Central America, Central to Discover Our Earth

The air freight from Bogota to Panama goes relatively smoothly and all the bikes arrive on time in Panama and are swiftly cleared through customs, in less than a day. This leaves Larry’s bike still to arrive as he re joins the group after time at home to allow his broken ankle to heal. His bike arrives a day late but he catches the group by the end of the first days ride. The swift clearance means we have additional free time to make the most of Panama. We take the chance to visit another SOS Children’s Village. The kids love the bikes and a morning is lost giving rides on the bikes around the village. There is also time to visit the Miraflores lock at the entrance to the Panama Canal. Seeing the huge tankers manoeuvring through the locks with only metres to spare is always impressive. For some people the chance to swim in the Atlantic and the Pacific on the same day cannot be missed and a crowd set off for a day out to do just that. And then it is time to get back on the road. The first day is a straightforward ride along the Pan American. Straight forward for all, except Cathy who collides with a stray dog but skilfully manages to keep it upright. She takes the impact on her ankle leaving her sore and limping for a few days, and her bike needing a new footpeg. The following day we cross to Costa Rica and ride along the Pacific Coast. The cool breeze off the sea reduces the effect of the heat and humidity. However a long hot day is spent at the border for a Kevin as he and two riders hang back and negotiate the day away with the customs officers. One rider had been to Costa Rica years ago but unfortunately the company that sent his bike home did not complete the paperwork correctly and customs think the bike is still in the country. You can’t have two vehicles in the country so they refuse entry for his bike! A potential trip stopper! After a long day of discussion and negotiation a “solution” was agreed. This means the first night in Costa Rica the group are split with some at the planned hotel and some still at the border. However we are all back together again the next evening after a nice dirt road ride into the mountains of the Rincon De La Vieja National Park. Our hotel has natural hot springs and mud baths, which those who arrive early enjoy. It makes a change from the mud baths that resulted from the flooded roads in Argentina just a few weeks ago! It is another border day and we are crossing into Nicaragua. There are over 100 trucks queued on the Pan American waiting to get into the border compound. We slide past them all and begin the lengthy process of crossing with the assistance of our local helper. The process changes all the time but our helper, a smile and being patient get us through pretty quickly. Quicker than the South African Bikers we met who spent an hour and a half in one queue to find they had missed one of the “inspecion” and so had to go back for this and then re join the queue all over again! The beautiful old colonial town of Granada, on the shores of Lake Nicaragua is our home for a few nights. We are treated to dinner courtesy of Terry and an old family friend Guillermo Perez-Arguello. Gui;;ermo was a formerly a senior advisor to President Ortega and the Chief Nicaraguan Ambassador. We are eating in a restaurant that was once his Great Grandmothers Family home originally built in 1906 and featured in National Geographic Magazine in an article about Nicaragua in the 1950’s. It is an entertaining and interesting evening. Granada has a wild side to it and there are some no go areas, but it is a city not to be missed with the action focussing on the main plaza right outside our hotel. Arriving in Honduras we are riding through the highlands. Stunning sweeping roads with sections of dirt are enjoyed by all the riders of the group. The scenery is lush and green and we are fortunate that the weather is warn and largely dry, with low humidity. Almost perfect riding days. We ride towards Copan and another day off to visit the ancient Mayan ruins. The ruins were discovered in the late 19th century when the whole site was bought for just $50 by an Englishman John Lloyd Stephens. It was reclaimed by the Honduran’s some time later but it is not clear if John Lloyd Stephens ever got his $50 back. So after a little time off here in Copan we are looking over the hills to Guatemala where we will be in just a few days. From there Mexico is our next country, where after all the smaller countries in Central America we will be for almost two weeks. In Central America we are at the central point of this epic ride, with four months ridden and four months still to go. The core team who set out from Mieming are still together. Some new friends have joined for sections of the ride and are now at home again but the ride rolls on…….

