Super Adventura

Flying Home To California

2010-03-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

    Zev and I had booked our flight from Cancun to Los Angeles because I had left my car and van in Southern California and we had to get them back to Mendocino in Northern California. I arranged to drop the Jeep off at the airport so we drove it there, dropped it off and hopped on the plane.
    Wow what a trip it has been! So many new friends and memories as well as incredible places visited. This trip has really sparked my interest in seeing the rest of the world and what it has to offer.

     We landed in LA and my good friend Erik picked us up and we stayed at his place the night then he drove us to Santa Barbara where I got my BMW and drove to Lake Nacimiento where my van was parked. Zev took off in my car while I drove my van all the way back home to Mendocino. It's so great to be back but im itching for a new adventure now............

Ever since my accident my dirt bike has been behind a dumpster in Puerto Escondido and this has always been in the back of my mind. I planned on my shoulder getting better and me being able to ride it home but that is not happening so I need to figure out another way to get it home, and soon.

Update on bike: After I got home I was getting emails from the hotel where my bike was saying if I did not get it in a week they were throwing it away and I would never see it again. Out of desperation I put up a post on a motorcycle website explaining my situation and how I needed someone to fly down there and ride it back to California for me. I did not expect any positive response but what do you know the next day I get a email from a guy named Nick in Detroit who says he would be glad to ride my bike back for me! This was a amazing stroke of luck and I took him up on it no questions and bought him a ticket from Detroit to Puerto Escondido, MX.

Long story short he made it all the way through Mexico in a little over a month and I met up with him In San Fransisco where he flew back to Detroit. Really worked out great and I cant thank him enough. He went through hell to get it back but had a amazing trip for himself.

Play Del Carmen, Mexico

2010-03-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Zev and I took a taxi to Playa Del Carmen the next day while the girls stayed in Tulum to check out the ruins. We got a really nice hotel on the beach for nothing and hit the town checking out the scene. Its alot like Cabo San Lucas here, very developed for tourism but really nice. The town was empty though due to the whole swine flu thing so business's were hurting and willing to sell everything for very cheap. I talked with a car rental company and ended up getting a brand new 4x4 Jeep Wrangler for $20!
The next day the girls showed up and I picked them up in the Jeep and we drove north towards Cancun to go exploring.

As I was driving down the highway I saw a old abandoned moto cross track on the side of the road so I turned around and went to check it out. Hey ive got full insurance on the Jeep so I zipped down the hill onto the track going over the jumps and spinning out on the berms. It was alot of fun and the Jeep did not break but I think the girls were a little scared. We were all covered in dirt by the end of it. A bit later we pull off into a little town and go down to the beach for a swim.

I see a dirt road so I zip down it to find a old construction site. Put it in 4 wheel drive and drive through it out the the beach to admire the view and hang out for a bit.

We then drove back to Playa Del Carmen for dinner and pool party just loving being back in Mexico!!!

Tulum, Mexico

2010-03-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Zev and I had met two Australian girls on the island and we seemed to be on the same path so they came with us to Mexico. We took the bus from Belize City and ended in Tulum, Mexico many hours later. First thing I did was get some taco's and salsa. I had been missing Mexican food so much and this really hit the spot. We all went down to the beach which was just incredible. It was so clean and perfect. After some swimming we hit the local cantina and ordered a huge plate of some of the best ceviche ive ever had. Since then ive been trying to match this meal but nothing can compare.

That evening we went out for dinner and then while walking around town at night found this fancy looking club so we decided to check it out. It was totally empty but the music was blaring. A short hobbit looking guy greeted us and said he was the owner. He was really cool and he got us our own room in the back saying there would be more people later. We had nothing better to do so we went back ordered bottle service and hung out together. The owner would come back every so often with all sorts of strange shots he had made for us and would drink with us. Turned out to be a really fun night. He let Zev do some DJing and when more people showed up we had to hit the dance floor and show them our moves haha.

Meeting Back Up With Zev In Key Cauker

2010-03-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Zev was still in Roatan and we had planned to meet up so he ended up flying to Key Cauker on a very small plane. I did not really know when he was showing up and as I was walking down the beach I heard my name and he came running towards me. It was so good to see him again, it had been almost a month. I got him a place in my dorm room there and we hit the beach all day with everyone.

The next day we went on a boat trip out to the reefs to swim with the sting rays. The boat was run by a awesome Rasta guy with a very unique boat that he built himself.

The captain was very funny and friendly and Zev, Josh and about 6 others from our hostel set out on the water bumping reggae music out of a old tape player the captain had on board. It was his only tape and I imagine it had been played thousands of time. Along the way he made some great seafood BBQ and chip dips in his little kitchen by the engine.

We arrived at the reef and you could see about 20 huge sting rays swimming under the boat. The water was only about 5 feet deep. Captain jumped in first and one of the sting rays swam up to him and he picked it up out of the water and told us its name and how he had been out there doing this for 20 years and knew each sting ray personally. He asked us to jump in, I was hesitant at first but jumped in and was instantly baraged with all the sting rays rubbing into me. It was quite freaked out at first but soon came to terms with it and the Captain showed me how to properly pick one up. I held out my hands and of on them swam right up to me and nuzzled against my chest like a curious cat. It was quite a cool experience.

Key Cauker Island

2010-03-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Only spent one night on the island and left early the next morning on the bus to Belize City. We get to the city and make our way to the ferry over to Key Cauker Island. The ferry ride is nice and I slowly see the water turning more and more turquoise and clear. We arrive and its paradise. White sand everywhere, palm trees blowing in the breeze, all dirt roads and no cars. we check into a hostel on the beach and hang out for a while meeting other travelers. The island has a very chilled out vibe, im digging it. Two swedish girls we had met in Honduras were staying at our hostel and we all go out that evening.

Death Defying Boat Ride To Belize

2010-03-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

After a couple days we decided to head to Belize so we hopped on a small boat over to the nearby port city. The ocean was very rough this day and we were getting soaked by waves as they crashed into the bow of the small pontoon boat. Got to the port and walked to the Guatemala/Belize immigration. We were greeted at the door by a very nice local guy who helped us fill out our paper work, showed us were to get some food and sold us our boat tickets to Belize. We waited for a while and then the guy came back and said the sea was to rough so we had to wait another couple hours until we could go.We went down to a restaurant on the water and got some food and drinks and bumped some music to pass the time.
A very old and haggered looking man came up and started talking to me. We ended up talking quite a bit and I soon learned that he had just been released from San Quinten Prison a couple weeks ago and was deported back to Guatemala. He told me some insane stories of prison life and how he ran a gang. I kind of doubted his story as it was some crazy stuff like having to stab people and trying to escape. He then took off his shirt and he had prison tattoos all over and obvious stab and knife wounds. He seemed like the sweetest old man and not some gang leader though. He had changed his ways and seemed very happy about being out and leading the rest of his life happy and legit. He took out a piece of styrofoam and colored pencils and drew me a picture of a rose with a strange drawing technique I have never seen before. Very interesting guy I will never forget.

    Our boat was ready to leave and we got on board. It was a speed boat type with about 400 horse power via 2 large engines in the back. Josh and I were the only passengers as the entire front was taken up by large mattresses held down by one guy in the front. We took off into the open sea bouncing all over the place due to the rough ocean. The waves just got bigger and bigger the further from the coast we got until it just got dangerous and ridiculous. We were full speed through the water approaching eight foot breaking waves on this little speed boat.
    The driver was so pro at driving I was blown away, we would hit huge waves max throttle launching the whole boat into the air and clearing the gap between waves making a smooth landing on the backside of the the next wave. He would then cut the throttle to narrowly miss a huge white wash from a breaking wave and then hit the throttle again riding the side of the next swell like a skateboard on a half pipe using the thrust from the turn to launch the next wave. I for sure thought we were going to die multiple times and there were no life vest and we were so far off the coast drowning would of been eminent. Im very surprised we survived no joke. The ride was like this for about 45 minutes, it was quite intense.

     When we made it to dock I gave the driver a high five and we got off and went through customs. We then waited at the bus station for the next bus to come by. This town was so quiet it was erie. There was no one around at all and it was totally silent. A old truck pulls up and 3 women get out and sit next to us. I notice one of them had a big gash in her head and is bleeding. I ask her what happened and she said she was just riding in a Semi-Truck that had crashed and rolled right down the road. She looked pretty hurt but was still very friendly. We all boarded the bus and she sat across from me and we continued to talk. Soon traffic slowed down and she pointed out the window. There on the side of the road was a huge semi truck and trailer upside down in a ditch.
      I zone out for a while admiring the landscape of Belize out the bus window. Such a different feel here then Guatemala, I don't know how to explain it. It takes us quite a while but the bus drops us off and we walk down a dirt road trying to find a boat to take us to Pino island which is right off the coast. I guess the boats stop running at 5pm. We showed up at 5:10pm. They told us they are no longer working and we would have to charter a private boat there for $50! There is no way we are paying $50 for a 15 minute dingy boat ride. We argue with him for a while but he wont budge. A local guy shows up and says he will pitch in $10 if we pay the rest. We had no choice really so we take his money and get in the boat.
     I have a half full bottle of rum sticking out of my bag and the guy asks me for a sip. I say ya no problem and hand him the bottle. He takes a sip and then says, can I have the whole thing? I say no your welcome to have some but you cant have all of it. He then gets very offended and starts going off about how he doesent like me and how he is a gangster on this island. He is getting very hostile and making threats to us about how he better not see us on his island. I had literally did nothing but be nice to this guy, he was crazy.
      The last thing we need is a fight with a local guy so I give the bottle to him and we get off he boat and leave. That was stupid. Its almost dark now and we find a chill place to stay on the beach then walk down the one path in town and grab some dinner and call it a night. Wooo what a day!

