Closed Forecourt To Santiago To San Rafael

Closed Forecourt behind us and enough gas to go to a new country we felt lucky.

With heading into Chile we wanted to take 3 - 4 bottles of red wine with us however we met some other moto riders and completely forgot what we were doing…. age is a bastid when mixed with excitement.

Up and over the pass in Santiago, should be easy enough …..no, we arrived amidst a line of traffic 2 km long to the border, it took us four hours , 3 hours was just waiting on the road, ridiculous.

P1220765 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The lineup moved s l o w e l y lucky we where on a dowhill so I did not need to start Maya up every time the line moved 10 meters, pictured here I rapidly and dangerously accelerated to about 3 km/hr

P1220763 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Finally through the border we had developed an “issue”, Maya had started to clatter and it did not sound nice, we continued on to Santiago with my diagnostic head trying to work it out, all symptoms pointing to a dead hydraulic cam tensioner.

The Zig Zag down on the Chilean side

P1220770 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Santiago was our fixit place as we were heading to the KTM dealer so as luck would have it we were in the right place to sort it, how often does stuff shit itself on the way to the dealer …. WOH HOH

New Front and rear tires to take, new hydraulic cam tensioner for the rear cylinder, new inner cables made for the throttle and we are as flash as Michael Jackson.

So yes, in 80000km our unreliable KTM has now had 1 new stator, 1 new water pump and now one new hydraulic tensioner ….not bad at all I say.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Radim and Lauren, travellers out of the US and Kiwis Charlie and Janet.

A great meeting and catchup with Radim and Lauren and a coffee shop in a supermarket we ended up staying for dinner then they kicked us out at closing time then we gas bagged in the carpark for another hour … travel and KTMs … good times.

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Next was Charlie and Janet who fluently understood everything we said cos they are Kiwis, it was a nice feeling.

The afternoon started with a coffee (patten forming here) and we decided to go out for a local pizza, they said one big one was good enough for 5 people, we didn’t believe them but decided to ordr on only to star .. just as well we did, it was about 600 mm round!!!!! holey moley…good times.

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Our stay (thanks to Jaime) was excellent and became full on, we tried to catch up with the local lads too and simply ran outa time ….CHECOSO when we come back mate we can have a “kick TMK outa the country” party, our final place before heading back to reality.

The view from Jaimes apartment

IMG_5910 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

And at night

IMG_5923 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The fixits were sorted with new throttle inner cables being made, I installed our new tensioner, cleaned our prefilters and reoiled them and got some new tires, this time a Heidenau rear and Pirelli MT 21 front for the rippio and mud south, Maya now as sorted as she can be for the assault south.

In a form of good luck with leaving the wine behind I found some Flore de Caná rum which was a real surprise, coupled with that we got some Ginger Ale so yet again the stars aligned for some nice grog drinking.

While at the KTM dealership I also spotted the new 690 Enduro, Mayas little brother .... although the little brother is tall....I like

P1220775 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Anyone going in there be careful cos there is a patch of kiwislobber underneath the 690

P1220778 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Erick the store manager and I, very nice guy and helped us get everything sorted, Erick also speaks very good engilsh so that took the difficulty out or getting stuff sorted.

Thanks Erick, we appreciate the help you gave us in getting sorted , for any travellers this shop is pretty well stocked with all sorts so for getting something KTM done and bought this is the place to be.

P1220773 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Getting everything sorted out we hit it back to our friends in Argentina to Finca Rita in San Rafael, a few days to do some volunteer work while Clint and Rosie come from New Zealand beginning of February.

A chance to help John and Annette and me to work hard at my next years winter stores gained in Brasil, nothing like good hard work to strengthen that inner core which is seriously needed and reduce those handles.

One one thing when you are on the road for a while is keeping an eye on your bod and making sure you do exercise or it starts to bulge in the wrong places, not good when the verandah covers the tool shed.

Plum harvest has just started so putting them out on the drying rack was the beginning.....San Rafael up next