Ride Report Index: March 3, 2017 - Well many thanks to Adventure Rider for providing a place to stash our Ride Reports. Unfortunately, they decided to change some software a couple of years ago that doesn't tolerate composing in MS Word and transferring the contents to the Forum pages. The result is what you are probably seeing now: A bunch of smiley faces and formatting code. Was supposed to be fixed but never was. I'll now start to manually fix it but, it'll take a while. Just finished my first Mexico Ride Report and that seemed to take me forever. Steve Feb 6, 2022 - Another update. Just finished fixing about 98% of the formatting issues of the second half of this ride report. As my motivation permits, I'll work back through and try to pick up the remaining punctuation weirdness. Steve Index for this Ride Report - click on the page number to be directed to the relevant page INDEX LINKS ARE BROKEN - This is apparently something to do with ADVRIDER.COM. They are working to repair it. You can still manually find the correct page. Mexico Oct 19 Entering Mexico - Post #29 - Go to page Two Oct 20 Highway 16 - Post 33 - Go to page Three Oct 21 & 22 #1 Basaeachi - Post 41 - Go to page Three Oct 21 & 22 #2 Creel - Post 49 - Go to page Four Oct 23 Almost Copper Canyon - Post 52 - Go to page Four Oct 24 On to Saltillo - Post 57 - Go to page Four Oct 25 Real de Catorce - Post 58 - Go to page Four Oct 26 Real de Catorrce - Post 68 - Go to page Five Oct 27 Leaving Real - Post 73 - Go to page Five Oct 28 The day I hoped would never end - Post 75 - Go to page Five Oct 29/30 San Miguel de Allende - Post 77 - Go to page Six Oct 31 to Nov 2 Guanajuato - Post 80 - Go to page Six Oct 31 to Nov 2 The City - Rivers and Tunnels - Go to page Six Oct 31 to Nov 2 Mexican History - Go to page Seven Nov 3 Cuota Hell - Go to page Seven Nov 4 Taxco - Go to page Seven Nov 5 Hiking Taxco - Go to page Seven Nov 6 8 Oaxaca - Go to page Seven Nov 9 -11 Zipolite - Go to page Seven Nov 12 Reluctantly leaving Zipolite - Go to page Seven Nov 13 Cañon de Sumidero and San Cristobal - Go to page Seven Guatemala Nov 14 Into Guatemala - Go to page Seven Nov 14 17 San Pedro - Go to page Eight Nov 18 Antigua - Go to page Eight Nov 19 More Antigua - Go to page Eight Honduras Nov 21 To Copan Ruinas - Go to Page Eight Nov 22 Copan Ruins - Go to page Nine Nov 23 Into Honduras - Go to page Nine Nov 24 Last day in Honduras - Go to page Nine Nicaragua Nov 25 Into Nicaragua - Go to page Nine Nov 26-28 San Juan del Sur - Go to page Nine Costa Rica Nov 29 Into Costa Rica - Go to page Ten Nov 30 More Costa Rica Ten Dec 1 Across Costa Rica Ten Dec 2 - 4 Puerto Viiejo Ten Panama Dec 5 - Crossing into Panama Eleven Dec 6 - Panama City Eleven Colombia Dec 7 Over the Darien Gap Eleven Dec 8 9 Bogota Eleven Dec 10 Pick up bike day Twelve Dec 11 Manizales Twelve Dec 13 Into coffee country Twelve Dec 14 Medellin Thirteen Dec 18 Leaving Medellin Thirteen Dec 19 Bucaramanga Thirteen Dec 20 Chicamocha and Barichara Thirteen Dec 21 Zipaquira Thirteen Dec 22 - Armenia Thirteen Dec 23 To Cali Fourteen Dec 23 Dec 28 Cali Fourteen Dec 28 Pasto Fourteen Ecuador Dec 29 Into Ecuador Fourteen Dec 30 To Quito Fourteen Dec 31 4 QuitoFifteen Jan 5 12 Galapagos Sixteen Jan 14 Amazon Rainforest Seventeen Jan 16 Baños Seventeen Jan 18 To Puerto Lopez Eighteen Jan 19 Puerto Lopez Eighteen Jan 19 - 26 Puerto Lopez and Mandála Eighteen Jan 26 Up the coast Eighteen Jan 29 to Jan 31 Last time in Quito Eighteen Feb 1 The trip resumes Eighteen Feb 2 Cuenca Nineteen Feb 3 Cuenca and Super Bowl Nineteen Feb 4 & 5 Last days in Ecuador Nineteen Peru Feb 6 On to Peru Nineteen Feb 7 To Jaen Nineteen Feb 8 Rio Utcubamba Nineteen Feb 9 - 11 Kuelap Twenty Feb 9 - 11 Gocta Waterfalls Twenty Feb 12 Back to Jaen Twenty Feb 13 Chiclayo Twenty Feb 14 - 16 Huanchaco Twenty One Feb 17 Cañon del Pato Twenty One Feb 18 - 20 Huaraz Twenty Two Feb 21 To the Coast and Huacho Twenty