USA to Central/South America

So I got tired of working and thought, hmm, I think I'll quit my job and ride my motorcycle around Latin America for 6 or 8 months. Naturally there was some planning and saving involved, but basically that is what happpened. The general plan is to leave my home in Seguin Texas (near San Antonio) about the 1st of August 2006 and ride south all the wayto the southern tip of South America.

Just some quick notes to let you know what I have been up to. I can't get my pictures to upload from my sister in law's Mac, so I'll have to try that some where else.6-18-06 start 46,034 end 46,642

6-24-06 start 48,154 end 48,737

Left Stanley on ID hwy 21, a great road that goes over two big mountain passes 6-24-06 start 48,154 end 48,737

A few pictures with comments. They're not too big, but could take a little while to view.It's not the Virgen of Guadalupe, you'll see some of those once I get 2,000 miles south, but this is what those Norskies in Wisconsin build for roadside memorials.

Southwestern Wisconsin has some of the best motorcycling and bicycling roads anywhere. Seven months out of the year, anyway.

7-6-06

It rained a litle overnight, so I had to pack up soggy gear to get going in the morning. 7-6-06 start 50,264 end 50,675

It seems hard to believe, but I’m almost ready to pack up and head south of the border. I have spent the last week or so doing fun things like putting money in escrow to pay my property taxes at the end of the year. It is surprisingly hard to give people money ahead of its’ due date. “But Mr. Tiegs, we don’t know what the rate for your homeowners insurance will be until October.” As far as I know, I’m done bleeding money for the time being.

Real de Catorce7-24-06 start 29,055 end 29,348

Made it through the Tortilla Curtain today (that would be the Mexican border, stolen from a TC Boyle book) without any trouble. Crossed at Piedras Negras/Eagle Pass, the actual paperwork station is about 40 miles into Mexico. It always feels weird to me to just ride across the border and keep on going, but that is what I did for 40 miles. The smaller crossings the bureaucratic thing right at the border.

Roosters crowing, donkeys braying, church bells ringing, now that's the way I want to wake up in a Mexican town. 7-28-06 start 29,735 end 29,735

Real de Catorce: The view out my hotel window on a misty morning. View of the main Cathedral in Real. Looks a little better inside, no? I´m told this is where Julia Roberts, et. al., stayed while filming "The Mexican" here. I saw that when it came out, guess I´ll have to rent it sometime and see how much I recognize.

San Miguel de Allende: The main church there. Pretty futuristic looking, makes me think of the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz.

SMdA: The main plaza. The whole town looks like Guanajuato, only flatter (a relative term) and more Yuppified.

Taxco: Typical street scene.

"The Bar Mas Bohemia"7-31-06 start 30,120 end 30,332

8-3-06

From your reporter on the ground....8-8-06

Dateline Oaxaca:

The big story here is the "Teacher's Strike". I put that in quotes, because there are clearly a lot more issues at stake than teacher's pay. The main issue seems to be that the protesting faction believes that Oaxaca state governor Ulises Ruiz was elected fraudulantly, in 2004, and they are demanding his resignation. Why it took 2 years to reach this point, I can't say.

8-11-06 My week in Oaxaca is almost up, and while I'm really glad I was here during this time, I am just as glad to be leaving tomorrow. The Spanish school where I took my class organized a trip to Teotilan del Valle, which is a little town east of here that is known for it rug weavers. The most well known weaver here is named Isaac Vasquez, and has had exhibitions all over the world. We got to tour his workshop, where he showed us the techniques they use to weave wool rugs.

Somewhere in Chiapas: Mark and Chantelle, Dutch couple who got a little more adventure than they planned. They seemed fairly civilized, for Europeans ;) They even knew that all Americans don't watch Jerry Springer and vote for George Bush. They do put mayonaise on their french fries, though. Near Ocosingo, Chiapas: I was waylaid by these Chiapan bandidos on the highway. They held a piece of twine across the road, and wouldn't let me pass till I bought oranges from them.

I think I'll go to Chiapas, because it's so much safer than where I am now.8-13-06 I never thought I would say, I think I'll go to Chiapas, because it's so much safer than where I am now, but that's what I was thinking as I left Oaxaca. I was headed for San Cristobal de las Casas, but I knew it would be more than I wanted to do in one day. I got out of town at a reasonable hour and made good progress, although the going was pretty slow through the mountains and a bunch of little towns.

