Enjoying the ride report.
Dan & Sara World Wide Ride seem to have the alternator issue every 30,000 miles and carry a spare, if your struggling worth contacting them for the name of their supplier.
All the best & enjoy the ride
Gino

Or to perhaps buy stock in Bosch ... or whomever?

So luckily enough, I ended up getting into contact with a retired mechanic who just so happened to have worked on BMW motorcycles professionally for several years before retiring to Panama. He owned a couple F800's and had all the necessary parts, and more importantly, knowledge to get me going again and send me on my way with a more positive mindset. Made it to Columbia, so now time to try and catch up on posts... Cheers, and thanks for reading along!

So there we were in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. One border crossing and 270 miles to get the ailing motorcycle to a place where she could get the help she needed. After a cry for help to the big wide wild world of Adventure Rider I found a potential savior for my ride. So off we go to the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Kalil felt at home with the countless windmills lining the road as we drove south along Lake Nicaragua. It was all going great until we encountered a mist…or what we thought was a mist…..


Many tens of thousands of dead mosquito’s later, we made it through the ‘mist’ to the border. Kalil and I ate breakfast while staring at the ominous border zone. It was getting hot already and as the food settled into our stomach, our resolve strengthened to prepare for another 2 and half hour battle with getting ourselves, then our bikes checked out of Nicaragua, then checking ourselves, then our bikes into Costa Rica. Honestly, it’s a simple process that becomes frustrating due to the lack of organization, walking back and forth for copies (why can’t they just do it right there and save everyone some time?) the heat, all the people begging for money as well as people “trying” to help you (for a small tip) and the language barrier just adds up to it becoming slightly frustrating. Enough complaining! Lets ride! And see some cocodrilos!


Don’t feed them! Luckily the bridge was a good 30 feet above them because there were many crocodiles in the area below the bridge. I took several photos, but this was my favorite. This dude was huge and he was just chilling staying stationary:


Onward and upward, I mean southward and downward! So continuing on south, the weather was becoming some of the hottest we had experienced, so it was necessary to pull off every so often to cool off and stay properly hydrated. And then there was this:


I’m wondering if we will have cameo’s in this guys next music video? There were 6 people (one holding an umbrella) and a drone watching this guy sing along to a song they were blasting from the car. And here I was thinking two overly large bikes overloaded with gear was strange to see on the side of the road…

One of our last stops before reaching our destination for the evening was a cool surfer bar. The owner came out to show us where his motorcycle parking was… Right in front of his custom scooter:


Yeah, Dawg!

We made it to our destination just as the sun was going down.

The following day, Kalil and I decided to split up. We had spent a bit too much time together at this point as well as if my bike was not a quick fix, I would hold him up from getting to Panama City in time. So Kalil rode on to Panama. I had to meet with my ADVrider contact who was supposedly had what I needed. Reaver (his online persona… probably prefers to be anonymous so people won’t come around bugging him for help too much) not only had the part I needed, he also had the knowledge to make sure I hadn’t misdiagnosed my issue. After much sarcastic humor, a lot of sweat (Costa Rica is HOT), a fan, and a couple camp chairs, we had the culprit of my issues out of the bike.

Yes, the hammer was necessary. So here’s the thing, yes, I have a BMW, yes they are extremely reliable, BUT if man makes it, IT WILL BREAK. It just so happens that after 30,000 miles or so, the stator insulation tends to break down on the F800GS due to the location and the heat of the stator. Mine apparently was in far better shape than most when they start to fail, so luckily it was caught early before it could leave me stranded. Check out the insulation starting to deteriorate on the stator:


After a few s, a very delicious steak, more stories, a nice relaxing sleep, and a nice breakfast provided by the missus of the house, I was kicked out and told to be on my way to Argentina. I can’t quit now! Costa Rica on my way back to the main road:


Thank you so much for giving me the motivation to continue, the part to continue, and some needed sarcastic humor to life my spirits, Reaver!

On to the Panama border!! Found some fellow adventure seekers:


It was a couple from Costa Rica, on a mission to get to Colon, Panama to find a way to Columbia… Turns out, my planning ahead several months for a boat was the way to go. Kalil met this couple a few days later and they were struggling to find passage.

I still had a couple days before my lady friend Michelle was scheduled to fly into Panama City, so I headed for the mountains of Panama for some cooler air. I washed some sweaty clothes and did what one would expect one to do with a properly running motorcycle and made it into a clothesline post!


The following day was cool and rainy, so I took the opportunity to explore a couple waterfalls in the area of Boquete, Panama. A beautiful jungle area up in the northern mountains of Panama.


Found a nice spot for a short hike through some farm land.


It felt so amazing to be able to wear clothes and not sweating constantly. The following day, Kalil and I were meeting up in Boquete to drive the 300 miles to Panama City where a lot more paperwork, my lady friend, and more heat awaited! So lets end this post with the view at the end of the short hike:


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hi guys, you got some great photo,s keep them coming. what ever you do stay upright and safe cheers,

Lots of pictures and not a lot of words this time, I promise! Michelle made it to Panama City and so we are off to explore the city for a day… Well, to be honest, it was half a day. Kalil and I spent 6 hours at the DIJ office (the Panamanian equivalent of the FBI) getting ONE slip of paper verifying that our bikes were ours and they were legal to be in Panama and legal to leave Panama. Ah, got to love Central American paperwork! But Panama City is quite nice!


They have a nice boardwalk with statues and some interesting looking buildings. This was my favorite building with all the multi colored balconies.


Lots of pelicans feeding right off of the shore. In this picture there are 3 diving into the water at once:


The skyline of Panama City is quite an interesting contrast to all of the other cities we have seen so far in Central America.


That night we met a friend of Michelle’s, Jill, who is living in Panama city. We went out for dinner and drinks and ended up on a rooftop bar. The nighttime skyline is equally impressive.


The following morning we had to take off early to get to Portobello (2 hours away) to collect a letter from the captain of our sailboat in order to do our final step in signing out our bikes from Panama. Since I now had a passenger and extra luggage, it was a learning experience trying to figure out how we would pack the bike. In the process of this experiment, the hotel receptionist came out to see what was going on and to offer us some breakfast. Thanks again!


We finally were loaded and ready to go! Now I’ll have a photographer on board the bike…


First order of business was to go over the bridge into Panama city since we didn’t get a chance to see any of the tourist sites along the Panama Canal.


