Well, I actually found something to write here. Actually, just a link to a nice moto video from a friend on Vimeo.

Andes Moto from Romain de l'Ecotais on Vimeo.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I am lucky to be in Buenos Aires anytime, but this time I am here for the start of the 2010 Dakar. Here are some photos. I have not posted anything for a long time and I may take this site down soon. However, I do have other stories to tell if people are interested in travel sans motorcycle. I invite you to have a look at my new site Ethoshopper.


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This is quoted by Anthony Bourdain in his No Reservations Peru episode. As far as I can tell it is only attributed to a unnamed prophet. However, I do know that Eric Burdon and the Animals sang “We Gotta Get Out of this Place” and that is how and am feeling as I am approaching one year back home.

My good friend Mark is now traveling through Africa. I first met him just as he was starting his South America trip and a year later started my South America trip. Could history repeat itself….

Ridefar

I have been told that my good friend Tiberio “Tibi” of Medellin, Colombia has died of a heart attack. In a country full of wonderful people, Tibi was a standout. A person of tremendous generosity and love, he will be missed by many people.
(Tibi in the light blue shirt)

I thought upon returning home there would be a ‘honeymoon’ period when I would be constantly talking about the trip. It is amazing, however, how people enclose themselves in their own worlds. Almost no one really seems interested in hearing about my trip. At best they tell me what they think of the places that I visited despite never having been there themselves. Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico… you must be crazy. Me, I would go back in a heart beat.

So, for the few people new visitors who may visit this site in the future I will outline the trip as sort of table of contents for the website. Comments will be turned off because spam problems. I have deleted over 10,000 pieces of spam in two years! Finally, I leave you with a poem I happened upon.

I first spent several months trying to get myself and my motorcycle prepared for the trip. This did not go very smoothly. I did eventually leave New York at the end of May 2006.

By the end of June 2006 I was in Inuvik, NWT, Canada for the summer soliciste.

Then I headed down the pacific coast for Mexico.


On my second full day in Mexico I crashed in deep sand and broke my leg and ankle.

The next day I had a titanium rod and screws put into my leg by a very expensive carpenter. I continued the trip after four months of rehabilitation and battling thoughts of abandoning the trip.



January 2007 I explored the great people and delicious food of Mexico.

Finally leaving Mexico, I continued down through Central America– Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica , and Panama.

A short plane ride and I was in Colombia for Semana Santa.


Next was Ecuador a county that has some of everything and within reach.

By the end of August 2007 I crossed into Peru.



Cusco needs special treatment. Beyond Manchu Picchu, the city of Cusco and its surroundings contain endless wonders.

The country I intended to spend the least amount of time turned into an adventure of a lifetime in itself. Riding in Bolivia was the best- period. Dirt roads, desperate poverty translated into great riding and great people. Even better I was riding with my friend Tom who took some great pictures of the ride.

I then crisscrossed Chile and Argentina on my way due south for Tierra del Fuego, the end of the road, before turning around and resting in Buenos Aires.





A long rest in Buenos Aires and it was back on the road for Brazil


A finally, I reached Venezuela, the country that lifted my spirits at the end of my journey.

Ithaka, by C.P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

The trip was now over for all practical purposes. I was just finalizing some things before flying home. I couldn’t make it home in time for Mother’s Day but I was adopted by a nice Venezuelan family.


The lunches dinners and parties didn’t stop till I got to the airport.

My last night, brother Ruben threw a great party where one of his friend’s showed off his many talents including playing multiple instruments and telling endless jokes. He was from Margarita Island where they talk so fast I stopped trying to understand anything he said. Still, just watching him perform was a blast.




Finally, the day came when I had to say goodbye, or rather, hasta la luego, because this would not be the end our friendship. Ruben and his wife treated me like family and made the end of my trip perfect. It ended with the best thing that impressed me most during my two year trip. The generosity of strangers and how quickly people can love each other when they are open to the possibilities.



————
I will soon write a post summarizing the trip with links to certain stories that people only now visiting this site may not find easily. If you are one of these people, for now, I urge you to look at my Peru, Bolivia*, Argentina, and Chile stories.

Back at Cuidad Bolivar a few other overlanders had arrived. We had some great stories over dinner.

The next day I headed for Puerto La Cruz on the coast where my friend Ruben generously offered me a spare room in his house. He also gave me a nice route for a side trip before heading back home. So after a rest day I headed east along the coast and then up into the mountains.

Venezuela has a beautiful coastline full of great beaches an islands.

The next day I turned inland at Cumana into the mountains on some great twisty roads towards the city of Caripe.


