♫ Strummin’ Round 1 ► 



► Jeremy Haber and my “wild” Peace Corps Paraguay talent show ditty proved to be a more amusing juxtaposition in the courtyard of a family’s house/tailor shop in Itá, Paraguay.

Press play for a giggle ➸ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynVUTM-59rE&feature=youtu.be



► The genius seamstress, Tati, was the homestay host of Jeremy during training who, through a little Community Economic Development volunteer needs-assessing and logo forwarding, became Peace C...
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✛ Paraguay’s Neglected are my Neighbors ✛

(The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. All quotes are either in Spanish or are my translations.)

▷ Click here for a better view of the photos ◁

I was feeling a little weak today and decided to walk-splore instead of run. Just a kilometer or so from my little abode, on the same hillside, the infrastructure stops. The cobblestone roads turn into rutted trails an...

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(The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.)

This is my way of taking action to make my words speak a little louder. My method is transparency in what I am doing and reporting about my service to the Peace Corps, which is a branch of the U.S. government.

TO CLARIFY: The Peace Corps is a non-partisan agency within the executive branch of the U.S. government. It has presidentially appointed directors, is supervised...

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(The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.)

What I Reported to the Peace Corps: Volunteer Reporting Form

As opposed to the government in this freedom of the press suppressed Paraguayan oligopoly, I want to make my inter-cultural experiences, efforts and observations transparent. Minus the details of my community contact information and the code boxes checked for the Peace Corps’ statistics compiling, such as; ...

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(The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.)

Today marks 20 years of a “general” strike here in Paraguay, mainly led by union leaders rallying the teachers and farmers, and human rights groups and students rallying themselves. The sad thing is that a lot of the striking working-class posse aren't thoroughly informed as to why they’re shutting down traffic, but instigated to participate based on propaganda fe...

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(The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.)

In the mid-2000s motorcycles started pouring onto the Paraguayan market. Rebranded Chinese rides like Moto Star, Kenton and Yamazuki were not only affordable to the masses with no money down financing yah-yah, but with no drivers test nor need to know how to ride, they could be purchased on a whim by just about anyone; and they were.

Not surprisingly, this lawlessness ha...

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(The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.)

I woke up one morning, Thursday, the 30th of May, 2013, to be exact, and I was in Asunción, Paraguay. 

[Lights intensify like dawn]

And while I’m not trying to insinuate some surprise international abduction, I am trying to convey the, “I haven’t absorbed this” feeling you get when the velocity of life is whirling too fast too land … despite, however, the fact ...

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Full moon hike up Volcan Santa Maria above Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

The cost for private Spanish classes at Miguel de Cervantes Spanish School & Hostal is about $4 an hour. So, for an aerobics class, followed by 3-hours of one-on-one Spanish, an hour of piano and an hour-and-a-half of yoga I paid $16.70 per day, in c...
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I’ve been in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala for a week, staying with the sweet Gonzalez family who I met while studying Spanish here in 2009.


Pedro is a painter of traditional Mayan themes (ArteMaya.com) and even has a piece in the Smithsonian. Debora is a queen of the hand-made tortilla and will only cook them on her wood burning stove on the back porch.

It’s been a pretty intriguing week; climbing La Nariz del Indio, debating the rules of the imperfect subjunctive tense with my Spanish t...
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So much to say, so much to say … my brain is like a glitchy GPS. I lived and worked for two-months on the scuba certification factory of Utila, an Island run by 20-something backpackers, before cargo shipping Cart-her back and traveling through the rain to see the ruins of Copán, on the Honduran/Guatemalan border.

Even though I learned the interesting – and slightly disturbing – fact that the inhabitants of the Mayan ruins buried their dead underneath their stone beds to use them as a ...
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After about a month and a half of shipping organization and transit time to Utila Island, the modular chin bar replacement for the snapped flip-top button on my Scorpion EXO-900 TransFormerHelmet finally came in! It’s like Christmas in May. I couldn’t imagine touring through such vastly different climates as I have been – from December’s record lows in the southeastern States to the humid 90s along the Caribbean coast – in anything but a modular lid; hydratable, breathable, and chat...
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I’ve learned that humidity causes carburetors to run lean. That the KLR ignition coil is sealed, can’t be visually inspected, and can only be checked with a coil reader and the ability to measure the arch. That I can now remove the side panels, seat, fairings, gas tank and carburetor, clean it and put it all back together in 19 minutes and 18 seconds since, through unintentional experience, I am now KiLleR carb-pilot programmed.

