CN - September 27, 2017
So we did RTW East to West in 2014. You might say inspiration for this trip was born a day after we returned from that trip around the world - 18,000 miles through 23 countries (24 if you count the overnight in Dublin to have a celebratory pint of Guinness on the way home) and 95 days on the road. There is something special about traveling by motorcycle - the exposure, the vulnerability, the openness to meeting people every day while passing through town to town. You can read about that 2014 trip here: www.rtweastwest.blogspot.com.
The first trip was certainly an experience of a lifetime for me. I'm humbled and thankful that I am going on my second similar trip in the same lifetime. Although the number of counties we will pass through will be less, the time on the road and mileage will be similar (South America is pretty big). We will again carry full on off-grid camping gear, but expect to find cheap beds to good to pass up through Mexico and Central America. The camping gear will likely come into play while passing through Patagonia.
We will leave from Virginia towards the end of October. The first leg will take us through the southern US, then through Mexico and Central America. This trip has only one real deadline to meet - we need to catch a sailboat in Panama that sails on December 11. That is our transportation between Panama and Columbia, two countries separated by the Darien Gap - a dense mountainous jungle with no roads. The choices to transport motorcycles are boat or plane so we chose boat. The 5 day sail stops off on a couple of small islands for overnights on the way to Cartagena. The outfit is called Wild Card Sailing. From the looks of their website, it should be a hoot. We will also have a few days in Panama City as we need to arrive early to complete customs paperwork to export the bikes. I would do the canal tour again - very interesting story of how it came to be.
From there we plan to meet Marybeth (who will fly in from Virginia and rent a bike) in Quito to do some exploring of Ecuador for a week or so (and hopefully a side trip to the Galapagos Islands). From there we will just make our way south, ultimately to Ushuaia, Argentina at our own pace while experiencing the amazing places and people we encounter along the way.
About a month from departure...it's starting to get real.
Some images below of the rough (very) routing from Virginia to Tierra del Fuego.
First leg to Panama...
So we did RTW East to West in 2014. You might say inspiration for this trip was born a day after we returned from that trip around the world - 18,000 miles through 23 countries (24 if you count the overnight in Dublin to have a celebratory pint of Guinness on the way home) and 95 days on the road. There is something special about traveling by motorcycle - the exposure, the vulnerability, the openness to meeting people every day while passing through town to town. You can read about that 2014 trip here: www.rtweastwest.blogspot.com.
The first trip was certainly an experience of a lifetime for me. I'm humbled and thankful that I am going on my second similar trip in the same lifetime. Although the number of counties we will pass through will be less, the time on the road and mileage will be similar (South America is pretty big). We will again carry full on off-grid camping gear, but expect to find cheap beds to good to pass up through Mexico and Central America. The camping gear will likely come into play while passing through Patagonia.
We will leave from Virginia towards the end of October. The first leg will take us through the southern US, then through Mexico and Central America. This trip has only one real deadline to meet - we need to catch a sailboat in Panama that sails on December 11. That is our transportation between Panama and Columbia, two countries separated by the Darien Gap - a dense mountainous jungle with no roads. The choices to transport motorcycles are boat or plane so we chose boat. The 5 day sail stops off on a couple of small islands for overnights on the way to Cartagena. The outfit is called Wild Card Sailing. From the looks of their website, it should be a hoot. We will also have a few days in Panama City as we need to arrive early to complete customs paperwork to export the bikes. I would do the canal tour again - very interesting story of how it came to be.
From there we plan to meet Marybeth (who will fly in from Virginia and rent a bike) in Quito to do some exploring of Ecuador for a week or so (and hopefully a side trip to the Galapagos Islands). From there we will just make our way south, ultimately to Ushuaia, Argentina at our own pace while experiencing the amazing places and people we encounter along the way.
About a month from departure...it's starting to get real.
Some images below of the rough (very) routing from Virginia to Tierra del Fuego.
First leg to Panama...
South American leg...
