very marked increase in the number of TSA agents (Transportation Security Administration) in Boston, but to be honest, getting thru security wasn’t that much different in either airport. It went pretty fast.
When I arrived in Boston, I stopped in the “Legal C Food Restaurant” (don’t ask me, I didn’t come up with that name!) to get a bite to eat, and since I can’t stand C Food, I asked for a Sam Adams and an order of fries. I figured that would be safe.
I am now on my way to Miami at 30,000 feet, at this moment, and of course, I got the seat that won’t recline, so I figured I would move one seat back which happens to be an Emergency Exit. It has more leg room and I figured it would at least recline. Boy was I wrong! Not only did it not recline, but for some reason, sitting next to that door was like sitting next to an open refrigerator. I almost got freezer burn. Won’t do that again! Even with a blanket between me and the side of the plane, I’m cold.
It’s 9:15pm at the moment, and we are due to land in Miami at 10:20pm.
We actually landed in Miami at 10:00pm, and I am now at the gate waiting for the overnight flight to Santiago scheduled to leave at 11:45pm.

Time To Leave The Snow Behind

Wednesday Jan. 6, 2010

The time has arrived for me to head to the airport in Buffalo. I will first fly to Boston, then on to Miami, before boarding the long overnight flight to Santiago. Once off the plane in Chile, I will go thru Customs and Imigracion, which takes maybe 10 minutes or so depending on the line. Once that is done, it’s off to reunite with my luggage and then the final luggage check if you are so chosen. Then it’s out into the warm sun of Santiago and a shuttle ride into the Capital, to my Aunts house. After getting settled, I will go to pick up the BMW at another Aunts house and begin the adventure.