 
The orange splatters around the gas cap were from shaking ...
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The following is a list of border crossing info for fellow moto-adventurers ... Mom, this one isn't for you! But I love you dearly.

MONEY X: 1 USD = 12 Pesos

US TO MEXICO
Date: January 21, 2011
Location: Lukeville, Arizona – Sonoyta, Mexico
Paperwork required:
• Passport – 1 copy
• Registration or Title – 1 copy
Total Cost: $61.50 USD
• Vehicle Import Permit = $437.61 (credit card only) = $36.5 good for 6-months
• Tourist Visa = $25 USD good for 90-days
Money Accepted: USD or Mexican Pe...

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After three grating days of post-new-tire flat-fixing (three pinch-flats on my bike and one on Malcolm’s) I am still on the hunt for the elusive 130/80-17 tubes and a case of anti-chafing talcum powder; a multi-purpose cure for tire/tube friction and monkey-butt. And fortunately now, after scuba diving the Cenotes in Tulum, I’ve regained my tranquila and bi-wheel love. Mechanicals happen.
 
 
Sweet warm-water white sand beaches of Tulum and our dive leader, Paulo of Easy Chango dive center...
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We just got new Kenda K761 130/80-17 rear tires for our KLRs ... the only in-stock rubber we could find on the Yucatán Peninsula from our online searching. Things down here; services, products, specialists, are more-so word-of-mouth than word-of-web. But the Kenda’s had good reviews for our dual-sport tope-hopping journey, so we went ahead and headed toward the MotoMundo shop we found them through in Mérida. We “thought” we were doing the right thing by replacing our rubber before our...
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I have begun typing away and documenting my Mayan ruin-to-ruin run as I horseshoe around the Yucatan Peninsula plotting sweet dual-sport trails and moto-friendly posadas … although my scribbles aren’t yet up to the grand level of the B-Blogable dribble thus posted. Hence this up-to-speed note is to keep Momma’s heart at a comfy 80 BPM:


San Cristobal bathroom poster reminds me why bathrooms just aren’t as fresh south of the border.



The red star tells us that we are in Zapatista land (an...
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The answer to what actually was “flaming” on my way to San Cristobal de las Casas, a pueblo in the highlands of Chiapas, the southern-most Mexican state bordering Guatemala, is two-fold. My first attempt at climbing to 6360-ft summit came to a sudden backfiring halt when some mysterious moto-monster cut Cart-her’s fuel supply. Now this is after 250-kms of smooth riding, starting in Santo Domingo Tehuantepec, a city just inland from the Pacific coast.


A market in Tehuantepec that we accid...
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Before enduring the almost comical Mexican police officer pay-off, the notorious authoritative scandal and current battles of power between the cartels and deceitful diplomats were stories. Mind you, not only from the news, but first-hand, from the mouths of the locals. Por ejemplo, when in Guadalajara, a fellow Hostel de Maria dweller from Juarez, the gun-fire afflicted Tex-Mex boarder town, saw three innocents killed...
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I was on a mission to reclaim the life of free-camping I had while motoring the Trans-American Trail and since beach camping in Mexico is legal, I decided to skip the RV pay site and find a stunning spot on the beach in San Carlos, Sonora – a stunning but touristy town full of yachts and vacant vacation mansions. And fortunately for the all-night-long police beach patrol, the teenie-boppers blaring the Ranchera music for their Friday night playa party was cut short and I caught a few Z’s ...
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My initial plan of rolling the Trans-American Trail solo, meeting my South American friend, Malcolm, who I met while teaching English in Colombia, in Atlanta, and continuing to moto through the south before slipping into Mexico through Texas was drastically changed after Malcolm’s 2007 Craigslisted KLR showed its true “lemon” color. Aside from one perfect day in November, coincidentally my birthday that was spent scuba diving in Key Largo, we spent the majority of mid-October to mid-Dec...
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A woman walks up to me in the grocery store and says, “Excuse me, are you a pilot?”

