Central and South American Adventure

[Eric Hall]

Seals fixed and we took a ride up north to the coast at San Bernardo del Viento. Nice hotel but beach not so much


Next day we went to Isla Fuerte and it was much better









We stopped at a town on the way back to avoid riding after dark and had a great encounter with the Colombian Army. Such great people.

[Eric Hall]

Back in SoCal for five weeks and preparing for Baja next week.

Got my rear rack back on and going light this time. Also getting my suspension serviced by Suspension 101 down in Alpine near San Diego.

I’m going to rant here a moment, if you’ll indulge me .

This is #advlite okay? A 9 liter tank is going to get you about two hours of “adventuring,” aka dual sport trail riding.

Which BDR do you think you’ll do next with 125 mile range? Go ride up and over a few ridges, camp and come back in the morning. Nothing wrong with that but it’s not adventure riding.

A rear subframe that will buckle under the weight of your gear isn’t an adventure motorcycle. You going to pack tools, tubes, camping gear, etc… on a 250 lb bike? Good luck with that.

You going to ride 300+ mile days on pavement with a bike you need to change oil/filter every 15 hours? Okay, Skippy.

The only “#advlite” guys I know truck their bikes out on Friday afternoon, do some dual sporting then truck them back home Sunday.

This is #advlite
http://cdn.xladv.com/uploads/monthly_2021_12/IMG_6702.thumb.jpg.47a99bd10ab294424fd000c610e8535a.jpg

[Eric Hall]

Back in Colombia and pondering continuing my trip south next month. Was thinking Ecuador, Peru then maybe Brazil. I was told I can get a boat on the Amazon from Iquitos, Peru to Manaus, Brazil. Not sure how many days on the boat that is but it could be a long time, like a week. Sleeping in a hammock with lots of mosquitos.

I have a yellow fever shot but I’m told the newer one is much better so I might get a booster for that.

When I was back in CA Dec-Jan I had some epic riding in Baja and Death Valley but I think I posted that elsewhere already





I met this guy here in Medellin who wanted to do a story on people being drugged/robbed down here so we sat down and did an interview which I thought turned out well.

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[Eric Hall]

Part 2 of a series on my story of being drugged/robbed. This one is more sympathetic and in contrast to the first

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[Eric Hall]

Got a bit of good news with regards to my case with Bank of America.  After these videos were released, a guy on FB suggested I report BofA's rejection of my claim to the US Comptroller of the Currency.  I did that about 2 weeks ago and this morning I'm looking at my bank account $6800 bigger!!!

[Eric Hall]

It’s been a while without me posting on my travels so I must apologize. Been super busy with new work and my mother recently passed away.

The bike is still doing great but I’ve got issues with registering it here so I may offer it up for sale to someone who wants to fly down here and start their South American trip here. The Darien Gap puts a lot of people off because of the cost and hassle of shipping or flying a moto here.

Had my first street accident too. Dumbass moto delivery guy wanted to turn left but instead of changing lanes into mine and then slowing and turning, he slowed from the second lane next to me then suddenly turned in front of me. Never used his mirrors and didn’t have turn signals.


Bike is fine; just scraped the crash bars which is what they’re for. Scraped my right knee and hip and tweaked my right thumb (still hurts).


Scraped helmet. Luckily didn’t bang the pavement, just slid. Should have been wearing my Klim pants though.

Did some riding two weeks ago with Tom Palmer of Motorrad Angels. Did a big loop: Medellin, Horizonte, Belmira, Sopetran, Filandia, Cali, Pasto, Mocoa, San Agustin, Palmira. We were scouting a bit for a fundraiser tour next month to raise money for Sergio’s cancer. He and his gf Ana run Endurolandia. Great people.




Did the “trampoline of death” road with no rear brakes .

We helped these Venezuelans walking on the side of the road. Bus tickets to Bogota, saving them 5 days of walking.


In Miami for a drug test and to pick up a new work laptop and this hotel is amazing. They had this “Miami Swim Week” casting call at the pool yesterday



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[Eric Hall]

There was this local “Dusty Wheels” event I was invited to. It was held at a place called Riverside which is also share they held the GS Trophy competition.

They’ve done it for about six years in the Bogota area and this was their first event in Medellin.

I’ve seen similar events in the US where it’s mostly kind of hipster cafe racer types getting in a bit of dirt track fun.

The cool part for me is I got to see the new Desert X from Ducati. This guy clearly is a pro and he put some proper dirt tires on for the course and absolutely tore it up.




I got to sit on it and the dealer was there and said I could get a test ride on it soon but he’s in Bogota, a six hour ride from here so probably not going to happen soon.


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[Eric Hall]

Some of my latest adventures include weekend trips as I’m working a full time gig now (thankfully).



These new Rigg Gear bags are fantastic

Got a new set of TrailMax Mission tires on a business trip back in the US and brought them back. So nice and a huge improvement over the Motoz GPS.

Then another trip out to Cauca Viejo





GF pretending she’s riding lol


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[Eric Hall]

Been too long!

Had a quick one week trip to Chile to ride with @MotorradAngels (Tom Palmer) and @Dennis Godwin of Motorrad Angels.

We tried to get over the pass to Mendoza but there was a big landslide they were fixing. We had heard it would open the next day and were hoping it was open to motos which is usually the case. But the army guy said ten more days!

So we made the most of Chile. From Santiago we went about 2 hours nw to Papudo on the coast. Really cool town with an old california central coast feel.

Next day we went to the pass and got turned back and ended up in La Ligua. Next day was to Terma de Socos, a hot spring hotel.

Next day I had to turn south and the other two headed up to Atacama then over into Argentina for a few water projects. I went south to Santa Cruz, a wine region and did the whole foodie thing solo.

That 1250 GS is amazing! My first time trying.

Chile is very interesting!  More like Europe than South America.  Very well put together, organized, great roads, drivers who know how to drive (unlike Peru).  People are more European in origin it seems.  Lots from Italy and Germany.  Geography is basically desert, mountains, ocean and glaciers surrounding them.  It's a long finger like country.  They say the wine region suffers less pest problems because of that.  It's also quite a bit more expensive than other S American countries.  I was going to keep going south but love it here in Colombia and am working a full time gig so have to make hay while the sun shines as they say.

They went far enough north to get a photo at “the hand.” I said you’re not a real adventure rider until you get a picture at the hand!











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[Eric Hall]

Many of you may recall I was drugged and robbed 3 years ago here in Medellin shortly after I got here.  I did an interview with a guy (A.K. Joel) for his YouTube channel but he's since deleted it saying it wasn't the type of audience he was looking for.  Similarly, an adv type magazine editor told me it's not the type of story they like to run because sponsors only want happy tales of adventure that inspire people to go out and ride their adventure.  I wrote something up for another magazine but I found out she hadn't read it when she asked me "for more photos from Mexico to accompany the story.

But this last weekend we heard about the attack and rape of VueltaenMudon (Vicente and Fernanda) and it really made me sad and angry and stirred up more feelings from my own experience.  There was another couple recently had the same thing happen in Belize.  So I thought it was time to tell me own story on the podcast.  This is a Spotify link but you can find it on Apple podcast too, just search for xladv.