20th of March - Santiago to La Serena – pushing the rope
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In the morning I wrote to Sony asking if we could pick the camera the same day. An hour later an e-mail came back with the info that based on the quotation included I should decide whether to do the service or not. Oh no! After all these days of waiting...
We packed our things and drove with the metro straight to the service center to find out that the camera was ready. Great! :-)
From there we walked the 7 km under the burning sun to KTM because they said that the moto would be ready in the afternoon only. We arrived there at around 3 pm. The heart of the bike was still open so we decided to go to Gaston first to pick the soldered box and stabilized part of the rack, anticipating that KTM would need longer and we couldn’t pick the parts anymore because Gaston would be home already.
When we returned to KTM it still looked like a time consuming job was left. Erick and the service chef said “just another 45 min”.
We contacted Mauricio from Touratech when he would go home which he informed at 7pm. At 6:15pm I decided that it would be better if he would send in the part by taxi because the bike didn’t look ready yet.
At 7:30pm we were off just when the KTM store closed. Ok, done but somewhat with stress in our heads.



Last views of Santiago..

Last minute delivery of the rack from Touratech by taxi...here with Erick from KTM

So happy to get the bike back finally

Happy Start in the morning of the 20th.
3 minutes later the bike was on the ground and so were we. A small truck pushed back when we wanted to stear on the street and pushed us off the bike. Great start. But luckily nothing happened except that Ying got a bruise on her leg.

And end of journey after 150km only. 30 km before in Las Vilos I called Erick and described the problem. The bike had no power to climb even small hills. Erick said we should try to get to La Serena where is the next KTM shop. After 30 km we hobbIed on a big parking lot beside the highway. The ladies from an Empanada booth were very helpful...in the end we found a truck driver who offered us a lift to La Serena. Thank you!


In the middle of the night we unloaded the bike on the Routa 5 just in front of an upper class resort: 120 USD a night. No, so we had to push further another 1.5km. The Punta Verde Hotel was cheaper but still contributing to an expensive night: 40.000 for the truck driver, 35.000 for the hotel made roughly 110 Euros. But we had the bike close to the KTM shop.
In the morning I pushed again the bike..now the 1.5 km to the KTM shop. Exhausting :-)

Knowing all the KTM shops over Chile...that was not our plan

La Serena. Helpful and very freindly Marco from Hostal Croatia organised a cheaper location for us and also a pick up for our clothes.

« Back to journal
In the morning I wrote to Sony asking if we could pick the camera the same day. An hour later an e-mail came back with the info that based on the quotation included I should decide whether to do the service or not. Oh no! After all these days of waiting...
We packed our things and drove with the metro straight to the service center to find out that the camera was ready. Great! :-)
From there we walked the 7 km under the burning sun to KTM because they said that the moto would be ready in the afternoon only. We arrived there at around 3 pm. The heart of the bike was still open so we decided to go to Gaston first to pick the soldered box and stabilized part of the rack, anticipating that KTM would need longer and we couldn’t pick the parts anymore because Gaston would be home already.
When we returned to KTM it still looked like a time consuming job was left. Erick and the service chef said “just another 45 min”.
We contacted Mauricio from Touratech when he would go home which he informed at 7pm. At 6:15pm I decided that it would be better if he would send in the part by taxi because the bike didn’t look ready yet.
At 7:30pm we were off just when the KTM store closed. Ok, done but somewhat with stress in our heads.
Last views of Santiago..
Last minute delivery of the rack from Touratech by taxi...here with Erick from KTM
So happy to get the bike back finally
Happy Start in the morning of the 20th.
3 minutes later the bike was on the ground and so were we. A small truck pushed back when we wanted to stear on the street and pushed us off the bike. Great start. But luckily nothing happened except that Ying got a bruise on her leg.
And end of journey after 150km only. 30 km before in Las Vilos I called Erick and described the problem. The bike had no power to climb even small hills. Erick said we should try to get to La Serena where is the next KTM shop. After 30 km we hobbIed on a big parking lot beside the highway. The ladies from an Empanada booth were very helpful...in the end we found a truck driver who offered us a lift to La Serena. Thank you!
In the middle of the night we unloaded the bike on the Routa 5 just in front of an upper class resort: 120 USD a night. No, so we had to push further another 1.5km. The Punta Verde Hotel was cheaper but still contributing to an expensive night: 40.000 for the truck driver, 35.000 for the hotel made roughly 110 Euros. But we had the bike close to the KTM shop.
In the morning I pushed again the bike..now the 1.5 km to the KTM shop. Exhausting :-)
Knowing all the KTM shops over Chile...that was not our plan
La Serena. Helpful and very freindly Marco from Hostal Croatia organised a cheaper location for us and also a pick up for our clothes.
