No two people do the same trip, or a trip for the same reasons, so it's hard to give you specific advice. However, I would urge you to think about why you're doing such a trip and what you want to get out of it first - as you've already seen there are 1001 ways to get to being on the back of a bike in Santiago - which is the right way for you will depend on the reasons why you're doing the trip and what you want out of it.

With all that in mind, I would say the following specifics:
- I air freighted a bike from London to Buenos Aires for a bit less than $2,500 so I'm sure that price can be improved on.

- On the road, time and money are interchangeable. Yes, sea freight has a lower sticker price but believe me when I tell you estimating when you can get to your bike from the ship better than +/- 1 week is impossible - when you compare the cost of life for that week vs. the saving over airfreight (which is a lot more certain timing wise) the seafreight saving is less obvious.

- Given you're doing this as a retirement thing, I'd imagine you're not as strapped for cash as a 21 y/o. Like some others have said, I think spending money on a bike you know that you're comfortable, that you can equip it the way you want it is a good way to gain comfort with the trip (I personally found this invaluable). Plus for a 6 month trip, the fixed cost of shipping starts to pale into insignificance vs. cost of living.

- When selecting a bike, the key thing is how comfortable are you with off-road and how much off-road you want to do. I personally wasn't (at all) comfortable with it and chose a Suzuki V-Strom 650 (and spent $$ replacing every consumable pre-trip). For me it was the perfect bike - it's by no means sexy/beautiful or exciting, and it is a heavy dog off road. But my trip was less than 10% off road and the Strom fitted that exquisitely. It worked flawlessly like a swiss watch (which made local support for it irrelevant) for 12,500 miles and the 90% + of those that were on roads were a hassle free joy. I would choose that bike 1000 times for a similar trip.

- If you decide that minimising hassle is your thing (it was for me), take a look at Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires. If you manage to airfreight your bike to Buenos, Dakar will get it out of customs for you for a small fee and about 1.5h total hassle. If your Spanish is not that good, that may be a better route to go than Santiago.

Good luck and enjoy the ride.

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