Livingston, Guatemala

2010-03-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Josh and I left our swamp hostel in the morning on a boat down the Rio Dulce river to Livingston near the boarder of Belize. We met two cool Canadian girls sitting next to us and we all had a great time joking around and talking during the ride. The river was beautiful with lush jungle surrounding us, monkeys jumping from trees and old locals calmly paddling along side us in their make shift canoes using planks of wood as paddles. Women in the river washed their clothes and little kids played in the water while waving at us as we passed by. A real sense of warmth with the people of rural Guatemala.

We arrived in Livingston some hours later and as we got off the boat were instantly engaged by a local Rastafarian looking dude who said he had a good place for us to stay. We already knew where we wanted to stay so we declined and walked down the street but he kept following us. Turns out the place was full so we went to another place with this guy still following us. He went ahead of us and we saw him quickly running into a few hotels and then out again. When we got to our second choice place the owner looked uneasy and told us that the place was full. It was obviously not and as a girl walked out of her room we asked her and she said she was the only one staying there. Now something is fishy
Turns out this Rasta guy was some sort of gangster of this place and told the hotels to say they were full so that we had to stay at his place. We now knew he was shady and wanted nothing to do with him and told him off where he got rather aggressive. We had just arrived and had already made a local enemy, great. Walked down the street some more and found a decent place to stay. Josh was tired so I took off on my own to explore the town.

    Went down by the ocean and was very suprised by how much trash was on the beach, it was like a dump. A local man saw me looking at all the trash and came up to me and started talking about how bad it has gotten. He was about 80 years old and by the way he talked I could tell he was very smart. We ended up talked for about an hour about environmental issues and the local issues of Livingston. Turns out he ran a Orphanage in the local village and invited me to come check it out.
     Livingston is right near Belize so the locals are all direct African slaves who were abandoned in Belize by the Spanish. He walked me through a very very poor village and as I walked past windows I could see eyes lighting up as they saw me and soon the entire village was out side of their homes to come look at me. Kids had no clothes on at all and the homes were as shanty as you can get. Everyone was smiling and I smiled and waved back. The man led me into one of the homes where a very old woman was sitting in a rocking chair listening to a radio. She turned around and looked at me with these huge eyes and weather torn face, smiled and said hello. I sat down next to her not really knowing what to say so I told her my name and where I was from. She told me some stories of living in Belize and the struggles she endured as a African, it was very interesting but hard to follow at times and her speaking had a strong Caribbean accent and was slurred from age. I said my goodbyes and the man took me to the Orphanage.
    I was really taken back by the situation. The Orphanage was nothing more then a very big shed with a dirt floor and a faucet sticking out of the wall. about 20 kids were laying on the dirt sleeping while the others were playing and running around. They all looked very skinny and malnourished but very happy. I hung out and played with the kids for a while and then asked the old man what I could do to help. He said they were in need of clothes and food so I asked for him to take me to a grocery store where I bought large bags of rice, vegetables, non perishable items and various sizes of shoes and shirts. I only had about $50 US with me but it bought quite a bit. Brought it back with the help of some other locals and played with the kids some more before making my way back to our hotel.

We were told that there was a really good BBQ and party at the hostel down the road so that evening we walked down there to find a very cool scene and alot of nice people. Had a huge Shrimp dinner with about 30 other travelers and partied the night away.

Josh and I decided to go back to our rooms and as we are walking down a long dark stretch of road we see three shady looking guys walking towards us. I am instantly sketched out as my shoulder is useless and there is no way I could fight someone to protect myself. They guys walk strait towards us and as one gets close he lifts up his shirt and motions with his hand like he his going to grab a gun from his waist. I tensed up and thought we were going to get robbed or shot and then he puts his shirt down and quickly lunges at us like he is going to hit me, then laughs and they all walk away. They were just trying to scare us but it really put us on edge and made this whole town seem sketchy.

The next day we moved to the hostel so we did not have to do anymore late night trips and had a great time with everyone at the hostel for the next couple days.

Rio Dulce 2.24

2009-04-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Josh and I are up early to a beautiful sunny day. Our plan is to get to the hot spring waterfalls that we had heard about so we go to the bar and get some breakfast and then take a boat into town. Town is pretty busy and we have some trouble finding the bus but after a bit we find it and head out of town. The road turns to dirt and there is massive construction on the road going on so we have to maneuver around tractors and heavy equipment. About 30 minutes later we arrive at a little resteraunt in the middle of nowhere and take a path through the jungle. There is a school along the river and a bunch of the kids see us and start running towards us. They all look very poor and are asking for money, I had a feeling if we gave them money the entire school would be all over us so we declined and kept walking.
Get to the end of the path and there is an amazing 30 foot waterfall flowing into a pool with steam coming off the water.

I did not know stuff like this really existed, we climb down the rocks and jump in. The water below the falls is comfortably warm but when you get near the flowing water its almost scolding hot. We tried to swim underneath the waterfall but the hotness of the water was to much to bear. I swim around for a bit until I get bit on the back by a fish. It dident hurt so much as it surprised me and flinched my whole body really hard and tweaked my injured shoulder badly. I heard 2 pops and a grind and then the pain set in. Great I think I had just re-stretched my torn ligaments and reverced a lot of the healing that had taken place in the last month or so.
We decided to go back into town so I could get some pain meds and get a sling because the weight of my arm was causing a lot of pain. We stopped at the restaurant on the way out to get some food and all the road construction workers were there eating as well.

Sit down and everyone is looking at us all crazy. All the girls who worked there were grabbing their friends and peeking through the door at us and laughing and smiling constantly. Not sure what was going on there but we felt a little weird. They only served one meal so we got some soup and ground beef and ate in complete awkwardness as they tried to take pictures of us and continued to laugh.

I had to break this awkwardness so I told one of them to come over and take a picture with me and she seemed very excited. After wards we catch the van into town and pick up literally every person on the side of the road. At one point there were 23 people inside of this little van made for 8. People were on the roof and hanging out the doors onto the side and sitting on laps, it was quite funny but I guess this is normal around here. Josh and I cruise around town and find a pharmacy and I get a sling and some random pain meds and then find a carnival down by the river and check it out for a bit. It started to get really windy so we called for our boat back to the swamp hotel and get a ride back for the night.

San Pedro to Rio Dulce

2009-04-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

    Josh and I leave San Pedro by shuttle around 9am expecting an 8 hour journey to Rio Dulce which is near the Caribbean coast of Guatemala near Belize. The first shuttle to Guatemala City took 5 hours and then the bus from there to Rio Dulce took 7 hours so in total we were on the bus for 12 hours which was quite a trip. We did not even really know if we were on the right bus as the sign on the bus said Flores which is near Mexico and no one really gave us a strait answer.
     We finally arrive around 10pm and are dropped off in town near a discotek with a lot of stuff going on around us. A guy comes up to us with a flier from a hostel in the swamps that you have to take a boat to. He says its very nice and there are a lot of young people there. Ok sold. He leads us to the water and radio’s a boat to come pick us up. Hop on the boat and take off full speed into pitch darkness. The driver is using a flash light to see where he is going but it really isn’t doing anything. Josh and I are looking at each other like what the hell are we doing right now. This guy could easily be taking us into the middle of the lake to rob and kill us, isn’t this how a horror movie started?
     After about 5 minutes we are approaching the edge of the lake which is covered in thick jungle. The boat is still doing full speed and we are rapidly approaching the end. I honestly thought the driver did not see the shore and we were about to crash. Then out of nowhere a small channel appears in between the trees and brush and we are now racing through a small canal about 8 feet wide ducking under hanging vines and dodging logs in the water. I see a light in the distance and we pull up to a dock next to the hotel which is on stilts in the middle of the swamp. There are a bunch of people hanging out at the bar and we walk up and get a room from the bartender. Our room is a second story cabin on the water with a woven palm leaf roof, no walls and two beds with misquito nets, very cool.

Antigua to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala 4.19

2009-04-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone wakes up at 6am and packs up to meet the shuttle to take us to Lake Atitlan. Katrina and Synee have to get a plane back to Norway that night so they stay at the hostel and we take off to the lake. The terrain changed quite drastically to what looked a lot like Northern California with pine trees and a very dry mountain terrain.

Get into Panachel around 10am and cruise around the towns market and go for a swim in the lake before getting on a water taxi over to San Pedro. The wind had picked up a lot and the water was very choppy. The ride over was literally like taking a shower. Every time the bow hit the waves the whole inside of the boat would get soaked, it was quite funny. I met a guy on the boat who was taking Spanish classes on San Pedro and he showed us to a cheap nice hotel by the dock. $2 for a nice clean room with a view of the lake, nice!

