She's got this crazy idea- exploring the 3 America's solo, for better or for worse...

[H96669]

Originally Posted by Hewby

Hola Julio! Yep. Seriously lucky. And getting the low down on a Columbian Police station life while I am at it! Feel like I am in a reality tv show! ;) brilliant!

Send hugs to Petra for me!

Glad you are OK! And yes....give us the low down. Just because I almost ended up in one of them Columbian stations twice way back then..... Them cops were also cool after a little while but the "What could have happened?", been wondering for 33 Years.

Great RR and great pics....but please don't leave us hanging for weeks, there are some of us who may worry a little if no activity. I was and just about ready to give your thread a bump. Again, glad you are OK!

[marior97]

Hola Debbie !! glad your accident left with mostly bike damage, should be not hard to fix bringing the parts down with you.
Wish you have a Feliz Navidad and hope you return to your adventure reloaded !!
Saludos amiga

[Hewby]

Originally Posted by H96669

Glad you are OK! And yes....give us the low down. Just because I almost ended up in one of them Columbian stations twice way back then..... Them cops were also cool after a little while but the "What could have happened?", been wondering for 33 Years.

Great RR and great pics....but please don't leave us hanging for weeks, there are some of us who may worry a little if no activity. I was and just about ready to give your thread a bump. Again, glad you are OK!

I was just hanging out in the officers dorms, as i asked for camping so they gave me a bed! I didn't see any cells! But a lot of fun with some wonderful people. Sorry about the absence. On the road it's hard to keep up the reports. I keep in close contact with Huzar, so If I fall off the planet, am dead or in trouble he would post to let you know! ;)

And more on police life later!

[Hewby]

Originally Posted by marior97

Hola Debbie !! glad your accident left with mostly bike damage, should be not hard to fix bringing the parts down with you.
Wish you have a Feliz Navidad and hope you return to your adventure reloaded !!
Saludos amiga

Thanks Mario. Happy Christmas to you and your family too! Have sourced and bought the parts second hand now. They are in the post for me for Christmas. Can't ship the bike to Bogota- for one I think the police want me to return! So 21 hour bus trip to Bogota and back for the 29th! I thought I could fly but prices have sky rocketed for Christmas! Joy! Then try and get the bike fixed and hope i don't find further damage, before new year stops everything! Building my mechanical skills by the day!
Sorted a masseuse for my neck today, and had my first hot shower in over 2 weeks so hoping my body will rebuild to!

[Hewby]

Originally Posted by Turkeycreek

Deb, you're OK and managed to turn disaster into adventure and you've enlivened the story all the more with this tumble. Santa and the elves will get the bike fixed. Enjoy your Christmas up north. The drillers are leaving for 15 days but back again until marzo.

Lynn and I are thinking of you

Abrazos!

Thanks Tom. Happy Christmas to you all and send my regards to the drillers!

[DustyRags]

Woah. Hell of a ride report! I'm inspired and definitely following this along!

[Hewby]

‘If you write only when you want to write, then what you write will be from inside of you and therefore part of you and better than the light words which come from the other side of the window….’ Melanie Wozz,


I hold these words in my head as I find I am struggling with guilt to back date and keep with the travels on the page. The words fly through my head as the wheels turn over the pavement but putting them to the page requires a different headspace. I am so many countries behind, so many experiences threaten to fade into obscurity in the realms of my mind if I do not place them on the page. Not that they are less worthy, just that they happen to fall into the queue of things not done. Deleted pictures on an overfull memory card. The last email being bumped from the phone and the new messages fill up the inbox. So I will try to do the experiences justice. Piece together the memories, and the jotted almost scribbled thoughts as I bump my way past the mountains of Venezuela and Columbia on my 21 hour bus trip south….

[Hewby]

I awake in Danali with the idea of getting up and leaving early. I had been given the name and contact of a man in San Moto for which to stay and see the Canyon. I feel a sense of urgency already of the pull of the boat and the multitudes of countries between me and the boat that is to leave in 10 days from Panama. I try to leave early but open my eyes and can't get up. I fall asleep again with the thought my daily alarm will wake me for 7.30. It doesn’t go off because it's Sunday. ‘Sleep’ it tells me. I finally leave the hostel the time I wanted to have cleared the border…. Such is life.

