The Adventures of a Rally Roadie

We’re still cooling our heels waiting for the car to be offloaded or, rather, for the car carrier to be berthed. So, we start the search for the customs broker office that UltraMar found for us in Santiago.

The office is down in central Santiago, near the presidential palace so we leave the car and get a cab. We probably should have used the “subterreaneo”, the subway, but we didn’t have any idea where the office address office was so we opted for a taxi.

Of course, the taxi driver didn’t know either but he had a tiny GPS that he couldn’t use while driving (the key pad was ridiculously small, a Garmin innovation) so he kept handing the GPS to John who would hand it to me to enter the street address. After a couple of false starts we finally get to the address and leave the taxi.

And walk right into a noisy demonstration. A few hundred people a marching, chanting, banging cymbals and drums on their eay to the main square in front of the presidential palace. There are a lot of police but the demonstrators have a lot of children so, odds are that the group is peaceful though noisy and not much is going to happen. We later find out that the group is demonstrating for higher pay for elementary school teachers. A noble cause. We should join in just for solidarity.

Teacher Demonstration – click for video

We find the address and work our way through the end of the demonstrators to the office building. Up the elevator and into the office. We tell them what we need: the car clearing customs in San Antonio.

Of course, I’m simplifying. The office staff don’t speak much English and we (John) don’t speak much Spanish, so John call Gabby, a Chilean law student who is a friend of Gina, John’s daughter. John explains what we need to Gabby, Gabby explains to the agent’s office staff, they explain to Gabby. Gabby explains to John.

This office doesn’t do the clearing that we need but they do know someone who does. In Valparaiso. Gabby tells John that she will call the Valparaiso agent and talk to him. We set up a lunch date with her and she hangs up. We thank the office staff and leave for the lunch date with Gabby.

We meet at the ticket office at a subway stop just a couple of subway stops from the central square. We walk. It’s a beautiful day. Into the subway entrance and we find Gabby and a friend, Dino, another law student, and we head off to lunch.

We stop for coffee and she tells us what she’s found out. The agent in Valparaiso can clear the car, he handles both ports, San Antonio and Valparaiso but he needs us to send him scans of the bill of lading, the carnet, the car title, our passport front pages and the pages that have the reciprocity stamp. Gabby can scan and email all the documents at her office.

We leave the coffee shop and walk to her office. Dino needs to get back to work and leaves us. We stop in a small sidewalk restaurant to have lunch while Gabby takes the documents and goes to her office. We have lunch and about a half hour later, she’s back. Everything is scanned and sent, cc’ed to John’s email.

We thank her and offer her lunch but she’s got to get back to work. We say goodbye and we’re off to sight-see and head back to our hotel. We take the subway back, it’s jammed with late rush hour commuters. But the ride is comfortable and quick. We exit just a couple of blocks from the hotel.

It’s already starting to get dark when we head out for dinner. But neither of us is very hungry. Our lunch was good but in the middle of the afternoon. We head around the corner to a small restaurant and have a couple of beers and plate of papas fritas (french fries) while we watch a soccer match on TV. Then back to the hotel.

We’re making progress. I think.

Obi-wan