Cuba ADV Adventure with Mike Thomsen & ADV Cannonball News

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Prepare for Season 3 Episode 12 and watch Southbound Episode One and Episode Two.

Chapters

• 6:43 Cuba Interview
• 38:41 ADV Cannonball Rally News

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Welcome to the ADV Cannonball Podcast, where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle-related nonsense.

SPEAKER_06: 0:22

Season three, episode 11. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball Podcast. I am your host, Taylor Lawson. And today I am joined by a once cruise ship DJ, Captain Aaron Paul. Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_05: 0:34

How are you, sir? I thought we discussed to put that way behind in our past and never talk about that again. But those were good times. Well, yeah, those were good times. You know,

SPEAKER_06: 0:46

sometimes you got to revisit those times. So, sir. Where are you and what are you drinking?

SPEAKER_05: 0:52

I am in Victoria, British Columbia, and it is nine o'clock in the morning. So I am drinking some awesome water. You

SPEAKER_06: 1:01

make that look so good, man. You wear it well. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. All right, so I'm in 81 degree Fahrenheit, 27 degree Celsius, Sweden. It has been so warm here. You know, you never hear people in the Nordics complaining about the heat, but oh my God, I'm leaving this weekend to go into like the mainland Europe. So I'm going south to get some cool. That's how hot it is up here.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28

That's crazy. What are you drinking there? That looks good.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31

I got a new Carnegie brewery. And it's a Jack IPA session ale session IPA. So I guess I'm supposed to drink this all night.

SPEAKER_05: 1:41

You're supposed to get jacked on that session IPA.

SPEAKER_06: 1:45

Get jacked on the session IPA. Yeah. So here we go. Let's see if I can do it without splashing a little beer on the keyboards.

SPEAKER_05: 1:50

He's trying folks. He's trying. Oh

SPEAKER_06: 1:53

yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:53

I managed to make it happen. Nicely done. All right. Well, listen, you said you said you're going to mainland Europe. So give us a little travel itinerary for us people that are stuck behind the keyboard and microphone.

SPEAKER_06: 2:05

Yeah. So we're going to roll down through. We're going by train. We're not going to take motorcycles. We're going to go by train and we're going to do an overnight train from Stockholm down to Berlin. And we're going to spend time with some friends in Munich, do a little hiking near Innsbruck in Austria, end up in Cinque Terre in the five towns in Italy, sort of that coastal area. It's so beautiful. Do some hiking there and hike in and amongst those towns. And then we'll end up in a little place in Jean-Lapin, which is a subset of Antibes in the south of France. We'll hang out there for a week in an apartment and then do a quick overnight train back to Sweden. So we'll be gone for three weeks.

SPEAKER_05: 2:46

Nice. That is a quintessential European vacation. And the fact that you're doing some hiking gives us some promise because one of these days... One of these days, sir, you and I are going to do a through hike together, whether you like it or not. I know you're not attracted by this, but one of these days, you and I are going to do a badass through hike somewhere. Let

SPEAKER_06: 3:03

me ask you, do you get to use motorcycles with a through hike?

SPEAKER_05: 3:06

No, but you can see them sometimes on the highway next to you. And you can think, boy, this would be a lot easier if we were on that trail. We're on

SPEAKER_06: 3:14

some dirt bikes. I'll keep that in mind. But yes, I'm open to that challenge. Speaking of challenges, I do believe, sir, there is a challenge that we entered ourselves into and an award was given. Talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_05: 3:29

Yes, sir. I put three of our Europe episodes to the.com podcasting awards and you, sir, have won a gold award for 2025 in the sports industry. So congratulations. Does that mean that there's a platinum award

SPEAKER_06: 3:47

ahead of it as well?

SPEAKER_05: 3:47

Unfortunately, as things go for us, that the gold is a little bit of a misnomer because yes, there is a platinum award. So you... You have won a number two award, but still, congratulations. Well, it's only appropriate. The number two podcast wins a number two award. So, you know, it all makes sense. Consistency. We're all about consistency. Listen, at least you didn't win the honorable mention piece of paper certificate.

SPEAKER_06: 4:12

Well, at least it wasn't that. Anyway, I do believe that those interviews were great. You did some fantastic work with those interviews. And... Yeah, I think it is a duly shared award.

SPEAKER_05: 4:22

Well done. I was happy to receive that email. And one of these days, I think a trophy comes in the mail. So we will have to share custody across the pond.

