Right on. Saves time finding the towns and takes any guesswork out of checking the route. Well I thought that was a reference to something I had somehow missed earlier in the report. I had no idea of any couple being attacked in Peru in the news. But I went looking and found their blog. Nightmare is suitable description for what they went through. I don't know how to read between the lines here, but one thing to keep in mind when traveling out of our country is that even though we may beleive we do, we really no longer have rights. If we try to assert any "rights", we are going to be taught some kind of a lesson. We are not going to be coddled by the authorities nor the people in these countries like we are in our own. A compounding factor is that men are still in charge in Latin America as they haven't turned control over to the women like we have in the US. So a gringo woman trying to take the reins isn't going to go over well even in the best of situations. Our best approach is to be humble, cooperative, and understanding - above all show respect. After all, we are invading on their turf. If they want to see our documents, we show them the document copies we have specially prepared for such occasions. If they ask us not to leave, we hang out with them. Refusing to show them the documents, then taking off demonstrates a complete lack of respect. Then heading the wrong way down a dead-end road demonstrates a complete lack of understanding. Most of us pampered gringos are used to getting away with both of those on a regular basis, but in those places, the population is largely self-policed. You are going to get treated the way people think you deserve to be treated. If there was a group of people wanting to injure and maybe even kill travelers as we've heard, somehow their emotions were evoked to that level. I expect we will never know how but stuff like that doesn't just happen randomly.
Hey Bryce, I'm looking at those fuel containers and wondering if perhaps they are serving double-duty as spare gas carriers... is that possible, are you cooking with gasoline? Looks like you're making what we call bistec - yumm! Punta del Este - I'm sure you'll love it. I did, about 35 years ago. Dios lo acompaƱe!
They are flipping awesome! The colors are showing up great on my computer. Enjoying the RR. Slow down and have fun.
I offered to go burn down the village and spread salt on the ruins. That'll learn em! Seriously though, that is something I would not expect to happen in Peru.
Yep, I'm cooking with gas. Because I have a gravity fed fuel system, I just unplug my fuel lines and fill up my stove canister off of my fuel tank. It makes things simple. It does clog the stove up a little bit; you just have to be dillegent in cleaning it. And yes, in a pinch, I have an extra 600ml of gasoline.
Yea it must have been the lack of respect that got them beatin half to death. This is why I dont travel out of the U.S. Ulyses be careful out there and make it home safe
I imagine that after driving from Wyoming to Peru, they've probably gotten a good feel for how to conduct themselves in other cultures. Sounds like this was truly a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Certianly it could be put that way. Who knows if perhaps the indiscretions of some previous travelers were being revisited on them. Like us all, I'm just trying to imagine it, having not been a part of it. I have no doubt the perspective of what preciptated would be quite different from each side. Having some insight as a result of visiting in dangerous areas of Latin America and having several in-depth discussions with the folks who live in them, I figured I'd share some of what I've learned and observed for the benefit of those who may venture to similar areas. By no means am I trying to assign blame to either side, yet I believe it's fair to speculate that it can be shared. If there's a "take home" message, it could be that when in a situation where the people "self-police", we are most likely to fare well by cooperating, not by challenging. Acting with humility can go a long way toward eliciting compassion. Bryce, that's brilliant that you carry spare gasoline and use that for cooking - what a great way of combining resources!
I have my own thoughts on this as well but we should probably leave the analysis and guessing games to another thread.
Hey Bro! I think we are already done with the topic, at least I was personally done. Unless more data comes in, that is. And is there a better place than here for what was said? The topic was introduced in the report. What thread did you have in mind to present your own thoughts, analyses, and guesses? Please link so we can go see.
