I'm headed north ,,,,,

Leaving Valadares was hard this year , flying was good and I like spending time with my flying buddies some of which were staying on , but all good things must end and on to the next adventure . Last day in GV I rode my bike up to launch to say bye to everyone and then hit the road to Prado in Bahia for Carnival .
The ride was busy and long I was so tired and we arrived at 9;30pm well after dark and on super busy hwy I didn't help that i put on my new visor which is tinted dark ! But we made it , and ended up spending the next 5-6 days relaxing, eating and flying ,oh a little drinking as well as dancing . The flying was coastal and fun for the guys whom had never done this before , like Wayne , Lyle and Doug it was really great ! Lots of hangovers after the parties... thanks Wayne for getting me home at 6am when it was sunny out !!
Our little group split up Wayne headed back to Rio, Doug and the rest headed to GV and I went north on the BR101 highway. I put in 3 600km days then needed a rest which was at Porto de Galinhas south of Renclife nice spot but a tourist trap , very expensive and I hit the weekend ! 1 days rest, went running, swimming and touring around ! I headed north again towards Fortaleza and stopped at a place I had always heard about called Canoa Quebrada from flying magazines , lots of big dunes and sand and windmills , nice place to hang about and learn kitesurfing. I did not want to go further towards Fortaleza , I could see a big storm brewing , when I went thru the city to get to Paracuru north of the city I missed the rain by about 20 minutes and the roads were flooding in some places , I am staying at Pousada SOL e Lua which is owned by a pilot Roland Zgraggen from Switzerland whom I knew thru paragliding and Urs Harri, Small world I met him in GV and he said he was now living in the north and to come and see him. The bike is ready i'm finishing my blog and ready to hit the Amazon river ferry from Belem to Manaus. yahhooo...

Governador Valadares .....

Well these past weeks flew by quickly, I sort of let the blog slide by and am now getting ready to leave GV. The bike is ready to go again and we are heading to Prado for carnival its in Bahia on the beach .
After leaving Andradas I headed north along the gold trail towards Pocos de Caldas then over to Vaginha which wqsa a nice ride . From here I went up to Ouro Preto around the south end of the city then up the valley behind the city toward Belo and over to Ipatinga then Governador Valadares .
The flying here has been good this year the first 2 weeks were great and now the weather has come in , time to leave . The tour with the guys was great everyone had their personal best and will go home with great memories of GV flying and nightlife !!!
My first day flying in GV was great and flew 124km missed the last climb out as i thought it was going to OD. Many good flights the following week with 116km flight and a easy 100 km flight if it was not for the cloud suck and worry about OD. but did manage a 87km flight with Greg, Manny, Wayne and myself. Now it is time to leave here and find new adventure in northern Brasil and get home ....pictures to follow...

Out to the lake and foward to the Coast

Evandero asked my to come to then lake for the weekend and was it ever nice , lake side house of his friend , fishing, swimming and B-B que´s.Well fishing was interesting as the fishe were about 2 inches long and we kept them they were cleaned and salted and fried all before the supper, I actually felt sorry for the little guys... but such is life ! We apent 2 days here and then I decided to go to the coast to visit my friend Jorden in Caraguatatuba. Nice ride down thru a city called Salesopolis nice twisties and not traffic. I ended up staying 3 days at Jordens house and doing some flying from the local site landing on the beach in the city . Jorden has a nice house in the jungle outside of the city , lots of bird and wild life. Jorden I met a few years ago while riding past this city and we have kept in touch , he lives in Toronto Canada 8 month and here 4 months . He has hanglide and paraglided for 30 yrs and is still in the local club contact him thru me if you want information on this area for flying or traveling he is a geat contact in this area . Thanks for the hospitality ..It was on and off rain so, I headed back to Campinas and got soaked on the way back, stopped in the local bike shop and put on some new tires which I had ordered . Yahoooo new tires I´m excited again, amazing how little thing make you happy , but their was not tread left for the roads I still want to do and the mud here is so slippery . I´m back in Evandero´s planning the next week and over to GV via Adradas and Pocos de Caldas to Belo ... cheers

to be continued ...

The city of Guaratuba was crowded with family´s on holidays as was everwhere else on the coast amd is expensive over the holidays everywhere except inland . This does not stop untill after Carnival i´m informed ! Great ! I left this city the next day and had a flat tire at the ferry crossing , with a 4 inch nail in my tire . Like how does this happen is the nail sticking up on the road ? or after you run over it does it get propelled into the tire ? This i can´t figure out ? Anyways it was an easy fix and I put in an old tube and continued . Nice ride from Caioba up to Morreles which is a nice little town very beautiful and lots of water in the area rivrs and small lago´s . After this town up an old route that is up the Serra´s again with original rocks inlaid all the way to the top by early slave´s brought over in the 1700´s Cool Road !! Back out onto the Br 116 hwy and stayed in Registro.
Next day left and headed towards Campinas thru a park up to Sao miguel Arcanjo up the Serra´s again but not after I had a flat tire again, guess what.... the tube I put in the day before was rotten and fell apart, smart thinking on my part I had stopped and bought a spare as soon as my spare was used ! Learn from your mistakes and never trust an old tube or repair !
I made Evendero´s house by the evening and we went out for beers and showed me his new biker house . This time at the house was so welcome to clean fix the bike and talk about new trips ect., he is also helping me with my blog and adding pictures and soon a map of my travels as he is a computer wiz. Thanks for the stay and the help Evandero that is great ! cheers

Dear diary....

We´ll its now Feb 4th, and I am in Campinas staying at Evandero´s house www.pisteriros.com.br . Cheri and I met him last year inthe campground in Uruguay with another biker called Peterson they were starting their journey to Chile. He is a great person and invited me to check out his new business. He is starting up a company to provide motorbike adventure and tours as well as a place to park your bike or stop and recover from your trip on the bike . He also can provide information on routes and plan trips for group rides , very useful if you want to go and travel and find interesting places to see !
After I left Saprianga I headed north towards thru the Serra´s undeing up in Cambara do sur up to Bom Jardim da serra then down the Rio do Rastro road to Florinopolis thru the backcountry for me slow, dirt roads are the best way to enjoy the flavour of the country and the people. I managed to get lost a few time with the backroads but how lost can you really get with maps and your gut feelings ! Nice scenery and clean water simular to what you would find in Canada or other countries . I ended up in Florinopolis in the rain... great ! No beach time or women to look at !! Or flying !! Picked up and bug and was sick for a day here as well or was it from drinking Caipirinha !
Well after 2 days of torrential rain and my cloths not drying I decided it was time to move north. Good decision as now my cloths dried and I was having fun again, went up past Joinville and over to the beach city called Guaratuba.

Riding in the new year !

I ended up leaving Punte de Este on about the 6th and heading to a guy's house who I had met throught the bike shop and Fernando. Fernado if you read this thank you very much for your hospitality and the use of your shop and for puting up with me for the time I was with you and storing my bike for a year , much appreciated . I ended up going over to Benos Aries for a day , to pick up my Corbin seat which I had left in Mendoza, thanks Areil and Pablo for arranging the seat to get to BA for me . It is 2 inches lower and way more comfortable for riding solo and being able to touch the ground when you stop or get on or off the bike .

I ended up missing the ferry to get back to herbert's place in the country but it was great because I ended up enjoying the city of Colonia and the old part is a Unesco world heritage site and meeting some guys on the ferry on the way over and drinking beer untill 3 am. Herbert is a german guy who was in canada for 25 years and now is living the dream in Uruguay and also rides a vulcan 900. I am trying to talk him into riding his bike south to Ushuia this year ....well see !

Life is short and you have to reach out and take it all in ! Dreams should become reality ....

After leaving herbert's who was also a great host , I headed north along the coast toward Punte del diablo a cool little very busy tourist beach , unfortunatly everthing was booked solid , I would have liked to spend a few days on the beach .

I headed to Chuy border crossing and made the crossing at about 3pm and rode for another 3-4 hrs north to Rio grande .

The next day caught the ferry over the spit to ?? BR101 and rode up a skinny piece of land toward Porto Alegre and ended up in Soa Leapoldo in the evening .

The following day I road towards Sipiranga a small nice city where they have a great paragliding site and ended up getting in a sledder it was overcast and no one else was flying .Pilots do have to work down here so their is not much happening during the week.

Now I am south and west of Porto Alegre after the locals talked me into driving 300km the this new spot called Cacapava . It ended up being a very cool place for flying and cheaper hotels and food as well as you move away from the coast . The local boys treated me very well showing me the sites and giving me rides to and from launch . Friday was a small tour around the area on my new wing and harness , as it was starting to overdevelop. Saturday was great and I flew solo for about 4 hrs hoping I was going in the right direction. The plan was for everyone to take off and fly together well only 5 out of 20 pilots ended up getting away from the hill as I learned later.

So I guess I am lucky , I was forth for the distance this day 1 of the locals set a new site record of 303km , home town advantage and I would have not go where he did, not with the desolate county out here and limited portuguese language. still I had a great day and flew over 120km , and good way to break in the new gear and not flying for months ... lets get it on ! Day 3 here was blowing over the back and strong and only 2 pilots flew , now am wriitn this in my hotel room ready to sleep amd head north again to Sipiranga again to fly and watch the national hang champs .... and finally caught up with my blog yahooo ...cheers

It's about time ... for an update !!

I'm on the road north ....or so i thought . Well i do feel like i'm confessing my sins when it takes so long to blog , and i'm not so much into this electronic world yet. or am I ???

Anyways I left Canada for Uruguay on Dec 30th which means I arrive in Monte video at 1200 on New years eve 6 hrs before new years in Canada. Unfortunatly it was very uneventful as I was still in the airpost exchanging money and trying to arrange a ride to my hotel , but the fire works looked impressive as that is the big thing down here on New years !

The next day everthing was closed ,, not even the buses run, I had a hard time finding food everything is closed . The next 4-5 days or was it 6 was spent working on the bike at the Kawi dealer in La Barra , it seems the idiots in Canada gave me the wrong part... it was the front sprocket and I had taken it all apart I ended up spending 2 extra days trying to get a sprocket fpr my bike .

It is very expensive and super busy in this area during x mas, as it is a dream area for the rich and famous , the Monte Carlo of the south. The hostel was 50.00us a night for 4 people in a room ! It was crazy, tons of young people wanting to party all night long , dico opens at 1-2am and goes untill 7am , of course my roomates would sleep all day eat at 9pm then go out at 2am and come home at 3-7am and start snoring ... fun ! I'm glad to be out on the rooad !