“Uh, no. I’m a motorcycle rider,” I respond with an ‘are you serious’ expression.

“Then what’s on your back,” she questions, “oxygen?”

“It’s a Camelbak. It’s water,” I informed.

“So, what do you like about motorcycle riding,” she surprisingly continued.

I took comments like this to design my Halloween costume…



… which included my multi-purpose Aerostich, modular Schuberth, a b...
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(Wearing the Scorpion EXO-900 TransFormerHelmet in it's 3/4-mode)

After spending an “extended stay” in Woodstock, Georgia preparing for our trip and taking full advantage of our complimentary Gold’s Gym guest pass through our hotel, we took off and headed for the famed moto-campground in Suches, Georgia; Two Wheels Only. After swirling through the red, orange and yellow leaves of autumn on the back roads of north Georgia, we arrived later than planned and decided that our late lunch ther...
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We’re finally set up and ready to roll! From Canton, Georgia, we’re going to head north to Two Wheels Only for lunch, through Murphy, North Carolina around Hiwassee Lake to Crawford Campground, up toward Tellico Plains, Tennessee for some dual-sporting and Cherohala Skyway carving. We’re then going to head north around North Carolina’s Santeetlah Lake and up around the west side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park through Townsend, Gatlinburg and Cosby, Tennessee before dual-sporti...
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I left Memphis wondering how it survives. Other than the tourist dollars thrown around Beale Street on barbecue, blues and beer, in the light of day, the city was vacant; empty storefronts, empty streets, a three-story mall advertised as “the cornerstone of renaissance for the downtown area” had only a handful of vendors on the first of three floors. Either people were weary of the city’s dangerous past of panhandler harassment, a vast number of businesses were econo-crushed and bailed ...
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Tubby Bottom, the notorious impassible Mississippi TAT road that has been the bane of end-to-end adventure enthusiasts since before I heard of the Trans-Am, is now passable … well, at least in the dry season.

I was jamming along rut-less and solid gravel farm roads on my way to Tubby, and was almost surprised by the first water crossing I came to just before Little Egypt Road. The hard-pack went soft-n-sandy pretty quickly and then splish-splash. The crossing was not even two-feet deep in th...
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I love how I start, or just am, drinking something special, or cheap, when I start writing. I began scribbling this in the midst of a micro-brewery flight at Vino’s Brewery in Little Rock, Arkansas; as I’m sure my rambling will illustrate. By the way, speaking of Arkansas, or more generally this region of the good ‘ol US of A, can someone tell me the age range one must appear to have entered in order to receive the “ma’am” title? “Yikes!” I say, which pretty much sums up the t...
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I arrived on a Sunday night and hid from the showers in a Tulsa Best Western for two nights, breaking my traveling streak of no hotels; can’t complain about the microwave and coffee maker though. By late morning on Tuesday, feeling a little boxed-in since my Monday spin through the recommended “center of action” in Tulsa … well, simply had none, I said, “Screw it,” in a more vulgar way, “I have rain gear!”

I rolled the highway north to Salina, Oklahoma through the drippity-drop...
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I don’t usually take people I just meet up on generous offers for fear of an, “I didn’t really mean it” suggestion or imposing. Although, when I make similar gestures I feel flattered when they’re accepted. I take it as a “company compliment” – that they enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. Long story short – woh, a huge preying mantis stick bug just crawled onto my water bottle; crazy!



Sorry for the interlude; creepy camping surprises. Anyway, I called up Mark and Mar...
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I’m in Taos, New Mexico. I took a diversion after Trans-Am-ing the eastern half of Colorado because I didn’t really want to buzz the grasslands of western Oklahoma on straight-line fire roads; info brought to me by past-doers and the unceasing flat lines on the map … not one squiggle compared to Colorado.

