Southern Exposure

Wednesday, March 11

After another great night’s sleep in a proper bed, Inna and I went down to savor the breakfast buffet. My mother and aunt Susan were up earlier and had already eaten. They went back to the Plaza de Armas to watch the changing of the guard at the presidential palace.

It was to be a more practical than a tourist day. The plan was for me to go shop for motorcycle parts while the ladies went to the mall to pick up some accessories for Inna and some wool undergloves for both of us if they had any. We’d meet up afterwards for lunch.

When I had dropped off the rental car the day before, I’d stopped by the Kawasaki dealer to check on the bikes. The steering bearings had been replaced successfully, but upon inspection the front brake pads were low. To my great chagrin, the rear sprockets were both finished as well but I hadn’t noticed. I told them to go ahead and put new pads in the front, but they didn’t have any rear sprockets.

I went off to the intersection of 10 de Julio and Lira, where the cheaper motorcycle shops were clustered. I wish we had areas like this at home. There were 9 or 10 shops all selling various parts and accessories for all types of bikes. After visiting them all, the bad news for me was no rear sprockets. If I had been paying attention I would have had my mother bring some along with all the other parts. I stopped by the Kawi dealer to remove the broken Starcom push to talk buttons for warranty exchange and returned to the hotel.

To my surprise, the ladies were still out front waiting for the free shuttle bus to the mall and they’d been waiting for half an hour. They’re much more patient than I am. We hopped in a taxi and took the long ride over to the mall. The mall was a standard mall and we could just as well have been in Orange County. Inna found what she was looking for but none of the gloves at the North Face store would fit under our winter riding gloves.

We couldn’t resist the exquisite mall cuisine after so much typical Chilean/South American food. We loaded up on iced coffees/lattes/frappacinos at Starbucks before we shopped, and when we were leaving, we decided we’d go to Asian Bistro. A cuisine with a different palette sounded so good and Inna and I were salivating over the idea of spices and curries. We had a nice family lunch together outside on the patio. I was so happy to eat vegetarian noodles in a peanut sauce, while Inna had a curried eel. Our taste buds were bursting with joy to experience something different.

After returning to the hotel, Inna and I left to pick up the bikes so we could get an early start the next day. The parts were more expensive than they should have been, but the real kicker was learning that they had put synthetic oil in the bikes. I was livid and let it be known. We had discussed the oil to be put in beforehand, and the word synthetic had never come up. I should have been more specific but I really thought it was all clear. This is very frustrating as the the red bike will now get to burn and leak more expensive oil. With nearly 20,000 miles on the bikes, switching to synthetic isn’t a bad move, but I would prefer not to waste the money on the red bike given the rate it consumes oil.

I did manage to get a 20% discount on the bill, and we rode off back to the hotel. It felt good to ride again, and even better to have a bike that steers easily. Inna had become so used to stiff, notchy steering she thought the bike felt unstable. The garage attendant at the hotel was surprised to see us again as we parked ourselves in the same spots.

We lounged around the hotel and watched a soap opera being filmed in the lobby. 5 o’clock rolled around, and it was time for my mother and aunt Susan to go to the airport. We said our farewells and they were off in the taxi to the airport. It was a sad moment for me, as it had been great to see my mother again, especially after missing xmas, and getting to see my aunt Susan was a wonderful surprise. Inna and I really enjoyed having them visit and it felt a little quiet with them gone.

We had one night of guaranteed comfort left, so we ate dinner in the hotel room and spent the evening doing our favorite past time, writing. Our wonderful vacation from our vacation was over. My back was finally starting to feel better and I didn’t notice it every time I moved, so the week off the bike had paid big health dividends.

We uttery failed and took zero pictures today.