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After nearly 3 1/2 years on the road, I'm finally back home with my parents – something I had been looking forward to for quite some time now.

The last few days in New York were pretty hectic – but also very enjoyable, thanks to my lovely hosts Eusebio & Natalie in New Jersey. Time flew past with New York sightseeing during the day, re-packing & preparing the motorcycle for shipping...

...and very unexpectedly some customs problems for the motorcycle: everytime I entered the US from either Mexico or Canada, customs weren't even remotely interested in the motorcycle & didn't want to give me any import paperwork (I did ask!). But when it came to shipping OUT of the country, of course, the customs department asked for exactly THAT paperwork.

Anyway – I only found out about all this once I was already in Germany. But in the end, my shipping agent in NY managed to work things out, so I don't have to fly back over. (Some "good will" by one of the customs officers, I was told...).
The motorcycle will leave NY by the end of next week. (And I'll update the shipping section here, once I've cleared customs in Europe).

Quick news on the photography side of things: The FlickR photo-blog is still stuck in Canada – but I managed to put a whole new image gallery online: Central & North America Panoramas. Hope you like them.

The photo-blog for Yukon, Alaska and Eastern USA will follow soon.

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Canada - Beautiful British Columbia

"Beautiful British Columbia" is what is written on every vehicle license plate, here in Canada's most Western province. And it is indeed incredibly beautiful – if it isn't raining :)

At first, the weather was very good – but after leaving Vancouver Island, I had quite a few days of solid rain. Today (12th of July), it's the first REAL sunny day with blue sky & after a short break in Dease Lake I'll now make my way up into the Yukon Territory.

Two days ago, I had my first encounters with black bears, who were playing & feeding next to the road – 5 bears within 200km of riding. I haven't got any pictures yet, but I'm sure it won't be the last bears I've seen & will try to keep the camera ready for a few pictures.

Anyway – Here's the first photographs from Canada: British Columbia, Chiliwack to Dease Lake:

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

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USA

The USA Photo-Blog is now online. You can either view Thumbnails on FlickR, or the automated Slideshow (in the slideshow, click on "Show Info" to see photo captions & descriptions).

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Mexico

The Mexico Photo-Blog is now online. You can either view Thumbnails on FlickR, or the automated Slideshow (in the slideshow, click on "Show Info" to see photo captions & descriptions).

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Central America

The Central America Photo-Blog is now online. Lots of small countries in a very small time – as I was trying to get to Alaska for the summer and I'm a bit behind schedule:

Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize.

You can either view Thumbnails on FlickR, or the automated Slideshow (in the slideshow, click on "Show Info" to see photo captions & descriptions).

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Colombia

The Colombia Photo-Blog is now online. You can either view Thumbnails on FlickR, or the automated Slideshow (in the slideshow, click on "Show Info" to see photo captions & descriptions).

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Ecuador & Galapagos Islands (Oct-Nov 2010)

Another quick photo-blog update, still trying to catch up with everything: Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

I had been looking forward to the Galapagos Islands for quite a long time now – and it was indeed absolutely gorgeous. Some information for other travellers reading this blog: I managed to get a real good last-minute price for a 7-day boat cruise. There's a lot of detailed information on other traveller's blogs already, on how to do the islands "on the cheap", so just a brief summary here from my side:

Flight to Galapagos: US$380 (special promotion from TAME airlines, booked in the TAME office in Quito. Entrance fee to National Park: $100. I stayed on the islands for 4 nights, trying to get a last minute deal. There's plenty of offers, but only a few go to the "good" islands (Española and Genovesa, with the best bird-life). I finally found one with the "Guantanamera" boat, 7 days, US$840. Staying in Puerto Ayora (whilst looking for a local last-minute deal) is about $10-15 per day for accomodation, and $3 for a standard lunch. The local supermarket has all necessities for self-catering but prices are about double to mainland Ecuador.

Click on the images below to get taken to the photo-feed (with brief descriptive text). Or click here to see the automated slideshow.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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