Tortillas to Totems

Sam Manicom’s dramatic fourth book takes the reader on an enticing yet frequently challenging motorcycle journey across the ever-changing landscapes of Mexico, the United States and Canada.

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Sam’s girlfriend Birgit is no longer a novice motorcyclist – riding through southern Africa and South America turned her into a rider capable of facing any challenge. But Sam was worried.
As they arrived into North America they had been travelling around the world by motorcycle for six years and he was beginning to think that North America was going to be easy; too easy in fact. Were all the challenges of travel in the developing world countries going to be missing? Sam couldn’t have been more wrong.
Join Sam and his girlfriend Birgit as they ride from Guatemala into Mexico. You’ll travel with them as they head east towards the Yucatan, exploring ancient Mayan ruins and finding new challenges as they ride. Sam, a notorious magnet for mishaps almost kills himself within minutes of riding over the border.
Woven into this two and a half year story are the surprises, the tales of the completely unexpected and Sam describes the constant learning curve that every adventurer wants to be on.
Samuel Johnson wrote, ‘The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them how they are.’ After all, aren’t these some of the main reasons for going travelling? To experience as many different things and ways of life as possible? To discover new and wonderful things, but also to have preconceived ideas challenged.
This true life story has more twists and turns than a Rocky Mountain Pass, and as it did them, at times it could challenge you too. Woven into this surprising story are canyons, cowboys, idyllic beaches, bears, mountains, Californian Vineyards, gun-toting policemen with grudges, glaciers, exploding volcanoes, dodgy border crossings and some of the most stunning open roads that a traveller could ever wish to see.
Magazines have described him as, 'One of the foremost and most readable adventure motorcyclists writing about their adventures on two wheels.’