FEATURE: SOUTH AMERICAN HIGHS, LOWS
Lucy Craymer

Hawke’s Bay Today, New Zealand
Tue, 19 Sep. 2006

The Cooper family – Garth Cooper, who grew up in Havelock North, wife
Sandra, six-year-old Nadine and five-year-old Frank – are 9 1/2months
into their holiday of a lifetime and they still have a way to go.

The Coopers are travelling through North and South America on Yamaha
XT600 and XT250 trail bikes. By the end of their ultra long-distance
road trip they will have visited 28 countries.

When Hawke’s Bay Today last caught up with them the family had
travelled through North Argentina and Brazil.

Garth said they had got back on the road after a good rest in Manaus,
Brazil, on the Amazon River – after team hair cuts and five hours
washing red clay off their clothes.

"We headed north towards Boa Visa through reserve Indigena Waimairi,
where you were not allowed to stop or take photos.

"It turned out a few years ago the Brazilian military and indigenous
people had a disagreement, which resulted in a shootout – 250-odd
Indians killed and 100-odd police. We didn’t stop or take photos.

"We did see a lot of toucans and macaws flying overhead in this
lush forest. Sandra’s bike left a trail of oil along the wet road –
an oil seal had come loose so it was easily fixed.

"Boa Vista was our last town in Brazil before crossing into Venezuela."

Garth said it was easy to exit Brazil but going through Venezuelan
immigration was not so easy.

He said because they were locked in an office at lunchtime the kids had
started screaming and yelling, upsetting the immigration official,
who decided not to delay things and let them through as quickly
as possible.

In Venezuela they needed gas and although the petrol was cheap at
only four cents a litre but the queues were 500 metres long, he said.

"We couldn’t fill up our spare cans with petrol because it’s illegal
in Venezuela," he said. "Sandra’s bike didn’t have enough range to
make the next station so I had to run petrol into my half-litre cooker
bottle, filling her tank half a litre at a time."

Garth had problems seeing the point of it all, especially as Sandra’s
bike only holds seven litres, so they weren’t going to sell the extra
gas on the black market.

It was to be the first of many frustrations for the Coopers in
Venezuela as they felt everyone they met tried to short-change them
or make up a price.

"You couldn’t buy food, drink, oil or anything without being ripped
off," he said.

"We found the place very dirty – there was rubbish all along the
roadsides, the beaches were covered in rubbish and even when we paid
to go to private beaches they were filthy.

"In the mountains, in the west of Venezuela, Sandra managed to run
over a stray dog which ran out in front of her. If that wasn’t bad
enough, 20 minutes later while Sandra was passing a car the driver
of the vehicle swerved across into her lane. He hit the luggage and
handle bars and pushed Sandra off the road. She almost crashed but
was able to regain control and come back onto the road.

"When we stopped in the next town, the car driver who had tried to
drive Sandra off the road caught up – he wanted money for the dent
in his door and a new wing mirror."

Garth said he told the man they would not be paying because it was
his fault and the man let the matter drop.

Garth said although they did meet a couple of nice people Venezuela,
was the biggest disappointment of the trip and they were glad to
leave with all their property intact. Colombia, however, proved a
surprise – packed with interesting tourist sights and experiences,
along with really friendly people.

"The border crossing into Colombia turned into a nightmare," he said.

"Immigration was finished within a minute but the bikes took eight
hours in very hot conditions, with very hot and grumpy kids to be
processed through customs."

The police and customs officers fed and gave them drinks. Garth said
the customs officers’ job would have been on the line if they had
acted without authority.

"We did finally convince the person in charge, who was on the phone,
to let their officer fill in our customs document so we could leave."

The following day the Coopers were looking at a map in Cucuta on the
roadside when a family in a car stopped to help. They ended up going
back to the family’s house for the night and cruising the town in a
’50s Chevrolet truck.

The city was modern, with every convenience on hand.

>>From Cucuta, the Coopers headed south toward the capital, Bogota,
passing through many beautiful colonial towns in the high Andes
mountains.

He said they saw many farmers working the fields by hand or with the
assistance of oxen.

"Mules in big trains carried loads of sugar cane down to the sugar
mills kilometres away," Garth said. In Colombia, they still used
traditional methods in a modern environment and it had been great to
see both working side by side.

The Coopers encountered many heavily armed military checkpoints on
the road but found the soldiers pleasant.

"Our route south took us through the towns of Chinocarta, Bucaramanga,
San Gill, Satamarchan to Zipaquira, which is famous for its underground
salt cathedral, which is 180 metres underground," he said.

"It was a great sight and, once again one, of the guides put us up
in his family home for the night."

Garth said the home had a big courtyard surrounded by all the rooms.

Bogota proved a big, bustling city, which was in the process of
being modernised.

It had an amazing bus system running down the middle of the
roadways. It was the rainy season in Bogota, water half-a-metre deep
was running swiftly down the streets, and cars were being spun around
from the current.

Garth said he was thankful they had left their bikes at the Yamaha
shop and caught a taxi to their hotel.

"We visited the old town and gold museum, which was wonderful, even
though there was heavy rain. We left Bogota after a TV interview for
a motorcycle programme."

The television crew were amazed that the Coopers were planning to
travel from one end of South America to the top of Alaska with a five
and six-year-old.

"We still find it hard to believe ourselves," Garth admitted.

"From Bogota, we headed south through Guamo, Espaina, Ibague, crossing
the high Andes mountains to Armenia.

"The trip over the mountains was amazing, as far as the scenery
went. We were in the clouds or above them on several occasions."

The military presence was greater in the mountains because it is from
there that the guerilla army and paramilitary operate.

Garth said the military were in light armoured vehicles and had
sophisticated weapons.

"We passed through loads of coffee plantations and longed to sample
some of the famous product," he said.

"There were also many sugar plantations along the way down to Cali."

As the Coopers travelled through Cali, another TV channel filmed them
from inside a moving vehicle as they rode through town.

"It was a hoot as the camera man jumped out at the traffic lights to
get a better angle, filming us before we had an interview on the road
side," Garth said.