Schmid Adventures

Darjeeling

2012-01-29T05:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings from a very cool (as in weather cool) Darjeeling! Our journey starts with a auto-rickshaw ride from Varanasi to the train station-a hour long journey that included a stop for some "holy flowers" (to protect the driver on the Hwy. full of full size junkers that we have to drive on!) At the train station the Indian train is on time...that is plus or minus 10 hrs. Today we are lucky...only 7 hours of counting the herds of rats that infest the station track area...actually quite entertaining which gives you some idea of how boring it is to sit for hours on end in a dilapidated Indian train station! The overnight train is pretty good and we arrive in JNP only 10 hrs late but in no time have a rickshaw (human powered and we always feel bad when we see some skinny Indian pedaling his guts out...and this trip was over an hour long! The jeep ride to Darjeeling was an insane combination of one tight switch back after another for over an hour but we had a great time as the jeep load of locals were entertaining and we laughed with them for the entire trip. Darjeeling is another world...so typical of India...the diversity of experiences terrain etc. has to be seen to be believed. West Bengal state is primarily made up of people of Tibetan and Nepalese origins and it shows...very clean (at least compared to the rest of India!), no cows and the people are super friendly but very quiet and respectful...no hassling over prices etc. Our hotel the Dekeling is fantastic with the neatest "chill-out" room (mainly because it has a great wood heater!

So for a change of topic we will talk about taxidermy! Our visit to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute today brought to light the fact that the Indians may be very good at a lot of things but stuffing animals (taxidermy) is not one of them! (we also saw this in the Mumbai Natural History Museum etc.) The stuffed animals bear a close resemblance to animals that have be shot with a 12 gauge about 5 times from 10 feet away then left to dry out..after which they are pasted to a wall in a local museum to display. I believe this is one of the reasons that most of India's wildlife is either extinct or close to extinction...if I thought our wildlife looked liked the stuffed animals I would also do my best to eradicate them!

In addition I noticed more than a few errors in identification...take the Himalayan marmot we saw today. It definitely was a weasel BUT with no eyes, 80 percent of its fur missing, big fangs and "dried" into a position that god never intended (unless it was hit by an Ambassador car full of 15 Indians and 500 lbs of luggage on the roof)....however I digress...back to Darjeeling!

This place is really nice but the weather has been cold and very foggy. You probably know or have heard of Darjeeling Tea...guess where it comes from? One of the more interesting things we have done since we arrived was a 4 (was supposed to be 5) day trek into the Himalayan mountain region near to Nepal. In fact we spent over half of the 79 km hike in Nepal and overnighted twice in Nepal. Most of the walk took place between 3000-4000 meters...a good warm up for Nepal. We were especially impressed with the 3rd day of the hike when the skies cleared and offered us incredible views of the Himalayan Range and we spent most of the day looking at the south face of Everest and Kanchenjunga and in fact 4 of the worlds 5 tallest mountains (only K2 was missing). This was against a backdrop of incredible ancient gnarly Abies well over a hundred feet tall, huge grasslands (and our first Yaks this trip), small diameter Rhododendron forests and NO people or villages! The last 15 (of a 30 km day and we had a 30 lb plus pack) we dropped close to 2000 meters...first through a forest of huge conifers with a bamboo understory then into a dripping wet (literally raining on us) fog shrouded very eerie forest of massive Rhododendron trees and finally our destination the small mountain village of Rammam. This is the most impressive scenery that Lori and I have ever witnessed in a single day...before India was thrashed it truly must have been heaven on earth...AMAZING!

Back to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute....because it is one fantastic museum! Firstly it puts the Himalayan Range in perspective: Simply put the Himalayans are more impressive than all of the mountain ranges in the world combined! (not counting anything under the ocean) They extend 2000 km and are 150 km wide and contain OVER 90% of the world tallest mountains! (this includes the Andes, Alps Rockies etc.) They had a neat display showing the tallest 30 mountains on each continent and only Aconcagua ( SA) would have even come close to making the list from Asia. McKinley and two Mexican volcanoes are the only NA mountains that rate in the top 100 as well as another 3 in SA...the other 94 are from the Himalaya!

The other thing that is apparent is that these old mountaineers were TOUGH! They had gear from hundreds of climbs of Everest: from Hillary and Tenzing's first summit of Everest on May 29th 1953 to 2009 expeditions (which by the way can be had for 29,000 US excluding all air fares) The boots used in the 50 and 60's were just leather and had hair on the outside...the oxygen cylinders look like 50 lb propane cylinders and I would have froze to death last night in our Darjeeling hotel with the sleeping bags they used!!!! I guess that is why today the biggest challenge meeting Everest climbers is the weather...good weather and getting through the traffic jam at the top of the mountain are big problems and climbing Everest, Lotese, Kanchenjunga brings in millions of dollars to the Nepalese and Indian economies!

Varanasi

2012-01-22T04:20:00.000-08:00

Black Rock City, Nevada / Varanasi, India ~ Burning Man with a spiritual twist...oh the things you will see...

walking the ghats and a dog runs by with a piece of burned wood in his mouth-suddenly behind us a dog rumble starts over the wood and it is at that point that I realize that we are near the burning ghat and that piece of burned wood is really a piece of burned person that the dog has grabbed from one of the burning pyres on the ghat.....
sadhu with a badly deformed face - looks like a caul that hangs down from his forehead to mid chest with only a right eye showing and under the caul swollen sausage like pieces hanging down to mid chest making it look like he has an elephant trunk hanging down. All of this combined with the usual sadhu/baba(holy man)(clothes or lack of them, dreadlocks, and all exposed skin covered in grey ash. This particular sadhu has a prime sitting spot on the ghats with a nicely painted background of Hindu idols with Ganesh (the elephant god and bringer of good luck) prominent in the foreground. Along with several other sadhus, they all sit here all day playing music, praying, burning incense, smoking chillum, and receiving money from the crowds that gather around much of the day watching, taking pictures, and wondering if this fellow really is Ganesh reincarnated.

burning ghats - a much abbreviated version of what they are all about.

Hindu religion believes in rebirth or reincarnation. Depending on how many karma points you have accumulated in your lifetime, you will come back as either a higher caste person with an easier life, or as an animal. As life is suffering, the goal is to achieve freedom or moksha from this cycle of rebirth. One way of doing this is to be burned on the ghats of the Mother Ganga (Ganges River) in Varanasi which is but one of several holy cities in India. Varanasi by the way is supposed to be one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world..over 5000 years old...

So everyone wants to die in Varanasi and be burned on the ghats (steps down to the Ganges River) and then to have your ashes thrown into the river as by doing this they will achieve this ultimate freedom from the cycle of rebirth.

The process.... There are two burning ghats in Varanasi, a main one and a smaller one. Each are lined with stacks of wood of various types, with sandalwood being the most expensive. Each piece of wood is weighed and worth a certain amount. You must buy enough wood to make the funeral pyre to burn the body. The body must be burned within a short time of death (7days?) so many people come to Varanasi to die..

The dead body is carried through the small alleys leading to the river on a bamboo stretcher and is wrapped in shiney metallic fabric. It is set on the ghat awaiting its turn to burn. The funeral pyre is laid and when it is time, the body is dipped in the Ganges river and then laid on the wood and covered with wood on top. Someone from the family (the oldest son?) has his head shaved and wearing only a white length of material wrapped around his body walks around the body several times and lights the fire with a bundle of burning straw.

The fire starts and the body burns and everyone watches.
It takes about 2-3 hours for a body to completely burn.
There is no smell.
There are about 8-10 bodies burning at one time on the main ghat and the bodies burn 24 hours a day 365 days a year..
5 groups of people do not need to be burned-pregnant women, children, holy men, people with leporosy, and people bitten by a cobra; as they can achieve moksha by having their bodies are just dumped straight into the river without being burned.

So we are pretty excited to get back to Varanasi as we have fond memories of our short visit here back in 2003. I think it is safe to say that we were mesmerized by India in 2003 with a a short visit and hectic train ride that seemed exciting. Today the long bus and train rides are history with hundreds of hours on our butts and definitely not as exciting...same goes for the holy city itself. It is still an amazing place of extremes but it is famous world wide and the result is a lot of tourists and along with that an increase in commercialism. However some things appear to never change in Varanasi...the Ganges still has 1.5 million ppm fecal coloform (500 is considered max for safe swimming) despite a "14 year plan in its tenth year to clean it up!"...the floating bridge upstream of Varanasi is still floating with only one bridge abutment completed...the 10 rupee massage (?) is still going strong (it took us about 3 minutes to realize one does not shake hands on the ghats!) If you do they start massaging your fingers and start on the 10 rupee massage talk...the problem is the 10 rupee charge covers your one fingernail only!!...cows still own the ghats and the narrow labyrinth of galis in which the absent minded shopper can be lost for hours in...although the water buffalo have taken over certain ghats!...the burning ghat is still going 24/7 360 days a year. (the scam to separate tourists from their money to support the poor elderly that couldn't afford the cost of burning wood no longer exists...or at least we weren't hit up for it this time). What really surprised us is that the Japanese love this place for long term holidays and we have a hard time understanding this as Varanasi is about as close to the exact opposite of the well organized, clean Japan as one can get...but that probably is its drawing point! No doubt about it Varanasi offers the best deals on handicrafts in all of India! The Ganges River is way down (we actually ended up crossing the main Ganges on our trip to Darjeeling and it is huge...at least 3 km across compared to the branch of the Ganges at Varanasi which during our visit was only about 250 m across! So we did a ton of walking and know every Ghat from north to south and did a good long hike into Ramnagar Fort...a awesome structure right on the banks of the Ganges...however the outside of the fort has huge painted advertisements all over one side of it???? Yup a 500 year old masterpiece of architecture looks really good with bright blue and red signs advertising Vodaphone and India Oil painted on the side of it. Something like this in Canada would have been repaired and we would charge huge bucks for a visit...but India has literally hundreds upon hundreds of these ancient very cool forts etc. which is one reason why it is so popular with tourists...and no doubt about it Tourism is huge in India despite the rubbish and crap!!! We still loved our stay...the Ganpati guest house was great..food is fantastic...shopping great...weather good (not to hot but unfortunately foggy) and we didn't step in to many piles of shit..and that is GOOD!

have chris & lori been in india too long

2012-01-09T04:12:00.003-08:00

sometimes even the trains are a little crowded....

'Delhi Belly"...catches up with Chris...ohh that feels GOOOOOOD!

chris applying anti itch cream to his rashed up body

Hampi & Mysore

2012-01-02T06:18:00.007-08:00

So its time to leave the wonderful non-India beaches of Palolem and head inland to the small village of Hampi some 10 hours west via bus. Lots of rolling around all night but we rolled into Hampi around 8...some 5 hours ahead of the bus directly behind us that got stuck in a massive traffic jam. Hampi is a neat little (for India) village that is split by the Tungaphadra River and set in massive boulder field of rocks in which an amazing series of ruins (home to over 1 million people over 500 years ago) lies scattered over 25 sq kms.

No booze equals one quiet Christmas especially when the population is Hindu and Muslim and do not celebrate Christmas.
We spent 5 days exploring the various temples and ruins including one day of hiking to the temple of 600 steps and another day (which Lori said was the best so far in India when we pedalled some beat bikes to the far-off ruins. )

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Despite the river resembling more of an open sewer than a river (warning signs about the currents in the river but they are nothing compared to the chemical and sewage soup the river is composed of!) (in fact it is actually pretty clean for an Indian River other than the "open latrines"scattered about on the rocks!)
Some of the ruins are really neat and are World Heritage Sites and surprisingly well maintained and kept clean by the Indian government. In fact there are literally hundreds of these stone ruins and one is completely blown away by the amount of work that went into carving these rocks into walls, roof, buildings etc.

Unfortunately my skin rash is a raging epidemic and making life a little miserable...but I can tell you I am the cleanest I have ever been with at least 6 or 8 cold showers a day to try and keep the heat/rash down. As per usual the best times of the day are before 11 and the evening sunset which we shared with hundreds of other people and some pretty serious "herds" of monkeys.

(Oh yeah we also climbed to the top of the highest temple from which we got a fantastic view of Hampi and surrounding areas)
Leaving Hampi we had a couple of options but decided to head south to Mysore as we didn't want to retrace our bus route back to the coast.

MYSORE (butt)..our first ride in a non-sleeper and she was a dog! Mysore...another BDIC boiling with traffic, smog and noise all mixed up in a stew of human love and misery! After some screwing around with the local rickshaw drivers (the place is packed with local Indians on holidays so its difficult to locate a place to stay after 15 hours of abuse on a Indian bus!) Once we got settled in we took in the sites (bit of a bitch finding ones way around this place but the ever-friendly locals can always give you advice!) including the Mysore Zoo (established in 1917 by the King of Mysore...over 6000 school kids (let alone other people!) visit the zoo every day (they pay nothing, Indian residents 10R and foreigners 100R) and I think each one of them wanted to talk to us, shake our hand and get their photo taken with us! If you don't want to get stared at and mobbed by locals don't come to India. Actually its lots of fun...until you get tired of it as it makes it kind of difficult to do anything when you are being talked to and mobbed constantly. Anyways the zoo was fantastic and the close by Karinga Lake sanctuary even better as it was QUIET...unreal..surreal..don't believe it..amazing...Quiet,quietquietquiet!

Next day we took in the Sandal wood factory (est in 1918 and primitive to say the least but super interesting as Sandalwood production (oil and wood for use in the burning ghats and carving is super controlled by the Indian government as the oil sells for 1000R for 5ml...liquid gold. Needless to say one does not find sandalwood trees in the forests any more!
Nest stop is the silk factory...dating back to 1912 she is one great big accident just waiting to happen. WCB would need to take a pickup truck full of infraction booklets to clean this place up. It is one huge factory full of workers who have probably worked the same mechanical looms for over 30 years and the NOISE is insane! Sounds like your standing behind a jet engine full of mechanical noise! But I really liked the dye tanks...surrounded by signs warning about the dangers of the fumes, caustic dyes etc. and with a few poor guys slopping bundles of silk into the open dye tanks (steaming hot fumes engulfing the place) and then wringing the dye out by hand (caustic??) My guess is that these guys don't work this job too long...for obvious reasons (they die!)
So we spent New Years with our friends Kit and Robin...we thinks that they have spent a wee bit to long in India as their diet consists of Kingfisher beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner (no kidding!) But we had a ton of laughs and they sure convinced us that England is NOT on the list of places to visit (or at least London!) New Years is surprisingly quiet in India in the tradition of India (obviously not so quiet on the "non-Indian beaches" with fireworks and a few kids screaming in the street..and not much else but we had a great time none the less! Checked out the Mysore Palace...so typical of India. The crowds are absolutely insane and in the good tradition of India the more people the more aggressive the Indians get and soon there is shoving etc and the noise is absolutely insane...as I sincerely believe that the Indians are actually scared of quiet! Anyways just when you are thinking this is a complete "shit show" (Dylans words!) you step into this palace that literally blows you away...absolutely incredible 200 foot plus stained glass ceilings, amazing wood carvings and the stone and marble work that leaves you speechless...there is no way this could ever be replicated in the modern time even with trillions of dollars at your disposal! (And typical: no cameras allowed in the palace but everywhere one looks there are people with phone cameras and small cameras taking photos with guards watching them...but then a tourist (NO not me!) pulls out a camera and bang the guards are all over them!!!

Leaving Mysore we had only the option of taking a non-sleeper bus to Kochin then a local bus to Allepey (house boats on the Kerala backwaters)..so we line up at the bus station to wait...in total confusion until our bus comes. On we go and in fact passed through some of the most amazing forest on this single lane road that had us crawling along at literally 10 kmph and having to stop numerous times to allow other vehicles to clear by us. Definitely not the situation to promote a good sleep..then we are woken by yelling and screaming! We were stopped in this city and I guess some one had overbooked the bus (typical)..after about 15 minutes of yelling/screaming about 20 more people climbed on board...kids, adults old people...all having to stand in the packed isles for over 2 hrs. Crying, snoring, coughing puking and spitting was the tune of the night...and obviously no sleep! Then we get dumped off at the Kochi bus station at 4 am...if you stepped into a urinal where 3000 people took a piss on the floor then turned the heat up to 100 degrees you would get the "flavour" of the Kochi bus station. Trying to figure out the Hindi on the local bus's as they pulled in and were literally mobbed by locals running into them (kind of diffucult for foreigners with 50 lb packs to keep up with!) you get an idea of the situation we were faced with...non the less we are on the road and by the time we hit Allepey there were over 25 people standing in the isle on a bus that only had windows in the front and back (a "rolling tomb" according to Lori!)...stay tuned for more!

Gorgeous Goa

2012-01-02T05:25:00.001-08:00

After our "roller-coaster" bus ride we arrived in the capital of Goa state...the city of Panaji. With the coming of daylight we are treated to a surprise...beautiful, thick lush green jungle with less garbage and people than the northern states. We are still trying to figure out why we stopped in Panaji but we had a short but interesting stay. We participated in an evening sunset cruise and for any of you that should choose this option DO NOT participate in the evenings couple's dance. First off you get onto a stage in front of well over a hundred people...of course you are the only goras (foreigners) on the boat so every eye is one you! On comes this blast of noise and away you go...dancing! So this cruise is about 1.5hrs long and they make you dance on this stage (sweating your bag off!) for over a half hour non-stop!!! At least at the end of the performance we got alot of "you good dance".
Onto a couple of "chicken bus's" and to the southern beach of Palolem...and this is NOT India. Clean, beautiful and full of very nice places to stay and eat (and Kingfisher beer for 35R (70 cents) and lots of foreign and Indian tourists. (although foreign tourist numbers are WAY down because of the european financial problems) With its gorgeous sand, coconut tree lined 3 km long beach this place matches anything the Caribbean can offer! (but at about one fifth the cost!) The Arabian Sea is bathtub warm and is much needed as the temperatures from noon through to 5 are blistering hot! After 5 it is GORGEOUS as one watches the sunset, wander the beach and have a few brew (2 for 1 after 6)

We have done some kayaking (lots of neat birds in a local river) and rented motos to check out some adjacent beaches (gorgeous and alot less people) forts (impressive) and I spent an entire day in the Cotiago Wildlife Sanctuary (50R entry) on my moto...some of the best jungle scenery I have ever seen (inc. Amazon and central america)..amazing and I only saw 1 vehicle the entire day! Rough 2 wheel tracks to waterholes with lots of birds, hundreds of monkeys and a few deer. At one of the waterholes I found two cobra sheds over 10 feet long!

Lori and I are heading back there tomorrow on a Royal Enfield Bullet moto (700R rental)...bet she won't like the water crossings!

The only bad news is that I have picked up some sort of skin rash which isn't helping my looks...Lori says "stay away sick man"!

Chris tried this medicine man and his spelling is as effective as his cure....

Have picked up our bus tickets to Hampi and will be rolling to the west tomorrow evening (22nd) and will spend Christmas in the gorgeous city of Hampi before returning to Gokarna Beach on the coast for New Years and proceeding S. The 8 days we have spent in Palolem have really "recharged" our batteries...we are ready to tackle the "real India" again!!!

Udiapur & Mumbai

2011-12-12T23:26:00.002-08:00

Greetings from a very warm and humid Mumbai...city of 16 million souls...some stats for those of you that are interested: No. of public washrooms per million people: 17! No. of people on a Mumbai train designed for 1,700 during rush hour: 8,800 (me thinks that this is low...after all anything is possible in India so why not 20,000 or so? No. of people per sq. km in Mumbai...27,700...you get the picture...lots of people and also the most beautiful buildings we have ever seen. We are in the Fort area called Colaba...made infamous by the book Shantaram and the well coordinated terrorist attack a few years back. Definitely high end tourist as the streets are clean, relatively few horns blaring etc...and for India very expensive (we are holed up in a nice Sally-Ann (salvation army) hostel. These old buildings date back to the 18th century and looking at old photographs, India (and Mumbai) was a paradise before a billion plus people put an end to paradise. The University buildings make anything we have seen in Canada (inc. Victoria/Quebec City, Parliament buildings etc. look like a "1"...they are truly spectacular and make us want for a wide angle lens. So as we are leaving Mumbai we were treated to a classic Indian scene...a ancient bus packed with Indians rolled by with an entire flock of crows perched on its roof...classic! Our travel book says "don't expect much sleep on the bus trip from Mumbai to Goa as it is one of the worst roads in India...truer words have never been spoken as we seemed to have made the trip constantly rolling from one side of the sleeper to the other!
We are heading to various locations in Goa today...but before Mumbai we visited the city of Udiapur (formerly Mewar)

Udiapur...the most romantic city in India! Or so it is known...looks like another BDIC (Big Dirty Indian City) to us, although the lake and clustered busy streets do have a certain charm in the morning and evenings. We spent several days exploring including a fantastic visit to Kumbalgrath Fort...dating back to the 14th century this fort had 36 km of walls and contained over 180 temples...and only a part of the fort has been repaired. The Indians have done a great job here...the fort and its 1044 gun bastions are a sight to see...to think of 36 km of huge walls (over 50 feet tall and 40 feet wide!) all constructed by hand is insane! The drive to here (over 7 hrs total driving time) runs through some of the first untouched jungle land we have seen in India (incredibly rugged...thus no roads, or people) and through small villages where we got a glimpse of an old way of life...oxen driven water pumps made of wood wheels...etc. Our next stop was the Jain temple at Ranakpur often referred to as the most beautiful Jain temple in India. Made entirely of marble the temple has 1400 huge marble columns, all intricately hand carved and none the same, 11 halls (all hand carved) and simply put is the most amazing piece of art that we have ever seen! (The Jain are a sect of Hindu that reject the caste system and do not believe in killing any creature...to the point that many brush the ground in front of them when they walk to prevent killing ants etc.