Caripe is a quiet little town in the mountains where the cool weather was a very welcome relief. People on the coast warned me how cold it got at night but I slept like a baby in the cool weather.

Outside of Caripe there is a turnoff at this quaint little church for the Cueva del Guacharo. The ride to the cave is a great ride down the mountainside to the entrance of the cave.



The cave that is over 10 kilometers long and the home for thousands of Guacharos or Oil Birds. As you walk through the cave you are overwhelmed by the noise of the birds. Then about midway through, you pass through a small passageway and come out the other side where there a no birds and enter complete silence. It was an interesting tour. Early in the morning and in the evening you can also watch the birds leaving and entering the cave.



One problem with Caripe was that there were really very few places to eat. This would never happen in Mexico! So on the way back to Puerto La Cruz I stopped for lunch at the first place I found.


On a full stomach I hit another twisty road back to Puerto La Cruz and completed a great two days of riding the back roads of Venezuela as suggested by my hermano Ruben.

Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world. It was discovered Jimmy Angel who used this plane to explore the region searching for his fortune. He crash landed this plane on top of one of the table-top mountains and had to hike back to civilization.

Airplanes are the only way to get to the village used as a base to go up river to see the falls. Our 9:00 flight was late, very late. In fact the little four seat Cessina was no where to be seen for hours. It didn’t make me feel better to hear that the plane was having mechanical problems. To make matters worse it was a holiday weekend and the mechanics were not on duty. So I sat in the airport for 3 hours thinking about how a hung-over mechanic was fixing an old four seat Cessina and whether this trip was worth the risk.


We did eventually take off and the flight was so smooth I fell asleep while the pilot was reading a mystery novel.

At the base camp there is a pretty lagoon with some pretty smaller falls.













The next day we headed up river in canoes for Angel Falls. Our 8:00 departure departed around 10:00 ask out lead guide was nowhere to be found after a night of heavy drinking.



Our first sight of Angel Falls.



Our late start meant we arrived at the falls very late and were rushed back down to the river because it was getting dark. Still, we reached the river in the dark and only by chance did my group find our guide and one of us even had a flashlight. However, the canoe was downriver on the other side where they were setting up camp and cooking. Oh, it started to rain also. So there we were in the dark screaming for help.

Eventually, our guide actually crossed the river himself to get the canoe. It was total incompetence and truly dangerous.

Sleeping in hammocks wasn’t that bad. The key is to position yourself diagonally in the hammock.

Unfortunately, the final overland border crossing of my two year trip turned sour. The Brazilian border official had a nasty case of anti-American fever. I had asked what the delay was after 20 minutes and several unusual questions. The reply was that since he had waited a long time at U.S. immigration I had to wait and I shouldn’t complain. I had several armed soldiers surround me and the motorcycle while he inspected my bags and the motorcycle. I was happy to leave Brasil. The country was a disappointment. It really does not live up to its reputation, although the people were generally very friendly.

Upon leaving Brasil my luck started changing immediately, however. Finished with Brazil I headed to the Venezuelan border. At first I had to wait for everyone to get back from lunch, but immigration quickly stamped my passport and someone from customs eventually appeared. Only problem was that customs needed copies but there was not one copy machine around. I was told to go back to Brazil. No way was I going back to Brazil so I lied and said I could no longer enter Brazil because my visa expired. Okay, I was told to ride to the next town, Santa Elena, and come back with the copies. I was a little worried that if I didn’t get back in time, and they were closed the next day because it was Sunday (they did close) I couldn’t submitted the copies until Monday. This concern became greater while riding to Santa Elena when I realized I forgot to change money at the border. However, the copy place let me pay with Brazilian Reales and I was back at customs two hours later. Upon seeing a mistake in my VIN number the customs agent happily said, “everything has a solution”.

Later, back in Santa Elena, I was eating some street food, and was asking about the true going exchange rate on the street, because Venezuela has a big black market for U.S. dollars. Another customer happily gave me all kinds of advice and sure soon one of the street money changers came by for food and gave me the current rate, rather than the rate everyone had been quoting me earlier. Immigration, money, and food done I was off to find a place to sleep. I first went to check out Cabanas Friedenau based on a recommendation of my guidebook. I was on the bike checking the place out thinking it looked more expensive than described when I saw someone in a truck pulling in and asked about prices. It turned out to be the owner who rides a BMW 1150GS and he offered me a spare room in his house for free.

I wanted to see a lot of things in the Grand Sabana but two factors made it difficult. One was I wanted to get home during May and the other was that all the tours were very expensive because it was the off season and there were no other people with whom I could split the costs. I did manage to take a day tour.

