Start & Stop: Vina del Mar, Chile – No riding day!
Mileage: 0 miles
Hotel: 3 Poniente, 3 Poniente 70, Vina del Mar 2520306, Chile
Fuel: $716 Chilean Peso /l liter ($1.51/1 liter) or $5.72 per gal!
Currency Exchange: $1 USD = $473 Chilean Peso
Chilean Toll Road: $400-1500 Chilean Pesos ($0.85-$3.17 USD)
Dean: I woke up at 7 AM, grabbed the Mac and went to the lobby/breakfast area for a cup of coffee. A cup of Joe and it’s time to catch up with the past weeks blog photos and daily reports. I worked till 1PM uploading photos and interlacing our two reports.
Warm and dry! What a concept. 75 miles east along the Andes it’s still cold and wet.
Lisa: Oh how supremely indulgent – a whole weekend to just hang out! I woke up at the crack of 8 – at least 2-3 hours later than normal and it was heavenly. I finally dragged myself out of bed about 45 minutes later and sauntered downstairs for some coffee and rolls. I am missing the fresh fruit we enjoyed all the way through Peru but I’ll live.
I came back upstairs to answer email, etc. About 1 PM we left to go change some money and then stop by the grocery store for essentials like bottled water, some small cans of prepared pasta to carry on the bikes, more peanuts for our tank bags, and of course beer, wine and chips because we could. Wandering through the aisles was really interesting and makes me realize that we’re so spoiled in the US. The selections, the fresh fruit and veggies, everything is so much better.
I paid cash at the checkout and the woman would not hand me my change which was almost $10 US. She kept repeating something that I had NO IDEA what she wanted or meant. Then the gal behind me started talking rapidly too so I thought I screwed something up but meanwhile, “Give me my change!” Nothing doing. They all just kept talking but I wasn’t leaving without my change so we had a standoff. Finally an English speaking manager came over and asked if I wanted to “donate” my change to some charity. No thanks, I’ve donated enough to Chile at the gas station.
We're traveling half way around the world to have a "Big Mac"! A "Big Mac" Combo meal is $3090! ($6.53 USD).
We walked back to the hotel and left the items here and, finally, we were headed to a destination of my choice: McDonalds! Indeed. Mickey D’s, Ronald McDonald Land, I don’t care what you call it, I have been craving a burger for days and I was going to have one, come hell or high water and frankly, we’ve been in and through both recently.
Ordering food here is no different than anything else, really, and I’m not sure why I thought it would be. There was no apparent system, just a bunch of people pressed together either ordering food or waiting to pick it up. None of it made sense to me, Dean or the German kid next to us who finally spoke sharply to the cashier that, first, she should speak English, and secondly, he didn’t care if he got his dang papas, just give him his burgers … oookay, so this too will be challenging.
We got our food, 2 burgers, one order of fries and 2 (very) small cokes for the princely sum of $18.00 USD. Yikes. Never mind though, the burger was completely awesome. Oh boy, it just hit the spot.
Dean: One of my weakness is gelato. I’ve already found 2 gelato stores near our small hotel. After the very pricy Big Mac, I had to have a chocolate mousse gelato.
Vina del Mar is a very upscale beach town. That's a Sheraton in the background.
Saturday beach lovers.
A large farmers market is 1/2-mile away.
Lisa: If we didn’t start moving soon I was going to fall asleep at the table. So we took a 2-hour walk around town and it’s really lovely. Interesting Mercado, really nice upscale hotels, beautiful beaches as well as rugged coastline. No wonder it’s packed here right now: it’s gorgeous. The weather is just perfect too, no humidity at all. And did I mention we’re at sea level? Yay! I am finally getting rid of the remnants of the crud that has plagued me for weeks. Life is good.
Dean: Spent the evening on two V-Strom forums researching my options before Mondays’ Suzuki service.
