Our Latin American Journey, the First of Many

As I sit here at home for the first time in 15 months I thought what better time to answer all of the questions and give trip stats from our journey.

Trip duration: 449 days
Countries visited: 15
Total trip miles: 28,716
Bribes paid: 0
Robberies: 0
Breakdowns: 1
Flat Tires: 1
Times we thought of turning back: 1
Illnesses: Let’s put it this way, there is no longer shame in shatting roadside.
On road crashes: Terry & Jack in Peru, Sandy in Ecuador. Everyone was OK in both cases.
Off road crashes: Too many to list but most happened in sand or very low speed.
Broken bones: 1, Jack fell out of a bunk bed while in the Costa Rican rain forrest.
Motorcycles: Terry & Jack 2014 R1200 GS Adventure, Sandy 2014 BMW F800 GS Adventure.
Favorite country: Very difficult to narrow it down to one. Each one had something we loved and made it memorable.
Thefts: 2 Terry’s helmet was stolen at a border of which was our own fault. Sandy’s machete was stolen at a lunch stop.
How many miles are on the bikes: 33,480
Was it hard to get parts: No, basic bits like oil, filters, chains, etc. were easy to source. Our network of travelers made it easy to get most anything else we needed.
What parts & tools did you carry: Spare tubes for the F800 and one tube for the R1200 that would fit either wheel in case the tire was too badly damaged to plug. Tire Plugs. Tire levers. GS-911 diagnostic tool for BMW Motorcycles  as well as our Adventure Designs Toolkit that was assembled to handle everything for both motorcycles.
Mechanical issues/breakdowns: Rear suspension ESA preload failure on the R1200 GS, blown fork seal R1200, but given the rough roads, unpredictable terrain, and heavy 2 up loads we were carrying both motorcycles performed beyond our expectations.

The most asked question as we have made our way home has been, “what’s next?” All we can say is Stay Tuned.

Shown below is a map of our route. We did fly the motorcycles from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Miami, Florida to explore some of the U.S. on our way home.

Click here for an interactive map