We walk around and check out the town, this place is set up very strange. There is a small

pathway that winds around the town like a maze.

We come out by the lake and I hear someone call my name. Its Josh from the night before. I guess his friends had pulled some shady shit on him that morning so he just packed up and bailed on them without saying anything hoping to find me in San Pedro.

The next few days consisted of chilling at the lake and just cruising around town checking out all the places.

One night me and josh went back to our hotel to hang out around midnight and were playing some music on my ipod speakers. Out of nowhere about 8 people show up at the door thinking there was a party going on. Well there is now and we invite them all in.

Guatemala Border to Xela

2009-04-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

It was late afternoon by the time we were done with the border crossing, but we were told it was just over an hour to Xela. I decided we could make it.

It's pretty amazing how different Guatemala fells than Mexico. as soon as we crossed the border we started up a grade through very lush green mountains. After we made it up the small hill, the road opened up and straightened out a little, which is where the crazy driving started. If you've ever driven in Mexico, you will agree that it is a bit less civilized than in the US and you have to stay on your toes.

Guatemala is a whole new experiance. The lanes are just a little wider, and that gives everyone just enough room to be passing each other everywhere, all the time. Pretty soon passing on the right shoulder was commonplace and a couple times I found myself on teh left sholder passing a car that was passing a truck in our lane.

About the time we left CA-2 and started heading up into the highlands towards Xela, it started to get dark and cold. I actually had to zip the sleeves back on my jacket for the first time in quite a while.

Once we got to Xela, we checked into Casa Argentina, A huge hostel with offstreet parking for around $6 each. After a quick shower we went out to see what this place had to offer.

The full name of the city is Quetzaltenango, but I can't pronounce that, and everyone calls it Xela (shell-ah) both the locals and travelers alike. Xela is a large colonial city, and one of the largest citys in Guatemala. It is full of colonial archetecture, which I think I enjoy because there isn't a whole lot of it where I'm from in California.

It was our first night in Guatemala, and I was excited to try some Guatemalan street food. Shane wasn't feeling the street food, and convinced me to eat at McDonalds, he was very content. I don't even like McDonalds back home.

Not alot seemed to be going on around the plaza, but we saw lights in the distance and decided to check it out. As we got closer we started to hear the music.

It turns out there was a very big concert going on in the stadium, and had a huge street fair around it. We got some beers and walked around all the crazyness that was going on near the stadium.

Copan to Antigua, Guatemala

2009-04-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

The combination of 1 hour of sleep, and the shuttle bus being extremely full made for a pretty brutal trip to Antigua. At one point the bus would not start so we had to push start it, not a good sign. The ride was uneventful besides that. Arrive in Antigua and am instantly reminded of Granada, Nicaragua from my last trip. The buildings are all very colorful and there are lots of old churches and delapatated old structures as well as cobble stone streets. Wander around for a bit until we find a good hostel and check in. Antigua was the old capital of Guatemala which was replaced by Guatemala City. There is a lot of history and things to see here.
The next day was my 25th birthday and we took a horse drawn carriage ride around the city and toured some of the buildings and sights. I wanted to get some champagne for the ride but am glad I didn't as the bumpy cobble stone streets would of made that idea end in disaster. The Scottish girls showed up that night so we had the whole crew back together again and we all went out to a really nice steak house for my birthday dinner. It was by far the best meal Ive had since I was back in the US and was a nice change from rice and beans.
Next night was Katrina’s birthday so everyone went out to MocoLoco (Crazy Monkey) and got some extremely over sized nacho’s and to many jager bombs. I met a guy from Canada named Josh on the way to the restaurant and invited him to join us. He had been traveling Jamaica and Cuba for the last 2 months with some friends from back home and was extremely fed up with them. I asked if he wanted to meet me at Lake Atitlan the next day and then travel up Belize and into Mexico. He seemed very interested but I did not really really expect him to ditch his group.

Roatan to Copan Ruins, Honduras

2009-04-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

After many days “ok we are leaving tomorrow” (broke rule #1) I left with the Norwegian’s and Jeff and Shane while Zev stayed on the island because he had a pretty swank situation with a hot Guatemalan girl and was planning to meet back up with me in Belize in a week or 2. We all left at 5am to catch the ferry to the mainland and then get a bus to the Copan Ruins while Shane and Jeff would get their motorcycle’s and meet us there.
The first bus was extremely hot, sticky and cramped but then the 2nd bus for the last 3 hours was cool. We arrived in Copan around 4pm and checked into a very nice hostel, probably the nicest of the trip and it was only 5 dollars. The next day Jeff and Shane left for the Yukatan Peninsula and me and the girls went to check out the Mayan Ruins. I had never seen ruins like these before so it was a new experience for me. The structures were huge and you could get a feel of what it was like to live there a long long time ago. It was amazing how well preserved the ruins were after so many years. There were also tunnels dug under the ruins.
It was extremely hot this day so afterwards we found a pool and chilled there for most of the day. It was just us for the first hour and then a whole family of about 20 Honduras showed up and broke the tranquility. Every one of them was in the pool with all their clothes on and they looked at us like we were weirdos because we were in bathing suits. Not sure if it’s for sun protection or its considered rude or indecent to swim with no shirt or a bikini.We went out that night to “The red frog” cantina and sampled some very strange shots. One was Tequilla and hotsauce and ranch sauce which I was not expecting so it was quite a shock.

We all played beer pong and had a good time kind of forgetting we had to get up at 5am the next morning to get the bus to Antigua Guatemala. Lets just say that morning was not fun.

Keep It Classy Roatan

2009-04-21T16:41:00.001-07:00

After Utila we decided that we needed to go back to Roatan and spend some more time there. Its hard to put into words but there is something about the place that sucks you in. Maybe it was the white sand beaches, the blue water, the reef, night life or our new friend Sunny who owned the local cantina and showed us some crazy nights and let me stay at his condo with AC and plasma TV for the rest of the trip. Either way we had way to much fun. The rules of Roatan are simple.

1. Never say im leaving tomorrow.
2. Never say im never drinking again.
3. Never say I love you.

Jeff, Shane and the group of Scottish girls who we met in Puerto Escondido, MX met us on Roatan and stayed the week there. Between us, the Norwegian Girls, The Scottish Girls and the Swedish girls we pretty much took over the entire hostel and had quite the crew. My planned few day stay on Roatan had turned into 3 weeks before I knew it. Sunny's mom was in town and happened to be a acupuncturist and offered to do a session on my shoulder for free. The needles hurt extremely bad when they were pushed into the damaged tissue but afterwards my shoulder felt alot better.

Beanie Man did a concert on the island that was a ton of fun. We were here for Holy Week and on Easter weekend the islands population grew 50x with people from all over Central America flooding the island for the celebrations. There is really to much funny stuff that happened so ill just let the pictures do the talking....

Mexico to Guatemala Border Crossing

2009-04-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

Crossing the border from California to Mexico at Calexico-Mexicali was rediculously easy. It summed up to nothing more than a stop light and a guy looking in one of Shane's saddlebags for all of 3 seconds. my experiances at the San Ysidro-Tijuana border have been about the same.

I had heard storries and seen pictures of Central American border crossings, but that didn't begin to prepare me for what I was about to experiance. At the gas station 15 a man showed us his (probably fake) ID card and offered to help us through the border crossing, we told him we were ok. Five miles before the border, young men on small motorcycles raced through trafic to catch us and offer us thier services. ¨No Gracias.¨

Once we got to the border, we were literally swarmed with money changers and helpers. The helpers were yelling at us so consistantly, I could barely get a sentance back and forth to Shane.

We did need to change some of our Mexan Pesos for Guatemalan Quetzals, the official excange rate at the time was 1 Peso to .533 Quetzal. I easily got 1:.50 good enough for me.

I had read on ADVrider.com that if you simply do not cancel your Mexican tourist visa andtemporary vehicle import on the southern trip; then on the return trip you don't need to do anything to enter mexico, as you already have the right paperwork.

I was pretty sure my Mexican tourist visa was a multiple entry visa, so I was willing to give it a try.

The helper guys chasing us around kept telling us we need to go check out of Mexico. Around five different times people tried to get us to stop, the didn't look too official, so I ignored them. I decided that if I had to stop there would be a gate or a man with a gun. Eventually we made our way to where there was a gate and some offices. I took my passport and motorcycle title to the window, and quickly denied. The lade looked in my passport and motioned that I needed a stamp of some sort.

At this point I was so sick of the helpers bothering me, I decided to hire one. Five US dollars was probably worth it, if nothin else, he fended off all the other helpers for me.

We went all the way back to the Mexico custims office, about 500 meters. They wouldn't stamp me out because I never paid the 292 peso departure tax at the bank, and the nearest bank was 10 miles back. This was entirely our fault, the lade who issued us our tourist visas in La Paz told us we needed to pasy this at any bank before we left Mexico. Shane's would be even more difficult because he had lost his tourist visa.

My helper guy said he knew someone and for 500 pesos he could get our passports stamped. I reluctantly handed him the money and our passports, and hoped for the best. He returned in a couple minutes with our stamped passports.

