ATW Adventure Travel

Second chapter posted today, but it only brings me up to November 17th my final day in the USA!

Spending a couple of weeks with my twin brother Norman was like a refreshing holiday for me. We toured south west Texas and east New Mexico in a hired 4x4. I had not realized how much harder it is to tour by motorcycle until this point. Many of the things we take for granted in the UK and Europe are not available elsewhere in the world, like just pulling off the road for instance, try doing that when there is a 6 inch drop off onto loose gravel at the road edge!The Dallas Interlude

Sitting in my hotel room in Panama, waiting to fly to South America, I have had time to catch up with my blog a little. Trouble is my bike has developed a leak in the radiator and the shipper has informed me that I will have to pay duty on my bike when it arrives in Quito, Peru. Great, but I'm flying to Bogota in Columbia!!!The border crossing at San Luis was more chaotic than the others I had crossed, but in retrospect not too bad at all.

Strange things happened to me again during an important time in the pagan year, plus I get to see those fantastic Maya Ruins that I had only seen in books.Saliner Cruz has the unfortunate privilege of being both a commercial town and a port. Along the coast here there are shallow lagoons that for centuries have been flooded and then dried out to produce sea salt.

Hi all,
Some problems with my email address have meant that you did get my last notification. As I am not at home, Virgin have dumped my account so I am now using a Yahoo.co.uk account with the same name. Many thanks to Grant for letting me know about this.
Anyway if you go to the Horizons Unlimited site and go to Travellers Tales you will not only find my latest entry 'Maya Ruins and the Winter Solstice' but lots of other interesting stories as well. By co-incidence I had lunch with a HUBber from Lima today!Hi all,

It is Christmas Eve and I had walked out for something to eat. Walking back down on the right hand side of the road, there are stray dogs, pot holed side streets and youths letting of firecrackers and rockets in the streets. I meet the young hotel owner on the roof garden, well it will be a garden one day he says, and ask him if the gun at his hip is really necessary. He replies that it certainly is, as the right hand side of the street is extremely dangerous and on no account should I walk down there!!

Leaving San Diego behind, we headed into the mountains and south to the coast. A KLR kept us company for a while, and I found out why Fred’s nickname is ‘Fast Freddie’. I was soon one lorry and three cars behind them, but when we were stopped by road works I attempted to rejoin them. Unfortunately the lorry that was behind them was slowly inching forward anticipating the signal to move off, and I was so preoccupied with the rapidly closing gap that I caught the empty pannier frame of the KLR with my pannier and slowly fell over sideways at about 1mph.New Friends and on to Panama

So we’re off, Curtis and Janet, Roger and Linda, Fred and I, heading out through the early morning rush hour in Bogotá. In the middle of an underpass my bike cuts out leaving me stuck in the middle lane of traffic while I watched my companions weaving through the traffic ahead of me. So we’re off, Curtis and Janet, Roger and Linda, Fred and I, heading out through the early morning rush hour in Bogotá. In the middle of an underpass my bike cuts out leaving me stuck in the middle lane of traffic while I watched my companions weaving through the traffic ahead of me.

There were police and army clearing away the old men from their normal seats around the war memorial and cordoning it off. Trumpets sounded, the Presidential Guard marched onto the terrace of the Presidential Palace and a military band struck up. Lancers rode their chargers slowly in from both side of the plaza and formed up in front of the Palace.In Quito the University buildings are right next to the main square and house an interesting display of exhibits including, while we were there, an exhibition of photographs from international photographers.

I thought to myself that since the camping gear was off the bike anyway I might as well camp until morning, when along the track there came a battered old car. Three young men got out and each showed me their identity cards. ‘But why?’ I asked. ‘It is very, very dangerous here,’ the leader said, ‘many robbers and guns, you must not stay here, it is not safe.....Barriers, Arguments and the £10 bottle of Coca Cola.

Now who would have thought in their wildest dreams that they would be personaly serenaded by an opera tenor performing 'O sole mio' in a busy street, in a little Peruvian desert town?There is no garage at the Hotel so I drive my motorbike through the lobby and into the tiny courtyard garden, where, trying to make a tight right hand turn around a raised flowerbed, the bike once more blows a fuse. That will have to wait until tomorrow as now I am too tired to fix it.

The next morning after breakfast I head out to look for an ATM and am accosted by a ticket tout who offers me a flight to see the lines. Not only that but there is another couple booked on the flight, so I get the co-pilots seat; how could I refuse?
Lines in the desert.