Hi everyone
Well, so much for internet cafe´s. I just finished writing what I think was a very good post and ¨poof¨it was eaten by the internet gods.
So, rather than do it all over you´ll just have to believe me when I say it´s been an incredible few days. Days 3, 4 and 5 included a down day in Mazatlan and WAY too many beer at lunch, another breakfast of goat soup and tacos in a small Mexican town that NO tourists ever get to, a fouled carb due to poor Mexican gas, a great dinner and hotel in Rincon de Guayabitos, mountain roads and a VERY close call that I´m sure Keven is still thanking God for saving him and two wrong turns onto one-way streets in a small Mexican town. And of course, since it was market day, there were at least 100 Caballeros in town for the auction that had quite a chuckle at our expense.
We´re now in Barra de Navidad and heading to Colima in the morning.
Day 4 - 399klm
day 5- 299 klm
Total - 2,275klm
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Day 1 & 2 - Mazatlan!
First off - sorry but there are no pictures at this point. I´m using a computer in a hotel and I have to get permission to download to their system.
We made it to Mazatlan last night but it was a gruelling trip - 867 klm / 14 hours ! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
Do any of you remember the movie from the Eighties - An American Werewolf in London? It´s a classic. In one scene they´re told time and time again, don´t walk at night on the Moors. What do they do? Walk at the night on the Moors. And of course, what happens after that is a great movie.
Every guide book, web site and blog ALL say, DON´T drive in Mexico at night. What did we do? Over 200klm last night in the darkest, most desolate stretch of Mexican super highway you can imagine. I guess God favours the brave ( or the stupid in this case ) because we made it safe and sound but never EVER again.
Oh, and by the way, a Honda GL 500 can go 317 klm on a tank of gas. The last 25 of which are on reserve which makes the "pucker factor" even higher. According to my owners manual my bike has a 17 litre gas tank. When we finally made it to a gas station it took 17 litres to fill it so were all on fumes!
Day 1
We left Nogales Az early on Monday morning. OK, not as early as we´d have liked because two that shall remain nameless slept in. Crossing the border into Mexico was a breeze. We must have timed it right because there were no lineups to speak of at all. The whole process takes about 45min but you have to double it because only two of us could go at once so that we always had someone with the gear. After that it was the culture shock of going from Order to Chaos. Clean to Dirty. Organized to Disorganized. We loved it!
The road from the border is a two lane toll highway that´s pretty good. It´s divided highway but not a freeway and we made pretty good time after we finally finished all the paperwork. Our only set back was our first fuel stop. Again, someone who shall remain nameless, (not me, in case you´re wondering) filled their tank with diesel. Hmmmmm.... diesel is spelled the same in Spanish and English. Oh well, a half hour of siphoning later we were back on the road.
Our first night was spent in San Carlos.
One final note for day one - it started out really cold! We´re all wearing mesh hot-weather riding gear so we added every piece of clothing we have. Including our rain gear. We all look like the Michelin Man. By noon it warmed up enough that we could start peeling off layers but it was still chilly all day. Even at 20 degree´s it´s cold when you´re riding a bike at 90kph.
Day 2
Day two started on a better note. Everyone was up at the right time and we have the packing down to a science now. We thought it was cold when we started but as we travelled south we also climbed in altitude. By the time 9:00 rolled around it was absolutely freezing. I´m going to guess somewhere around zero because we could see frost in places!
We stopped for breakfast at a road side stand in the middle of nowhere and we were chilled to the bone. We joined some locals at their table and had a great meal of taco´s and cabbage soup. Hey, it wasn´t coffee but it was hot!
From there it was miles and miles of miles and miles. Northern Mexico is kinda like Montana but just more desert. It´s pretty desolate. The good news though, is although the tolls are fairly steep, the roads just got better and better as we continued south. We went through Obregon, Novajoa, and Los Mochis. All of it on great highways with gas stations every 50 klm.