SPEAKER_06: 4:31

Yeah, maybe when we were in India, like when I see you in India in September, you can hand it off to me and I can hand you... the book from Jordan Gibbons. And you can carry that two kilo book around with you on the back of your motorcycle as we go the Himalayas route.

SPEAKER_05: 4:45

That'd be pretty funny. Actually, grab this big trophy. We'll strap it to the back of these little motorcycles and drag it all around the Himalayas like a Top Gear episode. Ellie, I got the perpetual trophy on the back. We're so famous, number two. Watch out, out of the way. Number two is coming through. All

SPEAKER_06: 5:04

right, so you did some great interviews there. You just had also a great interview with Mike Thompson. Tell us a bit about that, Moto Dreamer Tours.

SPEAKER_05: 5:10

Yeah, so Mike Thompson has an interesting story, and we'll definitely have him back on. He was in Denmark, just down the street from you. And, you know, we talked about Cuba and it is a subject you don't see very much of. And he was able to operate a few tours during a time of, let's call it less embargo rules placed on them by the American administration. And it was a little bit of lightning in the bottle. So, you know, we always try to talk about something interesting here with people and, you know, you don't, see videos or hear much about Cuba. So the interview is Mike's tours that he did in Cuba. Unfortunately, they're not happening anymore because of obvious reasons. And we talk about that in the interview, but hopefully one day it reopens and hopefully they get back on their feet. But yeah, it's an interesting perspective into ADV in Cuba. Fantastic. And with that, Roll the interview.

SPEAKER_00: 6:12

Registration is now open to the public for the next ADV Cannonball Rally. All riders on any motorcycle are welcome to join the adventure. Whether you're looking for an exciting and highly organized coast-to-coast ride with a group of like-minded riders or a friendly competition for cannonball glory, it doesn't matter. Everyone can participate. Head over to ADVCannonball.com to secure your rally starting position today. Now back to the podcast.

SPEAKER_05: 6:44

Mike Thompson from Moto Dreamer Tours. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Great. I'm in Victoria, British Columbia today. And where are you?

SPEAKER_01: 6:51

So I'm in Denmark at the moment in Scandinavia and enjoying a rainy summer day.

SPEAKER_05: 6:57

It is summer. We're recording in the end of July. So that will be summer storms, won't it?

SPEAKER_01: 7:03

We've had a lot of rain this year. So definitely typical Danish summer. We should

SPEAKER_05: 7:07

introduce you to our listeners. You've got quite the motorcycle resume and the adventurer resume as far back as age six, you and your family went on a amazing four by four trip. Perhaps you can start with that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:21

Yeah. So actually my family is quite the travel family. So we've been on a couple of big trips. And the first one that my parents did with me and my sister was when I was six to seven years. So one and a half years we did in a old British Land Rover that was purpose built for the trip. And we did the down through Europe in into Africa. And then we shipped the car from Kenya across to India, did all of Asia there and back through Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran and the whole way back to Denmark. So, yeah, I got the travel buck really early on.

SPEAKER_05: 8:00

Yeah, we have the pleasure of speaking with a lot of interesting people. And there always seems to be that that common thread of having really cool parents and being introduced to any form of travel seems to, you know, push a young man to get on two wheels and do things that are irreplaceable. responsible.

SPEAKER_01: 8:15

Absolutely. I think, I mean, the main thing that keeps people at home is the fear of just getting started. But once you're on the road in any kind of travel scenario, whether it's your parents that bring you out or you go out with a buddy or a friend or your girlfriend or whatever, but once you've come over that first trip, then I think it gets into your blood really easy and it's much easier to go the second time. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05: 8:40

That's what drug dealers say, right? The first one's free. Exactly. Speaking of adrenaline and drugs. You were in the international rally. We don't know a lot about a lot about that rally over here on this side of the pond. Perhaps you can tell us about the rally and tell us about your experience.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

Yeah, so I it always from when I was a little kid, I was due to the trips I did with my parents. We saw, you know, old rally bikes that were stuck in the desert and and was just left there to to rot. So when we came through with the Land Rover, I was like just looking at these bikes with so much in And I just knew I wanted to come back to the Sahara Desert and do my own riding on two wheels. So back in 2015, there was a rally called the Intercontinental Rally, which basically did the old Dakar routes from when the actual Dakar rally was in Africa. So this rally was from southern Spain all the way down to Dakar using most of the old tracks that the Dakar, actual Dakar rally did. So I managed to get to do this rally two times. It's an amateur rally but it's tough enough i would say long days on the bike dirt all the way down of course it was run pretty much like a normal rally so you had like liaison stages where you had to transport yourself to the special stage which got timed and then you had to get back to camp at night so some days were six seven eight hundred kilometers in the dirt yeah we we run

