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Central and South American Adventure


Eric Hall

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Had a blast today riding with some locals. Juan Carlos from Elephant Moto invited me to ride with four others up to Irazu volcano at about 11,260 feet.

Sadly clouds obscured the view but we went to a friend’s place where they were practicing riding drills in a large area and having a bbq. Super nice people.

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Thanks for the updates buddy! Good to hear you are healthy and living it up!!!
Good to see the Voyager pro in good use too! I removed the tach gauge sensor. It worked for a bit. But does not now. Perhaps an update will fix that.
I’m still riding the 990 and lovin it. If you need us to take your 990 for a rip I’m sure @jasonraster and I can do that for you while you extend your trip due to the COVID circumstances! Be safe, eat well and look forward to the next adventure!

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I tried wiring the tach sensor the way they said by wrapping it around the plug but it never worked. Didn’t really matter since I already have a tachometer.

990 is what I’ll ride for High Sierra. That is, if it still runs when I get back

Tom Palmer from Motorrad Angels got here last night and we will do a week of riding around Costa Rica and then I will move onto Panama.

I may hit an island on the Caribbean side called Bocas del Toro but not sure yet. I’m not that into the island resort feel.

A guy I met on Instagram has a vacation place in Coronado on the Pacific side he offered me so I may be there a day or two while I figure out the shipping of my bike to Panama.

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Then got to Panama late, missed ferry. Have to insure the bike but the insurance office was closed. Waited for hours then found a hotel.

Came back this morning and still no one but found a solo guy at 9:30 and got it done.

10 min down the road and was stopped by police and they wanted to see everything! Glad I had it covered.

But... few more minutes see some locals have barricaded the road to protest an end to some covid unemployment benefits.

So I jumped it!

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Wow so it's been quite a rough few weeks for me.  Lots of "adventures" as they say.

So the flight from Panama City for the bike and myself happened but not without some complications.  I booked my flight for the 14th but when I checked in at the airport it said the 28th!  I was like, no that's not right!  The annoying part was they let me wait standing at the counter for 90 minutes to tell me basically I'm out of luck and have to buy a new ticket.  $240 mistake there but it is what it is.

Got to Bogota the next day fine and stayed at an airbnb near the airport and picked up the bike the next morning since the shipping office closes at 4pm the day before.  Got their first thing but you have to realize that things in Latin America don't happen that quickly and it took me 3 hours to get it all sorted but finally set out for Medellin about a 6 hour ride away.  Got to Medellin and was super tired but reunited with some great friends like @MotorradAngels, @Tracy Charles some other friends as well as made some new ones.

As for the "adventure part," well I really don't care to go into all the details but the good news is I'm 100% fine after being drugged and robbed in Medellin.  Google "scopolamine Colombia" and you'll get an idea of how that can turn out.  For me, luckily I'm fine but could have been much worse.  The least she could have done was rape me though! lol  

I'm really blown away by the level of coordination and help I got from my network of friends here in Medellin.  I'm still processing it all and getting all my credit cards replaced.

You may recall me writing about "helmet time" and learning a lot more about myself on the road alone with my thoughts and learning things like I've spent more time looking my rear view mirror than out the windshield.  Well that was just one nugget really in what has been truly quite the "sabbatical" experience for me.  It's adventure and time alone as well as meeting new people that have helped me achieve a better focus on my life and what's truly important.

Next steps for me continue to be some potential good news with a medical device project I've been working on as well as some new touring plans here in Colombia with friends.  I will be back in August to take my son to Hawaii then of course for High Sierra but I still have to figure out exactly how all that is going to happen.

All of Colombia's neighboring land borders are closed still due to covid (brutal third wave here) so if I can't move on to one of those countries and can't get an extension to stay here then I'll have to head back north.  I've considered even getting residency here and staying long term but have a lot of planning on that do to still for it to happen.

Oh and by the way, I got a covid antibody test done in Panama City on a bet with a friend.  He'd gotten covid bad and I said yeah, I think I had it too Dec of 2019 because I had all those similar symptoms of dry cough, lower respiratory infection, etc...  He said "oh no, if you had covid, you'd know it because it's brutal!"  I said actually somewhere between 40%-80% of those infected haven't noticed any symptoms at all.   So the antibody test turned out positive so I think I won something worth about $5 from him.  That gives me some peace of mind knowing I have a much better chance of avoiding getting it again and at least some defense against some of the variants.

