Returning Home: Reflections about the trip (05/20/08)

After 7 months on the road in Latin America I have now with some reluctance returned home to Des Moines, Iowa. It has been great to see my family and friends. Readjusting to a less action packed lifestyle is taking some getting used to but at the same time it is nice to relax in the confines of your own house (I mean my parents house; exciting! I know.). The combination of living poorly and almost biting the dust many times has made me realize that life is too short to hold grudges or worry about things that are not important.

(It took a million headaches first but I managed to sell the motorcycle in Paraguay. After many hours of detailing it came out pretty shiny.)

There were many unique experiences on the trip. I toured a salmon farm, a helicopter forest fire operation, a silver mine (where the miners still use picks), a jewlery factory and many ancient ruin sites. In Bolivia I walked over the ground where the shootout of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid took place. I drove the world's most dangerous road, detonated dynomite on cactus and rocks deep in Bolivia, hitchhiked the famed Carretera Austral in Chile and drove parts of Ruta 40 in Argentina. Some new meals included chicken hearts, fish heads, and intestines. It was my first time camping out under the  open stars. After losing my watch 2 times I became good at telling time using the sun.   

So far, I have not missed my motorcycle at all. There were far too many days where I had to pretend to be MacGyver and try to fix a serious problem with hardly more than a swiss army knife, gum, and a paper clip. Problem after problem led to constant greasy hands and lots of bitching about the cost of BMW parts in South America. I did appreciate the durability of my motorcycle. Despite falling onto rocks, crashing at 40 mph, driving through rivers, and numerous falls it never changed the smooth handling or pull of the Rotax engine. (Note to motorcyclists: KLR's and XLR's are perfect for this trip! Do not bring a BMW!)

There have been a few times where I was very scared. In Colombia, my motorcycle broke down at dawn in the middle of no where and the military came by and warned that the area was unsafe. When walking the streets of Colon, Panama I left my helmet on until after I entered a shop because every 3rd local looked like he was recovering from a bar fight. In the Bolivian mountains I was surprised to hit the only patch of snow in fifty miles and be thrown 10 ft up in the air at 40 mph with cold asphalt to break my fall (enough force in the crash to bend my handlebar). When my chain broke on Ruta 40 I pushed the motorcycle for 3 hours until someone stopped to help. My advice to avoid some of these dangerous situations is pick a friend that you can run faster than and do the trip with him/her!

Looking back on my trip the greatest thing about it has been the people I have met. In the beginning communication was difficult and my Spanish has not improved much but I can understand the jist of things now. People of all backgrounds helped me. There was the elderly lady who let me sleep on the floor of her 1 room house and than there was the owner of a jewlery chain who hosted me in his 5 bedroom penthouse condo. In Chile after being robbed of my tools, Rocky (an American helicopter pilot in Santiago) lent me his tools so I could finish my trip. A German couchsurfer in Paraguay spent many hours of his time answering phone calls, translating conversations, and doing research so that I could sell my motorcycle in Paraguay. Eduardo, a random motorcyclist in Argentina, let me stay at his house and helped me make inquiries on the day I was threatened by a police officer. There were also a lot of great motorcyclists from all around the world who I met on this trip. Now, I am trying to Pay It Forward and help out nearby travelers.

Comments

[Phil McCarthy]

very interested in Ur trip. planning to go to Buenos Aries & tip of S.A. next year. Leaving from PA "alone".
6,000 mi one way. So I will pay attention to whatever U hve to say.
P.

[Geoff Tayner]

Hey Phil, that sounds like a very exciting trip. A few things that I would recommend are:
1. Try and find someone else to do the trip with because you will have a lot more fun riding together. If you look at the trip planning on advrider.com or the Riders looking for riders section on horizonsunlimited.com you can find others who are looking for company. I was supposed to do my trip with another guy from Washington, but when I met up with him in California he had a change of heart and returned home.

2. Make sure that your luggage is lockable. I ran into too many guys who had tank bags and soft bags cut off with a knife. If it isn't lockable then take it into the hotel room at night.

3. Be careful on choosing a bike for this trip. If you take a rare kind of bike make sure to carry a lot of extra spare parts and tools. The ideal bikes for the trip imo are KLR650s, DR650s, V-Strom 650s, and Honda 650s.

4. Make sure that you bring all the essential items because you will never find them down there or they will be 3x price. Ie. LED Miners Headlamp, Individual Maps for every country that you vistit, Garmin GPS w/Smellybikers wanderlust map (the GPS will be your best investment, I travelled without it and really regret it), aluminum panniers, 9" aluminum tire spoons, rain gear w/ boot covers, water tablets, back protector (read Ozzymandias story on advrider ride reports).

5. Contact a trusted rider in Colombia or Ecuador and see if you can arrange to send them a package of parts to hold on to until you get there. I recommend Alber Crutcher in Ecuador, search albert theturtlehead on advrider and his name will come up. This way you can send oil filters, brake pads, tubes, clutch cable, and other parts. It will cost $75-100 to ship it there but trust me that you will save money over the high price for parts down there and the convenience factor will be more then worth it in its self.

6. Sew a special pocket into your riding jacket and keep $200 US emergency money and your passport in there.

[Phil Eldred]

i thoroughly enjoyed reading this, i checked back for updates almost every day! wish you kept going! thanks for a great read, im sure it was an amazing adventure.

[Geoff Tayner]

Hey Phil, thank you for the kind words. I hope you have a great trip.