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8 November 2016
T – The town we stayed in last night was a bit of a dive. We wandered out for some dinner but the vibe of the place left me in no doubt that this was not a town to be wandering at night. A typical border town I am sure.
We were up pretty early as the room had no sound proofing and the rumbling of trucks and cars past the windows did not lend itself to a sleep in. Once the girls were packed we rode out of there. Our breakfast consisted of a yoghurt drink while sitting on a kerb in front of several groups of staring men. I wasn’t happy here in this place and soon we were back on the road. The ride was nice enough. The road was a bit rough in places which had us swerving back and forth to miss giant potholes, broken topes, and the odd 6 inch wide crack. The traffic was a little hairy with crazy taxi and collectivo drivers passing all and sundry in the most insane of places. Blind corner? Crest? No worries, just pull out and go for it. Nutters! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC00585.jpg We wanted to check out the Mayan ruins at a place called Bomanpak. We had read about paintings inside the temples of beheadings, and still beating heart removals! Gory! We had to catch a taxi to the actual site as visitors cannot drive themselves in. Upon our drop off we were told by the driver to be back at the parking lot in one hour. C – I was really excited to see these ruins and it was lovely to get there and see how quiet it was! I was interested to see the artwork, as the other ruins we had visited didnt have any of the artwork remaining. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC00580.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC00584.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC00589.jpg T - The ruins were quite spectacular. Again there wasn’t too much of a crowd and that meant we could clamber around and soak it all in with relative peace and quiet. Except for the howls and hoots of distant howler monkeys! We made a beeline for the painted temples but alas the one showing all the gruesome stuff was closed to the public for renovations. Oh well. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07752.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07753.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC00592.jpg C – It was disappointing to miss the room with the gruesome artwork, but the ruins themselves were beautiful and it is pleasing to see that they are being restored. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07749.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07757.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07766.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07759.jpg T - We poked around and climbed to the top of the pyramids before heading back to our taxi. From the ruins it was a run straight up the highway to Palenque. There is another set of ruins there that we were keen to check out in the morning. By the time we arrived in town in the afternoon we were both sweating buckets and looking forward to a shower and some food! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07770.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07747.jpg We just milled around for the rest of the evening before returning to our room laden with cakes and snacks. Tomorrow we shall head to the ruins and then onwards towards the Yucatan. |
9 November 2016
T - Off to visit the famous Palenque ruins today. And boy were they beautiful. Maybe not as good as the ruins at Tonina, and that could simply be put down to the sheer numbers of people here at Palenque, but still impressive. Massive pyramids and crumbling buildings from 600AD were plentiful and we spent a few hours wandering amongst them.
http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07771.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07785.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07790.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07800.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07811.jpg Our path from there took us back past Palenque and onwards in a northerly direction. The ride was pretty boring. Probably our most boring in 8 months. The road cut straight and flat along a very busy highway. But eventually we made it to our destination for the night, Escarcega. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07818.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07819.jpg We did have one spot where we thought we would get off of the highway for a spell in the shade. Upon dropping Mabel off of the blacktop and onto the grass I quickly found that there was nothing underfoot but wet muddy bog. Mabel quickly sunk up to her back axle. We heaved and sweated and eventually dragged her fat bottom out of the bind and onto harder ground. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC00607.jpg We found a cheap hotel for the night in this dusty working town and had a tasty torta for dinner before calling it a day. Tomorrow we push ever onwards. Our next firm destination is the ruins of Chichen-Itza, one of the seven man made wonders of the world. |
Ever wondered what it is like to experience the extreme speed that is involved with riding a postie bike flat out down a Mexican highway? Well Mabel and Dudley bring you a snippet of that experience in this video!
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10 November 2016
C - After a cheery and disjointed (because of our poor Espanol) conservation with the lady motel manager, we hit the road. We had decided to aim for Campeche today, an old walled city on the Gulf of Mexico coast. We were both excited at the thought of seeing the ocean again!
It was only a short ride to the town of Champoton, where we got our first glimpse of the sea. We rode through the busy streets of downtown and out onto the coast road, where our grumbling tummies forced us to stop at a small roadside cafe selling very yummy trancas (a big torta!). Although we would have loved to devour one each, we opted for the sensible option of sharing one - it was huge and half was very satisfying!! After a quick whizz around the main square, we checked out the waterfront further north, where the local fisherman had their boats moored and their catch for sale. It wasnt long before we were back on the road and heading north http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07836.jpg We headed out of town and followed the signs for the libre road, making sure we didn't get on the cuota (toll) road. The ride was relatively uneventful, with us sitting on the shoulder of a somewhat busy divided highway. We sailed through a few small pueblos and with very sore bums (we dont know, it was really just a short ride!) we were off the highway and cruising into the centro historico, behind a very old and grand wall. With assistance from a very helpful book we have about finding hotels in Mexico (thanks Rick!!!) we landed a fantastic hotel right on the main square for an even better price. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07851.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07842.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07843.jpg After showering, it was straight out to check out the city. We wandered the square and then what I can confidently say was every single calle (street) in existence inside the wall. Campeche is a very scenic city, with each calle lined with brightly coloured buildings. Beautiful! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07835.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07820.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07828.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07845.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07847.jpg Exhausted, we fell into bed with a rough plan to make it Merida tomorrow. |
11 November 2016
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At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them. Lest we forget. For without them we would not enjoy the freedoms that we have today. C - It was a hungry morning so we ventured off to find some huevos rancheros for breakfast. It was a bit of a slow start to the day, but once we hit the road we knew we didnt really have far to go. Our destination for today was Merida, the capital of the Yucatan state. The riding again was uneventful. A relatively straight, busy highway with the scenery alternating between small villages, factories and farming land. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07852.jpg Although it was only about 150km, it sure felt like it took us all day. In reality, we arrived in the beautiful city of Merida just on midday and went straight to a hotel which suited our needs just fine. The weather was hot and steamy, just the way we like it! After filling our tummies with lunch, we retreated to the room for a little siesta. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07855.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07857.jpg We ventured out again in the evening, finding the most amazing pizza I think I ever eaten. Seriously, it was amazing. We were enjoying gorging ourselves and trying to remember the last time we had pizza. Neither of us can recall eating pizza since we left Australia! No wonder we enjoyed it and managed to eat the whole thing - all twelve, yes thats 12, slices! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07872.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07873.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07871.jpg I then joyfully spent the rest of the evening with a tummy ache from eating too much. But, we had a lovely stroll around the main square and soaked up the lively atmosphere of the city on a Friday night. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07863.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07864.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07868.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07867.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07866.jpg We will stay here another night and do some more exploring tomorrow. Merida certainly has a lovely charm to it. |
12 November 2016
C - Well, I couldnt even face breakfast this morning. Todd was keen though, so we found a little cafe where he could devour some hotcakes whilst I enjoyed a coffee.
http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07875.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07876.jpg I had read about a municipal mercado here that was rather large, so we went in search. It wasnt too long before we stumbled on it and man, it was massive! We weaved through the crowds to check out fruit and vegetables, meat, food stalls, shoes, clothes, electronics accessory.. You name it, it was there! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07879.jpg After a few hours, we were both in need of a rest and headed back to the hotel for some recuperation. By mid-afternoon I was finally feeling hungry so back to the market we went to try out one of the little food stall. Again, we enjoyed one delicious torta! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07878.jpg As we were strolling along, checking out streets we hadnt walked before, an older Mexican man asked us if we were from Germany, because Todd is tall. Anyway, we got chatting to him and whilst he is retired now, he was a professor specialising in Maya culture. It was a wonderful conversation, with him taking us a Maya market and explaining lots about the architecture and design of Merida. The city is actually built on an old Maya village, with the stones of the original Maya buildings used to build the cathedral and numerous other buildings after the Spanish arrived. He left at us the Maya market - it was really lovely to meet him and wonderful of him to pass on some of his knowledge to us. It wasnt long before it was time for dinner and again exhausted, we ventured back to the hotel for an early night. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07865.jpg Tomorrow we plan to head to Progresso on the coast and check out the ocean once more! |
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13 November 2016
T - We have really enjoyed our time in Merida but these things must come to an end and it was time to move on.
We wanted to find a Wal-Mart first on the way out so we could replenish our AA battery stocks for our GPS. Having found one nearby we set off into the early morning traffic. We were cruising down a major highway and had about 500 mt to go to our turn into Wal-mart when I suddenly saw cars and a bus brake hard and swerve. In the next instant an elderly gentleman was right in front of me, pushing his bicycle across 3 lanes of fast moving traffic. I hauled on the brakes hard as I yelled into the headset “You ****ing stupid old man!” Mabels front end started to wash out and I knew I was going down. But no way was I going to run down another person if I could help it. At that moment Chantelle yelled “Shit!”. Mabel can out brake Rosie every time and as Mabel shrugged off her speed in a very short distance Rosie and Chantelle just plowed straight into us. Then we were all down and screeching down the road. Bits of luggage flying off in all directions. I was back on my feet the moment I stopped sliding and ran back to see if Chantelle was ok. Rosie was laying on her side, her throttle jammed wide open and screaming. I hit the kill switch and saw Channy was getting up. I then noticed that one of us must have clipped the old man and he was being helped to his feet by a multitude of bystanders. Where did these people suddenly appear from I have no idea! I asked him if he was ok and he said yes. I went back to poor Mabel who was laying tipped up on her side in the road with a steady stream of fuel running from her tank. Once I had her uprighted and off the road I turned back to help Chantelle get Rosie out of the way of stopped traffic. It was at this point an elderly lady appeared from nowhere and started yelling at me. She was very angry but I didnt understand what she was saying. By this time, and it was only maybe a minute after the crash, the old man who caused it all was several hundred meters down the road and moving away fast. I was a little miffed about this as basically he caused this whole mess. Another gentleman had righted Rosie and wheeled her off of the road. He spoke a small amount of english and said he had seen the whole thing. He agreed that the old man had caused it, but his advice was for us to leave as quickly as we were able and he would deal with the screaming lady. I kicked the bikes over and all the while the old lady stood and yelled at me from about a meter away. I don’t know why she was so mad at us but all I heard her say was “Policia! Policia”. Now had the old man been there still I would have been quite happy to speak to the police, but as he had quickly disappeared himself I figured that there wasn’t much point hanging around. As soon as the bikes started the old ladys screaming reached fever pitch. The man who had seen it all happen had given up trying to reason with her and just kept saying to us “Go. Go”. So go we did. Mabel rode a little weirder than before. She steers a little more to the right while riding straight on. Poor bike. She has now had 3 major crashes and one fire, but still she goes. Will she make it to Usuahia? You can do it Mabel! We rode straight out of there. Not even stopping for fuel, heading north as fast as we could. Then Chantelle said she had a pain in her side and wanted to get off the bike for 5 minutes. Both of us were quite shaken up and as the adrenaline wore of the shock of it all set in. We had narrowly missed killing someone else. And it wasn’t even our fault. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07882.jpg After a quick inspection of Chantelles side, which had a nice little bruise, we carried onto the coastal town of Progreso. There was meant to be some pink flamingos there and we were keen to see them. It was a very touristy looking place and we ended up just riding through. Neither of us had the heart to get off of the bikes and look around today. We turned south east and headed for Izamal where we would stay the night. Just out of Progreso we saw some pink flamingos though! Pretty cool! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07881.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07883.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07884.jpg As we got close to Izamal Chantelle started to feel really sick. She quickly hobbled off of her bike and sat in the gutter and heaved a few times. I was a bit worried about this as I thought maybe she was more hurt from her spill than we realised. When she stood up I had a quick look at her bruise. What I saw scared me a little. It was protruding out from her side. ALOT. This looked really bad and I was worried about internal damage. No wonder she felt ill. We raced to the hospital in Izamal where the emergency doctor took one look at the rapidly growing lump and made immediate arrangements for Chantelle to be transferred by Ambulance back to a private hospital in Merida. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont.../11/image2.jpg Back in Merida Chantelle was admitted to hospital and immediately underwent some tests. The lump kept growing and soon a surgeon was called. An ultrasound and an xray showed there was no major damage done and the cause of the lump was bleeding between the skin and the muscle. But it would need surgery to drain it and find the source of bleeding. By the time the surgeons team was ready to operate the lump was huge. It reminded me of the Alien movies in that I was waiting, nay expecting, almost hoping, to see and alien burst forth and scurry off into an air vent! So we named the lump Sigourney in honour of Sigourney Weaver and the brilliant Alien movies. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07888.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont.../11/image1.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont.../11/image4.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07887.jpg A few hours later the surgeon woke me up in the waiting room with a gruesome video of the surgery procedure. I watched horrified and feeling very ill as the footage showed handfuls of congealed blood being squeezed from the lump and then hands reaching inside the incision in Chantelles side and pulling out more blood. It was gross and I battled to hold my stomach together. And yes, there is a chance we are going to get the video for any of you weirdos who want to watch it! Chantelle was then placed in a room for an over night stay. She is ok and is a bit groggy from the anaesthesia which made for some weird conversation! But she is ok and the surgeon is happy with the results. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont.../11/image5.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07886.jpg Tomorrow we shall stay put. In fact we shall stay put for a while. I have to go and pick up Rosie from Izamal, somehow, which is about 80km’s away. |
Oh my word...... Sh!t sometime happen.
Glad Chantell is on the mend...... Rest well, drive save |
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Ooh yuk doh
Glad that you are on the mend after your alien experience Chantelle :cursing: Kick back & relax a while guys bier |
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Sorry about the lack of updates, but there really is not much to write about at the moment. Chantelle is on the mend but we are pretty well confined to our hotel room until the doctor takes out the drain from her side. We both probably needed to stop and rest anyway as we have put in some serious hours of sleep!
Hopefully the drain comes out on Saturday and we will likely move from our hotel to one in the centro historic. Where we currently are there isn’t too much close by within walking distance, except for a Chilis, a Burger King and a shopping mall! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07890.jpg The bikes appear to be ok, just a little bit bent in the front ends. Unfortunately theres not too much I can really do about at this stage. I suspect Rosie has slightly bent forks and bars, and Mabel has bent bars and bent crash bars. We shall ride them like this until the end! Once Chantelle feels fit enough, and if the doctor says she can ride, we will head for Chichen Itza and then across to a seaside fort called Tulum before dropping down into Belize. Mabel is going to get a new piston and bore sent to Tulum so she will be a happy little cupcake for the rest of the journey south! |
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21 November 2016
C - Well, it has been a rather quiet few days, with me just resting up and sending healing vibes to my abdo muscles and side!
