South of Mer’Ka INTRO #1


So this is just a little introduction to my site. The catalyst for creating this site is that it will be my blog/trip report/write up of my upcoming motorcycle trip this winter with Kalil Allon. From December 16th (+- a couple days) to the end of March 2016, we will be traveling by motorcycle south from California, hopefully making it to Argentina this spring.


Don’t tempt me with a good time!

The trip: To ride my motorcycle from California south, through Latin America, through the western part of South America, down to Argentina. I will be taking approximately 3 and a half months to do this, starting mid December, 2015 until the end of March, 2016. I will be riding my 2012 BMW F800GS, which already has accumulated 29k miles at this point and many random adventures, from mud to nice, curvaceous roads tucked away in scenic places.


No kickstand required…

My riding partner: The person who spawned the idea and has continued to encourage me not to give up on this idea is Kalil Allon. He showed up a couple years back at Alpine Meadows, where I was grooming snow at the time as a veteran of the Israeli army who had never been around snow before, but was going to attempt to be the best middle eastern snowmaker that Lake Tahoe had ever seen. With a seemingly endless amount of enthusiasm and a knack for meeting people, we became friends. That spring, I was going to be working in Colorado, but my motorcycle was back in Vermont. So my grand master plan was to get to VT, then take 2 weeks to ride to CO. In the process, I roped in Kalil into the plans and we decided we would buy him a motorcycle when we got to VT, and then we’d ride together to CO, where he would continue back to Tahoe for the summer.


Taking a break after riding the Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap on the Tennessee/North Carolina border in the Smokey Mountains) 318 curves in 11 miles. VT to CO May 2014

That summer, Kalil calls me up and asks, “what are your thoughts on riding to South America next winter?” So the idea for this trip was born!

Shakedowns & Wrenches #2


So now let us get a little bit up to speed with whats happening! Today is Sunday, December 13th, and as of right now, Kalil and I are staying at my lady friends’ spot in Sacramento, California. We are getting all of our last minute things in order. I’ve spent a bunch of money on shots and pills (because who wants to have to quit early because they’re sick?!), bought a bunch of parts for the motorcycle (tires, valve shims, chain and sprockets) and spent a couple days skiing.


I also spent a couple days taking some windy, back roads down to Santa Cruz to go mountain biking and get a sweet new headlamp from my only sponsor of this trip so far, Light and Motion! Go out and get your own sweet headlamp ASAP!! These are great, by the way, especially when your dealing with motorcycle valves…


So after getting my bike all tip top, covering all the basics, she’s ready to go for a winter of exploring a bunch of new places! Kalil showed up after 2 weeks of training for his job (he hangs by ropes off of the top of windmills… Yeah, windmills, like the 300ft high ones you see all over the midwest…) and we got busy on his bike, so that’s all ready to go!

As of now, we are getting set to start our slow ride south on Tuesday! Stay tuned….

Quick Update #3

Hey everyone! It looks like we will finally be on the road today! So the past few days have been very busy. Tahoe had been getting quite a bit of snow, so of course as a ski bum, I had to take a day and see what I was going to be missing this winter. Kalil came along and we got some sweet turns in! It was difficult to leave to be honest...


Yesterday we had a big day of getting all of our documents in order and getting the bikes all together. But we as of right now, we are doing our final packing and about to start to head to the coast in a couple hours.

Lost In The Dark #4

Good morning, folks! Today finds us tucked away in a hotel in San Diego, getting the last of our things together before crossing the Mexican border at Tijuana. OUR FIRST BORDER CROSSING!!

By the time we got going on Wednesday, we had an agenda of places to go for more last minute organizing. First stop, San Jose, where the great people at Sena (we invested in very good in-helmet communication so we could talk to each other without stopping, which was VERY handy in LA traffic last night!) who helped us out of a huge jam with a malfunctioning bluetooth receiver in one of the units.

We then continued on to Marina, CA, just in time for sunset and to meet up with my good friend Stokey.


We then had to make a decision. We hadn't made it as far as planned, so should we ride on in the dark and take it slow? We were going down one of the most scenic highways in America (hwy 1) for at least an hour or more, however, we had both ridden here before, so the decision was made to plow through to get to our scenic campsite in the dark.


Camping is not my strong point, so after getting comfortable, warm enough (it was a bit chilly!) and a few good hours of sleep in, I was awoken by an extremely loud howl of sorts. Being half awake now, I could of sworn there was a coyote that just howled a few feet from my tent! Turns out, as a stayed awake for a half hour, not necessarily as comfortable as I had been before, I heard it again, and again, getting closer each time. Realization set in that it was an owl! He must have landed on my bike the time before! Scary, but funny. And yes, Kalil slept through the whole thing.

So we continued south on the "road" that got us to our campsite for a few more hours.


And another:


So apparently it had gotten cold enough to freeze over the puddles with a very thin layer of ice (which may or may not be obvious in this picture) Get some, Kalil! His riding skills have come a long long way from our first road trip!


We continued along until, FINALLY! Highway 1 again!


Each turn of the road led to an even more amazing view:


So at this point, with our goal being San Diego for the evening, we had to start pushing south in earnest. With the exception of one or two errands, which included extra fuel storage for Kalil, which led us to a hardware store where this super helpful guy (I'm sorry we never got your name!) helped us find the perfect solution for mounting up Kalil's spare gas cans:


After a successful mounting, a nice sunset just as we entered the Santa Monica mountains, we braved LA traffic (why and how do people survive without going insane there!?!?!?) and made it to San Diego around 9:30pm.

Have a great trip!
I hope you can support HU and HUBB by posting your reports here as well as on your Blog. Posting links doesn't really help this site at all.

With no ride reports HU could go dark. If not too much a hassle, post updates pics here!

Ok! I'll do my best, for me the blog comes first since it's for the family and friends. I haven't ever contributed to here since it's my first trip worth writing about, so if I can make it work smoothly and easily, I'll do my best to copy and paste it

The Long Lonely Desert #5


So we left off in San Diego, where we camped out in a Quality Inn, getting ready for our first border crossing. Took our time in the morning getting ready, since we couldn’t find any information about how long it would take to cross the border. Seemed like plenty of information about crazy wait times coming into the US, but nothing about any wait times getting into Mexico…. Oh wait, because there is none. We had almost gone too far when we realized we had to stop and walk into the building, otherwise we wouldn’t have done any of the proper paperwork. So we parked our bikes up next to some security guys, who didn’t really seem bothered or think that anything was going on weird, even though we pretty much pulled a U turn leaving the border.

Walk up, took care of all the necessary paperwork (it wouldn’t have been necessary if we were only staying in Mexico for less than three days and not going past Baja) in about an hour and a half. Everyone was super friendly and helpful, so it was looking up!


Spent a couple hours getting to Ensenada, where we stayed with Randy, who Kalil met through the couchsurfing website. We couldn’t have asked for a more welcoming host to Mexico! Randy had a sailboat parked in the harbor where we were going to stay for the night. He had just finished working as an engineer on a boat that did commercial dives with great white sharks off of Cabo San Lucas… yeah… crazy!! Super interesting, took us around town, got our money changed to Peso’s (by the way, if you go to Mexico, change your money over, a lot of places offer far cheaper prices in Peso’s than dollars) and took us to the oldest bar in Baja.


which led to our first siting of the traveling Mariachi


Whom we saw later on in the evening. We had a great time on our first night in Mexico! Thanks again, Randy!!

The next morning we headed towards San Felipe, Randy (who also has a motorcycle) rode with us for the first part (the twisty roads) before heading back to town. We made it to San Felipe where we did our final prep for the Baja, which means getting our extra fuel cans filled… which I should have checked mine… buying factory seconds isn’t always the best idea, because when you start filling it up, sometimes you will notice it pissing out gas from a pinhole in the bottom…. Fail on the Rotopax deal! But +1 on Mexican plastic JB weld which set up enough in the time it takes to eat lunch!


Met some locals saying there was camping several KM’s down the road, which we got to at sunset.


The next morning we noticed the place was a ghost town, a bunch of houses on the beach of the Sea of Cortez (some of them even looked nice) but everyone was gone for the holidays or something. Off we went. For lunch we stopped at a little cafe on the side of the road where we met some interesting guys on pedal bikes. One of them, Mike, from Austria, was carrying more gear than I was on my motorcycle! He had all of his downhill mtn biking gear on his BOB trailer, including mountain bike tires. He had put road tires on his mtn bike, and had started in Alaska, going to different places and going downhill mountain biking and was going to try and make it to Argentina eventually!


So yeah, that’s humbling. Then they proceeded to tell us of someone they’d met up in Alaska who had WALKED!!! with a shopping cart with all of his things from Peru… So just when you think you’re doing something special and perhaps a bit off the beaten path, prepare to be humbled.



We stayed in the Bahia Los Angeles, saw whales breaching in the distance at Sunset while talking to 2 very interesting Swiss couples doing overland trips. One couple had just spent the past 2 and a half years traveling the world in their Toyota landcruiser, from Iran, all over Africa, South America, then Alaska, all over the US into Baja. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise, packed and left town with the intentions of getting some serious miles in towards La Paz. Took a side road which looked like this for 4o miles:
http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/a...bajadesert.jpg

And ended up having a couple sandy sections where we both spent some time playing (picking up very heavy bikes)


Just at the time when our patience and our bodies had enough, we stopped falling over, and got back to the main road! We motored along some very desolate and straight roads to make it to Mulege by nightfall. It’s getting close to Christmas and we want to make it on the ferry to the mainland before then, so we got up early and headed out of town. On our way out, someone waved us down, saying that the fuel station he was just at was out of power. We said we had plenty of extra fuel, and we would be happy to ride behind him to the next fuel stop heading South. So by now, everyone reading this is ready for bed, so I’ll end it with, we have tickets for tomorrows ferry to the mainland. We had to drive through a street festival, up a couple stairs, and into the courtyard of our hotel tonight though. Stay tuned!


What a neat hotel! And one last picture, my dream bike!


As always, you can see where we are by clicking SPOT Shared Page

Lots of pictures and not a lot of words this time, I promise! Michelle made it to Panama City and so we are off to explore the city for a day… Well, to be honest, it was half a day. Kalil and I spent 6 hours at the DIJ office (the Panamanian equivalent of the FBI) getting ONE slip of paper verifying that our bikes were ours and they were legal to be in Panama and legal to leave Panama. Ah, got to love Central American paperwork! But Panama City is quite nice!


They have a nice boardwalk with statues and some interesting looking buildings. This was my favorite building with all the multi colored balconies.


Lots of pelicans feeding right off of the shore. In this picture there are 3 diving into the water at once:


The skyline of Panama City is quite an interesting contrast to all of the other cities we have seen so far in Central America.


That night we met a friend of Michelle’s, Jill, who is living in Panama city. We went out for dinner and drinks and ended up on a rooftop bar. The nighttime skyline is equally impressive.


The following morning we had to take off early to get to Portobello (2 hours away) to collect a letter from the captain of our sailboat in order to do our final step in signing out our bikes from Panama. Since I now had a passenger and extra luggage, it was a learning experience trying to figure out how we would pack the bike. In the process of this experiment, the hotel receptionist came out to see what was going on and to offer us some breakfast. Thanks again!


We finally were loaded and ready to go! Now I’ll have a photographer on board the bike…


First order of business was to go over the bridge into Panama city since we didn’t get a chance to see any of the tourist sites along the Panama Canal.


The traffic was terrible, so we took a little side road and found a quiet spot near the entrance to the canal.


We then tried to avoid going back into the city, so we went a little north to another bridge crossing over the canal which I believe is the Bridge of the Americas. I definitely will need to go back to Panama to properly experience the canal since it really is quite an amazing feat of human engineering.


As I have traveled south in Central America, the buses have become increasingly more interesting to look at. Panama took the cake though. Old school buses are used everywhere to transport people and the decorations and flair are apparently very important! I’ve been wanting to get pictures of these buses for awhile, so now that I have a designated photographer on board the bike, viola!


And no, those chrome stacks are not just for show, they are fully functional. Black smoke is also a must.

