33 1/3 N C S + Cuba

Hey, this is Mary, I PASSED!!!I am now officially an RDCS! Thanks for all the help the past couple years. Hope you are having fun! Everyone here at works says Hello. Be careful!!!
~mary

Hey John, Let Mary hijack the thread there. She is so excited she passed her exam! WTF did your brother marry your alls sister? Hell Ya!! You were in Arkansas so that makes it legal right? Actually those of you who dont know, that was John(TM), his father, brother (groom) and his sister. Great family!! WTF John no pics of the bride? Your brother is gonna kick your ass!!I had to have fun with that! Sorry buddy. It was good to see you when you were home John. Glad to see you back down South though. Be careful my friend and ride every back road you find!

Damn John, you clean up pretty good. Did Silviu and his buddies get you to start speaking Portuguese? After a night with all those characters, I have never had a more wicked hangover in my life. One of these days I am going to convince Silviu to come up to Alaska so I can return the favor. Fun group of guys!

Now that's some more good stuff rite there.


Peace brother be safe.

Nice to see one of the locals enjoying

Way to go girl I glad you finally got caught up with me It has been a pleasure working with you, at least most of the time it was I'm glad I could play a small part in your sucess. I'm happy for you! Tell everyone all is well here and I'm doing my best to stay out of trouble.

Yeah for some reason I didn't get any shot of the bride as I wasn't able to take any photos during the ceremony, pics of her and the rest of the wedding are all online and I haven't seen them yet.

Thanks for the pizza right before I left, it was nice to have a little burger money for the road I've been riding my fair share of back roads but today have to take a big one to make some miles up for all the little ones.

+1 on the Caracas guys!

I was always thinking in the back of my mind "Now don't go pulling a Vincent"and wipe out the bathroom shower's ammenitiesYou crazy bastard. I haven't really gotten my drink on yet with the boys from Caracas but that may change when I head back. Drinking my not be good for you but it sure is fun sometimes Silviu is collecting quite the spots in NA to hit up, he and his family are good people and that goes for the rest of the group in Venezuela I had a blast.

The reason they all just like the top cases, not just for splitting you know


Hope all is well with you up in Alaska and the rest of the World you roam. Thought I might get to see you in Colombia again with certain someone special. Take it easy amigo

Hola Senor Ross nice to hear from you amigo.

I was sorry to hear about the loss of PartyBoss, I was sure hoping to make a trip with you out East to meet "The Man"
Dying is all part of living a life but for some it comes way to early

My best friend Robert Grossman that we went to the lake with on the jet boat over Labor Day 2011 when you where originally supposed to be going to go up to WetFest with PartyBoss and KB is no longer with us any more either.

If you live long enough, you see all your friends go but the memories sure are wonderful to get to keep forever

I'll be safe as I can, but like I tell anyone, if something happens to me down here it wouldn't be a bad death because I was doing just want I wanted to be doing and that isn't a bad way to go when thinking about all the possiblities out there. I ride daily with the memories of the ones I've loved and it is good, I'm never alone.

Viva Life and Good Memories


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Little update as late since I've been well away from good internet connections for most of this traveling in Venezuela. Currently I'm in Merida after suffering a most unusual 'wet' dry season this time of year in Los Andes. I've been giving the bike hell and have found heights over 14K feet, who would have thought before coming here:eek1 The miles are nearly free and it is great fun going to the gas pump and seeing how much I can spend and all the crazy looks and stares from people checking out the bike.

I must have gotten light headed as I was ~+/- 200 feet of 14K and flopped the poor girl on her lid:

It really wasn't so bad but damn steeper than it shows
She came out smelling like a rose, damn I love this bike

I'm trying to get a VISA for Brazil sorted out and Caracas wanted 5 days with my book and call to Bogota said 10 days so if I'm not going to have a passport for a few days I would rather it be in Colombia
Merida, VZ is South of the largest lake in SA and today hopefully without much rain I will ride up the western side and then cross one of the longest bridges in the world. The aduana is closed on the weekends so I will cross back into Colombia once more on Monday and go over to Cartagena and ship my old shock back home before heading down to Bogota and around getting my VISA sorted out before heading back to Venezeula and East.

I haven't had the chance of great internet and thought I found it yesterday but instead took a much needed day of rest finding a nice hotel for $23 with an amazing hot shower and drying out as I've lived like a wet rat for the last 3 days. Took in my first McDonald's of Venezuela, one of the only places I've ever found that I can tell it is a little different and then went for ice cream at the largest ice cream shop in the World, something like 900 flavors of ice cream. I'd set up a huge drying station first thing in my room using the fan to get everything dry again and got in plenty of rest, am dealing with a little bit of some kind of stomach bug and not quite 100%, somewhere around 90% and feeling good after the nice rest. Will be wonderful to find the dry and hot again getting out of the Andes, I gave it a hell of a go!

