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Micah dot Motorcycles

Home Safe

Oakland, CA

This will just be a quick post, most importantly to say that I have made it safely back to Oakland.

As it turns out, the spiritual end of the trip was in Cusco. With the coronavirus writing on the wall, I moved my schedule up even more than I already had and really rushed down to Santiago, making the 2,000 mile trip in 6 days, with South American countries closing their borders and restricting travel all the while. My travel was uneventful – long days making my way through the Atacama desert and down the Chilean coast.

A valley in the Chilean desert Mountains meeting the coast

In Santiago, I met my shipping agent at the airport, and we got the motorcycle apart and strapped to a pallet to be sent by air up to SFO. As it turns out, shipping the bike by air was the most economical.

Getting the motorcycle prepared on the pallet Just another checked bag

Later that night I got on my flight to the US. It was a strange feeling watching the in-flight map, seeing the plane tick past all of the places in 9 hours that I had spent the last 6 months getting through.

Anyways, I made it, and it is an eerie homecoming indeed. The Bay Area entered lockdown on the morning I arrived, and my girlfriend is under isolation with suspect symptoms. So here I am, in just another hotel room. At least I can drink the tap water.

I am absolutely relieved, though, to have made it here. The thought of getting stuck in Chile alone for months during this crisis was a nightmare. I have several moto friends still down in South America now struggling to quickly get home, some having to make the call to ditch their bike.

I’ll probably have some more thoughts on this trip later – I will certainly have plenty of time to reflect on it. For now though, thanks for following along, stay safe, and stay healthy!

<3 Micah