Into the great wide open

When we reached Punta Arenas, we checked into a hotel as a respite from two things that have become very difficult–staying warm at night, and fast Internet. We’ve seen so much in the past two weeks that it seems like…
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Campeche- You had me at pirates…..

Before this trip I had never heard of Campeche. But in prep for the PanAm I have been cutting out articles for years from my favorite travel magazines as inspiration for this trip. I read one while we were in Palenque on this pastel UNESCO World Heritage site that talked about a walled city and […]
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Rio Dulce and Thoughts on the Journey, not the Destination

We made our way from Tikal to Rio Dulce, where our friends Breena and Spencer from Straight Six Straight South were parked at the Nanajuana Marina.  We had travelled with […]

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Easter Island a Dream Come true

Today we got up at 430 am to get to the airport by 615 for our 815 flight, that finally left at late at 1215! The 3800 km flight from Santiago to Easter Island (Isla Pascua) takes almost 6 hours. … Continue reading →

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Driving south

In the last few weeks we’ve been driving down Patagonia. A few weeks ago we rode a steam train: And run into the cover Bruce Chatwin used for his book. It is very windy in the plains of Patagonia.One problem…
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Chiapas Part 4- Palenque

Before we started this trip and even during it (even after we had spent three weeks in hot spot Michoacan!) I was worried about driving through Chiapas. Fear is a funny thing, it can take on a life of its own. We had read about a couple that ran into some trouble in Chiapas about […]
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A busy Saturday

This morning started off with the successful MOT (yearly test) of the yellow Norton at Saltire motorcycles in Edinburgh, friendly people and today was their birthday so a BBQ was in full flow. The run to the MOT station did start badly though when the …

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Santiago Part 3

Another nice night on the patio at Casa Matte. Today we had a 5 -hour visit to the Canadian Embassy In Santiago. WOW our tax dollars at work. We needed our signatures witnessed on some documents. By email they said … Continue reading →

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The post you thought we’d never write

Quito, Ecuador [by Paula] We’re back on the road again. No, we can’t believe it either! After 11 months off the road, the van is finally purring away happily and getting ready to turn south again. Having our home back is an incredible feeling. We’ve had some great digs while waiting, but we’d be lying […]

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Embracing Airlie Beach

Before we left on our round-the-world, Australia was high on our list of must-see spots. However, four weeks into our East coast road-trip from Byron Bay towards Cairns, we just weren’t feeling it. Tired of long days of driving and … Continue reading →
Embracing Airlie Beach is a post from: The Next Big Adventure

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Colombia 7 – Cartagena de Indias

7th December – After discovering that we are unable to visit the “Lost City’ of the Tayronas (Ciudad Perdida) in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, without a guide and arrangements for a 6 day hike, we decide to stop … Continue reading →

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Todos Santos, Baja California Sur

The bottom of the Baja Peninsula is filled with touristy towns and gringos. Places like Todos Santos (All Saints) and the Cabos (aka Los Cabos, Cabo San Lucas, San Juan del Cabo, etc.) are really popular vacation spots.  The beaches… Read More ›

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Our El Salvadorian Vacation

Hi! My name’s Maya, and this is my blog. Um, no! This is, and always will be my blog, thank you very much! Clearly there is nothing going on in her head, what would she even tell you about? Ugh! Anyway… I’m here today to tell you about El Salvador, the fourth country we have visited [...]

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Chiapas Part 3- Ruta Lacandona, Las Nubes and Yaxchilan

Las Nubes This is a place that without your own vehicle it would be rather difficult to get to. It is tucked away off dirt roads in the Reserva Biosfera Monte Azul, but totally worth the trek to get to it. It was steamy hot here, around 90 with intense humidity. As we hiked along […]
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Chiapas Part 2- Ruta Lacandona, waterfalls and lakes

After a week in and out of the XP sick bay, I was getting totally stir crazy and wanted desperately to move on even though I was not fully recovered.  I am a really stubborn person, and I convinced Sam (who did not get as sick as I did and was mostly recovered) that I […]
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03/18/2014 – 257 days/23208 miles

