CHANGE OF PLANS - SOUTH TO BRAZIL

So, things change. My original plan for the trip had been to cross from Colombia to Panama with a yacht and from there make my way through Central America. As we all know, everything always goes to plan... From there I was going to cross into the states and ship the bike home from LA. The idea was I would join my friends in their van and travel up to Alaska in luxury! Unfortunately when I arrived in Cartagena (port city in Northern Colombia) the ships were not only expensive at $1100 roll on roll off... they also had ETA’s about 3 weeks later than I had hoped for. So in order to catch my friends in time in the States the new plan was to ride South again to Bogota and put the bike on a plane directly to Miami ($900). Leaving Cartagena I had organised the air freight and booked my flight. Pretty happy about the new plan!

Cartagena was beautiful, but not really up to the hype.

In Cartagena I met Israeli rider Niv and bumped into Freddy again (we rode Bolivia together a few months back) and decided to visit the Northern most point of South America with them before doing the 1000 km slog back to the capital city for my flight.

You can't get stuck in grass right?

Small detours onto the beach on our way North, a lot of fun!

Just a little bit stuck...

The coolest mall security we've ever seen.

Getting the bikes back off the beach, love the taste of sand in the morning.

It took us 2 days riding to reach Cabo de la Vela, a small kite surfing village near the Venezuelan border. 100 km from Punta Gallinas (the Northern tip). We left our gear behind at the hostel and even with 'light' bikes it took us 9 hours to do the 200 km round trip, but wow. It was worth it!

On our way in trying to figure out directions.

"The whole village is coming! GO GO GO" ... might have been an over reaction but we bailed nonetheless.

"Road blocks" where candy was used to buy passage.

Beautiful weather and we enjoyed every minute.

High spirits all round, feeling adventurous.

Occasional obstacles required detours, the last 20 km took over an hour.

Just a few more bribes to continue. The sweeties were well received.

Cabo de la Vela, a pretty amazing isolated little village.

Cooking our noodles the first night, everyone ready for bed!

Full of enthusiasm the following morning we started to make our way into the unknown.

Pink sand... hardly captured by the camera.

Seriously stunning terrain, very slow going though!

Short moment of panic before everyone realised they just wanted to help, for a small tip of course.

But we managed on our own, it was tough through the sand though.

Sand, rocks, sand, rocks... and repeat for 4.5 hours.

Dakar? We wish.

The small sandstorms occasionally wiped out most of our visibility.

Time to mess around a little, we thought we had plenty of time.

Just before reaching the Northern most point.

Left or right? It was right. Keep the sun to your left...

More than one road led to our destination.

More messing about, lets get the other two to try some wheelies... that's always fun.

Feet stay on the pegs Niv...

Bad camera work by yours truly. Unfortunately this snapped off his rear brake lever!

Luckily we all still made it to Punta Gallinas.

Starting the 4.5 hour ride back the way we came...

Ok still a bit of time for trying some new things.

Starting to race the clock before sunset.

Romantic. We really earned our beers that night.

Riots due to the police crack down on fuel smuggling across the border. Mmm tear gas tastes great.

Freddy and I were now headed for Bogota, that night I applied for my ESTA (visa waiver for the USA). Yes I was that naive. I woke up the following morning to the rejection. Having been to Iran in the past 5 years was the issue. They advised visiting an embassy for an interview. The issue with this for me was the fact that the whole point of flying direct was to meet my friends in time, if I’m waiting around for a visa and not catching them then what is the point of flying directly... I had a lot going through my mind, it wasn’t exactly going to “the plan” anymore.

A lunch stop on our way South.

Typical hotel parking in the lobby.

Highway cruising, it's getting difficult to find new position on the bike.

A whole day riding and arriving in Bucaramanga after 340 km I had decided to head South with Freddy and enter Brazil, it made more sense for me to continue the adventure rather than wait around in a city for a visa for weeks. We went out for celebratory beers and enjoyed the eye candy in Colombia. The following day we were tired, after a grueling 160 km we pulled into a beautiful little joint in the mountains.

Oops, Freddy lost his light mid corner. It survived though!

Bit of a splurge at $10 per night.

Further South we rode, slow and tough conditions in the mountains kept us drenched and freezing for days. Our first ray of sunshine came again across the border in Ecuador and it was absolutely amazing. You know, not shivering for the first time in 72 hours was pretty beaut. A short ride further and we were in Quito. Time to get organised for the next chapter, washing, cleaning, drying, grooming... and that was just the bikes. 4 days here and we were ready to ride back to Peru.

Bloody freezing, every inch of our bodies numb.

How I managed to fall into that ditch is beyond me.

More rain... yay.

Soaking wet we found the best value hotel of the trip!

Another day of wet feet, but it was all about to get better.

Sunshine in Ecuador! And a cuddly puppy to spread the joy.

South through Ecuador. From Quito it took us 4 days to reach the border with Peru, having been promised extremely muddy conditions for the last 80 km through Ecuador we were unfortunately disappointed to find the road in better condition than expected. That meant we remained clean (ish) and got to the border in good time, sounds sad... but we wanted adventure! The border formalities were a huge f**k around with the customs dude really taking his time. It got to the point where he had put the paper for our temporary import papers into the printer the wrong way round more than 5 times. Where are the tv cameras? This had to be a joke. To top it off he offered to sell me his personal stash of cocaine twice before we managed to leave. Bye bye expensive, rainy land, welcome back to Peru!

The Southern remote border road in Ecuador was actually quite a bit of fun.

More fog and mist, we weren't done being cold yet!

My charming travel companion in great mood before breakfast.

Where's the mud?

And we've made it to the border town. Finally!

On our second day in Peru we officially entered the Amazon, it felt awesome entering the next chapter. First stop was a visit of the 5^th largest waterfall in the world at 731 m in height. It was quite impressive. So far the Amazonas region in Peru was my new favourite part of the country. Scenery, people and roads... everything was just so good, even the speed bumps were smoother!

Made it to the Amazon!

Heading to the waterfall, a 5 hour hike follows this apparently.

We saw the falls from the road, tick! No more hike.

Very slippery roads that morning, lucky there was no oncoming traffic!

Alright enough water crossings, lets get on a boat!

The past few weeks all feel a bit surreal. Still can't believe I'm not in the USA at the moment and that my bike will most likely never cross that border. On the other hand I am extremely excited for the Amazon crossing into and through Brazil. I bought a fishing rod and tomorrow we will try organise our boat ride down the Amazon from Yurimaguas... no internet on the river but I'll update what happens soon!

Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. The 4000 km back track to the Amazon.