I was getting used to carrying around a little drainage baggy with me everywhere I went, but I was very much looking forward to getting it removed. It is so weird to have a foreign object lodged in your body like that. I was perfectly ok looking at the scar, swelling and bruising, but looking at where the drain came out of my skin was creepy indeed! Despite my eagerness to have the drain removed, I was anxious about this as well. When I was 16, I had surgery on my legs and had a drain in each one - I remember the excruciating pain I was whilst the nurse removed one, then the other. I was expecting this removal to be just as painful. We arrived at the surgeon's office on Saturday and she inspected by little baggy, declaring it fit to be removed. She seemed pretty happy with the recovery progress, but all I could do was whisper to her that I was scared about her removing the drain. She gave me a confused look and said ‘no, it won’t hurt at all’. I wasn’t convinced so I made Todd came right over to the bed and hold my hand, whilst I tightly shut my eyes and held one arm over my eyes (because, you know, if I couldn’t actually see the doctor she couldn’t see me and it wouldn’t hurt at all?!?!? Right?). Before I knew it there was a slight tugging sensation and it was done. All out, all over… but not before Todd nearly fainted. He was completely blown away by the length of the drain, citing it as about 15cms that came out from inside my side. Wowsers!!! T – It was so gross. My stomach was doing loop-de-loops for the next hour. For me the worst part was the sucking sound as it came out. Ugh, in fact talking about it makes me gag. STOP TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT!!!!!! I couldn’t believe how long it was, the thing just kept on coming out. It must have been lodged right up against Chantelles brain I am sure! C - I felt pretty good after this, free at last from my constant companion, and we wandered over to the mall to enjoy a barista coffee. Sunday saw us leaving our fancy pants hotel and moving into the centro historico. We had stayed at the expensive hotel opposite the hospital to ensure that I was in a clean zone to prevent any infection from my open wound. Now the drain was removed and we were confident that a quick trip to the hospital wouldn’t be required, it was time to move somewhere a bit cheaper. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07915.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07914.jpg I decided not to risk riding my bike there, so caught a taxi whilst Todd rode Rosie. I then hung about reading whilst Todd taxi’d back and rode Mabel into the new hotel. T – Oh my, it felt great to be back on the bike! I was absolutely loving it! Even if it was just riding the busy roads of the inner city! C - We went in search of some lunch and stumbled across lots of cheap food stalls and activities happening in the square. There was a festival happening for Revolution Day! We enjoyed a cheap lunch of torta de cochinita and then went to rest in the hotel. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/IMG_6158.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/IMG_6159.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/IMG_6160.jpg We waited for dark and then ventured back into the square, where the festivities were in full swing! Food stalls, markets and live music were everywhere, with what appeared to be most of Merida’s population out and about. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07904.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07907.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07906.jpg The night was really about soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying some good Mexican food. After way too many churros, we decided it was time to call it a night. That’s when we saw one of the streets had been closed to traffic and the whole street had been taken over by locals dancing to a live band. It was truly amazing! So we ventured in and had a very careful dance, whilst smiling and laughing along with all the locals. Brilliant! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07899.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07901.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07908.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07907.jpg I have another appointment with the surgeon tomorrow and hopefully the stitches will come out! We have booked into the hotel until Saturday and will just play it day by day as to when we will move on. Neither of us are in a hurry to leave Mexico! |
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Technology has come forward just for you :rofl: Good to read that you are on the mend C :thumbup1: |
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25 November 2016
Well all good things must come to an end. It is time for us to move on from Merida. We have been here for dead on 2 weeks now and Chantelle is feeling fit to ride! So tomorrow we shall get back on the road and head to the town of Izamal.
http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07927.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07928.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07929.jpg We have loved Merida and would highly recommend aeveryone to come here. It is known as the safest city in all of Mexico and it has a zero tolerance towards crime. There is alot to see and do here and it seems that there is something fun happening almost every night in the main square. We have done everything from dancing in the streets to live music, to eating various sweet treats from food carts, to scoffing ourselves silly on cheap dinners in the markets. What a place! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07932.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07935.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07936.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07937.jpg The last week has really been spent taking it easy and involved us walking around a fair bit. Plus a bit of relaxing by the hotels pool. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07945.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07946.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/GOPR0095.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07942.jpg The updates should hopefully get back on track as a daily thing again and we shall start working towards a Mexico video. |
26 November 2016
T - Woohoo! It is great to be riding again. Whilst we both really enjoyed our stop for the last 2 weeks we both had started to really miss the momentum of our trip. So it was with much excitement that we both packed up the bikes and rolled out of the carpark and headed onwards.
We had picked a little camping spot just 75km up the road from Merida in the gorgeous little town of Izamal. We had only had a flying visit there previously and Chantelle didn’t get to see much of it from the back of the ambulance. C – I was super excited to be getting back on Rosie again. When we started her up I could hear a knocking noise coming from the clutch side of the engine which was definitely not there before. Todd had said that her clutch had been slipping when he rode her back from Merida, so it appears that we will have to do some investigation into this. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07947.jpg T - The ride was pretty easy but it did take us a fair while to break free of miles long traffic jams in the centre of Merida. Soon though we were screaming along at our slow speed of 65km/hr down the smooth shoulder of a highway. We made pretty quick time on our ride and soon we were pulling into our camp for the night. We plan on just doing some light riding for a bit as there is a new piston for Mabel on its way down from the USA and it should take 3-4 weeks to reach us in Tulum. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07948.jpg C – The ride was relatively boring, but man it felt so good to be on Rosie again. I felt pretty good physically, but I was glad we hadn’t picked somewhere further up the road for my first day back on the bike. I was keen for a stretch and a rest by the time we arrived. I had picked the camp as I was SOOOOO keen to sleep in my sleeping bag again. T - The camp was nice enough even though it was maybe a little on the pricey side of $100MEX each not including wifi or power. We setup camp and abandoning the bikes for the day we walked into the centro historic and had a butchers hook at some of the lovely old colonial buildings. Ever building in the centro was painted the same hue of yellow with white trim. It looked quite fantastic. So many people stopped to say hello to us or just waved as they scooted by. What a friendly little place. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07950.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07951.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07954.jpg C – We wandered through the large cathedral and convent in the centre of town, with Todd finding himself an apparently very satisfying icecream. One of the flavours had real chunks of cake in it and Todd’s obvious delight had me regretting not getting one! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07962.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07964.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07955.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07966.jpg T - We poked around a little and made our way to a large Mayan pyramid in the centre of town. It was free to enter and we could climb right to the top which offered up some incredible 360 degree views over the town and out into the country side. The Yucatan is incredibly flat and from the top of the pyramid we could see for miles and miles! http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07970.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07971.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07974.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07975.jpg We wandered from here to a supermarket where we bought some bits and pieces for dinner and a much much much needed cold beer! We wandered back to our camp where we set up the chairs and as the sun prepared to set we drank the beer and scoffed on chips. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07981.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07980.jpg Not long after Ed rolled into camp and we sat around sharing some food and chatting into the night until the cold and the settling sew drove us into our tents. Tomorrow we might head for Chichen Itza, or stay another day and do some bike maintenance. |
27 November 2016
T - It was great to be back in the tent. Even though our mats went flat and the local dogs barked up a tune to go with the firecrackers and music that popped, screamed, and banged all night.
While sitting around having coffee the three of us decided we should probably really attend to our bikes which all had various clutch issues. Chantelle’s had started slipping after her crash, mine just needed a new clutch basket, and Ed’s little C90 had clutch slippage issues. Soon we had all three bikes laid out on their sides and their innards opened up and exposed for all the world to see. It was at this point we decided to stay another night in camp as this looked to be a decent days work to sort them all out. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07984.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07986.jpg We had to wander into town to buy some various bits and pieces to help with the repairs and after we got back into camp I soon had a new clutch assembly into Mabel and Rosies clutch plates inspected and one weirdly worn out one replaced. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07982.jpg With the two posties out of the way Ed’s bike decided she didn’t want to play fair and after being reassembled proved to be stubborn with her gear changes. So Ed had to pull her all apart again to delve deeper into her engine where he found an engine casing dowel that had dislodged and slipped under the gear selector and a bent clutch actuator arm. As darkness fell we were down to torch light and Mabel got a new front tyre while 90 got her bits straightened and put back together. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07983.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC07988.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC08004.jpg Once Ed was satisfied with how she ran and shifted we walked into town to try to find something for dinner. Everything shut at 6pm and it was now just after 7. Damn it. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC08008.jpg Finally we stumbled into a restaurant called El Torro just as I began to get the hangrys. The food was frigging incredible! I ordered a cheese and chicken dish soaked in some type of green soup. It was possibly the second best thing I have had in Mexico! Chantelle ordered a marinated pulled pork dish which was pretty damn good too. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC08010.jpg Then it was icecream and back to camp for a sleep. It was a long day, well it felt like it, but it is good to know that both bikes now have good strong clutches again. Poor little abused things. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...1/DSC08012.jpg Tomorrow we head for Chichen Itza and will probably stay just outside of the ruins. |
Missing my favourite Postie updates doh
Merry Xmas to ya guys :thumbup1: |
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November 28 2016
Our destination today was another very long distance of 70 odd k’s. This is about the slowest we have travelled yet I think! We wanted to get into Chichen Itza as early in the morning as we could and avoid the big crowds. So our plan was to ride to the town of Piste which is located about 2 km’s from Chichen Itza and stay there for the night. We would then get up early tomorrow morning and be at the gates of the ruins at 8am.
We stopped in at El Torro again in Izamal for breakfast as last nights dinner had been amazing. Again they didn’t disappoint. The desayunos was damn amazing! After brekky we said goodbye to Ed and we went our separate ways. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....1/DSC07963.jpg The ride between Izamal and Piste was very uneventful and there wasn’t much to see on the libre road. We made short work of it and soon found a lovely little hotel tucked away down an alley for the night. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08017.jpg We had to go and withdraw some pesos from an ATM as we basically had none left, but would you believe, the only two ATM’s near us were out of order! Luckily we had a few USD that we could change otherwise we would have starved to death. We had a short wander around the centro of Piste before grabbing a bite to eat and then heading off to bed. Tomorrow we shall be up and on the road early and waiting at the gates to Chichen Itza for when they open. |
29 November 2016
I love getting up early. When we stay in a hotel we are more likely to hang about and laze around in bed longer than when we camp. My favourite time of day is 5am and I generally am up at that time when we camp. I love it because the day smells and looks so clean and fresh and while most people are still slumbering away it means I get to have 5am all to myself.
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08118.jpg We packed up and headed to a nearby Oxxo for a morning yoghurt drink before racing the couple of km’s down the road. We were only a few cars from the front and after paying the exorbitant parking fee of $30peso, which was the same as for a car load of people, we parked up in our own bays and headed for the ticket booths. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08154.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08119.jpg I was surprised at the amount of people already pouring into the place! Buses were pulling in and just disgorging hordes and hordes of tourists. Craziness! Soon though we were through the gates and standing in front of a massive pyramid. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08127.jpg Chichen Itza is one of the seven man made wonders of the world, and it is easy to see why people flock here in droves. The impressive main structure towers imposingly above the crowds that clap around its base. I could almost see the high priests from way back in the day tossing severed heads down its insanely steep steps. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08124.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08128.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08129.jpg Apparently a few years back a lady was climbing the big pyramid when she slipped and fell down the steps to her death. Since then all the ruins have been closed off to tourist foot traffic. Im not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I wanted to see the place from the top of the pyramid, but also its nice that these places aren’t covered in people. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08134.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08131.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08144.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08148.jpg We wandered around for a while and eventually found our way back to the main gate. Inside the ruins on every path there were hundreds of vendors setting up to sell tourist tat. They were selling everything from sombreros to phallic shaped smoking implements. All way overpriced of course! So I bought Mabel a mini sombrero, because she had been wanting one for ages. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08153.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08155.jpg Back on the bikes we headed up the road to the next town of Vallodalid and tonights stop. A mere 50km’s away. Both of us are becoming a little bored and frustrated with the fact that we are basically killing time while we wait for this part to arrive. I had bought and paid for the thing while Chantelle was in hospital, only to find out a few days later that the vendor didn’t actually have any stock and that it would be a week before he did. To be fair he did offer me a full refund, but I need this part one way or another anyway. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08156.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08157.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08158.jpg Once we had checked into our hotel we had a bit of a laze around and a short wander into the city centre. There wasn’t much going on here so we bought a couple of drinks and retired to our room for the night. We are thinking we might head north to the coast and follow it east and around past Cancun and then south to Tulum where our part is headed. |
30 November 2016
T - Another very quiet day today. We decided to stay another night here. Seeing as the part for Mabel is due into Tulum somewhere between the 1st December and the 16th December we figured we have no need to rush there.
Which makes for a very boring blog entry as we basically went out for a very nice, very cheap breakfast, before returning to the hotel to have our laundry done. I had to have all of my clothes washed which meant I was left wearing my very sexy and holey Thai ‘fat’ pants. So I wasnt going out in public for a while! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08160.jpg We lounged around and watched a great series on Netflix called Black Mirror which is a look at the dark side of technology and the potential effects it could have on us. Its bloody brilliant and we were hooked. And thats really about it for the day! Tomorrow we are going to carve a path north from here and follow a few back roads. There is a place called Rio Lagartos that is close to the nesting ground for the pink flamingos. |
1 December 2016
T - It was quite a nice ride today. And it was so good to be on the bikes. The air was cool enough when moving that neither we nor the bikes were too warm. We wound out of Valladolid and soon found ourselves on a severely overgrown back road. It was bliss. We were the only ones out there, apart from the odd man on a bicycle.
We passed through some very rural towns where the houses were simple and had thatched roofs. Oh and some of the largest topes we have seen yet! We followed this road that passed through these little villages and after a nice 100 km’s we found ourselves at the coast in the town of San Felipe. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08170.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08169.jpg We were both starving so we went in search of food. And boy did we get lucky. We found a tiny little family run restaurant that served up a billion different fish dishes. I chose one called Ceviche de Pescado, fish soaked in lime juice, and Chantelle had Caldo de Pescado, fish stew. What came out of the kitchen was plates and bowls of food. Mine was damn incredible and tasted so fresh. Chantelle ended up with a bowl of soup and a whole big fish. It was so yum. We scoffed ourselves stupid and the total of this feast, $10 for the two of us including a drink each. So happy! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08164.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08167.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08166.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08165.jpg We scouted around San Felipe for a hotel but they were so so so overpriced that we decided to move on. It seems this is a very touristed area due to those pink birds, and Im not talking about sunburnt english girls, that everyone here just kept their prices sky high. Not to worry though, there was another town just up the road. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08162.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08177.jpg We rode the extra 15km’s and found another pricey hotel which seemed to be the cheapest in town. We had a wander through town in search of the usual gorgeous centro but found none. It is a weird town with an odd vibe. Certainly nothing here to entice us to stay a few days. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08173.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08174.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08175.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08178.jpg Tomorrow we ride along a track that crosses a skinny spit of land surrounded by water. If the track is there! |
2 December 2016
T - Our ride today was going to take us along a track that we weren’t sure even existed. It showed up on two of our maps but when we checked on Google Earth there was just a big piece of ocean where we wanted to ride. Still there’s only one way to find out right?
C - We knew there was a chance we would have to turn around at Los Coloradas (where the bitumen road appeared to end) but it wasn’t such a long way and we were both super keen to ride along the skinny spit. I had read that there is a flamingo nesting ground out there and I was keen to see some more of these pink, weird birds! T - We checked out of our hotel and scooted out of town. It was a gorgeous day for riding with the air temperature cool enough to keep both us and the bikes at a happy temperature. As we rode along we started to see tracks heading off to our left and ending in pure white beach sand, so we decided to check one out. The sand was blindingly white and so so fine that our little bikes just sunk straight down into the stuff, but we managed to ride them close enough to the sea that we didn’t have to walk too far. We were greeted by turquoise water and endless empty beaches. Very pretty. The beach we had stopped at had a small stream running onto it that was filled with bright pink water and salt so thick you could almost walk on it. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08181.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08185.jpg C - It was very exciting to see a white, sandy beach! It has been a long while since we have seen tropical beaches and it was so lovely to see!! Pelicans were surfing the waves and looking very contented and it was tempting to jump in and join them! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08183.jpg T - We continued on our way and soon the road became smaller and smaller until we were riding a sandy one lane track that carved its way through some coastal scrub. It was here we started to see Pink Flamingos. Hundreds of the things. We managed to find some tracks that scooted out into the wetlands and allowed us to get a little closer to these weird birds with their heads buried in the water. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08186.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08188.jpg C - The day was getting brighter and brighter for me. It feels like it has been ages since we have ridden off the bitumen and I do much prefer to ride off road, even if it is sand! It was simply brilliant to be scooting down a little track, with no cars and no people, just birds to keep us company. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08190.jpg The birds!!! I found the flamingos super interesting - they are weirdly beautiful birds! It was awesome to be able to get closer to them this time and when we accidentally startled a few, it was equally cool to see them take off in flight. Watching them run along the top of the water was quite hilarious! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08193.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08195.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08191.jpg T - After taking a ton of bird pictures we carried on along the track, expecting at any minute that we would come to the end of it. But we got lucky. The road went right through even though in spots it did look as though it may sometimes be underwater. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08199.jpg C - The track changed constantly, from hard packed sand, to soft sand, to mud, to actually riding through the estuarine water, to rock and mud holes! It was brilliant! I had the grin of a cheshire cat by the time we reached the town of El Coy. We ventured into the town and had a cold drink on the pier which jutted out into the beautiful turquoise waters. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08206.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08203.jpg T - Once we reached the other side of the spit we headed back inland in search of some lodgings for the night and we ended up at the beautiful little town of Tizimil. The place has loads of character and so many friendly people. Everyone we stopped near said hello and asked where we were from and where we were going. I love these little out of the way places. We wandered around the square and found a place that served amazing food before calling it a night. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08207.jpg C - Ending the night eating amazing Yucatan local dishes whilst we watched locals go about their Friday evening in the square was simply beautiful. What a day, what a ride!!! T - There is no real plan for tomorrow but there is a heap of ruins in the Yucatan so maybe we will go and check a few more out as we slowly make our way to Tulum. |
3 December 2016
T - I really like Tizimin. It has a really lovely and lively vibe and I could have spent another day here. But we decided to move on and see what else the Yucatan had to offer. Also we had been in contact with a fella named Dave through our blog who was in the area and we were keen to catch him before he passed us by. So we organised to meet up today for lunch.
