Day 21

I am up early after a good nights rest and walk into town while everyone is still sleeping. There is alot going on for such a small town. I walk down to the harbor and watch some of the fisherman unloading their catches. The town is mostly dirt roads with 2 main paved streets. I notice that there is Polica on almost every corner just hanging out watching everyone, weird. I start walking back to the hotel and see Shane, Luke and Jeff. We all walk to a breakfast place and get some shrimp omelette's and discuss today's plan.
Back at the hotel we pack everything up and ride out of town. Since we rode in at night we didn't really get to see what the landscape was like and were surprised by how the terrain had changed from desert to lush jungle. This was a nice change as we have been riding desert for almost 2000 miles and it was getting old. We come to a long tropical beach that looks like it goes on for miles and it looks like it connects with the road we are trying to reach to get to Puerto Vallarta. So we ride onto the sand and bomb down the beach. It is really smooth and we hit 80 mph+ on the sand. We do a bit of filming doing wheelies and drifting around and Luke busts out his P.O.V Helmet Camera and I have mine on so we get some cool double shots.
Connect back up with the road and now the terrain is very dense jungle, it looks like something out of the movie "The Island". The road is very twisty and Luke ends up going off the road at one point when he couldn't turn sharp enough.
After about an hour we are all getting hungry so we stop at a little restaurant off the side of the road. Order up a bunch of fish and shrimp ceviche tostadas and a round of beers.
Hit the road road again and notice that Jeff's rear tire is leaking air, we fill it up at the gas station and will fix it when we get to Pureto Vallarta.
Arrive in Pureto Vallarta around 5pm and stop to look at our guide book to see where a good place to stay is. Purerto Vallarta is extremely developed and there is alot going on, looks like a fun place. We all split up and each of us goes to a different hotel to see how much it is and if they have a place to put our bikes. I find a nice one where they will let us bring our bikes inside the hotel for 400 peso's.

Wheel our bikes inside and unpack. We hang out for a bit in the room and Luke put on the DVD that Glenn (Striking Viking) from the day before had given him. It is the National Geographic documentary of Glenn's story of getting kidnapped in Columbia on his motorcycle. It was very well done and intense. Was cool seeing Glenn share his story on TV after we were just hanging out with him the day before. It really gave you a idea of how bad it was and how lucky he is to be alive. Strange thing was is that the story started off in the same place we had left from, Palm Springs. I hope that's not a sign of things to come.
Walk into town around 8 and get some tacos and check out the scene. Everything is very upscale and right on the ocean with tons of bars and clubs. Grab some beers and Margarita's at a billiard place and then walk to the main strip. We are getting offered drugs left and right and when we asked one guy where we were he replied with "Yayo Avenue" haha I thought that was hilarious.
We all have to take a piss so we walk down to the beach behind a big sea wall, I mention how this probably isn't a good idea but we do it anyways. As we are walking back up the stairs 2 guys in uniform with guns come up to us and start telling us how we are in big trouble and how what we did was illegal. Great, I've heard stories of tourists going to jail for doing this so it was not looking good. One of the guys is telling us how we have to go to the police station outside of town and pay 500 peso's each. He takes every ones ID's besides mine cause I don't have it and starts leading us towards the police station. We are arguing with him that we have no way to get there and he should just write us a ticket because we have no money and keeps telling us we are out of luck if we have no money. By this time I can tell he is looking for a bribe so I pull out 400 pesos and tell him this is all I have. He refuses and we are just sitting there getting nowhere and eventually he says put the money in the planter and we can go. So for 100 peso's each we got out of that situation which isn't bad. I guess everyone owes me drinks for the rest of the night haha.
A group of 4 Mexican girls is walking down the sidewalk and Luke starts talking to them, his Spanish is as bad as all of our's so I have no Idea what he is saying or how he is holding what seems like a conversation for so long. Turns out 2 of them speak decent English so we all start talking and decide to go into one of the bars together.

