On christmas day rafael explained me the road to Puerto Barrios and wanted to ride half the way with me to make sure i would not get lost in Guatemala City. Around halfway we decided to have a stop for Breakfast and as they were leaving i ran into Steve, Werner and Erik who were on their way to Semuc Champey. As i had one spare day to spend before meeting Evan and Eugene i figured why not and followed them to the unknown destination. I happened to be my first off road experience and i managed to ride the two hours up and down steep hills in the Guatemalan jungle without dropping the bike. Arriving at the idealistic hostal Utopia i was glad to park my bike for the night. Evan told me that they where in the same area and were planning to spend another day before going to Puerto Barrios. At the end i was very glad that i went there with the other guys as it was a nice place to take an extra day of rest and visit the waterfalls. The second night we had to spend in a hangmat in a dormitory where several tarantulas where spotted i ended up not sleeping much and worried more about the two hour ride back to the paved road and the spiders. The morning of the 27th i met with the KLR riders in the village and they told me there was another road shorter to puerto barrios. What i did not know and soon realized was that this was a 6 hour dirt road where i spend most of the time keeping my bike in control. This was one off these days where i did not sign up for if i knew in advance what lied ahead, but i ended up with a very enriching experience of viewing landscape and knowing rural guatemalan country life. Puerto barrios was not much of an interesting city besides an harbor view restaurant and hanging for cigarettes prices at different tiendas.

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The next morning we crossed the border with a little trouble as we had to drive back and forth between the different offices that where separated 10 kilometers from each other. As we drove into the notorious Honduras knowing we just got ripped of at the border for our bike permit we decided to stop at the first big city to get some cash from the ATM. I tried 6 different ATMs and in the burning heat walking in my motorcycle gear i could not get any cash. I was so happy having Evan and Eugene around that could help me out with there cards. I let my plan of going to Tegucigalpa that day sail and we found a nice hotel to spend the night in El Progresso. I was happy to get some cash with my card at the hotel as i was worried my card might have been blocked for some reason.

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All my doom scenarios where cleared out by the next day on which i headed for the next border on my own as the other guys where going to spend new year on the Honduran islands. Maybe Honduras is notorious for the number one, two ,and three most criminal and dangerous cities in the world i would not know anything about it as i cruised thru the country within a day. Hard headed as i am i decided to cross the border around 2 despite the promise to myself that i would never try again to cross a border in the afternoon. This time i was more lucky and i only had to make it to Esteli doing 1 hour of night riding.

I was in Nicaragua! and had crossed the fearsome Honduras without any problem. How much ones perspective based on stories and internet information can be different from the reality of the actual situation. I am not trying to say that there is nothing to fear but at no point i felt so much in danger that i though people would steal something from me. The fear i had while crossing honduras with Evan and Eugene or alone had only stained my experience. But in one of the conversation with the KLR guys we said that the fear of something less only enhances the experience of living. And thus is taking a risk such as going around the world on a motorcycle such a life enriching experience.


In Nicaragua i headed down to San Juan Del Sur to meet my friend Burcu and spend new years eve on the beach after a day of surfing with one of her friends. Not bad for a last day of the year; drinking cold beers and trying to catch some waves.

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The first of january i woke up on a concrete floor as i moved out of the hangmat they provided me as the hostal was fully booked. It is certainly not funny to cross a border with 2 or 3 hours of sleep but i was raised to bite your teeth in such a situation. This might be a bad translation from dutch but i think the idea is obvious. In the last office i had to go to the lady told me i was not able to get into the country as my title indicated that the bike was reconstructed which made it impossible to import the bike in the country. With a little bit of patience i got her to give me a permit based on my registration and i was cruising the roads of costa rica just after noon. I decided to have a lunch break at the first AC cooled restaurant and ended up looking for hotel in a McDonalds. It can be comforting sometimes to go dispose of all the luxury of wifi AC and fast food. I found a nice hotel in Tilaran as i was to tired to make it to San Jose and was happy to take a four hour siesta. The prices in Costa Rica are definitely matching the ones in Europe but in exchange it seems a lot more comfortable here. One nice thing here is when you go to the ATM you feel a millionaire as the amount of cash you get is usually a six digit number.