To visit these temples we took a taxi and it took over 7 hrs of driving on some sketchy roads (that trashed brakes, clutches etc.) and we paid....1400 R or 24 dollars! (this was just the two of us with a driver!) We also checked out the city palace in Udiapur...impressive and best of all there is a World Wildlife Fund office within the palace grounds. We had a good discussion with the supervisor...less than 1500 tigers left in India (and India has 60% of the wild tigers left in the world) and although there was a slight increase in the Indian tiger population this year the general trend is app. 50 tigers dying per year through various causes...poaching being the main one (mandatory 5 year min. jail time for poaching a single tiger) However the biggest species threat in India right now is the vulture population...it has dropped over 90 percent in the last two years due to a drug(diclofenac for arthritis and joint swelling that is used on cattle, which if they die and are eaten by vultures kills them by damaging their kidneys. The government cannot ban the drug as it would mean a major drop in cattle production so it appears that all of the Himalayan vultures (which include the massive Himalayan Griffon and Lamegeyer (impressive birds!!) are pretty much doomed. So much for boring animals eh! We also witnessed the incredible Muslim celebration where huge houses (up to 4 stories tall!) are packed around the narrow streets of Udiapur followed by thousands of Muslims dressed in traditinal head gear. We were warned to keep clear of the streets but ventured down for a few moments and it was pure pandemonium! We quickly retreated to our roof-top viewpoint...absolutely amazing and dangerous! These huge houses are constructed on logs that are carried on the backs of up to 30 people and you can imagine they hang up on all the buildings surrounding the streets. Ahead of each "house float" are people with big bamboo poles beating people out of the way and keeping the streets clear for the human house transport team!

On our trip back from the mountains we also captured a glimpse of true India...a large cow was sharing a dumpster with a pack of dogs..the entire front end of the cow was inside the dumpster where it was helping itself to a smorgasbord of plastic etc. with a pack of dogs!

So our trip to the South continues...Terisa says "look for the hidden India...it is incredible"....we are trying but she is hard to see beyond the piles of garbage, nosie and smoke filled sky!!!!

Rishikesh, Pushkar and busses without windshields...

2011-12-05T00:50:00.003-08:00

Rishikesh, what to say....yoga, meditation, ashrams, and tourists. This is one busy little place with everyone on their own special journey so to speak...it looks to me like a few of the tourists have gone more than a little overboard in their spiritual journey..but each to their own! We are surprised to see some pretty old tourists...but then again there are some really nice hotels and tour groups arranged through the big hotels in Delhi etc....but still India is not the place to visit if your stomach isn't strong. Talking of which the cows here are dammed tough and basically survive on eating plastic and paper bags. One lady we met says that they are outlawing plastic bags in some cities as they are killing the cows (which are obviously holy) and some cows have over 90 lbs of plastic stuck in their stomachs! (I was wondering about this plastic as the cow dung looks pretty much the same as our cattle just being a little looser (plastic laxative!).

even the cows like the shopping in Rishikesh

The pigs play a major role in garbage disposal eating cow, human crap and most anything else around here. So Ernie...the answer to your question is that "no" they don't eat moose meat..and no beef or pork (thank god!)...the goat (we had some okay goat in the Himalaya) and mutton (always tastes like crap to us!)...we are 100% veggie/fruits here in India.
We spent our five days in Rishikish exploring the streets, relaxing on the beaches along the Ganges (mother Ganga) river, watching the monkeys (lots and one of the "red ass" fellows attacked me and chomped on my pants), watching sunsets, reading and relaxing...very nice and we leave Rishikish with some great memories!

After "organizing" our getaway we took a tuk tuk to Hardiwar (about 25 km) and just about sucummed to fume poisoning (might as well have sucked on a diesel pipe for an hour) before we unloaded at the bus(?)station...bears a distinct resemblance to the Alexis Creek landfill...only dirtier. Some strange sights on the way to the bus station the least of which was a baba, awash in gray ash and standing buck naked in the middle of a bridge slowing down traffic...strange! Bought our ticket at a travel agent promising a tourist sleeper bus.. pay 650R each which to put in perspective is slightly more than what we had just paid for 5 nights lodging in Rishikesh, so even though it only costs us $12.00 each, is expensive......get to the tourist bus station which is little more than a very dirty dirt parking lot with some chai stands, people waiting around and a few buses in various stages of neglect. There is a bus on the outskirts that has seen better days....no windshield, hood doesn't shut, a few boarded up windows and what looks like a flat tire. Chris laughingly takes a picture of this derelict. Some of the other buses look okay. We sit in the shade sipping chai and wait until our appointed departure time when we are to leave on bus #3206. Time comes around and minor chaos is starting so Chris goes looking for our bus...returns laughing his head off - guess what - that broken down bus with no windshield is ours! But enough of our bitching...what about the driver..as it is frigging cold and I cannot even imagine what is thrown up by traffic (and speaking of traffic it flows non-stop...bumper to bumper all night with huge traffic jams in Delhi at the toll booths even at midnight. In fact this is our first sleeper bus and its pretty cool as we have our own private space above the seats (not good in a roll-over!) and one entire side is window...that opens wide open (like wide enough that someone small could easily fall out of the window onto the packed street!)...a great place to see India from! So the bus stops every once in a while to allow people to grab a chai etc. These stops rarely have a bathroom and are considered "open" areas...that is you whiz or take a dump where ever you want. Needless to say the smell would gag a hyena and one definitely wants to watch their step! (good for the guys..not so much for the gals!)

So after a bus switch (where our sleeper was already taken and the bus full...so we had to stand in the front for the final leg to Pushkar. The driver assured us he would make it in two hours (the book ways 4) and sure enough he definitely had some kamakazee blood in his system as he maneuvered this huge bus through the throngs of motos, Tata's laying on the mega-horn almost non-stop!

Pushkar...here we are...on the ghat lined Pushkar Lake...very nice and not even a village in India terms with only 17,000 souls. We have spent five days here, climbed both of the mountains at sunset, taken a camel ride into the desert (great Thar Desert) in Rajisthan and walked the ghats and virtually every street in this colorful, bustling and NOISEY village. First of all a short list of what is illegal in holy Pushkar: Eating/serving of meat. : Kissing : No drinking : No sex (hold it...can't be true given the expansive number of kids!) So what isn't illegal is Charas and Chillum...smoking of ganga and hashish which is definitely a national pasttime throughout all of India we have visited...people light up any and everywhere especially the locals...and just an observation...there are no rowdies, people acting stupid and mean like when folks use alcohol! Even the lassies (a fantastic drink made of curd(yogurt) and fruit (like a superthick better tasting milkshake), also come specially made as "special" or "bhang" lassies mixed with ganga...they taste good and work (as evidenced by Lori making me do a mega chocolate bar run after a special lassie)! Our local restaurant guy said "I want to go to Canada and open a restaurant selling chai and "special lassies"!...no doubt he would get RICH..but only until he ended up in jail!

Our camel ride was definitely fun as we headed out of town into the desert for an overnight trip. So riding a camel is like riding a bumpy horse that sits 2 stories tall...you're a long ways up! You turn the varmits like a horse...except with their long necks you can stretch the neck of a stubborn camel right to your leg...not good as they are biters. We were surprised to see many birds species and even some large antelope...but then again that is one of the good things about being a vegetarian society against killing...despite horrific environmental degradation there are wild animals living right on the outskirts of towns etc. We were also surprised to learn that the government actually grass seeded many of the sand dunes with pampas grass in the state of Rajisthan to stabilize the sand dunes and allow farmers to grow crops where they could get water.

our camel camp out in the desert

I think that we mentioned that the best way to describe India is "sensory overload".....well we can define it even more after 5 days in Pushkar...NOISE is India!!!! We are convinced that most Indians are scared (no kidding!) of silence! Even in the desert music was blaring at mega decibels wherever people lived and right now we are listening (because we have no choice!) to the babbling of some lunatic spewing religious Hindi at 50 words a minute over a massive loud-speaker...and they have been at it for over 20 hrs non-stop!!!!!! Myanna...you got it right as the most important luggage to take to India is ear plugs...but they are not even working with this lunatics dialog (and although the Indian weddings are incredible...color...life...dancing and music the noise is insane...they blast off these huge fire crackers (better than M50's) but they pale in comparison (in terms of sheer noise) to the music which is broadcast though a mass of 10 plus 3 foot speakers powered by their own generator towed behind a horse...I swear I can feel my balls giggling when they pass by!!! Leaving for Udiapur this evening...lots of bus time and a tuk tuk/bus transfer...will we make it? stay tuned!

Detour to Tehri and the Mountains

2011-11-25T22:31:00.001-08:00

We are watching the sun set over the Ganges River (mother ganga) in the town of Rishikesh. It has taken us awhile to get here as we were diverted north to Tehri and the mountains by a new friend Niyaz whom we met on the bus coming from Delhi. He invited us to accompany him to his hometown of Tehri to stay with his family and visit the 'mounts'. It was an amazing experience. Niyaz and his extended family of aunt, uncle, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephew and niece all live in a beautiful home in New Tehri, up in the foothills of the Himalaya.

The original town of Tehri (50,000 people) was flooded to make a huge dam on the Bhagirathi River. The lake that was created is 43 kilometers long and 850 meters deep and the dam is one of the largest in the world. The people that were displaced were moved up the mountain to 'New Tehri' which overlooks the beautiful lake that covers the entire old town.

The road we drove on was immortalized in the Ice Road Truckers (IRT) movie filmed in India where they hauled cement into the Tehri Dam...we drove the road twice and all I can say is that US truckers are pussies compared to their Indian counterparts that drive this road pedal to the metal with ancient Tata trucks. (Actually the Indian made, Indian tough Tata trucks are my new road heros!) And if the IRTs thought that the road they drove on was bad they would have fainted if they saw the road beyond the dam!

So we were toured around for a day by Niyaz, Shiraz, and MD Sameem, fed incredible Indian food and treated like very special guests. The next day we travelled by bus and share taxi (6hrs) to Garam Bhati, a small village further up into the mountains where the road ends and trails take over. It was just like being in Nepal. We stayed with MD Sameen's mom and gramma in a very rudimentary home. No heat except a wood fuelled cooking area on the ground, two rooms up and the cows live below. When we hiked up into the Himalaya foothills (a misnomer as these "hills"are thousands of feet high and near vertical as one can get without being a sheer rock wall) we followed the village women who with their brightly colored dresses head into the mountains everyday to collect firewood. Let me tell you...these sub100lb women are TOUGH...I could hardly lift up the bundles of firewood they collect with their small scythes (bundle into a roll and pad with grass then wrap a nylon rope around the bundle and across their shoulder like backpack straps!....can you even imagine hauling a hundred pound load with nylon straps digging into your shoulder for 2 hrs!!!

So we go on this hike and our good friends are talking about beers (bears) and lions of which they are deadly afraid...and when we came to a spot where they thought that they spotted a lion track we decided to turn back. The men (of which there are very few as most of the men (with the exception of the old men (elders) work in the cities and only come home once in a while) were amazed that us fellows and Lori climbed up the mountain...it is dangerous and steep...but the women do this every day of the week!!!

We had alot of fun and owe Niyaz, Shiraz and MD Sameen a big thank you for showing us a side of rural India that we would have never experienced on our own! The trip back was as much fun as the ride to the foothills as the roads are a disaster with avalanches everywhere! Every hillside is a mass of earthen scars caused by the monsoon season rains. The hand work stone road walls are a work of art and it is mind boggling to think that all the millions of walls/rocks were moved by hand!! After travelling through places like Indonesia and Nepal we are kind of used to the driving antics of India (that used to scare the crap out of us) and in fact they drive more sanely here than Indonesia. However every once in a while a driver thinks he is Mario Andretti and in these cases we have learned to just close your eyes and try to go to sleep as one fact of these mountain roads is that if you do leave the road it will be the last 'exit' of your life.

and these women are all carrying cell phones...true!

Anyways we made it to Rishikesh and this place is a sea of calm in the chaos of India!

Greetings from Delhi

2011-11-18T21:00:00.002-08:00

Good morning everyone...from the top of the Lord Krishna hotel (?) main bazaar Old Delhi. Its about 19 degrees with a beautiful wind and the sky is full of the usual smoke (looks like a forest fire!) which gives the scene below us a surreal look. Ear plugs are our new best friend as the sounds of horns blaring (you don't need a motor over here..but always a horn!) dogs barking etc. The street are crawling with people (that's what happens when 18 million people live in a 1700 sq. km city!) tuk tuks, rickshaws a few cows chewing on garbage!

the untouchable caste tries to deal with the garbage....

view from our humble abode in old
Delhi

This place is amazing...the food absolutely amazing (the best we have ever tasted!) at about 2 dollars a meal...a ghetto room for 10 dollars a night and you have it made! The people are super friendly and it is one of the safest places we have ever travelled! Lots of scams to keep one on their toes and masses upon masses of people. The transit systems are like cattle loading and unloading chutes and the security tight (you get checked like the airport just getting onto the transit etc.)
A day here is truly a mental and physical test...and although we have only been here four days it feels like we have experienced two weeks of life! If you have ever wondered how one might die in India consider the following: India has the worst traffic safety record in the world with 166,000 traffic DEATHS per year..yes there is alot of people but in fact very few vehicles! I guess one might consider this just another form of population control.
Lots of amazing old forts and ruins strewn about the city.

We are staying in the old (read poorer) parts of this huge city but the downtown area would challenge downtown Vancouver for money, massive infrastructure fancy cars etc. but none of that in Old Delhi (old Delhi is area constructed prior to the British leaving in 1947-48)
Just heading out to Rishikesh in the North...if we can figure out how to get to the bus station!!!

Last Day in Bangkok

2011-11-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

Good evening everyone...yes it is 5:12 here in Bangkok as we relax in the 30 degree plus heat having a Chang "over" beer (justifiably named!) Yes it is hot...almost hot enough to complain..but then again not quite!
It was one long journey to get here...by our calculations 45 plus hours of Greyhound bus, taxis, subways, 2 plane flights of over 17 hours, more bus taxis and finally deposited in the middle of the night on Khao San Road in Bangkok. We can definitely see this getting a little tough to handle as one gets older!
So we don't need gumboots and the good news for us tourists is that we have never seen so few fellow tourists in Bangkok (which is bad news for the very friendly locals). There is some flooding and I guess the Chao Phraya River is getting higher by the hour but these people are tough...getting flooded out but life goes on as usual.
We have seen a few Pomeranians here...they are a pretty popular dog and have us missing the Spudster. We have moved from our original nights accommodation into what Lori calls a "jail" at 200 Bhat a night (which is app. 7 dollars)...just getting ready for India I say! Lots of sandbags everywhere around here...Dylan could pack in his job millwrighting and take up his previous profession as a sand bagger!
No snakes, crocodiles (as reported in various reports which you know must be BS as they would be chopped up and sold to tourists like us as chicken!) just some monitor lizards and lots of garbage. We took a tuk tuk ride along with the required visits to the gem stores today and had a great time...tomorrow it is off to the floating market then to India where we are supposed to arrive in New Delhi at 11 pm. Lots of good food here (and cheap!)...we have to move or we won't fit on the plane! Oh yeah...better fill everyone in on what are the latest sale craze in Thailand...this would be Billabongo (rip off) shorts...a sale item that has moved north from Indonesia (in 2010 this was the big sale item in Indonesia). We know from experience that although they do look nice you don't want to buy them as they have no liner so your balls hang out of the bottoms! That's all for now...porkchop signing off! See you in India....

Chris partying on Khao San
750ml Archa 50baht ($1.60) and the usual Changover

Egg delivery Thai style....and we have trouble getting a dozen eggs home unbroken....

Garbage floating in the flooding back eddies...guess this could become a problem...

Flooding near the river

Some minor flooding near the Grand Palace

India here we come!

2011-10-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

Soon on the way to India for 6 months or so....will keep you posted.....

The Good Old USA

2008-01-07T09:13:00.001-08:00

Welcome Home!!

Sequoia National Park - big tree grove

Lori in the Redwoods

one wet night in the Organ Pipe Desert

Our last night on the moto ride south is being spent in Organ Pipe Desert Park where we pick up a remote campsite pass for Alamo Wash. This is truly a gorgeous spot but just before we hit the dirt road into Alamo Wash the skies opened up with a miserable cold rain that had us soaked by the time we hit the campsite and puddles in the tent by the time it was set up. It`s ironic that one of our last nights in the tent is our most miserable…but we slept surprisingly well and a beautiful Arizona day waits for us in the morning.
About 5 hours later we roll into Dick and Cathy’s place in Phoenix…a final hug and tears as our moto ride is over. We are really SAD…this has been a wonderful experience for us..we love it. Even though we miss all our friends and kids we want to keep going…unlike our Africa trip where we were actually looking forward to returning to Canada.
Dick and Cathy are the perfect hosts and by the time we leave the next day we feel like new people…clean and full of great food and even wearing some “new” clothes we stashed in the truck before we left.
Our next stop was a visit to Uncle Marty and Judy in El Centro..ironically enough we were only about 20km away from them 5 days ago when we travelled Mexico 2! (but didn’t know it) We spent a wonderful evening with them in their gorgeous 40 foot motorhome…now that is a comfortable way to travel!
Next stop is Sequoia National Park…oh so gorgeous covered in winter snows! Some of the trails were packed down and we managed to get some hiking in to see some of the largest trees in the world including the General Sherman Tree…the largest living organism in the world (1156 m3 of wood!) This is our third trip to this park…I for one just cannot get enough of these fantastic trees!
From the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains to the California/Oregon coast to see…more big trees. This time we camp and travel through a series of National and state parks full of the last intact groves of old growth Redwoods. Beautiful and impressive!
Now it’s a “road race” north. In Washington (near Kennewick) we get caught in the worst snow storm I have ever encountered. No kidding! I initially slowed down to 4X4 first gear low range at an idle when I could not see past the front of the hood..then it got worse! Lori started yelling at me to stop…and I was STOPPED..it felt like we were doing 30 mph at a dead stop…total whiteout vertigo! However we did manage to get the truck off the road (which was closed to traffic..that flashing light on the road traffic sign we passed should have been a warning..but seeing as our radio didn`t work…) and pull out our winter bags and settled in for a surprisingly enjoyable night in the front seat of the truck.
Crossing into Canada was super simple..no drugs…no guns..no fruit…no veggies…no seeds…no dirt…your free to go! Hello CANADA we love you!

Mexico

2007-12-03T08:20:00.002-08:00

Our scorpion friends - lots of these while camping in Mexico

Negro Tortuga - only 1 in 10,000 will live to return to this beach to lay their eggs

lunch break on the road - Baja style

Living the real tourist life (for a day) in Cancun with Cari & Henning

First day of 2007 - Agua Verde, Baja - doesn't get any better than this!

Arbole de Tule - the largest diameter tree in the world

a friend on the road..