C - We really had no clue what our plans were for today when we woke up. We lounged around a bit and during this time, Dave got in touch with us. So, plans made! We would ride the 60km back to Valladolid for lunch, and then see where the day took us. T - We packed up and cruised out of town and headed for some ruins up the road. These ruins, Ek Balam, looked pretty cool in the pictures we had seen and promised to be relatively tourist free as well. The ride there was pretty straight forward and it didn’t take us long before we were parking our bikes in an almost deserted parking lot. But we balked when we got to the ticket booth. It was really expensive! Crazy expensive! So we decided to grab a cold coke and think about it. Well the sale of the coke helped us decide to move on. Normally a can of soft drink can be had for about $7 pesos, this place wanted $30. What a rip off! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08208.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08209.jpg C - Had we had all day to explore the site, we would've paid the entry and gone in, however, knowing we had just under an hour to see the ruins and then make it to Valladolid for lunch, we decided not to enter. T - So we hopped back on the bikes and trundled down into Valladolid. A great little place that we had spent a couple of nights in already. We pulled up at a spot where we had arranged to meet Dave and chilled out on the curb. A short while later and a guy pulls up next to us on a big BMW loaded down with luggage and shakes our hand and introduces himself as Dave. Now I was a little confused because I had been reading Daves blog and I was sure he was riding a gorgeous little XT250 Yamaha, but here was Dave on a BMW. Maybe he changed bikes? https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08215.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08216.jpg It didn't take long though for us to realise that by pure coincidence, this was a different Dave! All motorcyclists look the same you see. C - BMW Dave was from Canada and cruising south on a lovely BMW F800GS. When he pulled in to park next to our girls, the big beemer dwarfed our girls!! I was super impressed when Dave got off and is shorter than I am! Height really isn't a limitation if you have the confidence! T - We stood around and chatted for a while about the brilliance that is life on the road and then the other Dave joined us. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08212.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08218.jpg After sharing a bite to eat BMW Dave headed off and XT Dave and us decided to stay the night in Valladolid and hang out. C - It was lovely to meet BMW Dave and hear about his adventures so far! Safe riding BMW Dave (as you will forever be known to us!!). T - What a brilliant fun night! Dave is a super guy and we really liked hanging out with him. He did force us to drink beer, eat tortas, hotdogs and icecream though! Actually to be fair, Chantelle forced us…. Please do check out his blog over at motopoet.com https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08220.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08222.jpg C - XT Dave is a great guy and we had a great time chatting to him about all things motorbiking, travelling and life in general. We really enjoyed his company! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08226.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08227.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08225.jpg T - What a great night. I'm glad we got to meet up with Dave and Dave and hopefully we will see Dave and Dave along the way again. Thanks Dave and Dave. |
4 December 2016
C - We awoke this morning to grumbling tummies and ventured out with Dave to find some scrummy Mexican breakfast. We walked into the food market opposite the square and after looking at a couple of menus, were swayed into one stall after being offered drinks with our breakfast. Always a winner!!
We devoured a delicious breakfast in great company! Hanging out with Dave has been great - he has a wonderful sense of humour and its been a lot of fun. Hopefully we will meet up again with him along the way. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08218.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08217.jpg T - We have decided to all meet up in Bolivia again and ride the salt flats and the Road of Death together. Which be a blast! C - It was time to say our goodbyes after breakfast, with Dave heading for the border with Belize, whilst we were heading in the opposite direction, towards Peto and Tzucacab. It was about this time that it bucketed down - real, tropical downpour!!! It was wonderful to see rain, just not when we were getting ready to get on the motorbikes. We waited a few minutes and sure enough, the sun came out - we refused to put on our wet weather gear and headed off in search of batteries for the GPS. T - Now that we aren’t being rained on every day with cold drizzly stuff it is actually fun to be caught in the rain. C - A lovely family stopped to chat with us whilst we were parked at the shop. It always wonderful to interact with local people!! The father was blown away by the fact we could fly our motorbikes from Australia and then ride them all the way from Alaska to Argentina. ‘Such small bikes’ he kept saying, shaking his head and grinning. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08228.jpg Then it really started to rain. In seconds, the street was flooded, the girls were drenched and we were looking very much like drowned rats! We laughed as we stood on the side of the road and decided that there was just no point in wet weather gear now, so we took off into the rain. The rain eased after a few minutes and we stopped out of town to put on our wet weather gear. We had chosen to take a small, rural backroad and it was a delightful ride with intermittent heavy, tropical showers. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08229.jpg T - It has been such a long time since the girls have had any kind of a bath and as I rode along behind Chantelle I could see the mud and crud just pouring off of Rosie. C - We arrived in Peto very wet, but excited to be somewhere new. After a look around, we couldnt find any hotels in the pretty little town, so headed on the extra 15km to Tzucacab, where we were promised by iOverlander that there was a hotel. Finding the hotel, we dripped out of our wet riding gear and went for a wander around the village square. We found charcoal chicken for dinner, which was delicious and cheap - $45 pesos for a whole chicken (about $3AUD). https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08232.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08231.jpg Tomorrow, we will head south towards Laguna Azul, where we will hoping get our camping gear back out for a few days whilst heading up the coast towards Tulum. |
5 December 2016
C - I was ken to be up and at ‘em this morning. We had decided to head towards Laguna Azul and camp for the night, which I was really looking forward to. A big ride today by our recent standards, as we had approximately 200km to ride.
https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08245.jpg After a quick scoot around Tzucacab’s centro area, we headed on out of towns, with grumbling tummies. We didnt see any breakfast options which appealed to us, so decided we would just find something along the way. About 45 minutes later, we entered a village and, spotting a loncheria, we pulled over and ventured in to discover their delights. By this time it was 11.30 so we both opted for the meal of the day - Empanizado de pollo. Some kind of battered and fried chicken. When the meal came out, it was massive! Three big pieces of chicken fillet, salad and rice, along with the must have tortillas. T - I love these little roadside stalls. Chantelle has a theory that any of the places with plastic chairs and tables will have the best food, and so far she has been right! The serve of chicken was massive and I greedily wolfed it down like an animal. I love that when you order these things the food is cooked, possibly even killed, right then and there. Hopefully it helps us to avoid the odd tummy bug. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08246.jpg https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08247.jpg C - With tummies stuffed so full we thought we might burst, we jumped back onto the highway. The riding wasnt particularly spectacular and some sections of the highway simply dragged on and on and on and on and on and on. T - For scenic winding type riding in Mexico, the Yucatan is the place you wont find it. The roads here seemingly go on forever. But we do get to pass through a heap of small villages which is really cool. C - We finally arrived in Lezaro Cardenas, the town closest to the campsite and decided to stop by one of the Mini Supers to pick up some food for dinner. There were millions (well, maybe 10 or so) stalls lining the roadside selling fresh pineapples. So after purchasing one and some dinner goodies, we headed out along a small gravelly and muddy track towards the Laguna Azul campground. The track was bumpiy, muddy and a little bit slippery and it was fun to be off of the highway. After about 4km, we arrived at the campsite and I went in search of someone to check us in. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08248.jpg T - Such a fun little ride in. We had to be careful off the green mossy stuff that was slimed all along the road though. That stuff will make a Mabel or Rosie come unstuck in the clench of a gnats anus. This little stretch of road reminded me so much of the place we had both lived, Christmas Island, and I spent a few moments reminiscing. C - I found the owner in the restaurant and was quoted $125 pesos per person, per night. I enquired as to what services she offered at the camp and was told none. Cold showers, a flushing toilet and a piece of dirt to pitch the tent. Woah! Expensive campground. The view was certainly sensational, but the campground was not paying $50 pesos less than a hotel with hot water, wifi and a real bed. T - When Chantelle came back and told me how much it cost to sleep in the dirt I nearly fell over! Surely she was taking the mickey! But nope. All that cash with no services. No thankyou! C - I knew that there was another camp on the lake front about 10km down the road, so off we went in search of that. It was in the small village of Buena Vista. I enquired at the bar and was quoted $100pesos per palapa, per night, with the same services - cold showers and a flushing toilet. Perfect! T - Now this place was better. We could rent an entire palapa, right on the lake shore, for $100pesos for the night, for the both of us. Plus there was a bar close enough for me to send Chantelle to while I worked on the bikes. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08251.jpg C - We set up in a palapa (which was actually lined with mossie net all around!!!) and then purchased a beer each. Rosie was still slipping her clutch under load and Mabel had developed a leak from shifter seal. So, the girls went back down on their sides on the lakes edge as we went about performing some maintenance. A few hours later and the girls were both back to full health, with Mabels seal changed out for a bright shiny new one and Rosies clutch plates sanded and gripping once more. I was very keen on a swim, but the wind was up and the lake was very rough. So instead, we watched the sky grow dark and enjoyed being outside, listening to the waves lap at the lake shore. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08254.jpg We have no clue where we will head tomorrow. We will head north, maybe inland, maybe towards the coast?!?!?! |
6 December 2016
C - This was seriously the quietest place we have a spent a night in Mexico. No firecrackers, no music, no barking dogs or crowing roosters, no loud cars. Amazing!
When the wind died down during the night, I awoke drenched in sweat. We had put the fly on the tent as it looked as though it might rain, but even with the doors wide open I felt like I was laying inside a furnace. My shirt was stuck to me, drenching wet and I had to open the mesh door to feel like I could breath. I felt even hotter than the night we camped at Death Valley. T - The freakiness of the absolute deafening silence led me to have nightmarish dreams about demons and the Devil. All of whom were standing in the palapa with us. I kept waking up and dropping straight back into the same dream which made for a very unpleasant nights sleep. At one point I was wide awake and could swear I heard on of those demons standing outside near Mabel and laughing horribly. Ugh. What a crappy sleep. C - I ventured out of the tent to cool down and wondered why I wasn’t getting any of the cool rising from the cement floor of the palapa. It was then that I realised - I was laying on top of my sleeping bag. The one designed for -5 celcius… I quickly dragged the sleeping bag out of the way and pulled my liner over the mat, so I wouldnt stick to it. I layed down and….. bliss! I could feel the coolness rising from the concrete and immediately crashed back to sleep! We both awoke in time to see the sunrise this morning, which was simply magnicificent, rising over the lake and sending shades of pink through the sky. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08272.jpg T - Nightmares aside, this place was really beautiful. I was up nice and early and taking photos of the early morning light hitting the lake. Such a gorgeous little camp spot. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08261.jpg C - The water was crystal clear and like glass this morning without the wind, so I stripped down to my underwear and jumped right in, washing the stickiness of last nights furnace session away. The water was cool and refreshing.. double bliss!! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08259.jpg https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08265.jpg https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8274.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08271.jpg T - The water was cool and refreshing? My bloody ass it was! It was straight up effing freezing and I know this because my bollocks retreated back up into my body fast. I ventured in wearing just mu jocks, but I could have gone in naked. It was that cold that no one would have seen my shrivlled and hiding body parts anyways. Like a Ken doll I was. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8270.jpg?w=640 C - After some breakfast we decided to head inland, back towards a town we rode through yesterday. Todd had found some backroads to get us there and the town looked like a lively place when we rode through yesterday. T - I was excited about breakfast today. We usually carry oatmeal and I love the stuff. Except this time we had left it too long in the food box in its original cardboard container. So my breakfast tasted of oddly scented cardboard. I threw it out. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8269.jpg?w=640 C - We were both excited when we turned off of the highway and the road began to deteriorate. More and more potholes appeared whilst the track became narrower and narrower. It was such a fun ride and a little disappointing when we popped out onto the highway, just 30km out of Jose Maria Morelos. T - That was a brilliant section of road. I loved the way it totally deteriorated into absolute crap and craters and well crap really! It was a heap of fun doing the old dodgeroonie around the deep bike destroying holes. Mabel was loving it. Except for the few times I stuffed it up and we ended up collecting a few potholes. Sorry Mabes. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8276.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8278.jpg?w=640 C - Venturing into town, we stopped for lunch and were served an amazing and ridiculously cheap torta de chorizo con papa (chorizo with potatoe). Simply divine! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8279.jpg?w=640 We checked into a cheap hotel, dropped off our stinky laundry and went walking all through town. T - The laundry was putrid. We have had a few tropically warm and humid days recently and combined with the day of being drenched we were both decidedly smelly. My anti smell underpants, thanks Dave and Anne, were really battling to keep the odours down. I think they may have even partially melted their way through the laundry bag by the time we dropped them in for a wash. Sorry to the laundry lady. C - We found a delicious hamburger off a food cart for dinner and then ventured, sweating, into our nice and cool room. Tomorrow, well, tomorrow we have no clue where we will go. We want to arrive in Tulum in the next three days, so I guess North we will go! |
7 December 2016
T - Jose Maria Morelos was a pumping little town. Full of life. I really liked the vibe of the place. But a lot of the men leered at Chantelle a lot and stared at her boobs openly as we walked around. That bit I didn’t like.
C - Creepy!! I wasn’t even wearing a tight shirt…. and staring back at them did not seem to deter them one bit!!! T - The room we had last night had a super sized double king bed. It was a monster! So I managed to sleep soundly and comfortably right through until sunrise. I was up at 6am, damn my internal alarm clock, and accidently woke the reception guy who was sleeping in his hammock in the lobby. We decided last night that we would just head for Tulum where we would stop for a few days and await this damn part. We have seen a heap of the Yucatan now and are both very keen to get into Belize. We absolutely LOVE Mexico, but we are just ready to ride for a while! So we grabbed some amazing tacos and rode out of town. Our destination was Valladolid again. This little city is almost in the centre of the Yucatan and we both like it there. From there Tulum is only 3 hours, for us, away and we shall head there tomorrow. C - My theory for good, cheap Mexican food is holding. Find the place with the plastic chairs and tables and you will be rewarded with fantastic food at a cheap price!!! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8281.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8283.jpg?w=640 T - The ride was pretty uneventful. We took some back roads which were straight and flat and soon boredom set in. We broke the ride up with a few pit stops as Mabel has developed quite a leak somewhere and is losing around half of her oil each day. I thought I had found the leak but when I stripped her down I found that I was wrong. So at one point along the road when Mabel was nicely warmed up we pulled over and I pulled her cases off to see if I could pinpoint the source of the leak. Bloody little bitch had stopped leaking now and everything was spotless. But I do suspect that it is coming from an oil seal behind her stator. She didn’t leak a drop for the rest of the day. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8284.jpg?w=640 Eventually we made it to our hotel for the night and spent the afternoon chilling out before heading out for some food. C - Despite Valladolid being an incredibly beautiful city, full of wonderful night life, we were both feeling a little antsy to not be here. We love Mexico but are both feeling its time to move on to the next adventure - Belize. Patience is a virtue right???? https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8287.jpg?w=640 T - Tomorrow we will head into Tulum and see if the part is there before either camping for a couple of nights on the coast, or if the part is in, heading towards the Belize border. |
8 December 2016
C - We awoke early this morning, to a quiet and fresh Valladolid. After accidentally waking up the sleeping night man, we ventured out at 6am to find coffee. After grabbing a take away coffee, we sat in the square and watched the city awakening. The sky was a greying dawn and the air was fresh but not cold.
After some people watching and solving the problems of the universe, we ventured back to the hotel to pack up for the ride to Tulum. It was not particularly early when we left, god knows what we did to fill in the hours, but it was 10.30 by the time we were riding out of Valladolid. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8289.jpg?w=640 We sat on the libre road all the way into Tulum, where we were greeted with the expected tourist haven. Lot of western styled restaurants, hotels and all inclusive beach resorts. We visited the post office to learn our packed is in Mexico, but another 5-7 days is expected before it makes it to Tulum. After a quick visit to the supermarket for food and water, we headed straight out of town, heading into a federal biosphere reserve and onto the town of Punta Allen. This small fishing village sits at the end of a 40km long spit and the road to it is rough gravel, sand and mud. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8292.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8297.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8298.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8291.jpg?w=640 The ride was completely joyful and not at all challenging.. expect the challenge of dodging the pot holes as best we could! We caught our first glimpse of the Caribbean and was greeted with lovely, white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. It was a little windy, so the ocean was a bit rough, but beautiful all the same. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC08300.jpg It took us two hours to travel the 40km due to the condition of the road, but it was a fun and interesting ride. We rode through town to the camp we had picked out and found a lovely little spot right on the beach, under the shade of a couple of coconut palms (dont worry CI people, we checked for coconuts before setting up camp!!). https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8305.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8301.jpg?w=640 The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and lazing about on the beach, followed by a short walk to find a cold beer! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8313.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8312.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8311.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8332.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8324.jpg?w=640 After cooking ourselves some dinner, we drifted off to the sleep to the sound of the ocean with a lovely cool breeze floating through the tent. |
9 December 2016
C - I woke up (by being prodded by Todd) to a beautiful sunrise. After a minute of staring out through the mesh of the tent at the spectacular view, I rolled over and was back asleep in no time at all!
