Archive for 2008
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
Not your typical Machu Picchu trip
Yeah yeah yeah, I know its been a long time since I’ve updated. I’ve been traveling almost non-stop. I’m going to spend the next couple of entries catching up with my pictures and telling some of the more interesting stories. For the record, I’m now in Mendoza, Argentina. I’m going to work on my blog posts in between eating massive amounts of steaks and chorizo coupled with fantastic wines.
Anyway! On to Machu Picchu!
Biking through the Americas has its benefit: Instead of having to travel with the herds of gringos along the Inca trail or the train from Cuzco, I got to ride to Machu Picchu on my motorcycle.
Fantastic Ride.
Super fantastic. In fact, I’d consider it one of the best rides of the trip.
I started the ride from Limatambo,where we stayed at a hotel that also raised cuy. Another cuy video to follow! CUY!!!! They were safe as we weren’t that hungry.
In Lima, I met an American who told me to look up a guy named KB who runs KB Tambo Hotel and Tours in Ollantaytambo. We showed up in town and amazingly the first person we asked where KB was knew exactly who we were talking about. After finding KB at a coffee show we met up with him a few minutes later at his hotel.
KB is a great guy. I’ve met many travelers who are always looking for something– I think KB is one of the few who’s found it. He’s from the US and bought into the hotel a few years ago before Ollantaytambo was as developed for tourism as it is now. KB lives a great balance of work and lifestyle.
After talking to him for an hour, he told us about the following route:
Ollantaytambo -> Santa Maria -> Santa Teresa. From Santa Teresa take a collectivo (microbus) to hidroelectica, the hydroelectric plant. From there, you can take a train or hike for 3 hours to Aguascalientes. Upon arriving at Aguas, you’ve once again rejoined the herd. Here you can either take a bus like everyone else or walk up the mountian to Machu Picchu.
The pass from Ollantaytambo is amazing. Truly spectacular. This is only one half of the road that made it one of the best rides of the trip. It was completed a few years and the pavement is smooth as glass. There are hairpin turns where you can really lean the bike over as well as parts of the ride where you ride 65 mph through gental shicanes. One more thing: NO TRAFFIC!!
Eventually after crossing almost the entire pass the road turns dirt for a couple of hours. It was an all weather gravel road that was in OK condition. If you stuck by the side of the road, it was fairly smooth. After about one hour of riding through tourist free villages you get to Santa Maria. You make a left across a bridge and there is a row of abandoned buildings. I wish I knew more about these, but they look like they haven’t been used for a few years.
Then the second part of the fun starts: The ride from Santa Maria to Santa Teresa. This was the most perfect non-paved road I’ve ever been on. The views were fantastic. There was even a nice photogenic water crossing. The surface was smooth and predictable. The penalty of error was severe. This road makes the “Death Road” in Bolivia’s Yungas look like an interstate. The road was thin and twisty with massive drops if you strayed away from the mountian. Absolutely beautiful.
Once the road ends, you’re in Santa Teresa. There are tons of very simple Peruvian style hostels. You could expect hot water from a death heater in a shower where you have to stand over the toliet. Small rooms lit by a swinging lightbulb….. BUT things were clean and cheap. My favorite!
Theo and I found the hotel “Hospedaje Auqui”. They were clean and had great parking for atleast two bikes.
The town was charming. They had beautiful statues and people were actually living in the town, unlike Aguascalientes which is an actual tourist trap.
The next day, we woke up and took the collectivo to the hydroelectric plant and train station.
Arriving at Aguascalientes was a shock. It was terrible. As I said previously tourist trap. I really mean trap too– there is only a train to enter/leave town and a bus service that goes up to Machu Picchu. Everything is 4-10x as expensive as the rest of Peru. It is full of retired people wearing thier overpriced hats that brag about thier Machu Picchu visit.
So I finally made it to Machu Picchu. My visit to South America is official. I do have to say, it was beautiful.
Even though I’m part of the herd now, there were tourists everywere you looked. MP is a money maker.
