Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding... | Page 40 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...

How many times have you guys been back to Toronto since departing?

We've only been back once: last summer to visit family and friends.

Humour us with some deep personal thoughts on life abroad thus far, and having [presumably] cashed in all your assets and given up the perceived security of a stable life in a familiar place.

I don't know if I have any really deep, life-changing, philosophical stuff... One thing thing that really struck me about Latin America was how unregulated everything is. Small things like the standard height of steps (you don't realize how you take these things for granted until you try walking up a flight of stairs that is maybe a cm or two taller or shorter than you expect!)

And then larger things like the safety concerns regarding road hazards and signage. You really have to watch and pay attention where you walk and ride because there will be a huge hole in the ground that in North America would have a huge neon flashing light pointing to it, covered in reflective safety tape, etc. But in Latin America - nothing. Because if you fall down an open manhole cover because you were too busy texting, you don't sue anyone. It's your own damn fault and everyone sees it that way.

So I start wondering about all the right-leaning conservatives in North America who bemoan molly-cuddling, nanny state and government intervention and wonder how long they'll last living in Latin America... That most people back home whine and complain but have no idea how good they have it. We've met quite a few ex-pats in Mexico, Guatemala, and parts south and they seem to have a very realistic view of life in LA: that when you take back control of your life, you also give back a lot of the conveniences that having a regulated environment gives you.

There are a million similar observations contrasting life in North America vs Latin America, too many to write down. One thing that's always stuck out is how powerful the media is in shaping our perception of foreign lands. We were in San Diego over a year and a half ago, and I was really hesitant about crossing over into Mexico because of everything I've heard about on the news about how lawless and violent it was. Neda had to almost physically push me over the border.

Then a few days later, we were having cervezas on the patio of a bar in Mulege in Baja around midnight, watching old grandparents strolling out on the streets with their grandkids. A dance instructor was rehearsing with her students in the square down the road under floodlights, an old ghetto blaster blaring out Spanish Christmas songs that they were going to perform to for a holiday concert. And I thought, what the hell was I so scared of? It's so beautiful and friendly down here.

And that experience was repeated many, many times over the next 3 months in Mexico. Given that we were only going to spend 1 month traveling through there, that country captivated me in a way I had not thought possible, and that it was with great reluctance that we had to leave in a rush to catch a ship to Cuba.

And then I thought about all the people who echo what they hear on the news: "Mexico is violent", "You'll die if you travel to Mexico". If *I* - who actually planned a trip through there, did all the research beyond the news and endeavoured to search out first-hand accounts (all of which report how safe and friendly it is) - if *I* was scared, then how could someone who had no inclination of ever visiting that country ever overcome the pervasive media brainwashing? That Mexico isn't a tiny place, it's a huge country. That nobody ever stopped going to the Grand Canyon or Disneyworld because of the rampant murder rate in Oakland or the regular school shootings being reported all over the US. Mexico isn't Juarez, just like the United States isn't Detroit.

So whenever I read about how someone who's never been to Mexico or Latin America tries to deter would-be travelers about visiting, I don't say anything. I'm not going to try to change the mind of someone who believes that eating sushi is gross because it's raw fish and that they'll die of food poisoning, even despite never even trying it before. I don't even mention that they should try it just once. Because I don't really care. You do what's best for your own life and if you've never eaten sushi before, it's your loss.

And really, if you're going to take someone's word about eating sushi if they've never tried it ever without seeking the opinion of someone who has, then maybe you've already decided you don't like eating sushi and are just seeking some confirmation.

So these are some of the thoughts that go through my head, but don't make it to the blog because I know it'll spark arguments and I'm too busy having a good time to argue on the Internet.

But you asked, so I wrote them down.

Im genuinely curious about the nitty-gritty of it all, aside from the motorcycles and pretty scenery...

The only nitty-gritty that I leave out of the blog is the daily foraging for food and shelter. There are tons of hotels and restaurants everywhere, but it's pretty tedious work trying to find cheap accomodations and a grocery store to stay on budget. Add to that, you can't buy food in bulk because of space issues on the motorcycle, and you have to find a laundromat every 5-7 days.