Yup...this feels like good old Mexico! Just like our trip south the woman at the border crossing says “the registration papers you have are not original...no good...no enter Mexico! This despite the fact that we showed her our passports (with 28 border crossings including our crossing in Jan AND a official receipt of our Jan 07 border crossing! So we argued and argued (I was ready to just ride through) until her boss came along...no problem at all and in minutes we were through and heading into the Yucatan.
Lots of tarantulas on the road as we visited and camped on the hurricane ravaged shores of the southern Yucatan..not a sign standing and total destruction of what was once a stunning beach and tourist area.
A few days later we roll into Tulum..the beaches of which we had fond memories during our 2000 visit. One would be hard pressed to find any similarity between today and the Tulum of just 8 years ago...literally wall to wall resorts and eco-lodges BUT we managed to find the only remaining camp spot (up for sale) on the beach and set up the tent under the cocos (not too close!) as the only resident of the camp site. One thing that has not changed is the beautiful white sand beaches and coconut lined shores...we love it here! Spent several days wandering the beaches, visiting nearby ruins and exploring the town of Tulum...we will probably never be back but at least this is one of the places we re-visited and will leave with memories as beautiful today as when we first visited 8 years ago.
Our next stop is the tourist town of Playa del Carmen where we found a nice room (25$) to stay at and store our bikes (on the street which is awash in police...no crime (except corrupt cops!) in these high end tourist towns!) while we explored and visited Lori’s sister and her friend Henning...still remember (barely) the night at Senor Frog’s...and surprisingly enough woke up without a hangover the next morning! (we are one boring couple when it comes to night-life activity this trip!) Its a few days ride to the ruins of Palenque (our next stop) but the riding is easy if now somewhat boring.
Palenque has some of the nicest Mayan ruins we have visited and today we stay within the park at a very nice campsite where we work on the Hondas and have a few brew with the locals and tourists. As always the Palenque ruins and surrounding trails are a joy to explore and photograph. Not much has changed here since our last visit.
A few days later we head west with intentions of visiting Aqua Clara and Aqua Verde. Both places are amazingly beautiful with gorgeous peacock blue water, innumerable falls in a pretty jungle setting. We chose to camp at Aqua Verde (2$) but were disappointed at the condition of the camping area...it sure looks like much of the tourist infra-structure in Chiapas is being completely neglected...a bit of a mess to say the least.
A great ride through to San Cristobal (a little slower than I anticipated) and then N where we found the same campsite we stayed at almost exactly one year ago (near Cintalapo)...relaxing and comfortable!
For the next week we travelled along the coastal mountain roads of western (Pacific) Mexico...basically retracing our route south but staying at different beaches. Our first major stop was Puerto Escondido....lots of fun and a jumping off point for Oaxaca where we spent 3 days wandering about the old town (full of absolutely gorgeous old churches and buildings) and exploring the ruins of Monte Alban and or course the famous Arbol del Tule...the largest diameter tree in the world! (we or should I say “I” have this fascination with large trees...more on that later) For a change of pace (and free sleep’s!) we took the night bus back and forth from Oaxaca /Puerto Escondido.
Back on the road as we head North...a combination of camping in campsites and or “bush camps”. Some fun getting through Acapulco but we made it (barely!!!). Christmas was spent on a un-named beach about 100 km N of Playa Azul...a fantastic place to spend Christmas...a Christmas we will always remember!
The mountain roads along this section of coast are made for motos...and Lori is carving up the road like you wouldn’t believe...a far cry from out trip south!
Some great riding and sights...Puerto Vallarta sneaks up on us quickly and in no time we are through this tourist city and tracking along the coast to San Blas...a place I swore we would never visit again...but we remember that a friend we met on the way south always winters in San Blas and sure enough...here comes Bob (he said he though we looked like street sweepers when he first saw us...I guess everything we have is worn out and trashed!)
After a fantastic visit with Bob (and no bugs!!)we head north to Mazatlan with intentions of crossing the Sea of Cortez to Baja. In a classic case of perfect timing we roll into Mazatlan and straight to the ferry docks and right onto our scow to Baja (after paying the 350$ boarding fees for bike n’ bodies) I’ll never complain about BC Ferries again! Our overnight trip required we sleep in these chairs that we packed together..thankfully the scow was empty and we were able to lay out on the chairs. Or should I say the chairs that were bolted to the floor…our sleep was interrupted a few times when errant waves rocked the boat and a series of chairs with folks sleeping in them tipped over depositing bodies on the steel floor. Nice!
After 18 hours of boat time we unloaded in La Paz…it’s a beautiful Baja morning as we ride south towards Todo Santos. Although we have spent considerable time in Baja (8 trips) we have never travelled south of La Paz so this is new country to us. It is beautiful, but insanely busy and we swear that every second vehicle has California plates! Motos are everywhere…lots of road riders like us but also a fair number of off-road bikes. It is obvious that Baja is becoming a off-road vehicle paradise for California (and in general US) residents as local laws severely restrict off-road vehicle use in most states.
After finally finding a nice quiet beach and enjoying a great nights sleep we headed north…a long desert ride through to Cuidad Constitution where we camped in the desert and continued North the next day. We are now on familiar territory (although our last visit was in 1999) and we found a exquisite campsite to celebrate Christmas eve on the Sea of Cortez near Aqua Verde. Beautiful and Christmas morning sunrise was spectacular!
We worked our way north with various bush camps along the Baja playas (lots of nice fat scorpions!) to Catavina where we washed up in ice cold streams and explored the “rock desert” that holds so many special memories for us as we used to camp here every trip with our gang.
The Baja trip closed off with a dirt road run up the east coast to Puertocitos and its hot springs then San Felipe. Although it has been 17 years since we last drove this route one thing has not changed…it is a bumpy and rough as ever. Having not been touched since the Nov running of the Baja 1000 she was a mess…the old Hondas shook themselves apart and I just about killed myself a few times when I hit some sand sections at high speeds…not overly enjoyable ride when you combine this with insane winds!
Our final day in Mexico consisted of driving Mexico 2 to Sonoyta..basically paralleling the US border. One desolate piece of Hwy. and we had high winds and blowing sand that reduced visibility to 20m in places. Crossing into the United States was super easy…matter of fact the quickest border crossing of our entire road trip!

Belize

2007-11-18T08:04:00.003-08:00

the fishing is great - baracuuuuuuda

without a hook or line....

typical old wooden home - Belize City

sea kayaking the Caribbean

our home at Glovers Reef for a week!

Lori gets a helping hand

floating down the Macal River

catching a nurse shark by hand (with dog help)

a couple of wahoo - great eating for sure!

First of all “sorry for the delay” in updating our travel site but Lori lost interest and it has taken me this long to find the dang kickstarter to get this computer started!
Belize was one of the few countries that we did not pass through on our way south, but we have been here before during a 2000 backpacking trip. Our remote border crossing was a breeze...just a stamp in the passport for the motos...but insurance is mandatory and expensive at 9 US dollars per day per moto! (a car only costs 6$ per day?) so we sat down with our insurance fellow and worked out the days we were going to ride and picked up 4 days worth...definitely on a schedule now! (Our first question was “How much does it cost if you get caught without insurance?”...the answer of 500 US wasn’t what we wanted to hear, thus the insurance!

Our first stop is the pretty village of San Ignacio where we pitched our tent and explored town. The next day we rented a canoe and paddled 15 kms of the Macal River...beautiful and our friends the giant Iguanas were still hanging around the large jungle trees. We got a little treat while we were gone in the form of a massive tropical rain storm that had our tent and down sleeping bags floating in 4 inches of water...NICE!
Needless to say the next day was spent trying to dry things out and visiting some of the locals...any time of the day is the right time for a Belekin (cerveza)...pretty laid back and super friendly are the words that come to mind!
Its a 6 hr (we move SSLLOOWWW) ride to the Sittee River via the gorgeous Hummingbird and Main South Hwy. One look around the bug infested jungle at Glovers Reef Hostel convinced us that camping was NOT a good idea and we grabbed a fantastic small cabina that sat on 25 foot poles and most importantly had a huge fan to blow those darn noseeums back into Guatemala! First job (only job!) on the agenda is to get the 650 running as it has been smoking, farting and backfiring its way across Belize. It took a while (fingers one foot long and ¼ inch across would help!) to get the carb off and completely dismantled after which we hiked the 5 kms to Hopkins Town where I found a fellow with a 50 year old compressor and cleaned the carb (one buck). Yes...we have success as it runs like new!
This place is super nice...folks are incredibly friendly and the local kids have “adopted us” so we spend the evenings relaxing on the deck with the fan blowing and watching some fantastic sunsets. The local owners tell us that one can still buy a riverfront lot for 10 thousand dollars but the prices are rising quickly..! We did some exploring of the area on our bikes and used the kayak on several streams before we headed out to Glovers Atoll (46 miles off shore) to spend 8 days on a remote 8 acre palm tree covered island. (one can buy island property at 99 thousand per acre)
We spent a fantastic 8 days enjoying our island (I say our island because for about 4 days we were the only tourists on the island) and Becky (the owner) moved us to a beautiful off-shore cabana (built in traditional style) from our tent (rain!) after she heard about our moto trip. Thank you Becky!
So relaxation is the word of the week...absolutely unreal snorkeling in the water surrounding the island (which is a world heritage site where fishing etc. is illegal unless you are an indigenous person)...huge rays, sharks and fish of every color and description floating through huge mountains of corral. We didn’t think it could get any better than this but some folks that had visited the Atoll prior to the hurricanes that hit Belize a few years ago said that the corral forests consisted of stag horn corral over 10 feet in height...none of which was left for us to see!
We also managed to get out fishing...incredible as we caught 20 plus pound King Mackerel, Barracuda etc. Every night the fish are cleaned on the islands dock and sharks (Sand, Black tip and Reef) flock around in 2 foot deep water to eat the fish entrails etc. So we had this idea of catching a shark without a hook...tied a rope onto a fish carcass and sure enough the shark would not let go of the fish until we drug it up on shore and Warren (owners son) and his trusty dog grabbed the 5 foot shark and held it up for photos before tossing it back in the ocean!
After a long boat ride through to Dandriga and back to Sittee River (rough and wet but we did manage to get a look at a rare sea manatee) we hit the road North. Another fantastic ride and we are chasing a huge black storm cloud across the rugged Maya mountains. Belize City is well known for its dangers and wouldn’t you know it...just as we pass the sign “Welcome to Belize City” (70,000 pop.) just before dark (4:30) in the rain...another flat!. At least we were only 5 m away from a army check and my tire changing skills (?) had the army fellows smiling if not outright laughing! There goes my last spare tube so we are not going anywhere until I get some extra tubes (and it's Sat. Night).
Picked up a room just at dark and spent a wonderful Sunday riding around Belize City. This really is a neat city...we love it! No downtown core at all so virtually all the buildings are one or two stories tall, made of wood and feature a very distinctive Belizean style (lots on stilts) that feature lots of open veranda and the brightest colors one can imagine! The streets are really narrow (no RV’s need apply!), rough and completely devoid of traffic. We can see why you may not want to wander about these parts after dark but today the folks are nothing but super friendly...relaxing everywhere...makes this city seem like a small town...wonderful!
One thing that is interesting is that Belize is totally shut-down on Sundays, which is very different from most of the countries we have visited!
For our final day in Belize we headed north through parkland to the Mexican border near Santa Ellena (after picking up tubes (only took us about 3 hrs to figure out where to buy tubes!) and surviving horrendous overnight rain storm(s)) We were surprised to see how much garbage was thrown about in the Parks...every side-road was literally a garbage dump...getting close to Mexico are we?

So what did we think of Belize? First of all the people are absolutely fantastic (what is funny is that during our 2000 visit we had a tough time dealing with the locals)...in this country black, colored and white people all live together and to at least our eyes, live more in peace here than any place we have ever visited. Maybe we can all learn something from these beautiful people!
Belize is expensive...and if it is expensive for us, it is sad to think of how tough it is on the locals, which for the most part are relatively poor. Many people we talked to said that they were going to have to leave Belize (most head to Guatemala) because they simply could not afford Belize.
Lastly...do not visit Belize during the rainy season!

Guatemala

2007-11-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

Viva Guatemala!!! Its a gorgeous day as we roll down the road past Honduras customs and into the Guatemalan customs some 20 km down the road. Should be the usual easy crossing...but no...it seems that we must ride the port city of Puerto Barrio to get the bike paperwork completed then return to the border crossing to finish the job. Like they say...in these countries if you can get one meaningful thing done in a day consider it a job accomplished! So this ends up being officially the longest border crossing (and we have crossed 28 borders) to date with a recorded 3.5 hrs. to get into Guatemala legally! (however every one was really nice and Puerto Barrio was not the usual crappy port city!)
For the return leg we are riding up the eastern border of Guatemala towards Tikal and then entering Belize. First stop on the agenda is the pretty village of Rio Dulce...yes this feels like rural Guatemala as vendor stalls crowd the roads while smoking diesel trucks roar in and out of people, vehicles dogs etc. with horns blaring and loud latino music blaring...welcome HOME. We spent our time in Rio exploring Spanish forts (ruins), town itself and took a boat down the Rio Dulce river to the Garifuna village of Livingstone on the Caribbean coast. That was an eye opener...firstly the town is super clean and secondly those rasta types definitely have hustling (dollars out of tourists!) down to a fine art! After falling victim to one such hustler Lori and I smartened up and just ignored them totally!
Our plans were t head into the mountains but non-stop torrential downpours had us changing our mind and we headed north with a really relaxing stay at the Finca (ranch) Ixobel (we had heard of this place as a must visit during our 2000 visit) and it didn`t disappoint!
The roads are easy to ride with little traffic and virtually no speed bumps (topes) so the ride to Tikal was fantastic. We visited the large ancient city of Tikal during our 2000 visit but I have always wanted to camp at Tikal so that is exactly what we did. Although we really both enjoyed our two day stay there is something to be said for leaving great memories alone. A lot has changed at Tikal since our last visit...changes that make sense in terms of protecting this beautiful site...but take away from some of the magic we felt back in 2000. For instance one is not allowed to climb up onto the pyramids...they now have wooden stairs and small platforms where one can view the ruins from up high.
Tikal is rather unique in that it not only contains some of the largest un-earthed Mayan ruins but the site is full of bird and animal species that are all but extirpated from the rest of Guatemala.
So now it is time to head into Belize...a rather interesting road as the road condition steadily deteriorates as we near he border and the last 25 km is a limestone mud (thank god it wasn`t raining or we might still be there!!) mess that is currently under reconstruction. Obviously trade between Belize and Guatemala is non-existent and the border crossing is nice and tranquil. (In fact Guatemalan`s lay claim to Belize saying that it is part of Guatemala)
Guatemala is a really great country...people tend to be rather quiet (probably because a good number of the people in the rural areas we travelled are Indigenous folks) but kind and friendly. The country really seems to be getting its act together economically although aid organizations claim that Guatemala along with Brasil have the greatest disparity between the rich and poor out of all of the latin countries.) This probably does not bode well for this country in the long run but the president is working hard to increase the middle income families in Guatemala. Guatemala is very clean and although we did not run into a single problem with crime, residents and tourists have endless stories of theft and more serious kidnappings (most of which appear to occur in the vicinity of Guatemala City (which we were surprised to learn is the largest city in Central America)

Honduras going home

2007-11-06T15:20:00.001-08:00

tire repairs on the road - always good for drawing a crowd

Welcome back to Honduras...the border is its usual chaotic mess of bureaucracy and today we have to deal with a money lender who tried to rip us off (the old inaccurate calculator trick!) until Lori put him in his place! Although we have heard that he guidelines regarding immigration have changed in Central America the bike paperwork seemed close to the same as when we were riding south.
Our original plan for Honduras was to take some new roads to the north-east coast and spend some beach time before heading into Guatemala. Our ride to the east coast was quick as the weatherman kept us good and wet.
The scenery here is very different than Nicaragua with tall mist covered mountains where we actually ended up wearing all our cold weather and rain gear. The capital of Honduras (Tegucigalpa) is well known as a dangerous run-down city and ``run by gangs`according to `paranoid planet`(aka Lonely Planet). The ride around the perimeter of this rather colorful and beautiful city was something we will always remember. The roads were in total disrepair...at several points we were riding in the wrong lanes (or else the oncoming traffic was in the wrong lanes!...who can tell!), the road changed from 4 land blacktop to single lane rutted, rock blasted gravel in several places at at one point a stream flowed across the road and hundreds of people were washing their laundry in the middle of the Hwy! All this and a total lack of signs...we definitely breathed a sigh of relief as we cleared the city!
We really didn`t have the luxury of really enjoying the gorgeous scenery as I was in a little pain after doing a good slide down the rain drenched Hwy. A dog jumped in front of me and took out my front wheel and I was very lucky to escape serious injury when I slid towards the ditch instead of oncoming traffic! A few new battle scars was nothing compared to what might have been...someone is looking after us!
However the fun for the day wasn`t over as we entered the large city of San Pedro Sula (another one of those places you really don`t want to be!) at dark and were unable to find a place to sleep. Nothing to serious except I do not have a headlight...good thing the police and drivers don`t care if you have no lights after dark! We did eventually find a `no-star`(actually Lori rated it as a -5 star)
We eventually made it to the beaches of the sleepy little fishing village of Omao... a very nice relaxing place to spend a couple of days! Life revolves around the beach, dock and fishing just off shore. The beaches themselves are looking a little rough after this years hurricane season which is probably the reason that there were no tourists. We managed to keep busy exploring the beaches and enjoying cheap food and beer as well as well as checking out the impressive Spanish ruins of the Fortaleza de Omao. To top it off we finally got some sun and gorgeous sunsets...this definitely rates as one of the places we really enjoyed in Honduras.
So now that we have been through Honduras twice what are our thoughts....people are really friendly (although we did have some problems in central Honduras on the way south) and helpful...the cities are pretty rough with lots poverty, and general chaos. We found that there really is not a lot to do in Honduras...the Bay Is. seem to be the big attraction but the cities are not enjoyable to visit like those in Nicaragua. The countryside is very beautiful...lots of mountains and everything is really green.
Next stop....GUATEMALA!

Nica Nicaragua

2007-11-04T15:03:00.001-08:00

Lori relaxing at the beautiful and tranquille Lago Apoyo

Monkey Hut Hostal on Laguna Apoyo...one very enjoyable place to spend some time swimming in the bathtub warm, clear freshwater, hiking and kayaking.

One of the hundreds of fantastic old doorways in historic Leon

Gorgeous cathedrals to go along with the doorways..Leon Nicaragua

It's the end of October...rainy season is pounding us so its time to roll north and see if Nicaragua is a little drier than Costa Rica. Reaching the only road accessed border crossing between Costa Rica and Nicaragua we are reminded of why we through S American folks were more friendly than people in Central America. Firstly the money changers pulled the old “calculator” (incorrect addition) trick on us (but got caught), then we were run through the usual border crossing bureaucracy..a far cry from the free crossings and hearty welcome to our country that we got in SA!
Our first stop is the beautiful Laguna Apoyo...a volcanic crater lake that we spent a few days at back in March. Today the dry, leafless forests of March are gorgeous in a coat of green that comes with the rainy (green) season. What a wonderful place to relax, hike, kayak, swim (bathtub warm, crystal clear water!) Sleeping on the wharf we were treated to a impressive show of lightening every night (not to mention sore backs...my back does not like laying on planks all night!) The people here are so friendly and I needed their help when I strayed off course during a hike and ended up hiking for about 20 km’s through jungle, villages and a combination of dirt tracks and tarmac roads. The hike through the dark revealed hundreds of bats (all sizes and shapes) and fireflies.
After three days on the lake its the first of Nov and time to move on...today we ride to Leon and I figure that it should take no longer than 3 hrs to travel the 130 kms. Wrong-o! We end up having to ride in the capital city of Nicaragua (Managua) and I can tell you that we are NOT impressed! Even though Leon is a city of over 100,000 souls their is not a single sign and at least 15 branches in the road. To compound the problem Managua lies on a plain that is as flat as a board...to mountains to guide one about! First of all we get stopped by the police for riding about 20 feet the wrong way down a one way street (what is a offense here is considered standard MC operating procedure in S America!) After a long argument and lots of whining (in decidedly crappy Spanglish!) by us we are set free. Then..just as we break free of the city (yes!!!) three cops jump out on the road and flag us down...I am accused of passing on a single line and speeding. This one time I am definitely innocent and protest strongly...to which the police say “yes we believe you..here is your papers back...but its Lori who was actually speeding and passing dangerously! They show us a book...with driving offenses in it...around 100 US for the supposed infractions...no f’ing way and after a “Mexican standoff” of about a half hour we get our papers back and continue on (through 35 degree heat!) Now to really add insult to injury two farm tractors that we passed before we entered Managua actually passed us while we were arguing with the police!!
Not to worry...we are in Leon before dark and grab a fantastic hostal for 12 bucks per night. Leon is a really neat historic city with some spectacular cathedrals and a very laid back friendly atmosphere! We spent our first day exploring the many sights in town then booked a two day hike into Volcan Telica with Quetzeltrekkers..a group that completes treks where all the money goes to helping street kids in Nicaragua. There was only three of us on the hike and ironically Heather, (the third person) works as a firefighter for the Vanderhoof Forest District and knows Rob and Jason Moore. We make a pretty good group along with our guides (guias) Trevor and Claudio..a pretty and easy hike to the crater after which we lay around and BS in the alpine area forgetting one of the golden rules of camping...get your tent up as soon as you arrive (especially if you are not familiar with the tent in question). Well guess what..we ended up tossing up the crap tent in the middle of a torrential rainstorm...one fun night of sleep with three of us in a leaking tent laying on a quarter inch thick piece of foam...ugh! So much for bitchin...a good hike and tomorrow we head to Honduras!!!

Destroyed or Lost

2007-10-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

okay, Chris and Lori have been having this discussion for awhile now, so time to tally who has lost or destroyed more things on this trip.... here is the list

Lori

set of keys for the bike (but she thinks Chris actually lost them)

one digital camera (destroyed)

MP3 player

2 computer hard drives

Chris

camera and lens (dropped into a mangrove swamp in Honduras)

1 pair of reading glasses

1 walkie talkie

one pair of sunglasses

one digital camera

(all above destroyed when truck runs over his jacket)

one small padlock and keys

riding jacket

3 1/2 pairs of riding gloves

tripod

daypack

1 set of moto keys

to be continued.....

Costa Rica Costa Rica

2007-10-19T19:43:00.001-07:00

A backroad to Costa Rica's Volcan Arenal provided great views and a great ride!

Lori and sunset on Playa Tamarindo, one very busy tourist beach along Costa Rica's pacific coast

One tree contains an entire ecosystem in the Monteverde cloud forest reserve!

Lori and the Hondogs on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica...great fun for sure!

Caribbean Coast...this says it all!!!

New wiring..new sprockets (for you Felix!)=New Hondog!!!

From Panama into Costa Rica...see that semi in the background (followed by about 2o more!) According to the Costa Rican officials the one way bridge blocked by Costa Rican semis is Panama's problem, which in turn was our problem when we tried to cross this border!

Blue Jean Rana (frog), one of the poisonous dart frogs in Costa Rica

I hate spiders, but don't consider tarantulas spiders! But I have to admit I picked up this 5 inch orange-kneed tarantula only after Peter (who has owned tarantulas) picked it up!

