To the beach, and back

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

Brazil, the land of beaches, sunshine and G-String clad bottoms!

I now know how Alice felt after being in Wonderland. We were all tired and a little biwilderd after the crazy turn of events during our escape from Bolivia however, she still had one last trick up her sleave. Due to the bizzare bank opening hours in Brazil (8am to 2pm), we could not actually find anyone who would change dollars at 3pm. As a last resort Gerhard went back into Bolivia on the passanger ferry and returned with vital supplies of Brazilian Rials, cake and beer. The short 300km ride to Puerto Velho (Well sh - more

Escape from Bolivia

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Monday, September 10, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

I guess the saga starts back before Santa Cruz when we were wondering where to go next (Venezuela-Colombia-Ecuador, Peru-Equador or up to the beaches in Brazil?). We decided to head to the beaches for R & R, all we had to do was cross the entire Amazon Basin. No sooner had we decided than Jane’s shocky broke (as you know) but we arranged to get one sent out from Germany and headed for La Paz where it would be waiting for us. But of course it wasn’t. The courier, UPS, kept assuring us it would arrive tomorrow until finally they admitted it was bizarrely stuck in the middle of Amazo - more

Public Enemy to Public Hero

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

Parking is something we always have to consider when looking for a guest house. This isn't as much of a problem as it may seem because most places are happy to find some corner of the courtyard, corridor, reception or cafe for them despite the coating of mud or dust. You would think steps might be a problem but it's amazing what you can get a Transalp up with the enthusiastic help of a landlord keen to fill beds. Strangely, in all our travels this is the only time the ground clearance of the Transalp (which is no motocrosser) has been a problem. The Hotel in Santa Cruz was just such a place an - more

Don Camillo, I presume?

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Friday, July 06, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

Three weeks ago we were in Iquique and we had just finished fixing Dave’s bike. Sergio’s magic with the TIG welder and a Dremmel are still holding out remarkably well despite 2000kms of sand, bumps, speed and mud. Since our 2-up trip to Peru, we realized that we did not need half the stuff we were carrying so we left a couple of boxes in Iquique and are now traveling much lighter.

It was good to be on two bikes again, Dave stopped speaking in such a high pitched voice and I (Jane) got to ride my bike again! Not believing in breaking Dave’s bike in gently, we left - more

The Inka Trial

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

So, Sarah, Jane & I are in Cusco and for the next 2 weeks independant bike travel was off the agenda. (3 on a bike is pushing it a bit.) We were suddenly back in the world of organised tours and public transport.

We were not a pretty sight when Sarah met us at the hotel in Cusco but after a shower and a beer we were feeling human again. Sarah had just arrived that morning so we all set off to explore town. The center of old Cusco is a bustling network of historic cobbled streets overlooked by the ruins of Inca forts and temples on the steep green slopes above. The buildings are all - more

19 days to get to Cusco

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

It's been a long time since our last report. It certainly seems like ages ago from our perspective that we were in Santiago. It was great to be on the road again after our 'holiday' in Sydney and heading north. All of a sudden there seemed to be an awful lot of the continent left to explore in our remaining 4 months and some very different experiances waiting for us in the less developed countries. Most importantly we had to get to Cusco in Peru to meet Silver Sarah who had decided to join us for a couple of weeks holiday.

Leaving Santiago we continued the theme of mountain passes ta - more

Boots, Boats, Brides and Busses

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Monday, April 16, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

We have travelled 50,000 kmīs since Ushuaia so itīs not surprising it seems a long time ago since we were there. OK, so only 4000 or so was by bike but itīs a long way none the less.

The first couple of hundred km took us North again out of the mountains of Argentinian Tierra del Fuego and across the mostly treeless plains of the Chilean side. Unfortunately we had to wait 5 hours for the 15 min boat trip to the mainland due to the tides! We were heading for Puerto Natales but instead we had to revisit the town of the demonic dentist. We even had to stay in the same family home wh - more

The dental tour

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Monday, March 12, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

I think our last report ended with me (Dave) getting a temporary filling in Temuco, Chile. For the record it lasted one day. I went back and got it replaced for free with something a bit stronger.

From Temuco we headed back up into the mountains on excellent dirt roads. They favour a loose gravel surface here which causes an initially unnerving weave at speed but you soon learn to relax into it and really enjoy it. It also allows even a well laden Transalp to experement with rear wheel steering for added amusement.

The road from Temuco took us up to the start of the renoun La - more

Beaches, mountains, sunshine and wine :-)

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

It seems ages since our last report, so much has happened we canīt quite belive it was only a week ago. I guess the main news is we have the bikes! (wee). It was a struggle but we got there in the end.

We had to take a bus for two hours to the main port of Valpariso. We arrived at 3pm and meet a lady called Patricia from the shipping company who has been helping us so much. Our first port of call was customs, it was all quite painless with Patricia doing most of the formalities for us. We were then handed over her colleague George, for the next stage, removal of the bikes from th - more

Beaches, mountains, sunshine and wine :-)

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

It seems ages since our last report, so much has happened we canīt quite belive it was only a week ago. I guess the main news is we have the bikes! (wee). It was a struggle but we got there in the end.

We had to take a bus for two hours to the main port of Valpariso. We arrived at 3pm and meet a lady called Patricia from the shipping company who has been helping us so much. Our first port of call was customs, it was all quite painless with Patricia doing most of the formalities for us. We were then handed over her colleague George, for the next stage, removal of the bikes from th - more

Life without bikes

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

I guess the big news is that we have arrived, everything seems to be OK and we should finally get hold of the bikes tomorrow. That's over a month later
than we had originally planned but it's not really a problem. We still have enough summer left to get down south, we will avoid the crowds of the local
holiday season and the weather is often better in late summer. We have also put our time in Santiago to good use taking a one week Spanish course. OK, 1
week is hardly enough to turn 2 lingual novices into fluent Spanish speakers but it is a vast improvement and we can now pick out a - more

Back on the road

Part of the marital agreement was not to work for a year after doing the deed.
Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001
By Babe and Yahoo to Babe and Yahoo in South America

After a couple of years of work in Aus we (Dave & Jane) are off on another trip on the motorbikes. As a quick summary for the shamefully neglected: We lived in Sydney for about 18 months working, partying & riding with our bike club in Sydney (Clubman Tourers Motorcycle Club) and saving cash. Then in October 2000 we flew back to England to get married. It was a great day even if it was next to a river in the middle of the worst floods in 80 years! To get so many mates from so far afield all together for one big party was fab. We spent the next 3 months cruising around Europe in a flash car cat - more