Adios Mexico, Hola Guatemala8-15-06

I took a little walk...8-19-06 to 8-21-06

Prettiest city in Guatemala8-22-06 to 8-25-06 After the big hike to Lake Atitlan, I spent a pretty uneventful day doing laundry, buying a few things and just recovering. That night I went to a presentation on the election controversy in Mexico. If you recall some of my adventures in Oaxaca, you know why I had an interest in what was happening back there. While this talk was mainly on the national election, they did talk about the Oaxaca thing some as well. It was held at a restaurant called Cubatenango, which, not surprisingly, served Cuban influenced food. I had dinner there also.

Final thoughts on AntiguaAntigua is really unlike any other place in Guatemala, whether that is good or bad depends on your point of view. It is touristy, the high end restaraunts have menus in English and prices in dollars. Of course that means you can get a decent cup of coffee and a slice of New York cheesecake anytime you want it, not to mention being able to see the Packers on Monday Night Football at a sports bar, even though the Bengals handed them their asses, but it also means that you aren't seeing what most of Guatemala is like if this is the only place you go.

Near Antigua, Volcan Pacaya: Look carefully, you can see some glowing orange there. This whole mass was sliding down the hill.

Somewhere in Honduras: This is why you don´t drive at night. They don´t always ahve the dirt piles to protect the washout either.

Trujillo, Honduras: The beach on the bay side. The water is flat calm here.

It was all I could do to lie in a hammock with a book and lift a beer once in a while.That is because these beach towns are hot. Lounging on a beach is nice for a while, but I'm finding out I am more of a mountain person, as far as a lifestyle goes.

8-30-06 to 9-5-06

Dog sitting in Costa Rica9-11-06

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua: Bike on the beach.

San Juan: Fausto (sp?) , an Ecuadoran I met there, waiting to get his visa status straightened out. He had bought an Aprilia Caponord in the US and was trying to ride home, but had some bureaucratic trouble. I hope it worked out.

9-27-06 5,200 trip miles, 34,200 total bike miles

I've been pretty lax on blog updates here lately, but I figured since I've mainly
been hanging out on the beach with my canine friends, that a motorcycle oriented
reader wouldn't be that interested anyway. At least that is my excuse. If you recall, I was house and dog sitting for another Horizons Unlimited member,
Lorraine Chittock.

The bike is strapped to a pallet, and I have a plane ticket.Just a quick update to let you know I made it to Panama. This has been a hectic couple of days, but the bike will fly tonight (Tuesday), and I have a flight tomorrow to Bogota. I stayed at a real interesting place called Puerto Viejo, in Costa Rica for a couple days since I updated last, and crossed the border to Panama at a real out of the way spot. Beats the hell out of taking the PanAm, but I don´t have the energy to go into detail now. Next update will be from South America.

I'm getting a little out of order here, but I wanted to finish writing about Central America before going on to my first impressions of Colombia. I am in Medellin now, and everything is good.
Oct. 4, 2006

Greetings from Medellin!The plane ride from Panama City to Bogota was uneventful. At the last minute, the air freight company said I couldn't leave the tank bag and tank panniers on the bike. I wanted to leave them on and stretch wrap them to keep

Border between Costa Rica and Panama. Panama: First nice asphalt road in I don't know how long. Colombia: Soldiers stopped to talk when I stopped at a store for a coke between Bogota and Medellin. They were not threatening at all, these guys are your friends on the highways here.

10-13-06

As my faithful readers will recall, I met two Ecuadorans, Xavier and Enrique, back in Mexico who were on their way to Alaska on bikes, and we had exchanged emails before we went our seperate ways. While I was back in Quito, I had emailed them to tell them I was in the neighborhood. Xavier wrote back and said that they would be happy to see me, and gave me some pointers on a place to see on the way to their hometown of Ambato. I went to Lake Quilotoa, as Xavier suggested, and it was a great side trip.

That´s 100 days and 8800 miles since I left the USA, not counting the month I spent riding around the US before that. I have been slacking in my blogular duties, so I just wanted to post something so that people wouldn´t think I rode off the edge of the map or something. I am taking a rest day today in Huaraz Peru, so I might get some writing done.While I was in Banos with Enrique and Isaac, I sw that they had mountain bike rentals, and as I had been pretty sluglike lately, figured I could do with some exercise.

