Diary & Travel Reports from the saddle

Santiago Chile. 29 January 2004

The Chileans have a low opinion of their country. But it is totally unjustified. Being the world’s longest country it has a diversity of scenery from the deserts of the north to the ice fields of the south. The very friendly people are party animals. The Brazilians have a lot to learn from the Chilean massive wood industry, replanting goes hand in hand with the clear cutting of the forests. I’m impressed.

It has been a lovely month, rounded off tonight with a presentation for the local bikers in downtown Santiago at the Clavo Oxidado Bar. Yes, again I find myself in the bosom of the country´s motorcycle community! I am staying with a friend Mario Molina, a member of the Aberrados MC who I met at a bike rally in Bariloche Argentina in December.

For the most developed (and most expensive) South American country the Chilean motorcycle community appears to be the most disjointed. There is no motorcycle street riders association at all and little regard for protecting and promoting our passion. The bikers seem quite content to live with the silly rule of having to display a front number plate. With UN harmonization of road rules this is one we don’t want on the international table. I shall have to tell the bikers to get rid of it or risk ridicule by the international motorcycle community.

On a much more positive note, Santiago is the only city I know which has one metre wide motorcycle only lanes. It is much safer because the right of way of motorcyclists is often ignored. As more people adopt motorcycles to beat congestion around the world this is one great idea for everywhere. Only four streets here have the lanes, no doubt if the bikers exercised some pressure on the authorities the scheme could be expanded. The initial reaction might well be “what right has this gringo to tell us what to do”, and I shall answer that Chile is not an island and unless we hang together we may well hang separately in the present era of globalization.

Yesterday, my birthday (39 years now, I’m feeling younger than I have for a long time) I received new front wheel bearings, new fork oil and seals (the third time in 175,000km) and a new back plate for my headlight fairing. The latter is handmade in aluminium by Johnny and his son Little John, Mario and Eduardo. My bike now has handmade parts of seven countries! The original, by British sponsor Simpson Detour, was finally laid to rest.

On the morning of leaving Ushuaia with Dutchman Maarten Munnik I had a most thrilling experience. A voice anounced “Simon Milward”, I looked up from fiddling with my luggage and there was none other than Tim Hoelter, Harley Davidson’s Vice President of Government Affairs and his lovely daughter Susannah. It was absolutely incredible, I have known Tim as a friend and compañero for years. Harley is one of the Millennium Ride’s biggest sponsors what with a big factory donation, lots of practical help in different parts of the world and many dealer donations too. The New Year is usually a time for family gatherings and this was mine! I shall never forget it.

When dogs run along beside my bike barking I have some fun by encouraging them to keep up for as long as possible, so they have a long walk back to their patch. In Ushuaia things got serious when Jorg (a Fin del Mundo Cross participant) broke a rib and killed a dog after it went under his front wheel. Several of us did the necessary complaints to the authorities and media. The dogs also bite pedestrians, there are 12,000 wild ones on Ushuaia’s streets. They cleared one of the streets of the dogs, and it was a little sad because only one fate awaits them. What can I say? Don’t visit Ushuaia if you want to avoid rabies through wild dog bites. Further north at a campsite in Bariloche a dog put his teeth into my jeans and missed my leg by about 1mm. The campsite and dog owner (same person) was quite surprised at my command of Spanish and the tourist office took up my complaint.

The ride north from the end of the world showed me a colony of penguins at Puerto St Julian on the Atlantic coast; a petrified forest with 75 million year old tree trunks at Sarmiento in Patagonia´s dinosaur region; a forest with big wood carvings overlooking El Bolson; the beautiful seven lakes road where swimming in the lakes is fine until you get into deep water when it is as cold as ice; and of course the statutory broken shock absorber.

Chile has thousands of rusting steam engines. In the town of Carahue they are beautifully restored and line the streets. It was great to be back on the Pacific coast again and I took to getting lunch and buying supper at the local fish markets.

Chile was cut off from the rest of Spain’s colonies in South America due to the desert in the North, the Andes in the East, the ice in the South and the Ocean in the West. So it developed rather independently. This gave rise to innovation and improvisation which can be seen to this day.

I like Chile.

Bye for now,
Simon

A solo fundraising round the world ride on a handmade motorcycle.
Supporting Doctors Without Borders and Health For All.

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