South America 2008

We’ve done a lot of miles by now and I’ve found out that…

Traffic lights and road markings are only suggestions… I’ve run more red lights, gone against more one-way streets and ignored more ‘rules of the road’ in two weeks than in my entire life so far. The crazy thing is that is works! I guess people expect the unexpected so they don’t freak out. Cool!

You can pass a pickup truck full of police in Mexico going 110 in the 80 zone (km/h) without being pulled over… Nice!

Colorful buses in Guatemala are driven by madmen and are very dangerous… let them pass… Peligro!

Guatemala has a lot of wonderful roads with excellent pavement and tons of twisties up and down the mountains… no tunnels so far… Great fun!

Obstacles in the road so far have been a bunch of cows, some horses, two donkeys, hens and chickens, a rooster or two, a peacock, a sheep cadaver, some unidentifiable cadavers, a million street-dogs, some goats, a staggering drunk man with a half-empty bottle of booze in his hand, a staggering drunk man with a 2-foot long machete in his hand… I think that’s about it…

People are almost always nice and will return a smile with a ear-to-ear grin… probably because we look strange with all our gear… Lucila has been especially nice and we can’t thank her enough for taking care of us in Guatemala City… without her we may still be driving around looking for a hotel

We’ve been lucky with the roads, the weather, people, the gear, just about everything… I hope it will continue… and I hope I didn’t just jinx us!

This internet connection is pretty good but I forgot my USB cable… no pictures now either…. I have a ton of cool photos but… más tarde amigos…

I’m in Esquipulas right now where the main street about 7 blocks long with a median with trees and stuff… there are tons of scooters with one or two or three passengers, quads, tricycle-taxis and other vehicles… going round and round like a racetrack! It’s fun to just watch.

Getting here from Guatemala City we took mostly dirt roads and WOW! I’m exhausted but it was fun! Thanks Ramón for helping us plan the route! We didn’t take too many wrong turns… hehehe… I love GPS!

Tomorrow we head for the border to cross into Honduras and the Copán ruins, I’m looking forward to it.

Peace Out!

P.S. Jim! I hope you’re keeping my Suzuki warm while I’m gone… hit some twisties at A.C.H. or something! Hehehe…

(Note: A lot of these full size pictures got chopped. To see the full pic just click on it.)

We’re currently in Antigua, Guatemala, a picturesque colonial town with beautiful, old buildings with huge, garden like courtyards and bumpy cobblestone streets. We’ll be here for a whole day (no bike riding!) of rest and relaxation.

Here are some pictures from different parts of the trip….

Me and the luxurious accomodations aboard the ferry to Mazatlan

Five adventure motorcyclists exiting the ferry in Mazatlan

Guadalajara, Mexico (these police were on standby for a mild demonstration and a live outdoor concert in this plaza, everything was peaceful and nothing happened)

This is what it’s all about, no? Guadalarja, Mexico

This could have been taken anywhere in Mexico as Pemex is the only place to get gas. This was taken on the road from Acapulco to Puerto Escondido.

We stayed at the Le Petit Hotel in Puerto Escondido. It is owned and operated by a French expat and the place is extremely charming and a neat place to stay. I highly recommend it.

View from our front entrance. We had the deluxe suite for 60 bucks a night. We had a front veranda with a table for six and this view.

The view from my room. Yes, I did jump from the balcony into the pool. No, I was not drunk when I did it.

Los Pyramides de Teotihuacan (northeast of Mexico City)

San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. For some reason the pesky vendors would always home in on Roar and not me. I wonder why. This little girl hounded Roar for good while and I couldn’t stop laughing while taking this picture.

Lago Atitlan, Guatemala

Normally, I say no gracias to the bothersome sellers of knickknacks but this one got me with her friendly, funny sales pitch and a wide smile. Plus, Roar and I were looking for some stuff to put on our bikes anyhow, so it was perfect timing as well….

Ha, it’s funny. We’ve got two stories, one in real time (Reader’s Digest version) and one that’s far superior….no, I’ll catch up, I swear. Unfortunately I can’t post pics with this computer. I’ll stick to the important stories.