The border takes me a little while to find. All my maps tell me to enter through the dusty town, though after multiple conversations I find my way to a side road skirting the town and taking me 20km into the hills and to the crossing. Being a Sunday the border is quite. Leaving Honduras was easy, but as I pass quickly over the border to Nicaragua I get confused and think I have to go further to cross. People start shouting at me different things and I realize that I am trying to ride straight through Nicaragua immigration. Normally I am prepared for borders with internet the night before, though as the connections have between scares over the last few days I am not prepared. I am pointed to fumigation. They spray my bike with some sort of concoction.


I get my paperwork done at a window by a disinterested woman, then walk around for a while trying to find where she had pointed me for a signature. I bumble my way through the border paying small taxes here and there. Get my paper worked stamped and get out of there. Its not until days later that I discover I did not buy the mandatory insurance, and that I had some how got through there without it. I had heard the Police in Nicaragua often stop people and attempt to obtain bribes, and were very present on the roads here, so I was worried about what would happen. Hence I had a nervous day on the road to Granada and scramble to try and find it there.

After the struggles with Honduran roads, the road is clear and fast. I look to find internet or a phone sim to sort out my next move, and follow up on a dear friend struggling in another part of the world, but being a Sunday I hit barriers of ‘Manyana’. I head south past the turn off to San Moto in need to connect with my life off the trail.

I stop at the Cowboy town of Esteli wander the streets, find internet and food and plan my next move. The Pan American that I have hit is just too easy, so I look for something more to stimulate my day. I spot a route on the map to get to Jinotega the back way, and ask a local about it. ‘si, es bueno’ he tells me the road is good and paved. I am surprised but delighted.

The road is not pavement but it's fun. Huge rocks bounce me around and I feel like I’m riding a bucking bronco. It’s just the right challenge.



The road took me through amazing country. Past the national park, and through beautiful agricultural land. The bird life was amazing and the air was filled with delightful sounds and sprays and flashed of colors zipping past . I love this riding.







Sadly the rocks scrape off the last of the pins that hold my side stand on and I have to rig it up to stop the motor stalling. I had been given a metal disk on a rope for side stand issues from a friend from the road, Frank at Zmw adventures. So I whipped this out of my tank bag and bound up the side stand and kept going.




I pass a few little villages and mud shacks with pigs and goat wandering around. I stop and talk to a few locals just to confirm my direction and my timing as the evening is creeping towards me.




I pull into a little town on dark, find a very cheap and strange hotel- the room was triangle shaped, as was the hallway in a hodgepodge manner around the families living space. They had bike parking and it was dark so I curled up into my little room to sleep dreaming of bouncing roads and magic views.

[Hewby]

The next day I head towards Granada past the coffee plantations and processing plants of Matagalpa. Everywhere people were racking coffee out to dry in the sun, and at one point I followed a truck loaded high with sacks of beans, the aroma permeating the air and tempting me to linger longer than needed behind them.






Granada greets me as a grimy city. I pull into a hostel dorm and am overcome by the heat. I busy myself with getting my side stand fixed and looking for insurance.




In the evening i grab some of the local speciality- yukca with fried pork fat and a hot sour salad


and I wander the busy streets, watching the children play football in the streets and tourist gather in Irish pubs on the restaurant strip. I don’t feel like being in a city. I walk towards the lake but am stopped by some locals ‘ don’t walk any further they say ‘es muy peligroso circa el lago”, so I turn and double back on myself feeling slightly disconnected with the world around me.

[DustyRags]

Hey, no worries! We love your stories, but don't let that distract you from the road! A quick vignette and a "and now I'm waaaaay down here!" works too.

Hey, if you want, rig up a mic to that iphone of yours and make it a podcast! :P

Keep 'em coming!

[Hewby]

Originally Posted by DustyRags

Hey, no worries! We love your stories, but don't let that distract you from the road! A quick vignette and a "and now I'm waaaaay down here!" works too.

Hey, if you want, rig up a mic to that iphone of yours and make it a podcast! :P

Keep 'em coming!

now a podcast- thats a thought! sadly my funky moulded earplug/ iphone connection was destroyed in the crash... bugger!
No its actually the first time I have ever documented my travels in any way and the added pressure from you guys is nice to keep the up momentmum. Otherwise it is to easy to loose.... But time now as the wheels are off road, so lets see if i can bring myself back to the present!

