A little background: For those of you who have followed my previous craziness, Panama to Antarctica and back, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. For the rest, as Paul Harvey used to say, "and now, the rest of the story".
I began this journey about 2004 when I saw a young lady (it always starts with a young lady, doesn't it?) with a loaded down motorcycle getting on the ferry in front of me in Victoria BC to head for Costa Rica. She had no experience, didn't know anything about motorcycles, didn't speak Spanish, but she was nonetheless on her way to Central America. More cojones than brains, but I had to give her credit. And I thought to myself: "if this chick can go to Costa Rica, I'm going to Ushuaia (the southern tip of Argentina and the most southern city in the world)". And so started the plans for the South At Sixty tour of South America from 2008 to 2009. You can check out www.SouthAtSixty.blogspot.com for the whole story.
As part of my preparation I read and watched everything I could about adventure motorcycle travel. One of my favorites was the movie "Motorcycle Diaries", the story of Che Guevara's motorcycle trip with his friend Alberto Granado from Argentina to Venezuela in 1952. Their intention was to arrive in Venezuela for Alberto's 30th birthday. I decided that since I was probably going at least twice as far I should double the age and do my trip for my 60th year. Hence the "South at Sixty" tour.
Also described in the movie was the pair's motorcycle. Despite its various stages of decripitude, it was called "La Poderosa", the Powerful One. As I traveled South America my friends (many of whom had seen the movie) would often ask me "what's the name of your motorcycle"? My answer was always the same: "It doesn't have a name yet. It has to earn the name".
Finally there came the day, February 6, 2009, when I arrived in Antarctica. My bike had carried me many thousands of miles, through both hardships and great joy, to arrive in Ushuaia. Unfortunately I couldn't take it to Antarctica, but I did have to take a piece. I wanted to take the seat, so that I could take a picture riding an iceberg, but it was too big. I finally settled on the rear view mirror. As we went on shore I took the quintessential motorcycle in Antarctica picture:
Antarctica was incredible, and I'm glad that my bike (or at least a piece) had gotten to land with me. I figured any bike that could get me that far certainly deserved a name. And so it was christened:
El Pinguino (The Penguin). And so shall it forever be.
Today is Thursday, April 12, 2012 and I am in the final stage of preparing El Pinguino for our trip from Panama to Alaska, and possibly beyond. We leave in two days, and expect to arrive in Alaska in mid July. From there, who knows. I'm thinking of riding across Canada to New York. We'll see.
One of my main goals for this trip is to get to the Arctic Circle. In 2009 I crossed the Antarctic Circle, so it's only fitting that I should make it by bike from the Antarctic to the Arctic Circle. This could have easily been called the Circle-to-Circle Tour... but it's not!
So back to the original question of this blog: What's with the name? Penguins don't fly, right?
The hell they don't! We're off again to see just how far this one can fly. Sit back, check in from time to time, and join me (at least vicariously) on The Flight of the Penguin.
Go get em tiger
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