Hopefully when I get some quality net time by Bogota sorting the visa I can get this brought back up to date with the cliff note version. Just amazing what happens riding a bike in a foreign country

If you showed up on my doorstep looking like that I'd lock the door

Glad you are safe and well. Love getting emails notifying me of your posts, still my favourite report here of the dozens I read. Looking forward to a more detailed update!

That's a strange way you Okies have for changing tires on the bike...

I can just imagine how much of a PITA was straightening her back with the rubber side down, especially since I guess by the landscape you where probably above 10.000 feet...

Where was that? On the road to Piñango ? Or did you end up going to Gavidia - Micarache?

See you next weekend on the other side of the border... Take care amigo

John, honestly this is the strangest outfit I've ever seen you in... The poncho towel suits you as nicely as this one though

Hey John glad to see you back in SA. Hope all is well and everyone is looking forward to the RR. I am sure you are having one hell of a time. Take care my friend.

Damn......that sis of yours is a pretty sight! Who are those other guys?.

Sorry I missed you while you were back. I just might be able to take off and head south early fall. Will stay in touch.
Have fun Amigo.....

I might just be coming back up that way again one day as I've got more friends in the area now with one more added to the list, Good ole boy Len MacDonald from Halifax, he is good people He made up some really nice videos

Thanks for following along Farley This go around has been a litttle different as I've been a little farther away from the wifi signals and not paying the prices for it or have been too busy working on projects when I've been around it. Hopefully when I get down to Bogota to deal with the visa I will have some time to post up all the madness There has been tons of crazy assed adventure for sure!

I didn't change the tire but I did lube the chain easily That was a little side trip off the highest pass road in the Vnzl Andes. It was a good ride until I flipped it on its topTough bike and rode it away like barely a thing happened I'm running a little behind as I had some more bike repairs I worked on in Cartagena waiting around with the next group of Cubano boys getting ready to set sail. They where a good lot and help me out with the projects.

Looking forward to the finca and See you tomorrow I'm thinking. In San Gil, Colombia heading South on a nice route.

What can I say, I'm a man of many faces and have to try and fit in sometimes I was really glad to be there for that one

It has been an amazing time, it's just too much to just make one pass through Colombia and then leave it all behind, it's kinda addictingVnzl is not too bad either
The detail rr it going to be some time but I got all the pictures and stories in my mind...

Sounds good amigo, would love to share the road down South with you Sound to me like the house may have sold

See you around and sorry I missed you at the cabin when I was in, would have topped off a wonderful trip home


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Since I've been away from the report here is a little of Len MacDonald's http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=720177 awesome video skills with a little day riding with me I still laugh everytime I see it. Thanks Lenny, you are one good guy in my book Been a nice time running with you!


<IFRAME src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/39377759?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" frameBorder=0 width=400 height=225 allowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen webkitAllowFullScreen></IFRAME>A day riding with Oklahoma John from Len MacDonald on Vimeo.

And one other I noticed he posted up from Cartagena and another bike repair, I finally found a tig welder in Cartagena: Had the good help of a Mexican named Pablo riding a Harley Sportster headed for Cuba. Another fine fellow. Thanks for the great vids Lenny

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/39600613?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/39600613">Bike repairs and Spanish lessons in Cartagena, CO</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7874101">Len MacDonald</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

The video's are frickin hillarious!!! You represent us well John!!!You left out the "you sure got a pretty mouth"! "Now squeal like a pig"! You are having a great time!!! Be safe my friend.

Back on the road John? that didnt take long, I'm wondering if Deya and I'll be able to handle 'The return". We almost had to wait for Lulu to come and rescue us from Cuba. It's good to hear he got enough folks to make another run. We ended up getting rescued by a Mexican boat, ended up in the news and everything.....funny.
Play safe amigo!
Brian MD

He starts with that talk and I'm going for my knife.

that was great Johnnie, makes me want a heated mud pit for the Soiree

Back to the main report back in Quito, Ecuador in Febuary 2012:

I was staying the last night with Raul & Karla and sleep on their comfy couch in their apartment after Hector ditched me at Casa Helbling

There are two interesting stories that came from meeting Raul & Karla I want to share with you all.

The first is that some of you may recognize this living room and adjoining dining room in their apartment:




I thought right off the bat that the paneling in their living room was pretty cool and it also seemed that one of their film producing friends thought the same too as he used it as a set in a Nat Geo film production shoot that happened the night before when we all returned from our day ride. Turns out it was one of those series "Locked up Abroad" or something of the like where the scene was a guy working as a drug mule came into the apartments to cut some coke and do a few lines off the glass table. Raul and Karla's friend doing the shoot had remembered the room well and thought they had the perfect place to do the scene so they rented out the place for the shoot to make a little on the side. I thought it was interesting and also a cool place, I liked the looks, especially the wood paneling around the fireplace. Raul was the brains behind the design of the cool glass table and other neat features in the apartment as he is a trained architect/designer and it showed with his nice works.

