Entering Chile with my Australian Motorcycle
Part way through some assembly on pickup at the freight forwarders warehouse. It gave all the truckers and drivers something to look at while they waited for their goods. Got plenty of thumbs ups.
Update 1 (November 2022)
Australia to Puerto Varas, via Santiago
I have brought my own bike from Australia. Getting the bike here was mainly about the financial pain, rather than the logistics. The final price was double a pre-covid estimate. The bike was picked up about a week before my departure and trucked to Sydney for crating, clearance and loading with Latam Airlines.
I ended up flying to Auckland with Qantas and having a 15 hour stopover before getting on the Latam flight from Sydney on it’s stopover. Then 11 hours to Santiago, Chile. As it turned out my motorbike was on the same flight. I stayed in a nearby airport hotel and picked up the bike the next day.
I had trouble working out where the bike was at the Cargo Terminal but eventually tracked it down with the help of a friendly worker. Organising the Temporary Import with Customs was relatively easy. I had to pay the cargo facility a modest storage fee and then I was done.
Getting out of Santiago was a little nerve racking. I was pretty rusty on the bike, riding on the opposite side of the road, rusty with my navigation and the overtaking is more frantic than Australia. Eventually I found the southern motorway and was underway.
I stayed two nights at my first stop of Curico, in a grape growing region. I was using booking.com to find accommodation, at the last minute on a Saturday. It didn’t get off to a good start. The first three places (some 20km apart at times), I booked online were failures, with no room actually available once I arrived. One place was more an Airbnb style place an old bloke ran. He eventually explained through Google translate that his normal accommodation was full, but he did offer me a room. It turned out to be a used unmade bed in his house. I don’t really know what he was offering, I’m sure he was trying to help me, but I kept looking and found a nice hotel on my fourth try.
Leaving my nice hotel in Curico.
Since then I have been working my way south. For the first week I was pretty much wandering aimlessly. After a while I picked up more information and have now got somewhat of a plan. I must admit I did zero planning about what to do in South America. Packing up my life in Australia took up my time and I was happy to just take it as it came in Chile.
I stopped for lunch in Curanipe one day. That was another example of Chilean kindness. I was having trouble working out what to order, so a customer insisted he would ring his Spanish speaking American wife who acted as my interpreter and ordered me a nice local fish dish.
A surfer at Curanipe Beach. It’s kind of cold by the way. Probably about 18 degrees celcius in this photo. I’d guess the water temperature is around 12 degrees.
Curanipe Beach
My accommodation later on was in a cabaña in Pelehue. The dogs in Chile remind me of dogs in Australia in the 1970’s. They just wander the streets, chase cars and motorbikes, and just have a fun time together. Some look like strays while others look well kept. No collars. Of course it means you also have to watch where you walk. The ones loose on the street are the friendly ones generally, even when they roam in packs at times. Actually that’s only if you are walking. If you are on a motorbike you are fair game. Luckily I have solid knee high motorcycle boots. I’ve felt one dog make contact so far. It’s actually the ones behind the fences protecting their home that get scary.
My mates at my Pellehue cabin.
From Pellehue I started in land for a while. I did my normal method of choosing a destination and then setting my Locus Maps (GPS navigation app on my phone) to “Touring Cycling” mode which keeps me off highways and often finds some interesting back roads.
Some of the roads were good, like the one below but many were just harsh, jarring farm roads that didn’t have much scenery.
Near Los Ruiles.
I meandered south, at times on country roads, at times on the main southern tollway. Chile has toll booths that take cash in most places. It’s a bit of a pain trying to find as little as 200 pesos (about 35c AUD) on a motorbike with the queue building behind you but my technique improved over time. I did ride through some automatic only ones in Santiago, I tried to work out how to pay but gave up and I’m trusting the foreign number plate will cut me some slack. The manual tolls are always colourful with people selling all sorts of things as you stop to pay.
Nice room at Pura Lodge near Concepcion.
Dinner in my Temuco room after a long day. Finding a pre-made salad in a supermercado is rare.
View across Lake Panguipulli to volcano
Old Bridge near Los Lagos
Near Los Lagos
Lake Llanquihue
Volcan Orsorno from across Lake Llanquihue
I have had a question about security of my motorbike. Some sort of theft is always a concern and seems to be a concern of most people here. A big fence like the one below is standard on many properties, and have a few dogs. My experience with Chilean people has only been positive so far but there is obviously some bad element like all places.
Anyway, with the motorbike, during the day I always keep the bike and my gear in sight. My panniers are not secure and I’ll only each lunch where I can see the bike, for example. At night, I only stay with accommodation that has some sort of secure parking off the street. I will put on one of those motorcycle covers if it is still visible from the street, as in the place below. And I do have a disc lock alarm that I have used very occasionally. So far it’s pretty much the same as what I’d do in Australia. UPDATE – I ditched the motorcycle cover, but still use the disc lock when I want a little more perceived security.
My next main stop was Puerto Varas, where I needed to get a fix on one of my mirrors. This is really the start of the tourist area and entry to Patagonia. I ended up staying four nights here until my booking on the ferry south became available.
The next lot of photos were all within 200m of my accommodation.
My Puerto Varas apartment building. It was good hanging around for a while and I kind of got to know the family running it. Nice people.
My local shop. Gotta love that weatherboard. There are corner shops everywhere in Chile. Unfortunately it wasn’t until the last day I realised there was a classic small bakery down a laneway at the back.
Boss Dog.
A Falafel thingy from Zaatar Cocina de Oriente.
Hiking The Heysen Trail Quorn to Murray Town
Week 3 – October 2020
Puerto Varas to Coyhaique, Chile
Update 2 (early December 2022)