Ride To The End Of The World – Fin del Mundo (Part 1)

New Hampshire’s winter snows make for fine skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling, but not exceptionally good motorcycling.  With autumn over and the real winter rapidly settling in, our motorcycling would be relegated to our anxious dreams awaiting the spring.  It is always a funny feeling knowing that our thoughts would be similar in nature to those of the hibernating wild animals tucked away in their dens awaiting the new growth fresh berries with the coming thaw of spring.  Each year, to both of us spring couldn’t come too soon.

But this year would be different.  We were traveling to a place where at this time of year it would be warm and there would be no snow except very high in the mountains.  It was time for me to bone up on my Spanish because this winter we were going to ride to the Fin del Mundo, or translated into English, to the “end of the earth”.

We were flying from Boston, Massachusetts into Santiago, Chile where the following day we’d hop a short flight to Pucon, Chile to start our riding adventure.   Our route would ultimately take us from Pucon, Chile a ski resort with its own volcano to Ushuaia, Argentina at the very tip of South America.  In fact, it’s the furthest south you can get on any land mass on the planet.  Antarctica is composed entirely of ice, so it does not count.

So as the days of November increased, instead of padding around in small circles worrying that the NH snow would soon blanket the roads and trails ending riding for another season, we were actually quite spry, gathering all our riding gear and stashing it in our luggage for the flight to Chile.  No sitting about for us this year, we were ready to ride!

So when the appointed day came in mid November, we boarded our flight in Boston and after a quick stop in Dallas for a bowl of some rather spicy chile and nachos, we once again boarded another plane, our destination once again Chile, this time the country, not the kind you eat.  The flight was crowded, loud and the lavatory on the aircraft overflowed, but other than that, the flight was uneventful.  Upon landing, we cleared customs and grabbed a cab to our hotel which was quite nice.

It was warm and sunny outside so we decided that since we only had an overnight in Santiago, we’d better make the best of it and we went for a walk to take in the sights and grab a quick lunch.  It immediately became clear that Santiago was an alive and bustling city.  Traffic moved chaotically, people walked on the sidewalks and went about their business, while others sat at the sidewalk cafe’s enjoying lunch, espresso or just good conversation.

But as we walked around, we found that we weren’t apparently all that far from home.  As we rounded a corner, we came to none other than a Dunkin’ Donuts shop.  Complete with a sign in Spanish that read “Energiza tu vida!” or Energize your life!  Jeez, I didn’t know that Dunkin’ Donuts did that.  I wonder what different stuff they put in the donuts in South America?  We continued walking around for a couple of hours, bought dinner and returned to our hotel to get ready for tomorrow’s flight to Pucon where our journey to the end of the earth would start in earnest.

When we awoke the following morning the weather was excellent and after breakfast we headed to the airport for our hour long flight to Pucon.  That flight was indeed uneventful and we arrived rested and ready to go.  We were picked up by a van for the brief ride from the airport to our hotel.  Immediately we began to see signs for the ski resort there as well as Pucon’s own volcano.  Ultimately, we were dropped at another hotel at the edge of town with an excellent view of Pucon’s own volcano, Villarica.  It is indeed a majestic peak, with smoke slowly but consistently puffing from its crest.  Villarica is in fact an active volcano and a fairly active one at that.  With all that molten roiling fury below, you can just imagine the strength and power that an eruption would unleash.  It would be a disaster as the town of Pucon sits almost directly below the towering dragon that is Pucon.

Wiped out would the quaint town in which we now ate gigantic steaks and drank local beverages like Pisco Sours.  Gone would be the vendors that sold their hand made wares and the restaurants that serviced all the visitors.  There’d only be empty streets to show for all that man had accomplished in that area for years to come.  But for now, we were content to watch the sun go down on Villarica and enjoy the increasingly bright and magnificent glow that was now emanating from its face and sides.  So as the sun went down, it was time for some Chilean beef.  We ordered steak and a platter arrived which could feed an army.  One thing that Chilean and Argentine people do not do is skimp on the beef and when our beef arrived for inspection prior to being cooked, it looked as though 3/4th of a cow had been brought to the table for early dinner.  In any event, we ended up scarfing down a gigantic meal for dinner and we were ultimately chauffeured back to the hotel for a bright and early start of the journey on the following morning.

We’ll tell you about the beginning of the real journey in the next part.