Wow, Tierra del Fuego! Sounds like a cool trip, except possibly for the Colombia part. I don't know enough about the geography and politics but when I hear Colombia, I think of drug cartels and kidnappers. I am at a business conference and writing this from a hotel on the harbor in San Diego. Hard not to recommend this place as a great vacation spot.
Many years ago I stayed at the Best Western Harbor Island hotel in San Diego. At least that is what I think it was called, if my memory serves me correctly.
I visited last year, like most places there are dodgy bits and good bits. Most of it seems pretty normal. We went looking for a rooftop bar in Bogota and found their upmarket shopping district which had a Forever New in it's own 3 story store. We have it as one of many generic clothes shops in a mall. I'm guessing there's wealth there that I can't imagine. At the same time, there are people running little confectionary and newspaper stands in parks - you'd never find that here, you couldn't earn a living wage. I'm more worried about next year when we hit the US and dealing with the police. Saw the other day that a woman sneezed while driving, wobbled a bit, and was arrested on dangerous driving charges and sent to court. The Aussie yoga teacher who ran towards police expecting them to help her was shot by them. It's like being in a permanent "opposites day". Everything I've heard about the cops in Central and Southern America is that they're pretty fair and want to help. There's loads on YouTube about motorbike touring. It's quite trendy at the moment.
Wow, you really need to find better balanced news sources. In a country of 330 million people (or so) you can find any outlier news story about anything. That said, there are nasty places in just about any country, including the U.S., that tourists should avoid. I wonder if there's an app or website for that??? I am not aware of a Harbor Island; perhaps it was the BW on Coronado Island? Or perhaps it was the Mission Bay BW? Quite a few BW's here, of course. Many years ago, I stayed at the BW on Hotel Circle which is a few miles from the harbor.
As I said it was many years ago and it was not me that booked the room. We were all under the influence after celebrating due to scoring a big new account. It was dark and seeing as it was paid for by the company, I never really paid much attention to the name of the place. I was picked up next morning by a company car and never even checked out. So yes, I might have the name wrong.
No matter, you were in a great place. I have a rule of life: "If you can touch a palm tree, you are in a good place because they simply do not live in nasty climates."
Well, that and travel advisories from the government. Any country with large urban centers is likely to have drugs, crime, kidnappings, etc. I suppose the US is on the NZ no travel list due to security concerns? My point is that it is important is to know what regions you can and can't go, especially with a country that has a drugs as a major part of its economy. I wonder if there is an app for that?
LOL, looks like we can visit you, however: Travel Advisory November 21, 2019 New Zealand - Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions
I am 35-40 minutes from Daytona Beach (by car). Why would I crave any other destination when the whole world wants to come here? Right there on the beach there's the famous Joe's Crab Shack. Sitting outside, eating crab legs, soaking up the Florida sun... that's what I call VACATION. People force themselves into tin cans called cruise ships or worse fly over to Europe so that they could stand for hours in line to some museum... That's not a vacation, that's a trap.
LOL, exactly right. I suppose I could say the same thing being in "Rhode Island, the Ocean State." Be sure to post a photo on my foodie thread the next time you are at Joe's Crab Shack!
(I realized that I forgot to comment on this part of your post.) I get really seasick very easily, so it never has and never will be something that I do (take a cruise.) But why would anyone, in 2020, get on a cruise ship and possibly be faced with being trapped at sea or in port for an extended quarantine period, etc.? I think that the cruise ship industry is in real trouble.
Feeling a bit wistful about this, no frivolous travel outside of NZ right now for us. Hopefully this time next year I'll be putting my bike in a container and sending it on it's way. Legally we have to have the bikes home before their 3rd birthday so we've lost a year there. If we can't travel by August next year we'll end up buying another pair of new bikes I guess. NZ is looking to have a travel bubble with the Cook Islands so hopefully, I can get a week or two up there in the meantime.
Or they turn into a pumpkin? What is that law all about? Admittedly, I know next nothing about international biking, but never heard of this.
Bikes get their own "passports" and they allow us to take them into and out of countries without paying import and export duties. They're essentially a pledge that we're not intending to sell the bikes. The passports are only valid if the bikes are road legal in their country of origin. I can pay and update their registration online but from their 3rd birthday they need a "warrant of fitness" issued by an authorised inspector every year and there are none outside of the country - therefore on their 3rd birthday they lose the protection of their passport and are subject to duties. We'd have to "import" them into the country we're in, get a new passport, and continue to register them after that and be subjected to that country's own legal requirements. Even more troubling, they'd void our vehicle and medical insurance so if we had an accident we'd be stuck with no protection.