We get some beers and by now Luke is pretty drunk and he takes one of the girls onto the dance floor and just goes nuts. He is busting out moves not seen since the 70's and just cant be touched on the dance floor, it was awesome. I can tell he is going to be a good addition to our group.
After we had spent all the money we brought out with us we say bye to the girls and head back to the hotel at about 3am. When we get to the hotel the owner is there and starts telling us how we need to move our bikes out of the hotel and onto the street because there is a taco stand where our bikes are at 6am. What, that makes no sense. The reason we stayed there is because our bikes and luggage were safe inside and we are not stoked on leaving them on the street. We argue with him politely for like 20 minutes and basically wake up the whole hotel on accident. We end up moving all the bikes onto the street and lock them up and go to bed.

Day 20

Pack up in Mazatlan and head out of town with the destination of San Blas. Luke from the night before joins us for the ride. We decide to try to get there off-road with no real idea of how. We take a dirt road that looks like it goes through the swamps and follows the ocean. We are riding through farms and along the river for a while just following the general direction of the GPS. We get to a locked gate along our path and decide to make a way around it.
We clear out some brush and go around the gate.

Go over a sketchy bridge and end up in someones yard with 3 Mexican guys cooking something behind a brick wall. I ask them how to get around the lagoon and they point the opposite direction so we head back the same way.
I get back to the road and Luke motions for us to head back, we find Jeff on the side of the road with the first flat tire of the trip.

Prop his bike up and Shane and Jeff go to work while me and Luke film mostly. They change the tire out like pro's it seems and we put our slime in the tires and we are on our way. About 5 minutes later we stop to get some beers and notice Jeffs tire is almost flat. Dam the patch must of not held or the slime needs to work its way around the tire so we fill it back up at a bike shop and drive down the road for a bit until we get to another town with a bike shop and decide to have the worker there change out the tube for 25 pesos.
While the tire is getting fixed I ride around town and check out a museum and some old buildings. The town has alot of character.
I order a pizza for everyone and when the tire is done we all eat and then are back in action. 5 minutes after we leave town Luke's clutch cable breaks but he has a spare one and puts it on. Not 20 minutes later Shane and I pass a semi on the outside of the road and boom I get a flat tire from a nail or something. It is almost dark now and we still have 100 miles to ride, you have got to be kidding me.

We pull off the wheel in the dark and do the tire change, there is slime all over the tire and its boiling hot. Jeff has a spare tube luckily and we get it all back together in about 45 minutes.
Only my high beams work on my bike so I am getting flashed by every truck and semi on the road and they are leaving their brights on trying to get me to turn mine off but i cant so we are blinded alot of the time. We get lost multiple times but somehow get all the way to San Blas at midnight. We check out a few hotels until we find a really cool one for only $400 pesos for all of us with bike parking, big commune area and a pool. I am pretty beat from a long hot day and grab a beer and chill out.

Day 19

Wake up at 6am and the boat is already docked so we scramble to get packed up so we dont get left. Hop on the bikes and head off the boat and into Mazatlan. Gas up at Pemex and ride around trying to find the beach. We find the main drag and cruise around, the city is huge and the beaches go on as long as you can see. We see remnant's of a big party the night before. It is carnival here as well. Find a breakfast place on the beach and talk to a older white guy who gives us the low down on the city and what to do.
The wait staff is very interested in our bikes and we tell them our story and how much everything costs. They can't fathom spending as much money as we are and traveling for so long for no real reason but to have fun.
We are all very very tired from lack of sleep so we decide to stay here tonight and ride around to find a hotel to go to sleep. I find a cool little place on the beach with a swimming pool and locked parking for our bikes for only 100 pesos each. Huge score. We unpack and take a much needed nap.
I wake up to a phone call from a unknown number. Its striking viking from a website I am on called advrider.com
He has traveled the world by motorcycle and was kidnapped in Columbia for 2 months a while ago on a trip. He got out and got a new bike and he continued his trip. He is the defiantion of hardcore, really great guy. Here is his website, its worth a look. http://www.strikingviking.net/
I had read online that he now lived in Mazatlan so I emailed him a few days earlier to see if he wanted to meet up. He was staying only 5 blocks away and we set up to meet at 8pm that night at his house.
We all go for a ride around the city along the cliffs and find a cool trail that goes up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city and ocean.
Go back to the room and get ready to meet up with Striking Viking not knowing what to expect. We show up at a big condo and get buzzed in, take the elevator to the very top and his door is open. His house was a huge penthouse overlooking the ocean, it was awesome to say the least. He had pictures all over the wall of his motorcycle adventures around the world. He had another adventure rider staying with him (Luke) at the time who was doing a video of his trip as well. He was doing the trip solo though. We all sat down and talked for a bit and then went to get our motorcycles so we could all go get food and go out.
Meet back up at his house and Striking Viking (Glenn) gets on his BMW and we take off into carnival traffic. We are lane splitting like crazy and I almost got hit a few times running red lights to catch up.
We stop at a taco place and eat and talk about riding and his travels and whatnot.
We then leave on our bikes into town and Glenn shows us the real Matatlan experience. What happens next cannot be explained.....