Jasper Falls are water falls over pure semi-precious Jasper rocks.

Carnivorous plants


Secret place to cool off- not really there a several of these places in the area.

Roraima off in the distance. I really wanted to climb Roraima but it is a 6 day hike and couldn’t afford the time.

The Grand Sabana was used for some of the scenic shots in the movie Jurrasic Park.


A few days later, I headed north for Cuidad Bolivar. It is a really nice ride on an excellent road. You climb up some twisties before driving straight again for a long time and then climb down through the jungle using.

I didn’t do much in Manaus. It was hot and humid and there isn’t much to see. It is amazing that such a rapidly growing city is in the middle of the Amazon. Then again I am not really surprised anymore. I did want to get my visa for Venezuela but the Venezuelan consulate told me I didn’t need a visa. So I was soon driving due north for Venezuela.

The ride north takes you through the autonomous region of the Waimiri-Atroari where you are not allowed to stop or take photos. The Waimiri-Atroari are strongly resisting government efforts to develop the region’s nature resources.

The road, BR-174 is mostly paved even through the reserve, and is slated to be widen into a 2-lane highway.


Sure enough it started raining despite clear skies in the morning.

<

<And sure enough the rain only lasted a couple of hours before the hot sun returned. The weather was driving me bananas!

It later started raining once again. This time it was so hard I had to pull off the road.

This was the heaviest rain I have ever seen in my life. It actually hurt and I could hardly see the road. So I once again was forced off the road by the rain.

Here is a short video clip of the rain.

Not to worry because the sun soon returned as usual.

And, returned once again later so strong I took shelter in this shack on the road.
I was not happy.



It cleared again and I was still aiming for Boa Vista for the day. However, the road deteriorated badly and, in the middle of nowhere, my chain jumped off the chain and became jammed around the front sprocket.

Not to worry, because soon enough some locals stopped to help.

However, the chain, a BMW original chain, did not have a master link and I did not have a chain breaker. I feared that this would be a big problem. It took a long time to undue the chain from the front sprocket and I still needed to break the chain. My new friends thought a hacksaw would cut the chain but it hardly made a scratch. Fortunately, someone else came along and used a metal wedge and a hammer to pry the side plates off a link and then hammer out the pins with a screw. It took a long time but it worked. Fortunately, I actually had a spare chain, with a master link, because I heard the stock BMW chain is very weak.


Many hours later I was ready to hit the road where I was to buy some beers for my new friends.


I spent the night in Novo Paradaiso, which contrary to its name is anything but a paradise.

It rained all night and the next morning it was still raining hard. I tried to wait it out but could not bare the thought of spending another night in this paradise.

The rain eventually subsided and I headed out. At the gas station I met these two Franciscan monks who I previously met on the boat up the Amazon River. They were traveling without any money or belongings. They looked as bad as I felt but cheered up after I bought them some breakfast.

It was now Friday and if I needed to get a Venezuelan visa in Boa Vista. Otherwise I would be stuck in Boa Vista until Monday. I made the most of the clear weather.

I was in a hurry but couldn’t resist on last drink of Acai.

Then it was straight for Boa Vista.

I was told the best boat up the Amazon was leaving the next day. So, I left Sao Luis early for the first ferry out of Sao Luis for a high-speed run to Belem.

The motorcycle past 60,000 miles that morning. It was interesting because I remember I past 40,000 not far away in Santa Marta, Colombia almost one year before.

Children will find a way to have fun no matter the circumstances.

Again much of the forest has been destroyed for cattle grazing.

I made it to Belem on time although it was hectic trying to figure out the details. I also didn´t have time to stock up on provisions for the ride. This was a problem for the rest of the trip.

I was warned that the dock workers would want extra money to load the bike. I bargained hard but I was fooled into thinking they were going to lift the bike over the water onto the front deck.

They simply dropped the bike slowly onto the cargo deck, however. It looked like the motorcycle was going to drop into the river but they simply drop the bike down one wheel at a time.

I was also warned that one of the first sights of the trip are beggars. However, I never imaged anything like this. I was just endless lines of dugout canoes for the first two days. Some people were prepared and tossed out food enclosed in plastic bags.





Sometimes, I felt like begging for food, because the meals on the boat were terrible.

And the people who traveled in hammocks for the whole 6 days were subjected to conditions not much better than animals.


You might think the boat ride up the Amazon River is a romatic ride with lots of beautiful scenary. But then you would be wrong. It is a long, hot, boring ride. We didn´t even have a televion although I saw other boats with a satellite antenna. You mostly see water- lots of water.



Life goes on nevertheless.