The traffic was terrible, so we took a little side road and found a quiet spot near the entrance to the canal.


We then tried to avoid going back into the city, so we went a little north to another bridge crossing over the canal which I believe is the Bridge of the Americas. I definitely will need to go back to Panama to properly experience the canal since it really is quite an amazing feat of human engineering.


As I have traveled south in Central America, the buses have become increasingly more interesting to look at. Panama took the cake though. Old school buses are used everywhere to transport people and the decorations and flair are apparently very important! I’ve been wanting to get pictures of these buses for awhile, so now that I have a designated photographer on board the bike, viola!


And no, those chrome stacks are not just for show, they are fully functional. Black smoke is also a must.

Every once in a while you will find some colorful butterflies as well. We noticed this poor guy stuck to the hand guard of the motorcycle as we entered Portobelo.


Portobelo is a very neat little town with a big history. To keep it short but slightly informative, Portobelo was an important hub for the Spanish in the movement of silver from the pacific side of South America back to Spain. Goods and treasure from the pacific coast of South America would be brought by boat to Panama City, brought overland to Portobelo, loaded onto galleons that would then sail to Spain (and vice versa). So this town was the site of a lot of pirate attacks which means that there were several forts all around this town. Many of the cannons are still in place.


I promised that I wouldn’t get too wordy, but I feel like this next part needs a little explanation. Between Panama and Columbia there is a 50 mile stretch of mountainous jungle which is called the Darien Gap. This area is legendary to overland travelers since there is NO ROAD going through this area. The list of reasons for this area not having a road is long, but that is something you can look up on your own time if you are interested/curious.

The important part is, in order to get around the Darien Gap, you have 3 main (safe-ish) options: 1) fly you and the bike to Columbia. 2) put the bike in a container, then fly or get on a sailboat (there are many sail boats making the connection) to Columbia and meet your bike there. 3) Book passage on one of the few sailboats who not only will take you on a 5 day sail to Columbia, but also your motorcycle. The 5 day sail includes 3 days of hanging out in the sparsely populated San Blas Islands.

So the next morning we got to the docks to load our bikes. I posed with Michelle and my bike. Yes, I feel as nervous as I look…


Lets load the bikes! This is a big bike going on a little boat…


Once on the little boat, motor on over to the sailboat and then we winch the bike on board! (They say they’ve never lost a bike into the water….)


And there we are! Ready to sail that night! We met some new biker friends as well. More about that later, it’s bed time!


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It was 10am, January 23rd. With our motorcycles safely on board the Wild Card sailboat and a departure time of 5pm, Kalil, Michelle (my lady friend), Brian, Karoline (a couple from Alaska traveling in our same direction on a motorcycle as well) and myself had to find something to do that didn’t require a vehicle. The harbor seemed like an interesting place and after finding a couple kayaks, we began to do a little tour of the area.


That was a lot of orange! The picture at the start of this post was the result of a little exploration up river from the harbor into the mangroves. Portobelo is an interesting place and we found some more signs of early Spanish settlements that the jungle was trying to make disappear.


After kayaking, it was time to do some final checks before being stuck on a boat for 5 days. Our hostel boasted the worlds best bloody mary, which Michelle couldn’t resist. The look on Brian’s face suggests he doesn’t agree with the title!


As we boarded the sailboat, the captain told all 15 passengers to remove our shoes. We would not get them back until we reached Colombia five days later. We were on Island Time now he said. The only things we were allowed to do was relax and enjoy living on a boat for 5 days!


Everyone got settled in, shown our bunks, and fed. Now was the time to set off! The destination was the San Blas islands, a long island chain off the coast of Panama. It would be about an 8 hour sail through the night. As the boat left the protection of the harbor, it was immediately apparent the seas were not in our favor. 6-10ft wind swell made our very large and heavy steal 60ft sailboat seem small as the boat pitched and rolled. It was quite unfortunate that Kalil was the first victim of seasickness. I’m not sure he’ll feel the same way about spaghetti again…

Not long after, a few other people joined Kalil at the edge of the boat talking to Poseidon. Eventually, it was time to go to bed. After having felt fine for the first few hours of our rough voyage, laying down ended up being my downfall. After lying down for about 20 minutes, I joined the growing list of seasick individuals. The boat stopped around 2 am and some rest was accomplished.


Island time had officially begun! For the next 3 days our itinerary was quite simple: swim around the boat, maybe a little snorkeling, swim ashore to any of the islands the boat happened to be near at the time, 3 meals a day, and at least once a day, we moved to another group of islands. On one of our scouting trips of an island, we found a ‘bat’, and some things to try and play baseball with.


I’m definitely not a natural when it comes to baseball, but at least I hit the darn thing! Brian found a starfish, but he didn’t look as good holding it as Michelle did. (Sorry Brian!)


Every time we set sail, the captain and his first mate would put out a few lines in order so we could eat some fresh seafood. Here is Captain Youyou with a 30lb yellow fin!



So the San Blas Islands are an interesting place. Many of the islands are inhabited by the local natives called Kuna. On the smaller islands, often there is only one family, while bigger islands have more families living there. The Kuna are very interesting. They are technically Panamanian, however, they completely govern themselves and adhere to their own customs and way of life with little to no control from Panama. One of our island stops included one of the Kuna “city” islands where we had a quick little tour and some very interesting insight to the life of the Kuna. Here is the photo of tradition and technology coming together in the form of solar panels, street lights, and a traditionally built home:


For some this is paradise. While being very picturesque, a few of us were ready to head towards Colombia, but not before a couple more pictures of “Island Time”.


Motorcyclists stranded on a island:



The voyage to Cartagena, Colombia lasted an eternity for those who were seasick. Or 36 hours for the crew and those who were fully dosed on dramamine. Seeing land when we woke up on the fifth day was a huge relief! Welcome to Colombia!



Here is the motorcycle gang as well as the crew of the Wild Card. Captain Youyou with the long beard and endless enthusiasm (center right), his first mate Orizon (sp? right front) and front center, the cook Flor. Thanks guys!!! An unforgettable experience!


As we were unloading the bikes, we saw this neat looking boat, not much else to say about this picture. I liked it so now you have to look at it.


And here we are! Extremely happy to be on land and putting our gear on our bikes!