SPEAKER_05: 10:07

a an amateur rally here and it's quite quite mundane but you know we run it on public streets and there are plenty of people that sign up. And even before they show up at the start line, they see the mileage and they see the hours and they all of a sudden disappear. So this, uh, this intercontinental rally seems a little more bad-ass than your average, than your average street street ride. So I can definitely, uh, I can definitely give you a credit there today. You're, uh, you're running a moto dreamer tours for the last 15, 20 years with your family. And I can see that you just posted a video from the UAE and Oman. I used to live in the UAE. I was a yacht captain for the royal family and I did tons of off-roading there and it was really off-roading paradise. How did you like that adventure?

SPEAKER_01: 10:50

That's cool. Yeah, well, I mean, I've been going to Oman now for the last four years after the pandemic here and I love it. I mean, to me, Oman is Arabia the way that it was displayed in all the old movies and stories of, you know, adventure. So it's like a really neat Arabian architecture and just a spectacular Thank you.

SPEAKER_05: 11:43

in Fort Lauderdale for 10 years. And you could literally almost see it on a clear day. And I think it's an interesting topic. When was your last tour in Cuba?

SPEAKER_01: 11:52

So the last time I was in Cuba was in May last year, 2024. And basically the situation has, it goes up and down in waves, I will say. And it of course has a lot to do with the administration in the US because there is an embargo on Cuba from the US government which limits the ways that you can travel to Cuba. And during the Obama presidency, it really opened up, which meant that you could go to Cuba on what was called the People to People program. So it was very easy for American citizens to go to Cuba and participate in these trips where there were built-in activities to meet and interact with the Cuban people. And that was a kind of a bypass of the embargo when you did it through this program. So So that was totally legal to visit as an American citizen. You just couldn't be an actual full-on tourist. You had to participate in this people-to-people program. But it was very loosely controlled, so it was very easy. But now, since Trump is back on his second term here, it has really been tightened up. And it's very, very complicated to run tours in Cuba. Me being European, there are really no regulations for us Europeans. And there are several European companies that do trips. in Cuba, both by bringing their own bikes over and also by renting some few local bikes that are available on the island. But the problem is now that if we Europeans go to Cuba to visit, then we can no longer get to the US on our ESTA visa, because if you've been to Cuba within the last five years, then you are not welcome in the US. So that puts a huge limit to what Europeans actually want to go visit Cuba. Then on the other hand, the Americans can come down to Cuba on a new program that is similar to the People to People program. But there are a lot of limitations. So for example, you're not allowed to stay in any hotel or use any restaurant or any business that in any way is connected with the military administration of Cuba. And this is basically all the hotels because Cuba being a communist island, the land is owned by the government. So there's a lot of big Spanish hotel chains there. Melia is one of them. They have some huge resorts there, but to be able to build a resort on Cuba, you have to have the government as a 50-50 partner there because they own the land. Or you make a lease on the land for 100 years, you build your hotel, you earn your money back, but the property will remain the Cuban government property. So this means that you basically, as an American citizen, can only stay in small homestays over there. And yeah, that limits the options and the quality of the trips that you can present to customers.

SPEAKER_05: 14:46

Yeah, it's a dynamic situation. And maybe that's the reason why we don't see too much talk about Cuba. And I think you really, you know, your last tour there might have been a special time and might have been something that may not be able to be reproduced on a larger scale anytime soon. Were you aware of the unique timing when you had that tour? I

SPEAKER_01: 15:08

was not expecting it to be as closed as it was. when we came there last year actually it was a pretty sad situation in my opinion sad in the sense that the Cuban people really don't have anything there like on the very first day we were in La Havana the capital and one of my customers had flown in there and needed shampoo to wash their hair and you just couldn't get it like daily items you can't get it in Cuba there was a sparsity of fuel so it was hard to get fuel you had to know your connections where to go to They had, what do you call it, power cutouts every evening there. So every night you're sitting and having dinner at some restaurant and the lights would just go out for two or three hours and you'd have to walk home to your accommodation in the dark. So I really saw that Cuba is having a really, really hard time right now because they don't have many allies left. And that's hard for the economy, but it's especially hard for the population, you know. I mean, I don't necessarily feel sorry for any administration of any country. Usually they're the ones that are at fault of how the people in the country have to, what conditions they have to live under. And in Cuba right now, it's a sad sight.