Every once in a while you will find some colorful butterflies as well. We noticed this poor guy stuck to the hand guard of the motorcycle as we entered Portobelo.


Portobelo is a very neat little town with a big history. To keep it short but slightly informative, Portobelo was an important hub for the Spanish in the movement of silver from the pacific side of South America back to Spain. Goods and treasure from the pacific coast of South America would be brought by boat to Panama City, brought overland to Portobelo, loaded onto galleons that would then sail to Spain (and vice versa). So this town was the site of a lot of pirate attacks which means that there were several forts all around this town. Many of the cannons are still in place.


I promised that I wouldn’t get too wordy, but I feel like this next part needs a little explanation. Between Panama and Columbia there is a 50 mile stretch of mountainous jungle which is called the Darien Gap. This area is legendary to overland travelers since there is NO ROAD going through this area. The list of reasons for this area not having a road is long, but that is something you can look up on your own time if you are interested/curious.

The important part is, in order to get around the Darien Gap, you have 3 main (safe-ish) options: 1) fly you and the bike to Columbia. 2) put the bike in a container, then fly or get on a sailboat (there are many sail boats making the connection) to Columbia and meet your bike there. 3) Book passage on one of the few sailboats who not only will take you on a 5 day sail to Columbia, but also your motorcycle. The 5 day sail includes 3 days of hanging out in the sparsely populated San Blas Islands.

So the next morning we got to the docks to load our bikes. I posed with Michelle and my bike. Yes, I feel as nervous as I look…


Lets load the bikes! This is a big bike going on a little boat…


Once on the little boat, motor on over to the sailboat and then we winch the bike on board! (They say they’ve never lost a bike into the water….)


And there we are! Ready to sail that night! We met some new biker friends as well. More about that later, it’s bed time!


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It was 10am, January 23rd. With our motorcycles safely on board the Wild Card sailboat and a departure time of 5pm, Kalil, Michelle (my lady friend), Brian, Karoline (a couple from Alaska traveling in our same direction on a motorcycle as well) and myself had to find something to do that didn’t require a vehicle. The harbor seemed like an interesting place and after finding a couple kayaks, we began to do a little tour of the area.


That was a lot of orange! The picture at the start of this post was the result of a little exploration up river from the harbor into the mangroves. Portobelo is an interesting place and we found some more signs of early Spanish settlements that the jungle was trying to make disappear.


After kayaking, it was time to do some final checks before being stuck on a boat for 5 days. Our hostel boasted the worlds best bloody mary, which Michelle couldn’t resist. The look on Brian’s face suggests he doesn’t agree with the title!


As we boarded the sailboat, the captain told all 15 passengers to remove our shoes. We would not get them back until we reached Colombia five days later. We were on Island Time now he said. The only things we were allowed to do was relax and enjoy living on a boat for 5 days!


Everyone got settled in, shown our bunks, and fed. Now was the time to set off! The destination was the San Blas islands, a long island chain off the coast of Panama. It would be about an 8 hour sail through the night. As the boat left the protection of the harbor, it was immediately apparent the seas were not in our favor. 6-10ft wind swell made our very large and heavy steal 60ft sailboat seem small as the boat pitched and rolled. It was quite unfortunate that Kalil was the first victim of seasickness. I’m not sure he’ll feel the same way about spaghetti again…

Not long after, a few other people joined Kalil at the edge of the boat talking to Poseidon. Eventually, it was time to go to bed. After having felt fine for the first few hours of our rough voyage, laying down ended up being my downfall. After lying down for about 20 minutes, I joined the growing list of seasick individuals. The boat stopped around 2 am and some rest was accomplished.


Island time had officially begun! For the next 3 days our itinerary was quite simple: swim around the boat, maybe a little snorkeling, swim ashore to any of the islands the boat happened to be near at the time, 3 meals a day, and at least once a day, we moved to another group of islands. On one of our scouting trips of an island, we found a ‘bat’, and some things to try and play baseball with.


I’m definitely not a natural when it comes to baseball, but at least I hit the darn thing! Brian found a starfish, but he didn’t look as good holding it as Michelle did. (Sorry Brian!)


Every time we set sail, the captain and his first mate would put out a few lines in order so we could eat some fresh seafood. Here is Captain Youyou with a 30lb yellow fin!



So the San Blas Islands are an interesting place. Many of the islands are inhabited by the local natives called Kuna. On the smaller islands, often there is only one family, while bigger islands have more families living there. The Kuna are very interesting. They are technically Panamanian, however, they completely govern themselves and adhere to their own customs and way of life with little to no control from Panama. One of our island stops included one of the Kuna “city” islands where we had a quick little tour and some very interesting insight to the life of the Kuna. Here is the photo of tradition and technology coming together in the form of solar panels, street lights, and a traditionally built home:


For some this is paradise. While being very picturesque, a few of us were ready to head towards Colombia, but not before a couple more pictures of “Island Time”.


Motorcyclists stranded on a island:



The voyage to Cartagena, Colombia lasted an eternity for those who were seasick. Or 36 hours for the crew and those who were fully dosed on dramamine. Seeing land when we woke up on the fifth day was a huge relief! Welcome to Colombia!



Here is the motorcycle gang as well as the crew of the Wild Card. Captain Youyou with the long beard and endless enthusiasm (center right), his first mate Orizon (sp? right front) and front center, the cook Flor. Thanks guys!!! An unforgettable experience!


As we were unloading the bikes, we saw this neat looking boat, not much else to say about this picture. I liked it so now you have to look at it.


And here we are! Extremely happy to be on land and putting our gear on our bikes!


Until next time! If you’re curious as to where we are RIGHT NOW, CLICK THIS:
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hi guys , your enjoying the trip, just one tip , ive noticed your carrying a bit of gear, rethink what you need,cause it will make riding more enjoyable have a good one, stay safe cheers

Yes, I've definitely had several "next time I do this" moments on this trip! On the F800, the big blue bag just so happens to be filled mostly with camping gear (I have a really plush sleeping pad!) so the weight isn't too bad. That and my boxes are rather small so I actually don't have too much more than necessary. I'm not too afraid of the rough stuff. However, I've also come to the conclusion after meeting a couple on a pair of KTM 690's that there are 2 ways of going about a trip like this: You either pack a big bike with all the things you need to be comfortable and stick to the main roads (which are amazing!) and stick it out in comfortable places. Or forego all the niceties and get a smaller (650 ish) bike that can handle the rough stuff and rely on the fact that you will more than likely find a place to stay each night and leave all the camping gear and unnecessary heavy stuff behind and go find the backroads!