Until next time! If you’re curious as to where we are RIGHT NOW, CLICK THIS:
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hi guys , your enjoying the trip, just one tip , ive noticed your carrying a bit of gear, rethink what you need,cause it will make riding more enjoyable have a good one, stay safe cheers

Yes, I've definitely had several "next time I do this" moments on this trip! On the F800, the big blue bag just so happens to be filled mostly with camping gear (I have a really plush sleeping pad!) so the weight isn't too bad. That and my boxes are rather small so I actually don't have too much more than necessary. I'm not too afraid of the rough stuff. However, I've also come to the conclusion after meeting a couple on a pair of KTM 690's that there are 2 ways of going about a trip like this: You either pack a big bike with all the things you need to be comfortable and stick to the main roads (which are amazing!) and stick it out in comfortable places. Or forego all the niceties and get a smaller (650 ish) bike that can handle the rough stuff and rely on the fact that you will more than likely find a place to stay each night and leave all the camping gear and unnecessary heavy stuff behind and go find the backroads!

Last observation is, if I did this again, I would definitely take far more than 3 months, or just do one country at a time by flying in and renting a bike in each destination. If you take more time you can get to a location, drop off the stuff at a hostel/hotel and take day trips out from the area for a couple days then move on. This would be my preferred method in the future.

Sorry, that got wordy! Cheers!

Weclome to Cartagena, Colombia! This city was one of the first major Spanish ports in the Caribbean sea. Lots of neat old buildings as well as the Walled City which we spent a little time in.

Lets start with a little story before picture time, shall we? Our first day in Cartagena, we had to go to the middle of the city to buy our Soat (Colombian vehicle insurance). As we left the hotel, one of the guards told us we couldn’t go downtown (we were staying several miles up the coast), then someone else told him everything would be fine because we were tourists. Baffled by this 5 minute exchange and not getting a full explanation, the expedition continued to find the Soat office. As it turns out, no motorcycles are allowed in the center of the city, so when the office was found, parking was a bit interesting…

First, a one armed man (by the end of the day, his official name was ‘one armed bandit’) told us to park on one sidewalk. As this was transpiring, we realized the office was across the street which looked like more suitable parking, so after moving the bikes, a policia kindly spent a few minutes telling us that no bikes were allowed in the city, but we could park in front of the building for a few minutes. He also used his phones translator to tell us he has notified all the other officers in the area to let us be when we leave. Also translated was that we needed to pay the parking guy, which turned out was a younger guy, not the one armed bandit who seemed very upset that we were not parking on his street. So once that was all squared away, we ran up to buy insurance!

11:13 was our arrival time to the 8th floor (the elevator only went to the 7th floor). As it turns out, their system shuts down at 11 for lunch and won’t process anything until 2. After all the stress of parking! So one of the office gals who spoke a little English went down stairs with us to explain our situation to the policia. So the bikes got parked next to the building, the parking guy got paid, and everyone seemed to be satisfied (except the one armed bandit!!! who wouldn’t leave us alone until we left the area). So the bikes would be parked there until after 2pm when the computer system finished lunch and insurance could be purchased.

So now we go for lunch! After entering the walled city, and a couple small museums later, we found ourselves in a coffee shop with prime Colombian coffee.


They even had special ways of preparing a cup of coffee! This was my favorite which seemed to be some sort of reverse osmosis kind of crazy thing! So cheers to a strong cup of Colombian coffee!


With some time to kill in the walled city, we decided to continue to wander around. Michelle was getting distracted by all the fancy knockers on all the old doors.


And then we found a Chocolate Museum! Someone is as excited as a kid in a candy store!


We also saw a lot of fruits. Welcome to the tropics where you can buy just about any fruit you can imagine on every corner for extremely cheap!


So after our tour of the walled city and 2pm on the horizon, the group returned to the Soat office. With the building in sight, the one armed bandit struck again! Hassling us for money. We ignored him and entered the building. On the way up, Brian said he had offered the guy a couple dollars before but he wasn’t satisfied. It seemed as if he wanted the same compensation as the other parking person? As we left the insurance office, we quickly geared up and headed out of the town hoping the one armed bandit wouldn’t see us. As we were pulling onto the street, a car came right up onto our back wheels honking! THE ONE ARMED BANDIT! Brian was in the lead and quickly navigated our group through the traffic, zipping left, right, and through a couple red lights! After a few minutes of evasive maneuvers, the black car slowly faded into the distance in our mirrors!! What an experience!

Later that night at the hotel, we all had a good laugh at the situation. So the next morning, we were all anxious to get on the road and head towards Medellin, where we would gain elevation and the temps would be cooler. Here is Brian and Karoline enjoying the 100 degree heat!


So much more chances for photos now that I had my own personal photographer on board! Michelle even got a quick shot of some locals loading up some donkeys with water.


After long and very hot day, we stopped in a town called Caucasia. Our impressions of Colombia were mixed at this time. The roads seemed to be in good shape, but we had expected more mountains, more elevation, and not as much heat!

The following morning our expectations were met and then surpassed! Within the first 50 miles the scenery began to change. After entering a valley and riding along a river for several miles, we crossed a large bridge where my personal photographer told me we had to stop to take a better look:


We had entered the mountains! While taking a break at the bridge, we realized there were military posted all around the bridge. One came over to the kiosk we were at and Brian convinced him to take a picture with him.


Meanwhile, a family became curious with what was going on, and before long they were posing with our bikes!


After the break the roads started becoming very interesting. This was one of the main roads connecting the coast to the city of Medellin, a major city with a population of over 3 million people. So there were many trucks on this very windy mountainous road. Between hairpin turns, steep up and down grades, and many blind corners, the trucks were starting to hold up progress. But after watching many locals making seemingly suicidal passes and all the other drivers cooperating to make sure no one got in an accident, our confidence grew. Soon thereafter, the passing began!


Just peak your head around the corner, if there is any room, start to pass. The trucks were going so slow in areas, it took no time at all to get around them. Quickly we realized our advantage! Large motors which could accelerate uphill, all of us (other than my photographer) were connected through an intercom system so we could notify each other of oncoming traffic, as well as a renewed excitement as the temperature fell from elevation gain.

No evidence was found to give credibility to this sign:



The roads were extremely enjoyable to ride and the scenery was becoming increasingly interesting.



After several exhausting hours of seemingly perfect motorcycling roads, the final approach to Medellin began. As we got closer to the city, we began to notice much more touristy activities.


The following day, we took advantage in being in a large metropolitan area and went out in search of a place to get some motorcycle maintenance done. Brian was out to get sprockets, chain, and a rear tire put on his bike. Kalil and I were due for oil changes. After fighting a little traffic, we found the mecca for motorcycles! A whole street dedicated to motorcycles, accessories, parts, repair shops, fabrication shops, paint shops, yup, it was all there. This guy and I had a fun time changing my oil in his shop even though we only understood about 10% of what the other said!


Brian had noticed a machine shop next to where he had his tire changed (for under $10 USD! and faster than our oil changes!) and suggested to Kalil that he should take his ailing pannier over there to get fixed so that he could use the lock again. So not long after, I decided to take advantage of another machine shop to get an extra foot welded onto my kickstand:


For under $10, you could get a lot of work done! 30 minutes later, Kalil’s pannier was properly closing and locking, and my bike wasn’t leaning over as far when I put the kickstand down! So much accomplished and it was only a little bit past lunch time! Time to go find something touristy to do!

The heart of Medellin is in a valley along a river. As the city grew, it expanded up the mountain sides all around the heart of the city. This city is huge, FYI. While the public train system works great along the river in the flat area, it doesn’t work up into the hills around Medellin. So the solution is:


I’m a big fan of chair lifts. I’ve been building lifts for five summers, as well as riding them constantly for 14 winters. So checking out a metropolitan gondola that cost me less than a dollar to ride was exciting! The town has two more gondolas under construction as well! Maybe there is a future in lift building….

The following day, our destination was outside the city to a place that Brian and Karoline had researched. El Penon rock in Guatepe, Colombia. This huge rock sticking out like a sore thumb a midst rolling green hills happens to have a great view from the top of an area flooded by a large dam down river. They built a stairway to the top of the rock, creatively building the staircase into a crack in the rock!



The top elevation of the rock is around 7005ft (2135 meters) and after 675 steps, we are all still smiling!


The view:


After getting back down, it was time for lunch, where the view still was quite extraordinary.


That evening, my photographer had a date with an airplane to take her back to California. So this is all I have for now!


How far have we made it? Don’t wonder, just click on this link: SPOT Shared Page

As you can see from the first photo, I’ve lost something important! Alas, I have to continue on, so here it goes! The lady friend flew out the night before this photo (Feb 2nd, yes I’m a bit behind on posting!) and Brian, Karoline and I were staying in a small bed and breakfast type place next to the Medellin airport (it’s actually an hour from the city center). Kalil remained at his hostel in Medellin the previous night and we all agreed to meet at a gas station where our routes towards Cali would meet.

So our route to meet Kalil involved some skinny two lane roads, which included the bridge pictured above. There was one stretch of 25 miles on our route to meet Kalil that turned out to be a single lane dirt road! It was a very good road in terms of adventure and scenery:


These farmers are incredible! For the skiers out there, imagine a black diamond ski run. Imagine planting crops on that ski run. That’s how steep these fields are!

After 25 miles of incredible dirt road that hugged the steep hillsides, we were graced with pavement again! This road included an amazing view across a very large valley of a town that seemed to be perched precariously on top of a ridge:


Had we not been 40 minutes behind schedule, I would have had a couple more pictures of the next several miles of fantastic twisty sealed road that had been cut into the sides of these steep mountains. When we got to the meeting point 40 minutes late, Kalil had left just 10 minutes before according to the gas station attendant. So we pushed on as fast as we could, since Cali which was our destination for the day was still a long ways off.

I miss having my personal photographer on board the bike, since there were many photo opportunities that were missed with no time to stop. Luckily, I was quick enough to snag the camera to get at least one photo of the many sugar convoys that we passed. These trains of very large wagons were traveling at about 30 mph and usually had 4-5 of these huge wagons. They were filled with the sugar cane from the fields and hauling it to the processing plants.


One more instance where a personal photographer could have captured this moment a bit better:


Hey, whats up, dawg? These two guys and their best friend kept up with us for awhile. Every time traffic slowed down the group, these guys would catch up. They must have rode like that for at least a half hour!

After getting to Cali at dark, our group was exhausted and didn’t wander farther than the front door of the hostel by having our food delivered! Kalil had survived the day just fine without us and had actually made some new motorcycling friends in a town an hour or so north of Cali. He had met a local motorcycle enthusiast who owned a restaurant/bar and he had invited Kalil to spend the night, hanging out with him and a few other local motorcycle guys. So another night, another planned meeting spot for the following day.

Ok, so there has been a couple important things that have not been mentioned yet. First of all, the people of Colombia are the most friendly people we have encountered so far. Everywhere we have gone, they have done everything they could to help us out. (with the exception of the one armed bandit from the previous post!) I cannot say enough about the kindness of the Colombians. And second of all, the roads in Colombia are AMAZING! As we go deeper into the mountains, the roads continue to impress me. They are for the most part well constructed (a few places they aren’t so nice, but there is a lot of heavy traffic on steep areas, so that cannot be helped) and the scenery is stunning.

The following day our goal was the city of Ipiales just north of the Ecuador border. For one stretch it seemed we had gone back to the desert:


After a lot of elevation gain (we reached an elevation of 10,500 feet that day!) we also encountered some rain and the temperature dropped significantly. After getting all layered up, we reached our destination an hour or so later. It was still quite chilly since the elevation of Ipiales was still just shy of 10,000 feet! While looking for a hotel in town, I couldn’t help but to take a picture of this crazy statue in the middle of a roundabout:


That evening everyone slept well without needing any air conditioning. The following morning we would be reunited with Kalil at an interesting location just outside the town of Ipiales, but first you should look at some llamas dressed to impress!


The Las Lajas Sanctuary is a very interesting place. Long story somewhat shortened is: back in the 1700’s a mother and a daughter (who was deaf) were seeking shelter from a storm along a river bank in a canyon. While the storm was raging around them, the deaf daughter yelled that she could hear the Virgin Mary calling to her. As the lightening flashed, the silhouette of the Virgin Mary appeared on the side of the cliff. For a couple centuries there was a shrine built in the side of the cliff at that spot. Eventually they built a bridge to the shrine and at the beginning of the 1900’s they began building this incredible church high over the river in this canyon. It was finished in 1949.


So after we paid our blessings, the reunited group continued on into Ecuador that day, destination Quito. The highest official capital city in the world at 9,000 feet! (La Paz, Bolivia is just under 12,000 feet, and even though it is the administrative and de facto capital of Bolivia, it is not the official capital of Bolivia. Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia)

While at the border checking out of Colombia, we met Riccardo and Fabian, two Ecuadorians who were riding a couple large BMW’s into Colombia to help out some friends. There is a lot more to this story, but this isn’t the time or the place. What IS important about this meeting is that they were headed back to Quito that evening and wanted to meet up with us. This will be important later on in the story. Anyway, welcome to Ecuador! By far the most relaxed border crossing yet!