Around 3:00 we arrived just outside a large city called Culliacan (sp?) and that´s where things fell off the rails. What we SHOULD have done, is simply called it a day and gone into the city for a hotel. But we didn´t like the idea of riding in a city and we had this vague notion that there must be something better just down the road. And just then, as we´re debating the issue over our maps a Mexican overhears us talking about a place on the map called El Dorado. On the map it looks just off the highway a little further south. He tells us, in very broken English that it´s a great place with lots of hotels. Lying bastard! He´s probably still laughing. We decided to give it a try but it turns out it was much further than we thought. We had just gassed up but we had go down the freeway a little further to the turn off, and then in on a secondary road for at least 25 klm. And as we went, it got worse and worse. The town it self was VERY dodgy, with a HUGE sense of lawlessness and NO hotels that we could see. Brad and I have both travelled a lot in Mexico and we both strenuously argued that it wasn´t the place to spend the night. I think the conversation went something like, Oh my God! Let´s get the f!!! out of here! Anyway, the problem of course is it´s now after 4:00 and dusk is just around the corner. We all felt though, that driving at dusk couldn´t be any worse than the current situation so we turned tail and ran.
Except now it´s dusk and the local factory has let out and all the workers are heading home in buses, carts, bikes, cars and donkey´s, none of which have working headlights. 25 minutes in turns into 45 out and it´s getting VERY dark when we finally hit the main road. And HERE is where we made our fatal error.
Do we backtrack 25 klm to Culliacan where we KNOW there will be a hotel or do we continue south hoping to see something? You guessed it - continue south.
Right around the corner we hit another toll booth but this time it was much more expensive and now they referred to the highway as the Autopista rather than just a highway. We paid the toll and continued on - now in full on dark. BIG MISTAKE.
As soon as we cleared the booth it became a full on freeway and the only stretch of road in Mexico with no FREAK´N gas stations!! On top of that, the temperature continued to drop but the were no pullouts that we could stop at to put on more clothes and stopping on the side of the road was too dangerous to even think about. It was a long, cold, dark, very scary drive! As the kilometers racked up the fuel levels dropped and as we neared what we hoped were the lights of Mazatlan, tow of us hit our reserve. When we finally emerged from this surreal hell of a ride we ended up in another toll booth where we could finally pull over and put on the rest of our cloths. At this point - all kidding aside - I´m sure we were approaching hypothermia. Except for Kavan of course, he has an electric vest!. They told us at the toll booth it was 28 klm to Mazatlan, which we finished at only 80kph to conserve fuel. The lights of the first Pemex gas station were a shining beacon of hope in an otherwise dark wasteland of fear and despair! OK, maybe an exaggeration but it would have been a long walk if we had run out of fuel.
The irony of course, is after gassing up we had to drive in city traffic at night to find our hotel - probably the most dangerous part of the whole day!
When we arrived at our hotel it was 14 hours and 867 klm later but all is well.
We picked something nice right downtown because we earned it
http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do
We´re going to spend a down day here in Mazatlan to recoup and then the journey will continue
Cheers
We made it to Mazatlan last night but it was a gruelling trip - 867 klm / 14 hours ! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
Do any of you remember the movie from the Eighties - An American Werewolf in London? It´s a classic. In one scene they´re told time and time again, don´t walk at night on the Moors. What do they do? Walk at the night on the Moors. And of course, what happens after that is a great movie.
Every guide book, web site and blog ALL say, DON´T drive in Mexico at night. What did we do? Over 200klm last night in the darkest, most desolate stretch of Mexican super highway you can imagine. I guess God favours the brave ( or the stupid in this case ) because we made it safe and sound but never EVER again.
Oh, and by the way, a Honda GL 500 can go 317 klm on a tank of gas. The last 25 of which are on reserve which makes the "pucker factor" even higher. According to my owners manual my bike has a 17 litre gas tank. When we finally made it to a gas station it took 17 litres to fill it so were all on fumes!
