It did end up taking a huge part of my life. Three years to prepare, over one to do and close to two years to recover. I guess it just shows that it takes time and dedication to do a lot of life’s worthwhile things.

This is a link to the picture book I put together to remember my trip. My Picture Book

Actually I think I am going to leave off with the summaries here as even almost two years later I still don’t want to think much about the end of my trip so you are welcome to read through the entries which I tried to keep upbeat though my friend said I didn’t do a good job of it.

I felt like I made more friends in one weekend in Uruguay than I have living several years in some other countries.

After the rest of Latin America the cost of Brazil was a real shock so after staying with a couple of motorbikers I made a concerted effort to couch surf and as a result Brazil become one of my favourite countries (though to be fair each country was my favourite country when I was about to leave it).

My bike finally got a named ‘The Tank’ in San Paulo after a mechanic who worked for Suzuki for 12 years never saw a DR650 with problems as they were built like tanks. I left The Tank in San Paulo and bussed up to Rio did a favela tour, gay parade and went to a Samba school.

Then it was diving in Cabo Frio and again staying with great people in Vitor and his family. Back to San Paulo to pick up my bike and have Fabio take me to experience a day as a Paulistano with eating and dancing.

And riding out of Brazil stopping in Curitiba, Florianopolis (to a nightclub so cool it didn’t have a sign) and Pelotas with huge lake that is salt water part of the year and fresh the other.

I didn’t go up to the northern part of Paraguay which is supposed to be good but I stayed with a lovely family in Asunción and got to meet some pretty cool people. Including my dutch riding mate and a deaf guy who was riding the world and visit the shared dam between Brazil and Paraguay.

We also did a trip to the Pamapas for some more piranha fishing,

Blew up dynamite at the mine in Potosi and saw the dinosaurs and ate chocolate in Sucre.

And of course you can’t go to Bolivia without visiting the Salar de Uyuni and finally I rode out on the pink and purple trail near Tarija.

Peru is a country of adventure. It is the only country that I didn’t meet up with other bikers which was ok as my sister flew out from Korea to join me for five weeks.

Some of my favourites were the complex in El Brujo (much better than the one in Chiclayo), the mountains in Huaraz (the most memorable view was riding in with the sun setting on the mountain range), sand boarding in Huacachina, the cemetery near the Nasca lines, Condors at Colca Canyon, Lake Titicaca and Manu Reserve in the Amazon Basin.

And of course the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu (the funny bird is the Cock of the Rock from the Amazon Basin and the last one the Inca salt pans at Maras).

I found Peruvian cities to be the worst biking experience on my trip. I had been really scared about riding to Lima due to the number of stories I heard about being stopped by the police but other than unpacking my luggage a couple of times (Costa Rica and Mexico) I never had any problems with the police. A tip for Peru is a local told me when they give you a fine if you pay it at a station (not sure where) you only have to pay a small percentage of the fined amount and you never have to pay them on the spot.

Then I met up with Alexander the Dutch rider I had met in Colombia and we got lost trying to find the middle of the earth. Also like almost every other tourist I met in Quito some guys tried to rob me.

But I recovered by flying to the Galapagos and going diving.

Another huge highlight of Ecuador was the whales in Puerto Lopez and the Valley of Longevity which I needed after almost being pushed off the road and over a cliff by some construction vehicles.

I must say that Colombia’s slogan ‘Colombia, the only danger is that you won’t want to leave’, summed up my feeling on the country. I ended up extending my visa for Colombia so that I could visit Desierto de la Tatacoa and had one of the best weekends as they were having an astrology conference and I made some local friends and won an award.

Other highlights included staying in Chia with Lucia and her family, reading on Andres hammock, having Jonathan invite me to stay while filling up with petrol at a service station, hotels with hot springs and the beautiful green scenery.

Due to all the lovely people I had met in Colombia I did not want to leave.

I highly rate T&T. A friend from the UK came over and we visited one of 3 bitumen lakes in the world. I did yet another mangrove tour to see scarlet ibises and some of the most beautiful coral diving I have done. A bird tour. I always thought they were for old people but I am quite getting into seeing birds.

But by far the coolest thing was seeing the giant leather back turtles laying eggs and watching the young ones hatch. Not so cool was watching the birds feast on the baby turtles.

I even saw a bit of goat racing.