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16 Mar 2015
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Part 2 Oct 25, 2013- June 25 2014
Part 2 Oct 25, 2013- June 25 2014
11. Colombia- Perhaps our favorite country in the Americas after home. The people here are supper friendly; the riding is great and the scenery stunning. After enduring the prices of Costa Rica and Panama we found Columbia a really good value.
 Barichara 58 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
12. Ecuador- in a word EPIC. This is a riding mecca and a do not miss! Venturing into the Andes Mountains you can experience both the incredible scenery and the vibrant culture. The .55$ a liter gas makes it all that much sweeter.
 el corazon 48 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
13. Peru – A love – hate story. The coast of Peru on the Pan Americana is thousands of km of sand, wind, garbage, and chicken farms. Many places look like sets from a Mad Max movie. South of Nazca it is better, and Cusco is stunning. The riding in the mountains on the 3S and 3N is incredible.
 peru mtn 4 25 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
14. Chile- For us the north of the country is take it or leave it. The real jewel here is Southern Chile and the carretera Austral. There are unforgettable days of riding on gravel roads past snow capped peaks and emerald glacial lakes. A highlight for us was the 9 hour trek up and down at Torres del Paines.
 torres del pines 53 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
15. Argentina- Patagonia is very beautiful, but this country is much more beautiful in the north around Salta and the Alto Plana of Antofagasta de la Sierra. The WIND is unreal. There are several cultural things that make this country a challenge including the siesta, the currency, and the Argentinean way.
 the end of the road 28 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
16. Bolivia -The cities of Sucre and Potosi are very picturesque and the Salar de Uyuni is mind blowingly awesome, but the rest of this country is much less appealing for a lot of reasons including the altitude, the very reserved people, and the volume of garbage everywhere. Several of the top ten highlights of our trip are from this tiny country.
 solar de Uyuni 32 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
17. Brazil - This is a massive and very diverse country. The people are incredibly friendly and outgoing. Our favorite states were Santa Catarina, Minas Gervais, and Bahia. We were helped and hosted by fellow riders here on a regular basis. The 3 months we spent was just not nearly enough time.
 calvacantes 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
18. Uruguay in a word tranquillo.
 punto del este 8 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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This got us into Spain at 7 am! There are fixed price taxis from the airport into the city at 30 Euros. We arrived to the hotel at 8 am and dropped off our luggage. We had 4 hours to kill before check in and the first 2 were painful. The last 2 were much better once we fueled up on coffee and breakfast.
 Madrid 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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After a 4-hour powernap we wandered around in this very beautiful city up the Gran Villa and to the Plaza del Sol. This is one of the best known and most visited [laces in Madrid. This is the km zero and center of the radial network of Spanish roads. Here is the Peurta del Sol or sun gate in the city wall surrounding Madrid in the 15 Th century. There is a Statue of King Carlos III on horse back in the center. Here you will also find the most famous symbol of Madrid, which is a statue of a bear eating from an Arbutus tree. The legend is that the cities original name was Ursaria (land of bears) because of the large numbers of them found in the Arbutus forests nearby. Also here are a huge number of people with crazy costumes who want you to pay them to get a photo with them.
 Madrid 11 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 16 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 12 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 17 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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We continued walking down towards the Plaza Mayor and past shops selling sweets, baked goods, and all kinds of deli items. The square itself is large, but entered thru one of 9 small arched gates. The bronze statue in the center is King Phillip III.
 Madrid 18 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 22 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 19 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 20 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 24 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 29 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 25 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 27 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 28 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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We walked back to the Gran Villa and down to the Plaza Espana.
 Madrid 31 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 34 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 33 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
Near by is a great spot for the sun set at the Temple of Debod. This is an ancient Egyptian temple donated to Spain because they assisted with the movement of a number of UNESCO sites threatened by the flooding caused by the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1960. It is in a park overlooking the royal palace.
 Madrid 38 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 41 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 37 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 39 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 42 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 43 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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This eventually took us to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which is free on Monday afternoons. This 1600 work collection was once the private holding of Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon!! He began this in the 1920 and he profited from the American depression when US millionaires had to sell many great works by the likes of Rembrandt, Homer, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh.
 Madrid 56 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 57 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
From here we wandered down to the Mercado of Saint Miguel and the nearby Basilica of the same name. On your way here are many shops where you can stand at the counter with the locals and can get a meat sandwich and a glass of  for 2 Euros.
 Madrid 95 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/world_wide_ride/16608896590" title="Madrid 94 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7621/16608896590_6aeec74f6e_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Madrid 94"></a>
 Madrid 96 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 97 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 98 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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We finished the day off with a visit to the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Royal of La Almudena. It was built in 1879 on the site of a mosque that was ruined in 1083 when Madrid was reconqured by Alfonso VI.
 Madrid 105 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 106 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 108 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
Paint and stained glass windows brightly color the interior. Many of the windows have a very modern look.
 Madrid 113 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 110 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 122 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
The church is also situated near the Royal Palace, which today was closed for an official event.
 Madrid 125 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 126 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 127 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 130 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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Getting the bikes back
Today is the big day we pick up the bikes from the cargo terminal. We took a taxi out to drop our luggage at our Motostay host Modesto’s apartment and then continued onto the terminal nearby. The Swissport company had sent us a notification by email that the bikes where ready and where we needed to go to present our waybill. You go into the main entrance and present the bill. From here you go upstairs to pay the 40 Euros “for delivery of the paperwork”. From here you go back down stairs and get the paperwork stamped.
 Madrid 131 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
Then you walk 500 meters down the road to the huge blue customs building. Go in the plaza and enter the first set of doors on the right. Go to the desk ahead and ask for your temporary import permit. What is supposed to happen is they are to issue this for free. The problem here is the man who is running the show and who also does not speak English. Our Spanish Riding friends know him well and have had issues with him many times. He initially told us we needed to go across the road to the freight forwarding office to obtain a DUA, which is a bond for import. When we arrived there we were told by the official, who spoke English perfectly that since we are not Spanish citizens we require a TVIP and we do not need a DUA nor can he issue one to us. We returned to the Aduana to explain this. The dude there had not changed his mind and spent the next 90 min telling all the other workers not to stamp our paperwork. Finally another guy in a suit showed up and was chatting to our guy. He then came to us and asked us to follow him up to his office. He also spoke English well and explained that he would stamp our waybill so that we could get our bikes, but that we had to sign a declaration stating we were temporarily importing the bikes and this was for 6 months. Downstairs we hand wrote this and signed this. They took copies of this and our passport entry stamp. Basically this was to save face for the first dude who refused to just stamp our paperwork. The declaration is worthless; because once we leave Spain they will not know where we are in or out of the EU since there is no border control. We were happy after 2 ½ hours to get our official aduana stamp.
 Madrid 132 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
Then we walked back to Swissport and presented our papers to the first floor clerk. She than hand you a number, which you take to the loading bay. The guys there were great a rushed to get the bikes for us and even cleaned up all the mess. We put the mirrors and windscreens back on, reconnected the batteries, and put some air in the tires and we were off. It was great to come home to Modesto’s place where he was making us a traditional Spanish potato tortilla for dinner.
 Madrid 133 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 134 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 136 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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bike maintenance
Today we went by BMW Madrid, which is only 11 km away to organize some service work. Javier was awesome and said he could get the work done in the next 2 days. We need valve checks, new radiator fluid and spark plugs. We dropped off the 650 and headed downtown on the 800. We were very happy with the service we had here.
 DSC08678 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 BMW Madrid 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
Modesto had also told us where to buy parts for a discount. We got all the items on our list here including Daniel’s new Gelfer front disks.
 IMG_3479 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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18 Mar 2015
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Alicia Sornosa
We have met the famous Spanish motorcyclist Alicia Sornosa 4 times by chance on the trip so far. The first time was in Dawson City, then Haines Junction Yukon, Oaxaca Mexico, and finally in Santiago de Chile. She is from Madrid and happens to be home now and so we planned to meet downtown for lunch. We met up with her, her boyfriend Daniel (He is from Valencia and they met while riding in Ulan Battar!), and some other riding friends for a traditional Madrid lunch of Artichoke tart, fish, and cheesecake. YUM. Then we had a little tour of the city.