Last observation is, if I did this again, I would definitely take far more than 3 months, or just do one country at a time by flying in and renting a bike in each destination. If you take more time you can get to a location, drop off the stuff at a hostel/hotel and take day trips out from the area for a couple days then move on. This would be my preferred method in the future.

Sorry, that got wordy! Cheers!

Weclome to Cartagena, Colombia! This city was one of the first major Spanish ports in the Caribbean sea. Lots of neat old buildings as well as the Walled City which we spent a little time in.

Lets start with a little story before picture time, shall we? Our first day in Cartagena, we had to go to the middle of the city to buy our Soat (Colombian vehicle insurance). As we left the hotel, one of the guards told us we couldn’t go downtown (we were staying several miles up the coast), then someone else told him everything would be fine because we were tourists. Baffled by this 5 minute exchange and not getting a full explanation, the expedition continued to find the Soat office. As it turns out, no motorcycles are allowed in the center of the city, so when the office was found, parking was a bit interesting…

First, a one armed man (by the end of the day, his official name was ‘one armed bandit’) told us to park on one sidewalk. As this was transpiring, we realized the office was across the street which looked like more suitable parking, so after moving the bikes, a policia kindly spent a few minutes telling us that no bikes were allowed in the city, but we could park in front of the building for a few minutes. He also used his phones translator to tell us he has notified all the other officers in the area to let us be when we leave. Also translated was that we needed to pay the parking guy, which turned out was a younger guy, not the one armed bandit who seemed very upset that we were not parking on his street. So once that was all squared away, we ran up to buy insurance!

11:13 was our arrival time to the 8th floor (the elevator only went to the 7th floor). As it turns out, their system shuts down at 11 for lunch and won’t process anything until 2. After all the stress of parking! So one of the office gals who spoke a little English went down stairs with us to explain our situation to the policia. So the bikes got parked next to the building, the parking guy got paid, and everyone seemed to be satisfied (except the one armed bandit!!! who wouldn’t leave us alone until we left the area). So the bikes would be parked there until after 2pm when the computer system finished lunch and insurance could be purchased.

So now we go for lunch! After entering the walled city, and a couple small museums later, we found ourselves in a coffee shop with prime Colombian coffee.


They even had special ways of preparing a cup of coffee! This was my favorite which seemed to be some sort of reverse osmosis kind of crazy thing! So cheers to a strong cup of Colombian coffee!


With some time to kill in the walled city, we decided to continue to wander around. Michelle was getting distracted by all the fancy knockers on all the old doors.


And then we found a Chocolate Museum! Someone is as excited as a kid in a candy store!


We also saw a lot of fruits. Welcome to the tropics where you can buy just about any fruit you can imagine on every corner for extremely cheap!


So after our tour of the walled city and 2pm on the horizon, the group returned to the Soat office. With the building in sight, the one armed bandit struck again! Hassling us for money. We ignored him and entered the building. On the way up, Brian said he had offered the guy a couple dollars before but he wasn’t satisfied. It seemed as if he wanted the same compensation as the other parking person? As we left the insurance office, we quickly geared up and headed out of the town hoping the one armed bandit wouldn’t see us. As we were pulling onto the street, a car came right up onto our back wheels honking! THE ONE ARMED BANDIT! Brian was in the lead and quickly navigated our group through the traffic, zipping left, right, and through a couple red lights! After a few minutes of evasive maneuvers, the black car slowly faded into the distance in our mirrors!! What an experience!

Later that night at the hotel, we all had a good laugh at the situation. So the next morning, we were all anxious to get on the road and head towards Medellin, where we would gain elevation and the temps would be cooler. Here is Brian and Karoline enjoying the 100 degree heat!


So much more chances for photos now that I had my own personal photographer on board! Michelle even got a quick shot of some locals loading up some donkeys with water.


After long and very hot day, we stopped in a town called Caucasia. Our impressions of Colombia were mixed at this time. The roads seemed to be in good shape, but we had expected more mountains, more elevation, and not as much heat!

The following morning our expectations were met and then surpassed! Within the first 50 miles the scenery began to change. After entering a valley and riding along a river for several miles, we crossed a large bridge where my personal photographer told me we had to stop to take a better look:


We had entered the mountains! While taking a break at the bridge, we realized there were military posted all around the bridge. One came over to the kiosk we were at and Brian convinced him to take a picture with him.


Meanwhile, a family became curious with what was going on, and before long they were posing with our bikes!


After the break the roads started becoming very interesting. This was one of the main roads connecting the coast to the city of Medellin, a major city with a population of over 3 million people. So there were many trucks on this very windy mountainous road. Between hairpin turns, steep up and down grades, and many blind corners, the trucks were starting to hold up progress. But after watching many locals making seemingly suicidal passes and all the other drivers cooperating to make sure no one got in an accident, our confidence grew. Soon thereafter, the passing began!


Just peak your head around the corner, if there is any room, start to pass. The trucks were going so slow in areas, it took no time at all to get around them. Quickly we realized our advantage! Large motors which could accelerate uphill, all of us (other than my photographer) were connected through an intercom system so we could notify each other of oncoming traffic, as well as a renewed excitement as the temperature fell from elevation gain.

No evidence was found to give credibility to this sign:



The roads were extremely enjoyable to ride and the scenery was becoming increasingly interesting.



After several exhausting hours of seemingly perfect motorcycling roads, the final approach to Medellin began. As we got closer to the city, we began to notice much more touristy activities.


The following day, we took advantage in being in a large metropolitan area and went out in search of a place to get some motorcycle maintenance done. Brian was out to get sprockets, chain, and a rear tire put on his bike. Kalil and I were due for oil changes. After fighting a little traffic, we found the mecca for motorcycles! A whole street dedicated to motorcycles, accessories, parts, repair shops, fabrication shops, paint shops, yup, it was all there. This guy and I had a fun time changing my oil in his shop even though we only understood about 10% of what the other said!


