Some Quiet Land

Surreal

2016-06-25T03:48:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I'm blown away by how surreal my life is.

For example: the last three haircuts I got were on three different continents.

Maybe I should be used to it by now. Or maybe I shouldn't be - if I get to a point where I'm jaded enough that new experiences like this don't continue to amaze me, that's probably not a good thing. But regardless, I still have moments where I'm just absolutely blown away by where I am: "I'm actually riding a motorcycle around the French countryside."

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Huanchaco

2016-04-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Exhausted from one fun day of riding and one not so fun day, I got to Huanchaco and settled in - and man did I get comfortable. I once again got lucky on a hostel, and it made me not want to leave.
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To the Beach

2016-04-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

From Leimibamba, it was about 500km on curvy mountain roads to the town of Huanchaco on the beach, which was my next destination. Two days of relatively easy riding - or so I thought. Google Maps had other ideas.
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Kuelap

2016-04-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Freshly patched tube in the rear tire, I headed up to Kuelap, hoping the roads wouldn't be too bad. Were they? I guess that depends on your definition of bad. But seeing the Kuelap ruins was definitely worth the struggle to get there.

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Chachapoyas

2016-04-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

After the exhausting day of trekking through mud and rain to the border, I was ready to relax a bit more. I can't say Chachapoyas was the best place to do it, but it's where I ended up.

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Vilcabamba and Peru Border

2016-04-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

After Cuenca, I decided it was time to head for the border and get out of Ecuador. I hadn't planned on spending that much time in the country, as much as I enjoyed it, and I was itching to move. Funny how quick that itch can disappear if you put me in the right place though...

The border was still a couple days' worth of riding, so I headed for the last star on my map between me and the border: Vilcabamba.
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Cuenca

2016-04-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

Cuenca was hardly on my list of things to see, it was just a city on the way to where I wanted to go. I planned on taking a single day to relax and get some errands done, and ended up staying a few more days than planned (like usual, at this point).
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Baños

2016-03-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

After staying in Quito longer than I planned, I was ready to make some ground and stay places a bit less time. I managed that in a few places, and not so much in others, but either way I finished up Ecuador with some pretty cool activities and some nice relaxing as well. My first stop ending up being Baños.
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Quito

2016-03-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of adventuring on this trip, but sometimes I just want to hang around and pretend like I live in the city and have a few days off. Quito was a perfect place to do that, especially since the altitude prevented me from doing the adventuring I'd planned when I got into town.
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Otavalo

2016-03-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

I crossed over the Ecuadorian border and started south on the Pan American. While I'd heard great things about many of the places I'd been before, I really didn't have much intel on things to do or see in Ecuador. But with a little hunting around as well as scooping some info from the ride reports of a couple guys ahead of me on their motorcycles, I found my way around just fine.
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Colombia to Ecuador

2016-03-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

After finally escaping from Salento, it was time to make my way to the Ecuadorian border. I had a few towns left to stop at on the way, but no big plans in any of them, so I was mostly eager to finally move into another country - at this point I'd been in Colombia for 35 days, almost as long as I'd spent in Mexico. Fortunately, the roads were good and kept me entertained on my way out.

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Salento

2016-03-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

I had been staying places longer than I originally planned, and I felt like I really needed to start moving a little faster. With that in mind, I planned one night in Salento. As I was checking into the hostel, I heard the woman at the desk tell another guest who had only booked one night but who "might stay longer," that everyone says that, and everyone ends up staying longer. Turns out that would be me as well.
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Guatape and Beyond Medellin

2016-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

When I was approaching Medellin, I'd originally planned on stopping in Guatape for a night first, and then making my way to Medellin in a day or two. I'd been so exhausted from the hours of dirt roads and 40 hours of riding in the past week, that when I saw that it would be longer to arrive at Guatape due to road conditions than to continue on to Medellin, I decided to save it for later. Now it was time to check it out.
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Wander

2016-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Having taken up an entire day for the museum and not made it to much else, I dedicated the next two days to wandering around town and seeing the rest of the sights. I didn't spend a lot of time at each one, but I made it around town to see quite a bit.

