For The Sake of Clarity - The Digital Tavern

Imagine California more than 150 years ago. Until Spain recognized Mexico’s sovereignty in 1821, California was a Spanish colony. This colony was separted by two missionary factions. In the North, Alta California was governed by the Franciscan missions and to the south Baja California was under Frandiscon mission rule. But the young sovereign Mexico soon had its hands full when [… Read More]

I’ve got a few video composites from my motorcycle trip around the world posted on my WorldRider account on YouTube. About a week ago I received a notification from YouTube, ironically the message was in Portuguese, that my “Riding Bolivia” piece [… Read More]

Egypt is the land of Pharaohs. Home to some of the oldest and most well preserved archaeological sites in the world. And it’s no wonder. Wit the massive Sahara desert to the west and the Red Sea to the east, Mediterranean to the north, it was very in accessible in ancient times. So while the shifting sands of the [… Read More]

Once you cross the Nile River and head north out of Khartoum things turn desolate. Come to think of it riding into Khartoum from the south things were pretty desolate. But strategically located at the confluence of the Blue and While Nile rivers, Khartoum is capital to the largest (in size) country in Africa. And while north of here by [… Read More]

Southern plains of Ethiopia. Below a new traditional home under construction.

As I moved to make time to get to Awasa I noticed groups of women carrying large round ceramic containers colored brown and with a narrow top and ringlet handles tied to their backs. The rounded belly shape [… Read More]

What was supposed to be an early start for the Ethiopian border crossing now was looking to be a mid-afternoon departure. First things first. I had to get the bike unloaded from the lorry. My preference was to unload it somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of this Kenya border town. Getting both the bike and I suited for [… Read More]

He was very formal, personal and service oriented if not a slightly meek. When he brought me a bottle of the local beer in a 330ml bottle, I admitted my surprise. Most beer in Africa is served in 500- 1.0L bottles. Rarely does one find what we are accustomed to in the US: the equivalent to a 12oz can or [… Read More]

Here in Tanzania, I ran into something completely unexpected: a welcome party for President George W. Bush. Elsewhere he may be one of the most unpopular political leaders in the world, but in Tanzania, George Bush has been welcomed as “the president of the world.”

I’ve spent most of the past two years riding around the world on my motorcycle, [… Read More]

There’s no question that visiting Tanzania’s world-renowned national parks is an expensive proposition. While budget travelers like me can camp and cook our own food, there’s no escaping the high cost of park fees. At fifty dollars for each twenty-four hour period or faction thereof, it’s easy to rack up a couple hundred dollars in park fees before paying for [… Read More]

The Ngepi Camp sits at the beginning of the Panhandle of the Kavango River which flowing from Angola dumps into the vast swamp known as the Okavango Delta – a vast wildlife reserve of wetlands and bush, and the largest Most of the delta sits in Botswana but here at Ngepi camp we spent a few days riverside contemplating our [… Read More]

The small settlement of Opuwo sits just south of the Angola border in Namibia’s Kaokoland. Due to its harsh terrain including bush, desert and mountains, this part of Namibia is more rural and seems somewhat trapped in a time warp, largely due to the presence of the semi-nomadic Himba people. In what might seem movie sets for pre-colonial Africa story [… Read More]

Perhaps the trademark or signature image of Namibia comes from the glorious orange colored dunes of of the Namib Desert — perhaps most famously are those of Sossusvlei. Tucked into the central Namib surrounded by vast arid plains dotted with acacia and quiver trees and various desert shrubs such as sage or some sort of succulents, Sossusvlei is [… Read More]

Tucked in cozy nook in the Amathole Mountains, Hogsback and the surrounding old growth forest, waterfalls and the canopy and odd shaped twists, turns and hanging strands of foliage and tree branches apparently was the inspiration for South African-born J.R. Tolkien and his wildly popular series of Fantasy books including The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. The scenic [… Read More]

With a population of more than 3 million people, Cape Town is the economic and tourist center of western South Africa, and it serves as the legislative capital of the country. Like most of South Africa there is quite diversity and clearly visible contrasts on every street corner. Standing at the BMW Pavillion near Cape Town’s waterfront and looking across [… Read More]

There’s was a last minute panic in Buenos Aires before the taxi came to take me to EZE airport to board my Malaysian Airline flight bound for Cape Town South Africa. My cellphone rang and there’s Silvina speaking with a shortness of breath. Seems that there was one document that the cargo people at Malaysia Airlines wanted a slight modification [… Read More]

With my bike safely crated and cleared from Brazilian customs, I got to spend a few more days riding a light enduro Yamaha through the narrow streets lined with colorful colonial buildings of Belém. Alex and Marden provided the continuing entertainment and Belém experiences: wandering the maze of vendors that make up the kinetic and frenetic Ver o Peso market, [… Read More]

The Portuguese landed in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon River yet still 120km from the Atlantic Ocean in 1616. Interestingly enough the voyage from Lisbon to Belem, due to prevailing winds and strong currents, took longer than the trip from Belem to Salvador. Today, with nearly 1.5 million people Belem is the economic center of the Amazon [… Read More]

The beaches. The music. The fahvelas. The food. The friendly people. The shoeshine boys on the beach walks. The bikinis. The spirit.

