Just wanted to let everyone know about the trip that my brother and I are embarking on; We just purchased both a 1995 BMW R1100 GS and a 2001 KLR 650 in San Diego for a trip through Central and South America for about eight months.

The project impetus came from the fact that we grew up for seven years on a sailboat in central America with the rest of our family (mom and dad and an older brother). I'll be updating my blog www.NotTheMotorcycleDiaries.com as well as writing some pieces for Men's Journal Magazine while I compile fodder for a planned book. The book will consist of one chapter memoir followed by a travelogue chapter of revisiting places in which we grew up as well interspersed with some fun family history facts (Mother was a nun, father built the sailboat for twelve years in the mountains and named his first son Noah...).
We'll be heading down Baja California for the first leg of the trip till we hit La Paz where we’ll take the ferry to Mazatlan. From there we head down the coast to Puerto Vallarta and more importantly the small fishing village, La Cruz de Huanacoxtle, to the north of Banderas Bay where we lived for a year and attended local public school.
Then it’s down through southern Mexico and up the Yucatan to Tical. Afterwards we head for the coast and go through Belize and into Guatemala and the Rio Dulce where we also lived for some time. We’ll probably book through Honduras and Nicaragua since we didn’t spend too much time in those countries in the eighties (war torn regions aren’t always the most fun).
Once we hit Costa Rica we head over to the Pacific coast to Playas Del Cocos which we lived for about a year and also attended school in. Then we’ll motor down the coast to Playa Hermosa and then into the interior for a tour through San Jose and hopefully look up the old Captain of the Military Police who came to shoot skeet from our sailboat randomly (instead of shotguns he and his buddies used machine guns… I suppose it’s easier to hit the skeet).
Panama is the next destination where we’ll crew on boats going through the canal like we did when we were eight and ten respectively (we got paid $35 as kids to meet the crew requirements that pleasure boats must adhere to). Then we’ll stow the bikes somewhere on the Caribbean side and go out to the San Blas Islands to once again hang out with the Cuna Yala Indians for a while. Then it’s either a ferry to Colombia or somehow get passage on a cargo plane to South America of which there is no set itinerary. Just the open road.

Just thought you guys (and girls) might be interested in the trip and have some advice/recommendations of places to hit along the way. Check out the blog and I look forward to hearing all of your seasoned advice.

Thanks,
Ian Rowan

Looking forward to reading more,

Regards

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

Ian let us know of your whereabouts! We're off in 3 months, starting from Colombia (we will flight bikes and all from the UK!) , then all the way south, taking our time to reach Ushuaia for Xmas.
We might bump into each others!

See you on the road somewhere!

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com