Another border crossing

KS-Thursday

   Ok,  so maybe I skipped a day.  We started out in San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua,  actually got a fairly decent start.   Had about a 45 minute ride to the border, skipping the one and only gas station along the way because the lines were too long.  Arriving at the border, we were greeted by the usual crowd of "border flies", several of which knew us by name already.  Its quite entertaining at times to see how these guys operate.  Some of them are pretty good guys and earn their pay.  Others are just crooks, teaming up with official crooks, in effort to relieve you of your money. On this day,  we knew we weren't pushed for time, and had a real good idea of what the "official costs" were.  We proceeded to draw a pretty hard line in the sand, and most of our crowd slowly drifted away.  The one that was left agreed to our terms, and went to work getting our paperwork passed in and out of various windows, signed, stamped, copied, and so forth.  The only hiccup this time was that our bike import papers were somehow tagged as only going to a hotel in Managua, that wed never heard of.  He said that we would have to go back to the capitol city to straighten it out before we could leave the country.  Chip and I glanced at each other with the 'here it comes" look. Actually turned out not too bad,  our guy said he could bribe the border worker sitting outside the food stand to stamp and sign our papers anyway.   In the end,  we payed what we expected to pay, and were riding down the road into Costa Rica.
   Our goal for the day was to make it to Lake Arenal, a large lake next to one of the more active volcanoes in the region.  I remember almost 18 years ago, sitting on the deck of the Arenal Lodge, with my now wife, and our good friends Ann and Jim,  playing cards, an watching glowing red rocks roll down the side of the volcano.  Originally I had thought it would be cool to go back there and see how things have changed.  Well, they have, a lot. The price of a room there was about 3 times what we usually pay, and to top it off, clouds and rain have socked in the area, so the top of the volcano was hidden the entire time.  That just makes us glad we opted for the $20 room further up the lake, where we could see the same clouds that were hiding the volcano, and hear the same rain. 
   Today is still considered a milestone day for us.  Not because of distance, but that today is the first day we have been rained on since leaving the United States several weeks ago. Yesterdays ride had us on many miles of rough dirt road, covered in clouds, and threatening to rain most of the afternoon.  We met the rain today,  on paved roads luckily.  Once we dropped out of the mountains after the lake, we could see clouds lifting off the valley below.  A lunch stop allowed us to find a hotel to our tastes, and we settled in for the rest of the day.  Hanging our wet riding gear over the railings of the upper deck.  Doing our best to trash up the place.  Walking around the town of La Fortuna, we found a couple places to eat a light supper, and gawk at the prices here.  This is the most expensive country we've been in yet, and you really notice it after some of the countries we've been through.  Tomorrow we are taking a zip line canopy tour near the volcano before we head out of town towards the coast.  Were setup to take a 2 day rafting trip on the Pacuare river starting on Saturday.  That's our last bit of free time for a few days. As soon at that trip is over we need to make some serious miles towards Panama City to start the paperwork process for shipping us and the bikes to South America, by sailboat.  If things go really well, Chip may be able to visit the US embassy in Panama City to try to remedy his passport situation.  Other than the 5 day cruse in the middle of it, we are running on a pretty tight schedule for a while.  Hopefully the customs and paperwork side of things go smoothly, because as soon as the boat lands in Columbia, we need to be making tracks towards Ecuador to meet my wife for our trip to the Galapagos Islands.
    There is so much more I could write, but its honestly not that thrilling to be sitting here staring at a computer screen tonight, so I think I'll wrap it up for now.  With pictures of course.

Costa Rica, paved road

Costa Rica, not so paved road

Catching a glimpse under the clouds



San Juan del Sur

CN - Tuesday

Yesterday we rode from Glen and Janna's just outside Managua down to the famous Nica surf town San Juan del Sur.  The short 150k ride took us up in elevation past some smoking volcanos and then down past Lago Cocibolca where there were two more impressive volcanos - one out in the middle of the lake.  The pictures just don't do the firsthand view justice - quite impressive.  We arrived to our hotel, just 2 blocks off the beach, just before sunset - perfect timing!  We checked in, walked down to the beach for a Tona still wearing pants and boots riding gear.  The sunset was spectacular, the ocean breeze refreshing and the vibe of the town encouraging.  While enjoying our second Tona we had already decided we were going to stay a second night.

This morning we got up early for some delicious Nicaraguan coffee and breakfast on the beach (and maybe a Bloody Mary or two.  Much cooler here than when we were about 20 miles inland and Glen and Janna's.  Speaking of Glen and Janna, I can't say enough how much we enjoyed our two days at their mission compound.  They are more than gracious hosts and treated us and fed us like kings!  It was great to be off the bikes, relax and get some needed things done - laundry, carb adjustments (again), and research for me on how to deal with my shrinking visa page space.  Another cool thing happened just before we left yesterday afternoon - 43 brand new bicycles arrived that were donated by Ken's church back in Virginia.  We had the pleasure of helping to unload the bikes from the delivery truck.  The bikes will be given to a graduating middle school class - the bikes will be needed to ride to the high school which is much further away from their homes.  The mission has been donating bikes for several years now to the school - great mission work being done here!

Back to this morning...  After adjusting my carb yet again (the previous adjustments did not fix the pinging I'm still getting) we noticed my front wheel bearings are pretty much shot.  So much for spending the day doing nothing but lounging around the beach.  We found a motorcycle shop down the street to get some better tools and began the task of replacing the bearings.  It's insane the amount of work we have had to do on this bike along the trip.  It just never ends.  Chris owns the motorcycle rental/repair shop and was great letting us use a shaded area, stand and tools.  He's been in Nic for 6 years with his wife and loves it.  Thanks for the assist Chris!