Day 18

We pack all of our stuff up and roll out to the ferry station to get Shane's bike import permit and get our ferry tickets. We decide to splurge and get the suite on the boat. We are honestly not expecting much. With the bikes and room it was 3000 pesos each so it was pretty expensive.
The boat didn't leave for a few hours so we decide to go for a ride up the coast and see what we find. We come across some very nice beaches fit for a postcard and find some fun off-road sections as well along the water.

At one beach we find a sail boat that had been wrecked and was laying side ways in the water.
The mast was in tact and laying diagonally to the shore with the sail ropes hanging off of it. I thought it would be a good idea to swing from the shore to the boat on the rope like a pirate but I only got about half way there.

We then throw rocks in the water to make a bridge to the boat and I climbed aboard and checked it out.
We then went north down the coast and ate at a little place on the beach and got some good fish ceviche and tacos.
Time to head back to the ferry to load the bikes. Went through customs no problem and rode the bikes up into the ship. The inside was huge. The attendant gave us some tie downs and we all secured our bikes and walked inside.
We were pretty amazed by what we saw. It was like a 5 star resort inside. There was a disco, restaurants, stores and everything was just really nice. We checked in and they showed us to our room. Wow really nice to. 3 beds with a couch and our own bathroom with shower and walk in closet. Not to mention the killer view out the window. For this 17 hour trip across the ocean I am very glad we decided to get the suite.

We settled in and went to the restaurant and had a classy dinner with fettachini alfredo and wine wearing board shorts haha. Went upstairs to the lounge and a guy named Greg from Cali comes up to us and asks us about our trip and invites us to come hang out with him and his friends. We go over there and introduce ourselves to 4 other guys and one of their girlfriends. The guy Emery with the girlfriend was super hammered and douchy I could tell his girlfriend wanted nothing to do with him. We played many funny games of asshole and I brought out my ipod speakers and played some inappropriate music no one cared for all night.
At about 1am we go outside on the deck of the ship and go explore around. Shane finds a sketchy manhole and climbs down it into the gallows of the ship.
Since we have to get up at 6am when the ship docks in Mazatlan I go back to the room and pass out.

Day 17

to be added.....

Day 16

We go out downtown to the Carnival and there are thousands of people out. Carnival games and lots of concerts going on. We were defiantly the only non Mexicans out and were getting stare at by everyone like we were freaks. We went to the Jungle Bar and hung out for a bit and then went back out. I decided to do the bungee jump thing they had set up and got the hang of it pretty quick. was doing double back flips and then tried to do a triple back flip and almost hit my face on the ground haha.

I attempted to speak Spanish to tons a people but failed miserably. I really need to learn to speak Spanish. People were very patient with me though.
Shane tried some carnival games but I think they were rigged. We were out pretty late and went back to the hostel about 4am.

Day 14

^^^^ ( This is a actual note we left on the hotels bulletin board, and it worked. Classic)

Kept a mellow day until later we meet up with 2 girls JJ and Brook who we met the first day in the elevator and they go out downtown with us. We start out at happy endings and play beer pong and take shots. JJ is super feisty and getting slightly out of hand, she is also diggin on Shane pretty hard. After a bit we go over to the strip club with them and get some more beers and shots. Another girl Sara is falling asleep in the front row but the other girls are loving it.
      Barry starts massaging brooks hair from behind and she is seriously orgasming with the craziest faces ever. I took a pic but security made me delete it, you had to be there it was just wow. JJ starts dancing with Sara and brings her back to life. Pretty soon all the girls are getting freaky with each other and everyone is just staring at us. We decide its time to go so we leave and start walking back to the hotel.
      Now the girls are saying absolutely ridiculous things. They are talking about how they frequent bondage clubs in LA and have 28 tails in their closet. I almost died laughing. I take everyone on a shortcut through a big resort and when I go inside I look over and see about 20 girls in bikini's by reception just leaning against the wall staring with a blank look on their face (this is about 4am), totally weirded me out but I dident point it out to anyone because I knew they would cause a scene. Very hilarious night.

