South Chile on the KTM 990 Adventure

The day after Kevin died, Walter and Barton decide we should not ride as intended.  At lunch time, they made another decision that they should get Sherri Jo drunk.. "Kevin would want you to get drunk..". They've never met Kevin, however they were doing anything they could to cheer me up, so I went to lunch with them. I had two sips of a pisco sour and it threw me right into tears that were not going to end so I went back to the cabin and left them to the piscos.  All I could think of is finding out what happened to Kevin.. how, where, etc etc etc.

Several hours later, the boys returned in the dark.. and this is what I got!  Two really annoying very drunk guys!  But I am only too glad to have them around at the moment..

The following day we needed to ride toward Santiago as Walter has a flight back to Europe to catch.  And it might be better for me to ride and have something else to concentrate on.

In Santiago, back to Martyn and Katie's home, the packing of Husabergs begins.

I said my goodbyes to Walter and Barton..  They've been great.  We've had an amazing few weeks together.  It was very sad to see them go...

Now I'm on my own again for the first time in a long time.  And I have NO IDEA what to do.  I was waiting on Kevin, we were going to explore Argentina and Chile for a bit before he had to go back to work in Canada for 6 months.  Now, I don't feel like riding a motorcycle, I don't feel like riding alone, I don't feel like staying still, I don't feel like going home, I can't seem to work out anything.

What's funny is I have a KTM 990 Adventure to use until my own motorcycle is fixed, and I should really take advantage of that.  But I don't want to ride it.

I decided I should go somewhere. Not sure where, but I decided to ride a bit.  Martyn gave me a suggestion for a seaside town he likes and it might be a great place to be alone for a while.

I saw the graffiti said "K-Life" and it made me stop in my tracks.. "Kevin's Life..."

So this is where I stayed at a place called "Donde Gilberto" for 3 days.  It was such a nice place for a good price and the staff were fantastic.

I'm feeling guilty that big 990 just sitting there, but I'm still not enthused to go exploring with it and more want to find out if my 690 is fixed so I can get out of here.

Seaweed For Sale

They are collecting seaweed for drying.

Plenty of tsunami evacuation routes here.  Not a surprise, since I have been in the Santiago I have felt 4 earthquakes.  The first one, I woke up in my room at Martyn and Katies standing at the window in the dark.  I must have heard the window shaking and walked to it in my sleep and then when I woke up it was quite a surprise.  The trembling finished shortly after and I was able to work out it was an earthquake and I went back to bed.

The second earthquake, I was sitting at the kitchen table chatting to Katie and the walls started swaying back and forth.  I was just staring at them in fascination and commenting to Katie how incredible it was.  I never realized solid walls could move like ocean waves when I hear Martyn yell at us.. "Get out of the f'ing house NOW!!!"  I didn't think of it as an emergency until he said that and then I was shaking myself!

I rode back to Chillan to see if my 690 might be ready, but they were still waiting on parts to arrive Austria.  When they installed the piston incorrectly, causing it to fail, the damage from the failure went farther needing a new cylinder, timing chain, etc.. too many things to list.  Chillan is a not a town worth hanging around in.  So I went another direction on the 990 to the mountains and ski area.  And here I stopped and waited a few more days.  Everything is closed and very boring out of season.

When I saw the light in this photo, I was hoping it's a sign that Kevin's spirit is riding along with me.  He would love these roads and of course the 990!

I'm parked at the post office near the handicapped spaces because the local horses were hogging up the other spaces.. ha!

I went back to Chillan to see if my motorcycle is ready for the second time. It was not but they promised it would be the next day (Saturday).  I have been enjoying the 990 as much as I could, but I am looking forward to having my own bike back.  For one, I feel really trapped not being able to leave the country on the 990.  I still don't know where to go, but now I feel I want to get out of Chile.

When I picked up my bike and they are telling me about the repairs, I see the oil leaking.. not a good sign! ;-(

They quickly laid it down and fixed a seal. After, I went out the gate to re-pack my panniers with a plan to ride to Santiago and back to Martyn and Katies home.  I can only hope the bike will work okay as they've all gone home now for the weekend.

It does work, but it had very low power.  My bike had a fire, a fair bit of umph before they did all of this.  Now it is very sluggish, but at least it works.  I do not want to take it back to them again.

It was good to be back to my temporary Santiago home and somehow managed to talk Katie in to going on a little ride with us.  She has not been keen to ride with Martyn on his KTM 990 since moving here to Chile.  So we found a jacket, her daughters ski pants and a helmet.

I'm happy to report that she enjoyed that ride and has been doing a lot of longer distance rides with Martyn ever since, which he is over the moon about.

As for me, I've decided to move on to Mendoza, Argentina.