See You In Sunny South America

Friday's forecast for Santiago: Scattered Clouds. High: 87 °F . Wind SSW 20 mph

Strong Earthquakes Shake Central Chile

A Small Part Of Santiago Yesterday, Dec. 18,2008, the central part of Chile, including the capital city of Santiago, as well as the countries main port city of Valparaiso was shaken by an earthquake magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale. The initial earthquake was followed by a second quake of 5.8 Richter degrees, according to the USGS. After shocks continued today with smaller quakes being felt in Santiago this morning. Head of the Chilean Emergency Office (ONEMI) Carmen Fernandez said that "there are no reports of damages due to the quake. It's part of a normal seismic activity."

Metzler Bike Tires In Chile

MX Moto, Santiago, Chile

Good news on the Tire front. Eric Cleaveland, a good friend of mine that just returned from a ride from the southern most point in South America to Alaska, recommended the Metzler Tourance tires for the rough gravel roads in Chile and Argentina. So I did a little investigating and found a Metzler dealer in Santiago, Chile http://www.mx.cl/ . Yesterday I called the dealer in Chile and spoke with Jorge to see what the availability would be for the Tourance tires. Jorge told me "No Problemo" and has set two tires aside for me so when I start my trip to Ushuaia, I will start on a new set of Tourance tires.

As you can see from the picture above, the Tourance has a nice aggressive tread, but is also a good highway and wet road tire. Users of this tire have reported very good off road handling as well as long life for this tire.

REVISED ROUTE

I have been studying the maps a little closer lately to see if there is a route that would take me primarily down the Chilean side of the Andes Mountains staying on the road called "La Carretera Austral" ("The Southern Road" marked in YELLOW). Taking this route would mean that there would be some Ferry crossings involved (marked in BLUE), so this morning I contacted the Ferry company http://www.navieraustral.cl/, in that part of Chile,to get some up to date information. I had hoped to ride to the town of Hornopiren and take the Ferry from there to the town of Caleta Gonzalo (marked in RED) and then ride on to Chaiten and points south. Good thing I called, because I found out that the Ferry between Hornopiren and Caleta Gonzalo is not running. Instead, I will have to take the short Ferry from Pargua, on the mainland just south of Puerto Montt, to Chacao on the island of Chiloe, a trip I have made before. Once on the island, I will ride to the town of Castro about half way down the island of Chiloe, where I can board a Ferry that will take me to Chaiten. I am a bit surprised that the Ferry is still running to Chaiten since the town was pretty much destroyed by the eruption of the near-by volcano back in May of this year, but I was assured the Ferry is running to Chaiten.