The ferry crossing from La Paz to Mazatlan. About 18 hours, uncomfortable, no cabins, just a couple of rooms for truck drivers, travelers, and adventure motorcyclists to sit in theater seatings and watch movie after movie, including telenovelas from the seventies at maximum volume. Several times we had to get up to turn the tv off to prevent ourselves from going mad.

David was an adventure motorcyclist from South Africa. (His website is listed to the right if you’d like to read about his travels.) He is doing it right and taking the next six years to travel the world. I’d like to do that someday.

I enjoyed talking to him about South Africa. Something I didn’t know is that his country is in decline. A lot of industy is failing and the country is falling apart (in his opinion). He predicted a meltdown in about five years similar to the one Zimbabwe experienced several years back. I’m curious to check things out on my own but I appreciated his opinions and observations about a place I’d really like to visit in the future.

The two other guys were twentysomethings from Seattle, Washington. They were  on their way to Zihuateneo, a place on the Mexican coast that’s on the list of 1000 places to see before you die.

During their trip down Baja they spotted some random dirt track heading off to the coast. They followed it to the end, found themselves alone on a huge stretch of beach and camped the night. I was so jealous to hear that story and I vow to that myself one day I’ll do the same. I know I will make it come true and probably bring a few buddies with me.

I sacked out on the floor and got some poor quality rest.

We arrived Mazatlan and departed the ferry at about 9 am. We said goodbye to the guys from Seattle and headed off with David to find a place to stay in Mazatlan.

Early morning start, on the road by 7 am. The sun was just coming over the horizon so we stopped at an outlook to admire the view and snap a few photos. I took this one right away.

The place reminded me of pictures of the Dalmation Coast along the Adriatic Sea. I’ve never been there but this peaceful scene made me think of it. As Roar set up his tripod for a romantic picture of the two of us, three locals sauntered on up to us to strike up a conversation. All three had Tecates in their hands and I knew that they had been drinking all night. They were friendly as can be and asked us about the trip we were taking and wanted to know about the motorcycles. I decided to take this one of Roar and his new buddies.

They didn’t leave right away so the moment was lost and we didn’t get to have our romantic picture together.

Highway One, the main north-south highway in Baja zig zags from coast to coast as you travel south. It starts off at the west coast with Tijuana and Ensenada, cuts inland, makes it to the Sea of Cortez at Santa Rosalia, hugs that coast to Loreto, then heads west. As we left the sea we were greeted by fun twisties and beautiful scenery. Roar calls them “forests of cactus.” It was a great start to the morning but I knew we had some long, boring straightaways ahead.

Every hour or so we stop for a break. We stretch our legs, drink some water, have some snacks. And inevitably, after about five minutes a stray dog would show up out of nowhere. These are the kind that are timid and shy because they are used to being beaten. Some just want a little bit of affection but others are like this guys here. Skin and bones and starving. This guy scooped up every strawberry fig newton I gave him.

One last set of twisties before we would arrive near La Paz. We were on a schedule. The ferry to Mazatlan left once a day around 3 pm and we didn’t want to miss it. We fought the wind again, which left us even more fatigued. With all the riding we were doing the tiredness seemed to build up upon the previous day’s fatigue. It didn’t seem like we gained as much energy in our down time as we used up riding.

We rolled into La Paz around noon and headed straight to the ferry. We passed the popular waterfront area which looked like a lot of fun. Not this time….

The ferry ride cost us $80 and the bikes were another $116. All the ferries I’ve been on have been the nice kind with cabins if you wanted to pay a little bit extra, some bars or restaurants, or at the very least some nice areas to hang out in. One ferry from Norway to Denmark even had a nightclub on it.

I started to wonder when the dock looked incredibly commercial. Just truck drivers and guys working the docks and the ship. It looked primitive from the outside and I told Roar it was a bad sign when we bought our tickets that they didn’t have any cabins.

We waited at the dock for about half an hour while they stuffed the ship’s belly with trucks and trailers. I figured that they would load all the heavy stuff first and save us for last. As we sat waiting, three adventure motorcyclists pulled up. Two on Suzuki dirtbikes and another on a loaded down BMW F650 (the bike I initially wanted to get for the trip). We had just enough time to introduce ourselves when it was our turn to load up.