Two places I knew I needed to visit in Phnom Penh were the Choeung Ek Memorial (Killing Fields) and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (aka S-21), and yes, they’re as depressing as they sound. First off, if you don’t know … Continue reading →

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Santiago part 2

This morning we headed to the travel agent recommended to us by a friend. She had managed to get us difficult to find air tickets to Easter Island. It seems the tour companies buy up all the LAN air seats … Continue reading →

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Goodbye Belize, Hola Guatemala: Tikal Ruins

After our adventures in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve we made our way down the mountain into the town of San Ignacio and the Clarissa Falls Resort and Campground. […]

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Chiapas Part 1- Canyons of trash and a crazy carnival

Canon del Sumidero I am torn about this place. It was really beautiful and we took the boat ride through the canyon and visited all the five miradors (overlooks) in the national park. The problem is the river is FULL of trash, mostly plastic bottles. Islands of trash. So much trash in places the boats […]
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A detour to Santiago

Now we are headed to Santiago again for tires and service, but we have a few days to kill so it’s a short 50 km to Porterillos to camp on the lake and then 70 to the town of Uspallata. … Continue reading →

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Top 5: Best Hikes in USA/Canada

Erica and I have been reminiscing about some of our favorite moments on the trip down the pan-american highway, and we decided to share some of that reminiscing here on our blog.  Hopefully this is just the start of many “Top 5″ blog posts. Disclaimer: we only considered hikes that we made while on our […]
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03/16/2014 – 255 days/22904 miles

Another stop I made in Siem Reap was at the Cambodia Landmine Museum. The museum was founded by Aki Ra, a Cambodian with a pretty fascinating life…He was born in 1970 (he was only able to confirm his year of … Continue reading →

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Lower Omo Valley en Kenia

Lower Omo Valley 2 [...]

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In Patagonia

We love Patagonia. The Chilean side had completely different vegetation, almost like a rain forest. After rain finally drove us off Chiloe Island, we camped our last night in this really cool forest preserve in Aracuria, where they had really…
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The Road to Hopkins Village

We (Richard, Ashley, Wilson, Sarah) were sitting down to dinner at Backpacker’s Paradise when Wilson proposed the unpaved Coastal Highway as a route to get to Hopkins Village the following […]

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03/15/2014 – 254 days/22870 miles

There isn’t a ton to do in Siem Reap, but the one thing there is to see is pretty magnificent…Angkor Wat, or rather, the entire Angkor Complex. If you want information and history on the place, there’s plenty out there, … Continue reading →

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The Oaxaca beaches- A Goldilocks tale

One thing I am learning after traveling for over seven months, take all advice, from the Lonely Planet guide books, to other travelers tales of paradise or hell, with a grain of salt and an open mind. Because everyone has different perspectives on places. Also, places can change daily with the weather or with crowds, […]
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03/13/2014 – 252 days/22870 miles

I saw two different temple sites today. In the morning I went to Koh Ker, then stopped at Beng Mealea on my way to Siem Reap. Koh Ker consists of 180 individual sites spread out over 30 square miles. Not … Continue reading →

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Language Lessons in Gringolandia, and an Unwelcome Surprise: Guatemala Pt. 3

I knew it was coming, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. After two weeks in this super fun town called Antigua, we were headed back to Lake Atitlan. In case you’re new to my blog, I’m a pretty easygoing dog. I love people, I’ll eat just about anything and if you give [...]

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Mendoza and the Wine Festival

We had to pool our remaining Argentinean Pesos with Trevor for the hotel, dinner and gas! Luckily we know where to go in San Raphael for money and it is only 85 km away. Arriving Dan and Trevor talked to … Continue reading →

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Road knits III

It’s cold again, which means I finally get to wear the sweater I finished in Buenos Aires! It was so hot at the time that I could hardly bear to even try it on for size. This is only the…
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03/12/2014 – 251 days/22781 miles

While doing some more detailed planning of my route through Cambodia, I was having issues with what I was seeing on my map, and what I was seeing on Google Maps.  Seems like there were lots of main roads missing … Continue reading →

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03/08/2014 – 247 days/22472 miles