Again we headed back towards Guatemala, and stop at the Guatemalan imigration office. Here I take Shane and my passports to the window and it only costs 10 quetzals (around $1.25) each to be stamped into Guatemala.

Our next stop was the office where we were originally turned around. Shane and I were legally in Guatemala, but our bikes weren't yet.

After I handed the lady at the window my passport and motorcycle title, she spent a few minutes entering my info in the computer, then gave me some paperswork that I needed to show to pay my import fees at the bank. Luckly the bank was next door and the import fee was only 40 quetzals (around $5). Once I returned with my recipt, an officer inspected my VIN number and put a sticker in my sindshield. I was good to go.

Shane had been watching the bikes while I imported my bike. We traded places and I watched the bikes while Shane dealt with importing his bike.

Soon enough, Shane also had a sticker on his windshield and we were off, riding into Guatemala.

In retrospect, I think the stamp I was missing from my passport wasn't the stamp out of Mexico, but the stamp into Guatemala, and I probably could have gotten that without checking out of Mexico. Possibly someone who has done this before can chime in and clarify that.

Puerto Arista to the Guatemala border

2009-04-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

If you remember back to when we left Puerto Escondido, I had to bump start my bike becaue it had a dead battery. The battery still isn't holding a charge, and I have to bump start it every time. Shane suggested the battery terminals may be loose or corroded. In the morning I got up before Shane, as usual, and went to pull my bike apart to check the battery terminals. They weren't loose, or particularly dirty, but I cleaned them anyway. As I was reassembling everything, I noticed a spark when I went to connect my GPS power lead. The GPS wasn't even on the bike, there so there should be no current draw. I traced the problem back to a short in the cigarette lighter socket. I have no idea what anyone was thinking when they designed these things, I don't think I've ever had an accessory powered off a cigarette lighter socket that worked 100% of the time. a little electrical tape and I had the bike back together before Shane got out of bed.

By this time it had started to rain a little, then stopped. the clouds in the sky didn't make me want to stick around any longer.

It was only a couple hour ride to Tapachula, and the Guatemala border. As is par for the course, I got a flat tire. I stopped counting how many flats that is.

I limped it to this shop and paid George 50 pesos to patch my tube, he was really busy so I lent a hand getting the wheel off the bike.

George spoke very good english, and had developed this ingenious press that the used the heating element from a clothin iron th help adhere the patch to the tube.

Meanwhile, George's son was having the time of his life sitting on my bike and playing with the horn.

It wasn't much longer and we were back on mex 200, through Tapachula, and to the Mexico-Guatemala border at Talisman-El Carmen.

Mitla to Puerto Arista

2009-04-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

In the morning I drag Shane out of bed and we head up to the ruins, to be honest they weren’t that impressive.

More interesting than the ruins themselves, was the story behind why they were so ruined. When the Spanish came to settle in Mitla, they disassembled a lot of the existing structures to build their church. Somewhat sad, but it is a pretty church. Shane seemed unimpressed as well.

On the road south from Mitla, mex190 is a lot faster of a road than 131 or 175, but still windy with a lot of elevation change. Unfortunately since this is the best road to the coast from Oaxaca, it is full of cars and busses and semi trucks that are hard to get around, and tend to throw gravel and diesel smoke at you.

After Santo Domingo we hopped on mex200, where we’ve spent a good majority of our trip. 200 is a huge contrast, I’d describe it as nice and straight. It’s funny because back home I hate riding straight sections of highway, but down here, when you’re trying to get somewhere, it’s a bit of a relief to be on something that resembles a highway.

There isn’t a whole lot going on in Puerto Arista. It is very much a one street town, on the beach. The beach seems to go forever, but we were a little too tired to deal with riding KLRs on the beach, it’s fun, but a lot of work. The Lonely Planet describes Puerto Arista as a great place to drink a few beers and watch the sunset over the Shane and I did just that, how romantic.

I didn’t realize this at the time, but this would be our last Mexican meal, our last Mexican beer, and our last sunset over the Pacific. All three were everything they were cracked up to be.

Puerto Escondido to Mitla

2009-04-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yet again, we woke up early to head out to Oaxaca, out of bed at 7 AM, I don’t think Shane likes this much. Kathryn, Amanda, and Lucas, a few of our new friends drag themselves out of bed to wish us a safe journey. As is par for the course at this point, something is already not going as planned, my bike won’t start, the battery is dead. I have no idea why this is, I took Kathryn for a ride a day earlier and the bike fired up no problem. I bump start the bike and we are on our way.

For some reason the ride to Oaxaca was more enjoyable this time. Maybe it’s because we knew what we were getting into. I think if Mex131 was in my backyard, it may be one of my favorite riding roads, very tight and slow, with huge elevation gains and beautiful scenery. It has a few dirty sections, but I’m on a KLR not a sport bike, so it’s no big deal.

On the decent down to Oaxaca, Shane spotted a dirt road that seemed to go in the direction we needed to be heading, so we decided to see where it goes. The road followed some power lines, back home that’s one of the easiest ways to find dirt tracks. Normally the power company plows a descent trail for installation and maintenance of the lines. In Mexico, this proved to not always be the case, as this particular trail turned to a rocky goat trail that neither Shane nor I felt like riding on loaded down KLRs with stock skid plates, so we returned to the highway and made our way to Oaxaca.

Once Shane had his Passport in hand, we grabbed some tacos and decided that there wasn’t a lot we wanted to see in Oaxaca. This was mostly because I didn’t want to bore Shane with churches and museums. We decided to keep riding to Mitla, a pre-hispanic town turned colonial town, and check out the ruins there. By the time we got to Mitla, we would only have had an hour to check out the ruins before they closed, so we decided to do it in the morning.

Most other towns in Mexico seem to just start waking up around 8pm, and we were a little tired, so we decided to take a little nap before dinner. It turns out Mitla is a little different, and nothing was open after our nap. We rode around town looking for food and the only place that we could find open was “Brown Taco” it was actually quite good, but I think al pastor tacos may be my favorite food ever.

Oh Puerto Escondido

2009-04-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Like I said earlier, we weren't really stuck in Puerto, if we wanted to we probably could have gotten all this taken care of alot faster, but there is just something that sucks you in. It may be the hot weather, the constant sunshine, the warm water, the beautiful beaches, or the surf. I think it was The Mayflower, the hostel in the middle of the tourist zone, a block from the beach. Somehow the Mayflower just attracts the most awesome travelers, it was almost like a big family. It seemed like as soon as anyone checked in they were instantly part of the group and invited to do whatever everyone else was doing.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a few words about Puerto, you can imagine the details.

Recovering from ¨The Great Loss of 2009¨ part 4

2009-04-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

The next day we ride to Huitalco. A girl on a scooter is trying to sell us jungle tours or something, so we show her the address, she tells us to follow her, we do. Then she picks up a guy on her scooter, maybe her boss or boyfriend. We follow them.

We still find it without any problems and we now have our titles. What a relief.

The ride back to Puerto Escondido was also pretty uneventful, exept for riding off a three foot dropoff, through a construction zone to get around traffic, twice. That was fun.

You may have forgotten through all the fact that Chris dislocated his shoulder and Shane broke his foot, but our buddy Leal didn't and sent this balloon.

Recovering from ¨The Great Loss of 2009¨ part 3

2009-04-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Just one more problem, Shane seems to have lost his motorcycle key somewhere at the hostel. We search everywhere for it, it's gone. The guy running the front desk calls a locksmith and he says he can make a new key for 300 peso, that's only $20. The locksmith comes out and spends about 6 hours working on Shane's key, he is able to get the helmet lock and gas cap to open, but not the ignition. Eventually he tells Shane he's needs him to take the lock cyclinder off so he can take it to his shop and make a key. In the morning Shane tears his bike appart and the locksmith goes and picks up the part.

Shane leaves the 300 pesos at the front desk, and we go about our day. Shane wakes up from his afternoon nap to see the lock cyclinder and new keys sitting next to his bed.

Recovering from ¨The Great Loss of 2009¨ part 2

2009-04-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

When we started this trip Shane and I only had the registration cards for our motorcycles because we had purchased them just before the trip and the DMV hadn't issued us titles yet. Once Shane lost his registration we decided it would be a good idea to have our titles mailed down, so that we both had the same paperwork to show border officials. This would of course not be without issues.

The owner of the hostel told us there was a DHL office up by the market, so we had our titles sent from home to be held at the DHL office. Overnight shipping from California still took about 6 days, but we were also waiting for the passport so this wasn't a big deal. Once the online tracking said they were at the DHL office, Shane and I walked into town to try to find the DHL office, we got directions to 3 different places, and never found the DHL office. Once back at the hostel, I emailed my buddy back home and he called DHL and got me an address.

The following day I got in a cab and showed the driver the address, he said no problem, 25 pesos, and we took off. The streets and building sin alot of Mexico aren't very well marked, Puerto Escondido is no execption. Eventually I was convinced we found the correct address, and of course there was no DHL office there. This is what I found at that address.

Another email and phone call and it turns out our paperwork is sitting at the office in Huatalco, about an hour ride south of Puerto.