The other story involves none other than our current President of the United States, Obama Turns out a friend, or daughter, or wife or somebody close to Karla's boss who works in the Ecuadorian government at her current job used to work in the United States, probably Chicago area from the sounds of it some years back. That said person working in the US at the time was involved in a car wreck of some sorts, no one was injured but car damage was involved with that said person's vehicle and the other person at fault was not interested in involving his insurance company and wanted to settle the matter in cash. He presented his business card and it turned out to be Barack Obama. He apparently took care of business out of pocket and was nice enough about it as the story went, never did understand or find out if he was carrying liability insurance or not at the time of the accident Small world as it goes around

Raul and Karla where both involoved with their daily business and I had little more to do than a little bike works mainly trying to fix my leaking fuel connections and repair my broken headset I use for skyping and listening to music on the computer which had snapped off one of the speakers from the headset. I had the morning free to work, only trying to stay out of the rain in the backyard of their apartment complex where I was working.


My little work area out back:


Protection for a bald head and cool temperatures


My problem, fuel was leaking from here, one of these pins was bad:


You can guess which one it was, looks like it got hot at some point:huh


From what I found JB weld was supposed to seal up well enough for gasoline so I gouped a lot on and also fixed my headset using the same. I gouped them all for good measure


I needed a drill to make a hole in one of the front tanks trim pieces that was starting to split out and with the help of the friendly apartment security guard found a guy next door at an auto taller and bought him a Bud for helping me out, he liked it even if it was early in the dayI put a ziptie stich in my trim piece to remedy the situation and was done with my morning mechanic works.

First Budweiser in qutie some time, it was a nice cool reward for finishing up.

About the time I'd finished up with my work Raul had also finished up with his morning stuff and came to fetch me to take me to met up with Karla at a wonderful Italian place for a late lunch. It was some tasty food, we ordered a few plates of different dishes and split the lot between us all for a nice selection and then some nice deserts:





I really love it when the locals show me all that is good to eat and drink:dg

Terry-me-Sue IIRC, it was nice too!


We where planning on going to the beach on the weekend and Raul was busy with his work and his bike was in dire need to new rear sproket and I volunteered my services as I was more than happy to help with the repairs since I had such wonderful accomadations and some many nice meals

I think he got every last mile out of this one, I remembered hearing it jumping and slapping on the ride the other day:eek1

Had a few teeth bigger rear sproket for replacement and I hooked his up with nice spare RK chain I happened to have on had and got him well sorted for the upcoming ride.
Just buttoning up the final touches right before the heavy rains came, perfect timing:


Pleasant work area in the backyard of the apartment:


The following morning Feb 14 was a normal work day for Raul & Karla and I was up for a little tour around Quito and wanted to make a stop into to a fellow ADVer's named Guido's place for a little visit to see if he was in this time. It was nice to met up with the guy and have a beer and some papa fritas on the house, Thanks Man!
Him hard at work:


After that I'd planned to ride down South out of town a little ways to a waypoint Raul had given me to his new project out on his family's finca. He was building up a new little resort/lodge finca out in the nice hills.
All I had was a waypoint and managed to get pretty darn close to the entrance only to wrap around the countryside to the other side of the property with no road access. I ended up stopping a few locals and getting them to call Raul on their mobile to get me sorted out where he could come down to the main hw and get me led in to he property. I was close but no cigar.
Here getting recused in the overcast and light showers getting led up to the resort in progress:


It is quite the project in the making and he is planning to open soon, with anything the delays stake up when trying to get something done on time and in budget. Beautiful location up in the rolling hills West of the PanAm.


He had put in some beautiful gardens on the property and a nice winding pathway that loops back into itself, a zen-like garden with beautiful flowers and plants:


Pistol IIRC from my botany days:


The name of the Hacienda I forget but was grown with flowers in the lovely garden:


Raul's latest big project undertaking in the back with a storage and outdoor recreation type area under heavy construction with lots of steel reinforcement in place:



from Bogota posted before I lose it over this shitty connection

Good to see you posted. Where you at? Hope all is well and be safe my friend.

I've been in Bogota the last three days after spending time with Siliviu and his family at their ranch just to the SE of the geographical center of Colombia over this past week.
I would have gotten more posted up but this unstable internet connection has made me a little turned off from posting up big reports with the chance of losing them with the connection dropping out.

Instead I've been cooling my jets sleeping and catching up with Big Macs waiting for the Brazilian Embassy to open up Monday morning where I will drop the passport off for a number of days to get me a VISA. Think I will spend my time waiting over in Medellin and Cali areas and then return to Bogota to fetch my passport and go back to Venezuela once more and get back on the ball.

Had a great time with Silviu and family on the ranch doing a whole lot of nothing and having a grand time of it We ate really well and spent some time riding the horses and trying to fish in the flooded river.

Maybe if I get a stable connection for awhile then some more quality posts can be made up




John in Bogota at a filled up hostel near the centro killing time

Word is that "Señor John" traded his smelly helmet for a much cooler colombian hat and the "Little Mule" was given up in favor of a horse and some land in Colombia, I don't think you guys should expect him back in OK... but don't take my word for it.... here's a pic for proof