New year’s Eve, Santiago…

The 31st of December was a public holiday in Chile…

The streets were almost deserted during the day, and very few places were open for business…

Michel and Brita on their way to the city... I wonder if she would have been as excited if I told her Micchel isn't used to give people a ride on the back of his bike...!!

Michel and Brita went into town to find a new sleeping bag for Michel and arrange bus tickets for Brita to travel north… With my helmet looking far too big for her, they left to do their shopping and returned after a successful ride into the city… Brita returned with bright eyes, having had a marvelous time out on the bike… We have pronounced her “converted”…!!

I spent the day trying to catch up with some website posts and plan my route south… Later that afternoon, Michel gave me a run down on the places he had stayed at on the way up from Ushuaia…We sat under the spreading branches of the vine in the courtyard, sipping G & T’s to get us prepared for the evenings festivities…!!

Gin and Tonic usually doesn't go hand in hand with map reading, but with a huge effort, we managed quite well...!!

He and Brita had taken a boat from Porto Natales to Puerto Montt, which took three nights and four days, and cut out over a thousand kilometres of gravel road…

He had lots of valuable info to share, while all I could tell him was about riding conditions in Australia, which was of no use to him whatsoever…!!

Our landlord assured us that everything in town would be shut and that if we had not booked at a restaurant that might have been open, we would have no chance of having dinner in town at all…!!

Our waiter, who I called Kojak behind his back and Telly to his face, got into the swing of things and quickly joined in the fun...!!

Undeterred, we dressed in our cleanest clothes, hailed a taxi and set off downtown… We located a street in the Bellavista area and sure enough, found only about twenty restaurants that were open…!! Bloody landlord did not know his arse from his elbow, and he actually lived here…!!

There was only one restaurant that was really busy, and we decided we’d rather be among a crowd than in some quiet place… We got a seat outside at the La Palmeira and within minutes were having fun watching the people walking by…

A large contingent of Police officers patrolled the area, some of them accompanied by fierce looking German Shepherds… Police cruisers passed down the road every few minutes, and we began to wonder what they were expecting…!!

“If we are looking for action tonight, I think we’ve come to the right place…!!” I said…

The three hours we sat there however, produced nothing of interest to get anybody excited… In fact, the street was practically deserted…!! Telly advised that most folk were out waiting for the fireworks to finish and after midnight, the area would be pumping…!!

We sincerely hoped he was right…!!

Dynamite cocktails got us off to a well lubricated start to the evening...!! Don't know what was in them, but they kicked like a mule on steroids...!!

I warned Michel that his pink t-shirt would attract unsavory types, but he would not listen...!!

Our food came eventually, and wasn’t exactly what we had ordered, although it certainly was tasty…

Basically, we got a fine steak with mushroom sauce…and nothing else…!! Not even a sprig of parsley…!!

Apparently, we had forgotten to order anything to go with it…!!

Brita had no such problem, having been slightly more sober than we were at the time of ordering…!!

The steak was accompanied by a decent bottle of red wine, which we sipped on well after our steaks had been wolfed down…

A few merry souls jumped the midnight gun, and began wishing all and sundry…. They came staggering down the road and would stop and chat to anybody who made eye contact with them…!!

At midnight, two massive fireworks displays in separate parts of the city began, and went on for several minutes…

During this time the restaurant brought out glasses of champagne for all the diners and we celebrated the beginning of 2012 with the waiters and other folk who had hung around for the closing bell of 2011…

I thought back to the previous New Year I had welcomed…

I was sitting in a hotel room in Dubai, watching fireworks light up the sky over the city… I remember looking around me and wondering what changes the new year would bring…

One which manifested itself quite quickly, was a sense of peace that gradually began sifting into my consciousness, once I rode over the border into Nepal… (Maybe it was just relief at getting out of India in one piece…!!)

I began to accept that I could not change the things that had happened in my life over the previous few years, and resolved to make a conscious effort to let go of them… It took a lot longer to do that than I imagined it would, and it took two special events to give the process some serious momentum…

I briefly let those events flash through my mind, and will not delve deeper into them here… I smiled to myself and put the memories back in the safe and secret place we store the most important things in our lives, and came back to the present, just in time to see Michel being accosted by yet another unusual character…

This jovial fellow bent bits of wire into strange shapes and then sold them to whoever was drunk enough to buy them... People like Michel...!

Michel and Brita ring in the New year on a pavement in Santiago de Chile.... Have agreat one Guys...!!

...while I celebrated with my new best friend, a dog that was hiding under the table to escape the fireworks...!!

From two bikers to all those others out there that are preparing for rides of their own...!! Get on your bikes and get out on the road....!! The world is waiting...!!

I tried to warn them not to go in there...!!

Up on stage to get the party started....!! Things went downhill fast from that point on...!!

I liberated this jug head hat from an unsuspecting clubber...!!

Then there was a quick photo shoot with one of my sponsors....

Brita got in amongst the locals, and blended in quite well as you can see...!!

While a bemused looking Michel wonders what he has let himself in for...!!

Kickinng and screeaming, I was dragged onto the dance floor.... This is SOOOOO not my scene...!! I'm normally a very shy and retiring person, as you all know...!!

Brita entered a trance-like state and fears for her safety were raised by Management....!!

I tried to keep things real, by learning some Spanish from these three translators who happened to drop by...

By 3.00 am we were all danced out and headed home just as hundreds of other revelers were arriving....!!

©GBWT 2012