Mexico says round-the-world cyclists were murdered
 

Mexico says round-the-world cyclists were murdered - BBC News

My dream is to ride Africa Twin down the African continent to Cape Town, ship the bike to South America, then a final ride home to Red Lodge.

But, I won't do it.

*Everyone* I've spoken to says that my bike and stuff won't make it through South and Central America. Everything will be stolen. Or worse.

This is really, really sad. I feel so badly for these guys' families.

The various North American drug addictions create most of this mess. The Cartels are very active these days. They're supplying the new meth market of California's homeless population, which is booming.

Why would anyone go to Mexico? Even to Cancun to sit on the beach at a nice resort? The entire country is a violent cesspool.

Why blame Mexico? Let's look at our policies.

What policies are those?

Alienation, growing economic disenfranchisement where they have taken away your name and given you a number...please hold for the next available represenative. Along with a breakdown of spiritual values, a loss of ethical and moral principles has caused a psychic despair. The existensile pain of it is alleviated with an escape into drugs. He11 this society promotes it and every school pumps the pills to promote conformity.

If my mommy and daddy were fked up I would be acting out to...and then they would be pumping pills into me so that I could be calm and conforming. While the storms and confusion still rage inside.

Western civilization has reached a stage of increasing dysfunction. That means as a collective you are becoming evermore cray cray by the fking day.

Policies fk u.

Losers ...because you do not see it and that puts you behind the 8 ball. When you are behind the 8 ball you wind up getting the short end of the stick. Which is called losing.

A few years ago a friend of mine and a buddy of his bought motorcycles to ride from the northern end of South America to Cape Horn. They had their (new) bikes shipped to Columbia to start their trip. A couple days in they were kidnapped by FARC Guerrillas and held for a couple of days, thought they were going to die. In the end they were released but the guerrillas kept their bikes and cell phones. Effin lucky...

Looks cool when Ewan McGregor does it but he’s got a BBC film crew and facilitators to get them through the borders. Plenty of guys have done it without problems, though.

This is a tragic thing to happen... So many people ride their bicycles on far flung adventures with no issues. Most people look at someone traveling on a bicycle a great distance and they are curious, friendly...hospitable.

I wonder if you would be more safe or less safe on a motorcycle versus a bicycle?

RIP...

angela

Dayum. My heart goes out to their families.

I have to say, when I was still working and traveling a bunch, our sternest pre-trip briefings were always about the various South American countries. More so than even the Middle East. It just doesn't get as much press these days.

I always made it a point to buy the local papers, assuming an English language version was available at the hotel (they usually were). Pretty darn telling, when you read a country's own news about itself, be it down there or anywhere else for that matter. As a quick aside, I just returned from Ireland - darn near every article on the front several pages of every newspaper still mentions The Troubles in some context. We never hear about them here anymore... Same thing in Central/South America. Their slow churn of endless violence just isn't newsy news here anymore, so we have kind of lost perspective on how bad it remains.

Anyway, back to South America. We were told it isn't so much the big cartels - they are too busy fighting each other and paying off government officials. It's just the general lawlessness. Any two bit thug sees you and your stuff as worth something. And many of those two bit thugs work for the government, and have badges and things. We were always admonished to pretty much never leave the hotel at all, but if for some reason we decided we must, to go in big groups. And certainly never leave the airport during our shift, like for lunch - like here, the "back gate", or employees' entrance, is usually in from and out to a pretty seedy, gritty, industrial part of town.

So, yeah, the big, busy, well kept touristy parts of those places can be dangerous enough. The stuff outside of there, where you would be riding, and more or less where we often worked? No way. Not worth the risk.

Aside from the thief problems...I would never do it because of the Darien Gap situ.
Most say it goes ok..but there are many who have problems with that link.

You decide to cycle thru one of the most violence prone countries in the world.....

I've never heard of the Gap. Thanks for that. A good read:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2098801/skull-stake-darien-gap

Sounds like circumventing it by boat is the smart thing.

60 miles of swampland and no road. The ferry to get around it is sketchy also.
The fees can vary greatly.
If someday they could fill in the gap...the Pan-Am would be used a lot more.

This brave dude, and his wife did it two up 10 years ago. That may have been the cusp of the safety envelope?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/bmw-r1100s-r1200s-tech-forum/440021-riding-usuhaia-two-up-ride-report.html

One of my kids just spend a month on a bike. He started out in Lake Havasu, then went to Texas for the MotoGP, then traveled through eastern Texas, through Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and back to Lake Havasu. He had a blast.

When you can have that much fun on a bike in complete safety, it makes me wonder why people want to ride in some of these ****hole countries. I've seen a lot of the world, and there's a lot I don't need to see again.

For some, its good to get out of the comfort zone. One must assess risk vs reward, of course.

I get that. I'm older than you are, so perhaps my priorities have changed in a way that you have not experienced yet. I'm more often after enjoyable experiences than new ones.

The world has changed a lot in the last 20 years and not for the better. Life is too short as it is, I'm going to live my life accordingly.

I'm with you on that one :)

Every country in the world has azzhole dirtbag scumbag lowlife thieves.

Especially in areas where gringos venture!

Had my board stolen in Tahiti the night we were leaving. Had to wait for a 2:30am flight out. The Australian I was with had his stolen as well.

Effing TURDS! :mad:

RIP to the two cyclists.... :(

I don't understand any of this as Americans are so beloved throughout the world.

That wasn’t so in 2009 when we packed up the Tundra and spent a month driving around the country. We met many interesting people and had a great time. There were ups and downs, but for the most part we were treated well. We drove south to Ajijic to (believe it or not) take some weed to friends in the big expat community there. We kept asking ourselves how stupid you have to be to smuggle drugs INTO Mexico. I’d do it again - except the smuggling part. Screw that bunch of snobs they can get their own dope.

https://www.instagram.com/chickamotorunner/?hl=en

Granted, she is slightly nuts, speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish so that helps. She road from US to the bottom of South America. She has worked for me on and off for over 15 years. About every 2years she takes a year off. I am hoping to do a trip to Cuba with her and then India and Nepal. I need to change my work schedule.