The road from Tirana to my friend Sebastian's house was not to long all though a little windy and busy. I arrived just in time for lunch with him and his parents. Sebastian and i both studied together in the Netherlands and he is dutch growing up in Costa Rica being welcomed in a dutch home was very comfortable. We spend that evening in a bar drinking local draft beers and eating great burgers while watching toro and midget fight. Yesterday we met up with another friend Pablo from university. And the cup of coffee turned into a doctor appointment for me as my wound on my foot was getting infected and also a site visit to the windmills on the top of the mountain. Sebastian just had a new car but unfortunately we had to make a stop in the middle of a 30% steep hill. We were not able to drive the car further up and decided to park the car on the side of the road. If the ride and walk to the top where quite the adventure the ride down gave even a bigger boost of adrenaline. Using the engine brake Sebas still needed to use the regular brakes that where starting to smell by the time we where at the toe of the mountain.

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Sebas and his family have invited me on some trips so i figured i might stay here for a while to visit different places before continuing my way further south. Now its time to give the bike a wash and leave it rest for a couple of days.

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After two weeks of riding day in day out it is nice to hang out and chill and do nothing. Or almost nothing. Tuesday we had a fishing trip planned and for some reason fishing always means waking up early. I think you have to catch fish before noon as they go for a siesta afterwards. With a barge filled with shrimp we set off at seven and Seb soon came up with the idea to make a competition out of it. A local fisherman had come with us and within five minutes we realized that there was nothing to win as he had already caught
two fish. Sebastian though fast enough to adjust the competition rules and team up. It turned out to be a great strategy.

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We caught around 70 fish that day 2 of witch were mine but it was a great experience floating around in the costa rican landscape.

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After the fishing it was time time for two days at the beach with sebas and his friend kevin who was chilling in Domincal spending his time surfing. On our way there we picked up Maria and spotted some dolphins in Puntearenas. We decided that going swimming with the dolphins was too gringo to do and thus i just looked at them from the beach.

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One more thing about the beach here in Costa Rica is that it is so warm that actually going for a swim does not cool you down

I left for a week of city tourism to Mexico City to enjoy the beauty of Mexico and see my cousin Danielle. The paragliding trip did go as planned as there wasn't enough wind but we went to visit a mexica's temple instead.

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The rest of the weeks isn't much substance for a ride report but more a touristic museum type one. Back in san jose i spend some more time chilling drinking beers and BBQing. I decided to change my plans of staying for a couple months in CR and got my bike ready again for the road. In exchange for some beets i found a place to clean my bike and change engine and transmission oil. The good thing about cleaning a bike is that you discover pending failure of loosened bolt and broken exhaust pipe. At least i finally know where that loud noise comes from. It took me half a day to find a place to got the exhaust fixed but for 15 dollars i could not complain to much especially looking at the result and my clean bike.

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Tonight i gonna try to make some dutch kroketten and tomorrow we are heading to Pavlones from where is will cross to Panama and try to enjoy the Costa rican
Beaches for one last time.

So whats to say for the last two weeks?
Beaches are nice and its quite hot around here. I have entertained my self quit a lot by swimming and riding a little bit.
Sebastian and his family invited me to join on there long weekend to the beach. I had a great time going for a swim after the ride there and in the night we made some fireplaces on the beach.

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The road to Pavlones was a little challenging but after an hour of off road we arrived at the house that they rented. On Saturday we left in direction of Panama where we said goodbye at the border. Getting to David by noon i decided to try to make it to Santiago. The road was not much interesting except that i crossed a Dutch plate, Bart, who was also overlanding. We both did not really know where we would be going but decided to ride along together.
In Santaigo we stayed at a basic hostel and the next morning we made some copies from our paperwork. Except a dead cat being eaten by vultures and people drinking at 9am there is not much to remember.

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We arrived in Panama city around 4 pm which gave us the opportunity to enjoy the views during daylight and later during night time with some dutch beers.

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Bart had reserved a container together with Werner whom i had met earlier. I could fit in as well and the next two days we spend making copies getting stamps and going from one office to another. I think all together it will cost me less than 650 dollars with plane tickets. But as i write i dont have the bike back so i might have to spend some money here or there. Mainly what you have to do is to be very patient and prepared to wait for no reason.

Then I flew to Colombia before i had a chance to visit the panama canal.