Brian had noticed a machine shop next to where he had his tire changed (for under $10 USD! and faster than our oil changes!) and suggested to Kalil that he should take his ailing pannier over there to get fixed so that he could use the lock again. So not long after, I decided to take advantage of another machine shop to get an extra foot welded onto my kickstand:


For under $10, you could get a lot of work done! 30 minutes later, Kalil’s pannier was properly closing and locking, and my bike wasn’t leaning over as far when I put the kickstand down! So much accomplished and it was only a little bit past lunch time! Time to go find something touristy to do!

The heart of Medellin is in a valley along a river. As the city grew, it expanded up the mountain sides all around the heart of the city. This city is huge, FYI. While the public train system works great along the river in the flat area, it doesn’t work up into the hills around Medellin. So the solution is:


I’m a big fan of chair lifts. I’ve been building lifts for five summers, as well as riding them constantly for 14 winters. So checking out a metropolitan gondola that cost me less than a dollar to ride was exciting! The town has two more gondolas under construction as well! Maybe there is a future in lift building….

The following day, our destination was outside the city to a place that Brian and Karoline had researched. El Penon rock in Guatepe, Colombia. This huge rock sticking out like a sore thumb a midst rolling green hills happens to have a great view from the top of an area flooded by a large dam down river. They built a stairway to the top of the rock, creatively building the staircase into a crack in the rock!



The top elevation of the rock is around 7005ft (2135 meters) and after 675 steps, we are all still smiling!


The view:


After getting back down, it was time for lunch, where the view still was quite extraordinary.


That evening, my photographer had a date with an airplane to take her back to California. So this is all I have for now!


How far have we made it? Don’t wonder, just click on this link: SPOT Shared Page

As you can see from the first photo, I’ve lost something important! Alas, I have to continue on, so here it goes! The lady friend flew out the night before this photo (Feb 2nd, yes I’m a bit behind on posting!) and Brian, Karoline and I were staying in a small bed and breakfast type place next to the Medellin airport (it’s actually an hour from the city center). Kalil remained at his hostel in Medellin the previous night and we all agreed to meet at a gas station where our routes towards Cali would meet.

So our route to meet Kalil involved some skinny two lane roads, which included the bridge pictured above. There was one stretch of 25 miles on our route to meet Kalil that turned out to be a single lane dirt road! It was a very good road in terms of adventure and scenery:


These farmers are incredible! For the skiers out there, imagine a black diamond ski run. Imagine planting crops on that ski run. That’s how steep these fields are!

After 25 miles of incredible dirt road that hugged the steep hillsides, we were graced with pavement again! This road included an amazing view across a very large valley of a town that seemed to be perched precariously on top of a ridge:


Had we not been 40 minutes behind schedule, I would have had a couple more pictures of the next several miles of fantastic twisty sealed road that had been cut into the sides of these steep mountains. When we got to the meeting point 40 minutes late, Kalil had left just 10 minutes before according to the gas station attendant. So we pushed on as fast as we could, since Cali which was our destination for the day was still a long ways off.

I miss having my personal photographer on board the bike, since there were many photo opportunities that were missed with no time to stop. Luckily, I was quick enough to snag the camera to get at least one photo of the many sugar convoys that we passed. These trains of very large wagons were traveling at about 30 mph and usually had 4-5 of these huge wagons. They were filled with the sugar cane from the fields and hauling it to the processing plants.


One more instance where a personal photographer could have captured this moment a bit better:


Hey, whats up, dawg? These two guys and their best friend kept up with us for awhile. Every time traffic slowed down the group, these guys would catch up. They must have rode like that for at least a half hour!

After getting to Cali at dark, our group was exhausted and didn’t wander farther than the front door of the hostel by having our food delivered! Kalil had survived the day just fine without us and had actually made some new motorcycling friends in a town an hour or so north of Cali. He had met a local motorcycle enthusiast who owned a restaurant/bar and he had invited Kalil to spend the night, hanging out with him and a few other local motorcycle guys. So another night, another planned meeting spot for the following day.

Ok, so there has been a couple important things that have not been mentioned yet. First of all, the people of Colombia are the most friendly people we have encountered so far. Everywhere we have gone, they have done everything they could to help us out. (with the exception of the one armed bandit from the previous post!) I cannot say enough about the kindness of the Colombians. And second of all, the roads in Colombia are AMAZING! As we go deeper into the mountains, the roads continue to impress me. They are for the most part well constructed (a few places they aren’t so nice, but there is a lot of heavy traffic on steep areas, so that cannot be helped) and the scenery is stunning.

The following day our goal was the city of Ipiales just north of the Ecuador border. For one stretch it seemed we had gone back to the desert:


After a lot of elevation gain (we reached an elevation of 10,500 feet that day!) we also encountered some rain and the temperature dropped significantly. After getting all layered up, we reached our destination an hour or so later. It was still quite chilly since the elevation of Ipiales was still just shy of 10,000 feet! While looking for a hotel in town, I couldn’t help but to take a picture of this crazy statue in the middle of a roundabout:


That evening everyone slept well without needing any air conditioning. The following morning we would be reunited with Kalil at an interesting location just outside the town of Ipiales, but first you should look at some llamas dressed to impress!


The Las Lajas Sanctuary is a very interesting place. Long story somewhat shortened is: back in the 1700’s a mother and a daughter (who was deaf) were seeking shelter from a storm along a river bank in a canyon. While the storm was raging around them, the deaf daughter yelled that she could hear the Virgin Mary calling to her. As the lightening flashed, the silhouette of the Virgin Mary appeared on the side of the cliff. For a couple centuries there was a shrine built in the side of the cliff at that spot. Eventually they built a bridge to the shrine and at the beginning of the 1900’s they began building this incredible church high over the river in this canyon. It was finished in 1949.