SPEAKER_05: 16:27

Yeah, it's hard enough for any island nation, especially in the Caribbean, to survive. And it's especially hard under a communist regime. It seems to be working well with China, obviously. I've spent a lot of time in China and I think you have as well. But they have more of a capitalist hybrid model that seems to be working really well. And Cuba seemed to be moving in that direction. It's just a shame that they weren't allowed the breadth to implement those policies in a more full manner.

SPEAKER_01: 17:00

Well, I think Cuba is obviously, they're stuck on their history and their revolution. And in some way, it never really worked and really didn't come to fruition the way that the revolutionaries thought it was going to happen. And obviously the Soviet Union broke down and they were heavily supported by the Soviets back then. And now they have the friends of Venezuela. They're getting some oil from Venezuela, but even Venezuela is in trouble with their so-called communist regime down there. So the truth is that communism is not working anywhere. And yes, what you're seeing in China is a capitalist communism in In my opinion, it's really not so much communist. Probably it's more like a dictatorship in my eyes, where you have just a few top politician guys that is really ruling it, but they are letting the population be capitalist under some regulations. So this is why China is doing pretty well. I mean, I go a lot to China at least once a year. And I mean, the speed that China is improving their conditions for their citizens is just unmatched. It's unmatched. I mean, if you go to Beijing or Shanghai or some of those cities and see how quickly they are growing is unbelievable. So something is working for China, but it seems like they can't really filter it over to their communist friends or they don't want to do it anymore. So I'm not sure quite what's happening.

SPEAKER_05: 18:26

There's a there's a book that I'm not a big fan of. It's called The Investment Biker. Oh, yeah. I don't agree with a lot of what he has to say, but he has a great section in there about analyzing how why communism has has never really worked. But anyways, I'm I'm interested. in how you flew to Cuba from Denmark

SPEAKER_01: 18:47

so I actually before I came to Denmark actually my company started in Colombia after a motorcycle trip where I met my wife in Colombia and we got married and I had to find a way to survive in South America and I knew I had to work with tourists so first we set up a little backpackers hostel and then that developed into also offering motorcycle tours and eventually it became all we did was the motorcycle tours so I I actually flew through Colombia on the way to Cuba, and there's a lot of connections. A lot of Colombians go to Cuba for their cheap beach vacations. So there's many connections if you go through Colombia.

SPEAKER_05: 19:25

Yeah, that's interesting. When I grew up, I grew up in Toronto, in Canada, and all of Canada vacations in Cuba as well. They just do the standard, we'll go to the Gated Resort, and this seems to be what Canadians trying to get away from the frigid winter are definitely looking for.

SPEAKER_01: 19:42

Yeah, that's a big thing. And also for Europeans, I mean, they're not restricted. They don't have travel restrictions from their government. So there's a lot of European tourism there. And if you see the big resorts, they're all owned by Spanish hotel chains and European chains. So there's a massive resource that can have up to 5,000 people there where you get, you know, taken around in small golf carts. And it's like going into this fantastic world where everything is working. And as soon as you get outside the gate, it's like everything has fallen to pieces. It's like going into Armageddon as soon as you get out of the gate. So it's really, really a weird contrast there that the Cuban government let these resorts have everything. You can have Italian restaurant and Thai restaurant. Everything is inside the resorts. But as soon as you're out among the normal people of Cuba, they don't have anything.

SPEAKER_05: 20:30

I used to work on cruise ships and I was a yacht captain for, I don't know, 30, 40 years. And it's always the same in island nation that you're in the resort or the marina and the minute you step out, it's difficult to be certain. I'm wondering, did you ship your motorcycles to Cuba or did you rent some from a local partner?