Two Feb 22 25 Lima, Huacachina and Nazca Twenty Three Feb 26 On the way to Cusco Twenty Three Feb 27 & 28 The ride to Cusco . . . but first, lets ride to Abancay??? Twenty Four Mar 1 & 2 Cusco Twenty Four Mar 3 - On to Machu Pichu Twenty Four March 4 Machu Pichu Twenty Four March 5 Ollyantombo and Maras Twenty Five March 6 Heading to(wards) Colca Canyon Twenty Five Mar 7 Finally to Chivay Twenty Six Mar 8 Colca Canyon and Arequipa Twenty Six Mar 9 - 10 Arequipa Twenty Seven Mar 11 To Puno Twenty Seven Mar 12 Lake Titicaca Twenty Seven Bolivia Mar 13 to La Paz and Bolivia Twenty Seven Mar 14 La Paz Twenty Seven Chile Mar 15 to Chile Twenty Seven Mar 16 Arica Twenty Seven Mar 17 Iquique Twenty Seven Mar 19 Antofagasta Twenty Eight Mar 20 San Pedro de Atacama Twenty Eight Argentina Mar 21 Jammin the Jama - to Argentina Twenty Eight Mar 23 Tafi del Valle Twenty Nine Mar 24 Catamarca Thirty Mar 25 27 Braving the flatlands to Buenos Aires Thirty March 28 Apr 5 Buenos Aires ThirtyThirty One Home Apr 6 15 Home Thirty One You could have followed along by following my up to date position generated by my SPOT. The map now provides a good picture of a summary and detailed positions of my trip. Go here to see the SPOT MAP First Post: My quest to avoid flakes After a successful three month trip around Mexico last winter, the old bug to ultimately travel through South America resurfaced and, here we are. Taking a few steps back in time, here is a bit of background leading up to this trip. For a number of years I have had a lot of fun exploring the paved roads of North America on my Harley (Yah, I know). Always looking for new places to go, a couple of years ago, I thought "Why not ride that big ol red Hog down to Mexico and meet my wife there for a little lollygagging on a beach?" What a great time and, fantastic riding. But, after that trip I knew that a travelling bike that could accommodate topes (speed bumps), gravel and crappy roads with a bit more class would make sense. So, with a lot of research, wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, I settled on a BMW 800GS as the ideal traveling bike for me. I have the right bike and I've dipped my toe in the water of adventure riding so the next step was to put two toes in the water. It started to come together when I retired almost a year ago and I was able to convince my wife that it would be a good idea for me to spend the first 3 months of my retirement wandering around Mexico on my new bike. Had a fabulous time sampling the beauty and culture of the many diverse parts of Mexico and my wife was able to join me for part of it. Mexico by Geezer After returning in the Spring and assimilating myself back into "normal" life, the idea of a longer trip to South America resurrected itself. A casual discussion with my wife received a reserved agreement so, I decided I had better "make hay while the sun shines" and get planning before she realized what she had agreed to and changes her mind. Having said that I "got planning" . . . well, there has been a lot of bike preparation, getting more gadgets but actual trip planning has been incredibly sketchy . . . for me. In the past, my road trips on the Harley tended to have the entire trip researched and planned down to the exact roads to take and the specific places I want to see before I left home. Some people (like me) rely heavily on a trip laid out turn for turn on their GPS while others like to wave paper maps in the wind to figure out where they are and where to go, while others have no maps, no GPS and no clue . . . they just point and go and see what happens. I envy that. This time my planning has consisted of getting some paper and GPS maps . . . determining that I want to go south until somewhere in Argentina, have my wife join me in the middle and then fly back to the US. That's about it. That's the RexBuck equivalent of point and go. Purists will scoff . . . I'll be