I figured that we would have plenty of time to get to know one another during the 15 hour ferry ride….

Ok, ok, if you’re just interested in the Reader’s Digest version you can settle for reading Roar’s entries. However, if you want more substance to your reading, if you want to experience the emotional ups and downs, the details of these incredible adventures, then read on with me….No, just kidding…It’s amazing how much one experiences while traveling. But I’ll do a better job of keeping these shorter, otherwise I’ll fall too far behind. For the complete story just wait for the book…..

The rest of day three….south, down the east coast of the Baja peninsula along the Sea of Cortez….excellent riding and excellent views….it’s like the fun, twisty sections of PCH (Pacific Coast Highway in California, U.S.). A bunch of RV’s were camped in little nooks and crannies on the beaches between the curvy sections. I think that this stretch might be one of those little known RV camper’s delights.

The town of Loreto also seemed to be one of those little known expat, American retiree hangouts. We pulled into town at dusk after covering 400 miles. Not a long stretch by car, but by motorcycle it’s a LOT different.

The first restaurant we saw was an open air place filled with American tourists about a block away from the water. “Nah,” I told Roar, “I want some place more local. I want to see some Mexicans.”

We found another place, extremely colorful and well decorated on the inside. And it had Mexicans. We had two blue margaritas and some of the best Pescado al Ajo (Fish with garlic) I have ever had (except for anything that Jason cooks). We met the owner and his friends who were all expats, retirees, or snowbirds. He had renovated the place and this was the grand reopening night. The Mexicans we saw were their friends and one was even the leader of the state’s PRD political party. Dinner, drinks, and a little bit of ice cream were on the house! What an excellent way to end an incredible day….

Friday, February 8

We woke up early and were on the road by 7 am. I used earplugs for the first time while riding and liked it. The previous day’s ride was loud and the noise wore me down during the day. The lack of noise made the riding more surreal and I almost felt like it wasn’t me leaning into the corners in the crisp, cold morning air.

We were about twenty minutes into our ride when we reached the top of a hill and had to slow down for an eighteen wheeler. He started to take off down the hill, which was too steep and narrow for me to attempt a pass so I gave the guy some room, intending to pass near the bottom. I stayed about 100 yards behind him and started to notice that he was driving just a little bit too fast. The truck started to round the last curve and I saw the left tires at the rear of the trailer start to lift off the ground.

Time seemed to slow as the tires came higher and higher off the ground. At a certain point I knew that the tires wouldn’t come back down and sure enough, the trailer’s left side was completely in the air and the trailer and tractor rolled together to the right, impacted the shoulder, and did a complete flip, landing rightside up on the side of the road, with a sickening crash, and flying dirt and debris.

This occurred in just a few seconds but was horrible to watch as I could see where things were headed. I had kept a safe distance and had plenty of time to negotiate the curve and slow to a stop. I rode for another couple of hundred yards, pulled off the road, and drove back to the truck.

I saw a woman lying face down near the truck. Her arms were convulsing and her face was bloody. I saw a man taking young children out of the smashed up cab and placing them near the woman. By the time I stopped and took off my helmet and gloves, three children were sitting on the ground as the crying man cradled and hugged the woman.

The three kids were about 10, 4, and 2 years old. The oldest,a boy sat dazed, tears covering his face and held onto his little sisters. I went to the cab and pulled out several blankets and covered the children and the woman. It was about 50 degrees out and there was a wicked 20 mph wind and I worried about them going into shock. I found some pieces of foam from the wreckage to place under the woman´s head. Roar approached and spread out his first aid kit in front of the kids. He started cleaning up the boy’s face.

The woman regained consciousness but it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain and to make things even worse, I saw that she was clearly pregnant. I asked the man where she felt pain and he replied that it was her head, which explained the convulsions. When I first saw that I thought that she was going to die for sure.