SPEAKER_01: 20:50

No, so actually back in 2017, me and my wife went to Cuba to do the research. This was back when Obama was in power, I believe, and it was kind of a positive atmosphere around Cuba that now maybe it would open up and be able to have tourism come in. And so we did, you know, about a month of research and scouting and and really checked out everything. We spoke actually with the Cuban government. We were allowed to set up a business and we ordered 11 BMW motorcycles that we wanted to ship over there from our Colombian distributor and everything was set to go. And then Trump came in and changed the travel rules for Americans. And then we didn't dare to pull the trigger on that project. So in the meantime, there's a German guy who has imported about 10 or 12 BMWs over there. They are from 2000 17, 18-ish. So they're getting close to 10 years now and they have taken a beating on the roads over there. So that's really the only bikes you can get locally. And you cannot go there as an individual and rent a bike and go around on your own. You must go around as part of a group tour and you must have a Cuban so-called guide, which is most likely somebody that works for the government and keeps an eye on you behind the scenes. So yeah, it's controlled and And it's not easy. Even if you want to bring your own bikes, there's a lot of regulations and you must get a temporary import permit. It's pretty complicated to get it. And often you have to do stuff to lighten the process in the port and with customs and everything. So even that process can be long and it takes weeks in both ends. So from a business perspective, I mean, if you can do back-to-back tours over there for a couple of months, it might be worthwhile. But to go over and do a single tour or two tours is complicated. So actually at the moment, we are just kind of like in a holding position, waiting to see when we can return and what can be done about it. But right now it seems to be the embargo that is really having its effect.

SPEAKER_05: 22:58

People always say it's just politics, but at the end of the day, there are small people like you and I who are trying to do things and our whole life gets turned upside down because of something that is said from behind, from some podium. And it really does have an effect on our family and their second and third order effects to these things. But we're not a political show, so we won't go there. But how much time would you say is a good amount of time to explore the island on one of these tours? So I think,

SPEAKER_01: 23:27

I mean, if you want to get into the, I mean, I think the interesting part about going to Cuba is the history. I mean, obviously there is an interesting history with the whole revolution and its connection to the mafia in the US and, you know, all the casinos that got built. You can still see a lot of leftovers from that, obviously all the old American cars. So from a historic standpoint, Cuba is super, super interesting. Even being the first place that got colonized in the Americas when the Europeans sailed over, it was Havana that got established the first of all the locations. And from there, they went out and found all the rest. So, I mean, there's so much history there it's changed hands a few times the British held it the pirates held it the the Cubans had it and the Spanish had it and and you know the Americans almost had it economically during the you know all the the the mafia times there the gangster times so from that standpoint it's super interesting and and to me it's interesting to go down and see like the Bay of Pigs and and all of those sites that are there but again I mean you really have to use your imagination the museums are run down you It's not the nicest displays and all of that, but just the atmosphere of being there and kind of feeling the history is really awesome. From a standpoint of riding, it's an island. It's not that big. There are only a couple of areas that is mountainous. So most of the rest of it is pretty flat with some very bad pavement, lots of potholes, really bumpy. So from a standpoint of riding, I would say we do a 10 day trip there and that's plenty. You could do seven days. If you just want to get a feeling for the history, you could fly into La Havana. You could do a couple of days there, which is a cool and interesting town. You could go up to the tobacco region and you could go down and see the Bay of Pigs and maybe go further south and go down to Trinidad and so on, if you're not in for the beach vacations. So from that standpoint, I would say anywhere from five to 10 days is what you need to see the island.

SPEAKER_05: 25:39

Did you go up into the mountainous region at all? That seemed Did we have some twisties and some interesting things to see up there?

SPEAKER_01: 25:48

Yeah, absolutely. We go up in the tobacco region and ride the mountains up there. It's very nice. But again, the road condition is poor. So you don't want to lean too hard in on the curves. So it's hard to like really, really enjoy it. And it's not dirt. So it's not like you're on a real dirt adventure trip either. So you're kind of like in between bumping around and just like taking in the the broken infrastructure of the country. But it's spectacular, beautiful up there. It's really nice plantations and rocky formations and caves you can go into and you can even sail inside some of the caves. And so there's a lot of stuff to see and try out for sure. But from a writing perspective, it is a few days of good writing and that's it.

SPEAKER_05: 26:36

Often the writing brings you to things that are interesting. When you were in Havana, it used to have this reputation of this cool and interesting party town. Is that reputation still holding true or is that all gone as well?

SPEAKER_01: 26:48

It's a happening town in the sense that it's obviously a tropical island and it's warm weather. People are out on the streets. You have music on every corner. People playing and, you know, doing the salsa and, you know, street restaurants and so on. But it's a crumbling infrastructure. So all the beautiful old colonial buildings from the Spanish empire and so on are crumbling you have tubes sticking out of the wall and somebody taking a shower on the third floor and the water just comes straight onto the street and like it's just it's like in South America they call it barrios it's like the underdeveloped parts of town where it's just kind of like slum type of but of course they have some areas that are historic and that is taken more care of around the main square and so on but if you go around the small streets it's crumbling people are poor they are begging you for like they ask you if you did you bring medicine to me and it's like what medicine do you use because i didn't bring anything but i i mean they just want anything that they can get give me your shoes do you have clothes to me that i can have so it's like it's it's it's i mean i must say i have been there several times and this last may it was really sad to be back and see how how um yeah how needy the population is of everything from fuel to electricity to food uh just, just shampoo for their, to wash their hair. I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty sad.

