Terramoto's and Chile By Dark....

---

We had major drama to clear the motos from customs in San Antonio, as the day we were to that, we had traveled with great expectations 120 south of Vina del Mar to the port of San Antonio. On arrival at the port we were informed that the container had been damaged in transit, so until an assessor has been we can't open the container, have you any idea how frustrating that is !!. The left hand door had a mighty whack and had been forced inwards. Now we were concerned about the state of the motos, as if the container had been dropped ????.
We had to wait for the shipping company rep to arrive, but about then all decisions were taken from us as a 6.4 Teramoto (earthquake) rocked us about, power poles were swaying about, big trucks were rocking about and an 1800 concrete fence, thought it was a snake.
Soon after this sirens sounded and they closed the port and actioned an evacuation order to get to higher ground as a Tsunami was threatened to flood the area, so we abandoned our damaged container and made for the hills, with thousands of others.
The decision was made to abandon the day and head back to Vina, where we had left the girls.
We made it through the traffic to the hills above Vina del Mar, and only had to wait about an hour befor the the alert was called off.

The next day we redid the previous day, but not quite so early, as Customs and the assessor would not be there until 1.00pm.
Then the fun started as soon after that they all went to lunch and will not open again until 4.00pm. We were lucky the motos were all secure as we had loaded it, so that was a least a blessing.
Well, one of our BMW riders, found that his VIN and Plate No. did not match the details on the ownership papers, the only thing correct on the papers was his name and address!!! Some how there had been a mix up when two R800GS bikes were registered at the same time? And these details had never been checked! So it looked like the Moto will stay here!
Right now it was about 35deg, and we had a very grumpy fellow doing the paper work, but for some obscure reason, Vince had bought his original Sale and Purchase agreement from Experience BMW, and Enzo had the bright idea, that we tell them this is the new ownership papers that we have now in NZ, as our bikes are all older, that is why ours were different.
I will let Vince explain the "My boss is Gay" thing, but when he had no problem with that, the previously grumpy fellow, was smiling and laughing with Vince and proceeded to happily do his paperwork, in half the time it took him to do ours.

We eventually left San Antonio, to head back to Vina and pick up the girls and our luggage and head for Tongoy, this would be a 500km plus ride today/night.
We stopped about two thirds of the way at about 11.30pm, for food and coffee, but we still a way to go yet, everyone was in good spirits as we were all riding our motos after all the frustration.
Well, about an hour after our break, I was leading the ride at around 110kmh, when suddenly, everything died, I mean DEAD, deader than a Dodo, it was lucky for me that Vince was following quite close, so at least he gave me some light to find the edge of the motorway and pull off onto the shoulder.

As it was now about 1.30 am, we made the decision to load it onto the truck and sort it out later.
We arrived at our hotel in Tongoy at 2.45am, just in time for a lay down before breakfast. There was no happy hour here tonight, as everyone just hit the sack, a little weary.

I will post another blog, shortly on our next few days of adventure.
Cheers, Rosco

---

Photos

Terramoto Damage
The Customs office in San Antonio damaged in the Terramoto.

Ready to ride
Leaving Vina del Mar

Chile by night
Rosco lets Team Kawasaki down....

Tongoy
What a picture

Comments

[Grant]

Shakey ground
Sounds like the road of death might be the safest place to be!