[Richard230]

Itchy Boots crosses the Amazon River the hard way:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCsy5O2OzBE

[viczena]

The hardness of the steel cage was really impressive. She is getting old.

[AzCal Retred]

Some serious back yard engineering!    What were the rocks in the cage for?

[Carl Fenn]

Yes l have been watching her latest adventures.

[Richard230]

Some serious back yard engineering!    What were the rocks in the cage for?

I noticed the same thing. My guess is that they were there to balance out the platform so that it wouldn't tilt while someone (or something) entered the cage through the opening at the other corner.

[tooseevee]

I noticed the same thing. My guess is that they were there to balance out the platform so that it wouldn't tilt while someone (or something) entered the cage through the opening at the other corner.

           I'd agree about the rocks. It's all about balance.

           The lady is so impressive. It makes me laugh about some of the "adventure riders" who make videos & all they do is bitch about "how hard it is" from beginning to end. This lady just goes for it & handles it all alone.

           I was the most impressed with her (since the time she could have been in serious trouble in the mountains in freezing weather plowing through snow & slush) in Episode 6 getting across that river. It certainly showed her determination to gitterdun aside from showing her strength & skill with the bike.

[Richard230]

Here is the latest Itchy Boots clip describing her plan for getting herself and her motorcycle around the Darien Gap. Sounds pretty complicated to me:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzX9iQlYWvI

One thing that I noticed is that there are a lot of motorbikes in Columbia. More so than any other country that she has visited in her rides through South American countries so far.

[Karl Childers]

I spent a snowy afternoon watching some of her videos and came away impressed, she's the real deal.

[Morgan65]

I’ve in joyed many of her vids and have a lot of respect for her.

[Richard230]

I have been watching the latest episodes where Noraly takes an open outboard motor skiff ride with a couple of random guys that she met and her bike across the ocean along the coast of Columbia and Panama for about 10 hours total. What a crazy trip. You would have thought that there would be regular commercial ferries available to bypass the Darien Gap. But she did it the hard way as usual. She is in Panama now and should be publishing her latest clip in a few hours.

[Karl Childers]

I watched her latest episode last night, it was a good one. If I understand correctly a lot of the shipping options have closed since the start of the pandemic and riders have few other ways to get around the Darien Gap other than what Noraly did.

I saw another adventure video with two guys on Honda 125's facing the same problem as their boat would accept luggage but no motorcycles. Their solution was to disassemble the bikes and put them in large bags which the freighter would accept. Where there's a will there's a way.

[Carl Fenn]

I did as well watching her ferrying her bike across stormy waters, and then beating the clock to customs to get import papers and her insurance, she’s brilliant probably why we all love watching the lady on her adventures.

[Richard230]

Itchy Boots is now in Panama City and she takes you on a tour of the Canal locks and the old part of town: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OdDwu3vBJM

I was there in 1966 and things have sure changed a lot. As I recall there was no "New Panama City" and the town didn't look all that great. In particular, it was surrounded by awful smelling homes made out of sheet metal and sitting on stilts over a swamp with no sewage system. It looks like things have really improved since then.  Attached are some photos that I took while stationed for 18 months at Howard AFB, long before the Canal was turned over to the Panama government.

[Richard230]

And here are a four more photos.

[Richard230]

This is an interesting Itchy Boots episode. In this 36-minute long clip she walks around the abandoned Mayan temples of Nakum in the Guatemalan jungle:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDNWwgrVGc