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.

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 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.

Some follow-up on luggage cases.

1. Crashing and Loose Screws
I do not expect luggage racks to survive a crash. They should be repairable in the field, however. Every drop or crash has been documented on this blog. It is something I learned from Grant at my first Horizons Unlimited meeting. The first thing you do when you drop the bike or crash is– take a picture! I have ridden close to 50,000 miles on this trip through some difficult roads. The crash in Baja were with the Jesse bags, which suffered no damage. Otherwise there have been one or two low speed drops. Really only one prior to the major cracking of the Caribou racks. Certainly, that is not the cause of all my problems with these racks.

Screws are bound to come loose, especially using the inadquate mounting points BMW provides. For me, the most problematic screws have been the two M8 screwes at the back. I use loctite and also started using nuts with those two screws. It is fairly obvious when one of those screws come loose because the cases move a lot more. This creates a lot of noise and tells you to check the screws. Furthermore, since I have reinforced the main bars held by the rear M8 screws the cracking has stopped completely. All the other cracking have no possible relation to loose screws. My modifications are documented below.

2. AMC Quality
I have to admit AMC was very helpful when I first purchased the luggage and had problems installing the racks. The racks fit precisely together and I have a hard time installing them. There is a lot of high sprung tension by the time you are inserting the final pieces. You have to be careful and if you bike is not perfectly new the fit may be more difficult because the pieces my not line up precisely. I never considered the u-bolts installed in the wheel well to be positioned to bear any weight, although AMC insisted they do. I have spoke with some other riders who have also had problems making the racks fit properly. I had some modifications done just to make a better fit and later had to remake the tubing because they cracked off. This is documented below.

Caribou would probably work as advertised on pavement only or anything other than a prolonged trip on bad roads. The first break occurred after a day of high speed riding on a road full of holes.

I owe Caribou one of the nicest experiences of the trip, when I looked down the road and saw these two kids carrying my luggage up the road for me. I almost cried. Their family later gave me coffee and home-made cheese as they looked for part of the rack. Caribou luggage – $$$$$; experience in Cauca, Colombia – priceless. But, notice the condition of the road in the foreground. The bike took a serious ponding this day. In fact the next day I notice two BMW subframe bolts had broken off.

3. Modifications
Some simple reinforcements have enabled the racks to be much more durable.
Main cross bars

U-Bolts
I also had a lot of work done on the underside u-bolts. For some reason, the right side cracks a lot whereas the left has few problems. Here are the what the look like as of April 2008.


I just realized one u-bolt in the picture is upside down. The one on the right is the right side u-bolt. However, the top part with all the electrical tape is the bottom part that hooks into the frame of the luggage bracket. Now, look at the left side. Here the bottom is the bottom and is almost original. If you look closely you can see the hook. Sorry, I should have a detailed picture of this. I will add one soon. My point here is that I had the ´hook´enlarged because the luggage bracket never truely fit into this location. From day one, at best it added stability by preventing movement but did not bear any weight.

Now let´s go back to the left u-bolt. Today, it basically does nothing except add a little stability. This is to say not much difference from the original, imho. This incarnation of the u-bolt was done in desperation somewhere on Ruta 40. You can see where the improvised extension was welded to the orgininal. This spot has cracked many times. I have had one custom made exactly like the original when I found the best welder in South America. However, I finally gave up because it is not worth the effort. A brand new u-bolt from AMC would make little difference than this frankenstein piece I have now.

I believe this u-bolt is poorly designed. It does not fit properly into the luggage bracket for one. Second, it merely hooks into the bracket. The fit is very loose. At one point I placed silicon paste in the u-bolt slot to prevent movement of the luggage bracket in the slot.

Luggage Brackets
The luggage brackets are frequently cracking at two spots on each bracket. The spots are where you can see the welding in these pictures.


So, finally I had the brackets reinforced. I only recently had this done. Previously, I would just have the cracks welded. I don´t know why I didn´t do it sooner. Maybe because there is very little space between the bracket and the cases. However, in Recife, Brasil I found the coolest welder in South America. Here is my buddy David.



David welded some metal L-shaped pieces over the spots prone to cracking. I was very happy with this and only wondered why I never thought of this.

4. Miscellaneous
The Jesses really only have two weight bearing spots rather than three as I stated. There are two mounting points across the top, however. But, when the Jesse case fit into the racks they are really tight. Sometimes so tight it is difficult to remove them. This prevents any vibration.

BMW did a bad job providing mounting points for any luggage system.


Remember this bike is really not designed for a trip such as mine. Its is all MARKETING. If you think a BMW bike is inherently better than any other bike, you are officially BRAINWASHED. But then most people today are brainwashed one way or another. (Must stick to motorcycles.)

Minor point- the keys face up and are easily jammed by dirt. My first week upon restarting this trip I had to go to a locksmith in Baja because there was sand in the lock. I simple cap would have prevented this.

I wonder if there is a way to convert the Pelicans back to normal use, and maintain the warranty, if you no longer wanted to use them for a motorcycle.

I have talked to Jesse of Jesse Luggage several times and I can’t say he has the best customer service. He did say the racks I had were old and made of two metal halves fused together whereas the newer one are one solid piece.

This post is a long time coming. People have asked my opinion about luggage cases and I have intended to write a thorough post. This post is not as thorough as I wanted but I am sick again in Brasil and in a bad mood. I need to vent. I could vent about many things, like the guy on Adventure Rider who starts a thread asking ‘how are the roads in Central America‘, a rider who insists on posting every little thing he does no matter how insignificant, or the women who is visiting the U.S. for the first time and plans to ride across the country in one week. Then there are those still asking, ‘is Colombia safe’ or which bike is the best for the trip, the total lack of electrical outlets in South American hotels, 24 ATMs that close at 10pm, banks that do not open till 10am, cab drivers who do not use meters and, well I’ll stop now. And these are just annoyances in totally insignificant motorcycle world. I could rant about any number of world issues or what it is like to eat steak and drink beer while starving children and cripples constantly approach you for money. I mean this whole website is totally irrelevant, I know. But I promised myself I would only discuss motorcycle related topics on this website. Oh wait, the medicine must be kicking in, where was I. Ahh yes, luggage racks.

My first set of hard luggage cases were a used set of Jesse bags. I forget what model year but I bought them in 2004 used. I didn’t any off-road riding with these cases until I took a 2 week trip to Mexico for the 2004 Horizons Unlimited meeting.
Here is the bike with the Jesse bags loaded at the October 2004 Horizons Unlimited Meeting in Creel, Mexico.

Unfortunately, I crashed on my way down to Batopolis. I was headed up this road, btw.

This required straightening the racks and then at Grant’s (HU co-owner) suggestion I had them reinforced at the slots for the cases.

I liked the Jesse because the were strong. However, I didn’t like the flimsy locks, difficult removal/attachment and lack of waterproofing. The most annoying problem for me was that removal and moving the cases was difficult. Removing fully loaded cases, sometimes even when empty, was difficult, and there was no easy way to carry each case in one hand. This made unloading and loading the bike a clumsy and time consuming ordeal. By the time, I broke my leg in August 2006 a new luggage system had been developed called Caribou Luggage, utilizing Pelican cases.

So, I decided to splurge for a new set luggage cases. Here is a picture with the new cases.

Not the best picture of the cases but it brings back a lot of memories. You can see my good friend Jeff as well as his Happy Trials cases compared to the Caribou. (Hi Jeff)
Here is another shot.

Here you can see them along side a set of Happy Trails and Touratech (I think) panniers.

I was fairly happy with the Caribou’s. They are truly waterproof, have a large storage capacity, are easy to remove, and have decent locking system. However, once in South America, I started riding some bad roads and the racks started breaking frequently.

The following is a a history of my experiences with the cases, including crashes and drops. The complete story for each can be found at the individual blog posts.

December 2006 – purchased luggage and racks
May 2007 – drop, left side, while driving approx 20 kph through a construction zone
July 2007 – during a day of riding in San Augustin, Colombia, through a unpaved road full of potholes my right case sudden broke off because the racks cracked. Fortunately the bag fell completely off and I managed to stop without falling. This was the beginning of my welding tour.

September 2007: Trujillo, left side cracking, had this kid do some minor welding

September 2007 Canyon de Pato: Major structural seperation on right side by the end of this day of unpaved roads and rocks.

Welder in Caraz

October 2007: received new set of mounting racks only from AMC after much debate. Had them reinforced by a welder who is a member of the Lima Moto Club

November 2007 Had u-bolt custom manufactured by an excellent welder, unfortunately it only lasted a couple of days on Bolivian roads because the entire u-bolt assembly broke off again two days later. Previously I always had about half of the bolt that was bolted onto the frame. The half reaching out to the case frequently broke off.

November 2007 Villa Mar, Bolivia (south of Uyuni)
Dropped bike in deep sand breaking luggage side mount. This clean break was at a spot frequently welder in the past because of cracking. The next day it was welded again. Fortunately, there is a welder almost every in South America.

December 2007 welding of sidestand and custom u-bolt thingy.

December 2007 Caleta Olivia- several cracks welded

The past few months I have not had any beaks because I now frequently inspect the racks and every time I see cracking I have it welded.

Conclusion I am not an engineer, but this is the way I see it. The Jesse racks are made of sold metal. They will bend and at some point break but are very strong. The Caribou racks are made of metel tubing and therefore are much thinner at any given point. This makes them vulernable to cracking. Also, the Pelican cases used in the Caribous system are heavy. I do not know how heavy or even how the weight compares to a Jesse case. I would like to know the weights if anyone out there knows. I do not think the Caribou racks are strong enough for the weight of the cases fully loaded. This results in cracking and breaking under stress, i.e., unpaved roads. I also do not like the design of the Caribou racks. The weight is really only supported by the main top bar. There are u-bolts attached inside the rear tire well but they only serve to hold the case in place. Even if you could manage to get the u-bolt to bear some of the weight as the manufacturer claims the metal hooks permit a lot of movement. I believe this is why they were constantly breaking. The Jesse system has three solid, tight fitting, weight bearing locations.

If I had to do it again I might take a closer look at Happy Trails or the new Jesse’s with water proof inner bags. I saw a set of Metal Mule cases in Argentina and I really liked them, but I do not believe they are sold in the U.S.

I am not the only one experiencing problems. Have a look at his photos here http://tysonbrust.com/2008/03/16/caribou-luggage-rack-disaster.aspx
This is his first paragraph assessing the Caribou system

Caribou Luggage Rack Disaster
Before setting out on last year’s adventure through the Americas, I did a lot of research on luggage systems. In the end I went for the Caribou luggage system because it looked easy to install and used Pelican 1550 cases which would still be waterproof after a nuclear blast. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that although the Pelican cases held up beyond expectations, the Caribou rack itself continually fell apart. By the end of the trip, almost every weld had been redone. Luckily it is relatively easy to find welders in even the most remote places of the world.

If all this was not enough, the reaction from Adventure Motorcycle Company (AMC) was very hostile. It took many heated emails for me to receive replacement racks (just the motorcyle mounts). They insisted the breaks occurred due to a crash, basically claiming I was lying. Only at the last minute did they agree to send new racks costing me 2 weeks in Lima and I paid for the shipping. This from a company promoting its cases as “World’s Toughest Motorcycle Luggage”, and claiming on its website that “[c]aribou luggage systems are built tough for the adventure touring motorcyclist who needs rugged functionality, high quality, and personal service & support. Every part of the Caribou bracket/rack system is carefully engineered for strength and durability – even in a crash. Every detail from the fasteners to the locks is carefully and painstakingly thought out.”