So after we paid our blessings, the reunited group continued on into Ecuador that day, destination Quito. The highest official capital city in the world at 9,000 feet! (La Paz, Bolivia is just under 12,000 feet, and even though it is the administrative and de facto capital of Bolivia, it is not the official capital of Bolivia. Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia)

While at the border checking out of Colombia, we met Riccardo and Fabian, two Ecuadorians who were riding a couple large BMW’s into Colombia to help out some friends. There is a lot more to this story, but this isn’t the time or the place. What IS important about this meeting is that they were headed back to Quito that evening and wanted to meet up with us. This will be important later on in the story. Anyway, welcome to Ecuador! By far the most relaxed border crossing yet!


First impressions of Ecuador:


More windy roads, more mountains, and a whole lot of volcanoes! And the main roads were very well built! We cruised the remaining 150 miles to Quito in no time! It was such a relief for all of us to be at the higher elevation and cooler climate. The bikes were starting to feel under powered by the lack of oxygen as well. Once we arrived in Quito, Brian and Karoline split off from Kalil and I as we were going to go find a hostel to spend a couple days in Quito and they were looking for a hotel with the intentions of leaving south early in the morning.

That night, we met with Fabian, the fellow motorcyclist that we had met at the border and had a good time meeting some very interesting people. Fabian has actually toured South America twice and has published several very nice coffee table style books from his travels. So needless to say, we planned on spending at least another night in Quito so we could sit down with Fabian and get some insight as to things we should see.

The following day we found the gondola in Quito and decided to be touristy. So up we went:


The gondola gives a great view of the city of Quito. Hiking around up above the city was exhausting since it is around 13,000 feet up there! And then there was this guy:


That evening, I met with Fabian to pick his brain about what to do with my limited remaining time. He suggested many things and as the conversation progressed, he proceeded to write out a very detailed day to day itinerary of what I should do with my remaining time! What luck! Every time it seems like I have run out of steam of trying to plan ahead, incredible meetings like this seem to occur to continue to point me in the right direction!

The following day, the itinerary suggested that we ride up to Pichincha volcano. This volcano is several miles outside of Quito, and you can take a long windy dirt road to just a few hundred meters below the crater of the volcano. Kalil wasn’t feeling quite up for the task of offroad riding, so I unpacked my bike and took off on my own. I kept having to stop and take pictures though. Here are some cows grazing in the distance at a relaxed elevation of 12,500 feet:


I don’t usually like panoramic photos, but when you see this view, you have no choice but to take a panoramic shot. (Pichincha is on the left and the summit on the right is just above where the gondola takes you from Quito)


Once I reached the parking lot, I looked down at my phone (my GPS) and it was reading 14,977 feet!!!! Easily surpassing my motorcycles previous high of 13,186 in Colorado! So I parked my bike and began the 200 meter walk up to the crater of the volcano. At the saddle (about 100 meters from the parking lot) not only did I have to catch my breath from the altitude, but also from seeing this breathtaking view:


After a few more breaks to catch my breath, I finally made it to the top!


4781 meters is what the marker read, that’s 15,685 feet! WOW! No wonder I was having trouble catching my breath! It is interesting how starving the brain of oxygen can really help someone clear their head. It was very refreshing sitting at that elevation. The top was clouded in, so I wasn’t able to get any good photos of the view. Although, there was a very curious bird who was hanging around the top. I have been told it was a caracara.

After returning to the parking lot, there were a few curious people looking at my bike. After a short conversation in broken Spanish regarding the trip, I wanted a photo with my new friends!



One last night in Quito and then we continue to head south. I’m not sure if the caracara was headed south as well, but this picture is a nice metaphor for the end of this post!


Thanks for reading! There will be more soon but until then, track our current progress by clicking this link:SPOT Shared Page

Enjoying tagging along, remembering the sights of the journey through your photos. No way would I take the boat across the Darien though, we flew, same price and no seasickness Enjoy
Gino

February 8th, 2016. The universe has yet again proven to me that the world is truly a small place. At the hostel we were staying at in Quito, we met Erik, who was also originally from Vermont. Not only was he originally from the same state as I am, but he had also moved west in search of snow and had ended up at Alpine Meadows for 10 years grooming snow! As it turns out, his last year grooming at Alpine Meadows was the year before I moved out to Lake Tahoe. It is a small world, and we all know many of the same people there, so the first picture is a tribute to all of our friends at Alpine Meadows! I miss you guys! (and the snow!)

So after 3 nights in Quito, the road was calling, so we answered and headed towards Quilotoa. Located 3 hours from Quito, Quilotoa is a beautiful lake inside of a very large volcano crater. The sky was cloudy and gray, and the air was cool enough that we had to stop and add some layers. The road to Quilotoa was a real treat as well, many miles of twists, curves, hills and all on nice pavement. At one point we reached an altitude of over 13,000 feet! When we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed 2 matching KTM’s with California plates.

Before long we were deep in conversation with a couple from San Francisco and ended up having lunch. Chris and Zoe are doing the official tip to tip journey, having gone up to Alaska before heading south. Their adventure can be found at https://tiptotip690.wordpress.com/



After lunch, we remembered why we were in Quilotoa to begin with:


Stunning doesn’t quite sum up this lake. About a 20 minute hike would take you down to the actual shore. And lets not forget that this is the crater of a volcano!

After a few minutes, the clouds started to thicken and it was time to head on down the road. The extra layers we had put on earlier were very helpful as the wind, clouds, and elevation kept things very chilly!


Our destination for the evening was Banos, a touristy town, considered by some to be the extreme sports capital of Ecuador. Lots of hiking, mountain biking, rafting, and kayaking. After a few hours of ominous skies and thankfully very little rain we made it to Banos. As we entered the town, we stopped to pinpoint a spot to spend the night. We were told by a local that we may have a difficult time finding a room for the night since Carnival was going on in the town. It was starting to get dark and it was starting to rain. This was going to be a problem… Or was it? We stopped at the first hotel we saw as we entered the town and sure enough, a room for 2 people and safe parking AND not too expensive! Winning!

So as soon as the bikes were parked and the gear was inside the room we began to explore the town. Carnival is quite the party. On every corner there were people selling cans of foam spray. It seemed that every other person was carrying at least one can of this foam spray and random acts of spraying were occurring. It didn’t matter if you were young or old, it seemed like everyone was having fun with it. It’s all about the wig!


