A detour to Santiago

Now we are headed to Santiago again for tires and service, but we have a few days to kill so it’s a short 50 km to Porterillos to camp on the lake and then 70 to the town of Uspallata.

We had a good night at the campground, but woke up to the first flat of the entire trip! He and I had no trouble breaking the bead using my bike and side stand, but Dan had a bit of help with the hard part from fellow biker and camper Sergio! We also had no issue setting the bead on the Heidenau with our electric pump.

The day sure got better though after the cold cloudy day yesterday.

From Porterillos to Uspalatta there are a few cool tunnels in the “zona de tunnels”.

Uspallata (us-pa-yay-a) is not a bad little town and the last place to stop before the pass over the mountains to the border in 83 km. They have an YPF with good coffee and wifi.

We managed to get a cabana for 2 nights for a good price and then could cook all our meals, which is nice.

The view here are nice of the hills and snow capped peaks.

We had a big day planned with the border, new tires, a stop at BMW for parts, a stop to drop off gear at the hotel, and last to drop off one of the bikes for service at Johnny Moto, so we set out early.

The drive over the pass to the border is on a nice curvy road. We were glad of the heated jackets when it was 5 degrees. The descent from the Chile border in on this crazy snake road. After this it was quickly 27 degrees for the ride to Santiago.

The border crossing took a bit longer than usual, because some of the paperwork done at one of the southern small crossings must have been done wrong or not eventually entered into a computer, but they gladly just fixed it up and off we went.

We had a bit of a frustrating day trying to get all our errands done. Arriving at Motoavntura for tires we found the mechanic was sick….strike 1. Just down the road is the largest BMW dealership in the world. We went there to get washers for the rad fluid change, which since they supposedly service bikes they should have them. They have none and don’t know anything about them……not untypical and strike 2. Driving to the Hostal Matte we arrived, but the GPS did not record the address and there is no sign…..strike 3. Did I mention it is HOT and these places are up to 25 km apart.

Well off to Johnny Moto at least we know where that is. We dropped off the 650 GS for and oil and fluid change and a rebuild for the steering head bearings. They were destroyed. Thanks “Johnny” for the pictures for the blog!

Headed back to the Casa matte with the house number we arrived and were welcomed by Cristian and his entire family. Our famous riding friend Alicia Sornosa dropped by the Casa with her friend Andreas.

We also met fellow Chilean rider Alcides on his F800!

Cristian invited us to join them on the roof top patio for a party and parilla! This place is great. After months of poor nights of sleep from uncomfortable beds, noisy neighbors, doors slamming, dogs barking, roosters crowing, and cars screeching this place is paradise.