It's now "beer o'clock" so time to finish this up, post some pics and get to the reason for a layover day - relax and lime!

Glen, Jenna and the new bikes.

Sunset in San Juan del Sur.

Twin volcanos at the lake.

Tostones con queso...yum!

Not a bad spot for breakfast.

Nicaragua layover

KS- Sunday

Yesterday we started out in Chinandega, a town in north west Nicaragua.  Moved our bikes out of the secure parking we had to convince the hotel person to let us use. She kept saying they had security guard and we could leave our bikes on the street.   We kept insisting on the gated spot, and finally either we won,  or they gave up.  Either way, it worked, which made me smile, as I walked outside for the last look at the bikes before going to bed, and found the security guard, soundly asleep in his chair on the sidewalk, gentle Spanish music playing on the nearby radio.  It my sound like were overprotective of the motorcycles, since they're the last thing I check before going to bed, and the first thing I check when I get up, but with this being a motorcycle trip,  the motorcycle is 3rd in line of importance, behind Passport and Wallet.  After fresh tanks of their finest gas,  we were happily on our way south through the beautiful countryside of Nicaragua, passing volcanoes and sugar cane fields. The roads here are some of the nicest we've had yet, but with that luxury comes a price, police enforcement of speed and passing zones.  Luckily we have not had first hand experience of either of these infractions, but we are trying to be on our "better" behavior.   Roadsides are much more green, being manicured by large groups of workers with weedeaters, and horses tied to fencelines with just enough rope to keep their heads out of the main traffic lanes.  There is still some trash present, but very little compared to previous areas, it seems that in a couple of the countries north of here, standard waste disposal procedure is to throw all your trash in a pile along the side of the road, toss a lit match at the pile, then drive away.  I'll admit that Ive never been a big fan of vehicle emission regulations and EPA pollution control measures, but I'm starting to warm up to them now after some of the smoke clouds and practices Ive seen. 

  We arrived at New Day Ministries around lunch time. Its a Christian outreach to the schools and people around the community of Los Cedros, about 45 minutes outside of the capitol city of Managua.  Glen and Janna Kauffman, who are originally from the U.S. have been here for  about 6 years so far, working in the communities in the area.  As a good habit to develop as a traveler,  show up around meal times.  After a warm welcome from our hosts, we settled in to our new surroundings, and were presented with a Thanksgiving casserole.  It gives you an idea of how long you've been gone when you're eating a wonderful meal after the holiday, all your surrounds are green and lush, and its warm.  Being served homecooked meals is a great experience, after almost a month of living on the road we have eaten many things, but these have been some of the best meals yet. 

  Today we are relaxing and tinkering with some small projects.  Chip is filling out forms and doing pictures to attempt to get another passport in the near future,  Since we have about 8 more countries to go, and his passport only has about 7 available spaces.  Some countries use large stamps, for both entry and exit of their country, so its very likely he won't be able to finish the trip without a new passport, or lots of "extra cash payments".  We also did a little work on the bikes yesterday,  I modified my shift lever to allow it to clamp down tighter on the shaft (which is slightly bent from previous owner),  I'm hoping to avoid the next step, which would be to weld them both together, a great fix, until you need to remove the shifter, or disassemble the engine.   In the never ending quest for running perfection in Chip's bike, we adjusted the fuel float height to richen up the fuel curve slightly.  Its a tough fight for fine tuning, when a riding day can take you from sea level, to over 10,000ft.  We then replaced a leaky seal with the spare that had been brought along.  And finally washed our complete riding gear yesterday, the black water we dumped out of the wash bin was a bit scary, and probably toxic to small animals.  I removed the BMW Roundel from my jacket sleeves in an attempt to keep a little more money in my pockets at borders, worth a shot anyways.  Tomorrow we will probably head south again in an attempt to cross the border into Costa Rica, where we plan to hang out for a bit, and start looking at our next moves south.  Not much of a actual ride report today,  since we'll have only ridden about 60 miles this weekend.   But anyways, here are some pictures.

Lots of Volcanoes in this part of the world

Chip being the fashion statement he is

Fresh laundry!! Appreciated greatly by us, and even more by those downwind of us.

This house was just a shell the last time I was here.

Border Crossing x 2

CN - Friday

We got a 7:30am start as we normally do when we have a crossing and headed to the El Salvador/Honduras border.  Today was going to be a bit different as we were planning to attempt two crossings in one day.  The goal was to be in Nicaragura by nightfall - a bit of a challenge but doable.

The morning was already heating up - daytime highs in the mid 90's with high humidity, and we arrived to the normal chaos of helpers, money changers, etc. swarming us as we got off the bikes.  We again decided to employ the services of a helper since it usually speeds things up and with two crossings we potentially needed to save some time.  Exiting El Salvador was fairly straightforward and went quickly with no issues.  Entering Honduras was a different matter.  The stamps required for Honduras are huge, take up almost an entire passport page and two are needed - one for entering and one for exiting.  My passport only has one page that is stamp free and it was going to be a big problem (so they said) because I didn't have another blank page for the exit stamp on the way out.  Country officials are not really very considerate when stamping passports and don't try to use pages that have been started or even keep the stamps tight.  I have some where the country official put a stamp crosswise right in the middle of a fresh page, when other space was available.  Oh well, what can you do.