Recovering from ¨The Great Loss of 2009¨ part 1

2009-04-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

If you remember back to what we have dubbed ¨The Great Loss of 2009¨ where Shane lost the top bag off his bike. It fell off along a mountain road and we were unable to find it. Along with some riding gear, some tools and some spare parts, he lost his passport, motorcycle registration, his spare key and Chris's laptop.

Step one was to get a new passport. Rode to Oaxaca from Puerto Escondido, only 150 miles, but took about 5 hours, and Shane got a flat tire. Once in Oaxaca we found the US consolate and ordered a new passport without too much hastle, it would be there the following Tuesday. We decided to take the slightly less windy route back to Puerto, but it wasn't really any better. It got dark and we were at a 9000 foot elevation only 30 miles away from the ocean. Up that high I swear we were in a cloud and it was super cold, of course we didn't bring cold weather gear. To top it off I had only eaten lunch that day, and it was definately wearing on me. Somehow I only weigh 40 pounds more than Shane but need to eat about twice as much as him. We found some food on the side of the road and then eventually made it back to Puerto Escondido, with time to go out with everyone from the hostel.

3.26 - 3.28 Utila Island, Honduras

2009-03-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Report to be added....

*Cliff Notes* Police Officer getting picked up by his throat against the fence by agro local guy and getting and punched in the face while his three other cop buddys fleed the scene. Nuts!

Also Shane and Jeff have been slacking on the blog updates but they have finally got their passports, left Mexico and are currently at the Copan Ruins in Honduras. They are riding to La Ceiba tommorow and will meet me on Roatan Island. Fun will ensue.....

3.25 Roatan to Utila Island

2009-03-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

Zev and I decided to take the Catamaran over to Utila Island for a few days so we all pack up and move out of our room. Lauren was supposed to leave at 5am that morning to catch the ferry back to the mainland so he could fly home but events from that night made that impossible so he was going to get the 2pm one instead. We give our farewells at the dock to Lauren and the Noregian girls we had been hanging out with and sail out of the bay towards Utila which is about a 4 hour trip.

The boat trip was great, we chilled on the nets in the front and drank beers with a couple from New York and even got escorted into Utila by a school of about 10 dolphins, jumping and following the boat.

Utila is much different then Roatan, its way more funky and backpackerish while Roatan is on the upscale side. We get off the boat and walk into town to meet up with a friend of ours Natalie who we stayed with in Costa Rica on our last trip. She had emailed us saying she was taking her dive master course on the island so we cruised around for about 10 minutes until we found her at a dive shop on the water. She got us a room at the dive shop overlooking the ocean, very sweet.

The shop had a cool old bar and we hung out there and met some of the divers and locals until we went out. Two locals, Alan and Peter took us out to some bars and we kicked it with them for a while.
One place called Tree Top stuck out, the bar was up in a tree and it had catwalks that went all over the place up in the tree’s. There was also a huge garden area decorated in very strange and interesting art that looked like it was designed by someone tripping on LSD. There were huge Banana Spiders all over the place that are very poisonous so you had to be careful where you walked. As we were walking around a friend of ours Tosh walked right through a huge web and started freaking out and taking off all his clothes thinking there was a spider on him. Luckily there was not.

My shoulder started hurting very badly from all the movement it had gotten on the boat and walking around town so I went back to the room to get some pain pills and ended up just going to sleep while Zev stayed out all night.

3.21 - 3.22 Island Livin

2009-03-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

3.20 Roatan Island, Honduras

2009-03-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

I wake up to my alarm at 730am and see another guy across the room in another bed, we say whats up to each other and I ask where he is going and he says I dont know. He asks me the same and I tell him I am going to Roatan Island to meet up with some friends, wanna come? Hell ya he says, he is super stoked and we jump in a taxi and head to the ferry terminal. His name is Peter from Austrailia, very cool and funny guy. You will be hearing of him more later.

We buy our tickets and get on the ship around 930 and sail off into the open sea's.

As we pull into the island we are both blown away at how awesome it is. Lush tropical jungle with crystal clear water and the entire island is surrounded by the 2nd largest living reef in the world. There are ship wrecks in the water near port that look very cool as well

We step off the boat and are so excited to be here, this atmoshphere is what ive been waiting for the whole trip. You can feel the Carribean Island vibe.

Last I talked with my friends they said they were at a hotel on the beach and to find them somewhere there, so we taxi it into town and get dropped off on a amazing beach along a little dirt road laced with small hostels and fruit smoothie stands. I ask someone if they have seen a really tall guy and a buff guy and they point down the beach. There they are! I run over and get some celibratory hugs and just bask in the amazingness of this place. I am instantly treated to a lounge chair on the beach with a bunch of Noregian girls and a cold beer. Yes I have arrived!

We all kick it on the beach for a while and then go grab some super good chicken wraps. Dam this island is expensive, but worth it fully I can already tell. Lauren gets a bottle of Flora De Cana Rum and we mix up some drinks with about 9 other people and just chill out and swim for most of the day. Lauren and Zev both work at the local cantina and decide to have a bonfire and music party behind the cantina. We go out back and clear out a area for the fire and set up seating for everyone.

By now it is almost sunset so we all cruise over to the sunsetter bar and meet up with everyone and chill out with some drinks and watch a picturesk sunset

Back to our cabin by the beach to get ready for the night. A bunch of people show up at the bon fire and we hang out there and listen to live music by lauren and some other musicians from all over the world, was a good time.

When the bar closed we walked about 5 minutes down the road to a dance party and things got crazy.

You could say Peter was very drunk by this point and was busting out the craziest dance moves ever. He had a differnt dance for every animal in the jungle and even had a dance dedicated to me "the dislocated shoulder" lol.

He was seriously hyphy and pumping everyone up till pretty soon everyone was going nuts. I almost died laughing, I really wish I had my video camera. Other unmentionable things happened that all led to a great night! I love this place, I dont think I can ever leave.

3.19 Guatamala to Honduras

2009-03-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

Wake up at 3:30 and pack up everything and am out the door at 4am and get a taxi to the Bus. Get on the bus and am very surprised how nice it is especially the 1st class section where I am at. Ahhh so glad I spent the extra money, the seat reclines almost all the way back and I get a blanket and pillow and fall asleep in like 2 minutes. I wake up and we are at the Honduaras border crossing and once again im the last one off, not again! I am pleasantly surprised by how mellow the situation is, the immigration office is clearly marked and there is no one hassling me for anything. The whole process took 10 minutes and was a breeze. Nice!
The rest of the ride went well and I even got my own VIP wating room between buses, it was pretty baller I gotta to say.

Got into La Ceiba around dark and got a dorm at a hostel and went to sleep early so I would be rested and ready to go to Roatan Island the next morning and meet up with Zev and Lauren.

3.17 Taking Off To Guatamala

2009-03-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

I bought a new bag for my travels, pack up and say bye to Jeff, Shane and everyone and get on a bus at 5pm heading to the Guatamala border. Both Shane and Jeff have still not received their motorcycle titles or Shane’s passport so I’m not sure what their status is at this point. The ride was 12 hours but I was able to sleep most of the time and arrived near the border at 6am then caught another bus to Guatamala City at 7am.
The bus stopped at the border and everyone had to get out and go through customs. Since I was sleeping I was the last one off the bus and had no idea where everyone went. I was instantly barraged with “helpers” who basically just try to get money out of you. You have to pay the border crossing fees in their local currency so they also have money changers who are also there to scam you. I forgot to check what the current exchange rate was before I left and I changed out 1000 Mexican pesos and received 130 Guatamalan Quetals in exchange. I later find out I got ripped off super hard on that deal. I find the first customs guy and give him my passport and tourist visa and he starts spouting off something about how my visa is no good and how ill have to go get a new one in the last town. I know my visa is good for 180 days, he is looking for a bribe. Since I lack the Spanish skills to even begin to argue with him a quick 20 dollar bill in passport gets the stamp and he gives it back to me and points down the road. So off I go with literally 15 guys following me telling me I need to give them money for this and that and how I have to hurry cause the bus is going to leave me. They are seriously masters of confusion and it worked. They are also carrying fake ID cards saying they work for the bus company as well as the government.
Since I really have no idea where to go and think I am going to get left by the bus I end up paying one of the guys 50 dollars to get my passport dealt with. He did get it taken care of quickly but the entire time he wanted more and more money which I did not give him. Having a random guy have your passport is not a good feeling and was pretty stressful. It worked out in the end and I got back on the bus negative 70 dollars. Lesson Learned. We arrived in Guatamala City around 4 and the bus drops me off who knows where. All I have heard is bad about Guatamala City and how it’s the murder and robbery capital of central America. My guide book pretty much says don’t go there its extremely dangerous so im kinda on edge. I find a chill taxi driver that speaks English and he takes me to the next bus station so that I can book my bus for the next morning to Honduras. He is a genuinely nice guy I can tell and this puts me at ease. He says he will take care of everything and wait for me while I get the tickets. I book the tickets and decide to splurge and get the Executive Seats because my last 12 hour journey was kind of uncomfortable. The bus leaves at 5am and I have to be there at 4am, brutal. Get back in the taxi and he takes me to a ATM so I can get some money then recommends a hostel near where the bus station is.
The hostel is very nice and 2 American guys who are staying there greet me and we start talking. One of them is 19 years old and was home schooled his whole life and this is his first time out in the real world. He is seriously ADD to the max and lacks major social skills, he latches onto me like im his best friend and just gets way to friendly way to fast. Starts asking me how to pick up girls and how he is in love with some girl in El Salvador and is going to go see her even though she does not like him, haha sounds like a great idea. Woah you are to much to handle right now so I go out and get some food and buy a new Digital Camera to replace my lost one. I get back and there are 2 girls from Norway there and dude is all over them being super annoying and I can tell they are very turned off with his ridiculous advances. I pull him into the room and give him a 20 minute pep talk on what not to do around girls, which is everything he was doing. I felt like I was a old man giving advice to a middle school kid. Since I have to get up at 3:30am I call it a night.