Neither of us ventured up until late and by 10.30 we had paid to stay another night and set up with our books outside the tent, with the beautiful backdrop of blue sky and equally blue ocean. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8335.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8339.jpg?w=640 At lunchtime we made our way into town for some food, but it wasnt long before we were plopped back in our chairs with our books in hand. The town has a lot of day trippers from Tulum come in on tours and we lost our quiet little beach for a piece of the afternoon. Poor Todd was shocked and spent this time unsure how to get back to the tent or to the bathroom, after several young girls stripped down to nothing but g-strings for sunbathing, swimming and the oh-so-cool duck face selfie posing with a number of props, including drift wood and a coconut palm. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8340.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8337.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8354.jpg?w=640 T - There were bloody boobies everywhere and I felt safer confined to my chair and reading my book than venturing out. It was a little weird especially when they started climbing the coconut palm behind us. I guess I’m not used to seeing people get so naked in public, but I felt very uncomfortable. C - And… thats about the extent of todays adventures. Tomorrow, we will head back to Tulum and see if I can find someone to manufacture a couple of engine mounts for us. I had been complaining of increased vibrations and a change in Rosies running ‘note’ since the accident and we recently discovered the impact of the crash broke one of the mounts and moved the position of the engine ever so slightly. If we find someone, we will get a few made just incase! |
10 December 2016
C - Well….. I think I can honestly say that last night was my miserable night of the whole trip so far. Without a doubt.
T - A combination of the relentless howling of the wind, smashing of the surf and crashing about of the tent all night made for a pair of very unhappy little Aussies. Stupid beach. Stupid wind. Stupid flat mat. C - By the time we had gone to bed the wind had picked up a bit. Enough to be too annoying to sit outside without shelter, but not enough to concern us inside the tent. However, just before midnight, I awoke to the sound of the wind building quickly and strongly. The tent was starting to pull against the pegs, the palm trees loudly voiced their objection and the waves crashed on the shore. All this though, was fine. Perfectly ok… just roll over and go back to sleep. Until…. I copped a face full of sand. Sand whipped up by the wind, forced under the fly and straight through the mesh. Into my bed. Within seconds, I was covered with sand, my hair quickly turning white and my sleeping bag filling with at least 60 tonnes of sand. Lets just say I was not happy. T - The sand was pouring in through the mesh. But because the mesh was so fine, so was the sand. I was on the upwind side of the tent so I basically used Chantelle as my cover and I managed to slip in and out of sleep for a while before eventually even my side of the tent was 30 foot deep in sand... https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8341.jpg?w=640 C - This went on for hours and hours and hours. I had to wrap my sleeping bag liner around my head so I could breathe. Thankfully, I learnt that I am good a windbreak and thus gave Todd adequate protection from the wind which had obviously been sent solely to make me understand misery. Due to this, we were up very early and trying to pack up in the howling, gusty wind. We could see dark tropical rain clouds slowly roll across the sky towards us - we desperately wanted to pack up before everything got wet too. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8342.jpg?w=640 T - Trying to pack up a flapping sand filled angry tent in the wind and sand and constant threat of skull cracking coconuts falling on my noggin made me a very grumpy boy. At least it wasn’t raining. C - We managed to get packed up and on the dirt road from Punta Allen back to Tulum by 8.30. It was clear it had rained along this route and we had fun sliding along the muddy road, despite both of us being very tired and looking forward to ridding ourselves of a few kilos of sand. T - I spoke too soon. It was absolutely chucking it down. The road was a soggy sloppy greasy mess and an absolute hoot to ride on! It didn’t take long and little Mabel was coated in a nice layer of white mud. She was loving it! Not so much Rosie though, who spent a few moments spitting and farting her way along the wet track before cutting out altogether. Oh and she basically gave me the bird by losing her footpeg rubber some ways back, though I looked for it I never found it. C - By the time we reached Tulum, it was bucketing down. A proper, tropical rain storm. The last 60 kilometres were rather hilarious, although somewhat dangerous, on a very busy highway from Tulum to Playa del Carmen, sometimes through highway rivers which I swear were up to our headlights!!! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8344.jpg?w=640 T - The drains on the side of the highway just couldn’t cope with the water running off of the road and soon massive puddles were stretched out into the lanes of traffic. I loved the part where a car would tear past us at 90km/hr just barely 2 meters away and hit the deeper water thus spewing massive waves of muddy goodness straight at poor Mabel and me. My helmet was full of water, my boots were full of water, my wet weather gear was doing its job of letting all the water into my crotch. But it was truly fun! C - We arrived in Playa with about two hours to waste before checking in to our AirBnB. Duirng a quick trip to Walmart to sit out some rain, we were approached by gentleman who recognised us from our blog. It was wonderful to meet Richard and his wife!! Hopefully we can meet up with these guys for a proper chat before they leave the area!! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8343.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8345.jpg?w=640 After leaving Walmart, we were stopped by a guy in traffic who was really excited to see our little girls. With still an hour to waste, we eagerly accepted his invite to head back to his beach hotel and meet his wife and daughters. We had a lovely chat with Daniel and his beautiful family, who are from northern Mexico, enjoying a well deserved holiday in Playa! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8347.jpg?w=640 After this, we went straight to our AirBnB, where we enjoyed a steaming hot showers and climbed between clean, sand free sheets for a nice, quiet, peaceful sleep! Tomorrow, we will hang about here, before heading back to Tulum on Monday. |
15 December 2016
C - Yesterday was a nice, quiet chilled out day. We did not venture too far, neither of us too keen to see any more of the highly touristed town, particularly given the frequent and heavy rain showers!
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0633.jpg?w=640 Annoyingly, one our Sena headsets decided it no longer liked life. After working perfectly, Todd turned it off, I then plugged it into the charger and nothing. We tried doing a fault reset and all other manner of ‘recycling the power’ and it appears dead. Today, although humid, was looking to be a better day. We packed up the bikes slowly and enjoyed the short ride back to Tulum, this time getting to see the scenery on the ride in the sunshine! We had decided to head back to Tulum until Friday, which is the latest arrival date for the elusive part. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8350.jpg?w=640 We checked into our booked hostel, Rancho Tranquillo, in Tulum town and spent the afternoon relaxing! Our jobs for this week: 1. find a replacement foot peg rubber (one of Rosie’s floated away during a deep puddle adventure on Saturday) 2. to see if someone can manufacture a new engine mount for Rosie (we discovered one of hers snapped in ‘the crash’ a few weeks ago) and 3. speak with Sena and organise a new headset! Disappointingly, we missed catching up with Richard due to some unpleasant tummy issues!! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8357.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8360.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8360.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8364.jpg?w=640 We will most likely not post again until Friday and in the meantime, will enjoy a quiet and restful week before tackling a new country - Belize! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8365.jpg?w=640 T - It looks as though the part we have been waiting for is lost in transit somewhere and we won’t be seeing it here in Tulum. Oh well, we have had a nice rest off the bikes but both of us are definately keen to get going again! We miss our bikes, we miss the road, we miss you lot! |
16 December 2016
T - Today was the day. We were getting back on the road regardless as to whether our spares had arrived or not. I did a quick tracking check this morning when I woke up and saw that the thing was still in customs, but I held out for the slight off chance that maybe it was at the Tulum post office. So we went and checked. Nope. It wasn’t. The post office guy told us it was still in aduana, customs.
So the decision was made and we were out of there! Girls revving we raced away down the road. Oh it felt so damn good! Back on the road again. It seems like it has been forever! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8366.jpg?w=640 C - It really does feel like forever since we have made any movement forward. Whilst it was lovely hanging out in Mexico, it is just not how we travel. We like to move… even if only a little bit in a new direction each day. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8374.jpg?w=640 T - We were headed for the border city of Chetumal today which meant we were nice and close for an easy crossing into Belize tomorrow. The ride itself wasn’t terribly exciting. The road was flat and straight and full of traffic. But we managed to break it up into smaller sections thanks to the fact that I needed to stop at every public toilet along the way. My poor butt hole was working overtime. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8368.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8370.jpg?w=640 C - We had 50km to go when we started seeing stalls selling fresh pineapple. I had just had to stop. The pineapple I have had in Mexico has by far been the tastiest I have had anywhere. So, less than $1 later, we were munching our way through through sunshine and heaven! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8369.jpg?w=427 T - Several hours and 240km’s later we made it to our hotel. A hotel that seems to have a very unfortunate name, but hey, it was cheap and clean. Sort of clean. But the toilet came with a seat which was a luxury item these days! We checked in and lounged about before heading off into town for some dinner. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8372.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8376.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8375.jpg?w=427 And that was that. Tomorrow we face a border crossing and a short ride to a howler monkey reserve. Belize isn’t very big and we could likely ride it in a day but we have a new Sena headset waiting in Belize City for us and can’t get it until Monday, so we shall spend a few days having a look around before we head to Guatemala. We have a Spanish School booked for January 2nd in Antigua so we may have to get a wriggle on and get there! |
17 December 2016
C - Today was the day! We were both excited to cross into Belize, but sad about leaving Mexico. Mexico is such a beautiful country and of course, we had become comfortable there. Knowing how things work and where to find what you want!
We packed up and headed to the Chetamul border crossing. The gentleman on the Mexican side was lovely and told us where to find the Banjercito. After following his instructions, we were soon stamped out of Mexico and riding across no-mans land towards Belize. T- It was with a heavy heart that I handed over my tourist visa card and told the import lady that I wanted to take my bike out of Mexico for ever. I really liked it there. It was ecerything that you could hope for in a country as you travel through. Warm friendly people, beautiful climate and such diversity in the landscape. Goodbye Mexico, I’ll be back! We knew this was going to be an easy crossing. Especially as on the Belizian side English was the national language. But still we had researched it as much as we could before we attempted it. In the end we exited smoothly and quickly from Mexico and we were soon riding down the concrete and razor wire lined road to the Belize gate. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8377.jpg?w=640 Straight away the Belize people were friendly and I enjoyed a joke with the guys who sprayed our bikes with pesticides. From there we were processed through Belize immigration and customs and shortly had our bikes temporarily imported into the country. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8380.jpg?w=640 Then we got stung. We think. Neither of us was on our game at the moment. Maybe we were tired, maybe we were just preoccupied with the crossing, maybe maybe maybe. A guy in the car park wearing a Belize Border Control or some such thing hi vis vest approached us and pointing at a sign on the fence said we had to pay $15Belize each bike as a transit fee to the government. He told us we could either pay here or at the exit of the country. We should have said pay later, just in case it was a scam. We both felt a bit unsure and that should have been our first warning, always trust your gut. But we didn’t and we paid him and got an official looking government receipt in exchange. Now in hindsight we should have said pay later, but we didn’t. Our exit from Belize will soon tell us if we have been ‘had’. Being scammed occasionally is all part of travel and I am yet to meet anyone who hasn’t in some way been scammed before on an overseas trip! We cruised across and got our compulsory insurance, don’t be an idiot and try to get away with not getting it, its a legal requirement here and there are several police checkpoints along the way to make sure you have it. We have heard of huge huge fines and/or jail time for those caught without it. Then we were free to wander Belize! We had a camp picked out at a baboon sanctuary about 150km down the road so off we went. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8382.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8383.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8386.jpg?w=640 C - I was immediately surprised by the landscape. When I think of Belize, I think jungle and beaches. But as we rode along, all we saw were sugar cane farms. I had no clue that the sugar industry was so big here!!! It was not long before we reached a police check point - we were told to expect at least one after the border. We were immediately told to pull off the road and to wait for another police officer. Eventually, another guy came over and inspected our insurance papers. And I mean inspected. I think he read every line at least twice, held the sticker up the sun and waved it about a bit, and then inspected the plastic sleeve it was given to us in. He then obviously decided it was legitimate and let us go, but not before we both caught a very quick look of disappointment flash across his face. T - There was pretty well one road south but we managed to find a funny little back track made of slippery white clay and spent the next hour laughing and slopping around in it. A truck driver carting a huge load of sugar cane stopped by and told us we had missed our turn off and should go back because this road was bad for the next 30km. But once we explained to him that we like this type of road he laughed and gave us directions so we wouldn’t get lost and waved us goodbye. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8388.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8389.jpg?w=640 We ended up back on the main road and carried on towards our camp. We finally pulled into the sanctuary and immediately headed down the road for some of the local beers. It was a good day today and it feels great to be making some progress again! I would have liked to have Mabels new piston and bore to put in but I will try to come up with a new plan for a way to get one flown by UPS or DHL or some such thing to Guatemala. Im sure I will work it out. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8392.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8393.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8395.jpg?w=427 We setup camp and settled down with our beers while listening to the strange sound of the howler monkeys in the trees. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8390.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8399.jpg?w=640 C - We had a little friend come and join us.. a very sweet ginger tom cat. He was affectionate and loving and spent the evening just chilling out with us. We called him Mr Beans. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8394.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8398.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8401.jpg?w=640 T - As it grew darker some locals pulled up in the carpark and cranked their music up and drank a few beers. This didn’t look good. We ignored them and just continued on with our cooking. Another guy came over and told us that there was going to be an end of school party at the sanctuary tonight and we were welcome to move into another area of the park, but that we would have to leave the bikes out the front over night. No deal! We said no thanks and that we would put up with the noise. And what noise! With the loud reggae music from the car park and the doof doof music from the party we were guaranteed to not get much sleep. But just after midnight it all died down and we slumbered through til 7am. We also had a visitor that slept in the tent with us. Mr Beans. He was such a little sook and spent the night curled up between us on a sleeping bag and purred and drooled all night. Tomorrow we head further south. We are thinking we will go as far as a town called Hopkins and on Monday will head back to Belize City where we have a new Sena headset replacement waiting for us! |
18 December 2016
T - Well in the end the parties both died down by midnight and surprisingly enough I managed to sleep through most of the racket! I was pretty damn tired.
We were up early and sat outside and enjoyed a nice hot coffee as the day came to life. Ahh blissful this! The howler monkeys started howling and monkeying around and Mr Beans settled down onto my lap for some more sleep. Aww he is so sweet. We had settled on the town of Hopkins today. It was an easy ride and would give us a taste of the southern part of Belize. We were tossing up about heading further south to Punto Gorda but we will see how we feel. We had to slog along the main highway for a bit but we had a plan up our sleeves. The Manatee highway. It was a bit of a shortcut and stayed away from the traffic that dominated the main road. Turned out to be a great ride! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8402.jpg?w=640 The tar ended quickly and soon we were slipping and sliding around in glorious bright red mud! The road was in pretty bad shape but it made us smile and giggle like mad. We scooted around potholes in a constant wiggling waving swerving line and flew through several flooded sections of road. The hot steamy jungle closed in on us as the road got narrower and narrower. It was some great riding! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8404.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8405.jpg?w=640 C - What a road! The Manatee Highway was just so much fun to ride, and the best part, no other cars were using it! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8407.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8408.jpg?w=640 T - We had about 60 km’s of this brilliant little road before we rejoined the highway and in the end we only saw 2 other vehicles the whole time. I would definitely recommend it to other riders looking to get off the main drag. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8410.jpg?w=640 The bitumen road led us through a lovely low lying area of wetlands full of birdlife. Very pretty. Hopkins was a small village set right on the Caribbean coast and basically had one main street that ran north to south. We found a little Belizean eatery and scoffed ourselves stupid. We had skipped breakfast, simply because we had no food on board our bikes, but we made up for it with lunch. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8413.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8414.jpg?w=640 We decided to stay the night here and found a room at the Funky Dodo right on the beach. We had a wander around and in the afternoon sat in a bar and had a few local rums, I miss Bundy, and chatted to a lovely couple from Colorado about life in the US these days. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8415.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8416.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8417.jpg?w=427 Then it was a short stroll into town where we crossed a line from nice and touristy to dodgy and not so nice. After being offered marijuana twice we quickly turned tail and went back to the much nicer feeling part of town. We didn’t feel threatened in the seedy bit but it wasn’t a place we wanted to hang out in. There is almost zero crime in Hopkins and the locals like to keep it that way. Then it was time to head to bed. It was a hot and humid and sticky night and I loved it! Tomorrow we head for Belize City, unfortunately, to pick up our replacement headset. |
19 December 2017
T - It ended up getting really hot last night. I had the top bunk in our room and the little fan wheezing at me barely moved any air. I would have slept outside but the amazing tropical rain may have grown a little tiresome after a while! Still I slept quite well on and off and awoke refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8418.jpg?w=640 We had to backtrack today around 120kms. Our choices were either the main highway or back up the dirt Manatee Highway. We chose the dirt! The extra rain overnight had turned it into a sticky mess. It was so much fun again! The water crossings were a little longer and a little deeper, but that didn't faze our little bikes and we splashed and roared our way through. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8419.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8420.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8421.jpg?w=640 We made good time on the way back and we were in Belize City by 12pm. I went straight to the company who was receiving our goods and they directed me out of the city to their warehouse where the item was being held for payment of customs and other taxes. What? It is a warranty item that I didn’t buy, that I certainly didn’t buy in Belize. At the warehouse the lady in charge of customs told us we needed to pay duties and taxes on the value of the item. We had a bit of back and forth and told her we had purchased the thing back in Australia in April and had paid the appropriate taxes back then. Chantelle and I were getting a bit steamed up as there was no way I was paying Belize any sales tax on an item that I already owned. In the end she told us we would instead just have to pay GST on the freight of the item. What? We hadn’t purchased a single thing to do with this unit in Belize. We had paid our shipping to Sena and UPS so why did we now need to pay Belize as well? We went to the payment clerk who charged us a whopping 45% of the shipping costs. We were very unhappy. It was nice to have our comms back, but we were being left with a bit of a sour taste about Belize. Our experience had shown us that there were hidden fees and taxes in everything in Belize which is what makes it an expensive country. Neither of us had really been feeling the vibe here suited us and both of us were keen for the vibe and insanity of Latin America. With that in mind we decided to head for the border. We had a contact that we wanted to say hello to on the way but as we had no internet and no sim for our phone we struggled to find a way to get a hold of her. So we set our sights on San Ignacio with the intention of crossing into Guatemala tomorrow. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8423.jpg?w=640 We know that we will like some places and some not so much. And that is ok, it's what travel is all about! We are lucky that we have the freedom to just move on if we don't like it. The people of Belize have been super lovely and friendly and we have never felt unsafe. But its just not for us and maybe its just because we miss Mexico alot. So its goodbye Belize! |
20 December 2016
T - Woohoo! Guatemala here we come! But first I better wait until its daylight, and I should go get some breakfast. I was awake early and keen to go today. I was feeling very excited about heading into Guatemala. One of our friends had told us that if we loved Mexico then we would probably love Guatemala even more!
C - We found a fantastic little place for breakfast, Todd munching down on banana pancakes whilst I went with a Belizian breakfast. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8424.jpg?w=640 T - After we did the usual packing up and researching the border crossing just to make sure we we knew what to do, we headed off. The border was only about 15 minutes away and we rode in blissful sunshine. Right up until we reached the Belize border. At which point the heavens opened up and gave everything a good dowsing. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8425.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8426.jpg?w=640 C - The Belize border was surprisingly sedate, with only a few money changers hanging about. It was pretty ordered and easy to find where to go. We are still a bit unsure about our vehicle transit fee we paid at the entry into Belize - no one here asked us for proof we had paid it, but another couple were told clearly about this payment. So, it is or isnt a genuine fee!! T - We were checked out of Belize quickly and efficiently and were soon crossing through into the Guatemala border checkpoint. Again the formalities were easy and we were soon through. The whole crossing taking about an hour and a half. C - We were approached by a small boy when we reached the fumigation station on the Guatemalan side. He explained to us that he speaks ‘mucho espanol’ and then followed us around, translating when he thought we did not understand. Obviously he was doing this for some money, but he never directly asked for any and was fun to hang out and we had lots of jokes with him. We did give him a bottle of water and some change, but it is such a difficult thing to figure out. Do you give him some money for his assistance and reinforce this as a way to make money??? For me, it is one of those situations where you want to give but have an ethical dilemma about giving. We met a lovely couple from America at customs. Honi and her husband were travelling around the area on holidays. Safe travels to you two!!! T - The rain at this point had stepped it up a notch and it was bucketing down! We picked a lull in the weather and headed for the Guatemala entry point and then just like that, we were in a new country! Woohoo! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8427.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8428.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8429.jpg?w=427 We had planned on staying near the Tikal ruins in a town called El Remate but it appeared a little hard. The rooms that were within our budget were all sold out, leaving us looking down the barrel of a $USD40 a night room. Not in our budget at all! Then like a knight in shining armour come to our rescue Zack, another biker, pulled up and told us about a great hotel he was staying at in the nearby town of Flores, on an island to boot! We had a quick chat as Zack was off to see the Tikal ruins and then we headed to Flores. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8430.jpg?w=640 Shortly after we were settled into our room and peeling off the very wet, very soggy, very smelly layers of our riding gear. We filled up the room with our wet boot stank and wandered around the local area. It was quite pretty and the lake really was gorgeous. I couldn’t stop taking photos, much to Chantelles annoyance. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0677.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0675.jpg?w=640 C - I was feeling frustrated for no particular reason really.. although I think my ethical dilemma at the border contributed this… not being able to figure out how I felt about what was ‘right’. T - We chilled out for a spell with a much deserved $1.50 rum and coke before heading off in search for dinner. Both of us have been feeling a little frustrated the last few days and the rum definitely helped to take the edge off. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0683.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0665.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8435.jpg?w=640 We had a browse through a few restaurant menus, all of which were quite pricey, before we found some road side stalls where we had way too much food, drink and cake for just under $3 each. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8432.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8440.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8443.jpg?w=640 We are so excited to be in Guatemala and I am loving being back into the Spanish scene. We shall head from here to Lake Atitlan the long round about way before settling into Antigua for a week of spanish lessons. But tomorrow we think we will stay put and do some exploring of the local area. We want to visit the ruins of Quirigua at Lago de Izabal south of us before heading west. |
21 December 2016
C - We decided to stay put today and get some laundry done. So, after a leisurely lie in, we went out to breakfast with Zack.
T - Zack is a really lovely guy and we chatted away most of the morning with him. He is doing some great work raising awareness for Veterans suffering from PTSD. Something that guys really don't like to discuss with other people. C - We had a great breakfast and as normally happens, it was 11.30 by the time we left the breakfast table! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8461.jpg?w=640 Zack was heading off today, but offered to show us where the local Honda dealer was on his way out. Ride safe Zack! I am sure we will see you again along the way! We were chasing some new clutch plates for Rosie - we just can not get her to slipping since the crash. Time to just replace the plates! The Honda dealer was lovely, but unable to help us, but he did point us in the direction of someone who could help. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8460.jpg?w=640 A few doors down, we found exactly what we were looking for, for $10AUD - which we were pretty happy with. T - I was pretty damn chuffed that we could find clutch plates to suit a Lifan 125 in the middle of Guatemala. Then I realised how many Chinese bikes there really were getting around the place. Sure does make for some easy parts purchasing! While in the Honda dealer I checked out the mounting bolt pattern on the Honda Waves as I wouldn’t mind converting our bikes to those engines in the future. Looks like they won't fit without some customising, but that's easy enough to do! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0689.jpg?w=640 The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out and wandering around town, before we headed down to the local stalls for a delicious cheap dinner. T - They had slices of cake at the little stalls. And I don't mean little slices of cake. These things were frigging huge! It took all my strength to not buy a big slab of Coconut Cake. I’m trying to lose some of my Mexico weight! C - Tomorrow, we will head on out and start making our way towards Lake Atitlan. |
22 December 2016
C - We were up and at ‘em early this morning and it was lovely to see blue sky without any ominous grey clouds lurking about.
After a superbly delicious and cheap breakfast, we headed toward Coban. We had just set the GPS and within a few minutes it was clear the GPS was not taking the smartest way. The road quickly became gravel, well, potholes dribbled with gravel in between. Slowly the road became quieter and quieter. After reading the local newspaper at breakfast we both decided it was smarter to go back and take the main highway. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0690.jpg?w=640 T - We were handed the local rag at the brekky table this morning. Front page feature was of a fatal car crash photo complete with bodies, then the next few pages in were all of people shot, run over, or just bashed into next week. Never read the local paper in Guatemala! The road the GPS wanted us to take was one of our ideal roads. Full of mud and water and rough as guts. But both of us became a little nervous once we had left all the traffic behind, so we decided to just stick to the main roads for now. It’s silly really and probably all just in our heads, but we need to be comfortable with what we are doing or we won't enjoy it! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8465.jpg?w=640 C - Guatemala quickly showed itself to be beautiful and the roads, although in varying states of repair, were fun to ride. The traffic moves slower here on the highway, actually at our pace mostly, although the driving is somewhat chaotic!! T - The roads are a hoot and both of us were laughing and giggling all day. The ride went like this, speed bump, pothole, pothole, dog, speedbump, pothole, man on a bike, pothole, dog, dog, truck, child, dog and child in a pothole, pothole, stick, pothole, pothole, dog in a truck with a child on the back waving a stick at a man on a bike in a pothole that was in the middle of another pothole with a speedbump at both sides. It was brilliant! The fun curvy bits kept us entertained and the sudden appearance of bomb craters halfway around a corner kept us on our toes (and the brakes). https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8464.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8463.jpg?w=640 C - We were excited to reach the ferry crossing at Sayaxche. We watched a very small boat load itself full to bursting with motorbikes and although I am sure this boat was cheap and safe enough, we opted to take the bigger barge ferry. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8466.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8468.jpg?w=640 T - 7 bikes were jammed into what can only be described as a two person canoe with an old underpowered, over revved 2 stroke outboard powering it up stream against the current. I really really wanted to take Mabel on that contraption! But the ferry ride itself proved to be fun and was powered by a few outboards hanging on the sides of the barge, each motor with its own driver working in tandem with the others to navigate the river. C - After the ferry ride, we started to climb. I had to ride Rosie much easier than usual, to prevent the clutch slipping. So I was back at Mabels pace! We climbed, climbed, climbed, with some gradients being so steep that I wondered whether our little girls would make it up in anything other than first gear. We did have one or two first gear climbs and many second gear climbs. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8471.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8472.jpg?w=640 The towns we rode through were noisy and chaotic and reminded me so much Africa! Music blearing, rubbish everywhere, people everywhere, vehicles going everywhere, but the most prevalent being dogs everywhere. Two very nearly ended their lives in front us during the day. When approaching one town, there was an older gentleman and two or three kids shovelling potholes. The kids screamed at each passing vehicle and as we went passed, they screamed and chased us, trying to grab at our bikes. We quickly realised that they wanted money, a ‘toll’ if you will, for shovelling the potholes. It wasn't nice to have small kids chase the bikes - so many things could go this in this scenario. Although the ride was only 250km it took us the best part of the day and we didn't arrive at the hotel in Coban until 4.30pm. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8474.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0695.jpg?w=480 We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so headed straight out to find an early dinner. We found a small pizza place open at this early dinner hour and enjoyed some of the best pizza I have ever had! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0692.jpg?w=640 The plan is to continue to head towards the lake and hopefully find a hotel to stay for Christmas Eve. |
23 December 2016
C - We were on the road by 8.30 this morning, with a firm plan to head to Panajechal on Lake Atitlan. Our route was about 220km, all on major highways - although the state of such major highways here can be questionable!
We stopped for gas on the way out of Coban and enjoyed some fun conversation with the gas station attendants whilst we ate a very healthy breakfast of iced coffee and oatbran cookies. Soon enough, the ‘major’ highway deteriorated into mostly potholes, then potholed gravelly mud with an occasional stump of bitumen, then just badly maintained dirt with all sorts of bumps, corrugations, holes, rockfalls and landslides. Oh, and trucks and chicken buses and dogs and people moving about erratically! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8482.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8481.jpg?w=640 T - We had some incredible views here. Lines of mountains marching away toward the horizon, with towering mounds of rancid smelling, stomach churning rotting garbage complete with rolled up used baby nappies. So gross. I was dry retching in my helmet while I was taking these photos. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8476.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8477.jpg?w=640 C - This stretch of road had us down to about 20km an hour for most of it and it was such a hoot!! Just our sort of riding!! About 30km later the road suddenly and abruptly returned to relatively good condition bitumen and we were away again… well away at 65km an hour that is. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8484.jpg?w=640 T - The road was fun! I couldn’t believe it was a major road through these parts. But the numerous trucks and chicken buses certainly proved it to be so. We fell into potholes and clambered over broken speed humps. What a work out for our poor bikes. But they soldiered on! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8480.jpg?w=640 C - Each village we came to presented us with complete and utter chaos. I can not even begin to explain how much concentration it takes to drive through a busy Guatemalan village on market day. Boy oh boy! Each exit had us sighing with relief that everyone somehow survived before we quickly returned our attention to the road ahead. T - I have never ridden in conditions like this! I cant even begin to explain the crazyness of it. Imagine a narrow two lane road with traffic going both ways. Now fill one side with parked trucks and cars and we are down to one lane acting as two. Now partially fill that lane with some more parked machinery, chuck in a few hundred pedestrians (because there is no sidewalk), a smattering of 500 or so dogs, 600 tuk tuks, 30 million motorcycles, 57 trucks and 3000 cars all trying to squeeze by each other all at once. Now once you have that in mind throw in a overloaded truck that just reverses out of a side street into the middle of this chaos. Got an idea of it? Its crazy! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8490.jpg?w=640 C - At one point, Todd became convinced that each chicken bus driver was conspiring against him. For some time, each chicken bus that approached us swerved unexpectedly into our path, for no apparent reason, before returning to their own side of the road just in time. T - My sphincter got the work out of its life today. My poor bottom clenched up tight every time one of those buses aimed at me. Madness! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8489.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8488.jpg?w=640 C - This morning we climbed another 1000mtrs in elevation and we were glad to be wearing our thermals and rain pants to provide us with some warmth. Even our heated grips had their first work out in some time. After two more lengthy stretches of off roading down the major highway, we began climbing up and then zooming down the steepest gradients. The switchbacks were so tight that the vehicles going down the hill had to stop and give way to vehicles coming up the hill. Madness!! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8475.jpg?w=640 T - These hills were incredibly steep. I don’t know how the bitumen stayed stuck to the road it was so steep. Poor Mabel was back down to first gear a lot here. Screaming her little lungs out in the thin air with too much fuel rasping down her little throat. Poor Mabel. C - Eventually we were spat out on the CA1 ‘PanAmerican Highway’ and we caught our first glimpse of the Lake. Simply stunning with volcanoes towering over the lake. We were only 10km from Pana when we were caught up in a traffic jam. Eventually a policeman sent us the wrong way down a one way street to get out of the jam, but this caused our GPS to have a meltdown. After sending us in circles in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go, we finally got out of centro historico in Solola once I dismissed all the GPS’ recommendations and found the road we wanted. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8491.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8492.jpg?w=640 We soon found our chosen hotel ‘Villa Lupita’ and after a hot shower, went in search of dinner. We were lucky enough to stumble across a small food cart doing a roaring trade in tortas mexicana. For $4AUD we had a massive torta each, filled with chicken, sausage, ham, bacon, cheese, tomato, onion and the compulsory picante salsa! Divine! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0698.jpg?w=640 The town was pumping so we walked around and eventually found ourself in the tourist part of town. At this point, we turned around and headed back to the hotel to collapse in sheer mental exhaustion from the days concentration. Guatemala - you are intoxicatingly insane and beautiful! It was sad today to ride through such large sections of deforested land. Huge sections of logging and farming which have resulted in completely bare hillsides. There is also quite a lot of rubbish littering the road sides and the smell of rotting and/or burning household rubbish is just not something you can get used to. The majority of the litter on the roadsides though appear to be plastic drink bottles. Coke and Pepsi products. I don't know if there are education programs already, but these large companies who make such wealth by supplying terrible products such as these should be socially responsible and contribute to waste eradication and education in nations like this. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we don't really know what we will do. It might be wise to stay here a night longer. Panajachel seems like a nice town and might be a nice place to spend Christmas Eve. |
24 December 2016
Make sure you have your volume up and check out this. Every household in the city was firing off rockets and fireworks. Brilliant!
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24 December 2016
T - We like Panajachel. So we decided to hang out here until we begin our Spanish lessons. We changed our class from Antigua to San Pedro. The cost saving was $200AUD to begin with! Plus the one in San Pedro has a really good review, has few students at once and we can have our own private house for $50 for the week. Score!