Oh and don't tell my family; they'll just worry. lol

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Finally did some actual riding the other day to Salamina, a nice little coffee town not too far but about a 5 hour ride.

Last 60k or so was dirt and very doable (most dirt roads in Latin America).

However…. I did get into a LOT of mud. Slippery too. I was worried because uphill in mud is hard and you need momentum but a few uphill switchbacks made that a challenge.

I was concerned I “only” had 50/50 tires but the Motoz GPS did fine!

Got about a third of the way down the dirt section and had to wait 40 min for a landslide to be cleared. At that point they said 4 more hours so I turned around and got to do all that mud a second time!

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Did a five day tour with another couple last week and had a lot of fun.  Probably 70% pavement/30% dirt/mud.  Had my first drop making a u turn on a narrow two lane road in the rain.  Front tire slipped out in the gutter.  No damage or injury luckily.

Day 1 Medellín to Salamina.  Small coffee town in the mountains.

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Next day we went to this Bio Habitat hotel in Circasia overlooking Armenia.  Really nice place and very affordable. Stayed 2 nights.

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Next was a hot springs in Manizales but don’t have pictures from there (yet).

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We were going to see Jardin next but we got a late start.  I prefer arriving around 4 to have time to shower, change, have a beer, walk around the town square and scout out dinner, etc…. We would have gotten there around 7:00 so we decided to just go back to Medellín.

Ive been having an issue with my front wheel for a while.  I got new tires in San José, Costa Rica and after that noticed a swish swish sound from the front wheel.  Had a dirty fork seal cleaned in Panama City and the mechanic said “that’s just the tire.  Um, no.

I suspected the front wheel wasn’t on straight so I loosened it myself then re-tightened it but that didn’t help.

I finally took it to a shop in Manizales and we had the right caliper assembly off and when he spun the wheel it freely spun this time and that’s when I saw the right disc was warped.  He used a crescent wrench to gently bend it back straight and that helped a lot but I still hear a bit of rubbing so I will get a new disc when I fly home next month.

It’s been just a light rubbing the whole time and there’s no impedance or heat damage.

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I mentioned earlier that I'd been drugged and robbed and would talk about it later.  I'll stick to the facts and focus on what others can to to avoid this from happening to them.  I will be telling more of the story later such as trauma, prevalence of this type of crime, effects of scopolamine, being endangered by my bank and then blamed for the loss, some rather heroic and "Mission Impossible" level efforts to locate me by friends here in Colombia, etc...

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CRcgpM7F4jt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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San Andres was fun despite a lot of the things in Latin America that typically annoys gringos . Stuff like we showed up at hotel and the pool was dirty and there was a dead dog lying in the grass . Other issues with water, power and over priced cabs. Witnessed a fatal accident I’d prefer to forget.

But we made the most of it mostly choosing a different beach each day, renting a palapa and drinking various island beverages: beer, Cuba Libres, Coco Locos. We brought my gf’s 14 year old daughter and she had a blast too and managed not to be too embarrassed by us

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  • 1 month later...
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Trip back to CA went way too fast but back now in Medellin.
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Borders still closed but Chile says I can come if I have a negative pcr test, 5 day quarantine, vaccine and special covid health insurance. No thanks, I already had covid.


GF got some new gear and I took her to a track
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We did a helo tour of Guatape last week



Eating well and back to the gym

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Did a nice little two day adventure two up to Jardín and Jericó this week.

My gf got a Klim Artemis suit which she really likes and this was her first chance to wear it outside of short city rides. We saw a lot of rain and mud but I was the one who got the most dirty . Must have been all the mud.

The dirt roads aren’t that bad but we came upon a truck carrying construction materials for road maintenance further up that got stuck. I tried going around but it was a wet muddy trench and the pegs and shifter we digging into the sides of the trench so we decided to back it out. Didn’t take too long but the video is pretty funny.

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Did a separate ride report for a trip we did last week but got a leaky seal again. Hope I can just clean it good and won’t need a new seal as there aren’t any dealers here but I’m flying back in Dec and can get one easily. I also heard a rumor there will be a presence here once again for Triumph soon.

Need some seal savers as this happened twice on the 990 and once before on the Tiger in Costa Rica. It can also be because the front wheel wasn’t aligned properly when put back on which is why I prefer to do that myself. I’m pretty sure my tire guy in Costa Rica bent both rotors too which can be a pain. Lesson #875 on why it’s best to learn and do your own work. I don’t have Mrs Kravitz to report me anymore so no excuses

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