3.14 to 3.16 Puerto Escondido

2009-03-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been spent in Puerto Escondido mostly consisting of lounging around the hostel, going to the beach and partying at night with the rest of the group here. A big chunk of the people left on Friday to go to a little surf town about an hour or so south and they returned on Sunday. Meanwhile a bunch of new travelers showed up to join the festivities including Edward 40 Hands, Bottle Cap Beer Pong, and The Douche Strikes Back. Again Jeff will have to chime in and upload the pictures, some are quite funny.
Since I lost my laptop in the great loss of 09’ I decided to buy a new one here in town. What I did not realize is that any computer bought in Mexico is preset to Spanish and cannot be changed. So now my entire computer is in Spanish and I have no idea what is going on haha. I worked out a deal with the owner of the hostel to leave my bike there for a month or more while I take the bus to Honduras to meet up with my friends, this worked out very well.

day 36/37/38

2009-03-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we moved out of our hotel and into the hostel down the road. I rode my XR over there and it was hell on my shoulder even for only a 2 minute ride. We check in and the room is much nicer then we expected and a whole new group of people have moved in along with a few from days earlier. One of the girls who is a nurse convinces me to see a doctor again about my shoulder so I find one who happens to be a shoulder and joint expert. He looks me over and I tell him our story and he basicly said I would be a idiot to continue riding without letting my ligaments heal because they are all torn. He also said I would need surgery for sure when I got back and I would be out of commision another 6 months. So I have a decision to make.
We go out that night with the whole crew and im sure by now you know it was a interesting one. I wont get into it now but jeff will post the pics later as I lost my camera and his memory card reader the other day. doh!

BIG UPDATE
Today I make up my mind that I am going to leave my bike here in Puerto Escondido and fly to Honduras to meet up and travel with my life long friends from Mendocino, Zev and Lauren. My last trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Zev and I traveled together and had a blast. Im sure this time will be no different. So tenative plans for me from here on out are to travel around Central America with them and let my shoulder heal for a month or two, then fly back here when Shane and Jeff are on their way back from Panama and ride back to California with them. Im sure we will all meet up again multible times somewhere along the way. I am really bummed I cant keep riding with them the rest of the way but I think this is my best option and a smart decision I will be thankful I made later in life being able to have a fully functioning shoulder.
We are going to continue the blog with both me and Jeff posting our stories and pictures on our seperate adventures until we meet again.

Day 35 Douchel Robinson

2009-03-12T12:54:00.001-07:00

Shane and Jeff wake up really early to ride 150 miles to Oxaca to try and get a new passport for shane while I chill in Puerto Escondido. The ride ended up taking them 6 hours each way and was twisting at 20 mph for most of the trip. Elevations reached 9000 feet 30 miles from the coast and it got very cold. They found the US Consulate and did all the neccessary paperwork and were told to call back on thursday and they would tell us when we could come get the new passport.

Meanwhile I met up with some of the Austrailian guys from the hostel and we went swimming in the ocean for a bit and got some smoothies down on the beach and just kicked it.
Went over to the hostel and met everyone there and was cooked a amazing meal by a guy from Isreal named Tom. The group of about 10 of us sat down and had a nice dinner and drank wine and talked of plans for tonight.

Then somebody busted out the Wine Coolers, oh ho ho ho! You ever rode that train? It...is...rough. You have about 70 of those and you are flying! lol. In all seriousness I went back to our hotel and grabbed our big bottle of tequilla which we were told was one of the best in mexico and we passed around shots to everyone until it was time to go out.
Jeff and Shane showed up right on time and met up with us at a local bar where everyone was. I ended up bringing the rest of the bottle into the bar and was pouring shots for everyone again. The owner saw me doing it and gave me a thumbs up, I love mexico. As I am carrying around a huge bottle of tequilla, not wearing a shirt and having girls hang all over me I came to the realization that I may have become one of the douche bags that we always make fun of. When we looked at the pictures the next day, the douchness of myself was revealed and confirmed. lol

Day 33 The Great Loss Of 2009

2009-03-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

We left town around 10am and rode south on the Mexi 200 Highway trying to get to Puerto Escondido. Went through a Military checkpoint with no issues and kept going. About 20 kilometers later Jeff notices that we have not seen Shane in a while so we turn around to see what happened. Everytime we loose eachother I always think the worst like I am going to come around a corner and see them hit by a truck or off the side of a cliff. Dont find him for about 10 minutes and we are getting worried. We then see him coming towards us and everything looks ok until I notice that one of his bags on the bike is gone. Oh no, he doesent even say anything but the look on his face tells it all.
Our main bag with my laptop, all of our helmet cam footage, tons of money, cell phone, tools, shanes passport and ALL of his paperwork for his bike had somehow fallen off without him noticing. He keeps going to check the road ahead while we backtrack all the way to where we left that morning scanning all over the road for the bag. No luck its gone. Someone must of found it and took it or it flew off a cliff into the jungle never to be found again. Wow this is a disaster. After looking for it for about an hour we give up and go get some hydration at a local store and recap how much we really just lost. Basicly everything important. We cant cross into Guatamala without his passport and motorcycle paperwork so we are kinda screwed.
Well nothing we can do so we keep going to Puerto Escondido with the intention of doing a day trip and going to the US Embasy about 150 miles away the next day and trying to get a new passport sent. Good news is Puerto Escondido is a awesome town to be stuck in for however long this ordeal takes. Got a great place to stay with a pool, legit parking, our own balcony overlooking the ocean and 3 beds finally so no more cuddling with Shane, sweet!

Cruise around for a bit and meet some of the guys from the hostel in Aculpoco and a few other people. There are alot of travelers here and they tell us tonight is going to be going off.
Kick it on our balcony for a while and get 2x1 margeritas delivered to us from the restraunt across the street and yell at people walking by.
A couple hours later there is a group of about 30 people from the hostel down the street storm by so we catch up with them and take a taxi to this raging party at another hostel. Place was packed with travelers and the girl to guy ratio was very promising. Woah dident expect this.

We rock the night away and Shane and Jeff end up going home while I stay out and end up at some afterparty then turn down the after after party beach rave because I dont think I can handle anymore crazyness for one night. Ahh my liver needs a vacation but I dont see that happening at this rate.

Day 32 Aculpoco to Pinotepa Nacional

2009-03-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the last post last night never really ended so we left Aculpoco heading towards our next destination of Puerto Escondido. We rode very slow and only made it about 100 miles before we thought it would be a good idea to stay somewhere and get some actual sleep. Ended up in Pinotepa Nacional which is a fairly big city and am now laying in bed, beat and ready to go to sleep. Good night'

Day 31 3/7/09 Zihuatanejo to Aculpoco

2009-03-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

I was seriously contemplating leaving my bike in Mazatlan at Glenn's and flying home to heal my arm and then fly back later and get it but decided to keep going and just take it easy until it feels better. Jeff is now riding my XR and I am riding his KLR. We left Zihuatanejo around 11am and headed south to Aculpoco. The ride went well and my shoulder only hurt mildly until we got into Aculpoco and the traffic was just a mess. Moving at slow speeds and turning the handle bars while not moving puts alot of strain on my shoulder. We got past the traffic and onto the Beach Area and found our Hostel. Great place with a big bar and terrace overlooking the ocean and the most people our age we have seen since Cabo.
^^^ View from hostel on main strip

We walked around town for a bit and checked out the scene it looks pretty crazy. It is spring break here so tonight could get out of hand, to be continued....

Update from last night. Wow where to start. First of all EVERYONE we talked to said don't go to Aculpoco it sucks you wont have fun its dangerous...blah blah blah.
Ended up hanging out at the hostel until about 1am and then going out. Haggled our way into a huge club called Paradise with open bar all night. There were probably about 1500 people there and the place was going nuts. I have never been to a actual spring break event like on TV and it was pretty much exactly as I expected. Wet T-shirt contests, huge swimming pool, girls in bikini's...ect.
It was spring break for all the colleges in Mexico so it was all Latin people besides us and a few other guys from Chicago and Canada. I mentioned earlier how we were always getting shy provocative looks from all the local girls on the trip and didn't know what to think of it exactly until tonight. They were not shy anymore, it was almost comical. Our Spanish is still very bad. I guess it doesen't matter. Not going to get into details but it was one of the best nights so far. Were out until the sun rose and it was still 75 degree's out the whole night.

I didn't sleep at all and got back to our hostel at about 8:30am and met back up with Shane and Jeff. It was about 100 degree's out by now and we packed up and left town.