[Hewby]

The next day I decide to leave and head to Ometepe Island. The ferry is old and grimy, the seats are broken and a violent movie plays on the screen. I walk outside and sit on my bike and watch the cloud covered volcanoes come closer and closer.


Getting off the ferry I am greeted with thumbs up from the locals as I pull out onto the road. I had hear the riding could be tough on the island but there are hardly any cars and the road is good. After 30 min or so I turn off one of the main roads and am stopped by a policeman. He recoils slightly when I take off my helmet, I don’t think he was expecting a girl! He wants to see my insurance! I proudly brandish it hot off the press from that morning and he says I can head on my way. Man I am lucky!
The road starts to disintegrate and I bump my way down the island roads to the lower west side of the island. I pull into a hostel and set up my tent on the edge of the lake, and jump in for a swim as a golden sun starts to set. Fireflies seem to live in a group outside my tent and their glow pieces the oncoming darkness. Amazing. I am overwhelmed by the beauty of this place and feel I have found what I need for a little bit.




Over the next few days I met a wonderful group of people and a couple Margit and Andrew who are riding their bicycles down from California. We walk out to the local waterfall and I am happy that I am in the better shape after the days walk than them! (Ok they had also been exhausted by a grueling ride the day before but hey!)

After a lovely few days I sadly say my goodbyes and back on the ferry head towards the border.

[Hewby]

Costa Rica greets me with the Pan American border. The first on my trip so far. I wait hours in line as numerous buses hit there before me. I thankfully follow the directions downloaded from RTWPaul and work with an elderly German couple who are importing a giant self sufficient van across the border.

I head on the fast pan American and turn off to the beautiful hills of Monteverde. I find a camp in the mist in the hostel grounds. I head off to a night forest walk to view the sloths and the creatures of the night.





The rain is on and off and the hills are misty.

But at times the vistas are beautiful





with a few friendly creatures on the road

I ride around the lake and through the misty mountains to the back of San Jose to a couch surfer who invited me to share their travel space. Another adventure motor biker, Chris Motomon’ who was also heading south, but had stopped in a friends house while on the road. The friend however was away riding South America so we had the house to ourselves – kept company by the lovely little dog Cci who got a lot of attention


Chris tempted me with the possibility of a top mechanic to sort out the strange stalling issues in my bike, but being the weekend I needed to wait until Monday to see him. So I sit out the misty rain and cook talk and drink wine. A luxury I had not indulged in since company in El Salvador.
We worked on both our bikes, changing spark plugs, air filter and oil. And the bike was running a lot happier. Sadly the mechanic did not end up eventuating but the bike was much better off for meeting Chris.

[operaflute]

The words fly through my head as the wheels turn over the pavement but putting them to the page requires a different headspace. I am so many countries behind, so many experiences threaten to fade into obscurity in the realms of my mind if I do not place them on the page. Not that they are less worthy, just that they happen to fall into the queue of things not done. Deleted pictures on an overfull memory card. The last email being bumped from the phone and the new messages fill up the inbox. So I will try to do the experiences justice. Piece together the memories, and the jotted almost scribbled thoughts as I bump my way past the mountains of Venezuela and Columbia on my 21 hour bus trip south…. __________________

I totally get it. I'm still working on chronicling my summer, and I'm thankful that I have piles of writings on scraps of paper, the back of campground maps, napkins, etc. - all I really have to do is transcribe, if I can read my own writing, that is.If I don't write it down... somewhere... as soon as possible, my posts are never the same.

[korukiwi]

We send you our love and best wishes from New Zealand.
May your bruises quickly fade and may the bike be readily repaired.
We were sorry to read of your tumble.

When you are back on the road in Colombia the toll roads are free for motor cycles - you just keep to the right side of the toll plaza and ride through the moto track which has yellow painted concrete barriers on each side. They wouldn't lift the barriers for us and insisted we use the moto track...it was a small challenge to ride over the yellow concrete ridge the first time.(according to my chofer) We found that ordinary roads were often toll roads.

Diana