Day 13

to be added.....

Day 12

to be added.....

Day 11

to be added.....

Day 10

We all walk down the beach to get breakfast and end up going to the mango deck and getting drinks instead.
They are playing tons of drinking games which we all participate in. Me and Kyle moon everyone and jump in the ocean trying to win beers. Me and another dude also get all the girls in the place to slap our bare ass and whosoever is more red wins. He wins but we both get drinks it was pretty ridiculous.
A girl and her mom from Chicago sat next to us and we started talking. The girl was trying to get us to hook her mom up with a guy and the mom was trying to hook her daughter up with us it was very entertaining.
Spent a good amount of the day there watching all the activities and chilling in the sun.
We go back to the room mid day and relax at the pool and then go downtown. We hit happy endings hardcore then go to some new techno club and are dancing around like idiots. I am getting rejected left and right by girls it is pretty funny. Supposedly I was trying to talk to the biggest drug dealer in towns girlfriend so I guess it was for the best.

Day 9 (2-13-09)

Shane and I leave La PAz around noon while Clay and Kyle go to get their import permits for their dirt bikes. We meet another adventure rider at the bike shop and chat it up for a bit. We somehow take the wrong way and end up going through San Jose Del Cabo but the road was really fun and twisted through the mountains. We get to the resort in Cabo San Lucas and see my mom and check in. Its so nice to be back, I have been coming here since I was 2 years old so I basically grew up here in Cabo. As we are going up to our room 2 girls who we think are 16 run by us and yell out their room number to us. We later meet them in the elevator and find out they are 24 and 30 haha. Clay and Kyle show up shortly after. Our place there is pretty rad. 4 Bedroom penthouse with a 180 degree ocean view of lands end and our own hot tub and swim up bar. I can deal with this for a week ;)
We kick it in the hot tub for a bit and walk into town. Grab some dinner and drinks then go downtown to a cool bar called Happy Ending with a awesome bar tender and dollars tequila shots. This is our new spot for sure. We get pretty saucy and go to some clubs that are filled with douche bags and we get pissed and go home haha. Still fun though

Day 8 (2-12-09)

Leave the hotel around 10 and go to a breakfast place. I get a tecate light and some eggs and pancakes which are really good. Leave town towards La Paz. The road is very flat, strait and boring. Seriously 100 miles dead strait through the desert. Get into La Paz and I stop at a Honda store to see about getting a new rear tire as mine is very bald by now. $140 for a dirt tire. I contemplate if I want to run a hybrid tire or full dirt tire for the rest of the trip as mine wearing fast on pavement.
We go into town which is really nice and right on the water. It looks like something out of corona commercial. The ocean is turquoise and really clear. There are so many clubs its ridiculous. This is defiantly a spring break style town
We find a hostel and check in. 125 pesos each, not bad. Shane and I walk all around town checking the place out. We find the strip club which is right next to our hostel. Uh oh that's trouble.
We meet back up with Clay and Kyle at a bar on the ocean and start drinking massive margaritas. About 8 or so in some girls from Sweden show up and we chill with them in the lounge. Some cool guys from Australia also join us.
I get the bright idea to buy shots for everyone. Get 4 shots and one of the girls takes one and goes from nice sober girl to absolutely wasted bitch in 2 seconds. WTF. We all go to the strip club and one of the girls forgot her I'd so they go back to the hostel to get it and we go inside.
We all do our usual routine of acting like idiots and having fun and then leave to go get tacos and then go back to the hostel to pass out. Was a good night.

