So, we're off to South America! Just booked the outbound flights this morning Inverness to Santiago for November 1st next year, hoping for a smoother time than the last two trips with no countrywide riots or new Covid variants popping up to spoil the fun. Now I just have to figure out how to pay for this, and hope that my ageing steed (and body) can cope once we're there. 
I mean, what could possibly go wrong..?
Wow, that looks quite a trip. I bet you can't wait for next year now.
Yeah, it will be the longest we've done - maybe 4 or 4 1/2 months. Lots of info to gather, first thing will be roughing out a route (we tend not to wander) although no booking ahead this time. First time in Central America and Mexico, a part of the world I know little about, but it looks amazing - desert to jungle and back again with added volcanoes! Hope I can get my Spanish up to scratch in time. 
viajar bien 
I think this is all you need to know.
Puedo tomar una cerveza grande por favor? 
Etched into my brain from the last time, although quisiera una cerveza is perhaps more friendly!
Lleno por favor is useful at petrol stations, as is getting your head around the ¿Sin factura? (no receipt) business in Bolivia - helpful if you don't want to pay gringo prices for fuel. Just don't get caught...
Having a trip planned is a great motivator for learning a language, I did about 6 months on line last time, and am now 3 1/2 months back into it. Hoping to be able to do a short course with a tutor early next year before we have to open again.
I spent a bit of time learning Spanish and was getting on fine until "the past tense" had to be learnt.
That ended it for me !
I've never forgotten the word for Library in French, but then it is a great word
Wow, that's expensive. Hopefully you can manage without the bike for 6 weeks and save some dosh. Would pirates want a GS? 
Yeah, I would say that seafreight is more or less back to normal, but the airfreight cost is silly. Dunno if that is a function of the (lack of) value of the pound or expensive fuel or under capacity. Anyway, will have another look in six months. I was hoping for maybe £2K...
Pirates are bad, so they want to ride KTMs.
Finally managed to find out why flying the bike back from the USA is so feckin' expensive (circa £4200!!!): apparently they only are able to use dedicated cargo flights for 'dangerous' goods like motorcycles, rather than any plane as most of the rest of the world does. This cuts the amount of available space down dramatically and therefore the price rises accordingly. Best thing to do if you fancy a trip over there on your own bike would be to use Air Canada to Canukistan - way cheaper and they welcome bikes as cargo.
Still waiting for more prices, but seafreight each way is looking like it's gonna be around the £1200 mark + port fees (circa £400) each way, so let's say a maximum of £3.5K. Over our trip of say 130 days that works out at a tad under £27 per day, so about £100 per day better than renting a big GS, which you couldn't take all the way anyway. Obviously if you want to go through all the faff of buying a bike and then selling it when the journey is over you might save a little more money, but I wouldn't be doing that.
Aparently Motofreight have a good contact in Bogota to fly the bike over the Darien Gap. Can't imagine putting my bike in a wee boat like Itchy Boots did. 
Well I'm stoked, have just managed to bag a couple of seats for the return leg of our trip for mid March '24. San(tiago) to San (Diego) on a 26 year old bike... Madness, but hey, yer a long time dead.
Unfortunately shipping the bike is still on the expensive side, but there's time for the prices to drop a little before the bike has to go. There is a possibility that Westjet (who?) will be flying bikes out of Los Angeles to Europe in the not too distant future for sensible money - hope that happens, but you do wonder why if they could, why not anyone else?
Sounds like progress being made.
Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!
