Saturday, December 22, 2007

Stilladrift in Nicaragua....

Peach and i drifted apart on high tide , he left me for another woman ! He bolted down too Panama to meet his girl , that was good now i can slow down a bit and look around . I spent 2-3 day in Laguna de Apoyo , relaxing swimming and looking around the area . Nice area and they have a flying site as well . Canadian woman owns a hostel of sorts on the lake, really a nice friendly place to hang out . I then went over to Lake Nicaragua and took the bike on a fairy to an island on the lake , it has 2 volcano´s on it and about 40,000 people , lots to do but it was rainy and windy both day i was their .. oh well . Yesterday i loaded up and went to San Jaun del Sur , on the lower coast just before Costa Rica . Hopefully i will get over the border tomorrow and spend x mas somewhere in Costa Rica, The beaches here are nice , good for surfing supposed to be the top 5 surf beaches in the world. Lots of tourist and a small town which looks lot it will boom soon. I think Nicaragua will be the next Costa Rica for tourists and for buying land . Have a good x mas everyone !!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Nicaraugua Rocks !!

Well we did get away from Honduras today but it took us about 2 hrs to get some american money out for a casa de cambio , so a late start getting out of the capital and traffis and getting lost etc , so we ended up heading south to Danli near the border ,, next morning border x ing was easy compared too getting into Honduras , which was 5 hrs , this crossing took us about 1 hr , we felt way different here the roads were nicer the people seemed nicer , no guns, not alot of guns . This county feels good ... found some pilots whom were out flying and watched them fly , Looked into the centre of a volcano which is still smoking .. found a new cool beautiful flying site ,, this place is nice ... watch for some pics ... cheers

Friday, December 14, 2007

2 days in the capital Teguciglapa

We rode today from the coast, inland over some cool mountains with lots of good flying sites , and nice clouds .. good thing we didn't bring wings with us we would always be flying. we noticed today that this is not tha safest of countries , lots of people carry guns and there are gaurds all over even at small gas stations , we asked sme of the locals about some routes on the smaller backroads and they suggested against it, lots of banditos ! So after about 5 hrs and one of the worst rides of the trip we made it to the city. They main hwy here from the largest port is packed with trucks and slow moving everything . the rd is very curvy and mountainous . I was getting sick of diesel fumes and long lines trying to pass , so we ended up passing alot on the right hand side of the rd , which is also very dangerous ... oh boy ut it had to be done other wise i was going to puke . We made it to the cty and are staying with Jeffery a paragliding pilot from Canada whom lives here part time . yesterday was spent washing , cleaning and putting new rubber on our bikes , it took a few hrs riding around the city but we did find the right size tires , just not as aggeesive as we wanted more of a street tire, but it beats running without tread .I did get 5000 miles on the stock tire so that's pretty good , 5000 + miles from Las Vegas already .... yah baby ! Today the 14th we leave for Nicaragua.. lets see how the border x ing is

What a day ...

We rode to the port city of Peurto Barrios, after we decide the day before to skip going into Belize , too much hassle with customs, bikes and such to only spend a few days in the country and we ad heard from a few it was not that nice anyways . We again decided to head into Honduras , as time is running out for peach to make it to Panama for x mas. Today we had a big hassle at the border getting the bikes into Honduras after telling the customs fofficers in Guatemala that we had documents for the bikes to have them into the country , their was a bit of a flurry on this and again we sweet talked our way out of it. We hit the border x ing in Honduras at lunch so we had too wait, Then we paid money and then i had to give a ride to this guy 55km to Peurto Cortes on the back of my bike to start the paper work . 4 hrs later sitting outside and lots of paper work we were legally in Honduras . Rode down the coast and found a nice hotel in Omoa for the night ... good seafood again!!

La libertad to Rio dulcea

Nice to finally wake up someplace warm , foggy in the morning and started off by 9 am heading north east towards Tikal, Stopped for breakfast and a lake and a town called Flores , nice area and a stopping point for the mayan ruins to the north of us. We decide we had had enough
of the mayans , so we didn't go to see them . Heading south now was a better option, really liked this area rolling hills turing to small mountians and lots of jungle . Made it to a small town El Rellano near th coast and stayed at a hostel \ hotel right on the water , it is a fresh water river which flows into the ocean here. Met some travellers here whom work at the local orphanage school, they do good work for the local kids and help them have a decent life of sorts , better than they would if they lived onthe street or at home . Good seafood !

