Santiago at last

I was really excited about seeing Richard but unfortunately, despite his best attempts to prevent any delay, the airline managed to cause him to miss his connection and he was 24 hours late arriving in Santiago. We had an uneventful ride into the city and with no-one to meet at the airport we were under no time pressure. The ride was a little chilly just like most of the morning rides, but the sky was blue and promising. Santiago is a huge city and though we had really studied the maps the previous night there was little hope of us finding the apartment so, after I eventually managed to get the taxi guys to understand me, I got in the cab and we led Brian through the city to our accommodation. The cab driver had little understanding of the need to make sure the bike could follow. He hardly used his indicators as he started ducking and diving through traffic. I held my necker out of the window so Brian could see where we were and not loose us in amongst all the other identical black and yellow cabs and asked the senior to 'lento, lento' but with little effect. The apartment was brilliant and in a really nice part of the city close to lots of different restaurants and bars. All we had to do now was wait to meet Richard to arrive the following day.

His flight was delayed, again. Few flights arrived as we waited for 2 hours then 5 or 6 fights disembarked at the same time and came into the terminal through two different entrances making it very difficult to see anyone. We decided to split up so we didn't miss him. It was fantastic to finally see him, and remarkably calm and cheerful considering everything that had happened to get him here. It didn't take long before he was unpacked and we were on our way to one of the nearby watering holes.

What a laugh. We very quickly started to feel the affects of the alcohol and Brian and Richard certainly drank enough to eventually slip into unconsciousness.

It's a good job I took photos and videos of the evening so they could be made aware of events that they had no memory of the following day.

The next day was the first of the memorable days in Santiago. Richard had arranged for us to fly over the Andes in a helicopter.

For Richard and Brian the helicopter is a very familiar thing but for me it was very new and I had no idea what to expect.

It was amazing! The pilot was quite a comedian, the views were spectacular and the whole thing was over far too quickly. The Andes and I kissed and made up after the cruelty they had shown me in Peru.



We flew over a couple of very nice ski resorts and even spotted a couple of Condors soaring around the mountain tops. Breathtaking. I definitely recommend the helicopter as a means of transport. Taking of and landing is a little peculiar but not at all unpleasant. It just feels a little wrong when your just sat there, hovering.

Richard used to work with a guy who lives and works in Santiago and we were introduced to Henri, a keen biker who also had a friend that rode BMW.

Henri was really enthusiastic about meeting and helping us. He is such a friendly and generous guy and it was a real joy to spend time with him. Henri had organised the apartment for us, arranged for the shed to be serviced by a very experienced BMW mechanic and took us all to a Peruvian restaurant for lunch. It was delicious. I even enjoyed the Cerviche (marinated raw seafood) In the evening we went to Henri's home to meet his wife Laura and some of his friends and to enjoy a fantastic BBQ. Laura brought us lots of different nibbles, some of which were very traditional dishes and, as we know from previous blogs, I don't always get on with 'traditional' The meat they served was Argentinian beef and I haven't tasted anything quite like it. We ate large, thick and juicy steaks which were cooked to perfection. My mouth is watering now just thinking about them. The night was a lot of fun with all of us swapping stories and having a really good laugh.


Time seemed to pass incredibly quickly and we were sorry to be saying our farewells. A big, big thank you toHenri and Laura for their fantastic and generous hospitality.

That was the end of our first full day with Richard, but believe me there were a lot more laughs to come but that's for another blog.