About
Jan Soderlund
74 years old
I'm just another guy who late in life start to do crazy things like buying a YAMAHA Dealership in Africa and that way got back to riding bikes and trough that got the opportunity to go on a once-in-a-lifetime-adventure. Not that I know of another idiot with the same, call it luck or stupidity, like me but who knows in this crazy world we live in. I come from a little town in Southern Finland, pretty much on latitude 60 where summer is short and intensive and winters long and pretty boring, especially now a days when the winters are more and more unpredictable. I still keep in close contact with my roots and go sailing the wonderful waters of the Baltic every summer on my beloved s/s Wait n' Sea. I have extensively travelled the world, mostly on business, in my "previous life" but never in South America except for one day in Caracas, Venezuela. That's one reason why I'm eager to get going!
South America
The intention is to do South America on a YAMAHA Super Tenere XT 1200 Z. I sold the bike originally to the, by now world famous globetrotter John Nomad, who took the bike first around Southern Africa, a true breakfast run for him, and then in November 2013 he left for Europe with his beloved wife Carmen on the back. They rode together to Brussels, that's in Belgium if somebody is in doubt, and the John continued on his own to NordKap and down through my home country Finland were we met again last year in June when John waited for his Russian visa. From there he disappeared via Estonia into Russia and made it to Vladivostok and via Japan to Vancouver and across Canada home to Montreal. In October he started on the last leg through South America with the intention to be back home in Africa in April 2015. However, things didn't work out that way so I ended up buying the bike from him. It has been trucked to Florida and sea freighted to Cartagena, Colombia. I arrived here in Cartagena on January 3 and have strong believes that I will eventually see the box and hopefully open it TODAY! We will see what happens, so far nothing...