Were in Honduras now !

welllll.. how time flys when your having fun . We headed down the hwy towards La Frontere border crossing with Guatemala. nice ride most of the way , lots of Jungle . Hit this small town , not much their, no gas, no banks. Found out that this was only a crossing for foot passengers and we could not clear our bikes out of Mexico , big problem in a way , as we had too give a security deposit to the customs when we entered Mexico and now we had to prove that the bikes were leaving Mexico, or face getting our deposit for fitted . We decided to take the chance and cross here othewise we would have to ride about another 400km to a decent border x ing . The border is a large river between the 2 countries. Only ferries are small ponga type boats , very narrow and long . Well after negotiating a price and finding an ok place to load we lifted them onto the boats . 1 boat per bike , i was a little tense , if it went over in this river , the trip would end quickly. We made it to the other side in about 10 minutes first up river then down then back up again , it was a great adventure and we were now in Guatemala! The roads changed and the towns were much poorer. Pigs and dogs everywhere... we were riding quite fast and i noticed a building off to the side ... immigration..we stopped and got our passports checked
and said he could not do the bikes here and we would have to go back to mexico ... duh well after some sweet talk and a chat with the police he said to go without it. yahoo ... we rode for another couple hrs when it started to and get darkand then pour rain ,so we stopped at a little resturante to dry off and eat and they also had a room for us so we put in for the night , another interesting day...
s

Saturday, December 8, 2007

New pictures finally uploaded...

Yes , i finally remembered my username and password for picasa...so now the photo¨s of Mexico are up, also photos of peach´s are on this site http://www.picasaweb.google.ca/pitsch67/ My photos can be viewed under
Tours site and Pictures button...... below New´s and upcomming events , cheers

hhhm .. trying to remember.

Now where did we stay last night ? small town , mexican , had a church, well it was somewhere in the middle of nowhere.. again ! but the rooms were really nice and they had hot water... bonus ! It was a mining town for marble and stone and such . Had supper at the market, comsome and some chicken ... not much . We just turned over 12,000 km on the trip. hard to believe. As we decided to head towards the cuoata hwy heading for Orizaba , now we start to pay , but like peach said , at least we don´t have to pass 5000 cars and trucks a day , and can look around a bit . Set the cruise at 100km /hr and managed to get down the east coast 600km or more , we are now in Vellahermosa. The day was a mixture of cold and hot riding as usual dress warm then as the day goes on stip down . The volcano near Orizaba was neat , mexico´s largest small bit of snow on the top . Humid as we approched the east coast near Veracruz the day went by quick . We tried to find tires for our bikes in town here but ... no good, they said it would take 3 days to bring them in, and we don´t have 3 days. Our tires are wearing out i have 6000 km on them we hope to0 leave today for Planque mayan ruins and hopefully into Guatamala, heading for Tikal ruins ... well see . But at least its warm out finally ... now if i can only remember my password to my picassa site. to download the pictures ??? cheers

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Valle to ??

We had a late start today I wanted to see some of my paragliding buddies say goodbye, we ended up going out of town past penon launch trying to skirt around the volcano on the west side , well it was a nice rd untill we got lost, sort of and headed too much west. Spent the night at a small hotel, 200 peso for the night , or about 20 dollars for 2 of us. No night riding in this area we were warned .. we were pushing our luck too much . This town was cool, pearched on a mountain with drop off´s on all sides .... we left here early the next morning and are finding lots of donkeys and cattle on the roads now , had to slam on the breaks more than a few times , quality of the roads is getting worse as we head south. Made it to Igualla , and then east from here , have decided to hit the toll rds on the east coast to make some km. Finding the roads too slow and too much traffic , we are going to try to make it south tommorrow heading for the border . peach´s time is running out he has too be in Panama at christmas to meet his GF.. well see ...

Talpalpa to Valle de Bravo !!

Woke up at dawn again, wached the sun rise ,what and nice view from launch ! Made a quick exit south towards Colima , trying to make it too Valle , rode hard all day today ,, lots of traffic, on narrow roads thru lots of small town , we are trying to aviod the toll rds ! We made it to valle after dark again , very cold but nice to be somewhere familiar . The last 2 hrs of the ride were great , riding in pine forest thru some parks and curvy rds . We ended up spending 2 nights in Valle I got to say hi to most of my buddies.. it was good to see all of them again ! lots of politics going on so i´m glad i´m not working their anymore ! We road around checked out the penon launch and went up to the monach butterflies , but it started to rain , we got soaked ! It was the hardest rain i have ever seen here , and new snow on the Volcano.. bye bye Valle it was nice !

PV overland to Talpapa

After bugging dean for a few days washing cñoths and hanging out.. it was time to leave again , we exited the back way straight west on a new highway which has been built in the last few years . It was a great rd , nice and windy and fairly good pavement , we sure know how to wind the bike out now . had a good ride through varied terrain , jungle of the coast and very hot to upper mountains at 5000' ft. Agian always changing cloths through out the day , we took mainly rds which were not traveeled much and came out behind Talpalpa launch north of Colima , arriving again at dark , I hate this..taking so many chances , idiot drivers, dogs or donkey´s on the rd after dark ! Anyways got to the paragliding site at dark , met up with an old freind who owns it , he gave us a place to stay and a few beers to put use to bed , thanks ! This site I have to come back and fly some day .... any takers who want to come ?