First impressions of Ecuador:


More windy roads, more mountains, and a whole lot of volcanoes! And the main roads were very well built! We cruised the remaining 150 miles to Quito in no time! It was such a relief for all of us to be at the higher elevation and cooler climate. The bikes were starting to feel under powered by the lack of oxygen as well. Once we arrived in Quito, Brian and Karoline split off from Kalil and I as we were going to go find a hostel to spend a couple days in Quito and they were looking for a hotel with the intentions of leaving south early in the morning.

That night, we met with Fabian, the fellow motorcyclist that we had met at the border and had a good time meeting some very interesting people. Fabian has actually toured South America twice and has published several very nice coffee table style books from his travels. So needless to say, we planned on spending at least another night in Quito so we could sit down with Fabian and get some insight as to things we should see.

The following day we found the gondola in Quito and decided to be touristy. So up we went:


The gondola gives a great view of the city of Quito. Hiking around up above the city was exhausting since it is around 13,000 feet up there! And then there was this guy:


That evening, I met with Fabian to pick his brain about what to do with my limited remaining time. He suggested many things and as the conversation progressed, he proceeded to write out a very detailed day to day itinerary of what I should do with my remaining time! What luck! Every time it seems like I have run out of steam of trying to plan ahead, incredible meetings like this seem to occur to continue to point me in the right direction!

The following day, the itinerary suggested that we ride up to Pichincha volcano. This volcano is several miles outside of Quito, and you can take a long windy dirt road to just a few hundred meters below the crater of the volcano. Kalil wasn’t feeling quite up for the task of offroad riding, so I unpacked my bike and took off on my own. I kept having to stop and take pictures though. Here are some cows grazing in the distance at a relaxed elevation of 12,500 feet:


I don’t usually like panoramic photos, but when you see this view, you have no choice but to take a panoramic shot. (Pichincha is on the left and the summit on the right is just above where the gondola takes you from Quito)


Once I reached the parking lot, I looked down at my phone (my GPS) and it was reading 14,977 feet!!!! Easily surpassing my motorcycles previous high of 13,186 in Colorado! So I parked my bike and began the 200 meter walk up to the crater of the volcano. At the saddle (about 100 meters from the parking lot) not only did I have to catch my breath from the altitude, but also from seeing this breathtaking view:


After a few more breaks to catch my breath, I finally made it to the top!


4781 meters is what the marker read, that’s 15,685 feet! WOW! No wonder I was having trouble catching my breath! It is interesting how starving the brain of oxygen can really help someone clear their head. It was very refreshing sitting at that elevation. The top was clouded in, so I wasn’t able to get any good photos of the view. Although, there was a very curious bird who was hanging around the top. I have been told it was a caracara.

After returning to the parking lot, there were a few curious people looking at my bike. After a short conversation in broken Spanish regarding the trip, I wanted a photo with my new friends!



One last night in Quito and then we continue to head south. I’m not sure if the caracara was headed south as well, but this picture is a nice metaphor for the end of this post!


Thanks for reading! There will be more soon but until then, track our current progress by clicking this link:SPOT Shared Page

Enjoying tagging along, remembering the sights of the journey through your photos. No way would I take the boat across the Darien though, we flew, same price and no seasickness Enjoy
Gino

February 8th, 2016. The universe has yet again proven to me that the world is truly a small place. At the hostel we were staying at in Quito, we met Erik, who was also originally from Vermont. Not only was he originally from the same state as I am, but he had also moved west in search of snow and had ended up at Alpine Meadows for 10 years grooming snow! As it turns out, his last year grooming at Alpine Meadows was the year before I moved out to Lake Tahoe. It is a small world, and we all know many of the same people there, so the first picture is a tribute to all of our friends at Alpine Meadows! I miss you guys! (and the snow!)

So after 3 nights in Quito, the road was calling, so we answered and headed towards Quilotoa. Located 3 hours from Quito, Quilotoa is a beautiful lake inside of a very large volcano crater. The sky was cloudy and gray, and the air was cool enough that we had to stop and add some layers. The road to Quilotoa was a real treat as well, many miles of twists, curves, hills and all on nice pavement. At one point we reached an altitude of over 13,000 feet! When we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed 2 matching KTM’s with California plates.

Before long we were deep in conversation with a couple from San Francisco and ended up having lunch. Chris and Zoe are doing the official tip to tip journey, having gone up to Alaska before heading south. Their adventure can be found at https://tiptotip690.wordpress.com/



After lunch, we remembered why we were in Quilotoa to begin with:


Stunning doesn’t quite sum up this lake. About a 20 minute hike would take you down to the actual shore. And lets not forget that this is the crater of a volcano!

After a few minutes, the clouds started to thicken and it was time to head on down the road. The extra layers we had put on earlier were very helpful as the wind, clouds, and elevation kept things very chilly!


Our destination for the evening was Banos, a touristy town, considered by some to be the extreme sports capital of Ecuador. Lots of hiking, mountain biking, rafting, and kayaking. After a few hours of ominous skies and thankfully very little rain we made it to Banos. As we entered the town, we stopped to pinpoint a spot to spend the night. We were told by a local that we may have a difficult time finding a room for the night since Carnival was going on in the town. It was starting to get dark and it was starting to rain. This was going to be a problem… Or was it? We stopped at the first hotel we saw as we entered the town and sure enough, a room for 2 people and safe parking AND not too expensive! Winning!

So as soon as the bikes were parked and the gear was inside the room we began to explore the town. Carnival is quite the party. On every corner there were people selling cans of foam spray. It seemed that every other person was carrying at least one can of this foam spray and random acts of spraying were occurring. It didn’t matter if you were young or old, it seemed like everyone was having fun with it. It’s all about the wig!


The following morning it was raining when we left Banos, but our destination was Pialon del Diablo. The reviews for this waterfall suggest taking a raincoat. So since we were going to get wet anyway, we hopped on the bikes and went for a ride in the rain. This is not the waterfall we were looking for, but it was still pretty neat:



When we reached the Diablo del Pialon, it did not disappoint. It was about a 15 minute hike down to the falls, then there is a path that takes you to the base of the falls. From there, you can take a crawl space so you can actually stand BEHIND the falls. We opted to not do that since it seemed a bit difficult to do in bulky motorcycle jackets.


