Welcome

Hello,

This blog chronicles the day to day story of our motorcycle journey from Canada to Argentina. There was up, down and sideways moments, but overall it was a great experience. I hope you enjoy our story, and please get in contact if you have any questions or maybe you just want to say hi.

Thank you for visiting,

Naomi and Alberto

Please use the Archive on the right hand menu bar to start at the beginning of our story. 

Also please check out our new website MotoLara.com for interesting content and projects. Hit us up on social media, we love to hear from you guys.

I am very proud to announce that 3 of our photos from our trip were selected to be featured in the HUBB 2012 Calendar. Thank you to everyone who voted, there is an amazing selection of pictures in the calendar!

Two years in a row! We are very happy to announce that two of our photos were selected for the HUBB 2013 Calendar. Thank you for the support. 

So proud to have our story featured in Bike Magazine!

The Best and Worst Awards

Best Adventure Road - Peru: Shorey to Cabana.

Best Scenic Road - Chile: Ruta 7 with mountains, glaciers, rivers, lakes, this road has it all.

Best Paved Road - Peru: Cabana to Chuquicara. A close runner-up is Nazca to Cusco also in Peru. This route lost because of the increased presence of crazy drivers.

Worst Adventure Road - Ruta 40, Anywhere in Argentina it’s not paved. The road surface is terrible and demands 100% concentration so that even if there were beautiful landscapes to admire, you can’t take your eyes of the road to enjoy them.

Worst Scenic Road - Chile: Santiago to Temuco. Apart from the odd winery there was pretty much nothing to see from this straight divided highway.

Worst Paved Road - Peru: Caraz to Huaraz. Truly the worst experience one can have on two wheels. Potholes, dust, cars swerving erratically to avoid the potholes. Painful. A close second is Espinazo del Diablo, Mexico. People spoke praises of this road for its curvy-ness. It’s hard to appreciate any semblance of curvy-ness though due to potholes and trucks that can’t stay in their lane. Knowing what I know now, I would have given it a miss.

Best Route - Anywhere in the Peruvian Sierra, so that the coast can be avoided.

Worst Route - Peru: Panamerican Highway 250km north of Lima until the south exit of Lima. having a major highway go through the capital of Peru is simply madness. And though we didn’t drive it (we avoided it on purpose) I imagine the Honduras section of the Panamericana would come a close second.

Country with the Best Food - Peru: The most variety coupled with the best flavours. There isn’t even a close second.

Country with the Worst Food - Mexico: Compared to all the other countries we didn’t enjoy Mexican food as much. Perhaps we had bad luck with the places we went out for food? As a side note Naomi really loved the fresh Guacamole.

Best Meal/Dish - Naomi: Palta a la Reina, Peru; Alberto: Lomo Saltado, Peru.

Worst Meal - Street food taquitos in Barra de Navidad, Mexico. Too much random parts: cow’s brain, eyes, tongue, ear, lips, stomach, etc... not enough of what I define as meat.

Favourite Country Overall - Naomi: Colombia. I like the energy of the places we visited. The people were really friendly, and the scenery was nice.

Alberto: Guatemala. I enjoyed the lakes, volcanoes, history. People were friendly and stuff was cheap. Also I ate the best stake of the entire trip in Huehuetenango.

Friendliest People - excluding Canadians we found Ticos (Costa Ricans) to be the most friendly.... Pura Vida!

Unfriendliest People - Northern Chileans with Coastal Peruvians as runners-up Not just on one occasion did we have negative encounters but several encounters. In particular in Calama, Chile. Coastal Peruvians as a whole were sneaky, and always trying to take advantage. DISCLAIMER - This is a blatant generalization.

Best Police - Naomi: Chile. Very professional; Alberto: Colombia. Very friendly and even stopped us to give us directions and warn us of road conditions.

Worst Police - Not even a contest: PERU!

Best Border Crossing - Colombia to Ecuador. Very professional with clearly marked buildings.

Worst Border Crossing - Anything involving Nicaragua. Honduras to Nicaragua and Nicaragua to Costa Rica.

Best Biking Culture - Colombia. Even though a lot of bikes were smaller cc, there was a wide range of riders. Also people wore helmets and riding gear.

Best Waterfall - El Chiflon, Chiapas, Mexico.
       
Best Mountain - Mt. Fitz Roy, Argentina.

Best Lake - Lago General Carrera, Chile.

Best Beach - West Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras.

Hottest Girls - Costa Rica.

Best Kit Item - Naomi: Gore-tex socks ;Alberto: Airhawk Seat.

Worst Kit Item - Naomi: BMW Summer base-layers; Alberto: Collett Communication System.

Best Gadget -SPOT 2.

Worst Gadget - Collett Communication System it’s just that bad.

Best Aftermarket Bike Farkle - Gear-it-technology Crash Bars.
Worst Aftermarket Bike Farkle - Alberto’s Cheap but cool-looking Mirrors.

Best Camping Spot - EcoVenao in Playa Venao, Panama.

Worst Camping Spot - St John RV Park in St John New Mexico, USA.

Best Hotel - Hotel Oasis in Caborca, Mexico. Best bang for your buck.

Worst Hotel - Motel Viga Nueva in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Best Day - Day #126 it had everything a GS could ask for: dirt, pavement, scenery. Peruvian Northern Highlands.

Worst Day - Day #182 because of having to deal with the police.