Day 7 (2-11-09)

Me, Shane, Kyle and Clay leave Loreto around noon and ride 100 miles to conception city. The city is very big but there is absolutely nothing to do. We check into hotel oasis which is super nice and grab three 8 packs of modelo and chill out by the pool for a bit. We take a nap and get up around 9 and ride into town to find food but there are no taco stands to be found so we go to a little restaurant place and get some tortas. Kyle and clay go back to the hotel and me and shane ride around town looking for something to do but there really is nothing so we go back to go to bed. Pretty mellow uneventful day.

Day 6 (2-10-09)

Get up about 8am and ride around town and find a breakfast place. Grab a beer and Mexican eggs and head off. We see 4 other adventure riders on the side of the road and stop to say hi. I tell them about a weird noise my bike it making which I think is a bad main bearing. I replicate the noise by revving it up and they look it over and see its just a loose bolt on the skid plate. Huge relief as I thought it was serious. Maybe I should look better next time, lol
We get to Mullehe about 30 miles down the road and go to the beach. The place is awesome with palm trees everywhere its like a little oasis. Me and Shane grab a Margarita on the beach and head back into town when I realize one of my shoes has fallen off the bike. I go back and look for it but no luck. While looking for it I talk to some girls from Germany tell us the good places to stay. Back in town I see some shoes for sale under a tent and score some sweet skate shoes for 120 pesos. Back in business.
We leave town and head south and the views we see of the gulf are incredible. Crystal clear tropical blue water and white sand beaches. We stop at a couple beaches and see some dolphins jumping in the water.

The road is very curvy and fun as well. I could spend a long time here but we are on a schedule to get to Cabo. Get into Loredo and run into Clay and Kyle at a taco restaurant. We grab some tacos and beer and go to find a hotel. Find a really cool little place that's a lady's house converted into a hotel. Lots of character and we have the place to ourselves pretty much.
Then we wandered town until we found a bar and got some very over priced margarita. Back to the room for some drinks and onto the shady strip club we have heard so much about oh yes. Shane showed up the girls on the pole with his skills I tried my luck at pole acrobatics and failed.
Kyle got a surprise lap dance from fat Claudia and it was all out hilarity. I believe I spent way to much money but it was in pesos so it doesn't count. Hilarious night!

Day 5 (2-9-09)

The night before Jeff had scored a ride from some gringos staying at the hotel all the way to San Diego in a nice Ford Super Duty. Much better then the back of a donkey haha. We pack up the bikes and give our farewells to Jeff and head south on the dirt.
We stop at Coco's Corner who is a old mexican guy who has lost both of his legs and walks around on the stumps. He has been in Baja since the begining of the Baja 1000 and is a true legend. Kyle and Clay also meet us there. We go in and have some beers and talk with Coco and sign his guest book which is filled with famous off-road hero's. He is very lively and positive even concidering his situation and tells us stories of how he drives his car with 2 sticks on the pedals.
Back on the trail and its getting really cold, looking like its going to rain. 10 minutes later it starts raining, the trail gets very muddy but is not problem. Hit the highway about 30 miles later and its still raining, the droplets really sting your face at speed so we have to slow down. We hear that there is a Military Checkpoint in Oho Negra where they check your tourist visas which we do not have so we go out into the desert to avoid the Federali's. It works like a charm and 140 miles later we are in Santa Margerita on the ocean.
We ride around town until we find a cool little hotel for only $22. Unpack and walk into town and get some bomb taco's and beers.
We try to find a bar but its sunday and everything is closed, just before we gave up and went home a little cantina catches our eye and we go in. Bar tender is very friendly and welcoming and pours up up some Casadores Margeritas but they are litterally 3/4 Tequilla. He must be some sort of jedi master because they were the best margeritas ive ever tasted. Head back to the hotel thouroughly buzzed and get some much needed sleep after a long day of riding. Total miles traveled today 280.

Day 4 (2-8-09)

Wake up and Jeff is already outside working on the bike. Later he discovers the problem. Somehow a screw nut had been sucked into the engine and was laying on top of his piston! how the hell did that happen.
This was what was causing the kick starter to seize as the piston was smashing the nut into the valves as it moved upwards. There is hope that it can be repaired with a new gasket and repairing the valve. No go. The valve is bent beyond repair, its done for. So the plan is now that Jeff has to figure out a way to get him and his bike back to LA so he can fix it while me and Shane continue down to Cabo San Lucas where Jeff will meet us when he gets his bike fixed.