Hey Ulyses, Great RR. I noticed it only last week and caught up during the entire last weekend. Many of things you wrote about, resonate with me very strongly. I too am a veteran, Israeli Military (tanks, infantry ran after our dusty trails..), and through out my 3 long and tough years in the army (we had our own Afghanistan, it is called Lebanon), had this dream of a long ADV Motorcycle trip, in Australia. That was back in 1995. I got out of the army, with $200 in my pocket (IDF service doesn't pay more than say $100 a month..) and started working in various jobs - body guard, gardener, fuel station operator. Saved penny to penny (actually Shekel to Shekel). Had a motorcycle license complete. My dream bike back then was a DR-750 or DR-800 ("DR-BIG"), which I wanted so badly. It was so funny to see it suddenly in your thread. DR-650 DAKAR was my 2nd dream bike. Anyway, I met this beautiful girl, she loved travelling too, and had a mini RTW on her own already. Told her about my plans, we started dating.. So then I'm in a dilemma - she's amazing, only thing she hates motorcycles and I really wanted to travel. We both quit our jobs and went on RTW for 6 months, RTW literally: Israel/Thailand/Australia/New-Zealand/Fiji/Cook Islands/Tahiti/Bora-Bora/LA/Paris/Israel Just not on the motorcycle. I think I made the right decision Fast forward almost 20 years, I have 3 kids and a V-Strom (and my dear wife) and we are travelling as much as we can. But that big ADV is still waiting. One day.. Enjoy your time, I wish you all the best. Bigman P.S. The Galil Assault Rifle you took a photo of (Columbia?) reminded my of my Glilon (shortened version of Galil) that was my de-facto GF for 3 years, we went together 24/7 and even slept together.. (Israeli soldiers never ever leave their rifles, even at night time, not sure how it is with the Marines)
WOW I have Donated to Bryce, James & Lauren and to Jed & Meg! Kick Ass that you all met up on the road! I hope you spent some of my donations to have a great time! Thanks again for taking us along!
Hey, BigMan, That is a great story. Thank you for your service (Hzb no friend of ours). Anywho, that big ADV is still possible, just take one of your kids with you! Or, have them meet you along the way. If your wife still hates the bike, she might be open to this?? Best of luck.
Final Day on the Carretera Austral Day 154 (March 19, 2013) Coyhaique, Chile to Esquel, Argentina Day's Ride: 311 Miles For some reason Google maps doesn't show the road that I took to cross the border back into Argentina. It just ends at the border on the Chile side and doesn't connect to the Esquel road. Just imagine a little blue line continuing on past the border to Esquel.... View Larger Map Dylan and I left Coyhaique around nine this morning and road to a junction a few miles up the road where we said our goodbyes. Dylan is going to spend some more time in Chilean Patagonia seeing the sights; I have to start making my way north a little faster so I can get home before my money runs out. Dylan, if you are reading this, it was great riding and hiking with you! Maybe I'll see you up north in a few weeks! After splitting up with Dylan, I continued up the Carretera. This is far and away one of the most beautiful rides that I have done on this trip. This portion of Patagonia is incredible. The scenery just blows you away. At every turn it seems that you are riding down plunging valleys, overshadowed by hanging glaciers and stately pines, and bordered by crystal blue rivers and snowy white cataracts. I'll be honest, the riding was so good today that I didn't stop and take a lot of pictures; I was just having to much of a good time. I'm sure I'll regret that later. After about 100 miles, the pavement ended and it was back to the ripio. The scenery continued to be amazing; unfortunately, I had to devote a lot more attention to the road. The ripio soon turned pretty nasty. Combined with a really bad washboard, the gravel was throwing me all over the road. I spent the rest of the day fighting a nasty tendency to fishtail and pogo when riding at speed. After several hours of hard riding, I stopped for gas in a small puebla. I took a few seconds to do one of my regular visual checks to make sure nothing was broken or missing and realized that one of the pop rivets holding the top plate of my home made chain slider was missing. The chain probably ripped it off sometime before I tightened it up earlier in the day. There was still one rivet holding it in place, but I wasn't comfortable with just that one little pop rivet keeping that thick piece of nylon from feeding itself into my counter sprocket. I asked the guy who ran the gas station if there was a mechanico in town. He said that there wasn't. He then asked me what i needed to have fixed. I showed him one of the extra pop rivets that I had and he told me that he had a pop rivet gun in his shop! He walked home and got it and brought it back to service station for me. I took the end of my round file and punched out the bottom end of the old rivet, then used the pop rivet gun to install a new one. It seems that I always have the best luck finding help when something goes wrong with my bike. Back on the road I started running into construction. It seemed that I would pass through one flagger, go 500 meters and get stopped by another flagger. It stayed like this for nearly 30 miles! I finally made it past the construction and turned off the Carretera Austral and started heading east towards the border. I made another painless crossing between Chile and Argentina and then continued on down the ripio towards the town of Esquel. On the way, I passed through the town of Trevelin. Trevelin, along with another town out by the Atlantic called Trewlew, are old welsh colonies. I finally made it into Esquel around 8:00 PM and was really tired. I had ridden 110 miles of good pavement and 200 miles of really rough ripio as well sneaking in a little border crossing. I decided to spring for another hostel instead of camping so that I could get a good nights sleep before trying to push for the Atlantic tomorrow. I forsee some Pinguinos in my near future...
