I love it when random but necessary things seem to magically appear when you travel without any particular plan. In fact, I tell other travelers not to plan so far ahead. Rather allowing the universe randomly connect them to things you can't possibly find on the internet.

Yesterday, when I arrived in Santiago, it was late and I was tired. The receptionist at the hostel gave me directions to where they had secure parking for my bike. It was only a few blocks away but by the time I unloaded the bike and set out to find the parking, the details had gotten a little muddled in my brain. Maybe I didn't really understand the directions in the first place. Anyway, after circling around the neighborhood a few times, I found myself going the wrong way on a narrow one-way street. I pulled over to look at Google Maps and was in the process of turning around when a man approached.

"Hola! Que estas buscando?" (Hello, what are you looking for?) he asked. "Estacionamiento para mi moto" (parking for my moto") I replied. He looked puzzled and pulled out his phone. As we tried to figure out where the hostel had sent me, I noticed he was wearing an embroidered Triumph mechanic's shirt. I looked over to where he had appeared and saw a small workshop with four sparkling big bikes inside. Another man appeared, also wearing a Triumph mechanic's shirt, and shook my hand. We started talking bikes and it turned out that these guys run a small custom shop for Triumphs. How random I thought. All the way from Mexico to Bolivia, no one had ever heard of Triumph. In fact, when I entered Bolivia, my import permit actually said "Make Unknown" because Triumph was not in their database. Now, less than 3 blocks from my hostel I had stumbled upon Triumph's fanboys.

I asked them if they could help me with some parts and new tires and they said they could. What luck! However, it was late and I still had to find the parking... which turned out to be three doors down from their shop. They gave me their WhatsApp contact information and told me to send them a list of what I needed. Great! We shook hands, I parked the bike and headed back to the hostel.

This morning I collected the bike and rode it the 30 feet to their shop. It took a mixture of Spanish and English to settle what was needed but they enthusiastically agreed to fix me up. I could not have been happier to have found these guys. Over the next few hours I revived several photos of parts that they were servicing or replacing including an extremely grungy air filter that had spent a few to many days in Peru. Unfortunately the tire dealers were closed today and would not be open until Monday. That makes it probable that I won't be on the road again until Tuesday.

I spent the rest of the day bumming around Santiago and trying out several coffee shops. So far, it's not Colombia as far as the coffee goes but Santiago is a really nice city. It reminds me of San Francisco with a cool urban vibe. Lots of interesting restaurants, shopping areas and cafes. I was absolutely shocked when I was crossing a street and a car actually yielded to me. The driver waved me across in front of him! Wow! I'm not in Lima or La Paz anymore (or I would have been flattened).

In the afternoon I took a long walk over to Cerro San Cristobal which is an imposing hill serving as a green space encapsulated within the city. I took the open-air funicular cable car to the top. It's hard not to imagine how fast you would shoot down those steep tracks if that cable snapped.

Tomorrow I'm going to take a bus tour over to the coastal city of Valparaiso. The Chilean writer Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors. Many of her stories feature characters from Valparaiso so I absolutely need to see that. If you are not familiar with Allende's work, I highly recommend Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia though she is best known forThe House of Spirits.