This will definitely be a long and challenging motorcycle adventure through parts of the world that are seldom traveled. The current plan is to spend around 50-60 days traveling as we attempt to cross the entirety of the South American continent from West to East through the mighty Amazon river basin.
Just thinking about the scope of this trip, the unknowns, and the challenges that we are likely to find gets your blood flowing. Another great opportunity to be present and alive.
We selected August and September for this trip to try to catch the driest season in the Amazon. This is the only time this area is passable. We hope the weather holds so we avoid having to deal with all that water from the sky usually brings - mud, floods, breakdowns, reroutings, river crossings, washouts.
We start the trip in Cali, Colombia, and make our way south through Ecuador and Peru. Once in Cuzco, we head down into the Amazon Basin following the Bolivian border heading straight East until we reach Belem on the Atlantic Coast. And then, we will head north to French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana. The crossing of Venezuela is still up in the air and will have to decide once we get closer and better understand the situation. If not possible, we will head south to Manaus to end the trip.
The group consists of 8 riders, 4 on Honda Africa Twins and 4 on Honda CB500Xs. I will be riding one of the Africa Twins. I have heard good things about this motorcycle but have never ridden one on a trip like this. I will likely miss the low center of gravity of my BMW GS but all in all a good choice for this trip.
So, after all these years traveling around the world on my motorcycle, I am often asked how this trip is different. More than ever I now believe that somehow in my core I am driven to explore and to push boundaries.
Curiosity, adventure, and exploration are vital to my life. The knowledge acquired, the enhanced perspective on everything, and the joy of connecting with people everywhere makes me connect with who I am at the most basic level. Like Rumi said "when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy."
Exploring an area of the world that still has close to 100 uncontacted tribes living in impenetrable forests and rivers, with unique flora and fauna, feels like one of the final frontiers to explore on a motorcycle. For me, just thinking about it is the very definition of living my life in alignment.
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