Hello friends, guests, and fellow travelers,
    I am writing briefly this morning to inform of a route alteration. While striving for goals in life, there are unexpected events and new knowledge gained in the course of completing the goal that may cause one to reevaluate how they will reach their goal, or even if the goal itself is obtainable. My goal, before I set off on this adventure, was to reach Argentina with my motorcycle before returning to the US. Having traveled 7,000+ kilometers over the past two months, I’ve learned a lot about myself and my bike. There are certain things that I realize now that weren’t that apparent 2 years ago when I began actively planning this trip.

    I have been thinking about this for a week now and arrived at a decision two days ago that I will be taking neither my motorcycle nor myself into South America. Rather, I will hopefully enter Belize and Guatemala in the coming days before reentering Mexico on my return route to the US. This was a difficult decision to come to as there are many pressures to complete my original plan. I and others have built up quite a bit of expectation that I would gain twice the ground I now plan. I realize many of you support my decision regardless of the reasons, and for that I thank you. I, however, believe there should be a brief explanation, for the sake of staying true to providing my experiences for others to learn from.
    My choice of travel is the main reason for altering my route. Currently, my motorcycle carries 90+% of all of my possessions. The bike is also quite an expensive machine. This makes the risk of loosing it or having it stolen much more detrimental than if I were traveling on a smaller bike with less gear, and hence, a less investment. Essentially, I am riding with more than half of all my assets, and that is a risky gamble when venturing into dangerous territories far from my homeland.
    My knowledge of the Spanish language is another reason that contributes to my route change. I realize the further south I go, the more I have to rely on communicating in Spanish. With these travels through Mexico and learning a great deal more of the language, I feel without a language class I may be ill-prepared to handle anything outside casual conversation, such as during an emergency or a confrontational situation.
    There are a few more factors that influence my route alteration, but these two contribute to the majority of my decision. I should hope to receive a positive response from this decision, and have the support from friends and family. I realize some may feel disappointment, but they must realize this is not their path in life, it is mine alone. To show my commitment, I have passed on my maps of Costa Rica/Panama, South America, Ecuador, and Peru to my Argentina-bound friends, Marcin and Magda, whom I had the great pleasure of sharing time and energy with for two days in Yucatan. I hope they are helpful to them on their journey.
Feel free to respond with comments, publicly or privately, as I am still partly in a confused area and would enjoy hearing your thoughts.

Kyle

Kyle Gabriel

5 thoughts on “Route Update

  1. Guy,
    This is your adventure. The path you choose is for you You to choose alone. I admire the thought of changing your plans. leave nothing to block you from your self journey. Look forward to hearing from you and about your travels. You are in our thought bro.
    -Tom and Bec

  2. Follow your heart! Forks exist everywhere, the path you take is yours to choose. You’ve already gone farther then many people dream of.
    safe travels my friend!

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