December 7 - Motorcycle Day

After a great breakfast of fruit, granola, eggs, coffee, and pureed mango, Kathleen and I took a taxi to Sunrise Cargo off near the airport. We arrived and finally met with the two women we had been corresponding with for nearly a month. Johana and Carolina had been so helpful and informative by email, they were even more so in person. However, we quickly discovered they had disparaging news. Even though the bikes had been picked up from our house in San Marcos, CA, on November 16th, they were now only in Miami, Florida. We’d been told the were in Miami about a week ago, and had also been told they were in Mexico City. The bikes were to be shipped December 8th from Miami, however, do to their being labeled as dangerous cargo, Carolina (left) and Johana (right) strongly believed they would continually be bumped for less contentious cargo. This could last for days. We had lost our buffer time waiting for two weeks. To complete our adventure by motorcycle would require riding nearly from dawn to dark. If you’re stupid, you ride a motorcycle in the dark in South America. Animals come out on to the roads, people driving without headlights, and road surfaces that would be improved if they were subjected to artillery create too many hazards. We did not want to ride that way. And we would maybe only make Santiago, Chile to pay big dollars to ship our bikes back to the states.

We stopped the shipment, and ordered the bikes be returned to our house, crates and all, to San Marcos, CA. Johana worked feverishly to ensure the bikes were removed from the cargo queue. A flurry of Skype calls and emails among Craters and Freighters, DB Schenker of Los Angeles and their office in Miami, and the airline eventually resulted in confirmation the bikes would be on a truck bound for Los Angeles and eventually to San Marcos, California. We were wholly disgusted with the whole matter. Over three years of planning a preparation came down to a decision made in less than five minutes.

We finished our day walking around the Jose Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden where we could bird watch and find an escape from the din of a big city. We were hungry and stopped at the concessionaire for what we thought to be fast food. Well, the meal of the day was steak, potatos, rice, fruit juice, Jello, and a bottled water. For two plates, ceramic at that, we both ate for about $10 USD.

After the gardens we took a taxi back to our hotel where we received further confirmation our bikes were heading back to California.