Day 1
We left Nogales Az early on Monday morning. OK, not as early as we´d have liked because two that shall remain nameless slept in. Crossing the border into Mexico was a breeze. We must have timed it right because there were no lineups to speak of at all. The whole process takes about 45min but you have to double it because only two of us could go at once so that we always had someone with the gear. After that it was the culture shock of going from Order to Chaos. Clean to Dirty. Organized to Disorganized. We loved it!
The road from the border is a two lane toll highway that´s pretty good. It´s divided highway but not a freeway and we made pretty good time after we finally finished all the paperwork. Our only set back was our first fuel stop. Again, someone who shall remain nameless, (not me, in case you´re wondering) filled their tank with diesel. Hmmmmm.... diesel is spelled the same in Spanish and English. Oh well, a half hour of siphoning later we were back on the road.
Our first night was spent in San Carlos.
One final note for day one - it started out really cold! We´re all wearing mesh hot-weather riding gear so we added every piece of clothing we have. Including our rain gear. We all look like the Michelin Man. By noon it warmed up enough that we could start peeling off layers but it was still chilly all day. Even at 20 degree´s it´s cold when you´re riding a bike at 90kph.
Day 2
Day two started on a better note. Everyone was up at the right time and we have the packing down to a science now. We thought it was cold when we started but as we travelled south we also climbed in altitude. By the time 9:00 rolled around it was absolutely freezing. I´m going to guess somewhere around zero because we could see frost in places!
We stopped for breakfast at a road side stand in the middle of nowhere and we were chilled to the bone. We joined some locals at their table and had a great meal of taco´s and cabbage soup. Hey, it wasn´t coffee but it was hot!
From there it was miles and miles of miles and miles. Northern Mexico is kinda like Montana but just more desert. It´s pretty desolate. The good news though, is although the tolls are fairly steep, the roads just got better and better as we continued south. We went through Obregon, Novajoa, and Los Mochis. All of it on great highways with gas stations every 50 klm.
Around 3:00 we arrived just outside a large city called Culliacan (sp?) and that´s where things fell off the rails. What we SHOULD have done, is simply called it a day and gone into the city for a hotel. But we didn´t like the idea of riding in a city and we had this vague notion that there must be something better just down the road. And just then, as we´re debating the issue over our maps a Mexican overhears us talking about a place on the map called El Dorado. On the map it looks just off the highway a little further south. He tells us, in very broken English that it´s a great place with lots of hotels. Lying bastard! He´s probably still laughing. We decided to give it a try but it turns out it was much further than we thought. We had just gassed up but we had go down the freeway a little further to the turn off, and then in on a secondary road for at least 25 klm. And as we went, it got worse and worse. The town it self was VERY dodgy, with a HUGE sense of lawlessness and NO hotels that we could see. Brad and I have both travelled a lot in Mexico and we both strenuously argued that it wasn´t the place to spend the night. I think the conversation went something like, Oh my God! Let´s get the f!!! out of here! Anyway, the problem of course is it´s now after 4:00 and dusk is just around the corner. We all felt though, that driving at dusk couldn´t be any worse than the current situation so we turned tail and ran.
Except now it´s dusk and the local factory has let out and all the workers are heading home in buses, carts, bikes, cars and donkey´s, none of which have working headlights. 25 minutes in turns into 45 out and it´s getting VERY dark when we finally hit the main road. And HERE is where we made our fatal error.
Do we backtrack 25 klm to Culliacan where we KNOW there will be a hotel or do we continue south hoping to see something? You guessed it - continue south.
Right around the corner we hit another toll booth but this time it was much more expensive and now they referred to the highway as the Autopista rather than just a highway. We paid the toll and continued on - now in full on dark. BIG MISTAKE.