See.. I was there!!!
The one non-tourist I saw on the mountian.
I’m glad I went because the ride to Santa Teresa was tops. Honestly, I could have skipped Machu Picchu. It was nice but for me, it didn’t really pop past the pictures that I’ve seen. I am certianly lacking some appreciation for the history, but as far as the piles of old rocks I’ve seen on my trip, I prefer Tikal.
3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Friday, November 14th, 2008
Theo’s pictures from Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
I don’t download Theo’s pictures that often so I’m just going to make a huge confusing post of his pictures.
His nikon does a great job of capturing the trip. He also takes pictures of me, so it is good to have proof that I was actually on the trip, not just the bike. Again, donate to his charity work at: http://world-tourer.de
Me very happy to see the bikes arrive in Colombia.
We’re not the first bikers on the Panam.
I met these folks at the church in the valley in Colombia
Stupid tourist shot balancing one shot on the equator. I have the benefit of reading many other ride reports and blogs so I know what pictures to take. Once I did this shot, several other tourists followed my lead.
Jump shot, equator style
I’m happy to be in Peru!
I met these guys at the side of the road. I stopped to take some pictures of some goats they had tied up. All of a sudden a crowd appeared and they insisted that I drink Chicha. It is a lightly fermented homemade corn drink. It was pretty tastey, but I ended up getting a case of the D for 3 days after it. Ohh well, it is part of traveling.
I’m happy to be in the desert
Lonely desert rider.
This is a great photo of Theo’s taken in Canyon del Pato.
Me putting on rain gear before an amazing storm.
Drop number 3 of the trip. Like time number 2, I was turning around. ARGH!
more desert offroad riding.
Here is me chitchating with the spanish/french couple at the Nasca tower. I have tons of respect for the bicyclist travelers.
8 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Traveling through Peru
I’ve been making some serious time while traveling through Peru. We drove for 4 days straight from Lima to Cuzco. It is a very long but incredibly scenic ride.
There were these chicken houses all over the side of the desert next to the Pacific. I was so amused by them that I even have a video posted on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dghomefry
Look at all those chickens!!!!
My bike did well in the desert.
dunes… dunes!!!
Theo getting ready to ride down a dune headfirst on a duneboard in Ica, Peru
I met a canadian pair of snowboarders who’s skills translated well on the dunes.
Theo and our big buggy.
I’ve always wanted to run down a sand dune. So I did it and I got a little bit of sand in my shoes.
Don’t mess with the Germans.
ARGH.. I can’t remember their name. But they’re really cool and here is their pic in the dunes. Please email me with your name so I can fix this post! That and send you the clips of ya’ll coming down the dunes.
Nasca Tower. Wow. And by Wow, I mean that in the most sarcastic wow as possible. While I didn’t want to fly in the old/overweighted single prop cesnas to do a fly over, we did climb the tower for 1 sole. It was… kinda cool? maybe a little. My favorite part was talking to the bicyclists who were there also. You can see their bicycles in front of the tower. They were from Spain and France and were cycling for 6 or 7 months.
Yup. That’s one of those mysterious nasca lines. They’re signs to a god for fertility.
The tower wsas a great vantage to take a picture of the bikes.
The drive was just filled with fantastic views. Peru is beautiful and diverse.
Llama!!!
And even more cute… Alpaca! Soo fluffy!
Thats my current desktop. So. Much. Fluff!
Next up is my ride to Machu Picchu. Theo already wrote a blog entry about it on a german language newspaper website: Here
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Lima Bullfighting
After making some serious miles, it is a nice break to stay a couple of days in Lima, Peru.
I’m staying in the Miraflores area which is not like the rest of the city and even farther from the rest of the country. Unlike the desert where I saw mudhuts without electricity or power, Miraflores has Starbucks, McD’s, TGI Fridays, Chiles, Burger King, and a few sidewalk cafes that I swear were swiped from the streets of Paris.