Even nomads don't travel every day, they set up camp for a while, which is what we do sometimes - rent an apartment for a month, which is way cheaper than a hostel and you have kitchen and laundry facilities right on-site. It also helps to alleviate the travel fatigue, which hit us pretty bad after the first 9-months on the road, and seems to happen much more frequently and for longer periods of time these days.

However, all of these issues and the nitty-gritty of long-term travel is so miniscule. They're First World Problems compared to the daily struggle that people all over the world (even back in Toronto, Canada) go through to put food on the table.

We're riding motorcycles, seeing the world and meeting some amazingly cool and interesting people along they way. Overall, it's pretty awesome! :D
 
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Do you believe that you can pack it up and come back to a normal life in Toronto any time you please? I know its only been less than two years.. will this become more difficult as time passes? I assume you don't have a few million stashed away in a bank account up here and you'd have to get back into the 9-5 working life... Did you leave behind an established career?
 
Do you believe that you can pack it up and come back to a normal life in Toronto any time you please?

I don't know.

Quite frankly, it's a bit of a leap of faith. Faith in our own abilities, faith that the job markets will be favorable.

There were a couple of factors surrounding our departure that made it easier to make the leap: 1) We're not planning to have any kids, which makes the impact of our decision limited to us and only us 2) We're not tied to returning back to Canada. When we visited last summer it was eye-wateringly painful how expensive Toronto is. Because we're ultimately mobile and we both have EU passports, our options are very open as to where we can work and we may not need to make the same kind of money to live the same standard of life that we had before we left.

Did you leave behind an established career?

Yes. Having met a lot of mid-to-long-term travelers on the road, we're definitely the minority that chose to leave a career mid-stream and at the height of earning power. The vast majority of travelers are either university graduates on a "gap year" or retirees living off pension plans.

But I don't mind the way we're doing it. Our budget is better than the Gap Year Kids, and our stamina is better than the GreyBeards... :)
 
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If you do decide to do Australia it will be quite a shift.

Aus is a nanny state, speed limits are strick, eating out is pricey, fuel runs $1.80 a litre so even a casual 400km loop on the ST1100 yesterday with a burger and drink for lunch and coffee and a Macadamia cookie earlier ran to $60 for the day.

Camping is easy tho - very popular but is by permit tho pull 100m into the bush and that sort of disappears.

People very friendly and easy going out side the major cities which can be insanely expensive but the place is very llightly populated....think USA sized with half of Canada's population.

Distances are ridiculous as a result with little variation in some parts of the country. You would want to do 1000-1200 km days to get through those.
Paved roads are generally superbly maintained and over signed.

Dirt roads reasonably maintained but subject to pretty extremely weather/flooding.
Even yesterday we could not have made the trip a week ago - would have been slick mud on the dirt sections and creek crossings ( yes on the highway ) too high
Given your background tho I suspect the weather issues would not be a major item.

If you can keep costs down - there are some magnificent regions and good motorcycle groups to show you them.

Fuel and food costs here are the gnarly bit but then people are well paid here and in general gov spends decently on infrastructure. Something to consider down the road.
 
Do you believe that you can pack it up and come back to a normal...9-5 working life...

This really is an interesting question....

My parents both drove truck for much of my late teens and beyond when I left home. A number of years ago my stepfather had an accident that essentially crippled him and he was never able to go back to work. He had a very tough time adjusting to being "home" I am sure that this was compounded by the physiocal limitations he was experiencing, but he had bascially lived a pseudo nomadic life for 25 years and struggled to transition to a "regular" home life.
 
With no momentum and the bike falling Oh. SO... SLOWLY.... past the point of no saving, all I can do is resign myself to watching the mud on my left get closer and closer. It seems to take a lifetime. I have all the time in the world to hop off the bike as it *sploooshes* down, drenching me in wet mud even though I try to distance myself from the timbered Bavarian lumber.

I tap on my communicator, "Um..."

Neda replies, "Really?! Seriously!?!?"
This made me laugh so hard. Sorry:)
 
Im not used to reading your post without pictures. :)
 
If you do decide to do Australia it will be quite a shift.

Not that your posts/perspectives on general travelling aren't appreciated, but seriously, man, you gotta stop talking about Australia so much in this thread.