Today had to be my most physically exhausting day so far. It involved good asphalt, crap asphalt, gravel covered asphalt, hard packed dirt, loose gravel, looser gravel, washboards, rocks, ruts, sketchy bridges, steep hills, sand, silt, river crossings, and falling. … Continue reading →

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The villages around Oaxaca

There are so many great places to explore around Oaxaca, and we just got to some of them while my Mom was visiting. However, if you have the time the villages are definitely worth exploring to get a sense of how the fifteen plus indigenous groups that inhabit this area live. Teotitlan del Valle This […]
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The lake route

From the dock at Pargua to Puerto Octay it was an additional 135 km. We stopped off in Puerto Montt for lunch and to try to find a cambio office for Orvar to get some USD. This is a constant … Continue reading →

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03/07/2014 – 246 days/22224 miles

Turns out Ban Nahin is on the northern portion of “The Loop” in Laos. Although I didn’t feel like riding the whole loop, I figured I’d make my trip from Ban Nahin to Pakse a little longer and ride the … Continue reading →

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03/05/2014 – 244 days/21885 miles

From Phonsavan, I had a long day of riding to get to Ban Nahin, which is near the Kong Lo cave (Tham Kong Lo) I’m starting to find that as soon as you get off the few main roads in … Continue reading →

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Scottish Motorcycle show

As always the show was a bit disappointing stand wise but a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, you do feel at times you are just paying the entry fee to talk! Some nice bikes in the Classic hall although I thought the private entries were …

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How To: Getting Water in Mexico Part 2

I wanted to quickly update my original post on getting water in Mexico.  Although water purification centers seemed to be everywhere in Baja, we’ve had a bit more difficulty finding them on the main land.  It’s not that they don’t exist, it’s just that the towns on the mainland are bigger and more crowded.  In […]
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Isla Chiloe and Another End of the Road

We had heard that the Isla Chiloe was really beautiful and also that the “end of the Pan-American highway” from Alaska and the end of the Pacific Coast Highway from Lund BC was at the far end. So we had … Continue reading →

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Chile to Chiloe

Traversing the Andes from Mendoza was spectacular, with clear days, good roads, and tons of happy roadside picnics. As much as we would have liked to have stayed in Argentina for much longer, the van’s 90-day visa was up. The…
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March 08th, 2014

Arba Minch [...]

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Oaxaca- The food post

I was not sure if I was going to do another food post after Mexico City, but I got a lot of great feedback (apparently I am not the only person obsessed with good food), so I thought I have to do one for the most famous food city in Mexico, Oaxaca. I first learned […]
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03/03/2014 – 242 days/21590 miles

This happened yesterday. I wish I had a more exciting story to go along with the picture, but all I have is this boring explanation… I stopped to take a pee. I flipped the kickstand down with my foot. The … Continue reading →

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The last of the Ruta 7 after 1000 km of gravel some rest in Osorno

We were so preoccupied by the hockey the Summer holiday Saturday night when we arrived that we did not go to the Navimag office to get ferry tickets. Big mistake. When we checked out after the game and went to … Continue reading →

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03/01/2014 – 240 days/21308 miles

The ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang, and the surrounding area, might have me convinced that Laos is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. And the food at all their little roadside restaurants is amazing as well … Continue reading →

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Ruta 7 to Chaiten!!

After a great night with amazing stars in the sky we packed up and headed north 310 km for Chaiten. The first 60 km was paved and then there was pretty good gravel for a bit. Several others had told … Continue reading →

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Caye Caulker

We honestly didn’t know if we were going to head to Caye Caulker or not.  The island is a fantastic tourist destination and was bound to be expensive.  We went […]

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Oaxaca city with Mom

My parents had both be planning on visiting us in Oaxaca for nine days, but unfortunately my Dad had to cancel because of the death of his Mom, so it was us solo with my Mom. For the last few months we have been sending things to my parents house we need for the XP […]
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Ruta 7 / The Carratera Austral to Lago Las Torres

Getting up the next day we were headed to Coyhaique in 234 km of which 146 was pretty good gravel. Just out of town were stopped as they had cut down a huge tree, which had then fallen on the … Continue reading →

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