It could be a 1. vacuum leak, 2. intermittent electrical, 3. loose or damaged battery cables, 4. fuel tank vent plugged, 5. Power Commander III gone haywire, 6. fuel pump filter clogged.
I’ll try a few of the above tomorrow to see if anything corrects the problem. Otherwise the dealer will do his magic.
So glad you’re finally starting to feel better Lisa. Now, time to get Dean’s bike feeling better too.
Great stuff. Hope they can fix Dean’s bike on Monday.
Beautiful and we hope you are going over the Andes to Mendoza which is our absolute favorite city in Argentina. If so, we hope you will stay nearvthe center of town which has a wide pedestrian walkway surrounded by shops and restaurants. Also, we enjoyed going to the wineries for sampling and eating. Rather than do as we did riding the moto, consider the taxi. We swore we would only have one glass of wine, but that turned out o be a lie.
Best
V Teins
I’m glad you guys are getting some time to relax. I hope you can solve the bike issues Dean.
Freezin’ my arse off in Wisconsin,
Curt
So happy you made it to Vina safely. It is one of my most favorite places on earth. Beautiful skies, ocean , mountains and bird especially the squadron of pelicans fishing the waters. No surprise to learn of a Sheraton has been built. Been about 15 years since I spent my times there.
FYI, clear and sunny in LA highs is low 80s. Later
TurboDave
Glad things are looking rosier. After reading your aquaintence Doogle’s ride report over on ADVRider, sounds like you two are having a very relaxing tip toe through the tulips. Enjoy and stay safe.
Wow, what a difference a day of R&R makes – Lisa looks like her normal great self again in the pics (maybe because she has her sun glasses on) and both of you seem very upbeat. Dean even has a check list and plan of attack for working on his bike.
I never, and I mean NEVER, EVER, NOT IN TWO LIFETIMES, thought I would see Lisa (or Dean) having a McDonalds burger cross their lips – Much less CRAVING one. First Beer, now Micky Dees, by the time you two get home you will be riding only 75 miles a day on your HARLEYS to the closest bar and a couple of playing cards and calling it an adventure. Are you sure you left Higdon and Kneebone back in the USA? Their not just tagging along and you have not mentioned it?
..oh wait, forget it – H&K would have never taken the truck
Hi unc! Just caught up on the last week of blogs…what would those roads hqve been like without the rain? I too relied on the services of trucks, but while traveling in Ecuador. Plantain truck and a pickup. Glad he helped you out. Now you’re headed to darren’s old stomping ground in Santiago. Keep the stories coming and pics too…im having q great time living variously through you and Lisa. Oh. And feliz cumpleanos!
You look like you are actually ON VACATION in those photos and look so much happier (and clean) back at sea level. Glad you’re getting over that gunk. Hopefully it’s smooth sailing from here on out, now that one of everything seems to have happened to you two. Continue to have fun!
Either it’s very expensive in Chile or you got screwed.
BEER = Wine and chips —- what the heck? Did Lisa hit her head when she crashed the bike one of the dozen times it fell over. oh the humanity. What’s next?…. Big Mac’s – oh my!!!!
Beach looks great – I would imagine sitting in the sand in full riding gear – maybe Dean dipping himself in the surf will get rid of the gasoline smell – but then maybe not.
Vacation day in Chile – I am so envious that I’m going to ride down the street and have a celebratory Big Mac myself or maybe a In-n-out just because I can.
Glad you are at sea level and catching some ocean clean air and some sun. That will probably do you some real good. Get Well – have fun – you are getting close to the end of the ride.
What’s next? Africa? Australia (they speak English sorta)?
Hope the strompapotomus heals as well!
and really !! you can’t possibly stop blogging now – that would be cruel to us folks sitting at home and following along. I owe you both a beer just for letting me follow along – especially since Lisa now can drink cervesa. Who knows….
Lisa – so glad you are feeling better. Can’t believe how you have ridden that bike every day with feeling like “crap” or worse. That beach area looks beautiful! Kathy