Nicoya, CR

July 14, 2013
Spent the day on the motorcycle riding mostly dirt roads and trails. Dual sport bikes are popular here and I stopped often to chat with other riders. Great day! My spanish is improving. Plan on departing Nicoya tomorrow.

Rustus McGrabhandle

No, I’ve never heard of him, and no relation either.

Kif in the Rif

Still heading south to try for the warmth of more Mediterranian climes...First stop Donana for another birding spot and LOTS of sand. Spotted some purple chickens (one for Paul and Jane there), short-toed eagle, glossy ibis (even Imogen thought they were cool) and purple heron (what is it with this colour?!) Typically, we got fantastically lost, ended with a 15km ride through deep sand with Imogen walking, luckily James remembered a groovy tip from Chris Scott about letting air out of the tires and hey! it works - result.

Over the Andes

Early start. Over the Andes. Skip breakfast to get moving. Touristy San Pedro de Atacama has the last gas station in Chile. I ask around for the distance to the next fuel. It is either 200 km, 400 km, or “Far. Very far”. Best carry some spare. Spend my lunch hour failing to find gerrycans. Thankfully, the improvising overlander alternative is all around. Big plastic pop bottles. Where are these useful empty containers Simon? Why they are in the rubbish bins.Early start. Over the Andes. Skip breakfast to get moving. Touristy San Pedro de Atacama has the last gas station in Chile.

Local Hero

It appears I´m a bit of a local hero around here.One of the orderlies at the hospital is the wife of the Customs man at the border who looked after the wreck until Patricio collected it for me, and apparently they get so fed up with treating tourists with twisted ankles and broken fingernails that I was the biggest excitement since they finished the road to the airport. Francisco has a bit of a reputation for refusing to speak English or French to a tourist unless they´re really hurt. I´m flattered.

Brazil to Uruguay

October 11, 2014:
May last ride day in Brazil from Rio Grande to Chuy, Uruguay was a bit wet in the begining. I got break in the afternoon and it turned out to be a great day.
At a school bus stop putting in rain gear:

Uganda

Crossed the border into Uganda yesterday, all straightforward. But difficult to get used to all the zeros on the money. About 2700 shillings in a pound. I lived almost half my life with twenty shillings in a pound. It doesn't matter how often you hear "Eleven thousand two hundred shillings," - when the word "shillings" reaches your ear, your brain is immediately unable to process any number higher than twenty. A bit of a problem.
The corridor between the border and Jinja, a big resort area, looks fairly prosperous compared with the more down-to-earth towns in western Kenya.

Burkina Faso

The truth and Other Lies About Colombia

The most dangerous thing for a traveller's trip is for the traveller to fall in love.

This happened to me with the City of Bogota. It has positively been the highlight of my trip so far. The warmth of the people there has created an affection debt that I will find very hard to pay... I'll definitely be back at some point.

Hotel Poaching

Tomorrow morning I'll ride the bike into a container at the port, and in theory I can collect it in Darwin on February 2nd. All very painless.The BMW Club here are very friendly and helpful. Ai Ling invited me round to her flat so I could upload more pix on her broadband link, and it turns out we have exactly the same tastes in music. We've also been to the Singapore Swimming Club (she's a member) which is frightfully colonial and all that.

Ecuador to Peru

Departed Loja, Ecuador for Peru on 12 May. Was hoping my last day would be dry however that was not to be. The roads E35 & E50 through the mountains to the Huaquillas were nice and during clear weather I'm sure the views would be amazing. Once I got to west side and started dropping things cleared up and it got quite warm.

Yzerfontein

There's an acronym commonly used by foreign travellers in Africa, that I've mentioned before somewhere: TIA.
"This Is Africa."
To pin on any situation that doesn't immediately fit any sort of western expectation.
Which is more-or-less everyday, and why most foreign visitors are here.

Well, here's another - TINA - "This Is Not Africa."