Rio is gearing up for the Pan American Games. And Al Gore’s concert for awareness of global warming. I settle in to experience some of the usual sites, the architecture and culture, the food and the sunshine. With [… Read More]

I wonder what the weather is like in central Bolivia today.

I’ll bet that road from Potosí to Uyuni is washed out and muddy.

For it was one year ago today I took my fateful plunge into the mud of Tica Tica – a tiny Altiplano village in Central Bolivia. So today I [… Read More]

pOur guide led us through small dirt paths through the overgrown jungle. As we trekked toward, rustling sounds and deep throated roars stopped us in our tracks. Craning my neck to the thick canopy of the rainforest a group of 4 or 5 howler monkeys swung from branch to branch. The foliage did a good job hiding their round faces from the lens of my camera. Fascinated our group stood and stared until our necks grew weary and the anxiety of seeing the great pyramids, temples, tombs and hundreds of other structures that comprise perhaps the grandest of all Mayan ruins refocused our attention./p
pa href="http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/tikal_tomb_face.jpg" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.worldrider.com'); window.open("http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/tikal_tomb_face.jpg','popup','width=993,height=768,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"img src="http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/tikal_tomb_face-tm.jpg" height="200" width="258" border="1" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Tikal Tomb Face" //aJoining me on my tour of Tikal is a family from Coshocton, Ohio who after many years sponsoring a Guatemalan child decided to make the trek to this country to visit the child and her remote village. While many people eager to help those less fortunate get “sucked” into supporting a “foster child” through television ads or direct mail, perhaps many wonder if the money ever gets to the child and his or her family. For Jan Myers, her parents Judy and Dave Milligan and her son 12-year old son Maxx and 7-year old daughter Maggie, I was warmed by their generosity and inspired by their courage and adventure to drag young children to a country considered to be the most dangerous in Central America. Hiking for several miles through the jungle was an arduous task for the grandparents. As the monkeys swung above and the Toucan’s and other birds screeched, Judy casually reflected on her recent visit to her doctor./p
p“Do I need any shots, immunizations?” she asked her Coshocton-based family physician./p
p“No. You don’t need anything,” her doctor confidently comforted her. “You’re not going to be in the jungle or anything.”/p
pShe turned and looked at me, “It’s not like I’m going to be in the jungle.” I grinned as we stomped through trails thick with vegetation and with vines hanging from the tall trees begging us all to take a Tarzan-like swing and a let out a yell. Nope. Not like you’re going to be in the jungle!/p
p style="text-align:center;"a href="http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/tikal_jungle2.jpg" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.worldrider.com'); window.open("http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/tikal_jungle2.jpg','popup','width=1024,height=290,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false">

Fact is, Tikal is deep in the jungle of the Parque Nacional Tikal, [… Read More]

pJeremiah rolling into Vallegrade with a grand Cristo welcome./p
pThe road to Vallegrande was actually much better. Not as much dust and recent rainfall had settled what little dust we might have contended with. We climbed mountains and descended into pretty valleys with tiny adobe outbacks passing men on horses, cattle crossing the road and mountain goats climbing the hills roadside. Rolling into Vallegrande I was greeted by a family and their mules carrying firewood./p
pWe quickly settled into a small apartment complex where we safely could park our bikes. At about $3.75 each we both agreed we could afford our own room and while we’d contend with a community bathroom and shower we were happy that we could park our bikes in front of our rooms. It continued to rain and drizzle. Vallegrande is a small pueblo with two principle squares. The first is set around a church with a tall clock tower whose bells ring every half hour — all night long. The second set around the outdoor market, ramshackle stores and a couple restaurants. Some of the streets are paved others dirt or loose brick and cobblestones. There’s an internet cafe on nearly every street yet suprisingly only a few restraunts. Tourism hasn’t offically settled in here./p
p style="text-align:center;"a href="http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/mules_apart_vallegrande-2.jpg" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.worldrider.com'); window.open("http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/mules_apart_vallegrande-2.jpg','popup','width=990,height=682,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"img src="http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/mules_apart_vallegrande-2-tm.jpg" height="344" width="500" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Mules Apart Vallegrande-2" //a/p
pemMules apart. I pull into Vallegrande weary and ready for a beer and a good meal./em span style="color:#4e8487;font-size:9pt;"emPhoto by Miah/em/span/p
p style="text-align:center;"a href="http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/vallagrande_street_clocktower-1.jpg" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.worldrider.com'); window.open("http://www.worldrider.com/blog/photos/vallagrande_street_clocktower-1.jpg','popup','width=812,height=484,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false">

Streets in Vallegrande quiet while townspeople head for the fiest in the cemeteries for Dias de las Muertas.

After a fine dinner of fried chicken, french fries and rice we settled back to our rooms. Jeremiah had some negotations to settle with the owner of this establishment as neither our rooms nor the bathrooms were fitted with toilet [… Read More]