I kept showing the official my passport and trying to show that the stamp could fit in several locations (albeit tight), but he kept pointing to the pages borders and stating that it must fit within these areas and not overlap any other stamps.  Possible solutions started with going to the US embassy in San Salvador to get a new passport - terrible idea as it is 250k in the opposite direction to maybe a "propina" could fix the issue.  A tip (bribe) seemed to be the reasonable solution so I was to give the official $40 US and he would call ahead to the other border we planned to cross that afternoon and they would skip the other stamp.

After that was settled we were on our way in Honduras and riding across new tarmac to the southern Nicaraguan border.  We are not at sea level so the temps are stupid hot and humid.  The breeze created by keeping moving made it bearable, but when traffic jams, construction stops, etc. slowed things down it got pretty hot and sweaty in a hurry.  The road also went from new tarmac to nasty potholed crap for the last 50 or 60k.  I slowed it way down quickly after a bus veered into my lane to dodge potholes and ran me through a giant crater and off onto the shoulder.  I came too close for my liking to crashing - barley saving it with a foot stab at the last second before going over.

We arrived at the Honduras/Nicaragua border right around lunch time - when all but one or two officials are on lunch break.  The line to get stamped out was 50 people long so we knew this wasn't going to be quick.  We once again procured the services of a helper and started the unpleasant but necessary process of getting it done.  Each step of the process the helper kept extracting money from us - road tax fees, insurance, bike import fees, immigration fees, etc. and of course his cut on top of it.  This turned out to be the most expensive border of the trip and has us rethinking using any helpers in the future.  It also turned out I was scammed out of the $40 at the last border as there was plenty of room for the exit stamp out of Honduras - corrupt bastards!  We plan to just attempt the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border on our own since we are no longer in a hurry and can slow things down a bit.  We still have until December 6 to get to Panama City.

The most stressful part of the process for me was at the end when entering Nicaragua.  There was a final inspection that included an x-ray machine that you had to run your bags through.  I am carrying a drone that is illegal in Nicaragua and they are notorious for finding and confiscating them in airports.  I hadn't read any reports of x-rays or searches - only agents asking travelers if they have drones with them at the land borders so thought I would be fine.  Ken quickly de-rigged his bike of the luggage while I was slowly doing the same contemplating my move.  I figured that if I run the side cases (where the drone was stored) through they would surely find it.  I also was watching them also randomly opening luggage of other travelers even after the going through the machine.  I decided to bank on the security agents outside not noticing I didn't take all the bags off my bike and only entered with my duffel and some small roll bags that strap to the side bags - then play dumb "no entiendo espanol" if they catch me.  The process took over 45 minutes as after the x-ray you had your immigration form stamped by the attendant and had to go to another window to have final processing done.  I was sweating bullets - literally.  It worked!  The outside security guards and inside security guards at the x-ray machine did not really coordinate what was coming and going so they never noticed I failed to bring the side cases in to be x-rayed.  I will chalk that up to being incredibly lucky and it took all the early sting away of getting fleeced at their every opportunity up to that point.  After getting through at the border exit I seized the opportunity - launched the drone and took a victory lap with it around the customs/immigration compound.  Wait, no, that didn't happen : )

We were exhausted after the double crossing and found a hotel in a town about 60 or 70k down the road, ate some chicken and retired for the night.  Saturday we will head to a town just outside Managua where we will stay with Ken's friend from Virginia.  He is there working at a mission that Ken visited a couple of years ago to help build some structures in a remote village near the Honduran border.

Secured parking once again.

Typical look of our hotel rooms with the mess of gear taking up all the available space,

Happy Thanksgiving

KS-Thursday

To start off this Thanksgiving day post,   Id like to list a couple things that I'm thankful for,

-A loving and supportive wife who lets me do things like motorcycle trips to the end of the world
-A friend who will go along on said trips
-Motorcycles to take me to explore far off places
-A good life on the farm, which can be adapted to allow such trips
-And God, who guides and protects me in all aspects of this crazy life

So,  Happy Thanksgiving from El Salvador,  last night was one of the most beautiful settings we've had on this trip,  watching the sunset over the ocean from the elevated deck at our hotel area.  After a very restful night preceded by spotlighting for turtles, I woke up and went out to take a walk down the beach.   There were some surfers out in waves, most of them were not having much luck as I watched a couple monstrous waves break right on top of them.  Chip joined me for a leisurely breakfast overlooking the beach,  we knew we didn't have too far to go today, just wanted to get within reach of the Honduras border for tomorrow. After all, it would be foolish to try to cross a border on Thanksgiving Day, with all the extra holiday traffic, and all the senior border guards being let go early to go home to eat turkey and watch football. Right??  It was just before noon we rode out of the gate,  a real late start for us.  A fuel stop later on revealed that I have reached a personal best of 60mpg, Chip's bike is matching fuel economy, but has been experiencing some pinging at lower elevations.  Might end up opening the carburetor once more to try to adjust the fuel curve, again. I think I could rejet that carb blindfolded now after the practice Ive had.  On our trip around the world three years ago, the fuel injected BMWs never gave as much as a single hiccup through every elevation and temperature we crossed.  We got spoiled by the so called "problem prone over complicated bikes" the only problem that could have been blamed on BMW was a bad headlight switch, solved quickly with a wire nut, and later fixed at my home shop.  A flat tire, and a blown rear shock (not a factory part) were the only others.