After a quick breakfast, it was time to try and get to Cuenca, our destination for the day. The rain did not stop as we rode, in fact, it seemed that it kept raining harder since we began finding mudslides across the road.


We did cross one much worse than the one pictured above, having to wade through 4-6 inch deep mud for about 100 feet. There is no picture to prove that because the rain had washed away the ambition to pull out the camera and then deal with struggling to put my soaked glove back on.

Later that day found us on a windy mountainous road (that seems to be the theme here in South America!) that turned into mostly dirt and many many many (did I mention a lot?) of potholes. Just as our spirit of the adventure was starting to fail, we crested a hill and the rain began to taper off. Lower and lower we went, our goal for the day was suddenly an hour away when we came across some single lane roads hugging this hillside:


Incredible scenery to end our soaking wet day!

The following day our gear needed to dry out and our ambition needed to be boosted, so we stayed in Cuenca for a day. I found a few interesting things to take pictures of, such as this “Ducati”:


And this motorcycle I actually thought was done very nicely. My friend Geoff would really appreciate this tiny Honda made into a cafe racer. I gave this guy a big thumbs up. Sporting the cafe racer with crocs, gotta love it!


I didn’t just take pictures of motorcycles in Cuenca. Cuenca has some old Spanish architecture as well as some other historical sites. I found this church interesting as well! I would have taken a look inside but it was ash Wednesday so there were a lot of people milling about and I wasn’t in the mood to go to mass.


After a day of drying out, it was time to hit the road again the next morning. When we woke up, it was raining. But before our mood could become too damp, it seemed to taper off and as we headed up into the mountains towards the Peru border, it cleared off and left us with some fantastic views:


After seeing this sign a couple times, I had to turn around and get a picture. Something about it just makes me laugh. Essentially it’s saying to respect the life of living, don’t kill the wild animals.


Part of the reason it makes me laugh is because of how many animals are living on the sides of the roads and in the roads. Donkeys, horses, cows, dogs, sheep, pigs, and goats!

Couldn’t resist getting a photo of the roadside mowing crew:


We reached the Peru border that afternoon. Still dry and smiling. Easiest and most relaxed border crossing to date. It wasn’t hot, no one hassled us, we didn’t have to make any copies, and we even were joking around in our limited Spanish with the Aduana (customs) guy! We also met an Australian couple who were on KTM 990’s who had been on the road for 11 months and had been all around the world and were 2 months away from finishing their journey in Patagonia. We exchanged information and said we would meet later if things worked out right since the day was getting late and both parties had a couple hours to go.


Within an hour into Peru, the landscape completely changed as we lost altitude and headed towards the coast of Peru. Nothing to see here, no seriously, there is nothing to see but sand:


After making to our destination of Piura, Peru, we were having a little trouble locating a hotel to suite our needs (safe parking, honestly, we aren’t THAT needy!). As we huddled around our GPS, a guy walked up to us seeing if he could help. Yet again, random people helping us out of a jam! He recommended to us a hotel a couple blocks away that would have parking.

The next morning our route took us through a lot more desert and dusty little towns. We stopped to fill up with gas and I noticed the kid pumping the gas was pretty excited about the big motorcycle, so of course I had to let him sit on the bike! His brother ran and got the camera, so I had to grab mine as well. He was pretty excited!


Another observation of this trip is that everywhere we have gone, the locals tend to enjoy putting artwork on large vehicles. In Central America, all the buses had fancy artwork. Lately I’ve been noticing that all the trucks have been painted as well.


That night in Trujillo, Kalil and I met up with the Australian couple Lee and Paul at a motorcycle oriented bar called the Paddock. You can find Lee and Paul’s blog on their around the world adventure at: http://www.bikens.com.au The owner of the Paddock has spent a lot of time touring Peru on a motorcycle. He is the founder of Peru Moto Aventura PERU MOTO AVENTURA As it turns out, he was out of town so he put me into contact with his son, Gianfranco who met us there as well to give us some advice on which routes to take. A really good time was had by all! Thank you all for coming out that night, it was great to get to know you all! Cheers!


Until next time! See where we are now by clicking here: SPOT Shared Page

Thin Air #17



After a nice evening hanging out with new friends in Trujillo, the following morning we set off in search of this famed Canon Del Pato (Duck Canyon). About 45 minutes out of town, we were flagged down by a police officer. As we pull over, we recognize two couples on motorcycles who we had seen at the Ecuador border. As the cop was walking towards us, the Mexican fellow tells us that they bribed the guy $60 Soles each (just under $20 USD each) to let them go since he caught them passing on the double yellow line. Uh oh. Peru is well known for its corrupt cops.

After a few minutes of talking to the officer, Kalil was able to convince him that of course we aren’t passing on the double yellow line, we enjoy Peru and we are taking our time to check out the scenery. We ended up getting friendly with the guy and he even offered to trade gloves with me since he had proper warm weather gloves. After about 10 minutes of conversation, he let us continue on. All in all it was a positive experience!

20 minutes later, we found our road that would take us to the canyon, so we turned off the Panamerican Highway and started down this dirt road:


During a quick picture/snack/water break, I was told by Kalil that the landscape was identical to the Israeli desert. Guess I have no need to go there now! Dry, sand, rocks, and dirt with some very impressive looking mountains in the backdrop:


After a bit, we met up with Santa River, which was extensively farmed. Lots of rice paddies, some banana trees among many other different crops.


The road followed the river for quite a ways before we started to gain elevation and started to enter the mountainous area. The road is well known in the motorcycle community not only for the scenery, but also because the road boasts many tunnels along the route. At one point, we ran into a group of fellow motorcyclists from Europe who were on an organized motorcycle tour heading north. Here is Kalil discussing different tours that Wolfgang and his friend had taken previous to their current South American tour:


After a few minutes swapping stories, we continued on to find many more tunnels:


All along the route, you would find other valleys joining the valley we were riding through, which provided some very nice scenery:


And there was a waterfall as well:


Everything seemed to be going great. The road was good, and the temperature was cooling off as we were gaining altitude so things were looking up. Or at least they were until I noticed a baseball sized rock with sharp edges in the road a second too late and as I swerved to miss the rock, I hit it just right so that it actually punctured the sidewall of the tire and popped my inner tube. First flat of the trip!