SPEAKER_05: 28:16

Yeah. You wonder what the motivation of the embargo is, is to just to hurt the population and, and, and then, you know, how much more can they take, but you know, I'm not a, I'm not a politician on and I'm, and I'm not very smart, so I don't really know what the motivation is, but that is the actual result. And, you know, I recently spoke with Ted Simon and we talked about, you know, going to the slums in India and traveling slowly and becoming part of these communities and unfortunately the same whether it's India or if it's Cuba you know that is the reality of it and I think a motorcycle is a is a bit of a time machine it can it can take you in into these experiences and you're not in a tour bus with with 40 other people you are immediately inside the population mixing with them and whether it's you know shiny and pretty or a little more gritty the way you're talking about it it is most definitely definitely a way to connect with the people. Do you find that to be true, whether it's Cuba or any of your other adventures that you go on?

SPEAKER_01: 29:18

No, absolutely. I mean, this is the point of why we go on a motorcycle is to meet the locals where you would never be able to meet them with any other means of travel. Even when we did the travels with my parents in the Land Rover, we were in this bubble and we had everything we needed inside the car and could carry everything. Once you're on the bike, you're exposed and you absolutely have to make use of the locals, whether it's to help you find the way or find out where's the nearest restaurant or where can you park the bike. And no matter where you park, if it's a gas station or in front of a restaurant, everybody comes up to you to find out who are you, what are you doing, where are you from, why are you here, and everybody is helpful. And that is my experience now, having ridden motorcycles in 110 countries around the world. People are people everywhere. So no matter what you need, people will It's the authorities in each country that will set the tone of the country, but the people are just working to improve their lives, to raise their children, put food on the table, and they will always help a stranger in need. So this is what I love about motorcycle riding and just being in it. Like you say, you feel the temperature changes, you feel the weather and the wind, and that's what I love about motorcycle riding. So yeah, that is a time travel straight into the heart of each nation. that we visit is being on those two wheels. And I would never change that for a bus or a car.

SPEAKER_05: 30:47

You know, most of us have read Che Guevara's The Motorcycle Diaries. And if you haven't, you absolutely should. And, you know, there's this interesting nexus between his story in The Motorcycle Diaries and all those amazing experiences riding through the Americas and your time in Cuba. You know, he says the same thing and all those interesting stories because he was on a motorcycle. He had a little advantage because he was able to speak the language. Do you speak Spanish or do many people speak English?

SPEAKER_01: 31:18

Yeah, so I've lived 17 years in Colombia and my wife's Colombian. My two daughters are Colombian. So yes, I speak fluent Spanish now. So this is, of course, a huge benefit traveling in Latin America. And just to comment on the Che story, actually, it was a nice connection in the sense that in Bolivia, we traveled to the little village in the mountains where he got shot by the Bolivian army and then actually the Cuban government brought back his remains and they have built this big monument for him there Mausoleum in Cuba that we go and visit on the trip and that's actually one of the highlights because it actually shows pictures of him and the motorcycle and his life and his connection with the revolutionaries there and everything so that's one of the highlights is actually seeing that Mausoleum there with him so yeah 100% I mean, if you speak Spanish, you'll get so much more out of traveling in Latin America. And Latin America is not known for having a lot of English speakers. So it's very good to have a Spanish speaking translator, whether it's the local guide or someone like me on the tour.

SPEAKER_05: 32:27

I know right now you're preparing for a trip to Iceland. Perhaps you can tempt us with a little of your plans for Iceland.