Day 29-30

2009-03-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

Been just takin it easy pretty much the last couple days in Zihuatanejo, walking around town and going to the beach. Met pretty much everyone in town and felt like locals by the first few days. I tried to ride for the first time since the accident on friday and it went decently well. I used Jeff's bike since it is much easier to ride mellow. We set up a little arm rest on the gas tank so I can ride with one hand and my messed up one resting when we are crusing on the highway, feels much better. We became friends with Harry the owner of one of the bars in town and he showed us some good times at night. Zihuatanejo is for sure a place I will come back and visit, probably my favorite town of the trip.

Day 28 3/5/09

2009-03-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Get up before 10am and get some huevo's mexicana at the restaurant downstairs before we go and meet our "guide" we met the day before to go out to Ixtapa Island for the day. We are kind of late and missed the van so he walks us through town to the bus station where we catch a bus into the next town of Ixtapa.
A very lively senior meets up with us there and we get in his pimped out van complete with "Mexican style" midevil trap door lever opener.
He introduces himself as Neopolean and starts going off about how he just got a 22 year old barbie doll wife and how he is 48 years old and not handsome. This guy is seriously pumped on his situation and we hear all about it the rest of the day. He explains to us how he will be our tour guide, dive master, and captain for the day. Great guy for sure.
We get out the van and jump onto a boat where he takes us across the ocean to a little island with a bunch of Polapas and restaurants. We get out own little table and umbrella and he tells us about their lunch special that is a whole red snapper fish with quote "corn for rabbits" meaning carrots, lol.
Spend most the day lounging in the sun and drinking beers and Margarita's and Shane and Jeff go snorkeling while I just chill cause my shoulder is still screwed up. I bust out my ipod speakers and listen to some music because what is a Mexican Island vacation without some gangster rap right?

They get back from snorkeling and we have a very good lunch and then decide to go explore the island a bit.
We walk up some cliffs that lead to another very nice beach and get some more beers there and lay out on the lounge chairs for a bit.

Continue around another cove and find a corral beach with no one on it. I see a little pathway through the brush and we hike up a mountain and around the island eventually meeting back up with the original beach we started at.

Go for a swim and I do some stretches for my shoulder in the water and it is getting better I can tell. I can almost move it in most every direction without alot of pain, it probably just needs a few more days before I would be able to ride again but I am skeptical on if I am going to be doing permanent damage if I continue on this trip without letting it heal completely. Ive gotten so many mixed answers from people. Alot of older guys say I need to fly home and let it heal or its going to be a life long problem while some people say just tough it out and see what happens.
By now it is almost time to go back so we load back on the boat with about 10 people over the weight limit and go back to shore.
Back into the van and now we have 2 drunk Mexican guys with us and Nepolean says he is going to go pick up his girlfriend along the way so we can meet her, cool. He picks her up on the side of the road and she is not barbie doll status or what we pictured from his description but good for him she seemed nice. We get dropped off somewhere in Ixtapa and say bye then hop on a bus back to Zihuatanejo and head to our hostel to rest up for whatever we get into tonight.

Day 27 Zihuatanejo

2009-03-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the day just resting and doing some computer stuff while Shane and Jeff doubled up on the KLR and rode back to Lazaro Carrenas to get my XR650 that we had left at the hotel and bring it back here to Zihuatanejo. Took them about 4 hours but they successfully got both bikes back to our hostel and we then walked around town and chilled at the beach for a bit. I really like this town, its a good mix of genuine mexican fishing village with some touristy stuff to do and some good bars. I think we picked a good spot to hang out at for a while.

Day 26 Lazaro to Zihuatanejo

2009-03-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

We are contemplating going north to Playa Azul for me to recover at and then decide we are going to go south 65 miles to Zihuatanejo instead since we had heard good things about it from Clay and Kyles blog. They had just been there about a week before. Here is a link to their blog http://slingshotsouth.blogspot.com/
My clutch perch was shattered from the crash so Jeff went out into town to try and find something that will work and comes back with a pretty legit clutch perch and lever from some sort of street bike and adapts it to work on my bike. We then zip tie my decompression lever on and its good to go.
Our plan now is for Shane and Jeff to ride their bikes to Zihuatanejo while I take the bus there and leave my bike at the hotel for them to get the next day. I ask the hotel owners if its ok if I leave my bike there overnight and they said no problem so we pack up and I get on the bus while they take off on their bikes.

The bus was actually really nice and it only took about a hour. It dropped me off somewhere in town and I had no idea where Jeff and Shane were so I called Shane and he explained where they were but no one in town seemed to know where I was talking about so I ended up taking 3 taxi's to 3 randoms places and eventually found them at Hotel Angels where they had gotten a room for us.

Day 25

2009-03-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

To Be added...

Day 24 Day Of Disaster

2009-03-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

To start, i am typing with one hand so please exuse my spelling and punctuation as it will be even worse then the rest of this blog. One way to describe today was complete disaster. Day started out good we got some spare tubes and a air pump in Manzanillo and headed south on the mexi200 hwy. We climbed pretty high into the mountains and had incredible views of the coast for most of the ride.

Jeff's tire goes flat AGAIN so we bring it to a tire shop and find another nail. that makes 5 flats in 3 days. As the tire is getting fixed Shane and I go explore some trails down in the river bed and do some mud bog hill climbs

We saw a really nice long beach on our way into town so once the bike was fixed we backtracked and rode out onto the beach. There were tons of quads and lots of off road trails.
I slowed down and stopped to talk to some locals unexpectedly and Shane couldn't stop in time and hit me from the back. It was not bad for me but Shane's foot got caught in between my foot peg and railed his foot hard. He took off his boot and yep its broken. You could see the bone poking into the skin. No bueno at all. He kept optimistic and barely complained at all and we took off down the beach. The sand got pretty deep and were super squirlly all over the place. The river met with the ocean so we had to cross it. I stopped to assess the situation but Shane just charged it full speed and got completely soaked. Jeff and I went next and got wet as well.
We get back on the road south towards Playa Azul. Stop at a place to eat and watch some exotic birds and get info on what animals are in the area from a young waitress who wont stop staring at us and giggling. This seems to happen all the time and I'm not sure if they are making fun of us or flirting.
Here is where things go bad. I am in the lead and go around a sharp corner at about 40 mph and hit a oil slick mid turn, Instantly I slide out and hit the pavement. As I'm sliding on my side and stomach I can feel my skin being torn off so I roll over onto my butt where i have thicker pants and slide another 20 or so feet. My bike hits the guard rail and I stand up mid slide and run off the road. Mind you im not wearing a shirt so there is nothing between me and the pavement. The whole thing happened so fast but it felt like time slowed down and I had alot of time to think.
For a second I think I'm OK besides road rash and then my arm starts really hurting and I cant move it. I'm am pretty much writhing in pain and don't even want to look at my shoulder in fear of what I will see. I look down at my left shoulder and it is completely out of the socket and my shoulder bone is sticking out about 3 inches past my arm. Shit this not good I think I broke it. I then think its just dislocated badly. I've seen in movies how they pop them back into place with a lot of force and pain but it is hurting so bad i am willing to try anything.
Shane braces against my arm and I grit my teeth and get ready for him to yank on it hoping for the best. 1....2....3 GO! Owwwwww fuck that hurt and it didn't do anything.
We try again this time slower and its just brutal and not working at all. OK i need to get to a hospital or something, but we are in the middle of nowhere. I lay on the ground trying to find the only position to keep my arm in as to not have excruciating pain. Meanwhile Jeff tries to flag down some cars to give me a ride to the hospital and Shane hides my bike in the woods and covers it in branches planning to keep it there over night.
A police shows up and flags down a big semi truck who happens to have a open trailer and is willing to drive us way out of his ways to the hospital with me and my bike. This guy is my hero. They load the bike in the truck and take off not knowing where or how far we are going as the driver speaks no English
.
He has to stop about 6 times to ask for directions. I am leaving blood stains all over his truck. About a hour down the road we stop at a guys house who is a doctor and speaks English. Really nice guy and he looks at the injury and tells me its dislocated and not broken, that's a huge relief. He says I need to get to the hospital though because he does not have strong enough drugs for when they pull my arm back into the socket. In the mean time he hooks me up with some sort of pain killer shot in my arm free of charge to help until I reach the hospital. People in Mexico are so nice and really have been going out of their way the whole trip to help us. I give the driver $150 for his troubles which I feel is 110% worth it, I don't know what I would of done without him
Arrive at the hospital, Jeff and the driver unload my bike and Shane and I limp inside. There are at least 30 people waiting in line outside but they let us in first I guess cause they could see my arm was really fucked up. I go inside fill out no paperwork or even give our name at they and they look me over and take us to the X ray room. Get 2 X-Rays and they tell me its not fractured and are going to have to yank it back into place after they give me a sedative. All the doctors are laughing and making jokes, cool guys as well. I lay down on the bed and get a shot in my ass. 15 minutes later they come back and and say "listo?" (ready?) I'm like no no the shot didn't do anything it hurts more now. Oh well they are going for it anyway. About 5 doctors grab my arm and move it around into different positions and then all pull on it hard. It hurts a lot and then makes a audible pop and moves back to its normal position. The pain instantly goes away and it was basically orgasmic. ha.
Wow I feel great now this is amazing. They wrap my arm in gauze and give a prescription for pain meds and anti inflammatory.

