I've been blogging to a text file for a while. Internet has been scarce. But here is the catch up.

6-Jan-2010

It's late and I should be sleeping cause we have a very early day tomorrow, but I'm still pumped up. We are catching an early flight in a C182 to a remote jungle airstrip so we can canoe another half hour to a jungle lodge(Kapawi Eco Lodge). I only thought we were out it the weeds before, this is the real deal. No American safety net here. We could not hike out of this place in a year if we had to. They told us a story about this place and an American tourist that was complaining about a bat in his cottage, so they went to get it and were able to tell the American that the bat was taken care of. What they found when they went to look was the bat in the mouth of a 20 foot Anaconda. They forgot to mention how the bat was taken care of.

We started today with a ride up the road(and I use the term lightly) to the volcano that is just south of Banos. This is the one where I was looking directly up at lights last night, very vertical. The lights weren't at the top though, so they were really only about 3000 feet above us. We went a couple of thousand feet above that but were still 6000 feet or so below the summit of the volcano. We turned around then because I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to keep the bike upright on the rest of that road, it was getting ugly. As we rode down, this local guy, Manuel, stopped us and invited us to his house for tea. He showed us the herb he was making it from and I was pretty sure it wasn't Coca so we went for it. The herb reminded me of the spearmint or peppermint that Mom used to grow. Manuel was a great host. He made tea, fed us fresh oranges and these wonderful banana chips. As we were sitting there talking to him he points to his ears for us to listen. It sounded like thunder but you could kind of feel it also. It really hit this primal fear instinct part of your brain that you don't always use. It was the volcano was rumbling. Manuel proceeded to inform us that it always does that and we were on the safe side of the mountain, no worries. Nick and I are not so sure, I remember the Mt. St. Helen's video. Anyway, we listened/felt the volcano talking as we are chatting with Manuel. His wife and kids live in Banos, he is in Banos every other day and comes up the volcano to milk the cows on the other days. Nice guy. Adios Manuel.

We head down the volcano and take the road to Shell. It was a wet but very beautiful ride today. We made our arrangements in Shell and came to Puyo to spend the night. This town is a lot bigger than I would expect for anything over here. We are in the Amazon drainage now and the climate has become very warm and tropical. As I write this it is raining. Not just a little bit either. This is the kind of rain that sends portions of these hiways tumbling 3000 feet down the mountains. So hopefully the hiway back to Shell is still there in the morning. Hopefully the weather is good enough for us to get into the jungle airstrip. Nothing is to be taken for granted here, but that's part of the adventure, isn't it.

I know everyone has the same "one burning question". Do the toilets really flush the other direction? I'm here to tell you, after quite extensive investigation and experimentation, that they do, in fact, flush the opposite direction. Weird, huh?

7-Jan-2010

OK. Guess what? Manuel was full of shit. The volcano erupting made the news this morning. Largest eruptions in a year, blah, blah, blah. Great!!! All while we are on the side of the damn thing. Alert condition Orange. That means something like, we are not evacuating you yet, but you oughta have your shit packed and car pointed in the right direction.

Nick woke me up at 4:44:44 am this morning, to get ready for the journey to the jungle. A little earlier than necessary but like I said, you can't take anything for granted here. We headed to Shell, scoured the town for coffee, no luck, and waited for our contact, Angel, to show up. He finally did and we stored the bikes in his office and headed for the Aereo Conexis office. It turned out to be a C206 we took in to the jungle. I think the pilot went to bed too late last night too cause he just let me fly while he dosed off a little. That's a big jungle down there and there were no roads for about the last 80 miles in. I started the descent and our pilot woke up but he just pointed out the airstrip and let me land. Very cool. My first jungle airstrip landing. Kinda like Sand Wash on a calm day, except the visibility is not that great in the rain, clouds and humidity. We get out of the airplane and head down to the river. This canoe thing we are taking to the Jungle lodge is actually about 40' long with an outboard motor on it. It scoots right along. About another half hour on the water and we are here. The lodge is cool. Check out www.kapawi.com. The water is receeded from the cabins because it is the dry season. It still rains everyday, so I'd hate to see the wet season.

I went Kayaking up the river that goes by this place for a couple of hours. That was cool. I saw lots of birds, including a Toucan. Also, a monkey, and some pink dolphins. I know, I know, you think I've been smoking the local herbs. Go ahead, google Pink Dolphins, they actually exist.

This place is in the heart of the Achuar Indians homeland. They were never contacted by white men until the 1950's and that initial contact didn't go so well. Think BBQ'd missionaries. But since then things have mellowed and this lodge is a joint effort between the Achuar people and some other Eco Tourism groups. No BBQ'd tourists so far. Spears and blowguns with poison tips are their weapons of choice.

8-Jan-2010

Qualaquiza tonight. But what a long road to get here. We woke up in the Jungle, took a boat back down the river to the airstrip and waited for our plane to arrive. They were pretty prompt and we were airborne again flying over the jungle. We landed at Shell about 50 minutes later and were back to digging our bikes out of the Kapawi office. That whole trip was awesome, the people were great, and we really appreciate them letting us put our bikes in their office. We hung out with airport people for a while at Shell and learned all about their business. It was cool. Very similar to what we do.