To only add the the surreal aspect of this experience, I went to a bullfight. Warning, the following pictures are quite graphic but are the best way to tell the story of going to a bullfight.
The road to Lima on the Panam!
Miles and miles of desert
Lots of religious messages in the sand. I’ve been asked a few times by locals what religion I am.
Musician at the bullfight.
The plaza del toros
A picador, the guy who rides a horse and uses a spear to weaken the bull.
Ornate clothing
Picador in action
The matador. It is really easy to get pics of these guys as they’re always posing
Celebrating after killing a bull by taking a drink of wine that someone threw down from the audience
More picadors.
These guys throw darts into the bull to weaken it.
The matador sticks the sword directly into the heart of the bull from over his head to kill him very quickly.
See, I was here.
This is the taxi drive Juan Carlos. See Juan Carlos, I told you I put you online. Now sign my guestbook!
3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Cuy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been meaning to try cuy (guinea pig) since Ecuador but didn’t get around to it until Peru. The Ecuadorians say it is better there and of course the Peruvians disagree.
This post is more about pictures than it is about words. So Enjoy.
If you want to see the really graphic pics, just mail me. There are a bunch that I have online that bring you even closer to my dinner.
So cute!
This is where Mr. Cuy was cooked
This is the drink that Theo was drinking– Inca Cola and beer. He has been drinking Coke and beer, but when in Peru you HAVE to use Inca cola. It isn’t that bad… really
Mr. Cuy is now cooked
See, I liked him!
Now he’s quartered for sharing.
Theo likes him too!
9 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
The Cañon del Pato (Duck Canyon) and more police issues
We left Caraz at 8 with the plan of going to see some of the lagoons in the mountains. Caraz is very high in the Andes (yeah, like the mints). The region is beautiful but we were having ugly weather prohibiting us from seeing any of the high peaks. You know the paramount logo? Well, it is in the Andes about an hour off-road from Caraz. The map has a star noting it as “The most beautiful mountain in the world”.
The plan to see the lagoons was interrupted by me having some issues with my chain oiler. I thought that it was just out of oil but it was clogged and I had to disconnect everything to get it working again. Since it took me a couple of hours to fix it at the gas station we didn’t really have the time to go up the pass.
Instead, we just hit the road and started heading to Lima. The road was paved but there were TONS of potholes and road constrution making the progress slow going. I just loaded up some music in the iPod and was having a nice relaxing ridef through the twisties of the Andes.
This lasted for a few hours until the afternoon storms started rolling in a little early at 11. We stopped before the sun was completely blocked with black thunderclouds to put on rain gear. Because it was so cold and the sky was blocked with rain, I went full force:
* Rain liner inside riding jacket
* Rain jacket over riding jacket
* Rain pants over riding pants
* Rain shoe covers over boots
* Rain 3 fingered lobster gloves over riding gloves
I felt like a snowman. With all that gear on, it is a little hard to move and a little hard to control the bike so I very rarely put it ALL on unless I know it is going to rain hard and it is going to be a very cold rain. I think a torrential storm in the Peruvian Andes was the perfect time.
Just as the rain started coming in we started climbing a pass to break through the Andes and start heading over to the coast towards Lima. This was one of the most difficult riding I’ve ever done — We weren’t driving through hard slamming rain exactly, more through clouds that would produce such rain. The air was thick with water. We could only see a few feet in front of us. Under normal circumstances we would stop, but there were no safe places to pull over because the visibility was so poor and there were so many convoys of big trucks on the road. To make this worse the pass was under construction. There were paving crews reducing the road to one lane alternating with huge strips of non-paved highway. This was the double-black diamond run of the Andes.
We kept the speed low but made continuous progress and eventually descended through the clouds onto a desert mountianscape. There was almost no plant life as all the mountains were textured by only exposed rocks.
It was still cool, but atleast the rain was over. We then continued towards Lima.