As soon as we cleared the booth it became a full on freeway and the only stretch of road in Mexico with no FREAK´N gas stations!! On top of that, the temperature continued to drop but the were no pullouts that we could stop at to put on more clothes and stopping on the side of the road was too dangerous to even think about. It was a long, cold, dark, very scary drive! As the kilometers racked up the fuel levels dropped and as we neared what we hoped were the lights of Mazatlan, tow of us hit our reserve. When we finally emerged from this surreal hell of a ride we ended up in another toll booth where we could finally pull over and put on the rest of our cloths. At this point - all kidding aside - I´m sure we were approaching hypothermia. Except for Kavan of course, he has an electric vest!. They told us at the toll booth it was 28 klm to Mazatlan, which we finished at only 80kph to conserve fuel. The lights of the first Pemex gas station were a shining beacon of hope in an otherwise dark wasteland of fear and despair! OK, maybe an exaggeration but it would have been a long walk if we had run out of fuel.
The irony of course, is after gassing up we had to drive in city traffic at night to find our hotel - probably the most dangerous part of the whole day!
When we arrived at our hotel it was 14 hours and 867 klm later but all is well.
We picked something nice right downtown because we earned it
http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do
We´re going to spend a down day here in Mazatlan to recoup and then the journey will continue
Cheers
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Greetings from Nogales Arizona - Day 1
Just a short note to let everyone know that I'm alive and well in sunny Nogales Arizona. I drove down to Spokane on Friday evening and it was one terrible! I've never driven through such thick fog in all my life. At one point I was down to 20 KPH and I had my four way flashers on because I was scared I would be hit from behind.I eventually made it OK and spent an uneventful night in Spokane.
The flight down was OK as well, with the exception of the stop over in Salt Lake City. We changed planes as planned but after we taxied out to the runway we sat for a full hour while the pilot tried to correct a mechanical problem. They eventually pulled us back to the airport for mechanics to fix it but no such luck - so it was everybody off the plane and re-board on a replacement. It all worked out though, and even though I was two hours late, I arrived safe and sound in Phoenix and - oh joy of joy's! - my luggage was waiting for me!
We stayed up until midnight going over routes and pouring over maps. After a solid 4 hours sleep I was wide awake and ready to go - the problem of course, was it was still 4:00 in the morning! Oh well, eventually 7:00 arrived and we all got up, had a great breakfast, loaded our gear, said our many good by's and hit the road at noon.
We arrived in Nogales - 276 klm - at 5:00. It would have been sooner but it took a solid hour to get through Tuscon. Cities!
Anyway - tomorrow bright and early at 6:00 we're finally crossing the Mexican border and the "real"journey begins
Cheers
The flight down was OK as well, with the exception of the stop over in Salt Lake City. We changed planes as planned but after we taxied out to the runway we sat for a full hour while the pilot tried to correct a mechanical problem. They eventually pulled us back to the airport for mechanics to fix it but no such luck - so it was everybody off the plane and re-board on a replacement. It all worked out though, and even though I was two hours late, I arrived safe and sound in Phoenix and - oh joy of joy's! - my luggage was waiting for me!
We stayed up until midnight going over routes and pouring over maps. After a solid 4 hours sleep I was wide awake and ready to go - the problem of course, was it was still 4:00 in the morning! Oh well, eventually 7:00 arrived and we all got up, had a great breakfast, loaded our gear, said our many good by's and hit the road at noon.
We arrived in Nogales - 276 klm - at 5:00. It would have been sooner but it took a solid hour to get through Tuscon. Cities!
Anyway - tomorrow bright and early at 6:00 we're finally crossing the Mexican border and the "real"journey begins
Cheers
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Getting closer
I can finally say I'm leaving next week!
It's taken forever but the prep is all done, the bag is ready to be packed and all my documents are in order - next Friday is just around the corner so to speak.
In the interim - a lot of people are still asking em about my bike. I posted pictures etc but it was right at the beginning so it's easy to miss.
Here are a couple of pictures I puled from the net.
Three of us are riding 1982 Honda GL500 Silverwing's. They're not pretty, and their technology is positively ancient by today's standards, but they have an excellent reputation for longevity and low maintenance and they were cheap. Only time will tell if they were the right choice.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Getting Closer!!
Honda ST 1300
Kawasaki Concours
Suzuki VStrom - Oh baby!!