 Back to the Suzukis at hand.  An easy ride just inland from the coast eventually led us up across the mountains next to a volcano.  The cooler air was welcomed as we wound up through the trees, passing cows, trucks, dogs, and motorcycles as is the norm.  A couple bouts of traffic in some smaller towns had us finally back out onto open road.  Our stop for the night is a hotel in Santa Rosa de Lima,  about 10 miles from the border.   Secure parking, air conditioning,  and beautiful rooms are a bit unexpected. We've grown accustomed to slightly more 3rd world accommodations lately.  In fact, this room could be confused with a nice hotel in the US,  except that the shower only has one valve, for water, no temperature control, you get what you get.

Tomorrow will be a fun day, and by fun, I mean it will be like black Friday shopping.  A lot of waiting in lines, hoping to be told that the one thing you want, will be available.   For us, that "one thing" is entry into their country,  and we might even be a bit on the greedy side, because we want it from both Honduras and Nicaragua, in the same day.  Its like trying to get the big sale item at two different stores, but unfortunately the two "stores" are separated by a hundred miles of questionable road.  So it will be extra portions of patience at breakfast, and que up a couple good songs in the brain to keep you from losing your melon and screaming at someone in a language they probably don't understand, or even care to when presented at them in such a manner. 

If the day goes fairly well tomorrow, we will be spending the night in a hotel somewhere in northern Nicaragua. If it goes poorly, we'll be spending the night in a jail in Honduras.  I'm putting my money on the first option.   Our plan after that is to go visit some missionary friends of mine who run New Day Ministries outside of Managua.  Its been a couple years since Ive been there and I'm
 anxious to see the changes they've made (and maybe do some laundry).

So once again, Happy Thanksgiving, be thankful for what you have, because there are a lot of people in this part of the world, and many others, who have far less.

Still have room for more

Morning walk on the beach

Heading towards another volcano

Lake Atitlan & El Salvador

CN - Tuesday

We left Quezaltenango at a decent hour and planned to get across Guatemala to position ourselves to cross into El Salvador the following morning. The ride started out on perfect tarmac - the road winding up to 9500ft with big views of the countryside. Guatemala really is a beautiful country once you can look past all the trash that usually surrounds. Lots of fun long sweeping turns with perfect road conditions made for a good morning of riding. Our plan for the day was to ride to Lake Atitlan to see the lake, surrounding Volcanos and have lunch. On the outskirts of the town we saw a Suzuki dealership and stopped to see if they had the breathable seat covers we had been seeing since entering Guatemala. We also still needed a bolt for Ken's chain guard he broke off and an emulsion tube for my carb. We ending up scoring on the seat covers and bolt, but still no carb parts to be found. My bike is pinging badly at lower altitudes and we knew we would be dropping down to near sea level that afternoon. The lake was right around 5000ish feet and he lake and surrounding volcanos were quite the impressive view. We got to the town of Panajachel and found a lunch spot with table side parking and dined on salads and shrimp ceviche - not the freshest shrimp, but the vegetables were quite good. My body had been craving vegetables after days of dining on tacos and pupusas. Not sure the slaw mix on top of the pupusas qualifies as the recommended daily allowance of vegetables.

After lunch we decided to head a different route out of the town from the way we came in. The way in was a steep grade down cobblestone streets with heavy traffic. Climbing out uphill in traffic would not have been fun. Garmin routed us on a road skirting the lake and then climbing out to the east. The road was strangely empty as we got further and further from the town and soon turned into cobblestone again - then to dirtied sand. rom dirt and sand to loose rock and deep rock infested ruts from runoff - and then started climbing up the hillside. Ok, wasn't exactly expecting this type of road, but we went with it - we do have dirt bikes after all. As the road switched back and forth up the hillside it became steeper and more challenging - all with blind corners not allowing line picking until the very last second. I ended up losing momentum on a particularily steep section while getting caught in a deep rock filled rut and dumped the bike. Luckily it was a slow speed crash and both me and the bike came out unscathed - only my confidence was shattered, at that point not knowing how much more dirt we had left. Luckily we hit the tarmac again a few minutes later and I was able to relax a bit. Looking at my GPS, we had climbed around 1200ft on that challenging dirt road.

We then dropped from 6500ft to approximately 500 feet that afternoon. The sun was setting fast so we started looking for an auto hotel as there were very few towns in the area. We found one alone the roadside and pulled in the gates to be greeted by two large German Shepherds - at least we know bike security would be good. Soon a large gentleman came out to greet us and quoted us a rate for the night. He indicated that the gates were closed at 8pm and the dogs roamed the compound all night so we knew security would be good. Turns out he was a Frenchman who had been living in Guatamela for quite some time. He seemed like the kind of character that left France for a reason and probably couldn't go back. It was probably one of the most sketchy rooms we have stayed in on the trip as we shared it with lizards, cockroaches, ants and mosquitos. It was only the second time of the trip I had to deet up to go to bed. The bright side was that it did have a toilet seat on the head - which is not always the case.

The next morning we were planning to finish off the 85k to the Guatemala/El Salvador border.


