This is a lesson in bad luck. I was in Chile over the holidays and while I was gone my motorcycle was impounded in South Beach for being parked on the street with expired tags. I blame it on the fact that I never received the renewal notice in the mail. Whatever, honest mistake, $467 to correct it, ouch. Logistically though, this presented a problem since upon returning from my trip I found my car in need of emergency repairs. A new battery, tail pipe, and 120k tuneup. Whatever, I dropped it off at the shop, prepared myself for the $862 bill, and asked my soon to be roommate Ovidio to roll me down to the beach for the bike rescue mission. Almost immediately on arrival I realized I had left my keys at the shop with my car. Agghh! Ok, I dealt with it and thought I would just roll the bike to a dark alley or something. Better than incurring the $30/day storage fee, right? (Wrong!) I put the bike in a local park closeby behind a bush and prepared to return to get it soon after. A few days later I returned with a gallon of gas and the keys, to find that the motorcycle battery was dead...DANG! What the heck did I do to deserve this...I left with the battery in hand to trickle charge it at the autoparts store by my house. A few days turned into a week though and when I returned the bike was gone. I found it at the local impound again, now with two parking tickets and $320 in tow fees. Ay papa. New battery in place and the keys got it started and finally back in a safe section of private property...out of the reaches of the tow monster.
Story, a friend from college, arrived the following morning as I moved over to Papi's apartment. The city has taken big strides in transportation upgrades, and a new underground freeway traversing the entire city is accessible from across the street. Over the next several days Papi, Story, and I drove through the "Ruta del Vino" in the Colchahua Valley on our way to "las Sierras de Bella Vista" where my family has a pleasant cabin in the Andes moutains. Relaxing there gave pass to Valparaiso where the three of us went for the fantastic world-reknown fireworks display. Great times...
The next leg of the trip involved a 21 hour hike to the Futaleufu river in the Chilean Patagonia. Stopping along the way in Valdivia and Bariloche gave us a clear distinction between Chilean and Argentine cultures. 
Futaleufu displayed the ferocity of the world's best white water rivers. Fearing for our lives, a mere 3 days there was enough to humble us of the power of nature. Motasem, another friend from college, and added to the journey on January 1st, had the most intense reality check with a lengthy tumble down nearly 300yards of Class 4 rapids. 
On the return to Santiago, we drove straight through the night to catch some city touring before returning home...with luck on our side we ran into a full on Love Parade being held downtown.