Awesome! I love tankers! They would totally make my day when they fired their main gun. The sound alone is enought to make you sh"t yourself. Of course, they always called us "crunchies" and made fun of us for having to walk everywhere, but I think they were just jealous...Personally, in retrospect, I think I would prefer to roll around in a 100 ton killing machine. Sounds like a good time to me! That DR-BIG is a crazy bike! I just saw another one a few days ago. Did you ever end up getting one? Does your wife ride with you on the wee-strom? And yes, we too had to sleep with our weapons. Except when we were sleeping in the snow. Then we had to dig a little snow cave for our rifles so that the moisture from our bodies didn't get into the action and then cause them to freeze up when we got out in the morning. Sleeping with an M-16 in your bag sucks. I was so happy when I became an officer and I could just sleep with my pistol instead. Much more comfortable.
I read a previous story about a motorcyclist that was murdered by a couple of indigenous people in Peru. (It makes me wonder if it was the whole village who was in on that one now.) I rode through Cuzco in 2007 with a buddy and there were road blocks every 10 miles. A couple of times they threw rocks and horse manure at us, but for the most part the villagers were helpful and would move the rocks for us so we could pass through the blockades. When we got to Cuzco we got to see a huge protest which featured a 25 ft statue of George W. Bush who was holding a noose with an Indian Chief's head in it.
LOL - Spoken like a true infantry man! I guess it is the same everywhere. Infantry get all the glory, but they know every well what the tankers bring to the game.. One of the visions that I fondly remember is a company of 11 tanks charging in fast motion while shooting the main guns, and the multiple on-board 7.62mm FN-MAG Machine guns. Words cannot describe the sounds and awe of this scene. I never got the DR-BIG. When I got back from the RTW trip, I was broke, and had to find a job (I guess you know what I mean). Later on when I had the money to buy it, I was in a different "zone" - kids, house, career. When I moved to the states in 2007, I was looking for it, but was surprised to find out that the DR-BIGs were never sold here. Never understood why, seems like an awesome bike. BTW the Honda Varadero (XL1000V) is not sold in the US either. Weird. My wife doesn't ride with me. But she is very understanding and allows me to ride - I have a lot of respect for her, to allow me to do my things. Here is my Wee, notice it was 'militarized' - Custom 'Top-Gun' decals I designed, and blackened out.. I don't want those MF Hizbulla firing their sagers AT missile on my bike right..? (I'm totally 'scratched' in my head, when it comes to Chrome and Shiny metals - everything must be blackened) Back to the main story - your amazing RR. I don't want to take it off-topic too much Thank you! Yes, the big ADV is surely possible, and I did speak to my 2 sons about it - they want to do it after they finish the army. That would be epic. My wife can find us some where in the middle, where we can rest for two weeks and enjoy time off as a whole family. We're talking 10 years from now..
Hey Rob, Peru it's an extraordinary country, and most of the people we've met there were among the most awesome people we've met in the whole trip (we've been there recently). What happened to those guys was an unfortunate event but that should not be reflected on the country as a whole. Don't let that make you avoid Peru, you'll be missing a lot!