Tip2Top

Peter Murtagh’s journey by motorbike from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska

Arriving in Mexico, it dawns on me this is a massive, massive country

The scale of Mexico is apparent when I stop at the capital of the state of Chiapas during my journey up the Americas

‘What the feck are you at?’ I’ve asked myself at times over the last 14,000km

In El Tunco, where I stop on my journey up the Americas, I make a friend for the long road to Antigua

Tip2Top Nicaragua: First impressions were good. Then I got pulled over by the police

On the latest leg of my journey up the Americas, I crossed from Costa Rica into Nicaragua, where officials don’t seem to like journalists and I don’t care much for the grasping arm of the law

Tip2Top Panama: In the crater of an extinct volcano, there’s a touch of west Cork

My journey from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska: Having got lost, I hailed a taxi and got to the Sendero Cerro Gaital

Tip2Top in northern Colombia: In a small town, migrants pursue the dream of a new life in North America

This year, over 360,000 will trek to Panama to progress their dream. This truly epic human drama begins on a beach in Necoclí – the latest stop in my journey up the Americas

Tip2Top in Cúcuta: Colourful chaos at the last frontier

Colombia and Venezuela share a 2,220km border and it is here where I stop on my journey through the Americas

Tip2Top in Colombia: Here, I see most degrading scenes I have ever witnessed. I feel diminished just watching

Covid scuppered my plans to ride from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. Now, my ‘great retirement project’ continues

Tip2Top leaving Ecuador: Border crossings can be strange places at the best of times. This one is definitely on the weird side

I have left Ecuador and have technically entered Colombia, as my passport proves, but my bike has not – or at least not legally

Tip2Top on the Galápagos Islands: It’s animals galore and they are utterly unfazed by people

Up close, iguanas look ferocious and medieval, or like something out of one of those sci-fi-meets-vikings nonsense series

Tip2Top in Cabo Blanco: Hemingway once held court here, in all his degenerate glory. The rich still fly in to hook a prize marlin

The writer came to Cabo Blanco, where I stop on my journey up the Americas, as this Peruvian village was where much of The Old Man and the Sea was filmed

Tip2Top in Valparaíso: How Chile’s wine producers are trying to address their country’s water problem

For the first time in its history, Santiago has a water rationing plan in place after many years of continuous drought

Tip2Top in Peru: Navigating a trail of anger and bloodshed, when suddenly I’m handed the bull horn

Peter Murtagh meets protesters in Peru, where 48 people have been killed since political crisis gripped the country last month

Tip2Top in La Paz: In this small Bolivian town I must have appeared like something from Nasa

Just south of La Paz, I stumble across a colourful celebration, and am reminded why I travel in the first place

Tip2Top on the Beagle Channel: A woman with a wonderful face lies in one of the most beautiful places I have seen

Picking up my pandemic-hit bike journey from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, a trip along the south coast of the Beagle Channel in Chile turns up some interesting indigenous history

Tip2Top in Puerto Williams: If anything happens – a fall, a sprain or a break – no one would know where to find me

The pandemic scuppered my plans to ride from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, but I’ve made it to Puerto Williams in Chile

Tip2Top in Punta Arenas: Reunited with the motorbike I left behind in Santiago, my ‘great retirement project’ resumes

Pandemic scuppered my plans to ride from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. Now, 2½ years later, I have returned to Chile to begin the journey

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