Update Day 8

January 18, 2008

I had a feeling today was going to be different, and it was. I know a lot of you will not believe this but I got up early. It was 6:30 in the AM. I got up and packed the bike without waking Mike. I thought about just leaving but that would not have been right. As it turns out he woke up as I was putting on my jacket. We said goodbye and I was on my way, it was just that simple. I topped off the bike with fuel and headed for the border at 7:30. It was a cool 42 degree start and quickly dropped to 38 due to the altitude. After an hour or so it was in the high 60´s and all was good. The road was fast sweeping turns through more pines like Angeles Crest which makes some for great riding. I made good time to the border and got there at 10:00 straight up. Now after doing my research I was told that I do not need to stop at the Mexican side of the border. Technically you are supposed to deregister the bike out of the country and when you return reregister it. As others have found out you just don’t stop when leaving and returning and all is well. So I pass up the Mexican side and head for the Guatemalan side which is about 2 miles ahead. It is an absolute zoo up there. It is a small border crossing and is only one lane wide for coming and going. Now this is normally not a problem but there are vendors set up on both sides and walking in the middle. So I push my way through to the gate which looks like the borders you would see in the movies with East Germany and they raise the bar. The first stop is fumigation. Basically they spray something on your tires to kill whatever you picked up in Mexico. Then it is off to Immigration. I walk in and the old gentleman asks for my passport. I hand it to him he fumbles through it and hands it back to me and said I did not get an exit stamp from Mexico. Apparently the people who gave me the info on the bike forgot to mention that part.

So back through the masses of people I go back to Mexico. As I pull up to the Immigration building I see another rider on a KLR650 and we meet, his name is Sonny. Turns out he is from LA and headed to Argentina. We briefly talk and decide to ride together. Before we finish here another bike identical to mine pulls up with two people on it. We introduce ourselves to Caesar and Patty who are from Mexico City and going to Costa Rica. Again after more conversation we are all going to ride together. Up to the border we go and are through it in about 30 minutes. All in all I spent 1:45 there but it turned out to be well worth it.

So now the ride continues with a group of three bikes with Caesar in the lead (on the same bike as me and his wife on the back), Sonny in the middle and me in the rear. All of a sudden I find out that my dealer that sold me my bike totally screwed me. Apparently Caesar’s bike has a turbo that my dealer did not tell me about because he is gone. Actually we are keeping pace with him but it is at full speed. Going through towns where the stores are all of about two feet from the road with kids and dogs we are still doing 60 mph. As you come in to each town there are speed bumps (Topes in Spanish) or as Caesar calls them, jumps. We actually had a great ride but I did not take any pictures, in fact we never stopped. We were in fast sweeping turns and tight twisties all day but the tight twisties were still fast. He did show us one trick. At the construction sites when it is one lane they will stop one way and let the other go. The motorcycles get to go right by the long line of waiting cars without stopping which really clears the way.

We did stop for a late lunch on Lake Atitlan where it is surrounded by three volcanoes but the clouds were low and I did not get to see them. As we were at lunch a guy came up to us named Henry and he told us his story. He lives in England, flew to San Francisco, bought a bike just like mine and is headed to Costa Rica then will ship his bike home. The only difference is he is taking 6 months. Anyway, after lunch Sonny decided to stay by the lake so Caesar, Patty and I headed to Antigua. It was a fast tight twisty 1:30 ride and we arrived at dark. Once in town we parted ways because they will be here for another day and I need to be moving on.

I searched around for a hotel and finally found one that was in my budget and had hot water. I check in and decided to take a shower when I discover how the hot water is made. How I am still here typing this I will never know.

Tomorrow it is on to El Salvador!

Update Day 7, 130 Miles

January 17, 2008

The morning started off with a bit of a twist. The past few days have been hard days on the road for us and were taking their toll. Mike has decided that he would rather do shorter riding days and not continue South with me. We talked it over for a bit and I understand his position. Unfortunate for me, I still have a goal in mind and am going to do what it takes to achieve it. Many people do this trip alone and I see no reason why I can't either. Fortunately for me I do not get to hear what everyone else is thinking and have them talk me out of it. As for Mike I wish him a safe journey and I hope he has a great time, no hard feelings.