So, let's see. When I left off I was headed for the Peruvian border. I had elected to stay in the mountains, and not cross on the coastal route that is more populated. As usual, this turned out to be a good choice, as far as border formalities go. The border guards were pretty bored and had nothing better to do than process me through. Total time, about 40 minutes for both sides, total cost $0. The town on the Peru side was La Tina, I don't recall the nearest town on the Ecuador side.

While I was in Huaraz, I met a German/Swiss couple, Horst and Ruth, Who were staying at the same hotel I was. There were celebrating the 20,000th kilometer of their bicycle trip. That's right, bicycle. They have been on the road for 15 months or something like that, starting in Canada, and are now in central Peru. Makes me feel pretty wimpy, doing all this motorcycle riding. A day later, we were joined by their German friend Annette, who they had met in Panama.

The Plaza de Armas in Cuzco

This is some municipal building in Cuzco, built on top an Inca foundation. The Spaniards tore down what was the Supreme Inca´s palace and built on top the Inca foundation. This building was rebuilt at least twice due to earthquake, but the origina Inca foundation is still being used.

The stone to the left of me is estimated to weigh 6,000 lbs.

I think I have seen more other motorcycle riders here in Cuzco, than the rest of this trip combined.When I first got to town, in the rain, I was riding around the plaza when a guy waved me over to the side walk. At first I thought it was somebody trying to hustle up business for a hotel, but then I noticed he was wearing a motorcycle jacket. It turned out that Leo was a Thai, who has ben living in Switzerland for several years. He was staying in a hostal with 2 other riders, and invited me to stay with them.

Between Potosi and Uyuni, Bolivia. Southwestern Bolivia looks a lot like the Western US, I can see why Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid set up shop here after things got too hot for them in the US.
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So, let's catch up a little. Where was I? Oh yeah, La Paz. So I left La Paz, headed for Sucre, but I knew I wouldn't want to do that all in one day. I stopped for the night in Potosi, a town mainly known for its' silver mine. Tours of the mine are a big business there, but I didn't feel like going. It just struck me as further exploitation of the miners poor working conditions, but I guess I won't know now, since I didn 't go. I left the next day for the short ride to Sucre. Sucre turned out to be a really nice town, and I stayed around for a few days.

Between Mendoza and Cafayate, Argentina. Town square in Cafayate, this region produces most of Argentina´s wine. Ruta 40 is to Argentina kind of what Route 66 is to the USA. Makes it easy to tell if you´re still on the right road, at least. Three Chilean riders I met on the road.

Going south from Salta, the most efficient way to get to Mendoza looked to be highway 9, which runs east of the mountain ranges. In keeping with the spirit of this trip, I decided to take hwy 40, which stays more to the west, and up in the mountains. I think Ruta 40 is to Argentina what Route 66 is to the USA, running almost the length of the country for 3,000 miles or so. The area from Salta south to Mendoza is where most of the country's wine is produced, and 40 goes through a lot of vineyard country.

If anybody is wondering what it realy costs to do a trip like this, here are my expenses for the trip so far.If anybody is wondering what it realy costs to do a trip like this, here are my expenses for the trip so far.What it costs (me) to live on the road for 150 days.

Just a quick hello, from the end of the road here in Ushuaia. It´s Christmas day, and there are at least 30 or so motorcyclists here in town, that I know of, and I´m sure some more I don´t know of. Everyone is having a good time, aside from the odd bike issue, and we all wish everyone the happiest of Christmases.

I only spent a few days in Ushuaia, standing around in the cold around a campfire with a beer is fun for a while, but it only goes so far. I wanted to head back north where it is warm, and take a different route, to see what I missed on the Argentina side when I took the Caraterra south through Chile. Proving that the world really is a small place, I ran into Grant and Julie, a couple from Australia that Don McCann and I camped next to at a Horizons Unlimited meet in Mexico a couple years ago, in Ushuaia.

I last left off New Year’s day a hostel in El Bolson. I discovered that I missed a presentation by a German couple who traveled around the world for 16 years, mostly on motorcycles. This was on December 30th, one day before I got to El Bolson. Oh well, maybe next time. So, after a low key New Years day, I headed out for Bariloche on the 2nd. In Bariloche, I met up with Fausto, my Ecuadoran friend, again. Fausto was riding an Aprilia Caponord, which is a pretty rare bike in South America, and his front chain sprocket was almost worn out.