The Americas - Week 1: One bike, two people and two breakdowns in two days!

It was a lot of talk, a few start dates came and went but it's finally it is here. This week I started my America's trip.

The plan started as a one person 9 month North-South run down the American continents taking in Prudoe Bay, Alaska down to Ushuaia in Argentine. However somehow over time it has morphed into a two- person, two part trip starting in the south and heading north (with the mid trip break in southern USA).

The second person is my girlfriend Gaby who I convinced to come with me for at least part of the trip. So New Year's eve saw both of us flying into Santiago to meet up after 3 months apart.

The final part of the equation, the bike, also arrived somewhat surprising me by being 2 days ahead of schedule.  Getting it out of the airport and customs the next day proved remarkably easy except for the airport ATM which are my card - one day into the to and I'm already one card down 😢.

The next couple of days were spent in a mix of sight seeing Santiago and all the adminstrative trivia one has to do when starting a long ride. Santiago didn't do much for me - it is very much a world city and often one felt you could be almost anywhere, a same cars, same clothes, same advertising, same modern architecture and so on. The admin side included working out how we were going to fit all our stuff on one smallish bike but surprisingly it all did eventually and then we were ready for the the road.

Our first target after Santiago was the coastal city of Valparaiso - a place which suddenly was much more"South American" in feel. Suddenly I was much happier.

The only downside of the trip so far has been the bike has broken down on each of the two days we have risen it; a minor electrical issue on day one stopped is at the side of a motorway on day one and then a brand new clutch cable snapped on day two. Both quickly fixed but frustrating.

At the moment the phone app on which in doing this blog won't let me attach photos direct so here is a link with some photos from those first few days.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hNXlPP7vtnOKo5dS2