Heading to the Santiago airport to collect our bike from customs is an exciting feeling. After five days of being in Chile, finally the bike has arrived. We catch a Uber there and try to explain to the driver as to where we need to go, which is always a challenging experience for us at the moment… As we get out of the Uber car the temperature in the air is -2 degrees and it hits us like a tone of bricks. We arrive at the customs part of the international airport and again try to explain why we are there and what we are collecting. All I can say is thank god for Google Translate. The lady at the gate tells us that we need to go to another part of the airport so we head off and try to find where she has directed us to. After about five offices that we have gone into and asked the same question as to if this is the right place we finally hit a jackpot and make some progress. After assessing our Australian Passports we are handed passes and they let us through the gates into the cargo section of the airport. Then the next challenge comes as we have to locate the correct cargo carrier. We thought by looking at the Airway Bill we had it in the bag but no, way to easy….. And we are told this when we arrived at Lantan Cargo. I think the staff behind the counter thought the situation was quite funny but we just felt a little embarrassed and in need of a big glass of wine.
By this time we had been at the airport for around four hours and the going back and forth was starting to get tiresome. Eventually we arrived at the cargo office where we had to pay in US dollars the fees for collecting the bike. Thankfully we had an English-speaking guy who was literally a lifesaver from that moment on. He helped us with directions on where to locate the customs office, what we had to do there, the location the bike in the warehouse and communicating to the forklift drivers as to where to put the bike. David now had the task of putting the bike back together as they had to take some of it apart for transportation. When the bike came out in its cardboard BMW container I felt a site of relief and looked over at David who was gleaming. Finally he was being reunited with his baby (his other one anyway…)
So after spending an hour or so removing the cardboard container and putting the bike back together David tried to start the bike. Unfortunately the battery was so flat that it wouldn’t start. I then went back into the cargo office to find our new English-speaking friend and asked him if he could help us out with jump leads to start the bike. We had everyone gathered around the bike at this stage and David was madly trying to communicate to Chilean guys if they could start the engine of their car to jump-start the bike. The bike wouldn’t start so we ended up having to leave it there overnight, take the battery back to the hostel to charge and come back the next day to try again. Just when I thought things where looking up… That’s life hey… I think the guys at the warehouse felt sorry for us so they let us keep the bike and all our motorbike gear inside the shed. We where pretty grateful of this.
The next day we had it all down pat. The Uber ride, the freezing cold temperature, getting into the cargo section of the airport, our paperwork, communicating with the guys at the warehouse and of course the re connecting of the battery. The bike started first go and happy days from then on…
