Home for a while in 2024

Thanks for visiting our motorcycle travel blog. After an adventurous start to 2024 in South America we are home in the US for a while getting caught up on non-travelling life. We have a few things in the books this year including a trip to Canada in August that will include our friends Michael (pork chop in every glass) and Richard who rode with us in Copper Canyon. In September I have a crazy ride planned in the Southeast part of the US with a bunch of Harley riders! I’ll be renting a Harley Pan American. I probably will not be bringing my laptop for live blogging but might be inspired to ride up a post-ride report when I get home.

I’ve updated the links and maps on the tab above for “PastMaps”. It’s a good index to browse some of our past rides.

Check back for updates or Subscribe on the right for notifications when I do post something. I’m careful not to post more often than necessary so don’t worry about getting spammed.

Thanks for following,

Donn and Deby

End of the Ride

We had the best intentions to cross from Argentina to Chile at Paso Agua Negra but we woke up to this view of the mountains….

Dang.. an online check of the pass conditions verified that the pass was closed. With the help of the hotel front desk we made a call and were informed the pass “might” open the next day or it might be closed for the rest of the season. Well, once again off to plan B. Continue reading

Into Bolivia

(Note: A draft of this post inadvertently was sent out a few days ago before it was completed so I needed to recall it. Sorry for the inconvenience)

We knew it would be tricky to enter Bolivia. Bolivia requires a visa for travelers from the U.S. We could have possibly obtained one before leaving but time constraints necessitated that we attempt to get one at the border. To complicate things, we decided to cross into Bolivia at a small out of the way border crossing on a Sunday. Hmmm.

Continue reading

Leaving Peru on a High Note

Hypoxemia, when your blood oxygen levels are low, can be dangerous and even deadly. I always thought it was hypoxia, but according to the Cleveland Clinic, Hypoxemia is low oxygen levels in your blood and hypoxia is low oxygen levels in your tissues. Hmm, learned something new. Symptoms to look our for are: Headache, Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, Rapid heart rate, Coughing, Wheezing, Confusion, Bluish color in skin, fingernails and lips. Continue reading

The Sacred Valley and Beyond

Urubamba is a smaller cousin to nearby Cusco and is the jumping off point for people wanting to visit the Sacred Valley region of Peru. Just what we wanted to do. Again, thanks to our friend Ivan in Lima, we found ourselves at the excellent Hotel Amaru Valle. We took a day off for rest, laundry and a private tour of some of the local attractions including the Moray site, and the Salt Mines of Maras. It’s worth clicking on the links to read more about it and see some professional pictures. Ok, here is one Deby took of the Salt Mines, it was pretty cool to see but made me thirsty. Continue reading

Duck Canyon!

Duck Canyon

Pato Canyon Road, or Duck Canyon is one of those roads we’ve tried to explore twice before and were turned around. It has its own listing on dangerousroads.org that you can read all about in great detail HERE. Compared to what type of roads we were on to get there we thought the road was a difficult but not nearly as bad as the rocky ruts we had been riding. Continue reading

Rough roads in the Northern Andes

Now the fun begins…. after the morning stop at the museum with the mummies we continued south on ruta 8B. This was a day of highs and lows but mostly highs as we climbed up and over two mountain ranges. Here is the elevation plot for the day.

The first half of the day was spent climbing towards almost 12,000 feet. The road started paved with beautiful vistas of the green foothills. Continue reading