Ross' Motorcycle Travels

After buying a BMW 650 Dakar on a whim in 2004 (or more likely on an unconscious wish/unfulfilled dream), Ross Davidson left his Mississauga home, near Toronto, Canada on a -12C day in February 8, 2007 and headed to Mexico to begin his trip around South America.On a -12C Canadian winter day in February 8, 2007 I left my warm comfortable home near Toronto (and my partner and my almost grown-up kids) and headed to Mexico to begin my dream trip around South America.

Checking the Weather Channel almost hourly, I saw the forecast open up with clear but very cold temperatures -12C for my route down I75. That´s what I needed, dry roads (no snow/slush). So making a quick decision, I wheeled out across my snow-covered driveway and hit the 401 to Windsor/Detroit.

I’m currently holed up in The Super 8 in Beaumont, Texas. The predicted severe thunderstorms broke about 6:00PM and I just made it to the hotel lobby. I wanted to get to Houston today but it is another hour down Interstate 10.

I crossed the US/Mexican border at Laredo, Tx where I spent the night. The hotel clerk advised me to get there early so I showed up bright and early at 6:00AM only to have to wake up each of the Mexican aduana clerks to obtain the transit papers for the bike. I should clarify that only the male clerks were sleeping and the female clerks were wide awake. I was their only customer.

I´m starting Spanish School today for 3 weeks. The school (The Cuernavaca Language School) has put me up with a nice Mexican family, Mom, Grandma, and 20 year-old son. I take all my meals at the family table and have been made to feel part of this family. Of course they don´t or won´t speak a word of English around me. I think it is a great way to get "acculturated" to Latin America.

Just noticed that the bike developed a front fork seal leak on the way down. I think I´m responsible for disturbing the seal doing maintenance before I left Canada. Anyway, I did bring a spare seal and will install it as soon as a shop here can order the correct fork oil for me. Next I need to shed a lot of weight, either personally or from my gear. I think it is the best way to prevent suspension problems which is the common repair issue in South America i.e bad roads + too much weight = broken motorcycle.

Well, I have finished my 3 week Spanish course at the Cuernavaca Language School (you can google it for more info) I highly recommend it not because it is a great school with a great staff and they make you feel so much at home but also because of the location. Cuernavaca has beautiful weather all year long, is a safe interesting Mexican City and living with a Mexican family was a fantastic experience - at least for me. Don´t ask what did I learn in just 3 weeks - I´m OK with it.

Today was an awesome ride south on 190 libre. The road was in excellent condition and it crawled through mountian passes for about 400kms to Tehuantepec. The twistys were non-stop. It reminded me of parts of the south island of New Zealand. Some really tight turns and the countless topes (speed bumps) kept my average speed to only 65kph so I didn´t get as far today as I had hoped.

The ride to the Guatemalan border near Cuidad Hidalgo (I decided not to go to Tapachula) was a nice combination of mountian and lowland plains with the silhouette of the volcanic mountians ever present. However it was hot, very hot. I arrived a little tired after a stop in Hidalago to do some banking. It was a mistake to go to this border crossing.

I arrived at the San Salvador border town of Hachadura about 3:30PM which made me a little nervous because of the length of time it took at the last border. However, little San Salvador proved to be the easiest crossing of them all. The border offices were well-signed, the officials all wore uniforms and were polite and friendly. To top it off there were no charges for me or the bike! That done, I headed down the road looking for a place to stay the night.

It was only an hour from Choluteca to the Nicaraguan border near San Marcos de Colon. It was a lot easier getting out of Honduras than in and to my surprise Nicaragua was relatively simple. Best of all it all happened in the shade! I met a fellow motorbike traveller, Jacob Sherman (HU member) at the border and we decided to ride together to Granada on Lake Nicaragua. The ride to Granada was uneventful with mainly uninteresting roads. Nicaragua seemed a bit more prosperous than Honduras. Granda was a nice surprise.

My flight touched down at Bogota about 10:00PM – I was in South America! A childhood dream fulfilled at last. The Arrivals area was a bit chaotic with very aggressive taxi drivers vying for business. Warned in advance, I went to the taxi kiosk and received a printed slip with

Arrived in Venezuela Saturday noon, cleared immigration only to find customs closed until Monday AM - so I couldn´t clear the bike! Caught between two borders, the National Guard guy said ´just stay in town with the bike`. Taichira is a typical border town but the hotel was friendly, gasoline was $0.15/liter, and there were some local events in the square on Sunday day and evening that were fun to watch. Bad news was none of my credit cards or debit card will work in Venezuela! You need an additional ID code - called Royal Bank collect and they confirmed the problem.

I was pretty nervous on Wednesday morning as I packed up and left the hotel in Manaus for the floating dock where the Clivia waited to take us down the Amazon River to Belem. From the day before I knew it was total chaos (well to me, anyway) at the dock and I wasn´t sure how to get to the loading area. How would they load the bike, where would I put my hammock etc?

The heavy rain as I left Belem (city at mouth of the Amazon), Brasil did not last long but thankfully the clouds remained – it was plenty hot enough without the sun. With the sights, sounds and smells of Belem in my head I headed southeast on BR316 to Teresina “the hottest place in Brasil”.

Almost instantly after crossing into Gabon the rain forest became even more dense, humid and exotic (at least to me). The curvy road through the rolling hills was in excellent condition and a motorcyclists dream. I tried to capture some of this on my GoPro video camera but the result seemed much less interesting. It was missing the closeness of the forest and the dank smells. Once again I was taken back to my childhood watching my first ever movie in a theatre “African Queen” with Bogart and McCall totally fascinated with the whole notion of traveling on a river through the jungle.

I awoke the Monday morning at the Ogoja Hotel to a major rainfall. It got me thinking that I was at a crossroads of sort. I could end the trip here or take the plunge and continue on to Cameroon and be committed to the roads Lonely Planet describes as being “only for the hardcore”. Once I left Nigeria I would not be able to return unless I applied from Canada for a new visa. Nigerian tourist visas are single entry only.

I opted to cross at Ketou because all advice was to avoid the main crossing on the coast highway and I really wanted to find a way to avoid the roads leading through Lagos. Lagos is the largest city in Africa with over 8 million people. With a population of 180M 1/3 of all Africans on the continent live in Nigeria. So this is going to be a very different country from any I have traveled so far.

The border was quick with no extra fees to pay. It was rapidly getting dark and I soon reached Aneho and started looking for a hotel. I could not see one sign for a hotel and now it was really dark. It was almost impossible to see because with no street lighting the lights from motos and cars were blinding as they reflected off the clouds of dust from the road.

The border formalities went well with 20000CFA for a visa and 5000CFA TIP (vehicle permit). however one little scam is that they will direct you to report to a nearby police station. When I arrived a very young officer seemed nervous and asked me to wait while he called his boss. His boss arrived a few minutes later with his takeout lunch, takes my passport and disappears into his office. The kid comes out and says I should pay 5000CFA but cannot say why or give me a receipt. It was pretty obvious what was going on but for $10 I bought my passport back.