After our nice relaxing stay at Boca del Toro it time to hit the road norte to Costa Rica. Today (Oct 19th) we are crossing at the remote village of Chanquinola..but first we have to traverse a series of single lane, rotten wood bridges over several rivers that cause Lori more than a little stress (and for good reason as a slip means a 20 m plus drop into a raging river. One has to be a magician to figure out how to get to this border crossing and when we do we are in for a surprise! A single lane ramp leads to yet another ancient single lane bridge. First we need to park in the doorway of the immigration office (literally) so that the semi’s from the Costa Rica side can pass into Panama. After getting stamped out we face the challenge of crossing this bridge. A line up of Costa Rican semis stretches on forever and they will not give me even a minute to cross (only one vehicle on the bridge at a time)...finally I ask Lori to run across to the Costa Rican side to block truck traffic by standing in the middle of the bridge approach. When she tried this the semi drivers hit their horns and the Costa Rican police came out and forced Lori off the road. When she explained the situation (we only needed a couple of minutes to pass) they said “This is Panama’s problem..not Costa Rica’s”. However her blockage gave me enough time to get my bike on the bridge and by blocking pedestrian traffic and various other methods we are across and into Costa Rica in just over 2 hrs.
Our first stop is Puerto Viejo..a tranquille village on the Caribbean Coast...a nice hostal with a pool and some nice beach scenery and a very laid back lifestyle sure felt great. We spent some time exploring various beaches up and down the coast and then headed inland to Fortuna.
We had already visited Fortuna (and Volcan Arenal) in March but this time we were rewarded with some nice clear views of the Volcano (which is strange considering that we are in the middle of rainy season!) Rainy season or not we have lots of tourists and the usual high prices for food (lodging isn’t to bad). Just to clarify..when we say high prices we are comparing prices to other Central and South American countries...in terms of cost Costa Rica is still as cheap or cheaper than Canada.
Leaving Fortuna we took a series of dirt roads around the shore of Lago Arenal..some beautiful views of the volcano and we also saw our first white-lipped Peccary. It is a beautiful ride with little traffic (actually most of the roads in Costa Rica are in good shape and very nice to ride as traffic is generally light with very nice scenery) as we make our way to the mountain village of Taliran where we holed up while a rain storm raged for most of the evening.
The next day we completed the ride to the pretty mountain village of Santa Ellena (Monteverde). There is lots to do here as Monteverde is supposed to be the most popular protected are in Costa Rica. What is strange about most of these villages is that the 20 or 30 km directly before the villages are still dirt road and in the case of Santa Elena (Monteverde) the road is pretty rocky but we can run it a lot faster than the trucks and bus. In Santa Elena we spent a day hiking in the cloud forest reserve (our hi-light was finding a orange kneed tarantula) that contains some spectacular cloud forest ecosystems...a single tree contains a entire living ecosystem! We also checked out the orchid gardens, the frog (rana) pond and literally walked the entire town.

As we drop out of the mountains we kiss the nice cool air goodbye and trade it for the humidly of the Pacific Coast as we spent several days at both Playa Tamarindo and Hermosa. This area of Costa Rica has been devastated by floods and judging by the absolute torrential rains that hit us the flooding is not yet finished!
Playa Tamarindo is one of the more expensive places to live and stay in Costa Rica and the amount of construction is progress is impressive. Here you find 200 dollar per night hotels but main streets full of mud and holes, no sidewalks, polluted beaches. While we were there we had a huge rainstorm and water was over 2 feet deep on mainstreet and flooding into fancy stores! This is supposed to be a surfers paradise but its definitely “yuppie” surfers compared to the dredlocked laid back surf scene in Puerto Viejo! (Because it is rainy season there are virtually no waves!) The road into Tamarindo is a mess..all that rain and semi-trucks running over a mud road makes for a big mess!
Playa Hermosa is more our style...laid back and we stayed at the Hostal Iguana which is owned by a Canadian that bought the place when he was 20 and smoked way to much dope to ever leave! Just kidding (well actually not!)...Ken is a really nice guy with the usual wife that is at least 20 years his Junior!
Its getting to late October and time to head north! So what did we think of Costa Rica? The people are really friendly! We think that the tourist industry tends to lean to the high-end tourist..not the cheap backpacker type. One needs to pay fees (fairly steep fees) to do just about everything. Costa Ricans take good care of their country...little garbage and their parks are well run. Lots, lots lots of tourists...numbers of tourists have risen 12% in the last year alone!!!

Panama again

2007-10-12T10:06:00.002-07:00

One of the large container ships pass through the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal. Thirty to forty ships cross the canal each day and pay 60 to 200 thousand dollars for the 40 hour passage. (About one tenth the cost of crossing around S America)

Close up of the beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly

Central American tarantula

Felix, Lori and I riding the dirt road from Carti on the Caribbean Coast to Panama City through the San Blas Cordillera mountains.

San Felipe is known as the dangerous part of Panama City but the old dilapidated buildings are gorgeous and are slowly being rebuilt in the old town which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site due to the unique architecture of this old part of Panama City.

The 25 meter tall Cathedral is one of the few remaining structures on the old original site of Panama City. In 1568 pirate Henry Morgan (the Irish devil) destroyed Panama City (as well as the port cities of Portabelo and Lorenzo) The city was then moved to the San Felipe area.

Some pretty cool trees in the Panamanian jungle...don't want to think of the critters and varmints living in this tree!

Lori in the ruins of the old city of Panama (Viejo Panama)

Sailing Colombia to Panama via San Blas

2007-10-05T10:05:00.001-07:00

October 5th - 9th We sailed from Cartagena, Colombia to Porvenir, Panama on the Stahlratte - a 100 ft sailing ship built in the early 1900's. We spent 4 days en route in the San Blas Island paradise. The San Blas archipelago are an autonomous region of Panama owned and governed by the Kuna people of Panama. So far they have resisted commercial tourism on the 350+ islands so there is very little tourist infrastructure making this area authentic and paradisaical. It`s 11 in the morning...October 5th and we are on board the Stahlratte, captained by none other than Captain Ludwig...one jovial fellow for sure! On board with us are the Hondogs, Felix and his BMW and about 15 other passengers. Today we leave for Panama via the San Blas Islands on the historic ship, the Stahlratte. Build in 1903 in Holland as a fishing vessel this ship is now owned by an association that leases and rents the boats out to pay for it maintenance costs.
Our cast-off is delayed somewhat by a visit from the Colombian Coast Guard...first a search of the ship that takes about 2 hrs after which one search crew leaves and returns with what we assume is a `drug sniffing mutt` (black lab). Some 2 hrs later we get the OK to leave but not before we have to sign a document that says that the coast guard completed the search without hassling people, treated us well, then we need to give finger prints!
For the next 24 hrs we sailed across the Caribbean Sea..the big blue! This ship is fantastic compared to the 41 foot sailboat we came over in...private rooms...and it sails so smooth that no one is sea-sick! Late afternoon finds us cruising into the San Blas islands under a gorgeous sunset and Captain Ludwig has us anchored in a idyllic spot...within swimming distance of three gorgeous coconut tree covered islands with white sand beaches! Man...this is heaven.
The next two days are spent eating, (we had cooking and clean up duties one day so got to spend time in the kitchen...oh boy!), drinking, swimming, swinging on ropes, exploring islands, having a great barbeque, reading, snorkeling and chilling with a fantastic group of people on the ship. Lori and I only spent the first night in our room and the next three nights out on the deck under a fantastic Caribbean sky...one of the few times we have seen the milky way in the tropics. The San Blas Island area has the second most number of lightning strikes of any place on earth and I can believe it...every night was a fantastic show of lightning..but no rain! Our time in the San Blas came to an end way too quickly...but the next portion of our trip begins when we hit shore in Panama. HOWEVER..to do this we must unload the motos into Kuna canoes...a somewhat nerve-racking operation as these are carved wood canoes, long in length but narrow in width. We may be nervous but the Kuna Indians figure no big problem and along with our three bikes toss in a full load of paying Kuna Indians! Once we hit the shore we continued up a narrow river for about 2km (here even the Kuna got a little nervous as the heavily laden canoe was barely able to make progress against the current ) after which we ended up unloading the motos in the river. Here we said goodbye to the friends we made on the Stahlratte (however we have continued to see some of them up to a month after leaving them on the banks of the Rio Carti) and started on the rough dirt track through the Cordillera San Blas (mountains) to the tarmac Darien Gap road which will lead us back to Panama City!

Stahlratte in the San Blas (constructed in Holland in 1903 as a fishing boat, the "Steel Rat" is a historic sailing vessel owned by a consortium of German folks that own the boat and rent it out to pay for upkeep and maintenance costs)

the Stahlratte gang

Kuna village in the San Blas Islands

off loading Lori's bike into a canoe on the Panama end......

3 motos in a Kuna canoe

We get boarded by the coast guard and the sniff dog before we leave Colombia - with cocaine selling for less than $5.00 a gram here, I wonder why?

relaxing on the boat

Kuna woman selling her molas

maybe we should stay....

Into FARC Territory

2007-09-19T17:30:00.001-07:00

our nice paved road deteriorates

here we are high in the mountains between Bogota and Medellin

in Florencia - some of our constant companions

some slimy roads

into the mountains - guerrilla territory...coca and FARC

Okay here goes the unexpected adventure – we are leaving Bogota, Colombia after a couple of days and are heading to Medellin. We are tired of the slow trucks and buses and see a secondary road marked on our map that goes to Medellin and travels through the mountains. Great, we think – the trucks will stay on the relatively flat main roads and we can cruise the curvy mountain roads. So we head off to El Dorado where we spend the night. A nice little town with friendly people. The only odd thing is the airport that is marked on the map does not appear to be a commercial one, but one where noisy fighter jets are taking off quite regularly. Chris has to bump start his bike, but other than that, the takeoff was uneventful. According to our map and Felix’s GPS it is only about 150kms to Medellin so we expect to get there early. On the road and start to climb into the mountains – great riding, no traffic and winding roads. The roads gradually deteriorate from pavement with some gravel to downright rough, narrow, sharp rocky dirt roads winding through the mountains and the odd house along the road. Lori makes the offhand comment that she is expecting to see the coca fields any time now. When we stop for lunch in Naconsi, we are told that it is still 5 hours to Sonson. We are sure there is a mistake and they don’t know what they are talking about. Later, we stop for a quick break and realize that at the last stop Lori has left the camera on top of the bike when she took off, and it is no longer with us. Chris hops on the 250 and cruises back 8km to find the camera in the middle of the road, squashed by the only truck we had seen on the road.(this has been a very hard trip on cameras!) At this stop, a jeep comes past and tells us we are still 8 hours to Medellin – this is at 2:30 in the afternoon and that we will soon be in Florencia where we should stay as there are no towns for 4 hours between Florencia and Sonson. We arrive in Florencia and debate whether to push on and camp along the way or stay in Florencia. After some discussion, we head to the centro where there is a decent place to stay. While we are debating what to do we notice the town is full of army and police and an army helicopter lands at the centro and more army get out. Everyone looks a little surprised to see us. We get settled into the hotel and Felix goes for a 10km training run and Chris and Lori set off to explore the town. We are approached by the military commander who speaks decent English and he wants to see our passports and know what we are doing in this town and how we got here. Turns out that we are in the middle of FARC Guerrilla territory and now that we are here, the army wants to know our every move so they can ‘coordinate security for our activities’. (they are very upset that Felix has gone off running into the hills and we have no way to contact him). We explain that we are just planning on exploring the town, spending the night and heading to Sonson the next day.
They want us to check in with them before we leave in the morning and they are going to secure the road to Sonson before we travel on it (it is still 5 hours ride to Sonson). They are surprised that we managed to get through Naconsi without being stopped by the army and even more surprised that we hadn’t yet run into any trouble. We decide to return the 2 hours to Naconsi the next day and travel to Medellin by the main Bogota-Medellin highway.
The day and night spent in that town were amazing. They had literally never had any foreign tourists there and hardly any Colombians from elsewhere there either. All the kids in town and the adults gathered around talking to us and we couldn’t go anywhere without attracting a huge crowd of people. The kids were great – they were learning English in school so it was fun to talk to them and their English teacher and her brother met us later that night for coffee. She was telling us that 3 years earlier, the FARC had terrorized this village of 1,300 people. They would come out of the hills into the town and just take whatever they needed from the people. So now that the army and police are thick in the town, it is no longer a FARC stronghold, but they are still around in the mountains and it is dangerous to travel on the roads outside the town (especially for us).
The feeling in the town is of a place divided. Obviously there are still FARC supporters in town so not everyone appreciates the heavy police presence. It is so interesting to see how the conflict in Colombia has affected people in these remote mountain villages. People are super friendly but are very careful when talking about local politics. One of the locals that looked after the Florencia jungle reserve next to the village wanted to take us exploring in the mountains, obviously feeling that it was totally safe for us, but we decided we had already pushed our luck and would leave early the next day. It felt surprisingly sad to leave this little town and we had a large part of the village population standing outside waving us goodbye as we rolled down the road.

Colombia on the flip flop

2007-09-07T17:06:00.001-07:00

Hola Colombia...back to the land where motos rule!! As usual we were welcomed into Colombia with an easy border crossing with super friendly officials and police. The immigration stamp was easy but to clear the moto’s we had to travel through a nightmare of traffic to the airport in Cucuita (a typical border town..messy, dusty, pothole ridden streets packed with smoking trucks) to the Aduana where friendly staff worked through their lunch break to get our papers completed. As our paperwork took a little longer than usual we only made it to the mountain town of Pamplona where we pushed our motos into a restaurant full of people (much to their delight!).

The mountain roads south of this city traverse some beautiful country-side and we love the ride into San Gil..our second stop in Colombia. This is a famous old city full of old colourful buildings and a fantastic riverside park full of ancient Ceiba trees that hold massive amounts of arboreal lichen that hang like ghosts from the branches and foliage.

However we will always remember San Gil as the village in which the Hondog 650 burnt up...and on September 11th to boot!!! It seems that my “not so trusty” Acerbis headlight shorted out and burnt the entire wiring harness up (another irony is the fact that the bike coasted to a stop in a ball of smoke and open fire in the battery, fuse area...right in front of a motorcycle shop!) to which the local mechanics said “3 days minimum to install new wires (no hope of getting stock parts). After pushing the bike back to our hostel Felix and I set to work and some 10 hours, 10 feet of new wire, 2 rolls of electrical tape and mucho sore fingers we have IGNITION! (A little “hay-wire” as I have to touch 2 wires together to get the bike fired up)

BACK ON THE ROAD...and into the old colonial town of Villa de Leyva...playground of the rich and famous from Bogota and the oldest village in Colombia. This place is way too organized and clean to be in S America but its charms grew on us over the 3 nights we spent is little village.

Next stop is Zipaquira which is ``home`` to the famous Salt Cathedral...a cathedral that holds 8400 people and is built in a solid mountain of salt. (Actually was an old salt mine at one time) The cathedral was nothing like what we expected (we thought that there was a huge hole in the mountain in which a massive cathedral was constructed)...the mountain is the cathedral and all of the crosses, places to sit and worship are carved out of the mountain..so in effect you do not see an actual cathedral (or building of any sort)...just the interior of a cathedral. Pictures can never do this place justice as its main attraction is its sheer size...crosses are over 20 meters in height etc.

downtown Bogota

Onto Bogota...capital of Colombia and home to over 8 million souls and 3 very lost motorcyclists. A big thank you to Felix who literally ordered a poor motorcyclist to show us the way to our hostel (only after I got us lost and yelled at by police for breaking every traffic rule known to man) (any other place in Colombia this is not only acceptable but EXPECTED of all motorcyclists!

We hiked up the famous mountain...Monseratt (which we hiked up the famous mountain...Monseratt (which ironically is now on fire), wandered all over town and tried to find some moto parts for the Hondogs.

Cathedral Primada-Santafe de Bogota in downtown Bogota. In the 1990's M19 guerrillas assassinated 80 federal judges in this building. Needless to say security is tight around here!

Lori and I enjoyed Bogota despite the fact that I was attacked when a thief tried to steal my camera. I ended up losing some skin but got a few good kicks in (and he slugged me a few times) before Lori jumped in (you go girl!!!) and the thief finally ran off. The only piss-off to me was that at least 20 people watched us slug it out and no one made a single move to help! Good bye Bogota!

We are now crossing Colombia from east to west through a series of mountain ranges and Felix has discovered a backroad to Medellin that we want to take...he figured about a day to cover the 120 kms but after arriving in the mountain village of Florencia after a day of riding and realizing that it was another 10 hrs to Medellin via rough dirt road and the army saying that they would have to supply an escort to protect us through FARC territory, we decided enough was enough and headed back to the main road. )more about this in separate blog entry...

a beautiful old cathedral in Medellin

barrios

A beautiful young girl in the barrio area of Santo Domingo in Medellin, Colombia. We could not believe how friendly these poor people were. This gal's father invited us into his house and gave us all the ripe fruit off a small fruit tree he had growing in his yard. The people of Colombia were definitely the hi-light of our month long stay in this friendly country!

Medellin was a revelation...this is no ordinary S American city...it is full of money and I have never seen so many BMWs (some Ferraris, lots of Porsche) and fancy places to eat and party in my life! We paid a visit to one of the Barrio`s (ghetto`s) and found the people surprisingly friendly! Lori`s computer broke down (hard drive problems) and she managed to get a new hard drive installed and purchased a new camera to replace the ONE SHE DROPPED AND HAD RUN OVER! (so its not only me!!!)

even the army and police were friendly!

From Medellin we headed north to Cartagena via roads that we travelled back in April. Some gorgeous scenery, rain and a huge military build-up about 150 km south of Cartagena. I was really surprised to see a Blackhawk helicopter circle above us but have learnt that the US has supplied Colombia with 5 of these choppers for the `war on drugs``.

Lori and Felix enjoying an evening drink on the walls that surround the old city of Cartagena

old town Cartagena is a beautiful classy place

It felt like coming back home to roll into Cartagena (didn`t stop me from getting temporarily lost though!) and we spent a couple of enjoyable days relaxing and exploring with Felix.

one of the many Caribbean beaches in Colombia's Tayrona National Park

bats, bats, everywhere!!

However having seen its charms during our previous visit we abandoned the motos and jumped a bus for a ride through the bustling industrial city of Barranquilla to the remote beaches of Tayrona National Park...touted as containing the most beautiful of Colombia`s Caribbean beaches. Walking through jungle and down a series of beaches for a couple of hours is a great way to enjoy a park and best of all there are places to stay along the way. We spent three days exploring (beaches and ruins), swimming, relaxing and sleeping in hammocks (all are great except that last one...hammocks and my back just don`t get along!). We enjoyed this part of Colombia the most and some of our best memories are the huge thunder and rain storms at night laying in our hammocks under a grass hut.

laid back lifestyle in the small fishing village of Taganga

Next stop is the fishing village of Taganga...a neat run-down looking village on the Caribbean..poor for sure but the very best fruit smoothies we have ever tasted! (and about 20 different flavours..a huge glass for under a dollar)
Back in Cartagena we had a day of rest before we tackled the job of loading the motos on a rubber raft and then loading them onto the 100 foot Stahlratte (Steel Rat to us!). Felix sure breathed a sigh of relief to see his BMW on board and not at the bottom of the chuck!

small town Colombian greyhound bus

ready for the rain

better, bigger and cheaper than Canadian fruit markets

Any stop anywhere in Colombia...the people are so friendly and just want to talk and meet you!

Venezuela

2007-08-08T15:33:00.001-07:00

Hunting for anacondas and caiman, stick in hand, knee deep swamp water

Roraima tepuy landscape from our bush camp

The beautiful and extremely rare King Vulture (all the ugly black and turkey vultures are everywhere!)

The Gran Sabana of southern Venezuela is a vast area of open Savannah land covered in lush grass and palm trees

look what we found while walking around in the swamp - a 5m anaconda!!!

Playa Medina on the shores of the Caribbean Sea is claimed to be one of Venezuela's most beautiful and natural beaches

Pirhana fishing in Los Llanos was a lot of fun and the little biters tasted great for supper!

Venezuela has a lot of different ecosystems and the mountain vegetation adjacent the countries highest pass (3870m) is both beautiful and interesting.

Playa Grande near the pretty little seaside town of Pto. Colombia was a enjoyable break from our road trip across the crowded roads of Northern Venezuela.

High water levels in the middle of rainy season made for some impressive salto (waterfalls) in the Canima lagoon.

evening in the palm tree forests of the Caribbean coast

Lori with some of the locals and their catch from the sea

A first...numerous road killed Caiman in the Los Llanos wetlands.

Lori with a very cute Capybara (at least this one didn't bite like the others) who loved to have his belly scratched!