CN - Wednesday

This morning Ken got up first and went outside to have a look at the weather and bikes and was instantly greeted by charging and barking dogs. I heard the dogs barking and a second later Ken was racing inside barely slamming the door before the dogs got him. We then waited for the Frenchman to get up before going back outside to load the bikes - damn scary dogs! We got one of our earliest starts, hitting the road at 7:30am. When we arrived to the border crossing the scene was quite hectic. I guess we got lucky on the previous two borders as we were basically the first in line to every window we approached. About a half mile from the border a bunch of guys on small motorbikes started chasing us down and motioning us to pull over. We knew instantly these were "helpers" that would assist with processing the necessary paperwork and guide through the maze of steps required for entry for a fee. We had not used any helpers during the previous crossings as it just wasn't necessary and it was all pretty straightforward and easy to navigate. This time we decided to go ahead and solicit their assistance as we had heard the El Salvador portion can be a bit confusing. The whole process took about 3 hours. There were many trucks lined up coming into and out of El Salvador and most booths were 20 people deep in line. The helper would use his connections and get our paperwork in front of a government agent to stamp and process w/o having to wait their turn in line behind the truckers. I think without the helper we would have been looking a 6 hours instead of 3 so I guess the money we paid for their assistance was worth it. Nothing was clearly signed and some of the offices were tucked around corners, etc. El Salvador uses US currency so we changed our Guatemalan Quetzal for a familiar currency - now not having to do math in our heads every time we have a transaction. Unfortunately we will only be in El Salvador for two days so the convince will be short lived.

After getting through the border the road dumped us into the congested town of La Hachadura. There was lots of road construction with only one lane open to get through town. The flaggers were directing traffic to the one available lane, so the line while waiting for the back and forth sharing of the one lane road was crazy long. The temps were in the 90's so we were heating up quickly in our gear. While we were wondering about the lane splitting rules for motorcycles in El Salvador, a motorbike sprinted past us in the right shoulder so we followed suit, weaving our way in between the cars, pedestrians and vendor booths along the roadway. We would have been there for hours had we not started splitting. Once free of traffic, we made our way along the coast for a bit and stopped for lunch at a roadside stand. Three US dollars and tasty!

The road then wound around and took us a bit inland before coming back down to the beach. It was here, in a town called Lomas de San Blas, we found a cool little beach hotel called Sol Bohemio to stay for the night. This is most definitely our nicest location spot so far. This resort is right on the beach with beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. We actually fully went swimming in the ocean waves this time - in Sayulita, we basically had just waded in up to our knees. The surf was pretty powerful and you could feel the currents trying to suck you out to sea, so we stayed in fairly close to shore where you could still touch bottom. The hotel had a restaurant and the food was pretty good - the fresh shrimp ceviche was the highlight. I ended up falling asleep early as I had not slept well the previous night while Ken scoured the beach by flashlight with the night manager looking for turtles. Unfortunately none were spotted. We plan to spend Thanksgiving day enjoying the morning at our hotel on the beach, with a late start in the cards due to the short distance we need to cover. The goal is to position ourselves for a double border crossing on Friday - El Salvador to Honduras and then Honduras to Nicaragua.  Ken has a contact in Managua that we hope to visit.

Sunset on Wednesday evening from the hotel.

Our little hotel on Playa San Blas.

Not a bad view to enjoy an afternoon cerveza from.

Picking our way though border town traffic.

Crossing the border, again

KS-Monday

I guess you could call today another milestone, we crossed into a country neither of us has been in.  We woke up this morning in Mexico,  tonight we go to sleep in Guatemala.  Everything went pretty smoothly today,  nice ride from Comitan to the border, temps were just a bit on the cool side, which feels nice.  Arriving at the border, we went first into the customs office, and had our passports stamped out of Mexico,  then into the next office to show our motorcycle paperwork to prove we still have the bikes with us, and receive our $200 deposits back. That whole process took a whopping 20 minutes. There was loud music and fireworks going off outside while all this was going on.  After that was complete, we rode across the street and parked in front of a restaurant, walked inside and ordered breakfast.  Right about that time, a parade broke out and they closed the street.  I though it was nice of Mexico to throw a celebration for us leaving their country.  After breakfast was finished and the parade was over,  we rode about another mile or two up to the Guatemala border.  First stop was a fumigation station, where they spray your bike with a mystery   chemical, and have you pay them for it, just so they can give you a receipt that nobody else will ask for.  Money changers also came up and willingly exchanged our pesos for quetzals, at a very favorable rate, for them.  Next step was into the immigration office to fill out our passport paperwork, and get more papers. After we paid them to enter the country, we went out to the next office, and went through the paperwork to legally bring our bikes into the country (kind of an important part for us).  Then you take a piece of paper into the bank office next door, pay the amount, get a stamp, then walk back out to the other office, and give them that piece of paper,   then they give us more paper, and walk out and put a sticker on each bike.   Its an interesting process, and didn't take too long in this situation, but for me it is helped by trying to play a happy tune in your head while you wait, may look strange to some people, but it seems to work better then sitting there looking impatient and angry. 
   Guatemala is a beautiful country, despite the trash and filth.  The mountains are incredibly steep, and the roads wind and twist up through deep river valleys.  Houses are built on impossibly vertical hillsides,  with no driveway visible.  I did catch a glimpse of a truck crossing a wooden suspension bridge, that I would have been hesitant to ride a motorcycle across.  And most every pickup truck is loaded to the hilt with passengers.  So far, the record that we have seen is 10 people in the bed of a Toyota pickup.  We wound our way through the mountains, topping out at around  8500ft,  luckily we had stopped before then and put the liners in our jackets for warmth.  I will admit to expecting a bit more hot and rainy weather by this point, but there are times when I'm glad to be wrong.   I'm sure we will have our experience with tropical heat and rain,  but I guess we haven't made it to that point yet. 
   Tonight we are in Quezaltenango,  at a hotel that allowed us to shove our bikes into the corner of the entryway,  one of the many benefits of traveling on small bikes.  We walked around the central square and some food and drink, then made our way back to our hotel room.  If anyone has traveled to Central America, you may have seen the shower with the electric heated shower head.  They are a bit scary if you know anything about electricity.  The power connections are in the shower with you, and wrapped in electrical tape just above your head. The ground wire is stripped back and attached to the water pipe by another wrap of electrical tape, in the shower.   We have decided if someone wants to take a shower, the other person will be standing next to the in room breaker panel ready to throw the breaker if screams are heard from the shower.   That's pretty much got if for today,  were still route planning for our run towards Panama,  hoping to get to Costa Rica and take a couple days off to play tourist.   
   Picture time.


