Santiago (Take 2)

In our mind Santiago was always the place where we would regroup and get re-organised before our final part of the trip.
For this reason we had also booked the bike service at the BMW mechanic centre in Avenida Las Condes.
As agreed via email we took the bike there on Friday morning. As I parked the bike in front of the BMW door the bike.........well, litterally powered itself off!!
The screen was showing no signs of life only 6 letters: IGN OFF
Now, what are the chances for a motorcycle to breakdown exactly as you enter into the parking of your mechanic?! In this instance is very simple to calculate: 1 in 13000, since 13000 is the number of kms we covered without having any problems.
Let's say that in our mysfortune we were very lucky. I would rather be here than in the Bolivian desert.

We left the bike there for the day hoping for the best.

We spent the rest of the day at the museum "casa Neruda". (Chascona)

Nobel prize winner in 1971 Neruda is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.
He had a very interesting life to say the least! Married 3 times he lived many years abroad as consul, job that took him as far as Burma.
Back in Chile he had to escape into exile in 1949.
When he eventually came back to Chile he finally married Matilde (3rd wife), the woman he loved and who had been his secret mistress for years.
The museum is actually the pied a terre where Neruda used to see Matilde in secret.
Neruda died in 1973, 12 days after the Pinochet's golpe.
The army stormed immediately into the Chascona with the order to destroy it by flooding it, using the water from an hand made canal that Neruda had built in the garden.

In this picture Elena is standing next to a mosaic that used to act as small waterfall.
Behind in the yellow building, a small private bar. Neruda used to like drinking his coctails with the sound of water nearby.

Luckily Matilde was able to save many pieces of Neruda's many collections and spent the following years restoring this beautiful house.
Not to be missed.
We came back at BMW at 5.30 pm Luckily they told us that the bike was fine but unfortunately they were about to close for the day (and the week) and they had no time to change the tyres.
As we wanted to leave Santiago the following day I asked whether they knew another mechanic that was open till late that could change the tyres.
They pointed us to moto adventure in avenida Kennedy that did the job between 7 ad 7.30 pm.

With the bike in tip top condition we were now ready to leave Santiago heading to Valparaiso.