Salto Kama..just one of the many waterfalls (Saltos) that line the beautiful road through the Gran Sabana province of S Venezuela

After 55 km of rough dirt/mud road, a 20 minute boat ride and finally a 3 km walk we are at the base of the impressive Salto Aponwao! Definitely worth the mud, rain and biting bugs!

root strewn trail to Angel Falls

Angel Falls - highest waterfall in the world (976 m)

Red and Green Macaw...nature is beautiful!

alive and well in the jungles of Venezuela

Lori and the red rocks of Salto Kaui-Meru in the Gran Sabana
wet season rains have turned a lot of the roads into a mud bath

camping near Roraima (August 12th)

Hello Venezuela...August 8th near dark we cross into Venezuela and into the small town of Santa Ellena...a mining (small gold and silver mines everywhere) and tourist town. The food is good, rooms cheap and best of all we can trade off our American dollars on the black market for almost double the going bank rate! (2500 vs. 4000 Bolivares to the US dollar)
Felix is heading to Trinidad as we set out to explore the Gran Sabana...a huge Savannah like area dotted with palm trees and absolutely gorgeous in wet season. This entire area is a large park but indigenous people are allowed to live within the park boundaries. The most famous aspect of the Gran Sabana is its waterfalls (Saltos) and Table Mountains (Tepuys) and we set out to explore them via a series of dirt (mud in the wet season) roads. The scenery is great, riding somewhat challenging due to mud and we managed to find some really nice camping spots to get back into the hang of camping.
One really nice aspect of this park is that virtually everything is free...the indigenous people usually set up a small market that sells goods and crafts and I suppose they feel that it is in their best interests to get as many people into the park as possible to sell their products. We saw many waterfalls but one stands out in our memory as we had a very rough ride into a small village where we camped and survived a virtual deluge and an incredible number of biting varmints to then take a boat ride to Aponwao Falls which were in full flow. Very impressive indeed!
Aug 16th, after leaving the Gran Sabana via a road that led us through some of the best virgin rainforest we have seen we cruised into the large city of Ciudad Bolivia and booked a flight into Canaima in a Cessna 185 to visit Angel Falls...the highest waterfalls in the world at 978 meters. We spend a very relaxing and enjoyable 3 days camping at the falls and near Canaima and Angel Falls were definitely worth the visit. We also ended up walking through a large cave over which a huge waterfall dropped and this was insane! (It took a full 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other!) The noise, water flying everywhere was incredible and we actually enjoyed this part of the trip more than the 6 hr boat rides and or Angel Falls!
Aug 23rd, heading North we are starting to see some of the problems in Venezuela that people in Santa Ellena told us about: namely rising prices, incredible traffic problems, poverty, some garbage and people that are not so friendly! I took a wrong turn in a raging rain storm and we missed one of our trip objectives but eventually we worked our way to the Caribbean and onto Playa Medina and Puy Puy...both called the most beautiful beaches in Venezuela. Both were beautiful but Medina was packed with people and overnight camping was not allowed. Playa Puy Puy was empty and the 2 KM of white sand, palm tree lined beach is indeed gorgeous. The water was exquisite and I don’t think that either of us have ever spent so much time in the water doing nothing but relaxing. Our tent is set up right on the beach under some palm trees so all is good. We had a little excitement during the night when someone tried to rip us off but I saw a shadow pass the bikes and then a person looking into our tent from about 6 inches away. I kicked the guy in the face and yelled thief as he ran off. (too slow to blast him with my bear spray though..that would have been good!!)
We ended up spending an extra day here as the locals were protesting the bad state of repair that the road was in and had it blockaded for two days. No one could get in or out on the main road through to Caracas! Finally found another way around.
Crossing the north coast line of Venezuela was not a lot of fun on the MC’s. The only good (great!) thing about it is that as a MC rider you are expected (no OBLIGATED!) to get to the front of every traffic jam, blockage ASAP by whatever means available. Riding on sidewalks, through ditches, between and around vehicles, accidents etc. Is mandatory! At one traffic stop (for flood damage repair with heavy equipment) we stopped...several small kids (10 years old) started motioning us to proceed and would not stop until we pulled out, weaved between the cars etc and sure enough when we came to the dump trucks, hoes, backhoes we were waved through! Not too safe but one sure feels great passing hundreds of stalled vehicles and having every one give you the thumbs up or helping you to get around vehicles! (Don’t think that this would be classified as good MC etiquette in Canada!)
Aug 27th, riding though Caracas in the rain was kind of neat. A huge city with a massive Barrio (ghetto area) often referred to as one of the more dangerous cities in S America. No problem for us and amazingly no traffic jams despite numerous accidents! (Everyone here drives insanely slow when it rains and I couldn’t figure out why but with 2 cent/litre fuel every piece of oil leaking crap vehicle plies the streets and leaves lots of lubricant on the road surface...not good at all on a MC!) The city is accessed via a series of long tunnels that cut through the top of the mountains and Caracas itself lies in the valley bottom with the colorful barrios are perched precariously on the steep mountain sides. Yup...going into the Barrios would not be a good idea and although I wanted to take some photos (the barrios looked absolutely amazing on the steep, verdant green mountain sides) Lori gave me the big thumbs down when I stopped! Driving through the last long tunnel the junker in front of me quit right in the middle of this huge tunnel...don’t even want to think of the traffic jam that caused! After passing through what seemed like an endless series of cities packed with traffic and lacking traffic signs (oh what fun!!) we finally found the road to Puerto Colombia that runs through Henry Pettier Park. This narrow hairpin road is absolute death on a MC and by far the most dangerous road we have traveled on...slippery, single lane and plied by buses. But the scenery (when one can take their eyes off the road) is spectacular and ranges from jungle cloud forest to Caribbean beaches over its 50 km length. We spent several days in Pto Colombia and really enjoyed the beaches!
Back on the road we are heading into the far south of Venezuela into the huge Savannah /wetland complex known as Los Llanos (which is Venezuela’s equivalent of Brasil’s Pantanal). Some fantastic riding once we clear the large cities. Stopping in some of the small villages is one of the reasons we like to ride MC’s as people flock around you and all of us have a great laugh as we try to figure out what they are asking us in Spanish while they try to figure out what we are saying in Spanglish. (cross between Spanish and English...get it!!) By the time one leaves it feels like you have made a new group of friends!
Aug 29th, we ended up setting up our own multi-day trip into Los Llanos are rode out to the Rancho Grande where we had a great time taking a boat ride up one of the rivers (looking for wildlife), when piranha fishing (successfully I might add...they taste great!!), horseback riding (my sore butt) and hunting for Anacondas and Caimans.
No doubt about it, the hi-light of our Venezuela trip was capturing a 5 plus meter Anaconda! So to get this varmint one grabs a large stick and steps into swamp water that is knee keep, muddy and full of weeds. (Since I didn’t have running shoes I went bare-foot and Lori (along with a lot of other people) decided to let us do the hunting! One of the fellows on our group (Markus) is an absolute fanatic when it comes to snakes (has a boa as a pet) and within a minute of entering our swamp he found this snake! Three of us then spent several minutes trying to figure out where the head was (as it thrashed about) without getting bit (they can bite something vicious). Once we grabbed the head whatever fight he had in him was gone! (He had just fed on something so that helped a lot) Lori had no problem getting into the water and grabbing him by the head...pretty cool as this is definitely the largest live snake that we have ever seen and held. (I think a rock python we saw in Mozambique was larger but was a fresh road kill)
Sept 1st, back on the road we headed into the mountains and the tourist town of Merida where we relaxed for several days until Felix hooked back up with us. This is a pretty nice city and the weather (cool as we are up about 2000 m) suited us better than the heat of the coast. Hiked into a few lakes and explored town but never did get on the longest and highest cable car ride in the world as it was sold out days in advance.
It feels strange to be riding with someone again but Felix is good company and the ride from Merida to the Venezuela/Colombia border was interesting as the mountain scenery covered in virtual forests of cactus was an entirely different ecosystem from anything we have seen to date in Venezuela.
So what did we think of Venezuela?
-first of all never visit Venezuela in July, August or September as this is the kids summer vacation and the place is overrun with Venezuelan tourists (not all that many foreign tourists)
-Traffic is horrendous in most of the heavily populated north! This probably would never really affect one in the comfort of an air conditioned bus or rental vehicle but on a MC it made for some pretty rough times. - -- That cheap fuel really is a curse as the road infrastructure just is not up to the task of handling this traffic and no doubt maintenance of roads takes up dollars that probably could be spent better elsewhere. (Interesting to note that when president Hugo Chavez tried to raise fuel prices to 12cents/litre last year, there were full on strikes and riots! I can’t imagine what the traffic problems cost Venezuela in terms of dollars because of commercial trucking delays etc. (no railroads and few airports so everything has to go via truck!) and how much money per gallon the Venezuelan government loses when it sells gas for 2 cents a litre when the world market price is around 60 dollars a barrel!!! (what is strange is that despite strained relations with the US the US still buys most of Venezuela’s oil!)
-in general we would say that people are not as friendly in Venezuela as in any other S American country. I would say they are still more friendly that anywhere in N America! The friendliest people are the rich people from Caracas and those in the remote villages.
-Venezuela is now definitely one of the most expensive countries in S America...(outside of fuel which is insanely cheap...we put on a combined total of 10,000 km in Venezuela and it cost us just under 11 dollars US (black market conversion!)..with only Chile having room and food prices higher than Ven. (then again cost may be up because of tourist season)
-This is obviously a country in big trouble! People do not appear happy and we have never seen so much drinking in our life! The president (Hugo Chavez) is trying to socialize the country but despite huge oil revenue the economy is sliding down the tube as investor confidence in Venezuela is zero! Their currency is worth absolutely nothing outside of Venezuela and Chavez is planning on introducing a new currency next year. Chavez is riding the polls on the votes from the poor while the rich are in panic as the social reforms threaten to destroy their business (or at least that is the way they see it...and they are probably right) One thing that is sure noticeable is Mr. Chavez...his face decorates thousands upon thousands of bill boards all over the country. The cover of every newspaper has his smiling face on it and the TV stations have hours of Chavez politics on every day. We have heard that he is trying to pass legislation that will make him president for life and it looks like he has the support of the poor (app. 65% of the population lives below the poverty line while the rest are incredibly rich!). If the oil ever runs out or prices drop...goodbye Venezuela!
All in all...southern Venezuela is great but we can leave the North!

Cruisn´on the Rio Amazonas

2007-07-30T15:47:00.001-07:00

Rio Amazonas sunset

Night time is party time on the roof of the boat

the good ship being loaded by hand (about an hour before the captain walked off)

Rio Amazonas sunrise

our stateroom day one

by day three....

feeding time at the zoo.. 10 at a time - 150 people total

Is it fate or not that we find ourselves booking a boat trip on the Rio Amazonas (Amazon River) almost 16 years to the day from when Lori and I (along with the Alexis Creek Gang) exchanged vows in the Niut Mountains. I seem to recall some mention of a honeymoon consisting of a cruise on the Amazon River in a newspaper article that was contained in the Williams Lake Tribune. Better late than never so here it is: Honeymoon cruise on the Rio Amazonas!
July 29th finds us in the sketchy river town of Port Velho, Brasil purchasing a ticket for a three day (2 night) ride down the Rio Madeira to the Rio Amazonas and then up the mighty Amazonas to the even “sketchier” city of Manaus. One has to start wondering what sort of honeymoon cruise we are in for when the entire cruise (including transporting the motos comes to 540 Reais (app. 270 dollars)!
Monday: July 30th
Our first honeymoon task is: Load the motos on the Dois Irmaos (2 brothers) (our honeymoon scow herewith referred to as the 2 Hemorrhoids) When we purchased our tickets we had the opportunity to check out the scow and noticed a near vertical 100 meter clay bank with partial wooden stairs leading down the river bank to a plank then one boat and another plant to our scow. The ticket agent insisted that a crew was required to carry the bike to our scow but I took one look and said no problem riding down. In the end Lori agreed to pay for the 650 to be carried down while I tried to ride the 250 down. So at 9 o clock the river banks were covered in a crowd of well wishers, wishing to see a 25o arrow into the side of a boat at the base of the clay cliff. By the time I rode the 65o down and across the planking onto our scow the crowd was roaring its approval…so much for my 30 seconds of fame!!! Chris continued to get back slaps every time he walked by the ship loaders for the next two days we spent in port.
We were then escorted to our berths…two hammocks on the second deck! I noticed that several families had already staked out their territory but seeing as that we are supposed to be leaving at noon there seemed to be lots of room for us and our mountain of junk…no problem.
So 12pm, our time of departure comes and goes…the boat is slowing filling up….now its dark…We now realize that the Brasil River Boats do have something in common with Indian and Nepalese buses…they are NEVER too full!
Tuesday: July 31st
A pretty rough night sleep. First of all have you ever tried to sleep in a hammock when your butt lies about 3 feet lower than your feet and head…doesn’t work for me!(although Lori sleeps just fine) Secondly the old battle axe that is sleeping next to me (hammocks are now slung about 2 feet apart) snores like a boar pig in heat but that isn’t the worst of it. What really pisses me off is that she can let rip with farts that are twice as deadly as mine! Finally a meal…its some java and two biscuits for breakfast! Its 5pm and the 2 Hemorrhoids appears to be fully loaded as we pull out of port and into the Rio (a day later than scheduled)…but not for long as just as we leave the Brasil coast guard boat (that has been tied up on shore right in front of us for the last two days) stops us minutes after leaving “port” (mud bank) After a one hour search we are ready to proceed downstream – apparently the motorcycles were supposed to be stored down in the hold, but with all the sacks of potatoes, wooden boxes of garlic, mountains of green bananas and watermelons literally stacked from floor to ceiling around the motos, no one was ever going to see them…Hallelujah!!!
Wednesday: August 1st
A great sleep…on the floor of the boat with all the scavenging varmints…much to the humor of all the locals and Lori who are swinging away, bumping butts in their hammocks. Its still dark as we pull up to the river bank in some small town and you guessed it…took on more passengers and hand hauled freight! (now the hammocks are strung less than 2 feet apart and you and your neighbour are very cozy)
Time to leave…well maybe not as the 2 Hemorrhoids and the river bottom seem to have become one! After much revving of motors, reversing and swinging back and forth and using a second boat the river bottoms decided to let the 2 Hemorrhoids be on its way!
The sun is shining, beer flowing and lunch digesting…all is well….until El Capitan runs the 3 Hemorrhoids into a sand bank in the very middle of the Amazon. Some eight hours later with the help of three boats we are once again free and enjoying our honeymoon cruise.
Now that we are temporarily free and moving its time to talk about food. With about 150 people on board and room to feed 10 people at a time things get very interesting at the feeding trough! The head waitress is a little Hitler (but with a lot nicer butt (along with tattoos and piercings everywhere)…none of the guys could figure how she (and her helpers) could ever bend over and not show everything with the incredibly short tight skirts they were wearing! So the food is dropped on the table and ten people go for it (literally…these Brasilian folks are extremely laid back about almost everything except their food!)…good Canadian manners will leave you with a plate of NOTHING! Not only that but you are expected to eat your meal in one minute flat because the next group of ten is waiting in queue for you to leave your spot! Instead of handing out spoons we would have been better served with shovels!
Standing in queue took up about 2 hrs every afternoon and evening-this was a major activity on our cruise-no trap shooting, or swimming pools on this boat.. (except we got smart and stayed on the top deck drinking beer, playing with kids and talking with the locals until the end of meal time)
Thursday: August 2nd
Progress is slow, slow slow but all is well as there still is some beer left and the great Brasilian tunes pound out all day at about 110 decibels! These folks are so friendly and love to have a good time! We all have lost any faith that we had in our captain as the 3 Hemorrhoids seems to spend more time stuck to the bottom than cruising down the river…I swear that a flock of vultures are following us down the river just waiting for our scow to become a permanent part of the river bottom! At one point we lost all power as it seems that the propeller caught a few miles of the boats wiring and chewed it up. The captain kept yelling at some poor crew guy to keep going down to the prop (he had a hose in his mouth and a compressor pumping air into the hose so he could breath…the water is as thick as mud…and finally after his third or fourth attempt we have power!) to be continued... For now El Capitan is managing to keep the boat in deep water and it is nice and relaxing to watch the beautiful Amazon jungle sweep by. We find it surprising that we observe so little wildlife (including birds) but the sunrise and sunsets are gorgeous!

Friday: August 3rd
No problems last night and after the queue for our standard breakfast of coffee and a bun is finished we retire to the roof to meet our Brasilian friends. Today we leave the Rio Madeira and pass into the famous Rio Amazonas (Amazon). The Amazon is running high and the huge expanse of mud brown water (that extends well into the tropical jungle) is covered with islands of bright green plants floating their way out into the Atlantic. Now we are moving slowly as we head upstream to the rough river port of Manaus. Because the river floods huge patches of shoreline there is surprisingly little development along the river banks and the scenery is even better than what the Rio Madeira offered.
A thankfully uneventful day and as darkness settles in we are nearing our destination.
A great sleep is interrupted by….people screaming, kids crying and the sounds of our scow hitting trees. The El Capitan must have been asleep at the wheel as we have run into an island! (with the lights of Manaus in sight!) After everyone gets settled down there is no hope for any sleep for the remainder of the night. Morning light reveals we indeed have put a dent in some Amazonas vegetation but lie immediately adjacent the famous floating docks of Manaus.
We will not bore you with the details of unloading the boats and getting our bikes off BUT the saga is not finished! Although none of the occupants of the boat complained while on board I guess the port officials received an “ear full” and visited the boat to talk to El Capitan and check the boat/captain papers. Guess what…our boat was being piloted by the boat owner and the crew that loads and unloads the boat! The real Captain stepped off the boat an hour or so after it left port! Will the real Captain please step forward? The owner got a car ride downtown to the police station!!!

Brasil

2007-07-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

swamp riding

at the equator (someone forgot Gretzky´s hockey stick)

one of the larger Amazonas turtles

Amazon rainforest - this about says it all

Fellow biker Felix rides from Austria thru Africe over to SA and finally is stopped in a parking lot in Brasil

Foz de Igauzu from the Brasilian side

One of hundreds of bridges we crossed on our dirt excursions through the Pantanal

The most common resident of Brasil`s fantastic Pantanal is the Caiman

We found at least one tree that the cattle ranchers forgot to cut down!

A very docile Giant Anteater!

Gruta do Lago Azul...a really neat lake in the middle of a huge cave near the beautiful town of Bonito, Brasil

Grand or Toco Toucan. It still seems strange to see these gorgeous birds flying around in the wild!

Iguazu Falls (the Devils Throat) from the Brasil side

You don´t want to fall over on this road! Actually our smiles kind of faded when the road turned to red mud a few km´s later!

Blue fronted parrot...strangely enough beautiful parrots are one of the more common birds in S America and can be found in the largest cities, deserts and of course jungles.

This used to be jungle. Riding through Brasil (and many other S American countries) has made us really dislike what man has done to the environment in order to raise cattle! For literally thousands of km´s the jungle has been cut and burned to support a few cows!

July 15th, 2007 and time to enter Brasil and start the long road North! S America border crossings are a pleasure and our first taste of Brasil is with a very friendly border crossing official who had to spend over two hours trying to get our temporary import permit on the computer.

After spending some time on the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls it is time to check out the Brasil side and unlike some folks who said the Brasil side was not worth while viewing, we had a great time. The gorgeous blue sky weather and rainbows around the Falls along with a fantastic hostel (camping because Brasil is really expensive!) sure helped out. We also had time to check out a fantastic bird aviary...definitely the nicest one that I have ever visited and had a fantastic collection of Brasil´s rare and endangered birds.

One thing sure became apparent very quickly...Brasil is one large country and a 30 day visa is not going to allow a lot of time to explore! Not only that but it is expensive to ride as fuel is running about 1.60 a litre and is total crap fuel...needless to say the Hondogs are NOT happy running on Brasil crude! (Every fuel station has alcohol for vehicles for sale and it is cheap...but it would be interesting to compare the environmental costs as huge areas of jungle have been cut to produce corn and sugar cane which is then rendered into alcohol for cars (no doubt subsidized by the government).

July 19, 2007 Our first stop is the beautiful town of Bonito on the famous Pantanal swamps some 3 days riding north of Foz de Iguazu (where we visited the falls). After checking our some interesting caves we hit some dirt roads in and around the southern Pantanal...by far the most wildlife we have seen in our travels this trip and in one hour we saw a Giant Anteater, 2 Mangay cats (rare!!), Cabyberras (largest rodents in the world and can hide in swamps underwater for very long periods of time...believe me!), caimans (American crocodiles). Our bush camp was awesome as I have never seen so many species of birds in my life and a walk around the pond next to our tent revealed 3 crocs!!! However the next day was another story as our road of a hundred bad bridges turned into a silt bed...literally axle deep silt with ruts that sent Lori to the ground several times. After struggling for 6 hrs to cover 100 km´s (and seeing lots more wildlife including a pair of Tyra´s) it was a pleasure to hit blacktop. Now we have 1000 kms to cover to our next stop at the north end of the Pantanal and all we can say..."Wheres the Jungle?" One long boring ride of three days through corn, sugarcane and cattle fields...every once in a while a small block of the original forest remains intact and they are beautiful! A local rancher stopped and invited us to his place to see how he lives and we had a wonderful lunch with him and the ranch hands before hitting the blacktop again!

Now its "road trip" time as we try and pack on the km's! Travelling this main road north is pretty easy as the traffic is light, and the truck stops serve up good grub (usually a smorg (all you can eat) or pay by the kg!) Not a lot to mention in terms of scenery except the long downhill decent into the large city of Cuiba that crosses through impressive jungle scenery. Out of money and needing some MC parts we ventured into the city...3 separate and serious looking MC accidents had us looking for a quick exit and by mid morning we were on the side road to the small town of Pocone where Lori took a break and I headed out on a quick trip down the Trans Pantanal, a famous dirt road that bisects most of the famous Pantanal swamp. An fantastic ride and the "croc hole" was great...picture well over 200 Caiman in a patch of water about 200 by 400 metres and laying up to three deep in places. Way too many birds to even mention and some Capybara with young hi-light the afternoon ride.

A massive thunder and lightning storm overnight was spectacular but the nice dirt road I travelled over yesterday has turned into a quagmire that kicked our butts! No Trans-Pantanal today and when we were stopped by the police they took one look, laughed and said "Pantanal..No" ha..ha and let us go.