A spare tube, a tire patch on the inside of the tire so the tube would stay protected, and a minute of running the air compressor and we were making progress again in just over an hour of down time.


And then we were there, the main event: Canon Del Pato


You can barely see the river in the canyon, directly below Kalil in the picture above. No guard rails, the road was barely a lane wide and to top it all off, there were a whole lot more tunnels and traffic! On a positive note, the road was paved and there were a lot of signs to remind you to honk your horn before entering. First one to honk their horn has the right of way.


It is necessary to take a moment at this time to admit something; I am not someone who is very good at honking a horn while driving. Leaving driveways, yes of course, a couple honks to say goodbye, but not while driving on the road. Not anymore. I have found the horn button and I use it… A lot…

We reached our destination of Caraz with some daylight to spare and enjoyed a nice dinner in the little tourist town. The following morning we unloaded ALL of our unnecessary gear (weight) off of the bikes and headed up into the mountains to Lake Peron. It would take an hour an a half to climb up 20 miles. Had we not stopped to take so many pictures, it would have been possible to make it in an hour, but that would have left a lot of words and no pictures like this one:


Panoramic pictures are not my favorite, so here is a regular sized picture of half that view:


After a bit of rough dirt road, we were left with yet another breathtaking view. At this point the GPS was reading almost 13,500 feet (around 4,100meters) of elevation. According to my map, the peak in the background of this picture is Huandoy peak at an elevation of 6,385 meters, that’s just under 21,000 feet!!!!


Here is Lake Paron:


So the claim to fame for this area is that the glacier covered mountain that is in the clouds in the middle of this picture is the mountain used for the logo of Paramount pictures:


So normally this time of year (rainy season) in this area, the mountains are clear first thing in the morning and then during the day, the clouds gather and then it will rain. So as we spent more time hiking around the area, the clouds began to gather, so the opportunity for more pictures was missed. That being said, pictures do NOT do this justice, with or without clouds. There are so many factors involved that make this area absolutely breath taking, it is very difficult for an amateur like myself to properly photograph it. Here is a look back down the valley that we rode up:


The road going up to Lake Paron had a lot of farming going on, and at one point we passed a house were they were hanging up ears of corn to dry. What seemed like rafters filled with insulation at first turned out to be ears of corn! I found this worthy of a picture. It is difficult to see in the shadows, but there are 3 people preparing the ears to be hung.


Back in Caraz, Kalil noticed that the sole of his riding boot was starting to separate. There may not be any stores to sell you new riding boots, but there are several places where they can do a professional job at repairing your boots! They spent 30 minutes repairing his boot and his sandal and only charged him a couple USD:


The following morning, we checked out of our hostel with all of our riding gear packed up again with an ambitious plan of trying to cross the mountain range twice in one day in two different spots. Not knowing how much would be paved or the condition of the roads, back up plans were made but our confidence remained high as we started to climb up to these peaks:


As we gained altitude, our average speed was a mind boggling 17mph on the washboard dirt road. Eventually we entered what looked like a canyon with a couple skinny lakes trapped inside. At this point the clouds had covered the sun and extra layers were needed.


And after passing the lakes there was a mountain in front of us. Well, the road doesn’t dead end, so we might as well keep going, right? After countless switchbacks later, we still had not reached the top, but the view of the valley we had ridden through was breathtaking! Or was it the fact that we were at an altitude of around 14,500 feet?


The top! My phone GPS is reading 15,482 feet (about 4720 meters)


Yup, this is the road we just rode up:


Now it was time to head on down the other side of the pass. Totally engulfed in clouds and a heavy drizzle, there were no photo opportunities. After many more miles of single lane dirt roads and a significant amount of elevation lost, the weather cleared up and it was time to try and capture just how amazing this area is:


No, yet again, pictures cannot truly show how majestic this mountains and valleys are. One other important thing to mention is that all along these treacherous windy roads, you will find all sorts of villages, fields full of crops, livestock, and people somehow managing to survive on these steep mountain sides.

After 5 hours and approximately 70 miles of continuous dirt roads that were mostly a single lane wide, the tires of our bikes touched pavement again. It took a few moments to remember how to shift the bikes out of 1st gear! An hour later we found ourselves in a little village called Chacas, our backup plan if we felt like we didn’t have time to attempt the second crossing over the mountains to get to Huaraz. With the discovery of pavement and 4 more hours of daylight left, we pushed on. And the pavement continued:


All the way up to another breathtaking altitude above 15,000 feet! This is the pass of Punta Olympica. Within the last few years the road has been paved and they have built a tunnel underneath this peak to the other side which a few people proudly told us is the “highest tunnel in the world”. Whether or not it is the highest tunnel in the world, it will always stand out in my memory. As we stopped to regain our composure at the top of the pass, the clouds started to dissipate and the peaks in the area began to show themselves to us. This is Punta Olympica:


And here is the peak to the right:


On the other side of the tunnel the road was still paved and it looked quite impressive as well. You can see the continuation of the road we were on going out of the valley. Essentially the road was a maze of switchbacks down the steep hillside until it met the valley floor.


So the ambitious day was a success! Made it to Huaraz with time to spare. After all of the stunning views and amazing roads, we were not looking forward to dropping down to sea level and back to the hot temperatures to search of tires in Lima. For now, this is all you get though! See where we are at now by clicking this link:http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...mYuTOlnfIXxbRD

16 February, 2016 We have now been on the road for 63 days. Kalil and I unanimously agreed that the previous 3 days have been by far the best riding of the trip up until this point. That has brought a feeling of rejuvenation to both of us. With a bit of reluctance we now have to leave the mountains of Peru and head towards Lima. Lima is a necessary stop however, since that is where we will need to go to get our tires replaced. After enjoying the cool climate of the mountains, the heat, traffic, desert, and population of 10 million people in Lima seems overwhelming.

It seems that each day spent on the road, there are countless great photo opportunities of the most bizarre things. Unfortunately the opportunities pass by long before I can get my hands on my camera. However, every once in a great while I get lucky!


That is a truck loaded (some might consider it overloaded) with corn stalks! The most fascinating part is that these trucks are loaded by hand…

Lima was a struggle. 20 miles of stop and go traffic, and at one point, Kalil’s oil/air cooled motor started to overheat and we had to pull over in traffic for 20 minutes to let it cool down. The relief of finally reaching our destination was significant! When we arrived at Touratech, we immediately recognized the two KTM 690’s ridden by our friends Chris and Zoe! They stopped in to change their oil. So it was an enjoyable afternoon, catching up and getting our bikes serviced with new tires.