As Roar continued to treat the boy I ran up to the road when I heard vehicles approach. I flagged down several drivers heading in each direction and asked them to call the police and for an ambulance. There was not much else for Roar or I to do, except to treat these people for shock and wait for an ambulance. The boy had a three inch gash to the back of his head that would require stitches but it wasn’t bleeding.The man continued to cry and hug and cradle the woman. The little girls sat and cried, I felt so bad for them. Thankfully, it was not the blood curdling cries, which to me would indicate that the kids were badly hurt. But they were shaken up, hurt, and traumatized just the same.

Over the course of the next twenty five minutes several people pulled over. Fortunately, a few tourists came to help out. A german couple offered to transport the family back to Cataviña so we loaded the family in the back of their minivan. I felt especially bad for the boy because I know he was trying so hard to hold on but he was laying on his side underneath the blanket with his quickly swelling eye shut by the time we guided him to the minivan.

Shortly after the minivan left a police truck showed up. It was 45 minutes after the accident occurred, which is not surprising considering how remote that section of Baja is. I briefly explained to the cop in my broken Spanish what happened and that was it. No witness statement or anything so we just prepared to hit the road.

Interesting to transition from witnessing such a life altering event back to the routine we had from the last couple of days. It was life altering for the man and his family. For us, not so much. We did what we thought was right. We helped out strangers in need and tried to comfort and summoned help. But we continued on with our trip. Who knows what will happen to that man and his family. He’s lucky that he and his children are alive and I hope that that remained true of his wife….

To be continued…..

I guess we were a lot more tired than I thought. Instead of leaving at the break of dawn, we got up lazily, walked around a dead Ensenada looking for breakfast or a place to change money with no luck, and struck out of town around 10 am.

We were surprised to find great riding just 10 minutes or so south out of Ensenada. There was about forty miles of great, rolling twisties through green hills and valleys. If you ever ride a motorcycle to Ensenada, it is worth your time to check out Highway 1 for at least an hour south of town.

I have to explain about my bike because I’m sure that Roar will. After a quick lunch of carne asada tacos on the side of the road. (The road was the only thing paved. Everything off of it was dust, sand, or dirt.) I saw a little bit of mud and had to take off through it. Small patch of mud, not much mud on the bike, right? Wrong. For that tiny bit of fun, my bike got a healthy dose of mud and looks like I did some decent off road riding. Don’t be fooled……

We stopped in the town of Rosario when we hit the 2:30 pm mark. The time between 2 and 4 pm became important to us because we had to plan where we would end up. With some huge stretches of highway in the middle of the Baja desert it’s not too hard to find yourself stranded at the end of the day or even running out of gas.

We asked the gas station attendant at the Pemex about the next place that had hotels. He said that Cataviña was the next place and that was 150 km (about 90 miles) away. On the map, it looked pretty desolate past it so we decided we would have plenty of time.

The road to Cataviña became the twisted and gnarly road that motorcyclists love. Baja was turning out to be one big surprise. I thought it might be limited to great off road riding, which we were not doing at all. But the paved roads were fun and in great shape, overall.

I had my second scare on a tight, unbanked, downgrade curve. I was behind a car and could not see very far into the turn because of the mountain. I briefly glanced straight ahead to see about a hundred foot drop off. I quickly returned my concentration ahead into the curve because as my friend, Gordy, says, “Look where you want to go and not where you don’t want to go.” Halfway into the curve and a large, thin patch of sand passed from underneath the car. I tried to aim for an opening but I was already committed. I hit the patch and my front wheel slid about six inches, caught traction on the asphalt again. The adrenaline hit my system as I thought it would have been bad to slide off the road and down the slope of rocks. But, concentration and good riding fundamentals and the bike did what it was supposed to do. Still scared the crap out of me. I won’t lie….

Cataviña was a two hotel stop out in the middle of nowhere. 4 pm and tired from all the twisties we called it a day. Only a 200 mile day but not too bad for just starting out the trip and getting our riding legs underneath us.

Really, we were out in the middle of nowhere and the beauty of the desert was really incredible. Too bad the small market had a million watt flourescent Tecate light otherwise we would have seen the milky way in the sky. We went to the only cafe in town, which was heated by a wood stove. (Electricity out there was by generator.) Some more Dos XX and shrimp burritos and we called another early night. This time we were serious about waking up early and making the next day a long riding day. It turned out to be that and then some…..