Now we are really on a long road trip as our destination, the rough port city of Porto Velho lies about 1200 km to the north. Pleasant riding but I would guess that less than 100 km of the ride has any jungle left on it...sad but true. However those small patches of jungle that remain are a revelation...beauty beyond description and covered with macaws and parrots. I am sure that most everyone has seen Scarlet Macaws in zoos etc. but to see them flying around in the wild is truly a wonderful sight! They are beautiful in flight and at one bush camp night in the jungle (complete with a fire and no bugs!) we were treated to flocks of scarlet and yellow & blue macaws as well as parrots flying over us constantly. It seems strange but the beautiful and colorful parrots are one of the most common birds in S America...they are extremely adaptable living in large cities to remote jungle areas and are all very colorful and definitely have " an attitude" making them our favorite bird!

We arrived in Porto Velho on July 28th (and the Hondog 650 celebrated its 50,000 km birthday!) and did some exploring around town. The most famous site in this relatively large city is the old train station...it was estimated that almost 20,000 slaves died in the construction of the rail line across the Amazon (to Porto Velho which was a rubber producing city at the time). All that remains of the rail system is the station with its old trains etc.. and it is really interesting if not run down!

You may have read the Amazonas boat ride so we now move to the tough river (Rio Amazonas) port of Manaus where we landed on August 3rd and hooked up with Felix. Felix is an Austrian biker heading on a round the world trip (15 months) and had just ridden through Europe and Africa and landed in Buenos Aires. He is the 2006 world Ultra-Triathlon champion (for those of you that do not know what a ultra-tri is: it consists of 10 iron man marathons run back to back and covers 38 km swimming, 1000 km running and 1800 km biking all done within 9 to 12 days with a max of 2 hrs sleep at night...tough...don't ask!! (However I am happy to report that even Felix was not tough enough to haul his BWM 800 out of a parking lot he got stuck in in northern Brasil...all the way through Africa only to get stuck in a Brasil parking lot...he'll never live that one down!) In Manaus we checked out the conservation Park where officials are trying to breed the rare Amazon Manatees and Giant River Otters and got to see various other Amazon residents including the Amazon Electric eels. (If the electric shock from these 7 foot monsters doesn't kill you their looks will...UGGGLLLY!) We also checked out the local graveyard which is full of very beautiful rock carvings dating back to when Manaus was a "rubber barons" paradise (she has definitely changed a lot over the years and one look at the slum areas puts any thoughts of walking around at night out of ones head!)

The ride north is on..and it is absolutely beautiful as unlike the area south of the Amazon River the area north is relatively untouched save a lone narrow road running due north to the Venezuelan border. The Brasilian authorities have settled some sort of land claims with the indigenous people in this area and our map indicates "indigenous reserves" where one can travel through during daylight hours but cannot stop or take photos etc. These areas are absolutely fantastic...narrow road through a virtual wall of green vegetation. Of course we did stop (virtually no traffic) and take photos and at these stops the sounds of the jungle were intriguing. All sorts of birds calling (mainly those noisy macaws and parrots!) to a background of cicadas. I bet if one were to use a decimal meter the everyday sounds of a morning and evening in the jungle would read in the 80's (during the heat of the day the jungle is a "dead zone". We also had the opportunity to take a few nice refreshing dips in some streams...just the thing one needs on these 30 plus degree days!

Needless to say we had a great ride and after spending a few nights in the northern city of Boa Vista (no we didn't see a single snake (boa included) and in fact saw very little wildlife period save a few monkeys and coati and the birds including toucans. The ride north from Boa Vista reveals a major change in ecosystems to grassland Savannah covered in what appears to be some species of oak tree. The views are panoramic with endless vistas where the bright green grasslands meet a gorgeous blue sky full of white cumulus clouds. The occasional mountain is covered in trees, the traffic is light and there are virtually no people or villages...riding heaven for sure!

Its getting dark (and I do not have headlights or a starter thanks to a short in the Acerbis headlight) as we cross into Venezuela (only could get our immigration stamp and will have to return tomorrow to clear our MC's. Goodbye Brasil (the land of 1.50US/lit (of what is loosely referred to as gas) hello Venezuela (the land of 2 cent/litre fuel!!!)

Uruguay

2007-07-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Uruguay...and you really are welcomed!

Taking a road break...flat countryside and bad weather

A typical roadside scene in Uruguay...beautiful trees along most of the roads

Hello Uruguay!!!! As we are getting a little tired of the flat, monotonous scenery of eastern Argentina we decided to take a short side-trip into the small country of Uruguay. The border crossing was short and simple (so simple that they forgot to complete the paperwork on our MC´s but more on that later!)
As per our usual practice one of the first things we do when entering a new country in get some local currency (especially when there are no money changers at the border which was the case in Uruguay) and in undertaking this mission is when we learnt our first lesson about Uruguay. The people here are insanely friendly!!!! In the first city we stopped at people swamped us wanting to know everything about us, where we came from the Hondogs etc. I had women wanting to give us perfume etc. and when we left we were literally chased by a woman that just wanted to kiss us and wish us a Bueno Viaje (good voyage)! The guys were just as friendly minus the kisses and perfume!
Our short impression of the countryside: incredably clean with beautiful rows of trees along the roads, all immacuately clean. Huge, obviously very rich ranch owners so one travels long distances without seeing any houses or villages etc. Very flat terrain...the highest point in Uruguay is 400 m ASL! Lots of forestry plantations (alot of ranchers obviously plant trees on their land)
The cities: The cities are not very clean and the outskirts are covered in slums ...not a pretty scene but even in these areas the people seem very friendly.
General conditions: One of the most expensive countries we have visited with oil costing about 8 dollars a litre, fuel just over 1.20 US litre, food and room well above Argentina but slightly less than Chile.

We ended up riding about 1000 kms in Uruguay and actually cut our journey short when we got lost in one city about 4 times due to poor (like no) signage (thats my story and I am sticking to it!) and as usual really crappy weather. (This was the same time as Buenes Aires was receiving its first snow since 1918!)

So after a few days of riding around and enjoying the company of the very friendly Uruguay folks we turned north and had a very quiet border crossing. The crossing was total chaos as we were sent from one office to another (back and forth between Uruguay and Argentina customs etc.) and although the crossing took over two hours not a single vehicle went by...very strange..until we left and realized that some sort of protest was taking place and the road was blocked with trees. No problem on the Hondogs and the protestors laughed and waved as we rode through the ditches around their blockade.

Argentina

2007-06-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Iguazu Falls - an impressive sight in full flood

ski resort at pass from Mendoza to Santiago, Chile

Inca Bridge in the mountains between Argentina and Chile. The church in the background is the only remaining building where once was a town when an earthquake triggered avalanche destroyed the entire town with the exception of the lone church which escaped untouched!

Ponderosa: Che Guevera´s 1936 Norton 350 moto that he rode through South America

Iguazu Falls-Argentina side

another funky local resident

old cathedral in Salta

town centro, Salta

Garganta Del Diablo, Cafeyete

4040 kms left to Ushuia on Ruta 40

Ischigualasto Park

Argentina or Bust...one long climb into the mountains...and you guessed it...the cold and wind! The border crossing into Argentina (from Chile) at the remote post of Pasco de Jama was accomplished with alot of laughter and friendly banter...a good omen of things to come in Argentina! It took several days on the road through high altiplano grasslands and dry mountains (with cold temperatures and high winds) before we dropped into Jujuy and Salta. (The winds on the huge, switchback decent were absolutely insane and we were constantly blown across two lanes of road and the sand and rocks in the air basically sand blasted our faces (couldn't hurt my looks!).

June 22, 2007 We needed a rest and the pretty colonial city of Salta was perfect "medicine" for our hurting bodies. (even the weather co-operated!) Relaxing in the gorgeous town centro with a Salta cerveza or two is something we will always remember!

Continuing south we rode through some pretty canyon country with brilliant colored rock formations with stops in several small towns where we did a little exploring...no tourists here! The next few days on the road were rather long as we headed off on dirt roads and the scenery consisted of days of flat, barren desert country with few towns...but great for camping as we could have fires in the evening. We are heading south and she is getting plenty cold at night but with a campfire in the evening and morning and not riding before 9 things are A-OK. Stopped at the famous ruinas de Quilmes and Ischigulasto Provincial Parks (both of which are advertised everywhere) but personally we found both rather boring!

June 29th - Several more long, easy but rather boring road days and we pull into the large town of San Juan and decide to part the bikes for a few days and take a bus to Mendoza. A very friendly Argentinian (incredably friendly folks!!!) gave us a ride to Mendoza (at about 140 and all over the road as he tried to converse with us in Spanish with the usual flailing of hands and full emotions that include looking at who they are speaking to (even if wailing down the hi-way at warp speed!!!)

June 30th - Mendoza was an interesting break as we headed out into the mountains to check out some ski hills (yes...they were in operation) and the border crossing into Chile. Some nice scenery and the weather was gorgeous so we got some good views of Condors and Aconcagua..the tallest mountain in the Americas. The bus ride back to San Juan was awesome...we got the front seats in a huge double decker bus...full comfort with meals served, including wine and it is WARM..kind of makes us want to part the bikes for a while!!!!

Just to reinforce those feelings the next day was one miserable SOB...ice in the trees and freezing fog made for one miserable ride through rough desert terrain until it warmed up around noon. We actually met a fellow biker from Australlia and he was as happy to see us as we were to see him...misery loves company!!!!

July 5th - A stop at the Che Guevera museum in Alta Gracia (where he grew up) was great and we sure learned alot about this facinating person...and the weather was nice in the afternoon (for a change!)

Several days of wind, rain and just plain old misery and into Uruguay!!! (but we will cover this country later) Back into Argentina on July 9th and continued cold, windy miserable weather. Snow in Buenos Aires...a first since 1918 and NOT good news if you´re riding a MC (and there are not to many of these on the road!!!) Not much to report but she is miserably cold before 12 and we are usually soaking wet by the time we pack it in at 5. On top of that the countryside is dead flat and boring, boring boring! Our only excitement comes when the master link snaps on the 650 right before dark in the pouring rain! When I tried to complete chain repairs the chain fell into pieces...literally nothing left of it! By the time I "mickey moused" things back together and limped into the closest town we were more than ready to take a rest!

July 11th - Two more days of rain, wind and road and we cruise into the lovely little town of Porto Iguazu with the objectives of getting our Brazil visa and checking out the world famous waterfalls. The country side near the falls is beautiful with lots of jungle and forestry plantations. First things first...we headed into town to collect reams of paperwork required for the Brazil visas but were cut short when a huge thunderstorm moved in and a bolt of lightning and insanely loud thunder clap right next to the internet place shut the entire town down! Oh well...we took what we had over to the embassy and unlike La Paz and or Buenos Aires all they wanted was our money!!! (didn´t check yellow fever, copies of MC papers, 3 months of bank statements, credit card receipts, address and phone no of contacts in Brazil...nothing...just money!

The falls are a real tourist attraction (trap) and we did it all including a raft ride right under (literally) the falls, down the river and a trip through the jungle after which we spent the entire day walking the boardwalks etc. Our hostel was a really nice place to stay and we got a fair amount of work done on the Hondogs. Our last day in Argentina began with a visit to a hummingbird aviary (total open air and the hundreds of hummingbirds are only attracted by food, can leave and go as they want) and a easy but long 2 hour border crossing (because the computer program for the crossing was damaged in the same thunderstorm that got us!)

So what did we think of Argentina? Not too much BUT we only got to visit the northern half of the country (way to cold to travel south and from everyone we talked to the southern half on the Andes side is awesome!) and the weather was truly horrible...not the combination to make for an entirely enjoyable trip on a MC. On the other hand the people are fantastic and the price of most things reasonable (less expensive than Chile, Uruguay and Brazil). The difference between the rich and poor is something that we didn´t really expect but over 50 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty...not too nice.

Chile

2007-06-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

riding the Atacama Desert - driest place on the mundo

sand storm in Valle de Luna (2)

crossing Bolivia into Chile
Tatio Geyers - highest geyser fields in the world (4,320m)

same same but notice the people

Chile here we come and hopefully some better (like warmer) weather! Through a very rustic looking Bolivian border crossing (but the crossing guard was as friendly as ever and even though we missed the Bolivian Aduana (customs) by about 50 km he said "don´t worry!"

One long descent into San Pedro de Atacama and it is warmer as a drop in app. 3000m usually means better temperature! This pretty little tourist town is going to be our only stay in Chile as the weather south of Santiago is to cold for riding and there is not much to see between here and Santiago. (Our original plan was to only visit the Atacama Desert (the driest place in the world) then turn east into Argentina.)

After getting settled in at a nice (but expensive...like everything in Chile) hostel it is time to explore. First on the agenda is a 3am trip to the Tatio Geyser field which conists of over 100 geysers which form the highest elevation geyser field in the world (at 3445m ASL). Why so early in the morning...the -15 temperature really sets off the steam created when the underground frozen river contacts hot volcanic rocks. One can wander about the geyser field but piles of rocks around the largest geysers are a reminder to stay back (some tourists have been "par-boiled" when they got a little too close!) Like most of S. America...there aren´t many rules...just the rule of survival as in "do something dumb and....too bad for you!

After checking out some local ruins we then spent the next day on the huge Laguna de Atacama...an old lake that has dried up with the exception of a few deep sink-holes. The crystal blue water is set off perfectly by the white salt walls around the sink-holes and the neatest thing is that even I can actually float in the ice cold water! (Matter of fact it is almost impossible to sink...there is so much salt that one cannot dive from the surface and get under water and when you get out of the water you turn white with salt...good sunblock but one itchy mess on the old hide!) Three different types of flamingo inhabit these waters including the rare Puna variety and they certainly look pretty against the desert setting.

We rode into several small desert towns that our travel books call "sleepy" and they certainly were! No food, gas or anything else so dinner was potato chips and water!

An evening ride and hikes through the Valle de Luna (yes...I think that every country in S. America has its own Valle de Luna) was kind of enjoyable with some neat sand dunes and gorgeous evening sunsets.

We only are spending a week in Chile...we finally found a place that is more expensive than Canada! Gas is about 1.30 US a litre, oil 7 US a litre (not good when your burning oil like our Hondogs!), food is crazy (like and in many cases not so good..(example: One vegetarian Pizza cost 24 US and consisted of one frozen pack of vegetables (beans, carrots, peas, corn (exactly the same frozen mixed barf you buy at Overwaitea) with some cheese on bread...would have been acceptable for 5 US but 25 US??, every visit to any lake, ruin cost a min of 8 US. I thought that prices might be high because of the fact that San Pedro de Atacama is a "tourist trap" but friends we have met have told us that things got even more expensive as you got closer to Santiago!

On the positive side: the people are great (nothing unusual here) but seem to be more out-going than in Bolivia and Peru. The beer is good and the Atacama is a pretty cool place to visit..we love desert (especially if it is above freezing!!) Goodbye Chile...Argentina here we come!!!

Bolivia

2007-06-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

Old CZ´s (Jawa) never die...they just end up in Bolivia! This guy was absolutely ripping up the desert with this old beast and its ¨cookie cutter¨tires but I couldn´t help noticing who was wearing the skid lid and hoped that his wife´s hat was tough!!

One cold campsite near Isla Pescado, on the salt flats of Uyuni (cold but gorgeous)

This isn't what we pictured when they said four lanes! Lots of lines and none of them good!

Laguna Colorado

Laguna Verde

washing the bikes

packing up camp Salar de Uyuni

Lori does tricks in the salt flats - one tough Bolivian orange

One of the neatest junkyards we have ever seen...the tren cemetario "Asi es la vida" (Such is life)

outside of Uyuni, Bolivia

a bag of coca leaves, 96% alcohol, dynamite & blasting cap - ready to go silver mining in Potosi

Valle de Luna (Valley of the Moon)..south of La Paz

The infamous ¨road of death¨from La Paz to Coricco. Nothing dangerous at all but some fantastic jungle scenery! (now that the drunks and lunatic bus/truck drivers are not allowed to travel this route)

Yup...some mountain in the middle of Bolivia

Lori and her good friend baby llama on the Isla de Sol, Lago Titikaka

La Paz the capital of Bolivia sits in a beautiful valley and is the fastest growing city in S America

thankful that Lori´s cute little friend didn´t end up a dried llama fetus in the Witches Market, La Paz city

Close up of an adult Andean Condor which has the widest wing spread of any bird in the world and now considered endangered throughout its range.

Just another ¨snake in the grass¨...Mr Boa does his best to intimidate!

A really easy, quiet crossing into Bolivia on the 2nd of June...the usual slow paperwork but not a single vehicle passed over the border during our 2 hr. visit! Our first stop was only 20 km away and consisted of a 10 plus km hike on the Isla de Sol (sun) on Lago Titikaka. This is supposed to be a very famous hike but to tell you the truth it didn´t do to much for us...the scenery reminds us of Baja and is actually very pretty against the vivid blue waters of Titikaka. Checked out a few Inca Ruins on the hike (this Isla is considered the birth place of the mighty Inca empire)

June 4th - A day later we checked into La Paz...a surprisingly beautiful city in a gorgeous setting! Despite not having any maps we managed to snag a ¨shed¨to live in that was right in the heart of the city. (Over the next few days we got to do alot of riding in the city...interesting to say the least...the clutch in the 650 is still complaining!) In the city we checked out the famous witches market (some pretty cool stuff including lllama fetuses, all kinds of pickled varmits, medicines and lots of pieces of rare and endangered animals! The La Paz zoo was surprisingly interesting with a fantastic jaguar and condor breeding program. The Valley of the Moon is just part of the sur-real landscape that surrounds this city. We missed getting into the coca museum in Puna (Peru) but got into the museum in La Paz. The idea here is that coca is a part of the indigenous life style in both Peru and Bolivia and these museums promote the continued legalization of coca and say that it is only the western demand for cocaine that has ¨demonized¨coca. (Right now personal use of the leaves is legal (I think because they are for sale everywhere) but there are forces (read USA) that are demanding actions such as widespread spraying of coca fields with various vegetation killers) I have to admit that although chewing cocoa leaves (with the ash like substance that activates the drug portion of the leaves is extremely wide spread and seems to have no negative effect on the people that use it. What is interesting is that the Catholic Church demanded the out-lawing of chewing coca leaves back in the 15 century BUT after the spanish realized that the workers that chewed coca could work 48 hr shifts without food and or rest they actually made in MANDATORY that all mine workers (slaves) chewed coca (and of course then took over the coca industry and made the slaves (workers) but coca out of their meager wages. More on this later!
June 6th - We then headed out of the city to tackle the ¨most dangerous road in the world¨which lead into the Yungas province (jungle territory which happens to be the leading cocoa growing area in Bolivia) and the nice little mountain town of Coricco. Nothing to dangerous about this road but gorgeous jungle scenery, waterfalls on the road and some long drops (but then again the idea is to stay on the road isn´t it!) We had a great time and loved the Hotel Esmeralda...the first time that I got to wear my shorts in S America...those brown legs of Central America are scary looking white sticks...saw a few gals toss on shades when I showed up!!!
June 7th - We then hit the road to southern Bolivia...some really cold riding but fantastic scenery and lots of old ¨ghost towns¨that at one time had huge mines. Actually many of the places were really eerie but made for some great exploring. Our destination after a few days of riding the high alpine-pampas plains was the mining town of Potosi.June 8th - The silver mines in Potasi started operation in 1558 and continue to this day! All the mining is centered on one mountain, Cerro Rico and it is estimated that 8 million Bolivians and black slaves have lost their lives over the years this mountain has been mined! (from accidents, posioning from cyanide-mercury etc.) So our idea is to take a mine tour but first of all we need to find a place to stay. This will be the first and last time that Lori sends me out on this mission as I selected a -7 star...to say Lori was NOT impressed is an understatement!
So our mine tour..first of all we stop by the Miners market to buy a few goodies to give to the miners we are going to see. The miners lunch (literally!!!) consists of a huge bag of coca leaves and catalysts (to get that good old coka going), 96% (not proof!) alcohol (with pop as a mixer), a few packs of hand rolled butts...and I though Mickey D lunches were bad for you! Obviously no big deal as the average miner starts underground at 10 to 12 years of age and is usually dead and guaranteed to be suffering from lung disease 10 years after going ¨mole¨. Next I bought a real stick of dynamite and blasting cap-fuse for 10 Bolivianos (or about 1.20 US $)...eat your heart out M80¨s! So what was it like underground?...surprisingly pleasant! No women are allowed in the tunnels (which after 450 plus years of mining make the mountain a chunk of swiss cheese) and the men work hard but have these little rooms where they go through a series of rituals to give thanks to mother earth etc. (to me seemed more like a party with booze and coca (by the way we tried out the coca leaves and catalyst and it really does give you a bit og a high...for about a buck!)
We got to climb through some pretty neat tunnels and narrow places and checked out a few miners at work! I can tell you we sure have it easy in Canada...this is downright depressing!
June 10th - On the road and its over one week of dirt roads, dust, rocks, sand, dust ,dust and more dust as we head to Uyuni and set up for a trip to the salt flats and Lagunas! The road from Potosi to Uyuni, although dirty and dusty covers some fantastic mountain-desert scenery and the Tren Cemetario (train cemetary) in Uyuni is awesome...hundreds of tons of old steam locomotives sinking slowly into the desert. What I would give to have one of those engines in our yard...lets see 40$ for 2kg to Canada...100 tons =??? I think I will let them rot in Uyuni! The trip to and across the Salt Flats is absolutely fantastic! Definitely a hi-light of our trip so far! The scenery is unbelievable and because we were doing it on our own we camped right on the salt on a completely deserted island..unreal (and increadibly cold as the salt is just like ice) I was able to shut my eyes and count to 120 slowly while riding...how many places can you do that and not pay the price!) After a couple of days on the salt we headed to the Lagunas...lets just say that Lori kissed the blacktop when we finally made it through to Chile!!! My map would have been good for bum fodder but would have gotten lost on the way to my butt! Talk about useless and of course I didn´t ask anyone about how one should actually get to the Lagunas. Lets just say we got lost a few times (ended up on the border of Chile twice...how?...no one knows including the border guards!!!), almost ran out of gas a couple of times (way out in the middle of nowhere), did a few good ¨get-offs¨(Lori really did her knee in and I just missed busting my ankle when a 2 foot deep stream crossing with 3 inches of ice went bad and 500 lbs of Japanese pot metal landed on my ankle pinning me hopelessly until some locals came along and lifted the Hondog off me (took 5 of them!). In between dodging rocks, sand, washboards and absolutely freezing our butts off in the tent we had a good time and saw some fantastic scenery! (sounds like fun doesn´t it?...it is after its all over!) One thing that was funny is that whenever we asked how long to the next place the locals would answer 2 hrs (etc:) but it would take us 4 or 5 hrs. They were basing their times on the local tour operators and the Toyota Land Cruisers they were driving! Man I have a new found admiration for Toyotas...Chad...if you drove a Ford at half the speed these guys drive their Toyotas you would need to drag a big magnet behind you to pick up all the Ford parts that would break or drop off!!!

