The only thing wrong with Latin America are the outrageous Yanks who move in and terrorize the place. I won´t get into too many examples that I witnessed of absolute stupidity with the exception of one.

While celebrating 2007 New Year´s Eve in Mexico with quite an international gathering of travellers, a two bit punk of about 40 years old from San Diego, CALIFORNIA sucker- punched me because he was jealous of my cruiser. So I beat the s**t out of him. I had no gun or pepper spray.NICE WAY TO START THE NEW YEAR:

What , also, pi**sed me off were the number of Yanks trying to pass them selves off as Canadians. I am a Canadian.

Since I managed to ride from the arctic circle in Alaska, all the way to Ushuaia, and one of my citizenships is USA, I'll chime in.

Don't take a gun. It's dumb.

Do take pepper spray. It saved my ass in JuJuy, Argentina. Mine was actually bear spray, left over from Alaska. It was legal in Canada (guns are NOT legal in Canada) and if it wasn't legal from Mexico south, not a single cop told me it wasn't. I'd have to guess, but I'd say my bear spray was commented on by at least one cop in every country. If it was illegal, none of them said anything.

In JuJuy, in a hostel, I was confonted by 3 drunk argentinia 20-somethings. They tried to rob me. Lucky for me, they were drunk. They told me to give them my money. I told them it was in my tank bag. It took me some time to fumble through it and find the pepper spray that I hadn't thought about in ages. I couldn't even remember how to use it. They had no idea what it was, probably because it didn't look like any regular pepper spray. I gave them one little warning shot off to the side. That was all it took, and I was safe.

I like Laser Jocks idea of having it clipped to my riding jacket, but I don't know where I'd put it. Bear Spray comes in a pretty big bottle.

In Alaska and northern Canada I rode with it clipped to the outside of my tank bag. Around camp I wore it on a belt, gun-slinger style. Lots of other campers (Canadian and American) also wore it on their belts.

What I really liked about the pepper spray is that it's non-lethal. The consequences were not the kind that would take me to jail. I didn't bother calling the police. I just got on my bike and rode away. The boys I sprayed had runny noses and teary eyes- not holes in their bodies.

I am 100% sure that, if I'd had to make a police report, I would have been vindicated. It was me against three.

I am 100% sure that if I had not used the bear spray, I would have been robbed, and probably beaten up. It was a very tense situation.

I've traveled, pretty much solo, to about 35 countries. I don't own a hand gun. I don't support the NRA but I do agree with pretty much everything that Laser Jock said.

By the way, if any of you haven't met Laser Jock... he's a pretty cool guy, he's traveled all ove the world, and there is no way I would ever pick a fight with him. I don't think he stopped smiling during the entire two hours I met him. He's as good an ambasador for his country as any other travelar I've met.

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Latin America Ride Report
Wisconsin to Alaska Ride Report

Canxcape and Bananaman -
you couldn't just let this f'ing thread die, could you? Had to stick another damn comment in this thread, bring it back from the dead.

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quastdog
Chiang Mai, Thailand

I think its ok to talk about this issues Chuck.I agree with Bananaman with the use of non deadly security.I have seen on his ADR tread he is travelling with female company.And you know i would have at least one way of protection when travelling with female company.(beside rubers hahahaha)
Now to the size of the can is the issue.Most problems i have heard happend in towns(bars,discos,streets) so carrying a big can all the time.....
I would have mine in the tank bag.Fast to find and use.
Of course avoiding trouble is the best recipe.
Now travelling allone....just a humble look and friendly caracter is the best way.

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http://vientoderipio.blogspot.com/
America is a nice continent,not a country.All people who lives in this continent are americans.Discover it in peace!

I think all of us who've done any travelling have had to use "the humble look," the "friendly character," and probably a few other little tricks to get out of a tight place. I promise I tried all of those to get out of the spot I found myself in in JuJuy when I was almost the victim of a mugging.

Probably for the next few days I was chuckling to myself about how much better pepper was for the situation. The assholes who wanted to rob me didn't deserve to die, but they did deserve to cry. Pepper worked!

As for travelling with a woman... I recomend it!

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Latin America Ride Report
Wisconsin to Alaska Ride Report

I have no desire to get back into this discussion and I'm not sure how I feel about sprays, but I must say:




Good line, dude!!

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

I'm sorry but after reading this I had to register just so I could say something about this one.....


Max.... You can bring an Apache Attack helicopter with you and you will be the first to get robbed and/or beat up because of your attitude, and maybe also show you where exactly you can stick your gun there, terminator....

I am an american citizen but lived in Argentina since 76, I feel as though I was born in Argentina and not the us..
(I am an illegal alien here.... but don't say nothing... shhhh)

I NEVER got robbed in Argentina, ANYWHERE. And I look more gringo than anything else around here.
What these thugs hate the most is some yoyo acting like he owns their land ,specially the ones who like to stick their chest out at foreign people and say Please guy.... stay out of Argentina and go to Iraq if you wanna show off your guns if it makes you feel any more powerful...

The best advice I can give anyone reading this thread is this:

If you're planning a trip through Argentina all you need is a positive attitude, be friendly, DON'T ACT LIKE GOD SENT YOU TO SHOW YOU'RE BETTER THAN THEM JUST BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO BE FROM THE US, try to figure out the bad neighborhoods and stay out of them, (you can usually tell bad spots from good ones... I could imagine this white boy walking around the bronx at 3am, I wouldnt last a minute) If possible, have another biker riding along with you, (Mostly in case of breakdowns, running out of gas, or just to be able to share the experience with someone else.... not like the guy who shot a hole in one from 900 yards and no one was there to witness it!!!
Explore the towns, go into the stores, talk to people...
People are good by nature and mean no harm to you and will help you whenever possible.
Go to Villa Gesell, which is located about 300 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, between the months of December and April... Specially if your riding a dual sport such as an African twin, or an xr650l etc.... But it doesnt matter if your riding a cruiser or a crotch rocket, there is lots of paved streets, sand and beach for you to enjoy...

Don't have lots of cash on you, always have small denominations in Pesos at the ready for smokes, gas, food, parts, etc...

And that's it...
I guarantee you you will have the time of your life if you would just relax and enjoy the trip.

If someone is stupid enough to show up at any border crossing with a gun onboard it's none of my business.

It only becomes my business if the border post is understaffed and they slow everybody else down while the arrest the idiot.

Then again, some places actually pass everybody through once they have somebody to play with.

Tough call