I have an unconfirmed report that they AMC has decided to use a thicker gauge for the tubing.

I didn’t expect much from Ushuaia. Initially, I didn’t even plan on going all the way down. It is a long difficult ride down and then back up just for a photo. However, I am glad I did it. Perhaps some of the most difficult riding but very rewarding. I arrived at the end of Route 3 for the photo alone– alone, no tourists, no other riders. I unceremoniously positioned the bike and considered how to take a photo of myself. Then, the buses I had passed on the way in started arriving and the tourists started walking over. A group of people came over and took my picture and turned out to be a group of ‘paisas’ from Medellin, Colombia. One of them was a rider who knew some of my Medellin friends. Later, an Argentina guy I befriended in the hostel came over from the group of tourists and congratulated me and took more photos. He had watched me loose my cool as I tried to fix the motorcycle at the hostel, fearing that I needed major repairs less than 50 kilometers to the end of the road. It was a fitting ‘ending’. I was alone, as usual, but somehow friends or friendly strangers appeared.

The trip has not changed me, really. People have told me I am not the same person. No doubt, but only because I am confident in my beliefs, how I treat people, and my priorities. Morals are important, and people recognize a moral person by the way they present themselves. As such, you are treated in kind. And, I have been treated with kindness, generosity and respect in every country and by people in all walks of life. Some people take trips like this just for laughs, to escape reality, and pretend they are what they are not. In the end the trip ends and, if that is all the trip is, then it is a waste. Seeing the sign for the end of Route 3 I realized I am ready to go home. But, first I am going to Brazil!

Some people just don’t believe it unless there is a picture. Hence all those “I was here photos” people take as if the sole reason for visiting a place is to take a photo. No effort to learn or expose oneself to something new. Just take the photo and go back to your hotel and eat a Ceaser salad (invented in Tijuana for the American tourist), drink a diet Coke, make jokes about the way other people live; then go shopping and bargain until you make the salesperson give you a discount before he goes home for the night to his one room shack.

So, yes, I made it to Ushuaia. It was beautiful but the sudden exposure to well-heeled tourists from Celebrity Cruises and certain fellow riders has been difficult. I am now in Buenos Aires.
It was windy,

But well worth it despite everything.

The long rides through the pampas sure gives you time to think.

I still tell people that there is no place I would rather live other than New York. However, it is starting to sound like middle America these days. The city just hasn’t been the same since they removed all the graffiti from the trains.
An engaged couple were arrested for engaging in intercourse on their motorcycle. Glad to read they were from Brooklyn.
The New City Council is getting into the business of regulating free speech. I may have to relocate if this keeps up.

P.S. I am now in Quito, Ecuador waiting for my motorcycle to be repaired. “Manana” sure lasts a long time, sometimes.

P.P.S. And now they are having tornadoes in Brooklyn!

The following is an excerpt from Tim Cahill´s book Hold the Enlightenment. I would like to reproduce a good portion of it hear, assuming that he will not mind as long as I make a shameless plug for his books.


Tim Cahill’s Travel 101

I first got into Tim Cahill’s books when I overheard someone at a Horizons Unlimited meeting talk about his book Road Fever which recounts a world record run in a car from Argentina to Alaska. Hilarious!

Until recently I have rarely used my iPod, but it is now my primary form of entertainment. I have considered doing a podcast for this site, but really don’t think I could make something worth the effort. So, I started searching for podcasts related to my trip. My search was limited to the iTunes store, although I know there are motorcycle blogs out there with regular podcasts.

Doing a search for motorcycle in the iPod section of iTunes brings up 30 podcasts, although some are not truely motorcycle specific. Several are devoted to motorcycle racing in one form or another and a few are brand specific. I did not find any motorcyle overland travel podcasts. Here are some I thought were worth noting:

This is a strictly industry news podcast. Nothing specific to traveling.

