Southern Exposure

Friday, March 13

We woke and showered to feel more refreshed and went out to find breakfast. We stopped in at the vegetarian restaurant we wished had been open the night before. We were told they served breakfast and ordered veggie omelets. After waiting for ten minutes, the lady returned with a tiny eggplant and a piece of cheese, saying this was all she had. Nice vegetarian restaurant! Clearly we are not destined to eat well in this town, so we went next door to a cafe and had coffee and a cheese sandwich.

We rolled out back onto Ruta 5, and it was more of the same. A large, straight highway riding between desert foothills. We arrived in Temuco around 2:30 in the afternoon and found our way to the Kawasaki dealer where we had an appointment to change the sprockets. We easily found the shop, but were told they were in siesta until 4. Realizing we wouldn’t be done until 6, we looked around town for a hotel. We found a nice hotel for only a little more than we wanted to pay, and had them put our bottle of white wine we were carrying since our wine tour in the refrigerator. After lunch in their restaurant we headed back to the dealer.

My rear sprocket was beyond toast as between Santiago and here about 1/4 of the teeth had broken off. Inna’s still had all its teeth but it was not looking good. I had really hoping by putting a new chain and sprockets on in Los Angeles that they would last the trip. That was over 10,000 miles ago, and a new chain and rear sprocket were not optional. At least they had what we needed in stock.

The owner of the shop was a cool guy and he had helped many travelers buy KLRs to pick up and ride South America. We chatted about the roads ahead of us and he told us the scenery would be fantastic. We had brought the laptop with us, and while I helped the mechanic replace the chains and sprockets, Inna did some writing. We left two hours after we had arrived relieved but much poorer. I hope this is the last major service needed because spending money on parts is very unsatisfying.

We returned to the hotel and got back to work. We eased our financial sorrow by enjoying our bottle of wine. I went out to pick up some carry out while Inna caught up on email and the blog. It was difficult finding food as all of the stores were either cell phone stores or pharmacies. I did find a replacement for the battery charger for the small camera that I managed to loose somewhere. It was an ingenious charger from China that was basically a clip with two adjustable leads that could charge almost anything and only cost $8.

I was able to get ahold of the World Superbike races from Qatar, so we watched the first race and had an early night. We had high hopes for the next few days riding as we were entering the lakes district of Chile where we were told the scenery is fantastic.