South America Blog

   This is the journey I have always dreamed of,  to ride my motorcycle across the Americas. 

   Follow me as I travel south from Texas to the tip of South America on my BMW GS.   

    Here's a view of the Maps

Santiago, Chile

I decided to relax in Santiago for a little over a week.  I wanted to some good rest before starting the last leg of my journey to the tip of South America.

One day I pulled up next to a couple on a motorcycle at a toll booth.  It was very strange to hear someone say “You must be Hank”.  I thought to myself, how do these strangers know who I am?  Then Margus, the male half of the couple, said that he had visited my website.  Again, it is a small world after all.  Margus and his partner, Karlina, are from Estonia and they were on the Latin American leg of their round the world trip.

We spent some time comparing notes with regard to our travels.  A topic of conversation was the wear and tear on a person traveling all the time.  Some of my friends do not understand when I say that I need a rest from my trip.  The truth is that you wear yourself down and at some point you just need to stop to rejuvenate yourself.  To date I have traveled 12,000 miles with only one week of rest in Cusco, Peru.  After a while those 10 and 12 hour days wear you down both physically and mentally.

While in Santiago I decided to take a tour of a vineyard.  I am not a wine expert by any stretch of the imagination; however, I thought it would be fun to visit and learn a little about wine making.  A favorite wine that I like to drink is made by a vineyard in Chile.  The brand name is Concha y Toro and it just so happens to be in the Santiago area.

I was amazed at how much science goes into the production of a bottle of wine