This one surprised me. Despite to name they make a decent attempt for a serious show. Recent editions have included interviews with Grant Johnson from Horizons Unlimited and Greg Haggstad from Striking Viking.net. There is a section on repair and one what might be called motorcycles and philosophy. The problem I have that most the to editions are over 30 minutes long. It better be very informative or entertaining to take up that much of my time. It is neither. There is some interesting stuff here but not enough for me to listen to idle chatter or 10 minutes of motorcycle philosophy from ‘Harley Dude’.

A very basic motorcycle podcast that covers a range of topics from making repairs, picking up bikes and camping. It seems just much to basic for anyone but a complete beginner, however.

A podcast companion to the most authoritative motorcycle publication. So far most of the podcasts consist of interviews with racers or others in the industry.

Lonely Planet Podcast
Security in South America

There are two engine guards from Touratech. One is an upper fairing guard and the other is a lower crank case guard. I only purchased the lower guards at first. Not only did I find them next to useless, but rather dangerous.

I drove out of the driveway from the dealer where they installed the guards (the bike was having other work done anyway) and as I merged into traffic I panicked because I could find the shift lever when I tried to upshift. It took some getting used to but I needed to angle my foot down and out to slip my boot under lever. This was extremely difficult when riding in dirt and standing on the pegs. I can’t believe a company like Touratech designed these things!

You can see the bars well in this picture.

It turned out that one on the bars cracked through the bar during a crash I had in Mexico (-link-). The crash was at low speed and offroad, also. See the pictures from the trip to Mexico for the 2005 Horizons Unlimited meeting.

Many distance riders use a set of these panniers from Aerostich. I have used this set for almost 5 years and they have held up well despite some serious abuse. I do have some complaints, however.

Not waterproof- a good storm will drench the contents.

Attachment is unstable- the bags basicall hang over the body of the bike. There are bungee cords with hooks that can go from one bag to a loop in the opposite bag. This does stablize the bags but depending on your bike YMMV.

Inefficient use of space- The bags are basically rectangular. This creates a disproportionate amount of mass away from the body. I would like to see a flatter unit cover more of the bike. Perhaps, something the was collapsable to shrink for smaller loads. This would probably created a significantly more expensive product.

My long-term dissatisfaction lead me to purchase the Sahara bag from Santa Cruz BMW by Wunderlich. Don’t let this turn you off from Aerostich products, because they are they a great company.

I will review the Sahara Bag in the future.

It seems recently that there is a lot of interest in crossing the Darien Gap by motorcycle. Why is this. It has been done, but only at great cost of time and effort. Why do people feel this need to ‘conquer’ the Darien Gap. Why not leave it in peace. As far as I can tell it is only the American riders who talk seriously of doing crossing the gap. This does not surprise me. Someone correct me if I am wrong. Heldge Peterson’s book “10 Years on 2 Wheels” fueled much of the interest. I think he is the most recent person wo actually drag (I wouldn’t say ride) a motorcycle across the Darien Gap.
Here are some of the discussions:

In fact, just go to Horizons Unlimited and do a search of the Darien Gap. Also look on the Travelers’ Tales page.

Here is Peterson’s book at Amazon.

The story of Danny Liska who, in the 1960′s, shipped his bike but then crossed by foot is also worth noting. His book is on Amazon:

Finally there is also

This space will be for rants and raves about motorcylce design. Specifically, I believe there are many simple design changes that should be standard of every street motorcylce.

Kickstand: I wish someone would design a locable sidestand so that you would not have the worry of the stand folding up by accident. My first ‘off’ was on a hot day when I pulled off next to a building to get in some side and rest. There was a slight downgrade from the side of the building I hadn’t noticed and the kickstand folded up I I just tipped over after having stopped. I imagine having a second leg on the kickstand that you would press down and lock in place the would not only prevent the stand from folding up but provide another leg of stability for the bike.