One of the things that the area north of Lima is famous for in the South American motorcycling community is the corrupt police. I’ve read about it many times on Horizons and spoke to people personally who have had problems with them. There are police checkpoints on the side of the road where there is a big police SUV and a cop standing there with an orange lightsaber looking traffic guiding device. When he sees you, he either waves you by or waves you to stop.
We have already been stopped once north of Chimbote, but managed to talk our way out of any problems by redirecting the conversation to us asking him for directions.
Our stategy is to keep the speed up and hopefully not give the cop the chance to think to stop us or to ride in the wake of a big truck so that he doesn’t see us until we’re passing him.
So we were enacting this technique but were unable to find a truck to ride behind and a cop starts to wave us down.
At the exact moment it was happening, it was unclear if he was waving us through or to pull over. Both our reaction was exactly the same: Wave back!
Anyway, he walks to the drivers side of the car and I start to run the various chase scenerios through my head. It is now clear that he wanted us to pull over and we didn’t. There are checkpoints every few miles and he was now radioing to his collegues to REALLY stop us next time.
Our solution: Find a hotel.
It was already getting late and that is to the police’s advantage. Usually when you get stopped, it is a waiting game. They hold your documents and you just sit there. They want you to be in a hurry and to just “pay the fine on the stop” regardless of if you did anything wrong.
There was a turn off to a small town on the beach called Vegueta. We asked a collictivo (multiperson taxi) driver if there were hotels in town and he spouted a bunch of spanish that sounded like yes.
We headed towards to coast and came upon a sandy beach town. The main road was paved, but the rest of the city of probably 10,000 people were sand roads.
First we stopped at the tourist office. As Theo went into the tourist office, I saw a hotel and went inside to see if they had rooms and parking for the bikes.
I enter the hotel and start with my DaveSpan and explain that we would like a room with two beds. The old Peruvian woman, who I can barely understand, says yes. I think.
Then we start talking about the parking situation and she starts pointing to across the street where all the tuktuks (3 wheels motorcycle taxis) park and says that it is secure. I then ask if we can park inside the lobby area because the bikes should be able to fit. She keeps talking about the tuktuk parking and I decided to break out the big guns.
In my best DaveSpan, I start into a speech I’ve used many times about how my motorcycle is novia (girlfriend) and that I don’t want to park her on the street with all the other men. That I want her to be close to me so I can look after her. My novia is beautiful and everyone likes to put their hands on her, so I like to keep her in very private parking.
She stops pointing and then takes a good look at the bike. With a huge grin, she says I can park my novia right in front of the room.
After all this is going on with me for 5 minutes inside the hotel, Theo is having his own experience. While I’m not sure what that it, the result was him talking in even worse spanish than my own to a group of 10 very curious people.
Everyone is smiling and laughing. It looks like the one english speaker of the town came out and with his very basic english starts to ask questions for the group and translate answers.
I manage to grab a second with Theo from the crowd and we start to move the bikes inside the hotel lobby.
The enthusiastic crowd follows.
Theo and I were now trying to move the bikes into the lobby’s new “Big Bike Parking Area”. There was one guy who had a tape measure and measured the door frame for us, another guy who moved the furniture out of the way, and then the crowd of people who were squeezed into the door frame watching the whole thing transpire.
Once we get the bikes parked they realize I speak a little spanish and start asking me all sorts of questions.
Where are you from?
Where have you been?
Where next?
How much time?
and the final question was: How did you choose our small town of Vegueta?
I of course did not mention anything about avoiding the police.
3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
Mitad del Mundo and Ecuador
Middle of the Earth Park
I’ve been in South America for a while, but FINALLY I will be in the Southern Hemisphere upon entering Quito.
Just north of Quito is the park that celebrates the equator “Mitad del Mundo”. They have this big monument and an actual line that is supposed to be the equator.
Bathrooms on the middle of the earth.
I’m using SUPPOSED to, because according to GPS, it isn’t. I don’t know who is right, but I know that my GPS (actually, both my garmin AND my spot) say that the middle of the earth is actually just north of the park and runs along the side of a dusty road.