SPEAKER_01: 32:36

Yeah. So, I mean, we basically, my wife and me decided to move. from Colombia after the pandemic, which really hit hard in Latin America and basically almost killed off our business. We had to sell off all the rental motorcycles. We had almost 50 motorcycles, 17 employees. We had a ton of tours going around in Colombia, down through Ecuador, Peru, all the way to Patagonia, through Brazil. And we had to sell all of that to pay back banks and just survive during those year and a half that Colombia had their borders closed almost a year and a half down there. So it was very tough situation. And we kind of looked at each other. Do we want to start from zero and build up again? Or do we want to go home? And our daughters are now teenage daughters. So we wanted to give them, you know, a better opportunity for more personal freedom and better education and so on. So we actually came back to Denmark two and a half years ago and are now establishing ourselves over here. So what we're doing right now is setting up some Northern European tours, which include include Iceland, Norway, around the Baltic Sea, stuff like that. And I'm heading to Iceland now on August 1st to do our first trip up there, 10-day tour, where we're going to go around the island and in through the middle and basically just check out all the moon-looking landscape up there.

SPEAKER_05: 34:00

Last June, I shipped my GS to Europe and all the listeners know we just can't stop talking about our time in Norway. And I can only imagine that... iceland is just as just as interesting i i did a bunch of off-roading there a few years ago but the whole time you're in a vehicle you know chugging along getting everything thrown around your car i'm like if i just had a motorcycle this would be a lot better

SPEAKER_01: 34:23

yeah absolutely i mean again uh yeah why traveling anything else but a bike i mean it's uh it's hard to bring the family of course but uh but it's the way to see definitely if you want to see nature and and get the big experiences of of the scenery and so on you want to be on a bike and you can reach those places you can't reach in any other way. So yeah, I'm super excited for Iceland and also Norway. Norway is one of my top destinations from a scenery standpoint. Extremely expensive place to travel, but it pays off.

SPEAKER_05: 34:55

Yeah, that place is wildly expensive. But I think we paid 20 something dollars for one beer in Oslo, but we can complain about that at a later time. I'm actually shipping my GS back in October and I think it will just live there. because there's so much to do in your neck of the woods. And I'm looking forward to exploring the area again. And perhaps we can have a beer the next time I rip through Denmark.

SPEAKER_01: 35:22

Yeah, absolutely. You're welcome. Mi casa es tu casa.

SPEAKER_05: 35:26

And where can people find out more about your tours and perhaps get a hold of you for an adventure?

SPEAKER_01: 35:32

Well, so basically everything we do is on our website. We don't have an actual physical storefront, so everything happens online. So you You can just Google MotoDreamer Tours or MotoDreamer.com and everything is right there.

SPEAKER_05: 35:46

Great. I will put in the show notes the links and I'll also put the links to your YouTube channel. If you just want to go on a small adventure from your couch, you do a great job of showing what people can experience on one of your tours. And with that, thanks for coming on the show and hopefully in the future we can talk about one of your other adventures.

SPEAKER_01: 36:04

I'd love to. Yeah. Thank you very much for having me and hope to see you sometime for a beer.

SPEAKER_02: 36:09

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen.

SPEAKER_04: 36:25

Cannonball! And we are back. The interview

SPEAKER_06: 36:49

was really interesting in that I love the fact that he took a month to to do research on his location. It turned out that Cuba ended up not being a place where he could actually continue with his tours. But I love the fact that he put so much time into that. They're really dedicated to it and they obviously do a great job with their tours. This is probably one of the reasons they're so successful.

SPEAKER_05: 37:10

Yeah, and I like his tours because they are a cultural immersion and not just let's go tear up some tarmac. And he does the same thing. I just noticed he was doing some research for the Nordic areas. And he's on his way to Iceland to set up tours in Iceland. So there's a lot of work that goes into a motorcycle tour that is not just ripping through a town. So we're going to stop here and we're going to check that out. I really found it interesting. I didn't know that Che Guevara's body was exhumed from Bolivia where he was executed. and brought to Cuba. And I didn't know that. And as I was doing some research, I saw this great picture of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Hemingway fishing off the coast of Cuba. And, you know, I've read a lot of Hemingway. So even like Old Man of the Sea was written during that time. So there's a strange confluence of all those stories. And it's a real good historical, uh, nexus with riding ADV bikes. So it was fun.

SPEAKER_06: 38:14

Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. Interesting. How the, um, you see bits of history showing up in, uh, in modern day things.

SPEAKER_05: 38:21

Yeah. And it was interesting, I'm sure. And I'm sad that I wasn't able to take the tour with them, but to get the Cuban perspective from the Bay of Pigs invasion. So, uh, my hat's off to, uh, Mike for putting together a ADV tour that is, uh, you know, culturally immersive.

SPEAKER_06: 38:40

Very cool. Very cool. Let me ask you shift gears for a moment. Do you have any ADV cannonball news you want to share?

