Been on this site for over a year now reading blogs, stories and using to plan my trip. ive finally decided on my itenary......(although flight not booked yet!)

Arrive in Santiago mid october. Buy bike and complete spanish course. probably spend approx 4-6 weeks in the area, in order to find and register bike etc.

Ride to Ushuaia to arrive for New Year. I plan a few stops en route and possibly a few days trek in TDP.

From Ushuaia, ride north to Rio, before riding west towards Bolivia, Quito then south back to Santiago.
Having never been further than Europe and fairly new to bikes, this is a completely new experience for me, but one I have wanted to do for a number of years.

That is the basic outline, I plan to branch off to see different places etc but this is my general route. I have a few questions on it.....

1. Have i left enough time, arriving mid Oct to do what I need and get to Ushuaia for New Year?
2.I gather a trip south to Ushuaia for New Year is popular. Is anyone planning to head that direction from Santiago around that time? travelling myself, but it would be great to meet up with people, and share some of the journey?

i have estimated the distance to be approx 20,000 km although that is very rough. No definite time scales, but at least 5 months.

I would really appreciate your views, help or just any other general info you may have, and hopefully meet up with some of you guys!! Im from Scotland by the way!


David

Sounds like a great trip, I´m envious.

The time is enough but not a lot of extra time for hanging around, but you can modify your route I suppose, unless making it to Quito is a must for you.

Do you know what type of bike you are looking for and the price range in Chile? Used bikes are surprisingly expensive here, but maintain their value well if looked after.

Are you looking for a mid size multi purpose bike or are you one of these guys who wants the additional challenge of trying to get through with a Chinese made 125 cc bike?

Have you left some time at the end of the trip to resell?

You say you are pretty new to bikes, just how much experience do you have? I find the thought of an inexperienced biker in Bolivia, Peruvian Andes or Ecuador kind of scary. Anyway, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brasil can give you a slightly less steep learning curve.

hey there David, starting my year long trip through Mex/central/south america in october in mexico and also hoping to make it all the way south for the new year Though we are not starting in the same place we'll both be on the road around the same time and always looking to meet new people along the way to travel with or just kick back and have a few feel free to contact me here or by email at noahorth at hotmail dot com cheers!