All in all Bolivia was great...she is getting pretty cold and the Hondogs are not starting with it being this high (3600 to 4800 m ASL) and cold (well below 15 below...we are using our -25 bags and are wearing socks, longjohns, 4 layers on top and still freezing at night) Every morning we ¨cook¨the motos with the stove but they still sound like a cat being beat with a stick when they finally start up...hard on the motors...don´t ask! (and you can´t buy anything other than 20-50 weight oil here! As a result Loris 250 is smoking like a Mexican deisel...I don´t need to keep her in sight any more as I can smell the burning oil anytime I am downwind!!! (but she still runs great) Hey Ernie...I know what you mean when you ¨talk down¨the handling of the 650...she is death on wheels and every time you see sand you had better prepare to jump ship! (actually I have only dropped the bike once but I just about neutered myself at about 100 in a sand pit when she did the big swap about 5 times back and forth before I corraled the hog!!! (a guy right in front of us crashed and broke his leg on a Suzuki...ugly to say the least as we were 10 hrs from the nearest medical facilities!!!

Motos 101 or how to ride like a 50 year old woman...

2007-06-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

Wow - 4 months and over 20,000kms on my bike this trip and I have learned a lot!

I have learned:

- to let Chris ride out front so all the dogs knock themselves out going after him and have no energy left to bother with me
- to keep to the far inside when riding through a blind corner as if you meet someone, they will almost surely be bigger than you and sharing your lane
- that all the honking is not always about me. People here honk for any reason - they are behind you, they want to pass you, they are passing you, to say hi, to tell you you´re riding with your lights on, they are a taxi trolling for a fare, they are going around a corner, they are crossing an intersection, or just because they can!!!!!!
- how to pull a U turn almost anytime and anywhere ( and without warning if I am following Chris)
- riding at over 4000 meters is always cool no matter how bluebird the day is, so layer up and plug in the electric vest (my second best friend)

Peru

2007-05-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

guess where¿?¿?¿

May 25th - After a combination of a bike ride, train ride and hike we arrived at Machu Picchu at 6 in the morning and enjoyed a gorgeous sun rise over the old Inca ruins without the hordes that arrived around 11. By then we had hiked to the top of Wayna Picchu (you can see the mountain behind Machu Picchu in our photo)..a good workout and we ended the day by hiking back down the mountain. Checked out a few more Inca ruins (in other words piles of square rocks!) before bidding Cusco and its hordes of tourists (and mega grease chicken and fries meals for about $1.50 US) goodbye. Its on the road Sur and onto the high Pampas plains en route to Canyon del Colca. An overnight "bush camp" at over 4300 m was a little cold (our 2 lit water container froze solid!) and the crusty Hondogs decided not to start in the morning until I tossed the camp stove under their motors and got that Peruvian Crude 20-50 lightened up! Some spectacular scenery en route to the Canyon del Colca which is supposed to be the second deepest canyon in the world (the deepest is app. 10 KM south of Colca and is 25 m deeper) It sure doesn't look that deep but after 22 km of switchbacks dropping into the canyon bottom its pretty fair to describe it as a pretty deep crack in the world! Onto some pretty chewed up dirt roads (and one interesting tunnel as using a match would throw more light than our headlights combined) to Cruz de Condors, supposedly the best place in S America to view wild Condors. We are treated to a good air show by the Condors in the evening and decided to camp on site to get a "pre-tourist" view of these splendid birds in the morning. Up at 6 and I managed to crawl within about 20 m of one juvenile and watched about 6 adults fly around before they grounded themselves for the day.
Out next stop was the city of Puna on the Peruvian side of Lake (lago) Titicaca. After a police escort to our hotel (no map, no signs=2 lost touristo's in one hectic city!) we headed out for a visit to the famous reed islands and Orus tribe. Total commercialization is the best way to describe the day...but I guess that is what it takes to survive these days as the Peruvian government wants the Orus to give up their life on the lake (pollution etc.) The next stop was a 2 hr boat ride away to another tribe that lives on Isla Taquile. These folks know how to entertain the hordes of tourists and still have a good time!!!...lots of Cherveza, coca and Pisco (a type of alcoholic drink) had them dancing and playing in the streets with a smile on their faces! Lots of color and action for sure!
That pretty much wrapped up Peru for us. Just over 5000 km's on the motos and we pretty much covered the country with the exception of the Amazon (which we will spent lots of time in when we cross Brazil).
Oh yeah...forgot about the mad-cow episode! While camping at Cruz de Condor some wild cows decided to invade our camp...quick action was called for and I figured pepper spray was the answer. Unfortunately a good wind was blowing (toward our tent!) and not only did the cows get a face full of spray but we got our sinuses cleaned out as well! No more cow problems that night!

cooking on the reed islands, Lago Titticaca

too cute

rocks rocks and more on the road to Colca Valley

long dark tunnel riding - a new experience

riding the southern Cordillera Blanca

graveyard - Wari people south of Nasca

the country so dry here that all the buried bodies just mummified - 1000´s of years old

camping in the desert at Nasca -yes!!

Old Cathedral made of Inca Ruins - Plaza de Armes - Cusco, Peru

Peruvian lady spinning and her llama

Suri Alpacas - Shari this ones for you!!!

look what I found in my soup .... wonder where those feet have been ¿?¿

May 24th - Feels great to be back on the road heading south! The road is straight and fast...not the hot ticket on Hondogs that we ride at 80KMPH (sure get a good look at the country!)! Our road days have taken on a routine...up at 7 and on the road by 8 for a couple of hours...stop for cafe negro and a breakfast of arroz and huevos (rice and eggs) with aji (chile)...taste great and costs about 6 soles (2 bucks). Strange thing is that we are eating rice every meal...more than we ever ate in Vietnam, China etc.!. Ride for a few more hours (lots of the old photo stops) and stop for a gaseosos (pop) and continue until 5 or so and grab a place to stay. The Nazca Lines would probably be kind of cool if some fool with a 4 X 4 hadn´t chewed the crap out of them...some new Toyota lines I guess. We skipped on the flight as I have seen photos from the air and for the most part they are ruined because of recent human activity...none the less the air looks like a WW1 dogfight with all the small planes twisting and turning about! (We did check out the lines from two Miradors (lookouts) so we did see them first hand. South of Nasca we checked out an important Inca archeological site some 25 very dusty km´s off the main road then hit the Nazca Cemetary..pretty neat as the place is full of mumified dead humans still wrapped in their clothes after some 1000 years in the desert. Definitely got our fill of skulls and human bones as the entire desert is covered in chunks of bone and old pottery. We spent a fantastic night in the desert and even the area we camped in had old pottery scattered all over it! When we camp we are up at 6 and on the road by 7. Today our first stop was the tallest sand dune in the world..some 2750 m tall..yup she is big but I think about 20 countries in Africa lay claim to the biggest, tallest, hugest, baddest sand dunes in the world so who knows! The road east of Nazca is fantastic on a MC...major ¨snake road¨that climbs through some of the most desolate, barren country that we have ever seen! The big surprise of my day was finding a group of Andean Condors...they truly are magnificent creatures! Over 4000m we hit pampas grasslands and there a hundred of wild Vicano (relatives of the llama and alpaca) everywhere. Some absolutely gorgeous high Andean country with amazingly green hillsides and cold weather to match. We bush camped again (just love camping!) and after a long second day of climbing and dropping over mountain ranges we arrived in Cusco...home to Machu Picchu AND about a million tourists! More tourists here than we have seen on our entire trip but the town (well, city of 330,000) is really beautiful. The amazing cathedrals that cover the Plaza de Armes are made from ransacked Inca Ruins and really add to the atmosphere of this tourist oriented city!

sorting through the corn

Cordillera Negra

Still Smilin´

Backroads to Huarez in the Cordillera Blanca - 130km took 10 hours!!

May 16th - So rode the coast for while, then turned inland to the Cordillera Blanca at Casma and what a difference - gorgeous snow capped mountains, small villages and a rough dirt road through from Huarez to Huanaco, Cerro de Pasco, and back out to the coast at Lima. Took over two full days of riding to do what we figured from our map would take a couple of hours. 1st and 2nd gear forever. Up and down - Went from 4818 meters to sea level at Lima in a couple of hours. What a gorgeous canyon - amazing - llamas everywhere at elevation. Slept in a small village high in the mountains one night at about 4600 meters and I was so out of breath from the elevation that by the time I climbed up the three flights of stairs to ask about rooms, I could hardly talk.... The following day the weather cleared and we passed across barren high elevation grasslands which are beautiful and the people oh so friendly! Just when we thought the road could not climb any more we started to climb into colorful snow (fresh) covered mountains and over a 4818 m pass. Mining activity everywhere has really chewed up these mountains but the mining towns are really neat looking with rusty tin roofs set against the colorful mtns. and blue sky. We were following some train tracks while we decended this most amazing canyon and I could not wait to see a Peruvian train climb these rails...the grade is about 3X what we have in BC. Sure enough here comes a train..with about 6 cars (probably the max they can haul up these grades) but what is amazing is the smoke coming out of the engine...a solid plume of jet black smoke taints the sky for hundreds of meters!!! (and I missed a picture!) Lima was surprisingly easy to get though although it extends for about 100 kms and contains a majority of Peru´s 28 million souls. Just checked out some fantastic sea bird rookeries with hundreds of thousands of comorants, boobies, terns, gulls, sea lions etc. in Isla de Balletas and tomorrow we head South to Nazca. We are loving the trip...every day is like a new page in a novel that you just cannot put down!!

Riding in Northern Peru along the coast

more northern Peru - miles and hours of blowing sand...

Pre Inca wall carvings - ruins in northern Peru

Okay, here goes with first impressions on our second night in Peru. Northern Peru looks a lot like Mexico (the dry, dirty, dusty, not nice part of Mexico).The first 500 kms or so along the coast are mostly sand dunes, small poor villages with few people and lots of garbage all over. Crossed the border at a smaller crossing east of the main one on the Pan American Hwy and once again no problems – just took time and cost nothing unlike all the Central America crossings. First night we camped off the road down a sand track – had the best sleep we’ve had in awhile – warm, no fly on the tent and a panorama of stars to look at. Today was a boring day of riding – flat, straight roads through brush and sand. I actually put on my MP3 player for the first time this trip to try and stay awake!
So now we are settled in for the night in a beautiful place for 10 soles ( about 3.50US$-the cheapest place so far this trip) and get this – it is a Love Hotel… more about these later. They are just building it and it is not quite finished so that is why the good deal I think. No TV in the room yet, but the mirror is in place…..So now about the ‘Love Hotels’ in South America – they are places where you pay by the hour to rent the room. You drive into them and each room has their own private parking area, blocked off from the outside. So what you can do if trying to be discrete is drive right into the garage, close the door, go into the room and there is another door in the room with a sliding window thing that you can put things through. You can use the phone in the room to order room service and it is delivered through the door slot where you can also pay for the room etc – in other words no one has to have ever seen you….. They have names like Venus, Amor, Fantasia, Las Vegas, Delilah, etc. and usually the only channel on TV that is in English is the porn channel! We have stayed in a few now as sometimes they are desperate and have no transient customers so will rent out the room for the night for a reasonable rate – they are always clean, cozy, and Chris likes to use the covered garage area for working on the bikes and you never know what might happen in a ‘Love Hotel’…..
Hoping by the end of tomorrows riding we will be heading into the mountains and a more scenic part of Peru. The people have been great as usual and we are back in a moto country where a lot of people ride and they are all interested in the bikes (especially the 3 new tires we have strapped on the back. Bought them in Ecuador, but now Chris is going to see how many flats he can get with the old tires can get before he really needs to change them..)

Ecuador

2007-04-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

southern Ecuador - Pan American Hwy - who needs backroads¿¿¿¿
Chimbarozzo 5:00 am time exposure
Just can´t stay away from the mountains and snow (even at the equator!)
Riobamba, Ecuador
Laguna Quilota

Parade in Riobamba

Green Parakeets

4800 meters up on Chimborrazo, highest peak in Ecuador

porker in a pan

A day at the market - Hey Joe, I´m feeling a little numb from the neck down....

we use it all

herding sheep in the country

Have been here in Otavalo, Ecuador for a few days now - nice place and a great market. Finally buyint a few things and hopefully mailing them home today. Same as usual though, the mailing costs more than the items in the package. Oh well. Ecuador is beautiful and the people are wonderful. We are just loving South America. It feels so different from Central America. Heading south tomorrow to do some more hiking. Riding is okay here - not as good as Colombia as everyone drives way faster here (could be the cheap price of gas ?), so constantly being passed and very few motos on the roads. In Columbia, everyone drove very slowly - we were the fastest things on the highway believe it or not and there were tons on motos. (Gas there was mucho expensive though)

More to come here at a later date - just lost what I had written - darn computers!!!!

Its been a while since I updated the blog and my memory is fading quickly but here goes! We did some pretty good rough road riding around Otvalo climbing Volcanoes...one piece of advice...Do NOT get a fully loaded SR650 stuck in a big mudhole (unless you have a strong woman along!)

We (or should I say I) sure learned a lesson about wandering off the main Pan American Hwy. in Ecuador! We ended up crossing the equator 4 times...don´t ask- just assume that it wasn´t our best day on the road! However we did get our pictures with one leg in the southern hemisphere the other in the northern! There are NO road signs off the main PA Hwy and way too many roads to ask locals ësta la via a...¨? We then headed out on the Quilota Loop - an awesome dirt road for the first day through some incredible mountain scenery that reminded us of a ¨green¨Copper Canyon. The rural dogs love chasing the MC´s but some geese got into the act and actually chased Lori down the road, honking with wings a flapping! We overnighted at 3800 m at the gorgeous Laguna Quilota and had a great hike happening until the fog set in and Lori (I take no respnsiblity!) got us lost!

The next day we rolled into the gorgeous city of Riobamba and spent a day exploring the town then headed out on a bus to take the famous train ride down the Diablo de Nariz (Devils Nose)...more like the Devils butt! A pretty good ride as the train tackles the switchbacks by going backwards then frontwards! At one point I opened the door and one step out of the train would have been a drop of over 100 feet! I guess it is illegal to ride on the roof (as last year two Japanese tourists were beheaded by a low wire) (unless you buy a cushion for one dollar and the money goes in the conductor´s pocket!!!)

We then headed out of Riobamba and climbed up Volcan Chimbarozzo and climbed to 4800 m on the MC´s (I just about had to push the old 650 up the last few km´s!) then climbed to over 5500 m until we got hit with a major snow storm...yes snow just a few km´s south of the Ecuator (Ecuador..ecuator...get it) We camped overnight at 4800 m and it wasn´t too bad so we are obviously pretty good at high elevation although I admit a crippled slug would have climbed faster than I at 5500m!

Instead of following the Pan American Hwy we then headed into the highlands (as if we were not high enough as it was!) and had our heaviest day of rain to date. She was more than a little cool The people were absolutely incredible and spent several hours running about town getting us some new tires. Lori also discovered broken welds all over her luggage rack (abuse, abuse and more abuse!!! she is a maniac on the rough roads) I ripped the luggage rack off (a pile of pieces, and in literally one minute a local took me to a welding shop. The welder was having a brew but cut off some bolts to use as inserts on the broken pipe and welded up the broken frame pieces perfectly...uno dollar por favor! (we gave him 5 and didn´t say anything about the darn rack costing us 250 dollars in Canada!!!)

The last few days in Ecuador really gave us a taste of some of the untouched jungle that we never got to see when travelling on or close to the Pan Am Hwy. Some pretty impressive thick jungle forests full of birds, a few snakes, lots of corners and clouds and fog. A great time for sure and we were actually sad to see the border! Crossing into Peru was absolutely painless! (as usual in SA..those rip off artists in Central America sure could learn a thing or two about greeting people into their country!!!) The border crossing was slow to say the least! The officials were way more interested in trying (!) to talk to us about our trip, bikes etc. than complete paperwork but they ended up filling out all the required MC forms in triplicate...by HAND (no photocopy machine) which took over 2 hrs. (and there were only a few lines to fill out!) in which time not a single vehicle crossed the border!

Into Peru!!!!!!

Northern Ecuador countryside

Desert Flower

Carved gourds - Otavalo market

Otavalo market color

Otavalo elder

Colombia

2007-04-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Cathedral Los Lajas near the Ecudaor border - Neo Gothic architecture constructed between 1928 - 1944

Nothing exists north of the USA - what happened to us?

Colombian Flag overlooking Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena

Boa - roadkill

Colombian city nestled in the mountains

Southern Colombia along the Pan American Hwy

Patchwork landscape

getting the bikes loaded on to the sailboat - carefully....

getting strapped down and ready to go

San Blas Island paradise

more of the same....

could almost run away and become a sailor......

We made it to Colombia!!! Spent 6 days sailing on the ´Melody´from Portobelo, Panama to Cartegena, Colombia. Spent 4 glorious days on the San Blas Islands. Just amazing - 350 or so small islands scattered about with white sand beaches, blue Caribean water, and coconut palms - the stuff dreams are made of. Spent time visiting the Kuna villages on one of the islands, snorkelling (saw 4 sand sharks, a huge devil ray, barracuda, and the usual assortment of beautiful colored fish), swimming and just soaking up the sun and getting a glimpse into the life of sailing the world from the other sailboats moored near us. Anyway, was an amazing time - glad we held out for this option and didn´t just fly the bikes and us into Bogata. Lori did spend some of the time at sea sick, but oh well... So now we are in Cartegena Columbia - just a beautiful city. Staying near the old historic walled city part which is amazing to see. Have spent three days here, and are leaving to head south tomorrow. Riding in the city is a bit manic, but just taking it slow and easy. (Good thing Lori is along to slow Chris down....)

Two more days to the Ecuador border and over 1200 km on Colombian roads...fantastic people, scenery (especially in the mountains north of Medellin) and some good riding. We have traded in the hot sunny, humid weather for the liquid type and we are starting to pile the clothes on when we climb the huge mountains. Lots of flood damage sure slows down the road trip and its no wonder they have problems with flooding when one looks at the massive deforestation in the mountains! None the less we have never seen a country so green (other than Cambodia) and in the high mountains this country bears some resemblence to Nepal. (except the deforestation is just for cattle grazing not growing crops) The army and police are everywhere (literally spread out every .5 km!) but are super friendly (conscription into the army is mandatory so for the most part they are literally kids) and love the bikes. Talking of which Colombia is MC territory...and no wonder with the price of fuel! Unfortunately there really isn´t much to do because it is unsafe to venture off the main roads and there is no tourist infrastructure because there are no tourists! Cartangena was absolutely wonderful...we loved it and the old city is very beautiful with a long and colorful history. So...we love Colombia! (except we are hating deisel trucks more and more everyday...definitely a major health hazard (might as well be smoking a case of butts a day!) We rode through Medellin, Colombia!!!! Felt surreal to be doing it - very cool.....

Panama

2007-04-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

Portobelo forts at sunset

bonding with the animals

gives new meaning to the term ´riding shotgun´

Panama Canal

Panama City church

Colon waterfront

Spanish fort at San Lorenzo

another spider in the garden

campsite at playa Lajas

Playa Lajas

green tree snake

Panama City

Chris spins to the top of Volcan Baru, highest point (3475 m) in Panama

Ye ha...into Panama (our 8th country if you count Canada) and its an easy crossing and better yet cheap! Our first stop is the mountain town of Boquette which is home to more Americans than Panamanians (or it seems that way!) City size lots go for around 150,000 US! Our first trip is a run up Volcan Baru...basically 14 km of rolly rocks! She was a bit of a work out (took the 250) but I made it to the top which happens to be the tallest point in Panama. Lots of fun and I think that the 250 Hondog has forgiven me after I gave it a oil change!