It's clear that they're not on that path right now, and I think if they were to ever make that decision, they'd know who to contact.

Thanks again for this thread Lightcycle. Based on your accounts of all of this, I'm perfectly content with short yearly trips, and leaving the true wandering to brave souls like you two. Cheers.
 
Umm we had a conversation earlier about their next destination after they do South America and Aus is a possibility
I have two bikes here that might be suitable if they don't want to ship theirs which on a tight budget is a real challenge

They have to budget and I have to think about whether I keep two bikes as the offer to them still stands.

Seriously how about you chill and enjoy the stories....better yet...do some adventuring and tell us about it.
 
hi guys. this thread is awesome. but i could not read every update. can someone plz give me a summary. how long have they been on the road riding now? and how much have they spent doing so?
 
hi guys. this thread is awesome. but i could not read every update. can someone plz give me a summary. how long have they been on the road riding now? and how much have they spent doing so?
You were the kid that showed up just before the exam and wanted to copy from someone else weren't you? lol

Go to the first page and you will see how long they have been at it and why would we know how much they have spent?
 
You were the kid that showed up just before the exam and wanted to copy from someone else weren't you? lol

Go to the first page and you will see how long they have been at it and why would we know how much they have spent?

ok lol went to first page and... HOLY **** they've been on the road for 2 years now? man, is this like... a 2 year vacation? haha.

as for how much they spent. well maybe they kept a log of their expenses and posted it online for us to see?
 
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/145.html

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North again. Our aimless wanderings are revealing a distinct aversion to the southern hemisphere...

From a rainy morning's start in La Plata, we are going to descend from the foothills of the Central Andes (Cordillera Central) down through the valley of the Magdalena River through the city of Neiva and finally end up in the desert outpost town of Villavieja.

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Our ride to Neiva follows the Magdalena River

Across the river we see the foothills of the Andes in the distance, lush green velour carpeting the mountainsides like an EcoElvis has gone crazy decorating the landscape.

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Neda is trying her best to ignore the mud on her moto

Neda likes things clean. Clean clothing. Clean motorcycle. It's just a personal pet peeve with her. So when we rode through yesterday's mud bog, it was really bugging her to be carrying all this excess weight. So as we approached the city of Neiva, I spotted a gas station where a truck was being washed. Our bikes and luggage got the royal treatment as they were power-hosed and detailed while we had a snack break.

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So clean and sparkly! Neda is happy once again! I forgot how good (um, less ugly) the R12GS looks without luggage...

Villavieja is on the outskirts of the Tatacoa desert. It's one of the most distinctive areas of a country that is dominated by the colour green. We booked into a hostel that was not as comfortable for the pricetag. The actual town was not that interesting as well, so after one night, we decided to ride out into the desert itself (only 15 minutes away) and rough it.

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Riding out to Tatacoa: grass becomes less green, air becomes much warmer

I've really begun paying attention to the elevations of where we are and where we ride through. You'd think being this far south in the northern hemisphere everything would be muy caliente, but the effects of riding up and down the Andes have us alternately shivering in the clouds and boiling in the valley. The Tatacoa Desert is at 500m (1600 feet) above sea level and it is hot, hot, hot!

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One of the first sights that greet us. Astounding!

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Neda is loving both the colours and the heat!

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Riding around, trying to find a place to stay

There are several farms doubling as hostels as we ride into the Tatacoa. We find one that's gotten good reviews and booked a few nights to explore and live the desert life.

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Our hostel is a goat farm called Noches de Saturno (Nights of Saturn)

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We rented a little rustic cabin sheltered by a hot tin roof

Our first day we didn't do much exploring, just caught up on a little light reading on the porch of our cabin and really savored the dry desert heat after all the cold and rain we'd been experiencing lately. The desert is wedged between two mountain ranges which rob it of most of the rainfall passing through. Or so we've been told. Because this is one of the area's two rainy seasons, we listened to the smattering sounds of a thunderstorm hurling huge drops of rain on our tin roof in the darkness (no electricity) of our first night there.