Towards the end of the trip we encountered this cruise ship coming back down from Manaus. It gives you an idea of how big the Amazon is if a ship this size can navigate the river.


I was told there would be some spectacular sunsets but only one evening was there anything worth photographing.


We were lucky to have a traveling musician on the boat. He played live music for several hours each night. It was the only real diversion the boat provided.

The boat stopped along to river to unload cargo. The cargo was mostly basic provisions, like toilet paper and beer.

But mostly beer.

Sometimes people would tag onto the boat to try and sell fish.



Again, it is unbelievable how they are turning the Amazon into grazing land.



We arrived in Manaus very late on the fifth day. Unloading my birth was akin to giving birth. These guys then demanded 100 reales which I laughed. They were pretty stubborn but we never negotiated anything beforehand and my motorcycle was already off the boat. I told them 30 Reales, take it or leave it. They took it but were not happy.

I continued up the coast from Fortaleza towards Sao Luis rather than staying on the main road to Teresina.


I took a little detour inland to try and see some of the villages along the coast.

There was no other vehicles. I just had to keep alert for animals on the road.

And the weather.







The roads were not too bad but often the roads were washed out at certain spots. There had been a lot of rain in the past few weeks. So, an old man offered me a seat in the shade of his house while I waited for the road crews to finish working.



I was back on the road soon enough. However, I suddenly could not get the bike out of neutral. It turned out the lever on the gear box that moves the clutch cable was stuck. It was at this point that I noticed my clutch was slipping in 4 and 5th gears under heavy acceleration.



I made it to Sao Luis that night where to my surprise some local riders had been waiting for me for several hours on the main road.

Sao Luis has potential but needs a lot of work. The main attraction is the tiled buildings in the old part of town. The city is has a lot of hills so a good breakfast is essential.

From Natal I headed up the coast for Fortaleza. I was advised to take a detour off BR-304 towards a small coastal village called Areia Branca and then to Canoa Quebrada. It sounded like a good plan eventhough I got a very late start out of Natal.


As I headed east towards the coast the scenery got very tropical.

I also noticed a lot of water. At first I assumed this was normal considering all the rain and to proximity to the ocean. However, it soon became obvious that there was severe flooding.


I thought the wide eyed looks from the locals was the usual surprise of seeing an alien space ship, but soon hit this.

The road was completely washed out and even pickup trucks could not get through.

I had no choice but to turn around.

However, at spot a truck was stuck and I was afraid to pass along the sandy edge of the road around the truck. I was told there was another way around through the oil fields and followed a car out for the alternative route. At first it was paved and decided to pass the car because I grew tired of his slow speed as I watched the sun disappear.

This was a big mistake because I later got lost and never saw the car again. I ended up going all the way back to where I started. This time I unloaded the bike and drove around the truck. By the time I was around the truck some people had carryed all my stuff over to me without me saying anything.


I stayed the night in a nice hotel on BR-304 in Assu and headed for Fortaleza the next morning.

This advertisement made me hungry and sure enough I found a nice friendly little place at the turn off for the coastal road BR-40.


I love trying all the different juices in Brasil and always want to see what the fruit looks like. The owner here brought out the fruit and, with the help of his lovely daughter, let me taste the fruit raw. I then understood why the drink it mixed with water rather than pure juice, because it had a very strong taste. Unfortunately, I can´t remember the name of the fruit.


I had a terrible time trying to find a cheap hotel with parking but soon settled in and met up with some local riders who took me out for some fresh shrimp and beer.


Upon leaving my bike would not start and I had no luck trying to fix it. I was ready to dump the bike into the ocean but they calmed me down and located a bad battery connection. The bike and my sanity were saved.

Fortaleza had some nice beaches but I didn´t get much beach time because of all the rain. The surf is also very rough and hard to enjoy.

I want to thank all the local riders in Fortaleza who were so generous and patient with me. If you are going to Brasil check out Brasil Riders and also Motosnet.com.br

Upon arriving in Natal I was flagged down by a local rider who helped me find a hotel and made sure my stay in Natal was enjoyable. I am very grateful to him and all the riders of Steel Goose Motorclub and others in Natal who were so generous and helpful.


Natal has the most beautiful beaches in Brasil as well as some beautiful dunes. On of the members of the club ran buggy tours and took me out to the dunes.












I could relax with a great Caipirinia ever since I wasn´t driving.


And fish straight from the ocean.




Natal is the perfect place to learn surfing. The surf is strong but not too rough. Even I managed to surf a little.

I stayed in Natal much longer than planned but eventually had to leave. The rainy season was coming. Of course, I was escorted out of the city by my good friend Mussilino.