Deserts, mountains, jungles, coastlines…. over the years, I have visited and travelled through or along them all, but it is always the mountains that call me back. The [read more...]
As I mused on ‘The Travellers’ Dilemma’, I spoke about the difficulty of truly detaching from the moto – physically, mentally and emotionally – [read more...]
I am back in the ‘high mountains’ – the Cordillera Blanca, a cluster of dramatic, ice-covered peaks, surrounded by glaciers and lakes, rising at the highest [read more...]
As I drove through the outskirts of Arequipa a few weeks ago, the bike loaded and and the open road ahead, I felt a sense of sadness and loss. I was leaving a place I had [read more...]
We awoke to the tail end of a night of persistent, heavy rain. The forecast predicted more, but soon after setting off the weather began to clear. Our new motoquero friends, [read more...]
Nowhere I have been so captivated by the people of a town or city. Ayacucho feels more like an oversized village, such is the feeling of intimacy in the markets and on the [read more...]
I am finally venturing into new territory. Pisac is behind us now as we look to the north-westerly horizon, plotting a course through Peru’s central highlands. From the [read more...]
Arriving in Pisac on Friday afternoon, it felt that I had completed a major cycle in my journey. I am back at my most northerly point, the place from where I reversed the [read more...]
I shouldn’t have been so pessimistic about the Yamaha dealer here in Arequipa. I got the most personalised service of any garage I have visited in South America to [read more...]
The Suzuki conspired to keep us in Calama. When it finally decided to let us go, the Yamaha picked up the reigns, doing its best to prevent us from leaving Chile. After [read more...]
Calama has trapped us. Just as Santiago seemed to exert some form of gravitational pull on me – I kept returning, four times and for several months in total – [read more...]
At exactly 5.23pm yesterday, my journey around South America underwent a major shift in character. As I rolled out of a warehouse in the grubby port of Antofagasta and [read more...]
The Dakar continues south towards Valparaiso, but for me the spectacle is over. Following the race for a week has been something special: a whistle stop tour of South [read more...]
Following the Dakar in Argentina had been straight forward. On arriving in Bolivia, this was about to change. The ride north from Salta to Tupiza was easy – 400km of [read more...]
Dakar Fever has struck north west Argentina. Everyone has caught it, including me. I’ve been following the race for three days, yet it already feels like three weeks. [read more...]
I’ve been making my way slowly north. The infamous Dakar Rally, the world’s longest and toughest motor race and a thing of legends, starts today. It will reach [read more...]
I left Uspallata yesterday after lunch. The 120km drive to the next village, Barreal, was straight, hot, very windy and monotonous. At least a 30km stretch of loose gravel [read more...]
The first village of any significant size that you reach when entering Argentina from Santiago is Uspallata. It sits on a green and fertile plain, flanked by the Andes to the [read more...]
My two week trip back to the UK is coming to an end. This evening I shall fly back to Buenos Aires, where I shall stay for a couple of days before travelling onwards to [read more...]
Yesterday I left Santiago and crossed the Andes to Argentina, for the second time. When I did the same trip in February, riding over the mountains through the night under a [read more...]
After weeks of riding on the back of my Tenere, my amiga Paulina has decided she wants to become a motoquera herself. So she has bought a little Honda 125, a helmet and a [read more...]
On Rapa Nui, you won’t find wealthy businessmen cruising on their brand new BMW 1200s. Here, the motoquero is a very different breed to those in Santiago. The [read more...]
I am on Rapa Nui – or Easter Island, as it is known to most of the world. I arrived yesterday afternoon, after flying 3700km across the Pacific Ocean from Santiago. [read more...]
The contrast between my life as a motoquero on the open road and my life as an urbanista here in Santiago has become even more pronounced. I am now without my bike, and thus [read more...]
After three months in Peru, spent mostly in the idyllic Sacred Valley, Santiago has come as a bit of a culture shock. It’s strange enough to be back in a city that was [read more...]
Tacna to La Serena… about 1700km and a lot of desert. The Atacama Desert – the driest place on earth apparently – goes on, and on, and on. It took me [read more...]