 Madrid 137 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 138 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 140 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 143 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
We planned to meet for dinner also and with Modesto and Jose from Portugal and we had an awesome seafood meal. Another small world coincidence is that Jose knows Jorge (who we met 2 weeks ago in Uruguay).
 Madrid 144 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 145 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid 146 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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22 Mar 2015
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Their shop is stunning. They have fully computerized diagnostics. He can do anything that you need and can even machine any parts required.
 Madrid dmx 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 6 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 7 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 52 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 27 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 10 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 16 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 21 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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22 Mar 2015
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After rebuilding the front shocks they also noticed the 650 had pretty damaged steering head bearings, so it was a trip back to BMW for the parts and back to DMX the next day. It is one of those things that get slowly worse so you don't notice it, but once the forks were off and on the bike it became so obvious there was a problem. Damien is an absolute perfectionist and he wants you to be completely happy with your new suspension no matter how long it takes.
 Madrid dmx 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
They also treated us to lunch including 2 desserts for the guys.
 Madrid dmx 44 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 46 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
 Madrid dmx 59 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr
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Next HU Events
ALL Dates subject to change.
2025 Confirmed Events:
- Virginia: April 24-27 2025
- Queensland is back! May 2-4 2025
- Germany Summer: May 29-June 1 2025
- CanWest: July 10-13 2025
- Switzerland: Date TBC
- Ecuador: Date TBC
- Romania: Date TBC
- Austria: Sept. 11-15
- California: September 18-21
- France: September 19-21 2025
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.
Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
What others say about HU...
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"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA
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Lots more comments here!
Diaries of a compulsive traveller
by Graham Field
Book, eBook, Audiobook
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Back Road Map Books and Backroad GPS Maps for all of Canada - a must have!
New to Horizons Unlimited?
New to motorcycle travelling? New to the HU site? Confused? Too many options? It's really very simple - just 4 easy steps!
Horizons Unlimited was founded in 1997 by Grant and Susan Johnson following their journey around the world on a BMW R80G/S.
Read more about Grant & Susan's story
Membership - help keep us going!
Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.
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helps answer the question - Why Go? Inspirational stories by veteran travellers Greg Frazier (5 times RTW), Peter and Kay Forwood (193 countries), Tiffany Coates (Mongolia Mayhem) and Rene Cormier (University of Gravel Roads).
Get Ready! covers planning, paperwork, medical and many other topics! "Inspirational and Awesome!" See the trailer here!
What stuff do I need - riding gear, clothing, camping gear, first aid kit, tires, maps and GPS? What don't I need? How do I pack it all in? Lots of opinions from over 150 travellers!
break down language barriers, overcome culture shock, ship the bike and deal with breakdowns and emergencies."Just makes me want to pack up and go!" See the trailer here!
Grant demystifies the black art of Tire Changing and Repair to help you STAY on the road! "Very informative and practical." See the trailer here!
Ladies on the Loose! For the first time ever, a motorcycle travel DVD made for women, by women! These intrepid women share their tips to help you plan your own motorcycle adventure. They also answer the women-only questions, and entertain you with amazing tales from the road! Presented by Lois Pryce, veteran solo traveller through South America and Africa and author of 'Lois on the Loose', and 'Red Tape and White Knuckles.'
Cotton or synth sweat-wicking t-shirts with the cool Horizons Unlimited graphic on the front and a snappy slogan (changing every year) on the back.
Show your route on your panniers. Great conversation starter when you meet people on the road!
Motorcycle and travel books to inspire and inform you!
The definitive guide to planning your motorcycle adventure! This insanely ambitious 2-year project has produced an informative and entertaining 5-part, 18 hour video series. "The ultimate round the world rider's how-to!" MCN UK.
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