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Dora the Explora

2016-02-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

My motorcycle parts issues (mostly) taken care of, I finally had free reign of Medellin. Unlike the coastal towns I'd lazed around in, the activities in Medellin weren't overshadowed by the "go to the beach" mentality, so there was plenty to do.

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Scavenger Hunt

2016-02-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'd heard nothing but good things about Medellin from everyone who'd been there, and I was itching to spend some time there. While the week of riding was great, 40 hours on the bike in 6 days also left me a little tired and needing a break for a few days, not to mention needing a few parts (kickstand primary among them). My only concern was the lethargy that had taken over me in Cartagena, Santa Marta and Taganga - but Medellin had enough interesting things to do that it wasn't ever a problem.

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Ride Week Pt. 2

2016-02-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

A few days of riding already behind me, I had decided to keep riding instead of stopping in San Gil and taking part in the local activities. I'd made my decision: this week was for riding, and anything else was secondary. But riding has it's fair share of excitement too, and the week still had a few interesting things around the corner.
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Ride Week Pt. 1

2016-02-15T16:00:00.000-08:00

Twenty three days. Twenty three days since I had last ridden a motorcycle (at least an intact one). I'd ridden from Santiago to Panama City, and then had an aborted ride to Colon on January 6th. It was now January 29th.

So now, it was time to ride.
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Return of the Cartagena

2016-02-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

I got back from Ciudad Perdida and learned that while he had originally promised Friday, the motorcycle wouldn't actually be ready until Wednesday. So upon returning I stayed in Santa Marta two nights, and then decided to head up to Taganga for a few days to kill time before going back to Cartagena to get the bike on Wednesday - I'd already spent seven nights in Cartagena, I really didn't need to be back there before the bike was ready to spend more time there.

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Ciudad Perdida

2016-02-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'd first heard about the "Lost City" hike from David, way back when we were travelling together through El Salvador and Nicaragua. Then in Boquete, I got another glowing review of the hike from Anou and Clara. Still, I wasn't completely sure if I'd do it or not, since it was four or five days, which was longer than I'd spent in most places up until then.

But then I had the accident, and I was going to have to stay somewhat close to Cartagena for a few weeks, so I decided it was time to head out into the jungle.
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Santa Marta

2016-01-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

After finally making my way out of Cartagena with the motorcycle in the shop for repairs, I headed off in a bus up to Santa Marta. I'm going to go a little bit out of order here because I spent a couple days in Santa Marta, then headed off to the jungle on a four day hike to Ciudad Perdida, and then returned to Santa Marta, so I'm going to go ahead and cover all of Santa Marta here, and then go back and talk about Ciudad Perdida.

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Cartagena

2016-01-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

Finally done with paperwork, with the bike dropped off, it was time to enjoy Cartagena. Only problem was that I was tired out, and it was unbearably hot during the day in Cartagena. I ended up spending quite a bit of my time during the day relaxing and doing nothing, but the nights were perfect weather for wandering around the streets.

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Port

2016-01-26T16:00:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Cartagena knowing I'd probably be spending a while there - I had all the paperwork to do, and I had to get some parts and repairs to get the bike back in shape after the accident. So before I got a chance to enjoy the city much, I spent a few days taking care of business.

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Bike-less

2016-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

It was a strange feeling, getting on a bus. Even though almost everyone I'd met or traveled with in the past few months was riding buses constantly, I'd only been on a few. And more, each time I'd been on one, it was to go somewhere and return, not to actually get somewhere.

But now, I was bike-less.

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Accident

2016-01-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

I hadn't made any plans yet for crossing the Darien Gap - everything I'd heard basically said that you can't really do it until you get there, because you never know when things will change. I'd been kind of dreading it because it was such an unknown in my travels, but as it turns out, that wasn't the thing that would mess with my plans.
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