A bit of background: Between mid-1999 and early 2002 I rode around the world, that is UK through the Middle East and trans-Africa followed by New York to the Arctic circle to Tierra del Fuego, including about 9 months in South America. The bike I rode then was a 1989 BMW r100gs that had various names: Janis (too nice a name, allegedly), Helga (German and functional), the Wife (An Ethiopian policeman at a checkpoint upon demanding to know the make of vehicle for his ledger said it stood for “Be My Wife”), Ex-wife (we developed a rider/ridee relationship: She promised not to break down and I promised not to fall off…) and finally Goaty (as in “Old Goat”). The story of that trip is at my website at Round the World TBSdotCom

In mid/late 2015 I was at a bit of a loose end and with less than a week of planning and prep I flew to Brazil, bought a pre abused 2005 Kawasaki KLR650 and set off. The trip was meant to last only 3 months (budgetary constraints), but took 8 (helped by creative accounting)… The guy who sold me the bike had called her/it “Klarissa”. No guesses why. As she/it already looked so cosmetically beaten up, Klamidia seemed a suitable new name. On a Facebook post, a spelling bee corrected the spelling. I wonder how he knew?

So, the thread title is becoming clearer… Many things have changed in the world, in South America, in the “adventure” bike market niche, and of course, with me. I’m more ruggedly handsome, have gone grey, put on a bit of weight and am still bald. In this RR I want to compare the sights, sounds and experiences from the trip on the Wife to Chlamydia’s safari 15 years later. I revisited lots of places, saw many new sights, met old friends and made new ones. I also travelled to/through places like Antarctica and Colombia that I missed last time due to timing and security constraints.

My 2015/16 route was rather haphazard with several places visited more than once. I’ll explain the route in the following posts. I’m going to have to present it chronologically as any other way would do my head in. I want to show images from the Millennium trip and compare what I saw and how I felt then and 15 years on.

Please do ask questions and make comments. Hope you like the pictures and words. Here is a selection from the 15/16 trip.



End of the road in Argentina. 3rd visit, February 2015





Antarctic yacht





Mt Fitzroy, Patagonia, Argentina





Chlamydia and friend, Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia





The ultimate wildcamp? Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia





Toby Price, 2016 Dakar winner, Stage 6, near Turpiza, Bolivia





The podium, Rosario, Argentina. I had sneaked into the VIP area





Flamingos, Lagunas route, the long way. Bolivia to Chile





The "so called" Death Road into the Yungas, Bolivia. Not so dangerous these days





Bemused Peruvian lady





Girl and sister, on a slightly longer detour around a landslide, northern Peru





Is he taking our picture? Dunno, bald git... Coffee triangle, Colombia





End to end done... Santa Marta, Colombia

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Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

The bikes involved:



Wifey, here just crossed onto Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

1989 BMW R100gs with big 43 litre Acerbis tank and what I thought at the time was a good idea: A pizza box on the back



Chlam, here at La Higuera, Ruta del Che, Bolivia

2005 Kawasaki KLR650 bigger plastic tank (IMS?) and the panniers it came with (Pelican), along with a cheap kitbag from the camping shop.


Both bikes did about 30.000 km = 20.000 miles in South America with me at the helm. Wifey also took a banana barge down the Amazon from Peru to the Atlantic. After abandoning Chlam to the clutches of a nasty man-hating psycho hostal chica in Ushuaia for 10 days, I joined a cruise ship across the Drake Passage to Antarctica and back. Chlam survived, as did I.

The 2015/16 trip started in October 2015 in Sao Paulo in Brasil.

Just a note, all the Millennium/Wife pictures will only be 500 pixels along their longest edge, and possibly a bit pixelated. They were taken with a good camera and on slide film, but in the scanning process (which took me forever all those years ago) they ended up like this. In those days I didn't understand such things as well as I do now and digital technology in the last 15 years has made huge strides too.

Other recent RRs of mine include

2012 Stans and Mongolia: http://advrider.com/index.php?thread...ngolia.828973/

2013 Far East Siberia: http://advrider.com/index.php?thread...rd-way.961578/

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

2015/16 Map overview, Brasil overview



Overview map of gps tracklogs

Route:

1. Green(Start Sao Paulo)
2. Red
3. Purple
4. Yellow (following 2016 Dakar race)
5. No tracklogs. Forgot? Lost? The most boring ride down Ruta 3 from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia. Shame I haven't the "proof" of my longest ever ride day. One day I did 900 km/ 600 miles. A record for me. Some of you iron-butters riding a GS might do that before breakfast, but try it at 50mph only riding between sun up and sun down with 50mph winds, mainly hitting the bike between 12 noon and 3 o'clock (not time of day, but between head on and from the right quarter of the bike. All day). Also a horrid road surface and articulated trucks to overtake/ overtaking me or coming the other way. On a 650 thumper with a loud pipe. The significance of the pipe loudness will be mentioned in another post. It's pretty funny/sad depending on your outlook.
6. Light blue
7. Dark blue
8. Dark purple (End Santa Marta and Bogota)

I did enter and leave Bolivia multiple times… A veritable spaghetti of tracks left there.




I didn’t explore Brasil as much as I could have on this trip. The furthest north I got was Rio de Janeiro, which in terms of Brasil is not very far at all. In many places, major floods were causing a lot of destruction. I don’t like riding in the rain and the distances are huge.



A couple of taster Brasil pictures…




Redeemed? Maybe not, but definitely a clean bike





Trinidad breakfast beach view from tent





Paraty Cathedral

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

In and around Campos do Jordao, SP State, Brasil




Set off from the mega city of Sao Paulo for a bit a spin in the area around Campos do Jordao. A super pretty part of the world and a huge and pleasant contrast. SP city has its charms, but riding through it on a motorcycle wasn't one of them!





Man and child on cow




A Brazilian friend gave me the name and vague location of a rural restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I found it! Not signposted or anything. Very popular and great food!




When not with Geraldo fettling the bike it was important to sample the delights of this place settled by the Swiss who brought their traditions with them





Chlam was in good hands in Geraldo Lima’s workshop in Campos do Jordao. He’s the race mechanic for top Brazilian Dakar works rider and multiple finisher Jean Azevedo, including when the chequered flag was still in Dakar, Senegal

Geraldo is a top bloke! He also allowed me to stay FOC in his guest annex, which considering my budgetary constraints was very welcome. Brasil ain't a cheap travel destination!





One of Jean’s race bikes in Geraldo’s workshop

In the 2016 race Jean walked away from this crash: Lucky lucky man!....

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Rio de Janeiro 2000 and 2015

2000:



And



In 2000 it was a little less overcast on Copacabana beach



And the nights were clear

More words from my website: Chapter 26 The Big Trip


2015:



In October 2015 it was a tad more cloudy. At least it wasn’t raining like south of here





Statue to Antônio Carlos Jobim, the composer of The Girl from Ipanema





Beach art





Beach volleyball





Beach footvole. These guys are good!





Queen of Copacabana! No further comment required.

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Thank you for sharing. I noticed that bike has to stickers from my surrounding "SLO" and "BIH", Slovenia and Bosnia (me: Zagreb, Croatia)! Interesting. Would like to hear how that bike ended in Brazil where I to, inshallah, plan to ride some day...
So ride on...

Best Danilo Gregovic