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Under the mosquito net, hiding from desert bitey-bugs

In the morning, we awake with the rising sun and peer outside. The water on the ground is quickly evaporating and if we had woken up any later, the only evidence that it had ever rained would be the memory of the sound of rain pattering in the darkness just a few hours ago. A sweaty, little stroll outside in the increasing heat quickly evaporates that memory as well...

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Goats being herded through the desert

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Young goat herder on horseback

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Aloe vera therapy. No, we didn't get sunburnt, Neda has really itchy mosquito bites

[video=youtube;JVUrvspvURY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVUrvspvURY[/video]
These parrots kept us entertained for a good long time! :)

In the evening, we headed out to the Tatacoa Observatory, which is less than 10 minutes walk away from our farm. On the way, a scooter passed us and these girls stopped in front of us. They had recognized us from the farm because they were using its swimming pool during the day, so they pulled over and chatted with us. It turns out all they really wanted was a picture of us (of me, I suspect).

We've been getting many, many requests for pictures, so what I'm going to do is also ask that they take one with our cameras as well from now on! :)

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Tatacoan Celebrities
 
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Tatacoa Observatory

This observatory is situated in the desert because of the clear sightlines around the horizon, almost 170 degrees of skyline! In the non-rainy season, the skies are free of clouds and the dry desert air gives amazing clarity to the constellations and other heavenly bodies.

Did I mention we were here during rainy season?

This is actually our second time visiting the observatory. Last night it was too cloudy to see anything so we postponed our trip till tonight...

So tonight, we paid our admission fee and were slightly disappointed because:

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We didn't actually get to go inside the observatory (in the background)
They wheeled out these smaller telescopes on the roof of the adjoining building...


Our astronomer/guide gave us a seminar on astronomy and the constellations of the night sky. In Spanish. Great.

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The telescopes weren't bad though, through the lens you could get great captures
with an iPhone or other point+shoot camera


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Saturn! The capture didn't quite get the rings but we did eventually get to see them. Very cool!

I've got quite an interest in astronomy from ever since I was a little kid, so with my limited Spanish vocabulary, I could piece together what our guide was telling our group by certain words that were the same in English. However, doing this kind of hurt my brain, so at one point I gave up pseudo-translating and just stared up into the sky in wonder.

Every once in a while, Neda would translate an interesting fact I did not know like:

- Subaru is the name of a 6-star configuration in the Taurus constellation. The car company Subaru's has these 6 stars in it's logo. Neat!
- The Southern Cross constellation was pointed out to us for the first time. You can actually see it anywhere south of the Tropic of Capricorn at any hour of the night very easily.

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This is when my concentration just snapped...

All this time my focus was pretty good, trying to glean any additional information I could from our guide's Spanish seminar.

And then he brought out his laser pointer, shooting it up in he sky like a green lightsaber, slashing away at the stars...

All of a sudden his Spanish words sounded like the excited natterings of a Jawa who's just captured a droid wandering in the middle of the desert. I was so focused on the green beam slashing back and forth across the sky that my ears were instantly filled with John Williams' regal trumpets and the sharp electric hum of lightsabers cutting through the air.

I wanted that lightsaber.

In my mind, the guide and I were locked in mortal Jedi combat, his green weapon inches from my face as I tried to wrest the deadly sword from his clutches. The beam danced back and forth in front of my eyes and I could hear Princess Leia's voice inquire out of the darkness, "Gene, are you okay? You look kinda spaced out and bored..."

Perhaps it was time to leave and explore the rest of Tatooine the next day.
 
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/146.html

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Colombia is dominated by the colour green. From the green carpeted mountains of the Caribbean coast to the rain-forests and jungles of the interior, you can't entirely escape from the colour of lush nature and fertility. That is, until you venture into the Tatacoa Desert.

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Welcome to the Tatacoa Desert!

Today we're exploring Red. Or what the fancypants called Ochre. The Martian-like landscape of dry, cracked red soil is concentrated in the area of the desert called El Cusco, which is hard to miss because it's right at the entrance to the park and it's one of the first things you see. It's right across from our farm, so one evening, we hired a guide who worked at the farm to show us around.

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Nacho (short for Iganacio), our desert guide

Maybe he was pulling our leg, but Nacho had never heard of the Mexican food "Nachos" before. In Latin America, they're called tortillas.