The following morning it was raining when we left Banos, but our destination was Pialon del Diablo. The reviews for this waterfall suggest taking a raincoat. So since we were going to get wet anyway, we hopped on the bikes and went for a ride in the rain. This is not the waterfall we were looking for, but it was still pretty neat:



When we reached the Diablo del Pialon, it did not disappoint. It was about a 15 minute hike down to the falls, then there is a path that takes you to the base of the falls. From there, you can take a crawl space so you can actually stand BEHIND the falls. We opted to not do that since it seemed a bit difficult to do in bulky motorcycle jackets.


After a quick breakfast, it was time to try and get to Cuenca, our destination for the day. The rain did not stop as we rode, in fact, it seemed that it kept raining harder since we began finding mudslides across the road.


We did cross one much worse than the one pictured above, having to wade through 4-6 inch deep mud for about 100 feet. There is no picture to prove that because the rain had washed away the ambition to pull out the camera and then deal with struggling to put my soaked glove back on.

Later that day found us on a windy mountainous road (that seems to be the theme here in South America!) that turned into mostly dirt and many many many (did I mention a lot?) of potholes. Just as our spirit of the adventure was starting to fail, we crested a hill and the rain began to taper off. Lower and lower we went, our goal for the day was suddenly an hour away when we came across some single lane roads hugging this hillside:


Incredible scenery to end our soaking wet day!

The following day our gear needed to dry out and our ambition needed to be boosted, so we stayed in Cuenca for a day. I found a few interesting things to take pictures of, such as this “Ducati”:


And this motorcycle I actually thought was done very nicely. My friend Geoff would really appreciate this tiny Honda made into a cafe racer. I gave this guy a big thumbs up. Sporting the cafe racer with crocs, gotta love it!


I didn’t just take pictures of motorcycles in Cuenca. Cuenca has some old Spanish architecture as well as some other historical sites. I found this church interesting as well! I would have taken a look inside but it was ash Wednesday so there were a lot of people milling about and I wasn’t in the mood to go to mass.


After a day of drying out, it was time to hit the road again the next morning. When we woke up, it was raining. But before our mood could become too damp, it seemed to taper off and as we headed up into the mountains towards the Peru border, it cleared off and left us with some fantastic views:


After seeing this sign a couple times, I had to turn around and get a picture. Something about it just makes me laugh. Essentially it’s saying to respect the life of living, don’t kill the wild animals.


Part of the reason it makes me laugh is because of how many animals are living on the sides of the roads and in the roads. Donkeys, horses, cows, dogs, sheep, pigs, and goats!

Couldn’t resist getting a photo of the roadside mowing crew:


We reached the Peru border that afternoon. Still dry and smiling. Easiest and most relaxed border crossing to date. It wasn’t hot, no one hassled us, we didn’t have to make any copies, and we even were joking around in our limited Spanish with the Aduana (customs) guy! We also met an Australian couple who were on KTM 990’s who had been on the road for 11 months and had been all around the world and were 2 months away from finishing their journey in Patagonia. We exchanged information and said we would meet later if things worked out right since the day was getting late and both parties had a couple hours to go.


Within an hour into Peru, the landscape completely changed as we lost altitude and headed towards the coast of Peru. Nothing to see here, no seriously, there is nothing to see but sand:


After making to our destination of Piura, Peru, we were having a little trouble locating a hotel to suite our needs (safe parking, honestly, we aren’t THAT needy!). As we huddled around our GPS, a guy walked up to us seeing if he could help. Yet again, random people helping us out of a jam! He recommended to us a hotel a couple blocks away that would have parking.

The next morning our route took us through a lot more desert and dusty little towns. We stopped to fill up with gas and I noticed the kid pumping the gas was pretty excited about the big motorcycle, so of course I had to let him sit on the bike! His brother ran and got the camera, so I had to grab mine as well. He was pretty excited!


Another observation of this trip is that everywhere we have gone, the locals tend to enjoy putting artwork on large vehicles. In Central America, all the buses had fancy artwork. Lately I’ve been noticing that all the trucks have been painted as well.


That night in Trujillo, Kalil and I met up with the Australian couple Lee and Paul at a motorcycle oriented bar called the Paddock. You can find Lee and Paul’s blog on their around the world adventure at: http://www.bikens.com.au The owner of the Paddock has spent a lot of time touring Peru on a motorcycle. He is the founder of Peru Moto Aventura PERU MOTO AVENTURA As it turns out, he was out of town so he put me into contact with his son, Gianfranco who met us there as well to give us some advice on which routes to take. A really good time was had by all! Thank you all for coming out that night, it was great to get to know you all! Cheers!


Until next time! See where we are now by clicking here: SPOT Shared Page

Thin Air #17



After a nice evening hanging out with new friends in Trujillo, the following morning we set off in search of this famed Canon Del Pato (Duck Canyon). About 45 minutes out of town, we were flagged down by a police officer. As we pull over, we recognize two couples on motorcycles who we had seen at the Ecuador border. As the cop was walking towards us, the Mexican fellow tells us that they bribed the guy $60 Soles each (just under $20 USD each) to let them go since he caught them passing on the double yellow line. Uh oh. Peru is well known for its corrupt cops.

After a few minutes of talking to the officer, Kalil was able to convince him that of course we aren’t passing on the double yellow line, we enjoy Peru and we are taking our time to check out the scenery. We ended up getting friendly with the guy and he even offered to trade gloves with me since he had proper warm weather gloves. After about 10 minutes of conversation, he let us continue on. All in all it was a positive experience!

20 minutes later, we found our road that would take us to the canyon, so we turned off the Panamerican Highway and started down this dirt road:


During a quick picture/snack/water break, I was told by Kalil that the landscape was identical to the Israeli desert. Guess I have no need to go there now! Dry, sand, rocks, and dirt with some very impressive looking mountains in the backdrop:


After a bit, we met up with Santa River, which was extensively farmed. Lots of rice paddies, some banana trees among many other different crops.


