My friend, Makaela, will ferry me, my bike, and other baggage to Seattle where I will fly first to Atlanta, Georgia. After a short layover of less than two hours, I will fly, overnight, to Santiago, Chile. Fortunately, I have a longer layover in Santiago which will, hopefully, give me enough time to get through customs, and get my stuff on the flight to Puerto Montt. Once everything arrives in Puerto Montt, THEN I will relax. Until then…a bit nervous.
I’ll carry on the two Aeroe dry bags (strapped together) and the backpack. Everything else is in the IKEA Frakta bag. My plan is to fold up that bag, and carry it with me on the ride…assuming it survives the flights. That way, at the end, I’ll only have to get another bike box.
Billy, my Priority 600X hardtail, is the bike getting to go on this adventure. As you can see, he is packed into his box. This will be the 4th flight for this box (not counting its shipping from Priority, which was probably by truck). The nice thing about the Priority is that it doesn’t have a derailleur to worry about. It’s a Pinion gear box with a Gates Carbon Belt Drive.
Even though I still have a week to go, most everything is packed.
I’ll carry on the two Aeroe dry bags (strapped together) and the backpack. Everything else is in the IKEA Frakta bag. My plan is to fold up that bag, and carry it with me on the ride…assuming it survives the flights. That way, at the end, I’ll only have to get another bike box.
Billy, my Priority 600X hardtail, is the bike getting to go on this adventure. As you can see, he is packed into his box. This will be the 4th flight for this box (not counting its shipping from Priority, which was probably by truck). The nice thing about the Priority is that it doesn’t have a derailleur to worry about. It’s a Pinion gear box with a Gates Carbon Belt Drive.
So what’s left to do? I have to get cash in the form of nice crisp, new, US dollars. I discovered, in Nepal last year, they can be pretty picky about the condition of US currency when exchanging money. Weirdly, in some instances in Chile, there is a discount if one pays with US currency.
Within 48 hours of leaving, I need to get proof of onward travel (I just have a one-way ticket). This can be done in a few different ways. One is to purchase a cheap ticket out of Chile that I won’t use…a throwaway ticket. Another option is to purchase a fully refundable ticket that I can then cancel as soon as I get to Puerto Montt. A third option, and what I will do, is to “rent” a ticket. There are a few websites where, for a small fee, they book a ticket for you that goes away after 48 hours. You are given proof of onward travel that you can show…if asked. Then, you don’t have to do anything else. I’ll purchase my ticket home when I have a better idea of when that will be.
I plan to blog while I’m in SA, however, I’m sure I will not be able to post every day. I will upload posts when I have WiFi. I am not getting a SIM card for my phone. If I need to have service, I can turn on data for $10 for 24 hours. This is what I did for Australia. In four months time, I turned on my phone 5 times. That was cheaper than getting SIM cards. So, don’t worry if you don’t see a blog post. Just know I will be writing them, and uploading when I can.
Until that first blogpost, wish me luck getting myself and all my stuff to Puerto Montt all together, and in one piece.
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