My first genuine shakedown

My first genuine shakedown

March 11th, 2023 in Playa Las Lejas, Panama. I had my first shakedown yesterday. It was the real deal. It was done so nicely, I hardly even felt it. This is what happened. I was riding west, along Panama’s Highway 1, the Pan American, heading towards the border...
Crossing the Darién — finally!

Crossing the Darién — finally!

March 7th 2023, Panama City. Anyone travelling across the Americas by land, north to south or, like me, the other way around, faces a major obstacle in the middle. It is known as the Darién Gap — the gap being the fact that there is no road linking South and...
A human drama that is epic in scale

A human drama that is epic in scale

February 27th, Capurganá, Colombia. Every morning as the sun rises over the Caribbean, hundreds of people gather on the beach at Necocli, a small town on Colombia’s north coast. Surrounded by suitcases and black bin bags containing all that they have, or all...
Colourful chaos at the last frontier

Colourful chaos at the last frontier

February 20th 2023, Cúcuta Well over seven million Venezuelans have fled their homeland in recent years. For a country of some 30 million people, that’s close to a quarter of the population upping sticks and getting out. In effect, Venezuela is bleeding people,...