The road followed the river for quite a ways before we started to gain elevation and started to enter the mountainous area. The road is well known in the motorcycle community not only for the scenery, but also because the road boasts many tunnels along the route. At one point, we ran into a group of fellow motorcyclists from Europe who were on an organized motorcycle tour heading north. Here is Kalil discussing different tours that Wolfgang and his friend had taken previous to their current South American tour:


After a few minutes swapping stories, we continued on to find many more tunnels:


All along the route, you would find other valleys joining the valley we were riding through, which provided some very nice scenery:


And there was a waterfall as well:


Everything seemed to be going great. The road was good, and the temperature was cooling off as we were gaining altitude so things were looking up. Or at least they were until I noticed a baseball sized rock with sharp edges in the road a second too late and as I swerved to miss the rock, I hit it just right so that it actually punctured the sidewall of the tire and popped my inner tube. First flat of the trip!


A spare tube, a tire patch on the inside of the tire so the tube would stay protected, and a minute of running the air compressor and we were making progress again in just over an hour of down time.


And then we were there, the main event: Canon Del Pato


You can barely see the river in the canyon, directly below Kalil in the picture above. No guard rails, the road was barely a lane wide and to top it all off, there were a whole lot more tunnels and traffic! On a positive note, the road was paved and there were a lot of signs to remind you to honk your horn before entering. First one to honk their horn has the right of way.


It is necessary to take a moment at this time to admit something; I am not someone who is very good at honking a horn while driving. Leaving driveways, yes of course, a couple honks to say goodbye, but not while driving on the road. Not anymore. I have found the horn button and I use it… A lot…

We reached our destination of Caraz with some daylight to spare and enjoyed a nice dinner in the little tourist town. The following morning we unloaded ALL of our unnecessary gear (weight) off of the bikes and headed up into the mountains to Lake Peron. It would take an hour an a half to climb up 20 miles. Had we not stopped to take so many pictures, it would have been possible to make it in an hour, but that would have left a lot of words and no pictures like this one:


Panoramic pictures are not my favorite, so here is a regular sized picture of half that view:


After a bit of rough dirt road, we were left with yet another breathtaking view. At this point the GPS was reading almost 13,500 feet (around 4,100meters) of elevation. According to my map, the peak in the background of this picture is Huandoy peak at an elevation of 6,385 meters, that’s just under 21,000 feet!!!!


Here is Lake Paron:


So the claim to fame for this area is that the glacier covered mountain that is in the clouds in the middle of this picture is the mountain used for the logo of Paramount pictures:


So normally this time of year (rainy season) in this area, the mountains are clear first thing in the morning and then during the day, the clouds gather and then it will rain. So as we spent more time hiking around the area, the clouds began to gather, so the opportunity for more pictures was missed. That being said, pictures do NOT do this justice, with or without clouds. There are so many factors involved that make this area absolutely breath taking, it is very difficult for an amateur like myself to properly photograph it. Here is a look back down the valley that we rode up:


The road going up to Lake Paron had a lot of farming going on, and at one point we passed a house were they were hanging up ears of corn to dry. What seemed like rafters filled with insulation at first turned out to be ears of corn! I found this worthy of a picture. It is difficult to see in the shadows, but there are 3 people preparing the ears to be hung.


Back in Caraz, Kalil noticed that the sole of his riding boot was starting to separate. There may not be any stores to sell you new riding boots, but there are several places where they can do a professional job at repairing your boots! They spent 30 minutes repairing his boot and his sandal and only charged him a couple USD:


The following morning, we checked out of our hostel with all of our riding gear packed up again with an ambitious plan of trying to cross the mountain range twice in one day in two different spots. Not knowing how much would be paved or the condition of the roads, back up plans were made but our confidence remained high as we started to climb up to these peaks:


As we gained altitude, our average speed was a mind boggling 17mph on the washboard dirt road. Eventually we entered what looked like a canyon with a couple skinny lakes trapped inside. At this point the clouds had covered the sun and extra layers were needed.


And after passing the lakes there was a mountain in front of us. Well, the road doesn’t dead end, so we might as well keep going, right? After countless switchbacks later, we still had not reached the top, but the view of the valley we had ridden through was breathtaking! Or was it the fact that we were at an altitude of around 14,500 feet?


The top! My phone GPS is reading 15,482 feet (about 4720 meters)


Yup, this is the road we just rode up:


Now it was time to head on down the other side of the pass. Totally engulfed in clouds and a heavy drizzle, there were no photo opportunities. After many more miles of single lane dirt roads and a significant amount of elevation lost, the weather cleared up and it was time to try and capture just how amazing this area is:


No, yet again, pictures cannot truly show how majestic this mountains and valleys are. One other important thing to mention is that all along these treacherous windy roads, you will find all sorts of villages, fields full of crops, livestock, and people somehow managing to survive on these steep mountain sides.

After 5 hours and approximately 70 miles of continuous dirt roads that were mostly a single lane wide, the tires of our bikes touched pavement again. It took a few moments to remember how to shift the bikes out of 1st gear! An hour later we found ourselves in a little village called Chacas, our backup plan if we felt like we didn’t have time to attempt the second crossing over the mountains to get to Huaraz. With the discovery of pavement and 4 more hours of daylight left, we pushed on. And the pavement continued:


All the way up to another breathtaking altitude above 15,000 feet! This is the pass of Punta Olympica. Within the last few years the road has been paved and they have built a tunnel underneath this peak to the other side which a few people proudly told us is the “highest tunnel in the world”. Whether or not it is the highest tunnel in the world, it will always stand out in my memory. As we stopped to regain our composure at the top of the pass, the clouds started to dissipate and the peaks in the area began to show themselves to us. This is Punta Olympica:


And here is the peak to the right:


On the other side of the tunnel the road was still paved and it looked quite impressive as well. You can see the continuation of the road we were on going out of the valley. Essentially the road was a maze of switchbacks down the steep hillside until it met the valley floor.


So the ambitious day was a success! Made it to Huaraz with time to spare. After all of the stunning views and amazing roads, we were not looking forward to dropping down to sea level and back to the hot temperatures to search of tires in Lima. For now, this is all you get though! See where we are at now by clicking this link:http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...mYuTOlnfIXxbRD