Early May Minnesota to Venezuela, July/August Vene-Minne

[ElGuero]

Hey all, my travel plan probably won't work for many people, but if anyone wants to meet up and ride for a section or a day or two (or meet up for my ride back), here's me and my plan.

29yr old, riding a fully farkled F650GS twin.
Spring classes at the University of Minnesota end around May 4th and I'm taking a 6 week summer session in Venezuela starting May 18th. That gives me 14 days to either ride 4500 miles from MN to Venezuela OR I'll ship the bike to TX, meet it there, and have 14 days to ride 3500 miles. We'll see. Either way I'll be probably going further per day and stopping to smell the roses on the way down less than most riding partners would be willing or wanting. Then fly bike from Panama to either Columbia or straight to Caracas if possible, depending on if I'm behind in time.

On the way back, classes finish in late June, so late June/early July I'll be looking to take my sweet arse time about riding back home, either directly back from Vene through Central and up into the states, or possibly dink around a bit in SA, maybe go see Macchu Pichu and take a side excusrion to Easter Island or something.... a small chance I'll just do the whole SA while I'm there, but that's not the main focus right now.

So anyone in the neighborhood that wants to ride a section down or all the way back up, or even if you're just passing through Venez while I'm there studying, let me know and we can touch base.

Cheers, happy trails.

PS, most people that have given me suggestions on GPS map data to use on this trip haven't actually used the data in the area... I have a Garmin 60csx... so who HAS used a Garmin WITH map data and can give me positive or negative feedback? Thanks!!