Itchy Boots

Me too John... I'm always looking to see what's ahead and try to see her altitude.
 
Pop-Pop said:
She is awesome!
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Yeah! I was not liking that railroad bridge. But crossing it and documenting it with her drone! Indeed awesome! So on the road to Medellin – all that was once train track?

I don't know if it's just me but her Spanish seems a lot better this season. Her videos do not disappoint.
 
Yeah, I’ve been wondering how she’s going to get from Columbia to Panama. For all we know, she may already be in Panama.
 
paulcb said:
Yeah, I’ve been wondering how she’s going to get from Columbia to Panama. For all we know, she may already be in Panama.
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My guess is she'll take the sailboat from Catagena to Panama. That is the recommended route on ADV around the Darien Gap.

If Noraly wants to get to Alaska this season those Itchy Boots need to hustle!
 
kiltman said:
I think she may already be in Panama now
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I agree. I have been trying to catch a clue to the date from her rides. But I think Noraly is probably two weeks ahead of her videos. Apart from the Darien Gap, the security concerns as she rides north through central America are such that she will not want to give away her presence in advance.
 
amorley said:
the security concerns as she rides north
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On Mondays episode there was a hint of her being rattled. The result of inadequate accommodation forced her to ride in some questionable sections of town in the rain, she was out of her comfort zone. She expressed ideally she wants to secure accommodation in the afternoon in daylight hours. Also in today’s episode there appeared to be a sense of panic the moment she was told she had to leave her bike outside of the square from where her hotel was located.
In the mid seventies I was attending university in Windsor, across from Detroit, I can honestly say I was scared to go to downtown Detroit after 5:00 pm. ( now I think nothing of. It). She has more kahunas than me. ;)
 
I have watched all of her videos and a number of the interviews that Noraly has done with "moto-journalists" over the years and I have consistently noted a few things:
  • her videos are not released until (I am guessing here) at least one or two weeks AFTER they are produced, if not a fair bit more - so where she is on TV tonight is actually where she was several weeks ago;
  • she is very careful about her personal security and NEVER discusses where she is going to be on a given date;
  • during her interviews, she comes across as a lot more worldly and mature and somewhat less innocent, happy and friendly than she does on her own Itchy Boots YouTube videos.
I used to work in the oilfields of West Africa and these types of places are rough. You can't live and work in oilfields and mining camps all over the world for 10-15 years (like she has) without having some "edge" and street smarts - certainly not when you look like her.

Nonetheless, Noraly has certainly traveled through some very dodgy parts of the world - seemingly without any difficulties - and there are more dangerous parts to come as she works her way up through Central America and Mexico - north the US border.

There truly is real danger in many parts of those countries - witness the three Canadian tourists who were shot and two were killed on the Mayan Riviera just last week. Now, that was almost certainly a drug-related hit and the Canadians, we are told, had lengthy criminal records too - but the fact remains that a lot of completely innocent North American tourists have been hurt or killed in "civilized" 5-star Mexican resorts over the past 10-20 years.

Overall, I get the impression that there is a fair bit more going on in the background on some of her rides than she lets on (and I do not criticize her for keeping that stuff out of the picture) but I cannot imagine how Noraly - who loves to ride through the remotest areas - will fare going through the next phase of her trip without encountering at least some corrupt officials - let alone real bandits who would do her harm as quick as looking at her.

Stay tuned I guess!

Pete
 
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STJohnS said:
That's amazing. That boat ride had me so nervous!
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And no vinyl in sight to take a pucker on except the bike! That boat ride was worrisome to say the least. I've been on a surf boat on heavier seas than that at greater speeds with far more stability than that narrow little boat with the bike. There was one instance of a quick list to port that I thought was not going to end well. But they seemed to know what they were doing.

Gutsiest girl I ever saw Mav. The camera perspective may be a little misleading but it sure looks like she threads the needle with aplomb. How ever she might be feeling I haven't seen her get part particularly flustered but that might be due to editing. On camera we only hear "Oof!" and not more "colorful" language that forumites might use.

I like that her narrative is fairly direct and economical. She's informative without being chatty. The bike-washing music was nice though it sounded more Miami or Cubano but I don't really know LOL.

MaxPete said:
there are more dangerous parts to come as she works her way up through Central America and Mexico - north the US border.
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Yeah I'm hoping that there's no problems. Even in Ep 26 the arrangements for the boat ride seemed dodgy at best. Pay half the money follow some guy named Juan somewhere through Dodge City... Then a guy on the beach stops her and Juan and says you can't get there from here. I thought ol' Juan was trying to pull a fast one.

Turns out — he was! Oh was going to load from the beach because we need permission to load from the pier! Let's just do an end run.

But it ended well. This time. Hoping for the best but a little concerned about the next several videos.

It turned out to be legit but that took a heaping bucket of faith.
 
I've been to Colombia once in the early '90s. Turned out we stayed at the same hotel that later became notorious for the antics of the Secret Service and hookers, but that's a different story. This was Cartagena, tourist zone was safe. Very young men in military garb with an M-16 on every street corner. Hired a cab for a day to get out of the city, great adventure and he took us to the cock fights that night. He pulled us out of there just before the heavy hitters arrived. Told us that it would be dangerous for us after that.
So impressed with Noraly and her handling of adversity. I'm sure she weighs the risks very carefully, but damnit, that boat ride was out of her control once they had Alaska on board.
Can hardly wait for the next posting.
 
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I'm working my way through season 2 in Bolivia. She has picked routes I would hesitate to take alone.

The boat ride and prep was crazy.
 
Minor point - Colombia not Columbia. I’ve heard the natives hate the misspelling. I wish she’d have spent a little more time exploring that country.

That’s all... carry on now….

edit: 972,000 subscribers! Pass the word, let’s get her to a million!

John [Noraly fanboy… in a nice, grandfatherly way]
 
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GryST said:
That's what I was talking about few pages back. I have this feeling too. It's all too smooth in her videos. As somebody here said, she's going to show only the positive side.
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Somewhere on her channel there is an episode of "problems" she encountered in the stan countries. She edits out most of it but is not afraid to show the world that she does have some difficulties now and then.
She is obviously an experienced, solo, world traveler but still.......... Oh to be young again!!
 
GryST said:
But why? To be PC? Or maybe to portray the trip in a more rosy way than it is? To smooth it out?...
Well it's her trip and she's entitle to convey it to us the way she wants, and we can sit here and just comment.
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I would expect she edits out a lot of it just for the sake of continuity/lenghtof the video. Hard to include an hour of getting the bike unstuck, unloaded, reloaded, etc and yet keep each episode to 15-20 mins. I applaud her for making a compilation of the "outtakes". She does not give me the impression that she is the kind of person that really cares much about PC.

Or maybe she just doesn't want us old farts to feel bad because we would struggle more than her?;)
 
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