Missive #1- January 23, 2018

Missive #1 January 23, 2018

Upcoming trip to South America

Hello again! On January 25th I head to Cartagena, Columbia via Toronto. It is the first leg of a 2 month 12,000 kilometre Globeriders trip from the top to the bottom of the continent.

 

Having completed the Silk Road adventure in 2011 and the Cape to Cairo expedition in early 2017 this is the third leg of the triangle. We depart Cartagena on the 29th and arrive in Ushuaia on March 31st for a total of 62 days. It should be quite a thrill to go to that famous place, Tierra del Fuego!

 

My bike was containerized with 10 others in Seattle and left on December 5th. It has been efficiently packed for the rigours if the trip.  I have new Joe Rocket riding gear and have added  high intensity Clearwater lights to the front and back for greater visibility on the road. Even though we never travel at night, being that much more conspicuous on the road is a big help.

 

I have studied in detail Helge’s two previous South American trips in 2010 and 2013 to learn as much as possible about what to expect. While the famous PanAmerican highway will see us sometimes, it is not his proclivity to take the route most travelled. The huge tunnels boring through mountain sides and big open road system will be a long way away as we traverse south.

 

If you would like to see some spectacular photography in out of the way places go to the Globeriders website, click on LiveJournals!, scroll down to the 2010 and 2013 tours and take a look. The stories are riveting and the scenery is ‘other worldly’. I am really looking forward to this adventure!

 

The Silk Road and the Africa trips have prepared me well, however, there is never room for complacency on a motorcycle trip of this dimension. Complete attention to every detail is paramount, maybe like how a free climber on a steep mountainside approaches his trade. I am anticipating a lot more vehicular traffic and spunky dogs jumping out at unexpected times than on the other two trips. The weather will also come in to play. We will be going from sea level to 14000 feet and back again in short order as we traverse up and down the Andes. There will be rain, fog, heat, cold and in some places a lot of wind (Patagonia). Some of the road conditions will be difficult. However, being on a motorcycle day after day after day really sharpens your skills, prepares you for the unexpected and allows for a hopefully safe margin of error.

 

I am continually amazed at the pluckiness of the people that Helge brings together from all over the world for adventures of this type. It is also amazing looking the age group with more than a few being in their 70’s, testament that anything is possible if you reach for it. We will have 12 riders in total including three couples. Three significant others will be joining us for two weeks in Lima, Peru enroute to Laz Paz, Bolivia, Waan included, but more on that later

 

As with earlier missives from previous trips (http://nickgudewill.blogspot.ca for Africa)), these emails are being sent out to quite a large group of family, friends and people who have indicated an interest in following this trip. If there are others not on the list that you think may enjoy my chronicles please feel free to forward; I will do my best to try to make this an interesting read but for those that get bored, just push the ‘delete’ button and carry on with your day; thanks in advance for taking the trouble to join me on this adventure! 

 

Here are a few thoughts in no particular order that I am thinking about prior to the trip:

 

-Since 2005, Helge has conducted 23 adventure trips all over the world with guys like me. Before that he soloed to practically all corners of the globe over about 20 years of motorcycle travelling. He is simply the best there is in this field so it will be a pleasure to travel with him and his group.

 

-Looking at the LiveJournals! photography online, it looks like the scenery throughout the route especially high up in the Andes will be simply breath taking, magical; 

 

-I have purchased a very cool but relatively inexpensive ($500) higher end Canon SX60-HS camera, the same one used by Simon Peterson in Tanzania on our recent safari. It has a 60X zoom lens and also an efficient adjustable strap system that I can wear around my riding gear enroute. This will enable taking much better pics underway at higher shutter speed settings so there are no excuses for not properly catching the moment!

 

-I am not looking forward to the border crossings!! Although there is no requirement for ‘Carnet de Passage’ documentation this time and visas are mostly nonexistent I now always expect the unexpected so will be prepared for anything including lots of fleecers around.

 

-The food and wine in South America should be really interesting especially in Argentina where we will be for over 3 weeks crisscrossing the Andes into and out of Chile 4 times; I am not looking forward to the apparently terrible garbage situation in Peru (13 days) and its barren desert riding in the northern part. I have read about how beautiful Bolivia (9 days) will be for its people and scenery; apart from Columbia (9 days) we will also be in Ecuador (6 days) for a total of 6 new countries to add to my list of soon to be 66 countries.

 

-Never having been to South America, one of my key interests will be to learn as much as I can about the many indigenous peoples of this continent and more particularly to understand a bit about how and why the Spaniards raped, pillaged and plundered this continent for so long to their own selfish advantage. The politics and governance of most South American countries is deplorable so how did this come about in such a resource rich area, what effect did and does European influence have and what lies ahead in the future, all important questions to ponder (for instance, at the end of WW2 Argentina had the same GDP as Canada and now it is about a third with 42 million people to our 35 million).

 

-Franco Lai is an Asian fellow living in Seattle and will be my roommate. I was supposed to room with Bob Higdon a 77 year old a retired lawyer from Washington, DC. We had spent quite a lot of time getting a comfort level with each other chatting on the phone. For various reasons this all got changed around. Franco and I have spoken several times on the phone so this is more of an unknown heading in to the journey. 

 

 

 

Gosh, this may have gone on too long so I hope my readers are still with me! Part of this exercise is to diarize my thoughts and observations from start to finish for future reference. I have been fortunate to make two presentations about my Africa trip since being home and it was a pleasure to go back and reread my journals to prepare. At a later date in my soon to be old age I also will have an opportunity to reflect further about these trips in the passage of time.

 

I will be in touch again soon when there is something interesting to convey. In the meantime, thanks for being onboard!

 

Best regards, Nick G.

 

Ps This is being sent a little early as a dry run to make sure this message transmits properly; I will be uploading every 8-10 days to nickssouthamerica.blogspot.ca but sending an emailed message without pics beforehand as notification, sure hope it all works okay!

 

Crossing the equator in Ecuador and the tropic of Capricorn in Argentina our entry/exit points by country are as follows:

 

              Columbia            January 26 to February 5

               

Ecuador               February 5 to 9

 

Peru                      February 9 to 21

 

Bolivia                  February 21 to March 1

 

Argentina            March 1 to 7

 

Chile                     March 7 to 12

 

Argentina            March 12 to 15

 

Chile                     March 15 to 17

 

Argentina            March 17 to 23

 

Chile                     March 23 to 26

 

Argentina            March 26 to 30