I understand that the dusty road isn’t as fun as the lavishly landscaped park filled with tourist shops (No stickers, btw), but hey, if I’m going to celebrate the equator in ecuador, lets atleast use the real one. Not some line paved on a piece of land that the cousin of some government park official owns.
Of course I had to visit Alberto’s Turtle Head Scottish Pub in Quito. HI ALBERT. After many-a-shots and a very good but drunken conversation with an Ecuadorian I eventually made it back to my hostel. If you’re in Quito, you have to go to The Turtle’s Head. It wasn’t until after quito did a scottish guy explain the vulgarity of a turtle head. I knew it had to be something vulgar, I just wasn’t sure what it was…
Take your sheep for a walk!
The elusive cuy.
Gotta get the good photo!
I miss my doggle
…..
Highlanders
Wear great hats…
I could live here. All the men wear shorts
But I need to enlighten them about the sandals thing.
Typical town square
This is near Vilcabamba where I partied way too late 2 nights in a row. Man I’m getting old… Strangely I have no photos from that night 
Why walk your horse when you can lead it while in your car!!!
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Traveling through Colombia to Ecuador
We rode from Medellin to the Ecuadorian border in 4 or 5 days (which was WAY TOO FAST). Unfortunately, I’m running out of time to make it all the way south (.com) and don’t want to have to add the subdomain almost.allthewaysouth.com. So now, I’m in making time mode.
More views
This is Mike and his hostel Casa Blanca in Cali
Theo on the corners
We met a guy from London who gave us some good tips as he’s heading north.
Trying to get the bike out of the hotel
More…
Colombia recycles!!!
Tough view
Colombia
Colombia breakfast
She Cooked the breakfast
Colombia view
We found this in our soup at another restaurant.
Our reaction.
Panam
This was one of the landmarks that I wanted to see on the trip. Here we met two bikers that had passed us the day before. They’re on a suzuki and are from Bogota.
The Church from the mirador where we first met the Colombian Bikers.
Colombian bike theif
Here’s the couple again, with their bike
More head balancing. I hadn’t seen this since Guatemala.
Theo!
This is what we do
Ask for directions and ignore what they say and just head the direction they point.
Gas is $1.50 a gallon in Ecuador
This graffiti is in support of che “We are realising Che”
“Paramilitaries get out of our country and city!” I’m starting a collection of Che graffiti.
3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Monday, October 27th, 2008
Colombia
Colombia is the country that I wanted to visit the most as well as the country that many of my friends and family said I should avoid.
To the people who said not to go: Stop watching movies and TV stories about Colombia and experience it yourself.
Colombia is my favorite country that I’ve visited. The people are the highlight. Not only are they exceptionally good looking, but they’re incredibly friendly. We were sitting on the bikes and an older lady walked up to us and said “Welcome to Colombia” followed by the warmest smile. I’ve never been welcomed to another country before.
I also talked to more locals and made real contacts per day than in any other place in my trip. The people of Colombia are incredibly welcoming and open to speaking to foreigners. What is also nice is that people not only want to hear our stories and why we’re here but also share thiers. Conversations like that are really the highpoint of traveling. It is worth the 3 months it took to drive to here.
Upon arriving, we met Albert from the Turtles Head. Yes, in Colombia, not Ecuador. He’s apparently been charmed by Medellin and is going to open up a new bar as well as other business endevers in Colombia. The first night we tried to find accommodations and didn’t find anything good so Alberto let us crash at his apartment. Albert is a good guy who really contributes significantly to the international moto travelers scene, despite the crazy things he posts over on Horizons =] .
On Saturday AM, we went to pick up the bikes from the Airport. They were surprisingly at the warehouse as Copa promised and were in perfect condition. Well, they were in the same scratched and dented condition as we delivered them.
There we met the most helpful (and very beautiful, I must add) customs girl. She went out of her way to help us get the bikes Saturday even though she could have easily pushed us back to Monday. Also Theo was invited to a party by “La Bandita”, aka the bad girl of the Copa Warehouse. Unfortunately, the party was really far from where we were staying.
