Overland motorcycle journey through South, Central and North America, Chile to Canada

Baja California, North to South in silly season.. I say silly because its silly hot in June, 40 degrees plus most places during the day, with a special mention for the East coast where the Gulf of California's Sea of Cortez has zero wind to cool the place down. The temperatures there (and inland) are just phenomenal.. This is the desert in summer after all, but you can't be everywhere in the best season all the time. Below is my route from South (ferry from Topolobampo on the mainland to La Paz, SE Baja) to North (Tecate border with USA). I spent 2.5 weeks in Baja, I had allowed a month but the heat drove me to continue quicker. Here's the route below followed by a some photographs starting from Southern Baja.

Mexico - South to North A quick snapshot of a few of the town signs. I did 10k km over 3 months through this country, with a route overview map shown below.

It was never going to happen somewhere less hostile was it? Well, actually the first time it did - in a little Peruvian town, and that was an easy fix, as is normally in any town in the world. But here? So im 70km north of La Paz in the desert proper, like cacti and rocky ground and views for miles. Bike starts feeling funny, and I'm thinking  'No - surely not, here? Really? Like - how even?' But yes, it was true - having pulled over n checked rear (isnt it always the rear?). 'Hmmm, how we gonna deal with this?' *assesses options A - flag a pick-up ute down (its kinda lonely out here) B - change it here in the hot desert sun in a sandy lay-by C - use my phone's GPSer to locate the nearest SOMEWHERE, go there, change tyre, maybe have help. C quickly prevailed and the nearest somewhere was  a restaurant 2km further up.  Lucky me. So rode with a wobbling wibbling bike a further 2km and long story now short. . ...

Every time I enter a new state in Mexico, I think 'this is it, I've found my favourite state', and Chihuahua was no exception. The Copper Canyon is somewhat out of the way, however the riding around 85% of the route shown below has been fantastic with huge vistas, pretty decent pavement, beautiful twisties and a remote cowboy culture that really does make you feel as if you're in the wild west. My fully paved route was 2,095km in total and is described briefly as follows: Day 1 Mazatlan to Durango, 250km.. Day 2 Durango to Cross roads, 240km.. Day 3 Cross roads (el Ciento Veinte) to Hidalgo de Parral, 170km.. Day 4 Parral to Batopilas (canyon base), 350km.. Day 5 Batopilas to Creel, 140km.. Day 6 Creel roundtrip to Barrancas del Cobra\Divisidero, 90km.. Day 7 Creel to (Basasiachi falls) Yecora, 280km.. Day 8 Yecora to Alamos, 330km.. Day 9 Rest day in Alamos.. Day 10 Alamos to Topalabampo, 245km (for the La Paz ferry).. The route is highlighted by the r...