Today was spent wandering down to the lake edge through the throngs of tourists and the tourist tat that accompanies them. Our hotel is just of the tourist street and up next to the locals markets and food stalls which we really enjoy. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8497.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8499.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8498.jpg?w=640 I stuck my toe into the lake thinking it would be nice to go for a swim, but it was frigging freezing! No thankyou! We basically just chilled out for the day, hanging out in the hotel and then the local bar before wandering off to get another incredible torta. We spent the rest of the night sleeping in fits and bursts while the locals set of a bazillion fireworks that cumulated in an epic fireworks show right on midnight. Very cool! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8501.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8503.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8505.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8506.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8507.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow is Christmas Day and we head around the lake to San Pedro where we will be doing our schooling. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8508.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8509.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8510.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8511.jpg?w=640 Merry Christmas all! |
25 December 2016
T - Well after last nights fire works we ended up sleeping in a little bit later than we planned. Santa never came to see us in the night but he did manage to drop a few empty firework casings on our bikes for us!
We packed up and began the incredibly steep slow climb out of Pana and back to the Pan-Am highway which would take us west to San Pedro. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8522.jpg?w=640 The poor bikes were screaming and moaning all the way up the hill and both of them were stuck in 2nd for the best part of it, with poor Mabel having to go down to 1st gear for some sections. What a climb! We could smell the clutches and brakes of the other cars on the road as they whizzed by. That hill was nothing in comparison to the one down in to San Pedro though. Steep doesn't describe it at all! At one point I thought I was going to have to push Mabel as she started losing revs fast even in first gear. We climbed and climbed up and over 2600 meters before we began the dizzying descent into town. The road went from concrete to tarmac to broken tarmac to bull dust to potholes and dirt. It was quite fun but I am already feeling bad for the bikes knowing that this is going to be a nasty hard ride for them on the way back out. There is a road that can take us around the south of the lake but we have been warned by many other overlanders to avoid this road known as Robbers Highway. There is a section along there where some banditos operate and many other overlanders have fallen victim to armed holdups there. We wont take that chance unless we can arrange a police escort, $10USD, and so will probably head back around to Pana for New Years. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8523.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8525.jpg?w=640 We slowly bumped and slid our way down the hill and soon we were checked in and settling into our new home for the week. The school looks fantastic and is very welcoming and easy going. A quick walk through the town though show us that tourism may have ruined this place. There were many unhappy Guatemalan faces in the shops and the tourists we saw were being terribly rude with the locals, smoking weed, being drunk, and just being arseholes in general. Not to worry. We shall find the local haunts and stay away from the seedy areas. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8527.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8528.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8529.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8530.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8531.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow we start our Espanol class and we are both looking forward to be able to attempt to converse with the locals a little more. |
26 December 2016
T - It is with a little trepidation that I go into these spanish classes. I am terrible at learning a new language. Many years ago Chantelle and I tried to learn french. By the time Chantelle was able to have a decent conversation I had barely progressed from dribbling idiot.
https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8533.jpg?w=640 As I sat down in the class today everything, and I mean everything, just vacated my brain. The piece of paper in front of me which contained several spanish phrases may as well have been written in hieroglyphics. Not a word of it made sense. Maybe I should have cheated and written the entire spanish dictionary onto my body for this. But eventually I managed to make some sense of the words and I bumbled and stumbled my way through the first class of the week, and in the process I am sure I managed to totally butcher the spanish language with me having many cringe worthy pronunciation stuff ups. We managed to turn travel into old age, made bears drink milk, said I like cats very pleased to meet you (yes that is written correctly), and many other silly things. It was good fun and I do look forward to learning a little more. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8532.jpg?w=640 C - Our teacher, Juanita, is really lovely and I learnt more in that first four hours that I could teach myself using Duolingo, Zen Language and numerous other learning tools. I am excited about the rest of the week, but my brain is very, very tired tonight! I wish I had learnt another language fluently when I was a child… I feel it would be much easier than trying as an adult. T - Then we had the afternoon to ourselves and spent a few hours strolling the streets and judging all the other tourists before heading back to our casa and practising our newly learnt espanol. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8535.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8540.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8539.jpg?w=640 The next weeks worth of blog entries will be short and sweet as we are spending the whole time at the school. I will dazzle you all with my ability to say hola fluently by the end of the week! Hasta Manana amigos! |
1 January 2017
Well a happy new years to everyone! Nothing much to report here. We are still in school and battling our way through Spanish classes. We decided to stay for a bit longer to really get a grasp on this language.
New years was a bit of fun and we ended up hanging out a while with a few other bikers who are in town. Nothing much else to report, the girls are enjoying their rest and we havent even started them since we stopped here. Mabels new piston and bore kit is nearly here thanks to a lovely overlander who picked them up in Mexico for us. Hope everyone out there is off to a safe and exciting 2017! |
12 January 2017
Well we are almost through our third week of Spanish classes and we are both well happy with how far we have come. I still struggle to come up with the words to build my sentences but Chantelle is rattling of Espanol like a local. It will make talking to random people who approach us in gas stations, restaurants, and carparks much more fun!
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8605.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8606.jpg?w=427 So since the last update we have had more cooking classes, taken a day trip to a massive market in a nearby town, hung out alot, studied a whole lot more, ate a bucket load of banana breads, doughnuts, and I have developed a taste for chichurrones which is deep fried chicken skin that has a similar taste and texture to pork crackling. A little bit on the moorish side! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8601.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8615.jpg?w=588 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8636.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8639.jpg?w=640 One of the other students we hung out with at the markets managed to get pickpocketed and lost his phone to some light fingered little butt hole of a person. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8623.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8655.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8661.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8643.jpg?w=427 I have started going through our video footage of Mexico to make a short clip, but I have 80 gig of clips to watch and wade through so that may be a while off yet. I might make that a to-do job for when we are in Antigua for a day or two. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8663.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8675.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8662.jpg?w=427 Last night the school took us to a basketball game which was a hoot! There was a massive crowd there and the referees had to keep clearing the court of spectators as the crowd swelled and swelled in size. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8682.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8705.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8719.jpg?w=640 We are going to stay for one more weeks worth of classes and thats it. The we head for El Salvador! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8744.jpg?w=480 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8746.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8745.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8750.jpg?w=640 Still glad to have you all along and we do miss blogging every day! |
15 January 2017
Well that is everything now caught up! We are going to do one final week of classes as we both feel our Spanish has come along way and just one more week could really help us out.
Next Saturday we will head out early and try to make Antigua in a day. It takes 4 hours by bus so we figure anywhere between 6 and 8 hours. |
Ahhhh, that feels better, thanks T&C bier
Next time ya late though:innocent:.....bring a note from your Mum:rofl: |
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17 January 2017
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Is it wrong that we are getting excited to go? We really have no reason to not like where we are. It is quiet, the school is amazing and the people here are very welcoming. But the ring of volcanoes and mountains are pressing down on me with such huge weight, making me eager to jump on Mabel and flee to the next town. Its an itch that I have never been able to fully scratch my entire life. I jump from one job to another, one house to another, never fully settling in, only ever staying long enough to know I don't want to be living that particular way of life. I think I average around 2 years maximum in any job and 3.5 years in any one place. This life on the road suits me perfectly. This feeling brings up the one concern that Chantelle and I both share for when this trip ends. What do we do? How do we try to shoe horn ourselves to fit back into the 9 til 5 life? If I think about it too much I can feel a touch of anxiety creeping in. Before we started this trip I knew I could do at least 2 years in a place. Now I feel like I'm fighting hard if I have to stop for more than 2 weeks. I fear it is going to be an incredible challenge when the time comes. Too many times I have read stories of those who have gone home after such a trip as this and fallen helplessly into a deep depression. I don't want that. Perhaps we can find some way to work on the road and never need to return to a fully stopped form again. It seems like such an easy thing to do, but in reality it is quite hard. Only time will tell! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8786.jpg?w=640 So we now have 3 days to go! We recently discovered a chocolate factory almost right next door to the school where they hand make chocolate right in front of you. It is brilliant and the chocolate is unlike any of the main stream stuff that is available in most shops. I love Cadburys chocolate but I have to say this San Pedro stuff is just a tiny bit better. And at just over $AUD1 a stick its crazy cheap! Today we bought 6 sticks of the stuff and Chantelle was invited to help package her specially made chocolate up! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8784.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8783.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8782.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8791.jpg?w=427 A big bonus for me of being in our place has been the amount of Cornflakes I have been able to have! It makes me very happy and I have been eating three and four bowls of the things everyday! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8790.jpg?w=640 |
21 January 2017
T - Alright!!! Guess what? We finally left San Pedro today. There was big smiles all round as we packed up our little bikes for the first time in for weeks! Oils checked and new sparkplugs in. Nothing could stop us now.
https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8832.jpg?w=640 Except the reluctance of the bikes to start. Normally both bikes fire up with one swift kick in the guts, but not today. I jumped and jumped and jumped on Mabels kickstart but the little witch was having none of it. Eventually I succumbed and flicked on her choke, an item I havent used since Australia, and then she hesitantly squeaked and moaned into life. Fuel fumes were purring out of her tail pipe and I eased the choke off. Which prompted her to splutter, fart and die. A few more kicks though and some good rebs to clean out her dirty throat and she was happily, by happily I mean grumpily, ticking over and warming up while I tidied up the last of my packing. Similarly Rosie was also reluctant to start and sat there pouting and pouring clouds of fuel packed vapour into the air. They must have been enjoying sitting in the garden, swanning about like royalty. No time for that now girls. We have to climb some mountains today! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8836.jpg?w=640 C - The final week of the school was another intense week which saw us delving into past and future tense.. so many words and conjugations to remember!!! We participated in the activities again, watching a documentary about sustainable rural development, listening to a talk on environmental sustainability and then cooking tamalitos con frijoles! Last night we were particularly blessed to be invited to observe a traditional Mayan fire ceremony. Our time at the school was wonderful and I can highly recommend this school as a great place to learn Spanish and also learn about Mayan culture. The school is just far enough out of town that it is peaceful, the gardens are beautiful and back right onto the lake, the teachers ware kind and patient and all the activities are super fun! Corazon Maya is the place to check to out if you are keen on learning Espanol! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8800.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8807.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8820.jpg?w=640 Despite enjoying the school so much, I was super excited to be back on the road again! It was lovely to go through the now rusty routine of packing up and preparing the bikes for take off. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8828.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8830.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8831.jpg?w=640 T - We headed on out of town. It was brilliant. Oh to be back on the road again! We had thought to head to Panajachel again for the night. Chantelles RST Adventure boots were pretty well wrecked and really hadn’t performed well since she bought them. The toes were peeling up, the soles were so thin you could almost see through them and they were definitely not waterproof anymore. After an exchange of emails with RST Chantelle now has some new replacement boots coming, free of charge. They are likely to be shipped via UPS into Antigua which will take roughly 3-4 days. So we may have to hang about next week a little while we wait. The ride up the mountain was great! Slow and steady we went. Mabel having a chug and a gasp every now and then, possibly thanks to the extra weight I may have gained, and in 1 hour and 20 minutes we were over the top and on the Pan Am. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8837.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8839.jpg?w=640 We reached the turn off for Pana but because we were enjoying the riding so much we decided to just roll on to Antigua some 150 kms away. The bonus for the little bikes? It was basically downhill the entire way. We stopped along the way to admire the scenery and chow down on some breakfast in a lovely little road side stand that really went all out to feed us. For $4 each we ended up with a huge serve of eggs, beans, coffee, sugared bananas, tortillas, tostadas, some little sandwich things stuffed with cheese, and a biscuit for our coffee. So good! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8844.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8840.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8843.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8845.jpg?w=427 C - It was wonderful having a small interaction with the family who prepared our breakfast! The school did pay off afterall! The breakfast was amazing, along the view, and my theory of plastic tables and chairs still holds true! T - We pulled into Antigua under threatening skies of grey and soon found a hotel, very expensive though, with hot showers and wifi. Oh but the wifi only worked in the reception, oh and only works on mobile phones and tablets apparently! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8897.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8848.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8846.jpg?w=640 We wandered through the large market nearby and then went and checked out an art gallery and museum before wandering the streets until dark. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8884.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8850.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8893.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8860.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8864.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8870.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8876.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8878.jpg?w=427 We found dinner in the grounds of one of the large churches here and paid less than half the going rate for equivalent food in one of the many expensive restaurants located in the city. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8894.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8906.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8911.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8902.jpg?w=640 Tummys full we retired to our room where we hatched out a plan for tomorrow. A trip down to the coast to the small town of Monterrico. |
22 January 2017
T - One thing we discovered very early into the trip into Mexico was that we would either have hot water and no wifi or amazing wifi and no hot water. This was exactly true to form at last nights hotel. We had absolutely no wifi at all and yet we had the most amazing shower since the USA. Amazing water pressure and scalding hot water was just the perfect way to end the day, and to start today!
After we drained the hotels hot water system we packed the bikes up and gave them their daily checking over. Both of them needed some air in the tyres and after that it was time for us to go. Thankfully they both started right up true to their old form today! C - I do not think we can convey just how precious it is to have both hot water and good pressure…. We ran the hot water out last night and this morning so we could both enjoy scalding hot showers!! It was blissful and like a little slice of heaven! Never again will I take a shower for granted…. Although we enjoyed wandering around Antigua yesterday, we both felt being stopped for up to a week was not something we would enjoy at this stage. We both enjoyed the ride so much yesterday that we just wanted to keep moving. So off to the coast we decided to go. I really can not thank RST enough for their willingness to assist me with my boot situation. I have had numerous issues with my left boot in particular and it is nice to see that an adventure company is able to support riders on the ride. So thanks RST, I am very much looking forward to my new boots!! T - We set the GPS to take us to the town of Monterrico. Unfortunately the maps on the GPS ended about 15 km short of our destination. I think its time to add the next few countries onto it. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0714.jpg?w=640 The ride was very uneventful today, with us basically sitting on a major highway out of Antigua and all the way to the coast. Two lanes in both directions meant that masses of traffic were constantly flying by us in both directions. The road was in great shape except for a few nicely placed topes and we made good time. At one point I saw a fella sitting on the side of the road next to his very old and very abused looking motorcycle. He had a flat tyre. We did a u-bolt and in my very broken very badly spoken Spanish I offered to help him if I could. Unfortunately his bike was tubeless and not only did I not have a tubeless repair kit, but I also only had 17 inch tubes. I was willing to try to give him a tube to help him along the way but he told us that there was a tyre repair very nearby and that he would be ok. He thanked us with a handshake and a toothless smile and started shoving his bike up the hill. Apart from that we basically just rolled along until we made it into Monterrico just on lunch time. It seems like a nice little town and has a few local tourists here. We found a nice cheap hotel fronting the beach with a swimming pool, wifi and no hot water. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8923.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8914.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8917.jpg?w=640 We had a little feed when we arrived before we enjoyed a swim in the massive pool and then headed to town to find some more food. I have been having this real hankering for hamburgers today so not only did I have one for lunch, but I also had one for dinner! Chantelle ordered a burrito which came out as two massive tubes of meat and salad wrapped in half an acre of tortillas! Both meals were amazing and crazy crazy cheap. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8921.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8916.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8930.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8931.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8933.jpg?w=640 C - Thankfully, Todd is able to eat until there is no more food left, so he shared my second burrito and we managed to finish everything!!! Amazing food for about $10AUD for both of us. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8935.jpg?w=427 The town of Monterrico is quite lovely, with a vibrant, lively atmosphere. We understand that the tourist population here is mainly wealthy Guatemalans, rather than international tourists. This is was evident when we arrived at the hotel to a pool full of Guatemalans, all laughing and playing in the cool waters. The hotel definitely had an atmosphere to it when we arrived!! Although, the hotel emptied out after the late afternoon check out time.. I guess most of the families were back to their city life to head for work and school tomorrow. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8939.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8940.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8941.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8944.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8945.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8947.jpg?w=640 T - Then it was back to our room where we have just polished off the last of our rum and are listening to “la Bamba” blaring from the nearby restaurant. We are going to stay here tomorrow night as well and then we shall head back to Antigua if the boots are heading that way, or we will head for the border to El Salvador. Our plan at this stage is to loop through El Salvador and then up into Honduras before we make more of a bee line to Panama. I can’t believe I am saying that! Panama! We hope to be there in about 4-6 weeks and begin the task of sorting out shipping, riding, rowing, flying, smuggling or carrying our bikes around, through, over or under the Darien Gap. Anyone want to join us and attempt to ride through it? Joking of course!! Or are we…. |
23 January 2017
While we wait for Chantelles boots to arrive, around 3-4 days, we thought we would spend a second night here in Monterrico. Its a very chilled out little place and we both are enjoying it after the hustle and bustle of Antigua. So the decision was made and early this morning Chantelle went and paid for another night.