Roar and I left for our adventure around 1 pm from Huntington Beach on Wednesday, February 6th. Our motorcycles are 2007 Kawasaki KLR 650’s, an enduro type bike that’s good on and off road (Mine’s red and his is black). Both of us have the same hard saddle bags, which are modified Pelican cases. We made some modifications to the bikes, which I can cover in a separate post for the people interested in specifics.

The ride to San Diego was an uneventful hour and a half ride down I-5. We planned to arrive in Ensenada, Mexico the first night since it’s normally a 3-4 hour drive by car from Huntington Beach. Our general plan was only to ride during the day and avoid riding at night, if possible. In Latin America, nighttime riding is dangerous, especially to motorcyclists. Aside from the threat of bandits and drunk drivers, you just can’t see those potholes, cattle, sand, cars with no lights or other endless hazards before it’s too late.

We arrived on the U.S. side to buy insurance at around 3:45 pm and crossed over to the Mexican side shortly thereafter. Usually, on the straight shots to Ensenada for a weekend of fun my friends and I never stop at the border. It’s not a requirement for short gringo trips.

This time, however, we pulled right over once we got through the initial gates to get our visas. We paid our twenty bucks, had our passports stamped, and walked towards our parked bikes when Roar spotted our first bit of luck on the trip….a four inch rusty nail had punctured one of the knobbies on his rear tire! It was kind of like a gross earring in the tire but, thankfully, it didn’t puncture the tire or the tube so Roar snapped a photo and just pulled it out. A punctured tire at that point would have been like Wiley Coyote lighting off a huge Acme rocket, only to have it fizzle and drop on top of him. What a bummer that would have been! A flat tire at the busy, Tijuana border near the end of the day…

The other thing we needed was to get an import permit for the motorcycles. Given the chaotic nature of Tijuana it was surprising how easy it was to find. We paid our thirty bucks, which let us keep the bikes in Mexico for up to 180 days and hit the road by 4:30 pm. I was a little bit worried about the time since the sun was about to go down but I was familiar with the road and with Ensenada so breaking the “no driving at night” rule wouldn’t be such a big deal this time.

The scenic toll road to Ensenada rolls through coastal bluffs and follows along the Pacific coast. I’ve taken this road at least a dozen times but I’ve never seen it so beautiful. I’m serious. It sounds cheesy but the day was extremely clear (a bit cold) and with the last long rays of the sun, the whole coast had this incredibly soft, golden glow. That, plus the fact that it was the start of our trip, made it the best drive ever down that highway.

There are a couple of really curvy sections with no guard rails that I knew would be coming up that concerned me. Our motorcycles are not very aerodynamic and gusts of wind find the parts of the bike that wish they were wings instead like our fenders. Racing to beat the falling sun we were hitting top speeds of 85 to 95 mph. On my old streetbike, that speed would feel like driving 55 mph in grandma’s car. On these bikes, everything rattles and shakes.

I got my first bit of adrenaline when we hit one of those curvy stretches of road with the steep cliffs to the ocean. The heavy gusts of wind hit me and I fought my weighted down bike to keep it from drifting into oncoming traffic or down a cliff. Funny, how you can go from a smooth, incredibly fun, gorgeous ride to one where you’re afraid of losing control and getting killed. Thankfully, that stretch was over in a few minutes…just in time for Roar to race past me and pull over to tell me that my lights were out.

Great, I must’ve blown a fuse since I noticed that my heated grips weren’t working and the instrument panel was dark as well. Roar took the lead as the light started to fade. Fortunately, we had another 16 miles or so and we were out of the twisties. We switched positions since Roar couldn’t see me in the rear view mirror and I went on into the darkness. There were only a couple of totally dark curves but I slowed down considerably. Hard to ride when you’re blind. We rolled into Ensenada and stopped right away into the El Cid hotel.

Excited and exhilirated at having finally started our adventure we went to a nearby steakhouse for fat steaks and well deserved beers. The nightlife was dead on a Wednesday so we hit the sack around midnight intending to get a full day of riding the next day….