Transitioning from Ecuador to Peru

Riding through South America We have seen the most diverse landscape regions so far. In Ecuador it rained Everyday at about 1pm. We rode through high mountains and volcanoes covered in snow to; high farming villages; to the Ocean. It would be cold and wet one minute and hot and dry within another 10 miles. It is amazing how many different climates we can see in one day, in just one little country. It is also amazing that from border to border, as soon as you cross into another country how the scenery changes. You can see that you have crossed into a new land.

Riding through thick FOG..

If you are worried about the gas prices in the states come to Ecuador. These are the gas prices in Ecuador. It is in $ and Gallons! (Diesel is 1.37)( unleaded 1.48)The cheapest we have seen.

Crossed into Peru on 26 March 2011. Border crossings in South America is much smoother then Central America. Notice there is nobody around.

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean in Zorritos, Peru. The view from our Bungalow on the Beach.

We always love meeting new friends while traveling. We stopped by a fruit stand on the side of the road and met Trevor and Suzette who are living/working in Sullana, Peru. They invited us into their home to stay the night. We can not thank them enough for their hospitality.

This is a 112 mile stretch of Desert in Peru" “Desierto de Sechura” . Nothing but sand and dunes with a straight highway going straight through.

Camille decided to trade in the shooting star for a broomstick…it gets better gas mileage

It is so hot on the tarmac that Paul’s Kickstand just sunk right through the road.

THE OTHER SIDE….

We have passed to the other side of the world.

WE are now in Ecuador and just passed the Equator!!! We never thought that the equator would be so cold and wet? Since we have crossed into South America is has rained EVERYDAY. Thankfully we have found a couple of hot springs in Ecuador. Heated by the thermals of the surrounding Volcano.

 

This Volcano, yes volcano with snow, is over 20,000 ft. the first snow we have seen. which is why we needed to soak in some hot springs. 

Today we took a wrong turn (still heading south…as long as it is south it is all good)  We found some hot springs in Alausi, Ecuador. WE decided to stay the night and warm our bones. Sometimes it is nice to get lost and end up in a beautiful place like this….                       .

Motorcycle Race Columbia Style

THANK YOU Juilo & Lillian for taking us to the motorcycle race. We meet Juiolo on the road yesterday and he showed us to a super nice hotel in the city of Pasto, Columbia, where we stayed the night. (the nicest place so far) he told us about the motorcycle championship that he goes to EVERY Sunday (he never misses a race) We thought this was right up our Road. So we joined them and they showed us a good time. Thank you guys.These guys road on a Yamaha 115.
(which was in the final race of the day). This little 115 goes fast. I couldn't keep up with them on the highway. The race had many different classes from the yamaha 115, to scooters! to 200 to 650 super motos. Better yet the day we attended was the first day the super moto class included Enduro Racing! With that said the #1 racer in the country came in #2 place.
He had to lean his bike against Pauls because it had no kick stand...It looks like tiny next to the Honda 650 but this bike cruises even with 2 people on it.

They let us into the "vip" section beacuse we were tourist on Motorcycles at the moto race...I mean when you arrive at a MOTORCYCLE race on MOTORCYCLES that you rode from the USA for some reason you can do whatever you want!?!?!?

Have you ever seen scooters corner like this?

South America...69 days and 5985 miles later...

Columbia is a beautiful country......from the People, to the roads, the food to the scenery. everybody helping us with anything and everything from finding hotels to changing our oil. everyone is so curious about our Journey and making us feel very welcome in their country. Columbians claim to be the happiest in the world. I believe it. I have not heard anybody talk negative about anything anybody or anywhere. They all have a Positive outlook on life and it's great to be in a country where the people are not only so beautiful but the scenery is just as beautiful. I think whom ever designed the roads in Columbia must have made them just for Motorcycles. The roads are so much fun and so beautiful. I have never seen anything like it before. It just keeps getting better around every turn, and there are a lot of them... motorcycles do not have to pay at all the tolls on the roads:)

WE have to keep all of our layers close by. It will be raining one minute and then we will drop down and it will be hot and humid and within another 10 minutes we will need our jackets on agian. OH it's good to be back in the mountains. Columbia is in the "foothills" Of the Andes and in the Amazon River Region. If you can imagine such a place. it is Columbia!

The Food is some of the best so far also. Plantains "the potato of the clouds" are used in a lot of dishes.. like a green banana....I love them, Paul not so much. Plantains soup below is served with just about every meal and of course a cold columbia cerveza.

Flying our bikes to Columbia was the best idea. It saved a lot of time and hassle. We were able to get all of our paperwork, for importing our bikes into the country, right at the cargo terminal. once we found the right office to go to (tranlation still is not the best) the whole office was helping me out, unlike any other border crossing so far. They were all smiling and helpful. Thank you columbia.

Columbia- The only risk is that you will not want to leave:)

Peaks and Perks meets Columbian coffee.   Columbia’s coffee National Park.