The next day we headed back into the mtns on the 650 and did a fantastic hike called the Quetzel Trail. Most folks do a one way trip on the trail and use a taxi ride to return to Boquette. We decided to hike it both ways (the trail guide says 12 km each way) and it truly is a fantastic cloud forest experience. We also got to find out why they call it a rain forest! After making it to the far end of the trail we got hit with a most incredible storm...the bad news being we had to return to Boquette. In less than five minutes we were totally soaked to the skin...dry creek beds were running bank to bank etc. and we had over two hours of hiking then a 16 km MC ride back to town! We froze our butts off and even the hot shower then into sleeping bags with long johns etc. couldn't warm us up! However it was great even if I still have not found one of those darn elusive Quetzels!

Back to the beach! Next stop is Playa Lajas where we found a huge white sand beach (that we can ride the bikes down) and a neat campsite under the coconut trees. All is good until a group of young residents set up camp within 20 feet of us (and there is close to 1km of camp area) and proceeded to party, scream and basically carry on all night...sleep equals zero. I spent the night thinking of how great it was going to be to fire up the old Hondog at 6 in the morning and let er rip at 1o grand for a while. So here comes the sunrise...turkey vultures are sitting all over the coconut trees scrounging on the mass of garbage our party animals have left laying around, a dog comes over and pisses on one of their tents (good doggie!!!) then...they get up!!!! Tough dudes but I did have some revenge watching them puke!!!

The coast is just to hot for us so its back into the mountains and Parque Torres where we bounce over some rough roads to get into the park and set up camp way up in the mountains where cloud and rain cool us off. The trails are a leg surgeons dream...slippery roots and rocks everywhere and straight up and down...no wonder there are no tracks! On top of that the park rangers do not have maps and the area is covered with old trails etc. Some fun finding your way back out but I did see some neat birds including my first Trogan.

So today we crossed the Panama Canal at 11...feels fantastic to look over this piece of history that cost so many lives and is considered by some to be the 8th man made wonder in the world. We have always dreamed of visiting the canal and what better way to do it than by riding over it on MC's! Spent the day exploring Panama City.. a surprisingly small place that appears to be somewhat run down with some real sketchy looking Ghetto areas. We feel real comfortable around here and will be spending some time getting our bikes to Colombia and checking out the Panama canal and the old city of Panama Veijo.

Costa Rica

2007-03-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Fiery Billed Ari Cari

first night camp near Bijagua near Volcan Tenorio

waterfall wet

ahh, hotsprings

Volcan Arenal

Chris relaxes by the pool...where the heck are we and where are we going?

The first thing we noticed as we crossed the border into Costa Rica (other than the cop that stopped us) was how green everything is! A great ride down the Pan American Hwy. and then east towards Parque National Tenoria where we spent a night in the bush (tons of neat birds and it was neat to wake up to the ungodly howls of the Black Howler Monkeys (they make the King of Beasts sound like a wimp). A rough 14 km ride into the Parque and a neat hike into a set of waterfalls and more importantly hot springs! The hot springs are part of a beautiful river and its nice to be able to hop from the hot water into the cold river water.

A great ride on secondary roads through some beautiful country to Volcan Arenal and the tourist trap called La Fortuna. Spent a day hiking around the Volcan (not very impressive from within the park but I found a fantastic view point outside of the park and even got to ride down a river) and watching huge rocks roll down the slope. Brought back memories of being a kid...only thing is that the rocks needed to roll into some trees etc. to really create some damage. Here they just roll down into more rocks, still...very impressive watching house size boulders bounce hundreds of feet at a time! From La Fortuna we spent a long day on the road getting to Orosi (basically all in the name of missing San Jose)...some really nice scenery and as usual the riding is great with virtually no traffic and a lack of signs just to keep things interesting!!! (Yup we got lost a few times!) Orosi is a neat little mountain town and we spent a few days exploring and ended up riding to the top of Volcan Irazu. Kind of dissapointing as I thought we were going to get some challenging riding but it's blacktop all the way to the top! None the less some nice scenery but fog and cloud prevented us from getting much (like any!) view into the crater which contains a neat little lake.

Leaving Orosi we ended up taking some unintentional extra roads through Cartenga but finally got our bearings and headed over the mountains via the Pan American Hwy to San Isidro. This is a really neat road as it passes through some fantastic cloud forest and with a rain falling we actually started to get cold (like where are my fingers cold!) Stopped at a real neat eatery on the road which is a bird lovers paradise...hundreds of gorgeous humming birds that had me running through the bush snapping photos! At San Isidro we headed towards the coast and HEAT and HUMIDITY...the kind that kills us Canucks! Free beach camping and we have this fantastic huge beach all to ouselves (after a park ranger caught me riding the bike down the beach...I pleaded ignorance...until he pointed to a sign directly behind me which (in English) said "no driving on beach..10.000 Colon fine") This place looks to good to be true and it is...after a gorgeous sunset the bugs come out and the winds dies down...canucks sweating in a tent! Went for a hike in a private park and saw toucans but no sloths! (Our "Lets Go" guidebook says "sloth laden trails"...but we know they lie!!!

After cooking for a few days those gorgeous beaches do look nice and we checked out a few just to swim, but its back to the mountains for us and the town of San Vito via a very cool, curvy, steep dirt and broken blacktop road. Checked out the famous botantical gardens which were full of Agouti's and the brightest colored birds (out with the camera) and one vicious rain storm!

Next on the agenda is back to the coast and the village of Pto. Jimerez which lies about 80 km off the Pan American Hwy via dirt roads. A very cool ride across some "interesting" bridges and it looked like were going to make it into town early...then...a flat tire in the mud. Man I sweated a gallon swapping the tube (snake bite) but made it into town just as a torrential rain storm hit...one wet one for sure! We were planning on a three day hike down a beach but the insane heat, rain and potential problems with bike security had us decide to head into Panama. Adious Costa Rica...you are nice BUT way to commercialized for us!

Scary Stuff

2007-03-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

- a roadblock in Mexico manned by young guys with homemade spike belts across the road and black hoods and ski mask like things over their heads. They were stopping other people, but just waved us around. Thank you! What was that all about? I wasn't going to stop and ask....

- at a counter in an internet cafe in Honduras, a woman with 2 kids about 10 years old. The kid on one side holding her hand and playing with her pockets, the kid on the other side spinning an automatic pistol around on the counter. Where did that come from?

- Guns, guns everywhere - AK47 and sawed off shotguns slung over peoples shoulders so casually, like they were briefcases. At least they usually don't have their fingers on the triggers....

- a huge stingray in Utila on the Bay Islands Honduras - about 4 feet across with a huge big long stinger. Thank goodness it was stirring up lots of sand and digging a big hole so we had warning it was there..

Nicaragua

2007-03-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Granada and Lago Nicaragua

Chris's fishing buddies on Lago Nicaragua

enjoying the sun at Laguna Apoyo

Okay, here goes my rant about UPS and Granada - we have been in this lovely city for 8 days now - about 5 days longer then I would have liked. I thought it went 'stranded in Honduras'.... I suppose there are worse places to be stranded, but enough is enough and I am ready to get back on the road. After Chris dumped his camera and lens in a mangrove swamp in Honduras, we set about replacing it. (He has been hard on cameras this trip!) Thank you Terisa for sending us down his old camera body via DHL - 3 days later it is here. Another story for the lens Chris ordered from Leo's Camera in Vancouver- supposed to DHL it down too, but in their infinite wisdom sent it UPS instead. Eight days later it is still not here. Starting with holding the camera for 3 days in Richmond, and now it has finally landed in Managua, Nicaragua, but we are in Granada. It is to be here tonight at 7:00 - keep your fingers crossed. To add insult to injury, there are $110 worth of brokerage and duty charges on top of the $175 cost to expedite ship it here.... At this point, we would be happy just to see it. Possibly able to blast off tomorrow morning..
Have been to Isla de Ometepe and Laguna Apoyo while we've been here - would have been nice to spend most of the time at Apoyo, but needed to be here because the lens was coming at any time (so said our 20 phone calls back and forth to UPS in Managua)- enough about that. Heading to San Juan Del Sur tomorrow hopefully, then on to Costa Rica. San Juan Del Sur was a nice break from the dry arid areas around Lago Nicaragua and we had a great time exploring some local beaches and enjoying the cool ocean water. We decided to try to take a back road to the border crossing into Costa Rica but with crappy maps (that none of the locals could read) and even worse Espanol we ended up lost and had to backtrack to the border. The winds off Lago Nicaragua were insane and thousands of swallows were feeding on bugs (that made a cook pizza on our goggles) and it was neat riding through a solid mass of birds (didn't get one!) The border crossing was easy but I think we found a new record for having to check in with different offices etc. as it took 13 stops to get out of Nic and into Costa Rica! No problem!

On the way to Isla Ometepe, Lago Nicaragua

Volcan Masaya - smokin' hole in the ground

Sandinista tank

Hiking in the cloudforest at Selva Negra

Matagalpa, church at town centre

Honduras

2007-03-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

rainforest

last night camping in Honduras & where Chris dropped his camera overboard>

We faced the Honduras border crossing with a little depredation as we have heard that it is one of the more problematic (and expensive) crossings. Thanks to Lori and her “quasi” Spanish we avoided a bribe from the Guatemalan officials (exit fee) which they finally laughed at and said “next time” (kind of upset the tourists that had already paid the fee!) The Honduras crossing was no problem at all and we got through for 30 bucks each (bike fees) vs. the 60 some previous MC riders told us about. Our first stop was the Copan Ruinas…supposedly a must see on the Mayan ruin tour. Yes it was kind of nice but sure didn’t match Palenque or Tikal. The big difference with these ruins is that there is a lot of detailed rock carving and lots of large Cieba Trees (national tree of Guatemala) as well as Scarlet Macaws.
The next day we got to see about 350 KMs of Honduras and it can be best described as lush and green! Impressive cloud covered mtns. and lots of pretty streams and rios (rivers). They have had torrential rains lately and lots of mud slides dot the hillsides and sections of road as we pull into La Cieba (which happens to be the hub for venturing out into the Bay Islands…Honduras number 1 tourist destination) La Cieba was a bit of a gong show and it wasn’t until dark that we found a hotel near the ferry terminal and guess where we had dinner. Yes…a “Booger King” and it was the first Burger King that I have ever seen with an armed guard…those Honduran whoppers are valuable! (About the same price as Canada and even taste the same) The next day we hopped the ferry to Utila (one of the Bay Is.) and spent two days getting out butts cooked and taking in some fantastic snorkeling (Lori says the best we have ever seen and I have to agree!) So many gorgeous fish, fantastic coral and rock formations (makes you want to have an underwater camera….talking of which…I dropped my Nikon FM2 and super wide angle into a mangrove swamp we were exploring by kayak. No more camera for me but I am hoping that Terisa will pull through and DHL my spare to Nicaragua. (I can hear Dan-O moaning about me and the cameras…and maybe he is right as this is number two for the trip) We also saw a huge sting ray (3-4 feet across) which was kind of cool…definitely looked like a Crocodile Hunter type killer!
Today we hit the road to Parque Muralla…Lori’s travel guide raves about the place…only place in the world where the rare Quetzals actually group and hang around the camp site…fantastic hiking etc. Well, after over 100 kms of awesome dirt road (fantastic mountain scenery and fun riding) we arrived and the place is completely shut down…nothing (which is neat in its own way!) at all exists anymore and there are definitely no Quetzals hanging around the visitor centre! However this is our first night in a cloud forest and it is neat…lots of birds calling from huge deciduous trees and it is nice and cool out. I think it is going to feel great to get back into the tent and cook over the stove! Tomorrow we will see what some of the trails look like…but this is true jungle and my first excursion into the bush makes it appear that we will not be walking too far! Until next time…

Funny Stuff

2007-03-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

So here we go with some of our misadventures......
- Chris rode out of a gas station in Southern Mexico with his coat on top of his load and not tied down. A truck behind Lori ran over it as she pulled oper to retrieve it, and in one fell swoop, the truck crushed his digital camera, sunglasses, reading glasses and walkie talkie. (Now hows that for efficiency?)

- We rode bad roads outside of Panajachel, Guatemala (around the lake and up the mountain)..... we are talking steep day! The longest 100kms ever..... Even shattered her windshield for good - thank you for duct tape.... She really look like a rolling wreck now.

- Lori still had problems kick starting her bike - could do it, just not consistently, but then she managed to snap the decompression release cable so now can almost never start it (at least a good excuse for Chris to have to do it-poor guy!)

- Chris dumps his camera and lens overboard from a kayak in a mangrove swamp on the Bay Islands in Honduras (not funny was the epic trying to replace everything)

- Lori gets stopped twice in a row by the same police officer at the same police check in Nicaragua (once coming and once going) and the second time couldn't find a flat enough spot to put up the stand and dumps the bike on its side (for about the 20th time this trip) This time the police only asked for her insurance - probably figured she was going to need it.....

Guatemala

2007-03-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

We entered Guatemala at La Messilla – a bit of a gong show. The main road through was closed off with people setting up their market goods so we took a side alley that ended in a steep uphill and Lori stalled her bike and tipped it over at the top of the hill because she was afraid that she would run into people. A couple of big Guatemalan guys came to her rescue and lifted the bike up for her. Then we proceeded to customs and immigration and all went through uneventfully. Headed then for Panajachel on Lake Atitlan where we spent a couple of days (after Chris got lost in Solola). Pana is major gringoville so really easy (and correspondingly expensive). Nice for a couple of days. When we left, took a back road around the lake and over the mountain and Lori managed to drop her bike 5 times that day (and did in her windshield once and for all). The backroad trip we took around Atitlan and over the mtns. was fantastic…a tough ride (on us and the bikes) but it showed us another more rural side of Guatemala. Some really interesting boulder roads and another road made entirely of interlocking bricks.
Then we headed for Montericco on the Pacific coast. Loaded the bikes on to a flat bottom scow and cruised through the mangroves to the town and black sand beaches. Went for a mangrove tour out of Montericco using a poled boat…had to get up at 5 (so Lori said forget it) and saw a lot of different types of birds and not much else.
Then we turned inland and headed for the Honduran border and the ruins of Copan. (Took a wrong turn and nearly crossed into El Salvador, but Chris’ quick thinking saved us)
Surprises – Guatemala is cleaner than Mexico…(other than the diesel burning crates that spew out huge clouds of black smoke on any hill…I had to laugh as I saw Lori attempt to pass a bus and completely disappear in clouds of black smoke several times before giving up.
Prices in Guatemala seem to have about doubled for virtually everything since we last visited in 2000…but the place looks a lot more prosperous and that is nice as the people are great! (still cheaper than Mexico)
Lots of tourists in Guatemala…especially from Europe. (We still have not run into any MC riders that are completing the SA/NA trip….a bit of a surprise!)

On The Road (without Punky)

2007-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

beach camp Chacalaca Mexico

another of those amazing sunsets

coastline south of Acapulco Mexico

Rosie, our roadside tarantula

camp near Puerto Escondido, Mexico

On the Road (without Punky)

Well, we’ve had 10 days or so to deal with our loss and figure you would still want to hear from us on the blog, so here we are again. We are currently south of Huatulco which is way south of Acapulco. Have found a cool beach to chill on for the day. Actually quit riding by noon today for the first day. Have been putting long hours in the saddle (and sometimes not very many kilometers). Some of the interesting things we have seen:

-2 tarantulas crossing the road ( beautiful with black and reddish brown coloring – maybe rosy tarantulas?)

-lots of squished snakes of various sizes

-lots of road kill – everything from horses to dogs to iguanas to skunks

- some amazing sunsets

- humpback whales somewhere north of Acapulco

- felt an earthquake shake the ground under our tent for a few seconds one night

- got bit like crazy by no-seeums in San Blas – they have only now a week later quit itching

- met our relatives, Stan, Mary, Dick, Cathy, Bob & Ethel in Chalaca and spent an extra day camping and visiting with them – very nice!!!

- beaches and coconut trees to die for

- the coastline where the totugas come to lay their eggs and millions of turtle eggs and even a big dead turtle (70 lbs)

- Puerto Escondido – one of the nicest gringo towns we have seen so far

I have got to say something about the road carnage down here! The roads are covered with o-possum patties, rat raisins, snake smoothies, iguana pancakes, squished skunk, dog rugs and of course big fat cows, donkeys, the odd horse mule and virtually anything that can and does move! Obviously you need to be a night driver (rider) to be a Mexican road hunter as our daylight stints show very little (other than the odd tarantula or iguana to gun down).

Now we should talk topes (large chunks of various hard substances put in the middle of the road to slow down Mexican grand-prix racers. On the back roads these things pop with annoying frequency and although no problem on a MC semis and old junkers slow down to a standstill, causing huge delays in making any progress. We have found topes come in three types: 1) The nice “ski jump” topes that you can slam into at full speed with little trouble 2) The “ball buster” topes that you hit, your load slams you in your ass and drives you into the fuel tank and 3) the “non-existent” (sign only) topes which work amazing well for the first time through traveler like us! So like the good Mexican said: wanna play topes roulette…don’t slow down and take your chances!

Lets yap garbage. The signs say No Tirar Basura (which I believe means dump your garbage or pay a fine) but actually means “no dumping garbage”. A drive through the country shows that Mexicans do not understand their own language and I had to laugh when we went through km’s of solid garbage and hit the town of Los Mesas! (Los Messses…..get it) All kidding aside something needs to be done and it appears that the use of fire is a good way of getting rid of the roadside litter as we have seen lots of good blazes in our travels.

Until next time SALUD!

Tribute to Punky

2007-02-17T16:40:00.001-08:00

Punky was run over by a car on the morning of February 15th, and though he is no longer with us, his memory will live on forever in our hearts and souls. We are now missing the 3rd partner in our adventure and it has left a big hole. In the few short weeks that Punky was riding with us, he brought smiles and laughter to everyone he met along the way.

We now know why God gave us a little friend like Punky...to show Lori and I what unconditional love is. Having the life leave those beautiful, joyous eyes while I held him has been the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life. Yes, Punky is gone but only in body as his soul will live on with us and although I will always shed a tear for what would have been, what we had brings nothing but joy and happiness to my heart. And yes Punky I will make sure that Mom and I take good care of ourselves as you have shown us how precious life is.

I just want to say a few words about what I thought Punky believed this trip was all about. I know he loved being on the bike as every morning we would load up camp and hit the road and he would bark and bark for about an hour at everything and sometimes nothing! After that he would settle down and perhaps sleep until he heard (or felt) the bike slow down which usually meant a break or a village, both of which were a special treat.

Although it sounds strange Punky did more than pull his weight on this trip. Everytime we hit a police or military check all we got were lots of laughs and photos and questions about the bonito perro. In Batapilos I remember an old crippled man motioned us over and the smile on his face when he petted Punky was something to behold! In the three weeks we were on the road I guarantee that there wasn't a pom around that got photographed as much as Punky! People would pull out cameras, phone/cameras when I passed them and the smiles on peoples faces in the villages we rode through was something to marvel at. No doubt about it...people loved the Punkster!

So please join us and lift a brew (or a dozen) to the greatest adventure pom that we knew! Lori and I have dedicated this trip to our missing partner as his soul and spirit rides with us all the way!

Copper Canyon Adventures

2007-02-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

Hello to all my two legged friends up North. Its Punky checking in on how our three amigos trip is going. After leaving that nice beach full of friendly people Dad tied me into my traveling bag and we hit a very long, boring road that didn’t even have any good vultures or ravens to bark at. To top it off every stop we made had me sweating in my heavy Northern coat…going to have to do something about this problem. We went through a large Mexican city which was kind of scary with all those smoking and noisy trucks around us. By night we had a nice campsite and I did a little running around with Dad before crawling into my home (for the next year the tent). Early in the morning Dad showed me some scorpions…not very interesting and kind of slow after Dad dropped a rock on them.
Mom and Dad then decided I needed a bath in the Rio Yaqui so I was unceremoniously dumped in the river along with them…but he sure did feel good. The road to Creel almost had me sick because of all the corners but the coolest thing was that I got to chase a herd of cows down the road (and almost into mom). These Mexican cows don’t know what hit them when I take after them! We even found some snow…I loved it and for once I wasn’t to hot!
We stopped in at Basaseachic Falls which are supposed to be the tallest falls in Mexico but all I know is that I wasn’t going near the edge of them even if mom and dad wanted me in the pictures! We had a great camp near Creel at Lake Areareco but I sure wasn’t into the fire that mom and dad made in the pines! But the adventure was great and reminded me of home in Alexis Creek with all those big pine trees and lakes.
The next day we headed into some huge hole in the ground that Dad called the Copper Canyon. I don’t know anything about Canyons but this road was rough and shook me all up. But it was great because it was slow and there was lots to see with a lot of stops to run about and explore. We met up with some really cool motorcyclists from Colorado and for once I got my own bed to sleep in at a hotel. We walked around the town of Batapilos and I found lots of four-legged friends. The best thing is that any fast move or bark I made had them running…what power! Some cute girls played with me (eat that up Dylan) and I had just as much fun on the return trip. That night we camped way up in the mountains and there was ice everywhere when we woke up. I guess mom and dad froze because they shuffled me around all night and called me their “heater”…all in all it made for a very restless night. So I’m loving it here in good old Mexico…I had a problem with the people in the beginning (Dad called me a red-neck hound) but now I see that they are very kind and besides mom and dad are starting to look a little dark themselves! Over and out from your friend Punky!