Pot holes, chickens and the grinning llamas

The ride from Cusco to Nazca is one of the best in South America.  Not only is the scenery stunning but the riding is amazing.  Challenging in places as we weave around pot holes, chickens and the grinning llamas.  Then we are blessed with hundreds of bends and with the Peruvians upgrading their roads, the surface improves as we head towards to the small desert town of Nazca.  20 miles from Nazca we are presented with the stunning view of Cerro Blanco, at 2,080m the highest sand dune in the World.  The temperature has risen from 5 degrees C on the altiplano to a blistering 30 as we ride along the desert roads into Nazca.. The town has developed over the years as the staging post to visit the famous Nazca lines.  Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, it is a collection of ancient geoglyphs varying from simple straight lines to complex patterns and figures including a spider, hummingbird and monkey.  The only way to really see the lines is from the air and the group had a day off to take a flight in one of the small planes that circle the area.  The advice was to have a small breakfast as the pilots seem to take great pleasure in banking the planes left and right to give everyone a good view.  A few of the group returned looking very pale and an afternoon lie down was needed. The coast of Peru is very different from the riding we had had up until now.  It is a lot of desert and straight roads and is also the main run to the capital, Lima.  With a population of 9 million and the main Pan Am running straight through, it would be combat motorcycling to get through the traffic.  It would make a great training ground for despatch riders, trying to read your notes and look at road signs whilst avoiding the swerving cars and trucks and street sellers.  A few riders ended up off route having missed some turns, but we all got through and settled into the ride north. Our destination in northern Peru was the city of Chiclayo.  Known as ‘The Capital of Friendship’ this would be our base for visiting one of the best museums in South America.  The ‘Lord of Sipan’ is considered to be one of the most important archaeological finds in the last 30 years.  The tombs date back 2,000 years and were only discovered in the 80’s fully intact, which also meant they had not been robbed of their riches.  A six million dollar museum was built to house the artifacts and is another must see in Peru. Leaving Chiclayo we headed away from the desert to the small border at Macara, Ecuador.  It was very hot and we were pleased at how quick the Peruvians exited us and within 5 minutes each we were riding across the bridge to the Ecuadorean customs.  They were pleased to see us all and asked many questions about our journey and the motorcycles.  It took a bit longer to obtain our vehicle permits as one customs official tapped away on his computer.  Only a few years ago all permits were hand written and now most have computerised their systems.  This is great progress for the countries but is a little slow until they get to grips with the new process.  It also didn’t help with so many different nationalities and vehicle titles. We were soon winding our way through the mountain roads in Ecuador.  Our Garmin gps units were getting closer to showing us all the zeros as we approached the equator.  After a stop over in the capital, Quito, we were set to ride into the northern hemisphere.  We stopped for pictures on the line and fiddled with our gps units to make sure we were exactly on the equator.  With pictures of one pannier in each hemisphere completed we headed to our last country in South America, Colombia. Colombia has done a lot of good work over the last few years to shake off the bad image that has been hanging over them.  We were the first tour company to take a group through Colombia in 2009 and now it is on everyones itinery and rightly so.  It requires full concentration to negotiate the miles of bends through the central route north to Bogota.  The trucks can be a major problem as they crawl their way up and down the mountain roads.  This often causes long lines of vehicles backed up behind them and then the leap froging  starts as you manoeuvre past the slower cars.  Although every few bends someone coming the other way is also doing the same and sometimes it is a truck overtaking another truck! Our first stop was the ‘white city’ of Popayan, with its wonderful colonial architecture and many churches.  When we arrived at our hotel there seemed to be a heavy presence of police and soldiers.  After checking in we were told that Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia would be staying at the hotel that night.  Most of us were excited about this whilst others were worried due to the security!  Our bikes were checked by the police and we tried to get a picture with him and the bikes but I think he had other more important issues on his mind. A visit to Colombia would not be complete without staying over night on a coffee plantation.  So on route to Bogota we stopped for a night in the coffee growing area of Armenia.  With a cold beer  in hand and looking out across the many miles of coffee plants and banana trees, it gave us all time to reflect on our achievement and the last two months of riding through South America, section 2 was almost complete. As we rode into Bogota as a group our thoughts we now firmly on the logistics of the freight and moving all the motorcycles to Panama.  But first we had to get all the bikes serviced and fit new tyres.  This was completed in two days with the help of our friend Bernardo at BMW Autogermana and then we delivered the bikes to the warehouse at the airport.  A day was spent filling out forms and getting stamps and signatures and police inspections.  We were then ready to depart for Panama City and the start of section 3.  A final group meal before we fly and we said our fair wells to Chris and Marcelo who were finishing in Bogota, but for the rest of us it was on to Central America.  A long day awaited us as we landed in Panama City.  With all our bikes collected and cleared customs in half a day we are now ready for section 3.  Central America will be hot and sticky and a border every few days will test some of the patience of the group. The original team is also back together as Larry re joins us.  Los Angeles is 5,000 miles away and we have 5 countries to cross before entering the US.  New countries and new roads await us as we continue to Discover our Earth and section 3 begins.