Our parade during breakfast

Awesome mountains, and why I won't hold the camera sideways.



Tucked in for the night

Comitan

CN - Sunday

Not much exciting today as we only rode about 85k to Comitan from San Cristobal.  The goal today was to just position ourselves closer to border in order to cross the next morning.  The ride was easy and nice staying around 6-7000ft winding through the pines and small villages.  Upon arriving to Comitan, we were pleasantly surprised on how clean and manicured the town was.  I think this is where Edward Sissorhands retired as a large number of the trees and bushes were manicured in his fashion.  We found a $18 hotel a few blocks from the town centre and walked up to find a spot on one of the many outdoor patio restaurants.  The temps were nice in the low 60's.  We enjoyed a few beers and snacks while watching some American football on the TV just inside the restaurant.  Towards the end of the afternoon a parade came through the square and entertained us with local music and dancing.

We headed back to the hotel before sunset and picked up some provisions at a supermarket along the route.  We have not been carrying any food for camping - mainly because we haven't camped at all in Mexico, but expect to in Guatemala so want to have some food ready in our bags.  Tomorrow we will cross the border which is about 1.5 hours away.  We plan to get an early start to get through in the morning in order to have time to reach our destination - Quetzaltenango.  Border crossings can be unpredictable so crossing in the mornings is a good idea so you have time to get somewhere before dark.

On another note, by bike has been running quite well for almost a week now.  The only issue has been pinging at full throttle at lower altitudes.  Full throttle is needed when passing as we are on 350's and power is not exactly plentiful anyway..  We switched jets again tonight so hopefully that will eliminate the pinging so I don't have to baby the throttle.  I do have a worn part in the carb which is causing it to pull too much fuel into the bowl so we have constantly had to mess around with the needle settings, jets, etc. to get it to deliver fuel properly.

Looking forward to a new country tomorrow and experiencing the volcanos, good coffee and Guatemalan cuisine - which I have no idea what to expect.  Mexico has been great and we will miss the food, people and beautiful terrain.  Below are a few pics from our day in Comitan.

Family street parade.

View from the square.

Pretty little courtyard off the square.

Mural off the square.

Finding the rhythm

KS-Saturday

Not everyday is a 5 star day.  I'm not saying that in any kind of complaining way, its just that some days are just days. It was a good day today,  nice roads, mountain twists and turns, irresponsible passing maneuvers, and excellent food.  But after the roadblock/protest we went through yesterday, which Chip described very well, but is still one of those things where you can't put the feelings in to words.  It was the single most intense traveling situation Ive ever been in .  So with that being said, hopefully you can understand why I think today was a bit mundane.  Not that its a bad thing, I thoroughly enjoyed today's ride.  The weather has been great, warm at the lower elevations, but crossing the 6000ft mark has you zipping up any open vent you can get your hands on.   We finished our day in San Cristobal,  a beautiful town with a large central area that has not changed quickly with the times, which makes it the tourist attraction that it is.  We found a small hotel outside the main area for just over $20, with secure parking for the bikes.  Which also happened to be right next to Mr.Taco.  Our last food sample for the night was tacos Al Pastor.  Marinated, fire grilled spit of pork, sliced onto tortillas, topped with a slice of warm pineapple.  For a whopping 40 cents a piece, we might have had more than we initially planned. 
  I guess if I title the post,  I should write something about the title.  We left Virginia on the 28th of October,  and it has felt like a constant battle of mechanical issues, borders, language,  and logistics.  For most of the trip it has felt like just going through the motions, eat, ride, sleep, repeat.   The hardest part for me on trips like this is coming to grips with the fact that I don't get to see my wife everyday, since she is the highlight of my day. It takes a while to make the transition from "missing her" to "looking forward to seeing her again".   I still miss her, but am really looking forward to meeting up with her in Ecuador.  The stress level has gone down, even though we are finishing up our time in Mexico, and will be crossing the border into Guatemala in a day or so.  Now its time to ride, don't worry about the little things,  just add gas and oil, turn the key, push the button, and twist the throttle. There is just something special about waking up in the morning, and knowing your going to ride motorcycle to someplace you've never been before. 
  Like I said, nothing earth shattering today, but I'm sure that will change.  But it looks like I'll be the one documenting the border crossing,  I wince a bit when I say this, but hopefully I'll have a good story to tell that day.    As always,   here are some pictures to finish up

Good to see renewable energy being generated.

