March 22, 2005 GMT - Cartagena - 17,432 km
In 2 days, the 31st of March, I leave South America after journeying across her for 6 months. I have seen wonderful places, but it is the people who I have met along the way that I will remember. They...
March 22, 2005 GMT - Medellin
I arrived in the "City of Eternal Spring" more infamously known as the home of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin drugs cartel at a strange time. The city has far more about it than the latter, and a sensationalist...
March 22, 2005 GMT - Bogota
En route from Merida to Cucuta at the Colombian border and thence to Bogota, seven bridges had washed away or collapsed as a result of the same flooding that had so devastated Caracas whist I was lying low on Margarita....
February 23, 2005 GMT - Merida - 14500km
Where am I - Still in Venezuela? Isla Margarita was a gas - 16 days of Sun, Salsa and well...ah hem, Rum, but more of that later, things to do. I spent 2 hard days, slogging across the hot, dry...
February 01, 2005 GMT - Waimiri Indigenous Peoples Reserve - 11,997 km
An unexpected highlight was crossing the 120 km stretch through the Waimiri Reserve, a little way short of the Equator en route to Boa Vista. A lot of Brazilian countryside is disappointing. Obviously, the areas in proximity to roads are...
February 01, 2005 GMT - Riverboats - Belem to Manaus
Santareme My neighbour The main attraction in town Marcos risking all for the perfect sunset photgraph...
February 01, 2005 GMT - Belem
For some reason, I feel like singing "Gilda is a Punk Rocker". It is true that hours and hours spent sitting on a bike watching the road slide beneath you can have strange effects. This is one of them, but...
February 01, 2005 GMT - Jericoacoara
'Jeri' is a pin-prick of a place on the Northern shores of Brasil. I headed there because it sounded like a convenient stopping over point on the long haul between Fortalezea and Belem. As so often happens in Brasil, if...
January 08, 2005 GMT - Natal
I have seen many facets of Brazilian life. In fact, Brazil appears to me as many countries depending on the perspective you have at a given moment in time. This country is fascinating and as diverse as the races that inhabit it, that is not to say it is not rascist, as some people will have you believe: generally, the whites have the money, the blacks don't, 'social' division runs deep, and wealth nestles alongside poverty everywhere.
December 26, 2004 GMT - Salvador-Neopolis 5600km
Bahia - mile upon mile of white sand and swaying coco palms...
December 26, 2004 GMT - Ipagrimin-Salvador 5153 km
Arriving in Salvador by boat, one Sunday afternoon......
December 26, 2004 GMT - Itapemirim-Ipagrimin 4624km
The benefits of an early start. I could have taken a handful of wonderful pictures, that morning......
December 26, 2004 GMT - Rio de Janeiro-Itapemirim 3880km
The drivers in Rio are the craziest yet. I witnessed my first accident within minutes of arriving in Copacabana. They treat the roads of the city as a race track, which is ok if you know where you are going....
December 26, 2004 GMT - Paraty-Rio de Janeiro 3448km
The road to Rio~...
December 26, 2004 GMT - Santos-Paraty 3173km
December 26, 2004 GMT - Curitiba-Santos 2736 km
It was at this point that I realised that I had no lights, (I had not planned on riding at night, anyway ), so I decided my best means of defence was to tailgate a lorry. This proved a horrendous experience as we overtook crawling lorries, and faster moving ones sweeping downhill, inches from me, all the time spiralling, cornering, cornering with the constant smell of burning brakes filling my helmet and the hydraulic screams filling my ears, all the time, darker and darker - no moon.
December 26, 2004 GMT - Florianopolis-Curitiba 2137km
December 11, 2004 GMT - Osarios - Florianopolis 1635km
A bad day!!!, but also a good one in that I reached my target destination, and in one piece... The night was spent in a Brazilian love shack, somewhere you can rent by the hour. I have resolved to return...
December 11, 2004 GMT - Rio Grande - Osarios 1154km
December 11, 2004 GMT - Montevideo-Chuy-Rio Grande 604km
Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, a once thriving city with the relics still scattered around - battered vintage cars and decaying grand colonial buildings. I hesitate, because I don't want to offend anyone, but I find it sad, and any...
December 11, 2004 GMT - Farewell Argentina
Well, I have been in corresondence with a Danish guy, Robin, who brought a Canadian bike down from Canada in a mere 6 months We both agreed that it is probably better to buy and sell in Montevideo, as the...
December 11, 2004 GMT - Buenos Aires
Although I have spent 2 months in Argentina, 6 weeks of those learning Castellano, I have seen little of the country, but Buenos Aires I know pretty well now, and love. I have been trying to buy a bike, but...
November 14, 2004 GMT - Rosario
Weekend out of the city
October 12, 2004 GMT - Egress
Gatwick - for the leaving of London...
