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When I was a bit younger, stuck is a grueling 9 to 5 job, I used to fantasize about doing the epic Alaska to Tierra del Fuego motorcycle trip. A few people have done that trip over the years. Usually in small groups of 3 or 4 riders.

The notoriously most difficult part is the Darrien Gap, which in the 1980s was still frequently described as "impenetrable". Some travelers "cheated" and put their bikes on ships to go around it, from Costa Rica to Columbia, skipping the entire country of Panama in the process. Of course, as a fantasy adventure, that wouldn't do at all. No, crossing the legendary Darian Gap was almost the *point* of the whole trip.

It was a good lunch topic with my equally bored work buddies who were motorcycle guys, as we all seemed to be in the early 1990s.

"So, Dave, if you were going to ride to the tip of South America what type of bike would you use?"

Kawasaki's KLR 650 was always high on the list, but at the time I was holding out for the big air-cooled dual sports by Honda and Yamaha as being a bit simpler and more reliable. The XT-600 Tenere was a rare variant, mostly just a bigger tank that you could order. Here's a 1985 model:

Here's a video for you to watch (when you retire, LOL.)

I watched most of it, and yes I'm retired. Her accent and laugh gets old real quick, but there was some great video footage of her trip to Alaska that she just completed about 4-5 months ago, IRC.

Dutch woman rides from South America to Alaska on a Honda CRF300L Rally

And, yes, she went around the Darrien Gap. If I remember correctly, she took a boat from Colombia to Panama.

I was at the amazing Balboa Yacht Club dockside patio bar/restaurant circa 1997, [since burned down,] Carib to Pacific, talking with other skippers, crew, etc.

Somebody directed a young Swedish couple to us boat captains and hands. The pair were intent on a M/C ride from Canada to Chile. Boy-Girl-Bike.

They planned to ride their one bike from Colombia to Cape Horn, or as close as possible. We were all saying, “DON’T DO IT! It’s FARC land! They will kidnap you both, and gang rape your blond g/f!”

In response, they were like, “Good Karma, bro, bring good vibes, all people are just people...” bla bla blah.

But even THEY realized that transiting the Darien Gap was OUT OF THE QUESTION!!!!

Even these two “good Karma” Swedes knew that they had to put their bike on a boat from Colon to Colombia.

The Darien Gab is still like that. It’s wild.