Later in the day, a fellow F800gs rider from Germany stopped in. Olaf was also on a tour of the Americas and was having several issues with his motorcycle and stopped in at Touratech to get some issues sorted out. To make a long story short, one of the issues is quite common to the F800GS, and you can buy an aftermarket part in order to prevent this issue from happened. It just so happens that I have installed that part on my motorcycle. As much as I wanted to leave Lima the next morning, I realized it was a good opportunity to try and get a little extra karma on my side before the last leg of the trip. So I offered to take apart my bike in order to take the aftermarket brace to a machine shop to have it replicated so that Olaf would not have any more issues with his rear suspension.

So we had a little extra time to get a birds eye view of the southern part of Lima:


There are some advantages to taking a little extra time in these big cities, and that is that you get to witness some situations that seem like a disaster waiting to happen:


After 2 nights in Lima, the anxiety to get out of town was growing. However, at the machine shop they were still trying to properly replicate my shock brace:


So while the machine shop was hard at work and needing one more day to finish the job, I decided to get some other issues taken care of. First and foremost was fixing my GPS. I have been using my phone as my GPS for the whole trip, downloading the maps to use without needing any signal or WiFi. It was working great until it was left out in the sun too long in the sun and the heat of Lima traffic. One of the best parts of the culture in central and south America is that they will always try and repair things before they go out and buy something to replace it. So within no time I had found a cell phone repair kiosk in the market. I returned a few hours later to find this:


The lady felt terrible that my phone was a complete loss. The heat had actually melted different parts of the phone together and so it was completely destroyed. No worries, it is what it is, onto the next project:


When you have time, just start taking parts off of your bike and find more small issues! So there I was servicing my steering head bearings.

Finally that evening I got my part back, put my suspension all back together again, and Kalil and I were excited to finally get out of Lima!

The following day we got up early and got out of Lima before traffic could slow us down. Our destination was Cusco, a 2 day ride from Lima heading back up into the mountains. Once the road headed inland from the coast, we quickly gained elevation.


Barren desert hills, but there was something quite serene about the landscape. As we continued to gain elevation, the temperature dropped significantly and the clouds began to darken. And then, this:


Time to put on all the cold weather and rain gear! In the next few hours we encountered some of the most extreme weather on the trip. Downpours, hail, and at one point at elevations above 15,000 feet there was snow on the ground:


That night we stopped in a little town called Puquio, which had absolutely no significance other than it was about halfway from Lima to Cusco. After experiencing a couple thunderstorms while riding, including some fierce lightning, we decided to check into a hotel. As we checked in, we noticed another large motorcycle packed up heading towards us. Turns out, David was heading north from Argentina with the intentions of making it home to San Diego, California. So we spent the evening swapping stories while trying to find a restaurant that served s!

In the morning we said our goodbyes and continued our journey to Cusco. Not long after, we caught up to what looked like a decent sized bike loaded up. As we passed, we realized it wasn’t a big bike at all, but instead a little vespa! We had to immediately stop and see what this guy was all about!


This dude actually spoke no English, but we were able to carry on a decent conversation with him and found out he was headed to Bolivia. He was from Quito, which is where he had started his journey. His days were spent going no more than 60 kmh (36 mph) and usually tried to accomplish 300km a day (180 miles). Quite impressive!

That night we pulled into Cusco, slightly wet from the non stop drizzle, a bit chilly, and most definitely tired. Checked into our hostel, snapped a photo of the town square from the 3rd floor and headed into town to book a tour of Machu Picchu.


The next morning a van picked us up at 7:30 and we began the long 7+ hour van ride. Long story short, getting to Machu Picchu is VERY EXPENSIVE! The only way to get to the town of Aquas Caliente (which is at the base of the mountain that Machu Picchu is built on) is by train or by walking. The train costs $140 USD, the entrance fee to Machu Picchu is $50, the bus to take you up to the site and back down is $24. The total cost of taking van to a town near there, lunch, dinner, hostel, breakfast and the entrance fee was $85. The only issue with this scenario is it involved walking 10 km to Aquas Caliente along the train tracks, hiking for an hour and ten minutes straight up the hillside to the site at 5 in the morning, and then walking all the way back to where we started.

The bus ride wasn’t so bad since the scenery was quite good:


All was going well until we encountered a mudslide which included a van like ours planted in the middle of it:


After an hour of messing around, the van was pulled out, rocks thrown into the ruts and traffic was flowing again on this crazy, single lane road that hugged the mountain sides. This could have been another road of death but the traffic wasn’t so bad! At one point we crossed this very unsafe looking bridge with a packed van. It was barely wide enough,and to add to that, it was a hairpin turn to get onto the bridge. Luckily, the driver was a pro and we crossed safely.


Once we reached the end of the road for the bus, we began the 2 and a half hour walk to Aquas Caliente. The advantages of the walk are that it gets us exercising as well as a break from the bikes for 2 days. Not to mention the train tracks followed a raging river for the entire 10km and some of the views from the train tracks were quite stellar:


The following morning, breakfast was served at 4:30 and we started hiking up at 5am in order to get to the top in time for our scheduled tour at 6:30. Machu Picchu is stunning to say the least. I’d put up more photos, but I’m not a professional and it is too easy to find much better photos by searching on google. But here are a few anyway:


A llama (pronounced djama for all your english speaking folks!) hanging out with one of the tour groups:


After the tour, we had a few hours to walk around the site and came across this Incan bridge built into the mountain side leaving the site:


The path was barely shoulder wide with a big drop and extremely steep side hill. These Inca’s were amazing architects! Ok, one more picture, this one you won’t find on google:


The following day we remained in Cusco to sort out our Bolivian visas. This was a bit of a difficult process for US citizens. It involved online forms, photos, re-sizing photo’s, paying $160 dollars, and a few other hoops to jump through. Thanks Mer’Ka! Luckily, only Argentina and Bolivia have the reciprocity rules in effect where they make US citizens go through the same process and payments as their citizens have to do in order to get into the USA.

That night we yet again met up with Chris and Zoe who were in Cusco where they met up with a couple friends who had flown in from California to visit Machu Picchu. This was Chris’s birthday dinner and we found a really nice restaurant to celebrate! Cheers!


Until next time! If you’re curious as to how far behind I am on the blog, just click this: SPOT Shared Page