A quick hop from Los Angeles to Talca to another Apart Hotel (Basically a condo rental). Boring city, a mall 500m away where we could buy food, and that's about it.
The next morning we headed to Los Quenes via Curico, where the square has 60 Canary Palms planted. Nifty place to sit and eat for a little bit. Then we continued on to Los Quenes which was gravel for about 20 km, then the last bit was rough gravel, but offered spectacular views of the mountains.
After some astronomy opportunities, we slept and arose early to make it to the Montes Winery in time for the early tour, so we could miss the rush hour in Santiago. There is a second road that leads to Los Quenes, which fortunately is used by the mining industry, so it is in much better shape than the road we took in. We arrived well in time despite some backups on the secondary roads. The tour was good, we got to see the cellar where the premium wines are stored in barrels (and they play music to them 24 hours a day. Seriously).
Heading back to Santiago, we had 180 km to ride, and gorgeous weather to do so. We took the back highway into the city in hopes of avoiding traffic and getting a better view. Frankly, from the little bit of big city driving we did, I'm glad we avoided at least some of it. The Chileans, while excellent drivers, arn't quite sure what to do with a motorcycle that is almost as wide as a car. That and the KLRs heat up to the point where I was concerned my pants were going to light on fire from the heat billowing from the engine.
Thankfully, the GPS made no errors and shepherded us in.
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