Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

After another night where I woke every 45 minutes coughing as a result of sleeping on my back, and then having to get up and walk around clutching a pillow to my chest to ease the pain in my ribs, I finally emerged from my pit around 9am and went in search of breakfast. With a free day ahead and nothing much to do, I hooked up with Nick and Finn and we headed to the mall to try and get some power adaptors to convert to the Chilean and Argentinian power sockets which are 3-pin round in a row and like nothing we've seen before. We were eventually successful and then Nick and I went to collect our x-rays from the hospital before returning to the hotel. I'm not sure why we did this, as they are huge and we've no way to carry them. Perhaps Jeff would like to start a collection of them in the van...

Later that afternoon the local TV turned up at the hotel to interview us, so we fetched the bikes up from the carpark and parked them in pride of place outside the hotel, whilst Ricky, the short biker-presenter interviewed Kevin. Apparently he fronts a regular motorcycle program on one of the cable channels, and was keen to get a reasonable amount of footage of us, and interviews with the riders. As someone who has trashed his bike and himself, naturally I was a target for one interview, Ricky being incredulous at my tales of the bike going end-over-end in the sand whilst I was out cold with a cracked rib, then riding the next 3 days to Santiago. The rest of the group took the piss constantly, so there's no danger of me getting ideas above my station...

Just before the interview started, I tried to get some pictures and discovered my camera had decided to quit. Even with a newly charged battery installed it wouldn't switch on, and no amount of verbal or physical encouragement would bring it back to life. Damn. So Aaron and I hopped in a cab and went back to the mall, where I purchased my second new camera of the trip – a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS, which is currently awaiting the battery to charge. You'll get to compare it with the other 2 cameras I've used on this trip tomorrow, hopefully. Let's hope this one at least gets me to Buenos Aires, as I don't want to be accused of importing broken cameras at UK customs...

Once back from the mall everyone else had gone for dinner, so Aaron and I wandered round the corner where we ate a good meal of (for me) garlic prawns followed by slices of ostrich steak on a bed of aubergine and banana (yes, really, and it was a weird as it sounds). Then back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before a relatively early start – we're being escorted out of the city by the carabineros... should be fun, especially as this time I'll be on my own bike...