South America and back on a 250 Super Sherpa Minimalist Adventure

Happy Thanksgiving to you, J.D.

You tell a great story, thanks for the words and pictures.

Good one Mario..
Juanito es bueno has been in Medellin for almost 30 days now..
No living man has been known to leave Medellin's magic spell voluntarily after being there that long..
Can't blame him can we?
I am afraid that we are going to have to use our "imagination and pretend" to get us through the long, dark, cold days of the winter ahead..
Yours in misery,
North Nechako Slim

Hi mario33.

I'm getting' out of town any day now. Medellin is an awfully nice town and I have been here for a while. Unfortunately I met a masseuse tonight who needed some work done on her apartment. What can I do? She wanted to do a work exchange for some improvements on her new place. So I'll meet her tomorrow morning and buff out her apartment for a massage. And no, she is young enough to be my daughter, so I don't even want a massage, just help her out. She is coming over tomorrow morning to pick me up and go down to pick up some materials. When beautiful young women ask me to fix up their place I can't say no. It is a weakness I have. Pictures to follow mañana.

Saludos,
Tio Juan

Hi TrashCan,

Glad to have you following along. And thanks for the kind wishes. I actually didn't know it was Thanksgiving, but now that you mention it, late November, Thursday, oh yeah, it's a holiday. Well not in Colombia mind you, but I will be giving thanks tomorrow for the blessing of having the time to enjoy South America at a casual pace.

Saludos,
Juan Agradecido

Hey Slim,

I remember North Nechako foods up in Prince George. It was fooking cold the last time I passed through your neck of the woods on my way over to Jasper and the Icefield Parkway. British Colombians in the winter need their winter ride report fix. I will do my best to entertain you for the next few months amigo.

Glad to have you along.

Saludos,
Juan Colombia

A couple more folks came in this evening from San Gil. Joel from Florida and Eric from Australia . They aren’t on ADVrider but were whipped from riding all day. They went up and crashed for the night and I promised them to bring their bikes in for the night when the bar closed at midnight. I forgot how heavy bigger bikes are. My Sherpa is like a mountain bike compared to a GS800 or KLR650. The cul-de-sac here is on a slant so I had to wheel the bikes around in the street and push them uphill in order to wheel them in the Shamrock for the night. HOLY COW. I forgot what it feels like to push 500 pounds uphilll. Here they are parked safely inside for the night:



I have no problem with folks that like to ride bigger heavy bikes and haul 200 lbs of gear. I used to do it. But let me tell you, I looked at my little Sherpa and my 50 lbs of gear and i may have muttered, “Thank you Jesus”.

This afternoon stellhorsenyc dropped by for a visit. He is bound and determined to ride the world and write a book about it. Of course he is out of money so is looking for a job in Medellin. And I’m telling you this guy is on it. Can you believe an ADVrider in Colombia wearing a tie and knocking on doors to get a job:




And he has already found a place that will hire him if he can get a work visa. So I ran into a Hawaiian from Hilo who lives in Colombia and grew up near where I lived when I was on the Big Island of Hawaii back in the 80s. What a coincidence. I was talkin Hawaiian pidgin with him, :Hey braddah, you like talk story, o wat? I buy you some beeah braddah.”

Anyway Steelhorsenyc Alex needs a work visa and this nice dude told me that you can get a work visa no problem if you know the right people. Kind of like getting a job in Hawaii. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Mind you, steelhorsenyc is a stubborn east coast dude. He will make it happen. There is no doubt in my mind. And I will help him in any way I can since I consider him my adopted ADVnephew.

Saludos,
Tio Juan

Hola Juanito, good to see that you got a little workout before going to sleep

Tio Juanito!

How many people embody the ADVrider community like this guy? Who would have thought that I would find "family" in Colombia, and American family at that?!

Thanks for the shout out! I hope you are here long enough for me to buy you a beer WHEN i do find a job! :)

See you at the Shamrock Pub!

John
You have me hooked on this duo lingo!.....if I have to say, Las llaves por favor one more time:huh

Hi,
Just a note. I also have been using the Duolingo and there is a virus when you click on the site it sends you to a Yahoo page called duolingo redirect bin and you cannot log onto the site. I know there is a way to get rid of it but haven't been successful yet.

I am a new (to me) Sherpa owner and absolutely love that little bike. Being an older newer ride and short, it has been perfect for learning dirt roads and still have enough power on the bigger roads. I would definitely travel with it, also I can pick it up if necessary!
Am thoroughly enjoying your report and appreciate your faithfulness in keeping it up. I imagine it can be a lot of work.

Hi John....

