Uspallata to Santiago
A shorter riding day up though the cold pass and crossing the Border back into Chile, we rode out as a group, the ride along the pass was accompanied by very strong cross winds. The pass wended it way up through the Andean mountains with a number of tunnels until as we approached the border, there was a very long tunnel through the mountain. The border crossing was very complicated as it was a combined Chilean/Argentinean run post, with numerous forms to be filed in and stamped at a confusing array of windows.
Purely by chance I went to each window in the correct order and with the correct forms, leaving me 20 minutes ahead of all the others. As we had to ride in a group into Santiago I waited until the others we through and joined the group behind the tour leader Kevin.
We rode all the way to control point were we were to meet the police rider escort, however we were some 2 hours early so had to wait there until the appointed time. We were met by the owner of the BMW service centre and the police and escorted all the way into Santiago with traffic being stopped and TV cameras taking pictures.
Miles
Today 173
Total 17696
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Tuesday 3rd November to Friday 6th November
Santiago
Bike servicing and 4 days off
Miles
Today 0
Total 17696
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Saturday 7th November
Santiago to Salto de Laja
Long riding day south of the city on motorway it was very much more developed here than northern Chile and very like Europe. A colder day with temperatures closer to England had all of us with our warm clothing and layers beneath our riding jackets.
We had some rain along the way and other than a stop for lunch at a Bavarian restaurant we stayed on the motorway all the way to the small tourist village of Salto de Laja which has a very impressive waterfall. Lucky the late evening sun came out and I got some nice pictures of the waterfall with a rainbow in the spray.
Miles
Today 303
Total 17999
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Sunday 8th November
Salto de Laja to Osorno
This was another straight riding day along the motorway south of Santiago, and again very cold. As we had little to do but ride most of us were feeling the cold today even though it was n colder than yesterday. Osorno was were we were to get new tyres, off road front and back, so we had to get there as early as possible, an early start and straight riding with a few coffee stops. Having left the panniers at the hotel we went straight to the garage to get the new tyres fitted.
Miles
Today 285
Total 18284
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