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High atop the Laberintos (Labyrinthe) de Cusco

They say the Tatacoa Desert was a result of a lake that dried out. Within the shapes of the labyrinth, you can make out the areas where water once flowed to sculpt these weird stone shapes that we were walking around and on top of.

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Desert is host to a lot of wildlife. This cactus bears fruit to feed thirsty motorcycle travelers

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The inside is juicy and tart and full of black seeds

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After Neda is done, there will be none left for the rest of the wildlife in Tatacoa

Nacho explained all the different species of trees, plants and cactus as we walked past them. We had a bit of a laugh because everything he pointed out had "medicinal" properties. It sounded like you'd never need to go to the doctor if you just ate everything in the desert every day!

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Colours are so rich and vivid, very different from anything we've seen in Colombia

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A lot of it reminded us of the red rocks we had seen in Utah

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Every morning, the goats in the area are let out to feed.
They've learned to find their way home by themselves when it gets dark


Goats are ravenous creatures and will eat anything. It was quite a selling feature of the Tatacoa Desert to see these goats eating the leaves of these trees, because the branches are so thorny. Over time, the goats have learned to eat around the thorns to get to the juicy leaves.

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How do goats eat these leaves? Very carefully!

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You can picture where the water once carved through the area

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Proof that I was there too... :)

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Easy to map a way out of the maze when you're standing above it!

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American Kestral (Sparrow Hawk) watches us warily out of the corner of his eye

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Descent into the Labyrinth

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Last look around before it got too dark

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Nacho points out more interesting, nature-y things to Neda. I just take pictures.

Hiking around the desert was a very nice change of scenery from all the cities and towns that we've been in, and the hot and dry days were welcome after enduring the rains around the Andes mountains. Tomorrow we're going to shift away from Red and explore the Gray of the Tatacoa. With our motorcycles!
 
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/147.html

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Less than 10 kms east of the El Cusco (the red desert) lies Los Hoyos, the grey desert. For this trip, Nacho suggested we take our own bikes, which saved us a bit of money for the tour. There were two other French tourists staying at our farm, so Nacho took one of them on the back of his scooter, and another guide came and picked up the other one and off we went!

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Our bikes looked like land yachts compared to Nacho's scooter and his friends motorcycle

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The red rocks and sand slowly turned to grey as we rode further east

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We made a pit stop at a point called Las Ventanas (The Windows)

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Nacho explains more nature-y stuff to Neda while the bikes pose for a picture

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Smiling for the camera in front of Las Ventanas

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More bikes join us! It feels like a Tim Horton's parking lot now!

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Still the fairest of them of all...

About 8kms into the desert, we stopped at a small pullout at the side of the road and hiked down a valley. The rocks here were slate grey and seemed a lot more dusty and powdery than the red rocks we saw yesterday at El Cusco.

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Walking along a dry riverbed

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"Los Fantasmos" (The Ghosts) of Los Hoyos

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Neda captures some interesting details in the grey rock

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All I need is a grey bedsheet and I could blend right in

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We were staring at the walls like it was an art gallery

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Closeup, we could see the area was formed over distinct time periods
Layers of pebbles separated the different periods that the rock was laid down


Most of the grey desert formed "recently" over the last 2.6 million years in the what's known as the Quaternary Period

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These formations look like tall stone mushrooms. Very trippy!

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"One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small..."

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These two bikers joined us on our tour of Los Hoyos

As we walked back to our motorcycles, we found out that they were from Bogota and were on a two-week tour of their own country. They were very impressed with how much of Colombia that we had already seen and we felt very privileged and lucky as we described the rest of our trip. Their sporty street bikes modified for touring kind of reminded us of how we first started with our trips around Southern Ontario!

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Come a long way since touring around Ontario on an old Suzuki GS500!

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Group ride with our new motorcycle gang!

The grey desert of Los Hoyos was kind of interesting, but definitely anticlimactic after the red rocks of El Cusco. The best part of the trip was riding through the desert with our makeshift motorcycle (and scooter) gang. Unfortunately, our time in the dry and hot climate was coming to an end. I could sense the rest of rainy Colombia waiting to greet us just outside the park's boundaries... :(
 

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