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8947.jpg?w=640 We basically spent the day lounging in the pool, wandering on the beach, lounging in the pool again and eating. Life is just getting so damn hard. Having to stop and wait again for another package to arrive is a pain for me as I really want to spend some time riding again. But we have vowed that once we have the new boots we will hit the ground running and head straight over the border and into El Salvador for a couple of days before we zip up into Honduras. We have started to put some ideas together to get around the Darien Gap. At this stage we have two options. Put our bikes into a shipping container, or fly them. We considered an attempt to go through the Gap, but unfortunately after a ton of research over the past little while we neither have the time nor the knowledge to attempt such a thing. Though it would have made for an interesting adventure for sure. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8949.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8950.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8951.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8963.jpg?w=427 We wandered down along the beach this afternoon and we were lucky enough to be able to witness the release of hundreds of baby turtles into the sea. There is a cool little turtle sanctuary here and it would have been great to have found some time in our ‘busy’ schedule to go and check it out! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8965.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8967.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8975.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8964.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8978.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8980.jpg?w=640 Then it was back to our room as the sun went down where after a dinner of Doritto sandwiches Chantelle and I played tag with each other in going to the toilet all night. It seems that something we had at lunch time was in a hurry to escape and before we knew it we had blasted through 3 rolls of dunny paper. Ugh. Chantelle definitely had a worse dose than me and she ended up spending most of the nice either sitting on the toilet or kneeling in front of it. We think we may end up staying here tomorrow too just to rest and drink water all day. Oops, I’ve got to run because Im starting to run……... |
January 24 2017
T - Well I woke up next to a very pale, very tired and very sweaty Chantelle this morning. She was feeling a little better and we cautiously started to pack up and prepare to head back to Antigua. About halfway through packing Chantelle had to rush off for the toilet again and then basically collapsed back into bed and passed out sound asleep. I decided that we might just stay another night! That wasn’t a hard decision to make. The room was nice, the internet was strong and the pool outside was gorgeous, and it was really quite cheap for Guatemala, which we are finding to be a very expensive place in comparison to Mexico.
I snuck out for breakfast thinking that if I could put some stodgey type food in my tummy that it may help to settle the gurgling and bubbling that I could feel. I laid into a massive order of pancakes with fruit and jam and a huge glass of lemonade. I felt full and a little better. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8982.jpg?w=640 About an hour later it all went pear shaped. While Chantelle slept the day away I was constantly running for the toilet. My tummy was very unhappy. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8961.jpg?w=640 I want to share with you the fun little experience of this, what we have coined the Guate Squat. If you get a queasy stomach then this is your chance to stop reading! I lay there in bed, my stomach curling into large hot knots, uh oh it was time to race for the toilet, again. I had barely got my pants down to my knees and sat down when the nastiness inside me came screaming out like liquid death. I clenched my teeth and braced with my hands against the wall as hot lava, smoke and steam poured out of my tortured bottom. Then the worst part, the stench seeped up through every gap between my flesh and the plastic seat of the dunny. I tried to squish my buttocks harder down into the seat to create a smell proof seal, but to no avail. As the stench hit my nostrils, a smell akin to that of rotting whales wrapped in old seaweed, my stomach heaved and rolled and my breakfast threatened to escape the way it went in. But there was no way I was going to put my head into a bowl full of toxic waste. I flailed around behind me with one arm, searching for the flush button. Eventually I managed to push it down and then instantly regretted it. By staying sat on the toilet the splash back pounded upwards and coated my behind in the terrible nastiness that lay in the bowl. Ugh. This couldn’t get any worse! After using half a toilet roll, which incidentally seemed to be made up of sandpaper, I gingerly placed the last icky piece into the toilet paper bin. No flushing paper here. As the bin was filled to the brim I had to really push this little ball of muck down to stop it rolling onto the floor. This had the risk of me getting a smear of poo on my hand, but luckily that didn’t happen! As I was about to pull my pants back up and head back to bed my bladder decided it needed to empty out. So I took care of that too. Well I thought I did. Just as my undies came back up and covered everything I was suddenly busting to pee again and barely managed to get my pants down before 4 pitiful little drops came out. What the hell is going on? I stood there half naked, pants around my knees, next to a bin full of dirty toilet paper, squeezing out 4 drops of pee while a fever ripped its way through my body. I was without a doubt, the most miserable person on the planet. I just wanted my mum to pat me on the head and say everything will be ok. 20 long minutes later I staggered back to bed and lay down just as the next lot of cramps and pains started up in my tummy, signally the need to scurry back to the toilet and repeat the whole thing over and over and over again. That night I made it to a nearby deli where I managed to buy some plain potato chips and some cookies for dinner before racing back to my new ceramic friend. C - Thankfully, I slept through the whole day, just waking up occasionally to hear running to or from the toilet. I was not interested in food all day, just sipping water each time I woke. I think I managed to stay awake from 6pm through to 8.30pm before it was time to drift back into the land of sleep. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8981.jpg?w=427 T - Hopefully I feel better tomorrow and we can go to Antigua. |
25 January 2017
T - That was a long night. I couldn’t sleep a wink. I rolled around all night sweating up a storm and driving Chantelle crazy! Thankfully though the fever started to ease around midnight and my journeys to and from the dunny had trickled to a stop. Literally no more trickling!
I eventually managed to get to a few good hours of sleep and when we woke up today both of us felt ready to pack up and ride back to Antigua. C - After spending 36hrs going no further than the bed and the toilet, it was nice to wake up and feel confident that I no longer needed to be within 5 steps of the toilet!! I was definitely not ready to face food yet though. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8984.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8985.jpg?w=640 T - We hit the road at a reasonable hour and soon we were weaving back through the mayhem of local traffic. Instantly the misery of the last couple of days was gone and it was replaced with a massive grin on my face. There is something a bit naughty and a bit fun about squeezing up the middle of the road between buses, trucks, tuk tuks and chickens. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8986.jpg?w=640 We passed through a few small towns but nothing to really make us want to stop and grab any photos. One place had us gunning for the outskirts as there seemed to be something going down. There was around 100 Federal police officers marching down the side of the road and big groups of people yelling loudly. Some type of protest perhaps? Not wanting to get caught up in it all we skedaddled out of there. After the long uphill slog we soon arrived back into Antigua where we found our hotel and then had to go find parking for the bikes. We picked this hotel because it advertised parking on site, but in actual fact there was no parking available, not even for our small bikes, unless we wanted to leave them on the street overnight. No thankyou! One public secure parking garage quoted us $15 Aussie a night to park the bikes, but we had to leave them parked on the street til 6pm and had to have them back out on the street by 10am the next morning. Ouch! Eventually the hotel helped us out and we were given some parking space in the backyard of a friend of the hotel owners behind huge locked gates and tucked away out of sight. Job done. We then spent a few hours chilling out and had a wander into town for some dinner which we enjoyed while watching the nearby volcano erupt in massive bursts of fiery red lava. So freaking cool! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8991.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8994.jpg?w=640 C - It was so very cool to watch the volcano! I have never seen an active volcano before, so we spent some time just chilling out on the edge of a fountain, watching the volcano do its thing! I also managed to eat half a chicken sandwich and down some coconut water.. Things are looking up!! Given we eat at local restaurants and very rarely venture into the tourist oriented places, I think we have been pretty fortunate to only get sick a few times each so far. It never lasts long and despite how unpleasant it is, you know its going to be over as soon the demon escapes! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9005.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9006.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8999.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9003.jpg?w=427 T - Tomorrow we stay put. Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long and then we are out of here! |
PMSL @ the descriptive prose of a dunny runner :rofl:
Stay well guys & happy Australia Day to yas :thumbup1: |
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Today we are missing home. Australia, we miss you so much!
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Happy staya day, and fantastic looking bikes! Other than the spooky bit with the federales on the road, how's the security situation felt in Guatemala? Where are you planning to enter El Salvador / Honduras? I'm gearing up to do California to Columbia starting in April, and keep reading terrifying things about both thanks to the lovely CIA ;)
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Mate you will have a blast! It is hard to get away from the viewpoints of the media and what our governments want us to believe, but people are just the same everywhere. They want to live life, be comfortable, look after their family and be happy. Your trip will be amazing! Hopefully you will post it on here so we can enjoy it too! We are crossing into El Slavador at Valle Neuvo, not sure on the crossing into honduras as of yet! |
30 January 2017
T - After waiting for just over a week for this package we were greeted this morning by, nothing. The package had failed to turn up and the tracking for Fedex showed that they hadn’t even loaded it onto a plane from the UK yet. So after we emailed RST, who were very apologetic and I suspect not terribly happy with their shipping agent, we changed the delivery address to one we have been given very kindly by a friend of a friend in Nicaragua. So you know what that meant?
We were out of there like a shot and it wasn’t very long before we were packed up and off to pick up the bikes! I was so damn excited. It was time to hit the road again. Properly this time too! We figured it would take us around a week to get to Leon in Nicaragua which should give the parcel plenty of time to arrive. C - I felt terrible for the customer service rep at RST, this must be just as frustrating for her. Never mind, it was time to the hit the road and I was super, damn excited about that!! It feels like it has been so long since we have had any momentum and I have been aching to ride, ride, ride. T - We bumped our way down the old cobbled streets of Antigua, passing cars on the left and the right and soon we were screaming out of the town and straight into a series of steep climbs. We had picked the town of Jalpatagua which is 20kms from the El Salvador border. We figured it would take us a while to get there and didn’t want to try to cross over the border too late in the afternoon. So that will be a job for tomorrow morning. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9077.jpg?w=640 C - Neither of us were keen to enter Guatemala City, so picked a route that would send us veering around the outskirts, rather than diving head first into what I imagine is a very chaotic city centre. T - We cruised into Zone 2 of Guatemala City and cut down some back alleys and roads before we were plonked out on the main highway. We were hoping Zone 2 wasn’t one of the bad areas we had heard about, but no one bothered us or gave us the slightest bit of attention. The highway was like any other. Mostly dual lane and full of traffic. We dodged and ducked and weaved through the traffic jams, squeezing between buses and tuk tuks. It was a blast! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9076.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9078.jpg?w=640 C - One particular town had a complete traffic jam at its major intersection. The poor policeman who was meant to be directing traffic looked like he had given up and was standing on the side looking at the traffic jam with a look of despair on his face. An impatient bus driver, who had been beeping his horn flat out for at least five minutes, decided he had enough and wanted to let his passengers off. So, he pulled onto the wrong side of the road and the proceeded to drive up and over a kerb, force his way across another road to block that one too, and promptly parked there. After laughing at this very obvious lack of respect for road rules and any other person on earth, we ducked around some cars and squeezed past a car which had decided to just park in the turning lane and then we were free!! Well, almost… the very slow traffic continued for a while and we noticed the pick up in front had white powdery stuff blowing into the air out of a large plastic tub. After getting closer, we saw the tub was clearly labelled ‘Soda Caustica’. We decided it was best if we passed him very quickly…. T - The ride was quite nice with some gorgeous views down into deep valleys. This part of the country seemed very dry though and it looked as though there was a heap of slash and burn tactics being used here for claiming farming land. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9079.jpg?w=640 We eventually rolled into our destination and found a nice place to stay called the Hollywood Hotel. We were the only guests there so it was nice and quiet. The owner suggested a nice cheap place for us to go and eat and then organised a tuk tuk to take us there. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9085.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9081.jpg?w=427 The food was incredible! We both had pasta with Chantelle having a more typical spag bog, yuk, and I had a chicken carbonara type deal. Both came with a big serve of garlic bread and a bowl of soup. The food was incredible and the serves were so large that we had to ask if we could take our leftovers away with us for dinner. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9082.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9083.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9084.jpg?w=640 Then it was back to the room and time to research tomorrow's border crossing. We are going to go along the coastal highway we think and cross into Honduras at the usual overlander crossing. A little different to our original plans but that's why we don’t plan too far ahead! |
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Please keep the story real....we do know what youse are riding ya know :scooter::innocent: |
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31 January 2017
T - I was up and ready to rock at 4 am this morning. Chantelle was neither awake nor ready and was very unhappy when I made any noise.
Eventually the hours ticked by and we were packing up and making our plans to hit the border which was around 20kms away. But first we needed breakfast. With both of our tummies seemingly finally on the mend we went in search of food. And went straight back to where we had dinner last night. The food was fresh, tasty and cheap, win win win! I had pancakes, again, and Chantelle opted for a huge bowl of oatmeal. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9090.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9090.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9086.jpg?w=640 C - I have been so impressed with the oatmeal in Guatemala. Everyone makes it just how I like it, with the perfect amount of vanilla and cinnamon! I was super excited to cross into El Salvador, but as you can imagine, I did not exude this enthusiasm at 4am. T - Bellies full we, and by we I mean me, started our bikes and headed off. Chantelles clutch is again playing up and the clutch seems to be sticking on when in neutral, making it very hard to start. We have a new set of plates here and it is about time to put them in. We cruised down a very battered and broken stretch of highway and soon we could see the bridge that spanned the border between Guatemala and El Salvador. The moment we were in sight of the Guatemalan border control a heap of men came running out trying to get us to park and engage them in some work. But I blipped Mabels throttle and her nasty growl soon had them scampering for the verge in panic, well that and I didn’t even bother to wipe off any speed. We had researched this crossing and knew that the ‘helpers’ would come thick and fast and before they could even ask us if we needed help Chantelle and I said no thanks, no help necessary. We were soon processed through immigration and after making a heap of copies of our documents we then checked the bikes out of Guatemala. At this time we decided to change the remainder of our Guatemalan money for some US dollars. Chantelle argued and fought the money changer and I watched as he folded like a piece of paper and gave her the rate she wanted. I am very proud of her because this man was clearly trying to rip us off, but knowing a decent amount of Spanish now meant that Chantelle was able to argue the exchange rate until we got a good rate and the changer got a small commission. Needless to say he wasn't too happy but grudgingly passed over the money. C - The exit was nice and easy and it felt good to have a win in Guatemala - so much of the time here was spent checking change and arguing to pay the advertised price, not what some person just randomly made up on the spot. Everyone here is obviously just trying to make money, but it gets difficult having to be on guard all the time. T - From there we were free to head over the temporary bridge and into El Salvador. Immediately things were different. The border was quiet and ordered and the officials came up to us, took our copies, filled out our forms, took us to the next step and made sure everything was easy and pain free. It was a great border crossing, cost us nothing at all, and left us sitting in the shade for the majority of it. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9091.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9092.jpg?w=640 C - The difference as we crossed the river was amazing. Neat and ordered with a very ‘unchaotic’ feel. Not what I expected at all. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9093.jpg?w=640 T - Finally, two hours later, we were free! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9094.jpg?w=640 We had decided to take the Ruta de Flores through some mountains and then follow the CA2 highway which ran along the coast. Most people coming through just stick to the main highway CA1, but we wanted to see more than just that. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9095.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9096.jpg?w=640 What a road it was too! Curving back and forth, smooth bitumen with just a few potholes. There was way less rubbish on the roads here than in Guatemala and the whole place had a relaxed friendly attitude about it. People waved and said hello as we rolled past and gave us big smiles. It was so nice. I even managed to buy a bag of coke for less than a dollar. Yep a whole bag of coke! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9098.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9100.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9101.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9102.jpg?w=640 We zipped along the coast road, catching glimpses of the sun bouncing off the ocean as we raced, at 65km/hr, through the curves and roared down hills, through tunnels, and then crawled up the next hill until finally we rolled into El Tunco, our stop for the night. Today was a great days ride, a proper ride, and we were loving it. Though on the sad side we managed to cover a third of the country in just a few hours. Not too worry, we can come back. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9106.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9107.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9109.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9104.jpg?w=640 C - The Ruta de Las Flores was a lovely ride, and then the turn onto the CA2 proved to be a good choice as well. We were ‘whooping’ and ‘yahooing’ as it felt like a lifetime since we have had a good run of roads and little traffic. My boots are now heading to Nicaragua, and the tracking proves this!! So we are keen to make our way there and enjoy our the riding in El Salvador. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9110.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9121.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9120.jpg?w=640 T - After a nice stroll along the beach and a few beers while we watched the surfers, cheap food and beer again, we chowed down on some dinner before retiring for the night. El Salvador is already proving to be very beautiful. Tomorrow we head further south. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9128.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9137.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9136.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9146.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9165.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9165.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9166.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9168.jpg?w=640 |
1 February 2017
C - Another early start today! It was nice to be up and at ‘em and my tummy was certainly telling me it was time to eat. We wandered down to the beach and picked a place for some break, before packing up the bikes and hitting the road by 8.30.
