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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. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7294/...c56c60ed_b.jpgBarichara 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. https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3821/...e2def95c_b.jpgel 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. https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3771/...0afea74a_b.jpgperu 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. https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2872/...2512db33_b.jpgtorres 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. https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5518/...a3f1935c_b.jpgthe 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. https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/...12d681f2_b.jpgsolar 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. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8669/...db60abb7_b.jpgcalvacantes 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr 18. Uruguay in a word tranquillo. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8648/...77e530e7_b.jpgpunto del este 8 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
Madrid here we come
Getting up at 5 am again we were so glad to get a ride to the Airport for 6 am check in. We had a 6 -hour flight to Bogota and then a 10 -hour flight to Madrid.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8679/...b9ed040f_o.pngScreen Shot 2015-03-05 at 5.52.07 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7612/...6b2d2f68_o.pngScreen Shot 2015-03-05 at 5.51.05 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8696/...25d88f2e_c.jpgMadrid 3 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8743/...8ed5aeff_c.jpgMadrid 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8564/...69700430_c.jpgMadrid 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8677/...3da6388e_c.jpgMadrid 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8752/...cbbffab6_c.jpgMadrid 11 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7631/...383d7655_c.jpgMadrid 16 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8742/...f6b6c6cb_c.jpgMadrid 12 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8636/...29026896_c.jpgMadrid 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8631/...a16a4a91_c.jpgMadrid 17 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
We walked back to the Gran Villa and down to the Plaza Espana.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8712/...8b0fbd4f_c.jpgMadrid 31 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7607/...b203a4db_c.jpgMadrid 34 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7609/...26bb231e_c.jpgMadrid 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. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7596/...32d64a66_z.jpgMadrid 38 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7621/...4a34f094_c.jpgMadrid 41 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8633/...05d04f30_c.jpgMadrid 37 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7592/...6b4b9db0_c.jpgMadrid 39 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8740/...6701f7ce_c.jpgMadrid 42 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8680/...6b34486a_c.jpgMadrid 43 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
One thing here in Spain you have to love is bike parking is pretty much a free for all.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8728/...dec5db74_c.jpgMadrid 45 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr Today we are still a bit jet lagged, so we decided a good long walk. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7636/...dd6fb6d5_c.jpgMadrid 49 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8666/...596863d7_c.jpgMadrid 50 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8654/...b4c4238e_c.jpgMadrid 52 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8743/...9f08aa85_c.jpgMadrid 56 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7639/...3dc9dfef_c.jpgMadrid 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 beer for 2 Euros. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7590/...e9e5f53b_c.jpgMadrid 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> https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7601/...52f547b4_c.jpgMadrid 96 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8748/...3052abdd_c.jpgMadrid 97 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8730/...6c6c9f8f_c.jpgMadrid 98 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7644/...2036d476_c.jpgMadrid 105 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7604/...a688774c_c.jpgMadrid 106 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7609/...86e9bb44_c.jpgMadrid 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. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8613/...175edb52_c.jpgMadrid 113 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7605/...199b31e8_c.jpgMadrid 110 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7604/...382a9e6f_c.jpgMadrid 122 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr The church is also situated near the Royal Palace, which today was closed for an official event. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8684/...6aff4504_c.jpgMadrid 125 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8741/...b9114af8_c.jpgMadrid 126 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7588/...89888428_c.jpgMadrid 127 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8635/...c10b96c9_c.jpgMadrid 130 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8627/...de26c7cf_c.jpgMadrid 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. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8582/...5bc3cb5c_c.jpgMadrid 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. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7288/...1bd2a6f6_c.jpgMadrid 133 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7603/...e17c1a05_c.jpgMadrid 134 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7643/...c2f2af9f_c.jpgMadrid 136 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8614/...bfd511f1_c.jpgDSC08678 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8689/...e30a222b_c.jpgBMW 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. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8701/...0b7c5271_c.jpgIMG_3479 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8725/...08a9ce27_c.jpgMadrid 137 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7592/...db4fbd8e_c.jpgMadrid 138 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7283/...75b7128a_c.jpgMadrid 140 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8582/...7cc06fff_c.jpgMadrid 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). https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8724/...5b125965_c.jpgMadrid 144 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7590/...f5a2ec08_c.jpgMadrid 145 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7593/...9f209615_c.jpgMadrid 146 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
DMX Suspension
The next item on the adgenda was the suspension service for both of the bikes. Modesto recommended DMX Suspension Spain and we are so glad he did. Damien and his team did an amazing job. How many suspension shops have their own track for testing the bikes?
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7653/...c211dcc8_o.pngScreen Shot 2015-03-12 at 9.19.03 PM by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8737/...504c2653_c.jpgMadrid dmx 1 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7649/...afdea0f3_c.jpgMadrid dmx 2 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
Their shop is stunning. They have fully computerized diagnostics. He can do anything that you need and can even machine any parts required.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7649/...ca87d12b_c.jpgMadrid dmx 4 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8674/...162d6a68_c.jpgMadrid dmx 6 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7615/...78456086_c.jpgMadrid dmx 7 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7645/...5d55cc36_c.jpgMadrid dmx 9 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8584/...af992914_c.jpgMadrid dmx 52 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8681/...ac53a41d_c.jpgMadrid dmx 27 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7638/...49e7a2ae_c.jpgMadrid dmx 10 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7616/...b7b4161a_c.jpgMadrid dmx 15 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8665/...0063fef7_c.jpgMadrid dmx 16 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7611/...c4ac3233_c.jpgMadrid dmx 21 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7644/...4a8e84f4_c.jpgMadrid dmx 5 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr They also treated us to lunch including 2 desserts for the guys. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7622/...fb10488f_c.jpgMadrid dmx 44 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8583/...7f5c6aa4_c.jpgMadrid dmx 46 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7632/...cbe0619c_c.jpgMadrid dmx 59 by Worldwide Ride.ca, on Flickr |
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