On Monday morning we go back to BMW and unfortunaely the news we get from them are not great.
There is a faulted electric module that needs to be replaced and we need to order the part from Germany.
If we are lucky the part will arrive next Monday 28th so that the bike will be probably ready on Tuesday the 29th.
To make things worse they cannot guarantee that the part will arrive on time nor that, once fitted, the bike will work perfectly (more tests will be required then).
As we head back to the hotel we realise that our idea to cover at least 1000 kms driving south before going to Easter island is now out of the questions.
Our internal flight from Temuco to Santiago is also turned into a waste of money.
We extend our stay at the hotel until the 25th (the day we fly to Easter Island) and we also book it for the 29th (the day we come back).
In view of our loyalty (11 days at Casa Bonita!!) the Dutch owner grants us a 15% discount for the entire period.
It is now time to make some difficult decisions.
First of all we need to cancel some bookings that we made in advance in the lake district area and in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego
The big question however is: can we gamble and hope that the bike will be actually ready on the 29th and most importantly do we have enough time to reach Ushuaia on the 9th of December?
Maybe is because we keep receiving inconsitent information about the state of the bike but somehow we are losing faith in BMW's ability to deliver on time and in the end we both agree that the risk that the bike would not be ready on the 29th is very high.
Most importantly rushing down to Ushuaia would mean that we would barely see any of the places on the road, nullifying the whole purpose of the journey.
We spend the 2 following days on 2 computers (ours and Casa Bonita’s) checking flights, buses and hotels and in the end we come up with a new master plan:
-We stay in Santiago until the 25th of November
- We fly to Easter Island on the 25th and we come back on the 29th
-We sleep one more night in Santiago
-We leave the bike at BMW until the 22nd of December so that they can take all the time they need to fix it completely
-We fly to Punta Arenas in the south of Chile on the 30th of November
-We travel around the area by bus and spend 4 days in parque national Torre del Paine and 4 days in El Calafate (Glacier Perrito Moreno)
- We fly to Ushuaia from El Calafate on the 9th of December
-We board on our ship to Antartica on the 10th of December and we come back on the 20th
-On the 21st of December we travel back to Punta Arenas by bus (10 hrs journey, no flights available)
-On the 22nd of December we fly to Santiago where we can collect our bike and proceed with our journey.
The biggest change of all is however what’s going to happen after the 22nd of December.
In our original plan we would have been in Ushuaia, which means we would have spent the following 2/3 weeks driving back north, then parking the bike in Buenos Ayres around the 10th of January and finishing off the trip by flying to Iguazu for few days and (maybe) Rio de Janeiro.
Now that the bike is already 3000 kms north of Ushuaia we are going to attempt the following:
- 22nd of December we pick up the bike in the morning and pop 400 km south in the afternoon in hope to say merry Xmas to our friend Hector in Villa Allegre
-23rd and 24th of December we head further south to Pucon and Puerto Varas and then we cross to Argentina.
-25/26/27 we visit Bariloche for Xmas
-28/29/30 we cover 1600 kms in 3 days heading north to Santa Fe
-31st of December and 1/2/3 of January we spend NYE with Paola Ponce and her Family in Santa Fe (BTW she does not know it yet)
4/5/6/7 We head north to the Brazilian border to visit the Iguazu Falls
-From 8th to 20th of January we visit the south coast of Brazil (From Florianopolis downwards). We will attempt to catch a flight from Florianopolis to Rio for a weekend of samba and cachaca.
-21st and 22nd we cross Uruguay and reach Buenos Ayres
23-29 We spend 1 week in BA and organise the shipping of the bike back in the UK.
Ambitious but possible. Please keep your fingers crossed for us.
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