A few weeks ago a friend in Ecuador, Julio, asked me if I wanted to ride some bikes with a bunch of Venezuelans. I didn’t have anything planned and said “Sure, why not!” This all came about because a year ago my friend Julio had been riding his own motorcycle around South America when he ran into one of these guys in Venezuela. He had his own hotel and told my friend to stop by and he’d give him a place to stay, food and any advise needed. Fast forward a year and now that nice Venezuelan is one of the riders and my friend was helping them see the sites in Ecuador as a favor back.
They started in Venezuela on January 4th and rode through Colombia, picking up another rider. They only spent 3 days in Ecuador total as these guys had big bikes and love to ride fast. Their trip will be 90 days and countries visited will be (in order):
- Start: Venezuela
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Peru
- Chile
- Argentina
- Paraguay
- Brazil
- Finish: Venezuela
These guys were all business owners or made men somehow back home. All but two of them had 1200 cc BMW bikes (avg cost in the US $23,000). When I asked them why they were making this trip I was really surprised by the answer I got. Since Chavez has been in power in Venezuela he’s been converting the country over to communist control. One of the big things that he’s pushing now is for the government to buy up businesses and this will directly affect almost all these guys. They all stated that more than likely in a year or two they all would lose their business to the government. Because of this they all decided to forget it and take off, henceforth a motorcycle journey around South America to forget the problems back home. You got to totally admire that and in a way it does make them outlaw bikers!
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