San Antonio and the motorcycle pick-up

Day 28 (01.12.22):

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We were excited and anxious to start our motorcycle tour, and getting up very early didn't make it any easier: our bus left Valparaíso at 7am and arrived in San Antonio at 9am, where we met our contact Ronny at the bus terminal.

He was still waiting for two more guys to arrive from Santiago de Chile, but according to the bus terminal staff, all the morning buses had already arrived. After waiting another half hour, we decided to leave since there were already other people waiting for us at the port. Just as we were leaving the terminal area, Ronny saw another bus arrive from Santiago. He turned around and - good for them - the other two motorcyclists were on this delayed bus.

Waiting at the harbor entrance building ...

Including Helge and me, there were a total of 9 people who wanted their bikes back after so many weeks: Three other Germans (including @DatBenzin, whom we already met in Hamburg when we dropped off our bikes), a couple from France (@unquatredeux), another guy from France and one from Switzerland. We were all very happy when we got our bikes back in one piece and even happier when all the bikes started without any problems after reconnecting the batteries.

Some waiting for customs and bureaucracy followed and we took the opportunity to ask Ronny for advice for the tour. We should have video taped it instead of trying to keep up writing everything down. He was providing so much valuable information in such a short time :).

Listening to Ronny's advice for tour options

Around 1pm we were all ready to go.

According to Ronny's description on the drive to the port, all we had to do was follow this one road in the opposite direction, turn around twice, and then we should be right at a gas station. We had seen it before on the other side of the road. But talented as we are, we didn't find it again. Our combined sense of direction didn't help and we drove in a few circles around San Antonios until we stopped, checked the map and drove to another gas station nearby.

Finally, we were able to begin our adventure.