PV and Dean´s place

We followed the coast after a late start today, ran into 2 others on KLR´s heading down from Montana , retired and spending the winter in Ixtapa south of PV . Nice winter for them then they are riding back again in the spring ! We contacted a paragliding friend in PV abd said we could stay with him in his penthouse in a swanky hotel , yeah !! We spent a few days looking around PV, oilchanges on the bikes , cleaned them and fixed stuff which need to be fixed . Funny thing , we were in the mall having a coffee in the morning and in walks Frank kerrnick.... He was down on a holiday and we just happed to be in the same place at the same time ? wwwwweird ! Well you know Frank... we went out that night and got drunk !! bar hopping in PV , but listened to some good local bands. I toured peach around showing him PV went swimming in the river up at the Mismiloya river and at at Boca de tomatlan .. GREAT DAY..

Durango to San Blas...

We started early again this morning , headed into the very polluted city and directly out again without stopping ! The ride west of Durango was one of my best pavement days ever , it follows down a canyon towards the coast , we had 4 hrs of windy rds.... peach said he counted 17 turns per kilometer or about 2000 turns or more, the scenery was fantastic when we could look , and the road was in great shape with little traffic so we really tested the bikes out and wore the rubber off the side of the tires !! We wound our way down to the west coast , south of Mazitlan. By this time it was so hot 3 in the afternoon, we decided to try for Puerto Vallarta. It was slow going ... more traffic and delays , we made it to San Blas north of PV, a cool little coastal town for surfers , nice beaches, and fresh water crocs . Beer sure was good !

Let¨s get back to some heat...

This morning was really cold , frost on everything , started the day as sunrise , as we have to put some miles on we are behind our shedule. we rode about 12hrs today, covered lots of ice , mud and heat . By lunch we were on the praries and rolling hills , nice area reminded my of Australia, some scares on the rd , with a few drivers comming into my lane on the corners , close call with a gaurd rail ! Rode into the night looking for a Hotel and stayed at a love shack. Ended the night north of Durango , Mexico .

Parqe de cobre...

Creel was a cool tourist type town , met a guy fron Texas who runs tours their in sept oct . for bikers and quads . He gave use the rundown of the place , we had to wash our bikes before heading into the canyon, they were about 40 lbs too heavy with all the mud on them . The german guy decided not to go with use we got him into too much trouble the day before .. and the start of this day would have been the same for him a super windy rd going in , then contruction , so more mud , we can´t seem to get away from the snow ! After an incredible ride down into Bioplates bottom of the canyon , it was warm enough that we had to strip the cold cloths off again we dropped 6ooo'ft in 1 hr , nice area , had lunch and fixed a few bike problems , missing screws, bolts and a loose battery connection. The locals told us a short cut out of the canyon , well 3 hrs later and some really bumpy roads we were back at the rim again at sunset ! Back into the snow , cold weather cloths on again, riding in snow and mud at night , in the middle for f/&%$758king nowhere . We managed to find out way into a village asked some local women about a hotel , they thought we weer missionaries !! ha. The store was actually a hotel as well , but not much of one , still a place out of the cold. She then walked us across the street to a litte old ladies house and asked if she could feed us ! The best meal we have had in Mexico so far !

The days are flying by ....

Well yes, as you can guess i am terrible at keeping this up too date, either we are in the middle of nowhere or I am too tired or had too much beer to write .... most of the time we ride hard all day and it is too late by the time I eat, then look for and internet cafe. Well my last post was comming into Mexico. we travelled thur some wild areas in the north . Very beautiful and desolate , lots of time no one was on the same road as us for hrs at a time . On our 3 rd day in Mexico north of creel , we started to climb in altitude and ..... we hit snow and lots of it , temp dropped to -3 c, and on went all the warm cloths , thank god for the heated vest , I also needed hand warmers but had to leave them on the other bike , not thinking i would have use for them again.. ha I could have used them a half dozen times already !
We had slow going for 3 days only doing 1oo km some days ice , snow , mud , we both took numerous wipeouts but peatch won here . no one was husrt and the bikes did good , the racks and pelican cases were great for protection. We had a German biker join use for a day on a BMW650 , ha this was our slowest day . The mud got so deep that his front tire stopped turning and was skidding along , so it was really slow going . and lots of wipeouts for him , he finally got pissed enough that he loaded his bike on a truck and paid for it to get hauled to the next town. I have some great photo´s when I can get them loaded again . After a hard day and slow going we made it to creel which is at the top of cooper canyon.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

viva la mexico....

Yes we made it , cleared customs thu arizona on the 21st , a place called lukeville ? hmm easy crossing , went thru here so we could get permits for bikes to enter the mainland part of Mexico. Got drunk the night before with a Canadian guy who we met in the bar , he lives in Yuma , said we could crash in his house. Had a fire pit in his back yard and he played the guitar and we drank lots of beer .....bad hangover next day . Did oil changes on the bike, looked around yuma and went out to the sand dunes south along the border and watched incredibly expensive dune buggies rip up the slopes .... after entering we learned how to ride in deep sand for 30km , what a workout getting unstuck, but it was fun...