We were both ready to be done with the agenda's and schedules and hit the road. We decided to go directly south from there instead of back to the better hiways and Banos. We weren't sure if Banos was still there or not after the Volcano thing so we just decided not to find out. It felt really good to be going again. We are kind of between the Andes and the jungle now and heading mostly South. Of course, all roads only kind of head a particular direction. Many winding curves. I decided I like my new tires better. They really hang on to the road. I have been over further than I ever was with my previous tires. It's kinda funny, when I started out I figured that if my foot was touching the pavement that I should probably slow down a little. Then it got to where I would lift my foot for turns. But today, I was trying to grab another gear on a turn and couldn't get my foot between the pavement and the shifter.

The road was really good for a while and we got a little spoiled. It was getting close to dark but we decided to keep going. Why is it that everytime we get into dirt, mud, rocks and rain it is also dark? That was the case today and we spent 4 hours on a dark, wet, rocky, mountain road trying to get to Loja. Now, I have been pretty good at asking directions for how to get somewhere but about 2 hours into the dark on this rough road I finally decided to ask how far. I probably should have done that sooner. They told me 9 more hours to Loja. Ugh. So I asked about a town with a hotel and they told me Qualaquiza was 2 more rough, rocky, muddy hours away. That sounded pretty good actually. So we stopped and made a cup of coffee and had a Cliff bar for dinner. I'm so glad I brought them. I also got out this pint of rum that I have been packing since Belize and told Nick we needed a shot for medicinal and mechanical purposes. To strengthen the resolve and loosen the steering. I don't know if that's what did it or not but we made it to Qualaquiza. Very tired and beaten up, but no spills, so it's all good.

Heading South and West tomorrow. We might make Peru or not. Don't know, don't care. We are on our own schedule again.

9-Jan-2010 6916 Miles

Macara, Ecuador. I am so damn tired it took me 8 tries to type the city right. I don't know what to tell you. We've experienced so much today. We covered about 250 miles but I think over 100 of that was vertical. So much up and down. The day was probably one of our hardest of all. It started out with a near miss that put Nick on the ground and hurt his leg for the rest of the day. I hope it is better tomorrow. Then the riding just got fantastic again. Windy roads up and up and up and down and down and down and then we did it again. Towards the end of the day we ended up in a soaking dense fog at the top of the world. It was so thick that we barely had 20' of visibility. We had a couple of hours of this and thankfully got out of it before dark. Those cool places where you are on the side of the mountain and the old road has disappeared and they have carved the new road deeper into the mountain don't seem so cool when you can see nothing of it till you are over the abyss where the road used to be. No bottom to be seen, just a dark hole. So much great road today though, one of the pics shows the wear on the side of the tires that is so clear after rolling through a little bit of dirt. We have clearly used the tires all the way to the very edge. I think I talked about this yesterday, and I'd like to say we mellowed out a little today, but I would be seriously lying. As Nick and I sat around having dinner and a beer tonight it is amazing how the stuff that had the adrenaline peaked and the fear level high is just cool now and not so bad. One of these days I am going to have to get to an internet connection so I can upload these blogs I've been writing and the pics. Internet has been tough in Southern Ecuador.

We are at the border now and will cross into Peru in the morning. I am excited about this as Peru is high on the priority list. We are getting closer and closer to my ONE thing. Nick and I fit pretty well on this traveling thing because we both just want to go and go. There has been a little criticism that we should see this or that or slow down and see more, but the trip is not about that. When I want to explore thoroughly a certain area, I will fly my ass here and do just that. Right now it is about experiencing this part of the world on a motorcycle, and that means going, and going, and going. The roads we have covered are so amazingly cool all by themselves. The people along them, the way the towns and roads are built to deal with the terrain and climate, the fact the map makers don't have a clue, is all so amazingly cool. Having roads that look like hiways on the map turn into a dirt trail for 100 miles is awesome. Newby was talking about a horseback ride up steer ridge to Tavaputs that you couldn't see the trail 10' ahead of or behind you. I had a similar experience on a hiway today. The mountains were so vertical and canyons so narrow that it continuously looked like you were riding into a dead end. Another thing that has definately added to the experience is the absolute abcense of any enforcement of traffic laws. The concept is good in my opinion. If you are stupid enough to kill yourself on a road, go for it. I don't know when the last time I cared about my speed was. Every once in a while I glance at the speedo but it doesn't really mean anything to me. We are riding these bikes as hard and fast as they can be ridden on the road conditions we have. How great is that?

10-Jan-2010 7161 Miles

Pimentel, Peru. We made to Peru. Initial impressions are interesting because there is always a significant change at any border. When we left Colombia into Ecuador my initial impressions were Lakes, More Manicured, and No Motorcycles(at least relative to Colombia). When we crossed into Peru today the impressions were Dirt, Goats, More Desertlike.

There were 2 major choices of roads today and we decided to take the straight one through the desert. I think we were both ready for a relaxing ride with no rain. Nick's leg is better today. Enough so that he is feeling his shoulder hurt. So the straight road sounded good and it actually was. I need to use the middle part of the tires sometime. I was able to put my feet up, lock the throttle and cruise for a few hours. It has been a long time since we haven't been riding the bikes to the edge of the bike's ability and ours. This is the first day that we have been out of site of mountains since I left Utah. Hard to believe, I know, but true.

But we weren't out of site of them for long. We are now at the Pacific Ocean again in this little town and the mountains are in site but shrouded in clouds today. Glad we took the dry route.