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Interlude – Bad times in Belfast

Returning home we came to see our trip as such an absolute high point in our lives from which we had suddenly been plunged into some of the lowest depths we’d ever known. Top this off with the sudden transformation from travelling through 9 months of seemingly perpetual summer into some of the most appalling […]

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Heading Up Into the Yucatan, Bad News From Home, The End for 2004

So that was Central America and what a contrast to South America. The first thing that struck us was how close everything is. Gone were the big journeys in the saddle from our times in Argentina, Chile & Peru, where it could take days to ride from one place to the next. Central America is […]

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Paradise Part III

On to Belize – British Colony up until 1981, still has the Queen’s head on the bank notes today. We put into the delightful little town of San Ignacio, not far from the border, where we checked in to the Pacz Guesthouse. It was a treat to go ask for a room in English again, […]

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Maggie’s Birthday at Tikal

We dragged ourselves reluctantly away from Finca Ixobel, our 1 night stop already run into 3 with the temptation to stay another day or two very, very strong! But thankfully we had a greater attraction to draw us away – the Mayan ruins at Tikal. It was coming up to Maggie’s birthday and we figured […]

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The Best Coffee in the World at the Crossroads Café

I walk into the garden and see a hammock smiling at me between two trees. Come on over, sit down, put your feet up, relax… Ah! This is the life, swinging gently in the breeze in the shade of exotic fruit trees, surrounded by flowers everywhere, their sweet scent tingling the nostrils and teasing my […]

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The Beautiful Colonial City of Antigua

Over the border and our journey continues on into Guatemala. We had a very pleasurable ride swooping along with the Rio Camatan and picking up the main road to the capital, Guatemala City where we promptly got lost on the ‘Peripherique’ missing our turn off for Antigua and riding around for ages trying to do […]

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Copan and the World of the Mayans

As July gave way to August we rode on up to the Caribbean where we planned to take a trip out to the Bay Islands. Another fantasy ride took us north up through the chirpy busy little town of El Progreso, past the mainland beaches at Tela and on through miles of pineapple and coconut […]

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Border Rip Off

In, Ecuador, way back in May, we bumped into Dan Walsh the columnist from ‘Bike’ magazine. We spent a pleasant evening drinking beer with him at the Turtle’s Head British Pub in Quito. Dan is riding an F650 Dakar from New York to South America, covering parts of our route in reverse along with his […]

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An Unremarkable Road Leads To A Remarkable Place

We left Costa Rica on a Monday morning. Blue skies at Tamarindo gradually faded to grey as we rode into a heavy front of rainy weather. We stopped just on the edge of it to don wetsuits and rode the last 30 or 40 miles to the Nicaraguan border at Peñas Blanca in a downpour. […]

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A Taste of Paradise!

You know, sometimes it takes a bad thing to emphasise something that’s really good. The bitter taste and sourness left by the bad experience merely serves to spice up the good times to come, heightening the pleasure and delight to be had from them. So it was with Panama and Costa Rica. After Panama, Costa […]

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