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Its thru what they say about Colombian women and the climate: Hot!
From Bogota i could not get another cheap flight to Santa Martha with Vivacolombia so i decided to fly to Cartagena directly. I knew Werner was going there as well so i waited him up there with a couple of cold beers. If you go to Cartagena get a place with AC and plenty of cold beers. At night you can walk around and see the nice city.

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Or eat a pizza while they try to sell you more food, cocaine or hookers.

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Now i found a bar with 1 dollar beers with ocean view one block from our airbnb where i can spend the rest of the week while i wait for the bike.

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Most important thing you bring on a motorcycle trip is patience espacially when you bring an old bike. After three weeks waiting in antofagasta chile my rear suspension finally arrived from germany two weeks later than expected.

In colombia werner and i decided to ride together her further south. First we wanted to get out of the heat as fast as possible. From carthagena medellin is a little more than a days ride. When found a very basic truckers hotel along the rode and made it to Medellin where my cardan u-joints broke again in he city. After stopping at a few auto-hotels we found one that would let us stay for the night. An auto hotel is not really set up for sleeping but the rooms are usually quite luxurious. The people at the hotel let me replace the cardan with the one i brought and within two hours i was ready for the road again. My panier rack had broke somewhere along the road so i figured i might try to weld it together again. For around 4 dollars a local guy did a quick job which would keep the panier on the bike for a while.

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Once ready we decided to head further south and try to make the border with ecuador. We spend the night in popayan where i made the foolish mistake to get cigarettes on my own at 21:30. Two persons approached me for a cigarette and after i gave them one they asked for money as i refused they insisted with showing a knife I got away with giving them around 10 dollars. With the time i feel sorry for those people as they robbed me but took enough with 10 dollars while i was carrying more and did have my ipod on me but they did not insist on taking everything from me. For being robbed did not have not have major consequences but for them it was a desperate solution to get money to survive. I feel criminally lucky to have grown up in an environment where i had possibilities to develeop myself. One thing was sure i freaked out and have been more cautious going out late at night. Werner and I drove to the border the next day where we met with Alenjandro whom we had met earlier in colombia. In ecuador we got some tyre problems and had a hard time getting cash outof the ATM. But after four days we had finally crossed the country and had seen some wonderfull roads driving thru the fog.

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At the border with peru i decided to continue alone from that point as i wanted to sleep a longer in the morning and make Usuhuia within a couple weeks. Peru was mostly straigh roads in the north where the only adveture was finding a new front tire in Chimbote Peru. The mecanic helped me out and hosted me that night. In latin america a lot of motorcycle owners are part of a club. Usually such a club hosts you and can be of great help if you have mecanical problems.

South of lima i stayed in the city of Ica after the road and climate change from straight hot roads to fresh curvy coast roads. It was a delight to drive in a fresh climate and it definitely made me enjoy peru a little bit more.

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Right before crossing the border into chile i decided to cross thru a rice field to get back on the main road which led to being stuck in an irrigation ditch for an hour. Luckly i could convice some local guys to help me for exchange of a couple bucks and i was bak on the road and rode into chile later that afternoon. My panier hopder broke again but i figured that would not be a major problem for now.

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Chile was a relief to enter there where roadsigns again and in the hostel that night i had a clean room with hot water and breakfast. I felt more comfortable walking on the streets at night again and i was going to get to my final destination within a month. The next day i headed for Antofagasta and road 700 km on straight roads in the dessert. I don't mind driving straight roads as i can cover good distance and speed up a little bit. 100 km north of Antofagasta i did not realize In time that the road was broken up and at quite a high speed i flew thru the air. Luckly i landed on both wheels but i discovered later that my rear suspension had taken a serious hit. It turns out that Antofagasta has plenty motor cycle shops but a suspension is hard to fix espacially in the holiday season. I decided to order a used one from germany with express mail. A long story short DHL consideres a three week delivery time normal for express mail, i don't but they don't give a shit about that. The good thing is that i dicovered that one of the bearings was also broke and i was able to replace it before any further damage. The BMW dealer there was not able to help me because the bike was too old. They however send me too Luis who let me fix the bike and change the oils and though me the BMW perspective of mechanic. Thanks for that!!

Tomorrow after three weeks the adventure continues and we will see where it brings me next.

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