^^^ On the right you can see how out of place my shoulder is compared to the end of my shoulder bone

I go to pay expecting like a $500 bill, nope $25 for everything, that's crazy. I need to get hurt in Mexico more often. The doctors were all awesome I gave them a tip.
Shane and Jeff ride my bike back to the hotel and I walk to the Farmicia and then to the hotel. What a freakin day. We are going to need alot of recovery time and have to fix my bike so I'm not sure what our plan is from here but to just relax and recover. We are in good spirits though and the trip will go on :)

Day 23 PV To Manzaillo

2009-03-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

Slowly make our way out of bed around 10am and get all our stuff together and grab some desayuno (breakfast) down the street. Hop on the bikes and go out in search of a air pump for our tires as we have been plagued with so many flat tires and now that Luke is gone we have no air which could be a disaster. We get kind lost on the way out of town and end up on a dirt road going off into the mountains. We seem to be going in the right direction so we continue on. The road is alot of fun and winds through the mountains and along a nice river through small villages. We climb alot of elevation and go through a few mud holes and rivers.
After about half a hour with no idea where we are going I ask a local if the road connects back with the main road ever and he says no it does not. Then he says well yes it does but it takes 5 hours and is very hard. We have less then a half tank of gas and its already afternoon so that probably isn't the best idea so we turn back and get on the Mexi200 Highway. This road is great and follows the coast revealing beautiful coves and tropical beaches. The road leaves the coast and goes high up into the mountains and the terrain changes to what almost looks like northern California. What do ya know another flat tire.
About 100 miles down the road I see what looks like a nice beach so we stop and check it out. There is a little place to eat right on the sand so we sit down and order some ceviche and shrimp burritos. I am super beat from last night so I lay down in the sand and take a nap before our food comes.

They bring out a tastey plate of ceviche and some fancy burritos and we do work. While I'm waiting for Shane and Jeff I get on my bike and ride around and find a little trail that goes off into the jungle. It was a great trail I really wanted to keep going but the sun was already setting so we had to move south.
Get into Manzallio which is a very big port and beach city. Ride around and find a cheap hotel with locked parking and just relax the rest of the night so we can pump out a decent amount of miles in the morning.

Day 22 Puerto Vallarta

2009-03-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

We decided to stay another day in Puerto Vallarta to take care of a few things on the bikes and check out the town a little more. Luke ends up taking off that morning to go meet some friends in Cancun which is 2000 miles away and he has 3 days to get there, wow good luck, that is going to be one brutal trip. He is going to meet back up with us in Honduras.
Jeff found a motorcycle shop right by our hotel and picked up a spare tube to fix his tire. Shane also bought a really nice new front tire. They had the same tire front and rear for my bike for a good price and I really contemplated ditching my almost brand new dirt tire for these hybrid tires as they looked like they would last the rest of the trip instead of me going through 8 or more full dirt tires. I decided to pass though. Shane and Jeff dropped off their bikes at the shop and we walked around the beach and town.
A thick cloud cover had blanketed the city which was really nice because it was a extremely hot day. I went and got a much needed $4 haircut at a local place while the guys dealt with their bikes. Spent most of the day just lounging around and went out to get food downtown once it got dark. Taco's and beer, yes sir.
Afterwards we go to our little billiard spot from the night before and play a couple games of pool and sample some fine tequila.

Afterwards we go down to the Malacon which is the main part of town on the beach and go into "The Zoo" bar and watch drunk white girls dance on tables just like it said in our guide book, haha. The girls from the night before show up and we hang out for a bit until Shane gets us to leave. We had read earlier that Puerto Vallarta was the transvestite capital of Mexico and they had Tanny shows where they come out on stage and sing and get judged like on American Idol. We have to see this.
Shane finds the place like he has been there before and we walk into the craziest, weirdest scene ever. The place is packed like a stadium gathered around a main stage and there is a Transvestite lip syncing and dancing to Brittany Spears. Its was quite a scene to behold, I was pretty much awe struck and didn't know what to think.
We walk around to get a better view and everyone is staring at us like we are the only strait people in the place, which we were. The next act a 400 pound drag queen comes bursting out of the curtains with tons enthusiasm and flamboyancy. Ive never seen such a fat person move around so fast. The only word I can come up with to explain how I felt at this moment in time is completely baffled.

Jeff is super out of it and we can tell he is not comfortable with what is going on so we send him home. Later Shane and I decide that we need photographic proof we were there so we get a pictures with one of the trannys.

Awesome my life is complete now and shane and I go back to the hotel and go to bed.

Day 21

2009-02-25T10:40:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-25T09:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-21T17:25:00.001-08:00

to be added.....

Day 16

2009-02-21T17:24:00.005-08:00

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

2009-02-21T17:24:00.003-08:00

^^^^ ( 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

2009-02-21T17:24:00.001-08:00

to be added.....

Day 12

2009-02-21T17:23:00.004-08:00

to be added.....

Day 11

2009-02-21T17:23:00.003-08:00

to be added.....

Day 10

2009-02-21T17:23:00.001-08:00

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)

2009-02-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Day 3 (2-7-09)

2009-02-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

Day 3 (2-7-09)
We get up leisurely and wheel the bikes out of the hotel room and head into town to get breakfast. On the way in a group of teenage locals try to sell us their girlfriends, we graciously decline. Grab breakfast at the usual spot and run into Clay and Kyle who we met the night before on the bikes, we also meet another older adventure rider who is heading to the same place as us that day. Gas up and head down the Mexi 5 along the coast. The road has super gnarly dips and at 70mph they lift your wheels off the ground and bottom out the suspention, its pretty fun. We hit dirt about 50 miles in and I notice my front tire pressure is extremely low and its bottoming out into the rim constantly on all the huge rocks in the road. I am very worried I am going to get a flat or bend my wheel but we charge on. The road gets better and there are some fun side trails that are part of the Baja 500 Track. The views are amazing throughout.

About 5 miles from our destination of Gazonga Bay Jeff goes down a sandy hill and lays the bike over. When he trys to start it the kick starter is seized and it wont budge. This is not good. Shane tries to tow his with a rope to town but it does not work out very well and for sure would of ended in a crash. Out of nowhere a white pre-runner toyota tundra shows up with the only white person we have seen the whole day. We put Jeff's bike laying down sideways in the back and she drives us to the hotel. Truely a life saver.

We see the same adventure riders from breakfast at the hotel who happen to be master mechanics as well and they start tearing into the motor to find the problem. The hotel is right on the water and is amazing. Grab some dinner while they look at the bike but cant come to any conclusion, we will have to leave it for the next day to figure it out.

Day 2 (2-6-09)

2009-02-21T15:58:00.000-08:00

At about 4am we get into Palm Springs and decide to stay at a hotel and hit the Mexican Border at Mexicali the next morning. By about noon that day we are at the border. We buy Mexican insurance for $200 and joke about how we are going to claim insurance on the bikes when they blow up somewhere. We ride to the border and go through. I sure hope we got everything. Shane gets stopped by customs but its no big deal. We Made It! The plan is to make it to San Filipe that night which is about 150 miles from the border. About 100 miles in we hit the great wind storm of 2009. The wind is so strong we are litterally laying over sideways on the bikes to keep from being blown off the road. Did I mention we are in the middle of the sand dunes as well? So sand is being blown all over the place and its almost dark. We charge through and the wind dies down once we are more towards the coast. We roll into San Filipe just as its dark and ride around town looking for a place to stay. We stop at a good looking hotel and see two other guys on KL650's just leaving. They come over and talk to us and introduce themselves. Turns out they are doing the same thing as us. They have a place in San Filipe and invite us to stay with them but we end up staying at the hotel because it was right in town and cheap. We wheel our bikes into the hotel room for safe keeping and hit the town. San Filipe is very empty but we manage to have as much fun as is possible.

Day 1 (2-05-09)

2009-02-21T15:54:00.001-08:00

Day 1 (2-05-09)

Jeffs WR426 is still in pieces at the shop and we are really pushing it to get it done so we can leave the next day.

All his parts come in and he gets the bike back together at about 11pm. We planned to leave the next morning but the weather is showing a storm quickly approaching the LA area within the next 6 hours so we make a executive decision to pack up and leave that night and see how far south we can get to try and beat the rain. We leave LA at 1am and hit the road heading east into the desert.

Super Adventura

2009-02-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

On Febuary 5th 2009 Myself (Chris Puder), Jeff Halper, and Shane set off on a 3 month dirt bike adventure from Los Angeles, CA to Panama. The plan was no plan. Just go and see where the trail or road takes us. Everyday we get up look at the map, find a destination and hit the road not knowing what to expect. The best way to do it I think. We are all long time motorcycle riders but have never done anything near this. I am riding a 2002 Honda XR650R, Jeff on a KLR650 and Shane on a KLR650 as well. I am trying to keep a daily log of events but that is not always possible so there may be gaps which will be filled in later. Some names and stories have been left out to protect the innocent, only to be told in person. Enjoy and Ride While You Can!