SPEAKER_05: 38:48

I sure do. For 2026, Alexander from New York has signed up and wait for it. He is on a X max scooter. So our first zany motorcycle or scooter sign up for 2026. And I emailed him and I said, Alex, Alexander, you know that this isn't the scooter cannonball. This is the badass ADV cannonball. And he goes, yep. And he says, this is a 400cc scooter and I can do highway speeds. And I said, you realize you're probably not going to arrive to the hotel before dark. And he goes, I'm ready to be a badass. So welcome to the 2026 ADV cannonball

SPEAKER_06: 39:27

rally. Fantastic. As you're saying that, I'm wondering if he heard about this from the interview where you interviewed the scooter cannonball.

SPEAKER_05: 39:36

Yeah, so I had noticed in the last 48 hours, there's some people who signed up for waitlist. And now I ask people what their how they heard about us and what their resume is. And there's four or five people. So there's a chat or something that people were talking about the ADV cannonball in the arena of scooter cannonball. So I'm really thankful that they've kind of embraced us. And we're looking forward to seeing more people crossover. Yeah,

SPEAKER_06: 40:00

fantastic. That's great. And probably vice versa as well.

SPEAKER_05: 40:03

Yeah, for sure. You know, it's very easy to do a cannonball on an ADV bike, especially if you're sticking to the paved sections, the safe sections. But I think it's even harder to go do it on a 50cc scooter going across the country. It's a long, hard day, you know, cruising along with your little two-stroke scooter, they call it, on the pipe, and you're just ripping across the country. I think that's even more difficult. So yeah, I hope to see more cross-pollination between the two rallies.

SPEAKER_06: 40:32

Yeah, it's also, that reminds It's a bit like Mally Moto. It's like Rally Moto, Mally Moto on those scooters because the actual rally takes longer than the service interval of one of those machines, right? So halfway through, you're doing your own oil changes and changing belts or whatever.

SPEAKER_05: 40:46

Yeah. And they're always breaking down. It's not like a big GSA where I can do 10,000 miles and never even touch except for an oil change. These guys are constantly breaking things. And yeah, so my hat's off to all those guys and welcome Alexander to 2026. Yeah. Fantastic. Any

SPEAKER_06: 41:03

2025 news?

SPEAKER_05: 41:03

Yeah. Number 15 dropped out. So Dion Earnright from Westover took over his position and another first, he is on a Can-Am. So we have a lot of firsts. We of our first Can-Am, so welcome to 2025.

SPEAKER_06: 41:34

And he's like, yeah, I might get out there. Anyway, nice to see that we got one in the mix.

SPEAKER_05: 41:38

Yeah. And then Roberto from Asheville on a 1200 GS is now waitlist one. And he's a convert from the scooter cannonball. So welcome to waitlist one, Roberto. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_06: 41:50

And you have any shipping available? I know that your shipping was filling up pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_05: 41:55

Yeah. So there's some space for 2026, but I just wanted to tell everyone for 2025, there is one space available from the finish line. So if anyone is looking for shipping from the finish line, preferably, you know, Georgia, North Carolina, New York kind of area. Please reach out to me and we can fit you in. Fantastic. All right. Yeah. And I just want to mention the next episode, we have Danny McGee. Danny McGee has a fantastic series on YouTube called Southbound. So if you want to study up for the next episode, everyone go to YouTube and look for Southbound. It's a great ADV adventure heading southbound.

SPEAKER_06: 42:35

Fantastic. And then one of the things that I'm sure we can put in the show notes is on Mike Thompson. He actually, one of the reasons it made him so easy to actually interview is the fact that he is, he has all the equipment. He is, he has a channel that he puts a lot up on YouTube. So he also has a lot of good content as well.

SPEAKER_05: 42:53

Yeah, I will put all those links in the show notes.

SPEAKER_06: 42:55

And kind sir, I believe that is a wrap. Roll the outro.

SPEAKER_03: 43:02

Thanks for listening to the ADV Cannonball podcast. Please give us a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform. That really helps us with the algorithm gods. All hail the algorithm gods. You can buy us a coffee on buymecoffee.com slash ADV Cannonball. Or directly help save this sinking ship for the price of a pint at patreon.com slash ADV Cannonball. Follow us on all the socials with the handle at ADV Cannonball. If you'd like to send us a question or Thanks for listening. And remember, don't be an ADV weenie. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the pegs.