The next day we stayed at Casa Kiwi Hostel, near Parque Llenas, in South Medellin. This hostel is ran by Paul, an American from Seattle who decided not to leave Colombia after visiting it. This actually seems to be a common thing, as I met a couple of people with the same situation. (HI MIKE IN CALI)
Since Casa Kiwi is ran by a biker and has very good parking in a private garage on site, it is a regular haunt for motorcycle travelers. There we met a swiss/spanish couple and a german woman traveling solo. Corola, the german girl traveling on her 1990 XT has a website that you should visit here.
We were supposed to spend a two days in Medellin, but we ended up spending a week. I would have spent more if I didn’t have to go back to work in January. I really like that place and plan to go back some day.
Carola
Gotta watch out for those FARC reading the Google book. Colombia is clearly 3rd world.
Ok, well they do have heaps of chinese motos. There is also a v-strom factory there so there are TONS of Vees and Wees. What medellin needs is a good biker bar.
They have an elevated train.
Modern cities
And securty guards who must be hunting something with those long rifles.
This guy made a rain cover for the 3 of our tank bags
See how nice they are at only a couple of bucks a pop. Not only a good price, but he said they would be ready in one afternoon.. AND THEY WERE!
Vespa skoot
2 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by daveg
Monday, October 20th, 2008
Panama
Panama!
I’ve finally crossed the Panama Canal. I don’t know if that means that I am on another continent, but crossing the Canal for the first time driving to Panama City did feel like a major milestone on my trip. There are several bridges that cross the canal, but the one that connects the PanAmerican highway with Panama City is a HUGE suspension bridge. Unfortunately there was tons of traffic and we were unable to pull over and get a picture.
Panama City is a cosmopolitan city. We had sushi 3 times (yeah, I missed sushi). I’m not sure what typical Panamanian food is, but I’m sure you can find it in Panama City as you can find anything you want there.
We stayed at Hostal Mamallena. It moved recently and was a pleasure to stay there as everything was new and the people running it really had their act together. Plus we met lots of cool people there. I still don’t have my head around what the backpacker experience is like, so it is nice to stay at a hostel and learn about their perspective.
The majority of the time we spent in Panama was spent trying to find a boat. We talked to most of the hostiles in the area and were unable to find a boat that would be able to carry two bikes safely. There were a couple of boats that _could_ take two bikes, but we would have to lay them down flat on the deck. That sounds like a Really Bad Idea.
Our only choice was to wait for a couple weeks for the Melody, so we ended up going to the airport to find an air shipper.
We checked out Girag, DHL, and Copa. DHL was unable to ship directly and we would have to crate the bike and use a frieght forwarder, so that option was out.
Girag made us wait for an hour to give us disappointing news: $1000 to ship EACH bike. That was just unaaccecptable. For that price I would spend two weeks in Panama waiting for a boat.
Copa, on the other hand, was very professional and prompt with their good news: $700 to ship the bike to Cali, Medellin, or Bogota.
Theo and I decided to ship the bikes to Medellin and we were able to drop off the bike the next day and catch a flight two days later (Friday). The total cost was about $1000, $700 for the bike and $300 for the person.
Between the time of dropping off the bikes and catching the flight, we had a chance to actually visit the Canal.
I talked to some people and it was completely uninteresting to them, but it was really amazing to me. We spent a couple of hours just watching ships. Water level up.. boat floats in.. water level lowers.. locks open.. boat floats out. It really is amazing that people were able to cut a waterway through so much land.
Between David and Panama City
I got a flat tire while driving around Panama City. Not a problem because we eventually found a tire shop and once I removed the wheel, they fixed the tire for $5.
Thanks man! I told you I’d put you on the internet
Your shop too
Current level of flare.
Panama City skyline.
I will be flying over this ^^^
?????
I’m starting a photo series on bathroom signs.
Next stop Colombia