    

Our bikes and us fly to Columbia:))

 

      We did it!!!  Columbia is everything that we heard it would be. The people are so so friendly.  The mango seller on the street would not take my money for mango.  All he would take was a hand shake and a smile.  Then there’s the story teller that gave me a cd of his columbian stories.  And again would not take money.  then there’s  the place we bought our oil for an oil change.  Yeap they changed it for us for nothing.  They are all very curious of our story and our bikes.  They go out of there way for us for nothing.  Like” follow me and i will take you to the highway.”  As you can see i can’t say enough about the people here.  the nicest that I have met anywhere in this small world so far.

     Then there is the winding beautiful roads that go through the foot hills of the mountains.  The mountains are bigger here than i expected.  8000ft in the valley’s. It nice to be somewhere that the temps. are cool at night, and not very hot during the day.  The flowers and vegitation here is just amazing.  All in all it’s my favorite country that we have ridden through yet. For sure.!!  I love it here and will return some day for a longer stay.3-18-11 Camel in Columbia.

Art of Bogota Columbia

Flying bikes to columbia is mucho $$$

well we have been looking into getting our bikes to south america and it is not cheap or easy anyway you look at it. By boat is 750 dollars for us and the bike. then it leaves is 4 days. is at sea for 4 days then takes about to to get it to shore due to paper work issues. And then more money. Then we went to the airport today to see about flying them to columbia. The one airline that was suppose to be the cheapest turns out there dont do it anymore. So now there seems to be just one airline that does it. The bike cost is $901.25 then another 300-400 hundred for us to get there each. But the paper work is taken care of by the airline. Which is suppose to be easier and quicker. the plane leaves on sun. tomm. is sat. then we can pick it up in columbia on mon. morning. Sounds like we have decided to go for the flying. 1300 bucks is so so much, but we did budget for this as we knew it would cost alot.. Thats it for now. wish us luck and we will write to ya in columbia next. Hopefully. today is 3-11. peace and love to all

Central America

Our Last Country in Central America.
PANAMA.
WE cruised through Costa Rica. It was expensive and we wanted to cover some miles. It was really beautiful though. We felt like we took a little trip back to the states for a couple of days. "South Miami".
WE are now in Panama. As soon as we got done doing all of our paperwork at the border (Costa Rica and Panama have been the smoothest by far) we left the border and it started RAINING, POURING actually. The streets were flooding and we rode around a city that apparentaly had no hotels. (Thank Goodness for Auto Hotels. You know what I am talking about if you have ever been through Mexico or Central America).
WE rode into Panama City Today. By far the largest city we have been in yet and rode across the Panama Canal on our way in. That was cool to ride across and see all the ships waiting to go through.
We are now trying to decide how it get across the Darien Gap. For those who do not know, The Darien Gap is kinda the no mans land between Panama and Columbia. The PanAmerica highway ends in Panama and then there is just Jungle that is almost impassable. No road, full of thiefs and Cartel and
R-O-U-Ss (Ithink of the "Princess Bride" here) So we have decided not to go through it. WE can either get on a boat with our bikes and have a little mini cruise (5-7 Days and the same price as a cruise) or fly into Columbia, about the same price with our bikes and only one day for flying. We did know this before so we are not surprised by the road ending, we are just trying to decide what we want to do.

Paul had a nice talk with the nice police man on the PanAmerica highway. Policeman waves us over to Pull Over.

I think "oh great more money and more acting"

Policeman sticks out his hand "Hola Amigo, Go slow there are many, many cops between here and Panama City"

"Thanks for the tip officer"

We then stopped and checked out his bike and talked a while with him. I wish Cops in the States were this friendly...(sorry Dad)

Volcano Maderas, Ometepe, Nicaragua

WE Did it!

Volcano Maderas. 4600ft. 7 hours. and after sitting on our motorcycles for 2 months we needed it and felt it for days.
This was the most fun. Climbing up and over tree roots. through them around them. I really did feel like a Monkey. I had a lot of fun. Literally walking in the coulds.

REally Cool. WE were Just expecting a walk. But a "Walk" and walk through the Jungle and up a volcano are just a little different.

ometepe island

We just left the island of ometepe, which is in lake nica. wow what a special place this was. An island basiclly formed from two volcanoes. (one of which erupted last feb. for 15 days.) the other day we hike up to the summit of one of them. it was 4600ft, and it took us 7 hours round trip. it was very very beautiful. The forest was roaring with the sounds of houwler monkeys. The last 1500ft was so steep that you had to use your hands to grab onto the vines to pull yourself up. This area up top was also a rain forest that is alway wet wet even when it does´nt rain. or they also call it a cloud forest. so so sweet up there. we are still sore from the hike, but it was well worth it. After almost 2 months on bikes our legs needed a workout, and that they did get!! The next day we rode our bikes around one of the volcanoes. it was a very rough dirt road that i really enjoyed a lot. oh and there was (petroglyphs?) all around the volcano. also very very cool. All in All ometepe was a wonderful experience.

Now we are in San Juan del sur. this is a beach-surf town on the pacific. On the bikes we go many days without seeing white people so its a little wierd when all of a sudden its like miami or something. big money here. mostly from the us of a. i GUESS there are some good things to be had here though. like live music tonight. so gotta go. peace and love to all Paul. 3-5-2011.

no title needed.

major chillaxin