After our talk we headed out at 7:30. Our Destination was San Cristobal de las casas. The morning was clear and cool so it looked to be a great day, and it was. The road takes you over two mountain ranges and leaves you in San Cristobal at 5,000ft. The first range took us up through 3,500 ft and was spectacular. You ride through a tropical jungle type forest. The roads were nice and twisty and not very crowded. As it turns out this ride takes us through the territory that is occupied by The Zapatistas also known as EZLN. They are not really a rebel group but a group of indigenous Indians that are fighting for something that I am not totally sure on so I won't say. I guess back in 94 the government killed about 70 of them and that kind of pissed them off for some reason. Then in 2001 I believe, they took two tourists captive but later released them unharmed. We came across a town that had their signs as you entered but there were people there who do not like their pictures taken so we passed it up. Then we came across another town called Ocosingo in the valley between the two ranges that had murals on the school and other buildings and I got some pictures of those. At one point I waved at some kids as I usually do and a small boy who was maybe 4 years old replied by putting his hand up like a gun and shot at me. I lucked out, he was a bad aim!

The second mountain range took us up to 8,024ft. It was much like riding through the pines of Angeles National Forest. I did not find this one as interesting but it was fun and there were many people to see.

We ended up in San Cristobal at 2:00 and found a nice hotel called Hotel Santa Clara. It is once again clean and has hot water. I think Mike and I are going to walk around a bit, have some dinner, go to bed and then say our goodbye's in the morning.

Update Day 6, Part 2

January 16, 2008

After finishing my updates Mike and I walked around a little bit and then decided to have dinner. While we were ordering we met a couple that we had met earlier in the day. When we arrived at the ruins we saw another motorcycle in the lot. As we were getting ready to leave the man and woman returned and we struck up a conversation. Turns out that Ian and Carolyn are from New South Whales Australia and have been traveling since early August. They started by shipping their bike to Seattle and rode up to Alaska taking almost the same route I did last year. Since then they have been slowly working their way South and will end the trip a little bit early in Panama next month. They did have plans for Tierra Del Fuego at the tip of Argentina but have run out of time. The worst part is they had been in the rain almost the entire time. Anyway we had a nice dinner with them, exchanged info and went our separate ways.

Update Day 6, 188 Miles

January 16, 2008

Today we decided to make it an easy day of riding. We were out of the hotel by 8 am and Mike dumped his bike over promptly at 8:00:01. As he was pulling out of the parking area onto the street he lost his footing because the streets are oily and it was foggy so there was dew everywhere. Nothing bad happened to him or his bike so we picked it up and we were on our way. It was a fast 188 miles to the town of Palenque. When I say fast you have to realize this is by Mexico standards. As you can see by previous days it can take a while to go a little ways but they have all been full days of riding.

We made it to Palenque at 12 noon and were done riding for the day for the most part. We found a great place for lunch and then decided to do the tourist thing and go see the local Mayan Ruins. We spent about 2 hours there and could have easily spent a few more but it was hot. It was very interesting to see and I am sure that we will be seeing a few more in the near future. When we were done touring we rode back into town and found a very nice hotel that is very clean and friendly with motorcycle friendly parking to boot.

I think that is enough for a few days. I have been here at the computer for almost 3 hours and Mike just told me I am missing the world pass me by.

Bye for now.

Update Day 5, 331 Miles

January 15, 2008

I woke from a deep sleep to find a beautiful day outside with a cool breeze and the sun shining. We were out and on our way at 8:45. We rode for a while along the coast and then the road headed inland for a bit. While in the mountains we stopped at a little restaurant, we will call it a restaurant but it is once again no where near the fine dining of San Fernando Blvd. There were two very nice ladies who promptly jumped to attention and started cooking. I had ham and eggs scrambled and Mike had the Breakfast Americano. Go figure, his had Jalapenos.

As the road headed back to the ocean it was warming up a bit but the ocean breeze helped. Once we got near Alvarado we ran into our first military check point. We had seen them before but they only were stopping the northbound traffic. They pull us to the side and ask us to open our luggage. They look through it without a care and at this point it all becomes clear. They start asking questions about the bikes. How big? How fast? How much? I know realize that I should not tell anyone how much the bikes cost. I told the truth and their eyes all got big and they were telling the ones who did not hear. After everyone had settled down just a little bit they were very helpful in telling us how far and how long it will take us to get to our destination for the day and they sent us on out way. The one thing they neglected to tell us was how beautiful it was going to be. The next two hours or so were spent winding through the mountains at the narrow part of Mexico between the Pacific and the Gulf. The road took us into the tropical jungles and many neat villages. We would stop at the fruit stands and do our part in contributing to the local economy. We would eat whatever they were selling and it would cost us about $0.30 but we were generous and would leave them $0.50.

Our goal for the day was to make it to Villahermosa but when we entered the town we found it to be way to big and modern for us. We made the decision to go to the next town. All day we had been passing town after town about every 5 miles or so. This time we move on to the next town to find out there is no next town close by. Our Problem is we are running out of daylight and you never ride after dark here, or so we are told. We find out that the next town is about 25 miles up the road but now we have no choice. We arrive there fine at 6:15 about 30 minutes after dark and check into the only hotel in town. Down here they have hotels that are called Auto Hotels. They have a small garage that you can park your car in and pull a drape closed behind it so no one can see your car at the hotel. As we later find out this is a hotel where one might take his mistress for the evening and no one will see you there. All that I can say is if I took Sylvia there I can count on getting nothing for a long while. It was pretty bad but it would have to do for the night.

Update Day 4, 221 Miles

January 14, 2008

Before we left our hotel in the morning I asked the manager for directions on how to get to Veracruz. He reminded me of our old neighbor Ralph Adame only shorter but equally as animated. As he proceeded to shout directions and throw his arms in all directions I had no choice but to shake my head as if I knew exactly what he was saying. So with his total confidence that we would get there he sent us on our way. As it turns out I understood next to nothing which I believe all of you reading this already knew. As it turns out my GPS is not so accurate down here. We ended up in the old center of town and could not get out. The GPS showed bridges over the water where there were no bridges. After some time I started asking for directions. I found a guy on a small motorcycle and asked him he lead us for a mile or so and send us on our way. Then to make sure of his directions I ask a police officer and he confirmed what we were told after all was said and done we burned up 1:40 of precious day light which should have taken 5 min. Who cares we were having fun and seeing more of the city than we hoped for.

The rest of the day was pleasant taking us through more coastal plains and some mountains. We did stop for a modified lunch of tangerines at one point but that was it for lunch.

As the day was getting close to an end it started to rain. We pulled over put on our rain gear and pressed on. After about 30 minutes common sense got the best of us and we found a hotel right on the beach. Once checked in we had dinner at the hotel restaurant and then it was bed time.

Update Day 1, 949 miles

My first day got off to a late start. I was waiting on some paperwork to arrive via FedEx and then needed to go to the DMV. The package showed up at 10 am and I finished with the DMV at 10:30. Sylvia came home from work to see me off but decided it would be a little more romantic and meaningful if she bought me lunch first. So off to Burger King we went! Lunch was as to be expected so we ate quickly and after a short goodbye I was on my way at 11:30 am pacific time.

I was making good time but was still behind schedule so I pushed on into the night more than I would have liked to. The temperatures dropped quickly. In Arizona it was mid 40's and New Mexico ranged from 32 to 39 degrees. Then my favorite state of all had a little bit more in store for me. It hit a low of 29 degrees but luck was on my side and it was dry. I managed to pull into Van Horn Texas which is about 120 mile east of El Paso at 4:45 am central time. Motel 6 was nice enough to leave the light on for me.