Kawasaki Concours
Suzuki VStrom - Oh baby!!
As of this morning we're now officially less than three weeks until we leave - only 20 more sleeps until I head to Spokane!!
I'm heading down to Spokane early in the evening of Jan 11th and I fly to Phoenix the next morning. The good news is I'm not too excited at all. Unless you count waking up at 5:00 each morning because checklists, gear lists and the myriad things that can go wrong, are all flying around in my head. I initially tried to fight it but now I just get up and surf my new porn sites: E-Bay Motors, Motor-Cycle Superstore, Adventure Rider and Horizons Unlimited. Rosi says there's only so many times I can read comparisons between a VStrom and an ST1300 and that I'm entering obsession territory. Entering? I passed entering long ago! I'm now fully into obsession and closly approaching neurosis. I'm already planning the next bike and the next ride! At this point I'm leaning towards the VStrom as an excellent all-rounder, or maybe the Versys, but I have to admit I have just a wee bit of speed demon in me and a Concours or ST has a certain appeal. No rough road capably but they both go like a raped ape and they're oh, so sexy! Nothing like an old short hairy fat guy on a nice bike. Hey, I can at least pretend it's me and not the bike people are looking at :-)
Rosi and I once walked past an Ex-Officio store in an airport in the US and their slogan was that they were a store for those travellers that were already planning the next trip before they got on the plane to leave on this one. It spoke to me - I'm that guy!
Anyway, I have to run to do some last minute shopping. Here are pictures of my current dream bikes. Enjoy and have a fantastic Christmas.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
One Month to Go!!
Not much new to report but we're now at the one month mark!
My Dad spent four hours working on Brad's bike installing the replacement windshield for us. It's one more thing out of the way. This is a huge weight off our shoulders because now we don't have to spend time dicking around with it on before we leave. We all arrive on Saturday evening and we want to leave first thing Monday morning so the less we have to do to get the bikes ready the better.
Dad and Carol - you're both officially associate members of Team Panama 2008!
Pretty much everything is done at this end. Brad and I both have our new BC Licenses - and Kevan is going to make colour copies for us and laminate them so we'll have "spares" to hand over at road blocks. It's a trick we read in some of the other blogs etc. If a Guatemalan police officer demands your license and then refuses to give it back unless you pay some trumped up fine, you agree to come in to the police station to pay and retrieve your license - and then carry on because it was just a copy. It sounds good in theory - only time and experience will show if it actually works.
Other than that we're pretty much done. I still have to pick up Rosi and I's Malaria tablets at the pharmacy but they should be ready this afternoon. I also have to call our credit card carriers and let them know which countries we'll be in and confirm with my out of country medical through work that everything is a go. All this is just fine tuning though - we're all just waiting for the "go" date now.
And not that anyone is counting but for me there's 29 sleeps!!
My Dad spent four hours working on Brad's bike installing the replacement windshield for us. It's one more thing out of the way. This is a huge weight off our shoulders because now we don't have to spend time dicking around with it on before we leave. We all arrive on Saturday evening and we want to leave first thing Monday morning so the less we have to do to get the bikes ready the better.
Dad and Carol - you're both officially associate members of Team Panama 2008!
Pretty much everything is done at this end. Brad and I both have our new BC Licenses - and Kevan is going to make colour copies for us and laminate them so we'll have "spares" to hand over at road blocks. It's a trick we read in some of the other blogs etc. If a Guatemalan police officer demands your license and then refuses to give it back unless you pay some trumped up fine, you agree to come in to the police station to pay and retrieve your license - and then carry on because it was just a copy. It sounds good in theory - only time and experience will show if it actually works.
Other than that we're pretty much done. I still have to pick up Rosi and I's Malaria tablets at the pharmacy but they should be ready this afternoon. I also have to call our credit card carriers and let them know which countries we'll be in and confirm with my out of country medical through work that everything is a go. All this is just fine tuning though - we're all just waiting for the "go" date now.
And not that anyone is counting but for me there's 29 sleeps!!
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