relying on my lady friend, my BMW 800GS, a pretty tough old broad complete with dings, scratches and the bottom layer of grim and bug shit - the rest being removed in my half-assed attempt to wash her. Here she is ready to go And saying goodbye to her buddies who get to stay home and freeze their mufflers off for the winter. Oh, for those of you who do not experience snow in the winter, those machines to the right of her buddies are called snow blowers and are a product of the devil . . . their use should be avoided whenever possible. Remember, one snow flake is a beautiful thing but many together are best avoided. Ergo, the subtitle for this post. As I post this I've started the trip having worked my way down to California to visit my Dad, my Son and his wife and get some new suspenders for my lady friend. More on all of this and stuff I've done to my bike later.
There should be a stickied post for reports on how to gain approval from, or a least break the news to, wives of riders who plan to take off on an adventure. Sometimes that's the hardest part of planning, and maybe even the trip. For me, the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" line has worked well. I just don't know how many more times she'll believe that line. Sounds like a great trip! Perhaps our paths will cross on my way back north in 2013. Subscribed!
I enjoyed your last ride report and I'm looking forward to following you all the way to the bottom. Ride safe and take it all in! Johnnydarock
Thanks Parcero, hopefully we will run into each other along the way. No brilliant ideas in the "asking the wife dept" other than having one that is very tolerant and is good at the rolling of the eyes thing and shrugging her shoulders everytime we come up with some new idea. Thanks for that Mario - also, congrats on the new GS. And, welcome to the forum. Thanks cy Thanks for that Johnny and I appreciate you coming along again.
Enjoyed learning about your trip over breakfast this morning, thanks for making the effort to look me up and for stopping by to say hello. Great memories of our dinner in Oaxaca. Looking forward to your RR. Safe Travels
Remember, take the time for lots of photos along with your great discriptions (the "verbage"), and stop to smell the roses - like you won't !!! Stay safe, Stevo - shiny side up, gooey side down. See you in the spring. Mi esposa will be contacting tu esposa (or words to that effect). Pedro
the answer to the wife question is to have me around to spend too much time with her while you are gone. wasn't hard to convince her to let you go. safe LONG trip Steve
Another BC Boy seeking the sun...I am currently in Antigua, trying to figure out the difference between estoy and ser. Riding Blondy, the first F800 series. Had a great time in Baja and Mexico. Highly recommend San Juan de Laguna de Attilan if you have time. Guatemala is great. Perhaps our paths will cross. Subscribed..
It was great seeing you again Holckster. And, thanks for the road tips down the foothills. By the way, ate some of that jerky from that sausage shop in your town. Really good!
Thanks buddy, I appreciate that. Will try to keep my verbosity under control . . . See you in the Spring
If you ever figure out that esoy / ser thing, let me know. That is one of the many parts of the language I struggle with. Hoping to hang around Attilan a bit - is that where you are taking Spanish classes? Thanks for joining in
Thanks GuateRider. Holckster mentioned that he had a great time with you. Maybe we will be able to meet up down the road.
Yah, yah . . . I know your wife will keep that under control Thanks for the well wishes Billy and welcome to the forum
Well, I'm back for this years adventure...... Looking forward to not getting much done at work.......again! Be Safe, Sleddog
Great to have you along again. I have so many people to thank for messing up my work day, I guess it's payback. I highly recommend retirement.