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ADVENTURE CONTINUES...
The Adventure Goes On...The
Latin American journey on a motorbike from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific
Ocean and back to the Atlantic through
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
Participants and their motorbikes
The project of the voyage came
from two friends. Giampiero Pagliochini from Perugia is a veteran since
he traveled across five continents with his bicycles. He made a countless number
of voyages in the most daring places like Egypt and Jordan (1991), Tunisia, Morocco
and Libya (1994), Peru, Chile and Bolivia (1995), Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama (1996), and India, Bangladesh, Nepal (1998), Mongolia
(1999). Clips of this last voyage were aired on the R+TV program "At the
foothills
of the Kilimanjaro". Further journeys brought Giampiero in places like Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia (2002) and Turkey, Syria and
Iran (2003).
Andrea di Noia from Brescia, after four voyages with his bike in the Sahara region through Tunisia, Algeria, Niger and Libya, made his first voyage carrying his backpack I South America in 1994. Since then he has gone back five more times riding his bike through Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Our bikes were two journey's superstars: a Yamaha Super Tenere 750 and a Honda Africa Twin 650.
Domenico Crotti from Brescia is also a veteran
who toured by car in
Canada (Quebec) and the west coast of the United States
and Portugal. He
also went by bike in Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia,
Ethiopia and Niger. Therefore, he is the most "African" of the group.
He used a Yamaha TT600 but in this coming voyage he'll use an Africa Twin 750.
Why this voyage?
The
idea of the trip came because of our love of biking and our fascination with the
culture and landscapes of South America.
Giampiero's experiences of long years
of bike-riding and Andrea's knowledge of the region (traveling by foot, bus, train,
small aircrafts,
motorcycle and even several miles in the back of a truck)
fused. The itinerary represents the end of the trip through Chile, Bolivia and
Peru.
Even this year the voyage's end will be in Peru's capital city of Lima, the cultural
center of the pre-Colombian civilization. We then
will leave our bikes in Lima
since we well be back in May, 2005 to complete our trek across Bolivia, Chile
and finally Argentina.
THE ITINERARY
The voyage will be well off the usual paths being chosen by the tour operators. The adventure will have its starting point with the shipping of the bikes by sea from Italy to Venezuela. We'll fly to Caracas and after the bikes have gone through customs we'll be heading along the Venequelan coast toward Maracaibo and Cartagena (Colombia). From there we'll ride up the Andes to visit Medellin and Bogota. Next we will enter Ecuador with brief stops at the most important cities like Ibarra, Quito, Ambato, Guayaquil and Cuenca. An ascent on the slopes of the Cotopaxi volcano will be a must. Next there will be the crossing of the Peruvian border with visits to the Cajamarca region, stops at the pre-Colombian sites of Trujillo and the Huascaran National Park. The trek conclusion will be at Lima. Briefly told these are the locations we will stop at with visitis at all the archeological and natural sites we'll find along the way. All told we'll cover about 6000 kilometers in about a month, the October-November period of 2004.
May 2005 we'll start from Lima toward Cuzco, the ancient Incas capital
city, then Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. The area crossing will take us to Bolivia
in the direction of Oruro and Uyunj where the sight of the world's biggest dry
Salt Lake will remind us of our first visit 9 years ago. Then we had been among
a handful of bike riders who put their wheels on the crusty surface of the Salar.
In fact, the Overland expedition went through here five years later while we went
across it without any technical support whatsoever. We will go downhill toward
the Laguna Colorada whose water reflects the colors of things that can be admired
at 4000 meters above sea level.
After this it will be the Chilean land with
the Atacama Desert whits its lunar-like landscape. Next after crossing the Andean
Divide we'll be in Argentina whose capital city is our final destination. The
sight of the Atlantic Oceann and the shipping off of our bikes will be the conclusive
act of LATINOAMERICANA.
SPONSOR
METZELER PNEUMATICI
GIVI VALIGE
CEMOTO ABBIGLIAMENTO
FEDERAZIONE MOTOCICLISTICA ITALIANA