I realise I probably don't have much right to be commenting (or lurking!) on this thread or indeed, on this forum...
As a newly retuned biker (after 35+ years absence) & owner of a little Virago 535...at the moment, my idea of a fun ride is doing a round trip of about 40 miles with my son on his Honda H100 :eek1
( and that includes a stop for a cut of tea!!!!!)
I have now caught up with your current travels...Superb adventure...thank you so much for sharing, as a fellow 60+ bloke I find you utterly inspiring...and again thank you for allowing me a ring side seat into your remarkable world.
I suppose, in my favour, at least I have the courage to admit that I will probably never have the balls to embark on any sort of trip even remotely comparable to yours!!!!!
Ride safe,
Kindest regards from a cold, miserable South Wales, UK
Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Anyone can chime in on this ride report. Glad to have you along for the ride. Being a stone mason, I really enjoyed travelling through Wales. My Grandmother was part Welsh I understand. Not sure if that's where the stubborn streak comes from or the ability to build stone walls. Who knows?

And remember: cold and miserable weather builds character! Glad to hear you're out riding again. The destination isn't really all that important.

Cheers,
Juan Celta

It's free for all!

It all starts somewhere! Most say they can't, but in reality they can. Most make sacrifices to go. I did for mine, and plan to do it again in the future.

Hi nccowgirl,

This ride report needs more cowgirls, or vaqueras as they are called down here. As George Strait says, "How bout them cowgirls, boy aren't they somethin'. Sure are some proud girls, and you can't tell them nothin'." The only difference between a horse and a Sherpa is you use your reins and verbal clicks (and maybe heels) for the throttle on a horse. Well okay, a Sherpa doesn't have a mind of it's own as much as some horses I've ridden.

As far as Duolingo goes, it depends on the web browser I imagine. It works perfectly for me in Chrome or Safari on a MacBook Air. Glad to have you along for the ride amiga.

Saludos,
Juan Vaquero

I did my laundry today. When you only have one set of clothes and an extra pair of socks and tee shirt this means riding in a torrential downpour and throwing your clothes in the wash when you make it home. I have to wear my riding pants and jacket while they are drying. Here in Medellin it is still the tail end of the rainy season. Which is one reason I’m in no big hurry to leave. The dark thunderstorms start rolling over the ridge above Poblado around 3 or 4 PM. I thought for sure I could paint one more wall up at Alberts place and beat the rain. I only missed by about ten minutes. I heard the first booming thunder and cleaned my painting tools and took the elevator down to the lower parking garage and got on the Sherpa just in time to catch the full force of a tropical downpour. Booming thunder and lightning. We’re talkin’ pounding rain with rainwater shooting a foot out of the holes in the manhole covers as the storm drains were overun as I made my way down the mountain to the Shamrock on the river/road. I am happy to report that my riding boots are totally waterproof. There was a river of water 6 inches deep flowing across the road as I was splitting lanes in afternoon traffic heading downhill next to a Lexus SUV that splooshed me totally.

It looks like next week will be better weather, so hopefully I’ll take a ride up in the mountains up to the coffee country around Jardin. I just have a little more work to do around here and then I'm off into the countryside for a while.

More later…..

Saludos,
Juan Mojado

Holy cow! To South America on a 250 with $5.000, I'm in.

Zdravo Stuffyyff,

I had to look up Nové Město on wikipedia. Either you live in Prague or Slovenia. I'm hoping it's Slovenia although either way we need more crazy Slavs down here. I was just talking to Albert this evening and he was telling me that the most beautiful women in the world are in Slovenia.

I hope to ride there someday soon. Although I wouldn't mind taking a side trip to Prague. Glad to have you along.
And yes, I made it to South America on 5,000 bucks, but not without a lot of help from generous ADVriders along the way back when they were sending me gas money on paypal. Not to mention the generous souls who paypaled enough dough for me to fix the Sherpa when it got smacked down in the Darien. I couldn't have made it without their help. No way. But I actually made it to South America. I wanted to kiss the ground in Turbo Colombia when I finally made it. And believe me, if you know Turbo that is saying a lot. ADVriders like Arte in Reynosa, MikeMike in Vera Cruz, Guaterider in Guatemala, Mario in El Salvador, moderndaydrifter in Nicaragua, GrinCR and Andrew in Costa Rica, Chiriqui Charlie and
Cmnthead in Panama made my winter. My bike's in South America and I can ride anywhere I want. No lie though, it was pretty humbling last year when folks from around the world sent me enough gas money to make it to South America. Of course, I will keep riding and reporting until I have no money left and fly back home to make some more. It's what I do.

Adijo!
Juan Slovene

Julio!

I have a new appreciation of your trip north last year on the GS. I wish I was tall and strong like you and able to ride a big GS. Hope everything is going well in Antigua. I will be down in the future. Guatemala mountain riding es mejor. Fond memories. Give my best to Luisa. Her faded lengthy signature is still on the left side of my gas tank. As is yours.

Saludos,
Juanito

Hey Cal,

The key (haha) to learning Spanish is practicing while you play foosball.

Your ADVpal,
Juanito