Up in the clouds, and still not at the top

Mole Mecca

CN - Friday

Tonight we are again off the gringo trail staying in Santo Domingo Zanatepec.  It was an interesting ride through the mountains and back down to near sea level - and crazy hot again.  It was in the 90's when we got into town.  Along the route after stopping for gas in Santa Maria Jalapa del Marques and exiting the town we came upon a long line of cars - trucks and busses that obviously had been sitting there for some time.  People were mingling about outside their vehicles, busloads of people sitting/laying on the ground, etc.  We must have passed by 100 vehicles weaving our way through the mess.  We arrived to the cause of the jam up and saw a large group of people that had strung up a rope across the road and using a human baracade not letting anyone through.  There was a string of vehicles coming from the other direction just as long.  It was obvious they had all been there some time.  We assumed it was some kind of protest. Once we got to the front, we took shut off the bikes, took off our helmets and waited for the leader to approach.  After a short conversation in Spanish he indicated we could pass.  They lifted the rope and let us through!  What a relief.  This was the only road going in the direction we were headed.  The only other option would be to backtrack around 200k back to Oaxaca and take the northern route around the mountain.  I wish I captured it on video but my SD card in my helmet cam was malfunctioning and would not record all afternoon.

Shortly after that episode we connected onto the autopista and started making good time.  As we were approaching the largest windmill farm I have ever seen we soon found out why they chose that spot for the farm.  The wind was the strongest we have expereinced so far - probably a good warm up for the notorious winds we will most likely encounter in Patagonia.  We stopped at the first hotel we saw in Santo Domingo Zanatepec and it turned out to be pretty good in terms of price and location.  There were small restaurant shacks all around and a small market right next door.  After a dinner of quesidillas from a small stand next to the hotel we crossed the street to have some cold beers at the market that had some tables out on the front patio.  It was begining to cool down a bit so the evening was quite pleasant.  After a bit, a local guy who had rode up on his moto approached us and struck up a conversation.  His English was about as good as our Spanish so it was an interesting exchange that ended with Ken getting challenged to an arm wrestling match (Ken won both right and left).  We decided at that point it was time to call it a night and excused ourselves saying we needed sleep for an early start in the morning.          

Yesterday was a layover day in Oaxaca - the center of the mole universe.  For me this was to be a highlight of Mexico as I have had an obsession with mole for quite a few years.  I've attempted to make it twice and it came out ok, but as I have only sampled it in restaurants it in the US, I didn't exactly know what really good mole is supposed to taste like.  The recipe calls for over twenty ingredients and involves toasting the chiles, nuts and spices just right before combining everything into a sauce.  Now I know the goal as I was able to sample 5 of the 7 varieties while in Oaxaca.

After a great breakfast at a cafe/cooking school we spent the rest of the morning walking around the Benito Juarez mercado - interesting and lots of fun watching the hustle and bustle of the vendors trying to sell their wares.  I bought three paste balls of mole - verde, rojo and negro.  It can be reconstitued into the sauce by adding water/chicken stock.  This has been my only purchase so far that can justify taking space in my bags.  I will carry it all the way to Ushuaia and back home on the plane - score!

We had lunch at a restaurant famous for their mole and I got the mole negro con pollo.  It was delicious!  Ken is not a huge mole fan and had the queso fundido con chorizo.  We then we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around Oaxaca - a very interesting and historic but tourist loaded town.  Most of the restaurant and bars had more tourists than locals.  As a side note, our hotel was outstanding - the nicest of the trip so far - named Hotel Maela and a great location in the center of downtown.  Dinner was at a restaurant known for their mole and I talked Ken into the five mole sampler that was only offered for minimum two diners.  I think he actually liked a couple of the varieties.  We even got our rice spiked with chapulines (chile fried grasshoppers) - little baby ones that were more palatable than the large plump ones at the market.  We were seated next to three college students from the US who had been in Oaxaca since September studying and staying with host families.  What a great experience for them!  One of the girls was from Battle Creek not far from where I grew up in Michigan.  We had a nice conversation (in English) and it was a nice change to be able to actually converse in English.  Our Spanish is still not good so communication with people we met had been a struggle since we left Sayulita.

Tomorrow we will stay in San Cristobal - a historic city in the state of Chiapas.  Our days are numbered in Mexico and we most likely will be crossing into Guatemala on Monday.  

The goodness.

Cool and strange mural.

Five sauce sampler

Chapulines at the market.

One of many meat vendors at the market.

Entry to our classy hotel.

VIP secured parking in courtyard.

