Happy Xmas dude. Enjoy the sun. Its miserable here in the UK.

and you're only there because of government peer pressure :046:

rolling thru the lower parts of the Northern Andes heading to Merida for Christmas

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3544-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3545-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3553-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3556-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3557-XL.jpg

we crossed the Andes at around 11,500 feet in rain and fog with visibility down to about ten feet and rolled in a little village called Mucuchies and for whatever reason strawberries and cream were for sale everywhere

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3558-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3560-XL.jpg

eventually getting in to the town and looking up at the mountains

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3597-XL.jpg

life here moves at a noisy crazy pace

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3632-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3627-XL.jpg

over the last few days just wandering around the town you see some interesting things, fruit stalls everywhere and other stalls selling brightly colored????

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3599-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3601-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3611-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3631-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3622-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3623-XL.jpg

the real thing and the bronze thing

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3615-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3630-XL.jpg

the occasional custom truck, that looked so out of place

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3617-XL.jpg

health and safety...whats that?

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3619-XL.jpg

cowboy boots with rubber color matched soles

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3621-XL.jpg

golden retrievers for sale from the trunk of a car for $80

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3642-XL.jpg

graffiti, but its more art like, political or propaganda, look at the last one, statue of liberty holding a missle and the stars in the flag are skulls...:huh

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3616-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3643-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3626-XL.jpg

scooby doo and the VZ version of the mystery machine

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3639-XL.jpg

...and last of all, Merida has a very famous ice cream shop in the Guiness book of records for having the most flavors, 836 of them

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3602-XL.jpg

and here they all are...on the wall but not in stock, not surprised!

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3609-XL.jpg

so bubbletron and i ventured in and ordered, can i have a...no, no, no, no, no, no

so this is what we ended up with, on the left strawberry, which was supposed to be black cherry but almost ended up being beer flavor :lol3 and on the right is avacado and i think chocolate, (she'll correct me if i'm wrong)

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3610-XL.jpg

and i know you are thinking beer flavored ice...WTF, well when you have to come up with 836 flavors you end up with things like: crab/ mushroom/ tomato/ salmon/ beef/ rice/ ham and cheese/ black russian/ beer/ sangria and what the hell tostones is???

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3606-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3607-XL.jpg
http://dmh65.smugmug.com/RidingRTW/d...AM_3608-XL.jpg

so in a few days normal service will be resumed and it'll be time to get back on the bike once everything has opened back up, like shops, gas stations and border crossings

in the mean time to all you riders and readers out there if you are stuck in the snow




Merry Christmas




.

so not too much going on here in Venezuela today so as a drunken thought last night maybe i should put a video together about the last two years worth of photos...but first here is the trailer

Hi Paul hope you had a good CHRISTMAS .The video pictures looks good have a Happy New Year.:respeck:

The trailer whets the appitite nicely, look forward to the main feature!

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us this year, always been an inspiring and captivating thread.

Here's to a safe and succesful journey through 2013 :beer[1]:

The last 60,000 miles in photos...

i decided to put this together, for me and for you of course - its kind of a review of some of my favorite photos of the last 60,000 miles or .......march 21st 2011 to december 25th 2012

i'll now do this once a year as i thought it would be easy but it isn't, i have taken over 50,000 photos during this period (hell of a lot got deleted BTW) - thought i could get it done in an hour or two and it took over 8 hours :huh to get the timing right

just as an advanced warning, get a beer or two as its 14 minutes long

go to full screen and turn the volume up

You've been blocked I'm afraid - possibly a background track??

Yep - can't view in the UK. The old EMI copyright rears its ugly head again. :evil6: