kixmarshall.com - Adventure Blog

Pantanal Brazil. Bridges that break & fish that bite!

11/13/2018

Pantanal Brazil, the world's largest wetland. I took my motorcycle on a road trip through here just before the area began to flood and close for the season.
I documented the sightseeing of Anacondas, birds, and piranha fishing in this 4-minute video.
Keep an eye out for the anaconda!

BR319. The TranzAmazonia Route Through The Amazon.

10/31/2018

It was a dark and stormy night…
No, wait, that’s the introduction for Halloween stories. Let’s try that again.
It was hot as hell with humidity well into the nineties. After riding through most of Central America in flip-flops, shorts, and sunglasses. I'd finally given into the fact that I should at least wear my padded Gore text motorcycle pants while on the bike "just in case." So here were are riding down the BR319 road in Brazil on the way to the city of Manaus in the Amazon.

Would you let a random Brazillion stay on your step?

10/3/2018

It was dark, I had planned to stay in a hotel. They didn't have parking, so I left. I opted for a busy truckstop just of the highway. The only place I could hide myself away from the parking lot was behind a little mechanics shop. So I snuck back in the woods in the dark with my bike. Well, it wasn't long before I was found.

And we're back. VIDEO: A Very Happy Biker!

9/25/2018

After some serious Canadian summer fun, ohh and a bit of not quite as fun work. We're back!
Here's a quick video of how the reunion went with KLaiR, Stanley & myself. Next up we just need to smuggle ourselves back out of Brazil, then check back in and head off to the Amazon!

Bush People And Log Rides. A Day On The Bolivian-Amazon Route.

5/3/2018

I've seen those little earbuds you can put in and it will translate a language, say French, so you know what people are saying. Well they haven’t solved all the worlds problems yet, I thought I was doing pretty good with my P understanding of Spanish. Until that is you take the roads less traveled, then you meet the people less visited. On my way towards the Brazil / Bolivia border lies the town of Trinidad, this area is flanked by jungle and amazon.

To Machu By Moto. The Drive You Won't Do Twice.

4/9/2018

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to get to Machu Picchu by motorcycle, well according to my GPS, about fourteen months! I know, I know, all the slackers use regular plane service, but that whole process seemed a little hum-drum to me. I also enjoy the leg room of the motorbike a bit more than that of a 747. This particular part of the adventure had its ups, about 15,000ft, and its downs, like the little incident when four people needed to haul an upside-down bike out of a cement ditch. Nothing a little string and adjustments to ones riding style couldn’t fix. In the end, it was just like the photos you see online. A hidden wonder, reveling itself as it pleases and built to mystify the ages. There are however, a few things I wouldn’t do again...

Cooking Cuy (Guinea Pig) in Peru, from life to lunch…

3/25/2018

Have all the taboo topics been covered? Religion always seems to bring out the best violence in people. Abortion everyone is against, well until you are actually the fifty-year-old whose husbands vasectomy didn’t hold or controversially out-of-wedlock couple who will be banished from the family. Then society makes you lie & hate yourself to solve your problems. Politics is a great way to clean up your Facebook friends list in a hurry, so really what else is left that hasn’t pissed off enough people to leave it alone??? You are in luck, I found one… Cooking up perfectly cute pets. Well in North America they are considered cute pets at least. It would seem that feeling is not universal around the planet.

Ecuador Amazon river crossing on a KLR 650

2/22/2018

I read there might be some shallow river crossings to attempt while passing through the Ecuador Amazon. I'd never crossed much more than a puddle on a motorbike, so I was in for a real treat when I got to walk the bike through not one, but two rivers!
Lucky for me, struggling about halfway across the first one a guy came in to help me.

Fishing for bats, a week in the Ecuador Amazon

2/12/2018

Due to some paperwork conflicts with the Colombia government and my motorcycle, I decided it would be easier to smuggle the bike out of the country rather than pay an obscene sum of fines. With the help of the internet, I found two possible options, one via a series of boats that would sneak us to the most Southern and remote parts of Leticia Colombia downriver into Iquitos Peru. The next option, a more remote border pass on a less used roadway into Northern Ecuador.

"Feather The Brake." An unbelievable day with Vincent

1/25/2018

There’s a little town in Ecuador who’s sole tourism purpose is a high-risk train named La Nariz Del Diablo, or The Devils Nose. The train runs passengers namely to and from Quito, or as a tourist, you can hop on and risk your life a bit as this thing cuts mind-bending switchbacks up and down the mountainside.