So, I want to start with my 8.5-hour in-the-saddle day from Westcliffe, Colorado into New Mexico, instead of how I ended up here, enjoying a plentiful amount of red wine with my tomato ...
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September 4, 2010

Three of my tail trunk bolts and one of the two mounting brackets had already fallen behind somewhere, so I was a little late for brunch with my lawyer friend Rebecca in Denver while I shuffled through Luke’s spares and locktited the nut-n-bolts back together. I gave her a call.

“I’m sorry I have a hangover,” was her initial reaction to my call, thinking that I was already in the area.

I explained that I was calling because I was late and she told me about a fabulous, c...
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My stopover in Boulder came early, but became more of a, “Well, I don’t really have to go yet” week-long pause of getting spoiled.

I rolled into Luke and Janine place in Lafayette on Saturday night after an iron butt ride from Moab. By mid-afternoon on day-one, I was harnessed-up rock climbing in Boulder Canyon with a great group of veteran climbers showing me the ropes … (perfect example of when a cliché is unavoidable). On Monday Luke and I shined up my little motor, took a trail r...
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It was a 7.5-hour iron butt ride from Moab to Boulder County in Colorado. So far I’ve almost doubled the 2,550 miles I bought the 2008 KLR with; mainly highway miles so far, since my trail mileage has been slow and sporadic. Although, my objective for jamming to Boulder is to rectify that situation by shipping the make-up and nail polish and linen pants, and extra weight etc. to the bride-to-be in Tennessee – and yes, eye-roll rebuttal, I know I should have shipped it before bothering to ...
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I slept in like crazy today, well 8:30 is sleeping in for me. I’m a light sleeper and wear earplugs, but am still usually and early riser; about 6.5 hours for me is well-rested. I didn’t even hear the Kawasaki cruiser couple who were just a tent site over pack-up and thump away. I felt good. I wasn’t late for anything and no one even knew where I was. It’s a freeing notion.

I rode from Green River to Moab on the Trans-Am today and the mellow dirt-way rebuilt my confidence about contin...
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I looked at my watch. It was 5:15 and I could see the sun starting to rise through my white tent wall, so I shut my eyes for a bit longer, but was jolted by the sound of an engine revving. I popped out from my tent, waived to the farmer whose tree I had found shelter under and said, “Sorry, I’ll be outta here in ten-minutes.”

“No problem he responded; seemingly relieved that I was either the less threatening female type or that I had just taken the time to waive and smile. Probably bot...
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August 24, 2010:

“I feel like I’m off-roading a Gold Wing,” I analogized.

“Well, you practically are,” laughed one of the Fishlake National Park, quad-riding fishermen.



I was up at 4:45 at the crack of dawn to escape my illegal campsite before being found out and charged; I’m on a shoestring here. I packed-up, dropped my white tent and said goodbye to the mystical red rock elephant as I left the Valley of Fire; so surreal and Dali-esque that you think he’s really saying adieu as y...
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“Where did you park the spaceship,” smirked the man in the gas station convenience store.

I returned his amusement with a half-hearted toothy grin, too hot and preoccupied about my moto problems to exhume any witty remark.


I was running late with final preparations and a bit nervous about making it to the Valley of Fire, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, before sunset. My bike was packed for just about any mechanical or weather condition to the point that quantity was a potential detri...
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This is my, “Why I Will be Camping for Free on BLM Land and Eating Tuna Out of a Can Since I’m Jobless and Traveling” price list of parts, pieces, gear and all the extra costs in getting myself self-sufficient, happy and rolling again.

2008 KLR 650, 2550 miles: $3350
DMV tax: $234
Happy Trail Crash Bars (CraigsList.org price): $125
Crash bar link/freeway pegs: $89
Symtec Heated Grips: $44.95
Happy Trails Center Stand: $139.95
Genuine Innovations tire repair/inflator kit: $40.99
HappyTrails.com ...
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On August 2, 2010 I bought a 2008 KLR650 just five days after returning to the States after eight-months traveling in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador; six-months of which I spent teaching in Cartagena, Colombia. My first goal was to gear up the bike for the Trans-American Trail; an idea instigated by moto-guru Eric Anderson of Vroom Network. Coincidentally, the trail ends in Tennessee, the exact destination of the 10-10-10 binary wedding I am to float down the aisle in as a bridesmaid. So, as ...
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