All adventures must come to an end!
Start & Stop: Chillan, Chile to Vina Del Mar, Chile
Mileage: 325 miles
Hotel: Hotel Vancouver, 2 Poniente N0. 561, Vina Del Mar, Chile
Fuel: $700 Chilean Peso /l liter ($1.48 USD/1 liter) or $5.51 USD per gal!
Currency Exchange: $1 USD = $473.95 Peso
Weather: Overcast, cloudy light and heavy showers, and windy
Dean: Today is our last “on-the-road” ride. From Chillan, Chile to Vina Del Mar, Chile – a mere 325 miles. It’s taken a while for me to realize we really did complete the TransAmericas (PanAmerican Highway) ride, and the end was over a week ago, Wed, Feb 28. Where does time go when you’re screamin’ down the road at 50 MPH! :) It sounds better metric — 80 KPH!
Riding Chile’s Ruta 5 north is like riding US-99 up the San Juaquin Valley in California. Split 4-lane highway all the way from Puerto Montt to Santiago and west to Vina Del Mar (750 miles), mostly flat but occasional rolling hills. 50 mph for 7 hours is 350 miles. That’s all it takes.
After 70 days on the road, it’s hard to imagine that after tomorrow we will no longer ride our motos northward!!
Tomorrow we ride 10 blocks to the Vina Del Mar Suzuki dealer, strip anything that hangs out off and mount our VStrompasourus’ onto a metal pallet.
Lisa: Everything in DeanVille is just that simple. Would that it were so easy. Holy cow, I don’t sleep more than two hours, worrying and strategizing for what lies ahead. Meanwhile, our freight agent in LA has referred us to someone here who is not reachable. Lovin life here. Tomorrow morning is looming large for me: we have customs issues because we are leaving the country before our bikes are checked out. The computers at customs will show that we entered the country with motorcycles that have not ‘officially’ left the country and in Chile that is a huge problem.
For me.
Dean sleeps soundly.
The other issue is the pallets. We had initial confirmation on those but because our contact is dealing with serious personal issues, that assurance is not solid. Without knowing we have pallets immediately available, I know that the logistics might be very onerous. We are under a time deadline (again) and these things have to be put to bed before we can take a long bus ride to Santiago, and then fly home.
I am suffering major stress, wide awake at 3 am with a 6:30 alarm set.
Dean is snoring.
Perfect.
Dean: I know we’re going to get stink-eye about shipping our bikes back to the USA/Port of Los Angeles but we have jobs and families.
Lisa: This line from him cracks me up. Several comments or private emails have given us a hard time for different things that have happened during the ride – like putting the bikes on the truck to get them out of the problem area in Bolivia or not making the complete round trip on bikes. But when you realize that we are the ones actually doing the ride while the folks criticizing us are sitting in the comfort of their homes, it all comes into focus. Of course we are shipping home; we’ve been gone a long time and both of us have another life we have put on hold. Time to get back.
Dean: Lisa is heading to Jacksonville Beach, FL for the IBA Daytona weekend and I’m going home to prep for a one-week staging production in Hawaii in April.
Boring Stats
July 2, 2010-Deadhorse, Alaska to July 10, 2010-Tustin, CA – 4,209 miles
Nov 29, 2010-Tustin, CA to December 9, 2010-Managua, Nicaragua (home for Christmas) January 12, 2011-Managua, NI to February 22, 2011-Ushuaia, Argentina (Lapatalia, Tierra Del Fuego National Park, End of Ruta 3 Road sign) – 13,349 miles
Total mileage from Deadhorse, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, (Lapatalia, Tierra Del Fuego National Park, End of Ruta 3 Road sign) – 17,558 miles (28,257 km)
Can’t thank you two enough for an amazing “journey” into my own past Central American venture in the mid 1970s … as I followed along with you on yours. Your “logs” have been such fun to read. Your entry was the first thing I read when I opened my daily emails. I’m so grateful to Cal for sharing your site with me. I have total admiration for both of you … for your sense of adventure, humor, grit and persistence. JOURNEY WELL DONE! Thanks again every so much for sharing this. Cydne
Hopefully this will be my last reply to you all before I see you in person. Meaning that you will be homeward.
So I can’t pass up this opportunity to congratulate you all on a great trip and for keeping us all involved and entertained.
I also can’t pass up an opportunity to reply to Lisa’s comment:
“Holy cow, I don’t sleep more than two hours, worrying and strategizing for what lies ahead.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME – You can’t sleep for more than 2 hours because of, let me see her:
1. Beer
2. Pizzas
3. Gelatto
4. El Biggo Maco
5. Tequila
6. Beer again
7. several other food items of dubious vintage and origination.
Blame THAT on Dean!
see you guys soon – had a blast riding along with you. Can’t wait to see all the unpublishable pictures.
Congrats Dean,
You persevered and succeeded in the face of significant adversity. The putt-putt trouble is very frustrating, but is mechanical or electrical so can be ameliorated. However, sadly the people problems crossing borders will only deteriorate as time goes on.
I figure you should have made the trip when my scooter was new, nearly 50 years ago. A ’63 FLH might have been a friendlier choice for on-the-road diagnosis.
Upward wishes,
John Heiney
Congratulations on the most awesome trip that I’ve ever heard of !!!!
Pete Mayer
Congratulations. You two are truly the Dynamic Duo. Thanks for the memories.
P.S. No more ReCAPTCHA. YEAH!!!!!
Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your adventure. I found myself waking up early and checking email for updates. Great trip, I can’t wait to read it in paperback. Hope to meet you both someday!
Rick
Thank you for sharing your adventure with us; we have followed you through lost credit cards, mud, rain, bad food, expensive fuel, lumpy beds, border and language issues, missing pallets and missing engines. And we have done this from the comfort of our homes; what a joy to get up after a restful night in a quiet house to read your emails and see exciting photos. What a way to travel! When is the next adventure?
I cannot thank you enough for taking Eddie along. Can’t wait to see you in Jax.
I can’t thank you enough for sharing your adventures/trials/tribulations/triumphs with all of us. It is an impressive accomplishment and I think we will all miss your daily blogs. Well done! Thank you for including me.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful adventure. I’ve been getting up early every morning in order to check for the next installment. It has been great being able to follow you two. You guys really acomplished the adventure of a life time. Congratulations and have a safe trip home.
Ditto to all of the above comments and congratulations. Needless to say many of us are dying from envy. You both are real hereos to take on an adventure of that magnitude. To be able to follow your adventures with pictures and comments was so very comsumming that it was always the first thing I looked for when opening my email. Again congratulations and God Bless you. Continue to be safe.
Mega thank you’s for letting us in on your fabulous trip. I was racing to the computer in the AM to read your newest adventure, what a duo you are, congratulations on all of your miles and memories. YOU ROCK.
Thanks.