Oaxaca O'clocka

KS-Thursday

  Ok,  so I had to start off with a cheesy title.  That's just how things happen some days.  Yesterday had us starting out our ride in Puebla,  a rather sizeable city about an hour or so from Mexico City, which is huge city.  I remember coming over the hill into Mexico City and thinking how it reminded me of Seoul Korea,  enormous.  And traffic was very similar.  We lost a couple hours there in traffic because my GPS dumped us off onto a surface street.  Most cities in Mexico do not have highways that run through them like we are used to in the US.
   I guess I should explain the navigation setup I'm using on the bike. There are a total of 4 operational navigation units in my possession.  It may sound excessive, but there is a reason for the redundancy, besides the fact that my license plate is PERDIO, which means "lost" in Spanish. Just did that one for fun, and it got some laughs at the Mexican border, after the confusion got straightened out. It seems they don't have personalized plates here in Mexico, and they initially thought I had lost the plate off my bike, and was still trying to get into their country without one. My personal cell phone, stays protected in the pocket of my riding jacket.   The other 3,  which I shall call "Winkey, Blinkey, and Nod" (Some of us not so young ones may remember the nursery rhyme that comes from).  Winkey and Blinkey are an almost identical pair of  12 year old Garmin Nuvi car nav units which snap into a holster mounted behind my fairing. Only using one at a time, the other tucked away in luggage,  They get their names due to their extreme sensitivity to input voltage,  just the slightest lapse in power sends them into restart mode,  taking about 45 seconds to get back into full guidance duty.  Which usually happens about 30 seconds before a major intersection on a convoluted foreign highway system.  Some days either one will go all day without a single hiccup,  other days, the vibrations and jolts from choppy roads will have them in an almost constant state of reload.  I am not a fan of USB power connections for anything that moves, its just a poor design for real world use.  The maps they are running off of are a free "Garmin open street map" downloaded onto an SD card that fits into the back of the units.  I have circled the globe using those maps and GPS units and have had excellent results and accuracy, whenever they were running. 
  And then there is Nod, a recently discontinued Kyocera DuraForce XD. An oversized, overbuilt, waterproof beast of a smartphone.  It lives on another mount behind my fairing next to whichever Garmin I'm using for the day. It handles navigation as well as being connected to my helmet via Bluetooth for music, or downloaded lessons of Coffee Break Spanish.  After being almost flawless for 3500 miles, its starting to show its true colors.  Its navigation is OsmAnd+ a stand alone system that does not need any cell signal to find where you are, thanks to previously downloaded maps.  However, it does not always agree with its neighbor, or anyone else.  There are sometimes radio discussions between Chip and I as to what the 4 nav units operating between the two bikes are pointing us towards, usually we go with the best 3 out of 4,  or 2, or sometimes we are lucky enough to see a road sign.  Back to Nod,  it has resorted to powering itself down for no apparent reason lately.  On a couple occasions it has taken multiple tries to get the phone to turn back on, and twice it has reloaded and analyzed its entire operating system, taking over 30 minutes to do so.   Hopefully you're not too bored by now, but I felt it was worth explaining some of the systems that we have to deal with on a daily basis.  Anyway,  back to the ride.
  The road from Puebla to Oaxaca was toll road the whole way, pretty good cruising.  Its nice sometimes to be able to relax a bit while riding, not that we don't enjoy hours of countless mountain twists and turns, but it does work on your brain a bit to keep your level of concentration and awareness at an acceptably safe level for hours on end.  We passed a large volcano, extinct, that had snow on its peak,  in southern Mexico.  I was not expecting to see snow here, be we later checked the elevation of the volcano and it was over 14,000ft.   We spent most of the day hovering around 7000ft elevation while riding through some beautiful high canyon country, before dropping slightly into Oaxaca.  We're staying at one of the nicer hotels of the trip, yet priced way below any of our accommodations in the US.  After checking in, we spent the evening walking around the downtown central district, sampling food and drink from some of the many restaurants in the area.  Chip is constantly in search of the famous mole sauce from this region.  I found a barber and got another shave, I had neglected shaving duties enough to where my disposable razor just would not get the job done, and the chinstrap on my helmet was making life a bit uncomfortable.  Chip will update everyone on today's activities, but I do want to mention that we dropped off our laundry to be done, almost 3 weeks on the road, two t-shirts, two pairs of socks, pants, and "others" ,and this is only the second time they have been washed in something other than a sink, or hotel pool.  The charge was  just over $1, which is usually less than the amount of loose change my wife gleans from my pockets when doing laundry at home.    Time to wrap it up with some pictures.


Yes, there is snow in south central Mexico

Blinkey and Nod at the helm

Hillside of saguaro cacti

My writing station for the day, with our room back to the right.

Mexico City & Puebla

CN - Tuesday

We spent Monday night in a slightly questionable hotel, but the price was right - about $13 US.  They had hourly rates posted on the rate sign behind the desk.  Again we were the only gringos in town.  One again we found a delicious taco stand for dinner.  It never gets old - really.

We left Teloloapan after grabbing the usual OXXO yogurt drink - but this morning got to add a taco de pollo (or two) at the stand set up in the parking lot.  Once again we rolled past police, military and armed local militia on the way out of town.  Not sure what is going on in Telolopan but it was the most heavily guarded town we have passed through.  The road was supposed to be pretty much all autopista for the first 100k or so and then break off onto a back road that leads into Puebla.  Well, gps malfunction caused us to miss a turn and after rerouting we were led into Mexico City - which we wanted to avoid.  We got off the autopista on the edge of the city and were rewarded for our mistake with 2 hours of city gridlock to get back on route to Puebla.  Our biggest navigation blunder so far - and likely not the last.  It made for an 8 hour day on the bikes - which is a lot on these little dirt bikes.  The seat is not nearly as comfortable and roomy as on the GS's from our last big trip.

We did manage to get to Puebla, but at the worst time - rush hour.  We decided we didn't want to go into the center of this city of three million so we went past and found a interesting hotel on the outskirts.  The rooms have a very "tiny house" feel to them.  But one again the price was right at $13 US - keeping with the budget goal of $50 a day in total expenses.  And secured parking in a back hallway of the hotel.  We had crazy good taco's once again for dinner.  So, a fairly uneventful day but looking forward to hitting Oaxaca tomorrow.  We will spend two nights there to get to enjoy the city.  I'm ready to try all the varieties of mole they are famous for there.

Loft style set up in the rooms.

Exterior of the hotel.

Drawers in the stairs going up to the loft bed.

Hallway outside the rooms with common space for hanging out.

Secured parking.

Typical set up of the taqueria stands we frequent.