We left El Tunco behind, both thinking it was a lovely little town with a great vibe. If I wasn’t so keen to get to Nicaragua and receive my new boots, we probably would of stayed another night. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9175.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9176.jpg?w=640 The road initially was a lovely ride, as we ducked and dived through the chaotic La Libertad and then continued on towards the small mountain town of Alegria. T - I have been blown away by the quality of the roads here compared to in Guatemala. I kind of foolishly assumed both countries would be fairly similar in how they felt and operated including the roads and traffic. But here in El Salvador the roads are generally smooth and maintained, the traffic seems to obey stop signs and giveway signs, and people actually wait until it is relatively safe to overtake. No more closing my eyes as we are overtaken by a bus that is passing a truck as they both pass us around a blind corner over a sharp crest. Im really liking El Salvador! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9177.jpg?w=640 C - After about 50km’s, the ride became a slog as the highway turned away from the lovely scenery and became a long, straight, featureless, double laned, divided highway. We plugged away and by lunch time, we were parking up next the main square of Alegria. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9181.jpg?w=640 T - We were out of the mountains and onto the hot flat plains of southern El Salvador. I could see a line of mountains off to our left and watched sadly as they grew smaller and smaller before they just disappeared altogether. C - Such a beautiful little town!! The main square was beautiful and venders had set up, selling all sorts of touristy wares and food. There really wasnt anyone around though - the only other people we saw were the shop keepers and vendors. After a stroll and a cold drink, we decided it was too early to stop for the day and so pushed on to Santa Rosa de Lima, a mere 15km from the fronterra with Honduras. T - What a pretty little town. Built around an immaculate square that was full of trimmed hedges and little white benches, it just oozed charm And yes I know, you can only ooze two things and one of them is pus. We were the centre of attention here and I was under the impression that it is rare to see two very hot and sweaty westerners wandering around in the sun in leather bike jackets. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9178.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9179.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9180.jpg?w=640 C - The ride down the mountain was stunning, beautiful views and lots of twisties. It wasn’t too before we were on the PanAm Highway and the final 60km of the day was spent tackling traffic. T - What a fun little road! We zipped down the mountain and nearly had the pegs scraping on every bend. We didn’t actually scrape pegs because Rosie keeps flinging her peg rubbers off at every chance and we didn’t want to lose another one. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9183.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9184.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9185.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9187.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9190.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9191.jpg?w=640 C - Santa Rosa de Lima is a bustling little town and it didnt take us long to find a hotel. After sorting out the room, we moved our bikes to a corner of the parking lot. As I was walking Rosie along, I heard a very familiar ‘tink’ every time the rear wheel turned. Yep, you guessed it, a f#@$ing broken spoke. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ I yelled into the headset. I can not believe it. After having the whole rear rim trued and relaced in Tuscon, a mere (?) 15,000km ago, it appears that I may be back to square one. I just don’t understand - Rosie is carrying less weight than Mabel too. Of course, me being me, immediately go to the good ol’ ‘it must be my riding - I must be doing something wrong’... I haven’t even hit any pot holes!!! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9194.jpg?w=640 T - That damn bike. The roads since we have left the USA have been anything from bad to terrible and I guess it was just a matter of time before one of the bikes lost a spoke or bent a rim, but Chantelle was devestated and I had to start defending Rosie as Chantelle started making plans to ditch the bike and buy something else. She didnt mean it I suspect, but it was a bit annoying to be back to that old chestnut again. C - We will have to head out to the carpark once the heat of the day disappears and repair the spoke - and hope we can correctly tension the spoke to try to prevent further issues with this damn rear wheel of mine. T - Well I have replaced the spoke and checked the rest and found one or two to be loose, but not really knowing what I was doing I may have inadvertently untrued the rim. If we have any more spoke issues we will take the bike to a dealer in Panama and see if we can’t get some oversized spokes made up or get some sent to us from Australia. I wish we had of just purchased to oversize kit last time. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9195.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9197.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9198.jpg?w=427 I am enjoying El Salvador but I am getting keen to be out of Central America now. South America beckons us with more opportunities to free camp! Our room has a bunker style door on it. How bad is this town?? https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9201.jpg?w=427 C - Tomorrow, we will head to Honduras! |
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Great report! I spent time in El Salvador years ago (Surfing). Most pass through without a thought. PS: There are several not so nice reasons why things are so "orderly" vs. Guatemala. Great for tourists, just don't look too closely!
Spokes: The standard spokes should be OK if you don't strip them out by over tightening them. I would suggest checking them more often for snugness. I use the Tuning Fork technique to tighten them to proper tension ... when you find a loose one DO NOT over tighten it or go further than the others. This could put wheel out of True. If possible, use the sound by striking the spoke and listen to tone ... tune each spoke to match frequency of other spokes that are tight. Clean spokes "ring" better than dirty ones. Use spoke tool to strike and get a tone. You can also use a dab of BLUE (non permanent) Loc Tite on your spoke nipple threads to keep them from loosening. (applied to adjuster threads) If you do not over tighten your spokes and snug them up EVENLY ... then unlikely you will put your wheel out of True. Snug all spokes evenly and don't over tighten any of them. :D All the best of safe travels. :scooter: |
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I need to get a tuning fork thing for the spokes. I really have no clue what I am doing and basically just tighten the spoke until it matches the flex of the one next to it. I was kind of hoping the spoke problem would have gone away when we had it re-laced in Arizona. We have almost enough spokes left to re do the whole rim but heres hoping we wont have any more issues! |
2 February 2017
T - I have to be honest here. I was quietly crapping myself about todays border crossing. The infamous El Salvador - Honduras crossing. I have read so many horror stories about it where people have been bribed by corrupt officials, bribed by corrupt cops, ripped off by border helpers, and the list goes on. So I built this thing up in my mind. But when we got there I couldn't have been more wrong.
https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9203.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9204.jpg?w=640 Firstly the El Salvador officials made sure we knew where to go, what copies of what documents we needed and then chatted to us about our bikes and our trip. Ok well that was really pleasant and easy! We were only approached by one man asking if we wanted him to help us, and after we said no thank you he pointed us in the right direction and wandered off. Exit El Salvador - check. C - I don’t really worry about border crossings and I was feeling perfectly ok about it until we road up to the El Salvador exit and had to ride past one kilometre of parked trucks. This was when I thought ‘there are going to be people everywhere here’.. But, by the time we pulled up outside Aduana, there was hardly anyone around. I immediately relaxed and before we knew it, the bikes and us were checked out. T - We rode over the bridge where another El Salvador official checked all of our documents to make sure we had everything we needed and then that was it. Next step was parking in front of the Honduras aduana building that housed customs and immigration. We weren’t bothered once by helpers and soon we were holding onto freshly stamped passports and going through the process of getting a temporary import permit for our bikes. Basically a kind lady did it all for us, she filled out the forms and then told us to go and get 3 copies of this document, 2 of that one, 2 of this one, 2 of something else, and another two of the passports. Lots and lots of copies were made in the next 5 minutes! But again we were soon free to go. We were in Honduras! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9206.jpg?w=640 C - I couldn't quite believe how easy it all was, even with our limited spanish. The staff at both sides were very helpful and friendly. T - Another official checked our papers as we left the border control area and that was it. Again everyone was super friendly and just wanted to know about us and the bikes. We cruised along in Honduras for a while. It was hot and dry and we were loving it! We were riding in frigging Honduras! Brilliant! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9207.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9208.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9209.jpg?w=640 We spied a little roadside eatery and soon the owner was talking to us excitedly in English about life in Honduras. He had lived in Houston in the States for quite some time, where he worked as a cook. He told us he wanted more for his country of Honduras, especially for the kids. He told us that they should be going to school and not having to work to help pay to put dinner on the table for their families. He seemed well liked and had a constant passage of people dropping in to say hello. If you’re passing by and you see this little stand, stop in and try his incredible food. You won’t be disappointed at all. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9213.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9212.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9211.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9214.jpg?w=640 Then it was time to head for the Honduras - Nicaragua border so we could head to Leon where this package from RST was headed. At which point the road turned to a war zone. Massive craters were everywhere and we spent some 50 kms dodging them, trying very hard to not fall into one and do damage to our bikes. They were all rim busters for sure with sharp edges and deep depths. Then I hit one. At full pelt. Mabel slammed into one and crashed into the nasty 6 inch sharp edge as she screamed out the other side. I heard the edge of the crater impact on both rims and knew I would have possibly damaged something. But we didn’t stop, just kept on trucking on. Mabel didn't feel any different, and she didn't get a flat! Again an easy border crossing. It was simple. The only hiccup we had was that one of the customs officers wasn't 100% convinced that Chantelles registration for Rosie was an original and not a copy. So that took a moment to overcome and then we were free to go again. One more check as we headed out of the border area and that was it. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9215.jpg?w=640 Each crossing took about 2 hours and the ride across Honduras probably took us 3 hours. Easy! No need for helpers, know the current exchange rates for each country, in fact we got better than the actual exchange rate in Nicaragua, and you’re good to go. As we rode into Nicaragua Chantelle noticed Mabels rear wheel had a big wobble. Yep, I had dented it pretty damn badly, I also had managed to make sure the front rim had a matching dent. So its off to a tyre mechanic tomorrow to get them straightened out. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9219.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9220.jpg?w=640 The scenery in Nicaragua was stunning! Volcanos sat smoking away in the distance and the air was cooling off. But the best bit, the road. It was smooth like silk. Oh it was such a perfect ribbon of bitumen after some of the horrible roads we have had since the States. C - Honduras was dry, hot and dusty and definitely had the feel of a poorer nation. However the people were super friendly, welcoming and treated us well during our short visit. Nicaragua was a complete change though - like re-entering the western world. The roads improved, the driving improved, people obeyed traffic signs. The scenery also became green and lent a chill to the air. We decided to head for Leon, but stop as soon as we saw a decent looking hotel. Turns out, our GPS routed us to Leon on a route where we did not pass through one sizable town! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9217.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9216.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9218.jpg?w=640 T - We cruised along and soon we were in the city of Leon where we found a hostel for the night and then wandered the streets in search of food. My entire dinner came to a grand total of $1. Cheap huh? https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9223.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9222.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9225.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9226.jpg?w=640 Hopefully our package will be here tomorrow or the day after at which point we shall start the route south to Panama City. |
5 February 2017
T - Well we have been told to not expect our package before Wednesday now. Im sure the poor lady we have been in contact with at RST is sick of this whole thing. It seems that the courier company they are using really has no idea of what they are doing as it has taken them the best part of 3 weeks to get this package moving. So we are relaxing in the very nice, lively and vibrant city of Leon at the moment.
https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9227.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9228.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9233.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9235.jpg?w=427 We both are really liking Nicaragua. It has a nice vibe and even though we want to ride ride ride it isn't too bad to be stopped here. C - The city is lively and the food and drink is relatively cheap. Leon reminds us of Mexican cities a bit - built around a central parque and catedral. At night, the parque is filled with families playing all sorts of games. Last night we saw kids rollerskating - yep, rollerskating, not rollerblading! It was pretty cool! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9247.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9242.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9240.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9238.jpg?w=427 T - We have enjoyed wandering the streets, eating some local food, lots of buffet type places here, and generally just chilling out. Oh and I have been sampling the local beers too, Our hotel is called Via Via and it is very fancy, we decided to splurge, and they have let us park our bikes right inside the building. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9249.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9266.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9272.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9275.jpg?w=427 We are hoping to stay here just for one more night before we head down to the coast and check out a couple of little towns there. Then we think it will be likely that we have to either return to Leon to pick up our parcel or that it will be in the capital city of Managua. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9274.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9277.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9279.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9285.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9286.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9290.jpg?w=640 I have yet to get Mabels rim fixed, but it is a definate must do. We have managed to get a few little jobs done though including our laundry. |
7 February 2017
T - So this morning we jumped onto the tracking site for our parcel. We had been told 6 days until delivery as of the 31st January. But after the tracking showed that it was still possibly in the UK after 7 days Chantelle decided enough was enough and she rang Parcel Force. After being put on hold and then transferred around a bit she eventually was told that it had in fact not left the UK at all. Three times now RST have tried sending us this package with Parcel Force, and three times it hasn’t left the UK.
We had a hotel lined up on the west coast of Nicaragua who was going to accept the parcel for us, so we decided to send off another email to RST saying that this was getting rather tedious and headed to the beach. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9297.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9298.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9307.jpg?w=640 It was only a short 30 minute ride and I was ever hopeful in finding a tyre fixer along the way. Normally these guys are every 100mt along the road. But today, not a single one. So sorry Mabel but you will have to wait another day. We made it to the town of Las Penitas where our hotel was and soon we were checked in and enjoying a cool shower to wash off our sweat. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9317.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9320.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9324.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9327.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9351.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9377.jpg?w=640 C - The ride was uneventful but it was lovely to pull into Las Penitas and feel the cool ocean breeze. It is a lovely beach town, but as with these sorts of towns, everything is just a tad more expensive. We enjoyed a nice lunch and a not so dinner, followed by a very nice banana split! T - Hopefully we hear back from RST in the morning but our plan now is to start heading south again. Neither of us is interested in spending another 6 or, possibly more, days sitting and waiting for a package that may, or probably wont, turn up. |
8 February 2016
C - My life is completely consumed by this parcel now. It's difficult when you have nothing else to focus on.
T - All we do is think about the thing. We spend hours talking about it. Obviously we have a tough life if the worst thing we are worrying about is a package! C - We rose this morning to see that the tracking had not updated. We decided to return to Leon and investigate further. We had received confirmation the package had indeed left the UK and would arrive in Nicaragua today. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9378.jpg?w=640 Las Penitas was nice, but too expensive for us to stay another night. The ride back to Leon was uneventful and soon we were pulling up outside the hostel we first stayed in, as it was supercheap. They were full and after checking out a few of the other cheaper ones, we ended up back at the lovely Via Via Hostel. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9380.jpg?w=640 T - We enjoyed a really tasty breakfast of pancakes, coffee and a smoothie. The owner of the hotel, Chris, really did look after us. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9379.jpg?w=640 C - After unpacking, we met up with another rider from England who we met in Guatemala. We had a fun evening hanging out with Aaron! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9384.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9385.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow - who knows. We will wait and see what ParcelForce and RST tell us in the morning. |
9 February 2017
C - The parcel is actually in Nicaragua! OMG! We received notification that the parcel was in the capital, Managua, at the Aduana office (customs). It was recommended that we contact customs to see if we could get the release of the package quickly.
https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9394.jpg?w=640 T - This was such a relief. Finally it felt like we could get some control back with this parcel. We knew there was a good chance we could go to the city and wrangle the box out of customs. We could taste the victory! Then we would be free again to head for Costa Rica! It was all very exciting and there was a definite buzz in our camp! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9393.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-1.jpg?w=640 C - First though, it was breakfast with Aaron and as all we all needed to get Yellow Fever vaccinations, we decided to look for the Health Department. It wasn't far away and the lady was helpful, but unfortunately the shots are only available in Managua, but they are free. So a plan was formed! Rather than attempting to converse with customs over the phone, and given it was vaccination day at the clinic in Managua, we decided to ride the 70km today. Aaron joined us and we set off. We took the back road out of town and it unexpectedly became a very fun and very dusty road! We had sand, mud, rocks, ditches, washouts!! It was an absolute blast, but poor Aaron, who was riding at the back, was super dusty by the time we had the 30km. T - Aaron was nice enough to sit with us at our postie speed on his DRZ450. His bike made our bikes look so tiny. Mabel and Rosie bounced and flounced around on the rocky dusty road and Aarons bike looked like it just soaked up the bumps no worries. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9397.jpg?w=640 C - After getting into the city, we found the clinic quite easily. But… it was the wrong one. After a somewhat productive conversation, a lovely gentleman jumped on his moto and took us to the right clinic, which really wasn’t that far away. T - Yet another shining example of people who just want to help people. With a handshake and a fist bump he pointed us in the right direction and headed off on his way. C - Unfortunately, due to the WHO regulations and funding, they can only administer shots to Nicaraguan nationals. Never mind, it was worth a try to get a free vaccination! Aaron was heading off to Las Penitas to meet up with another traveller, so he departed and we decided to tackle customs. We found the right depot at the airport, but was advised that we couldn't find out any information without a shipping document from the shipper. The man suggested that ParcelForce usually use FedEx, so we should go to the FedEx office in the city centro. Back on the bikes, we tackled ridiculously, crazy peak hour traffic jams and 30 mins later we were there, extremely hot and dirty. The gentleman spoke english, making my job easier, but unfortunately, it was no help. The FedEx office didn't know ParcelForce and couldn't recognise the tracking number. T - Holy hell. That was some insane traffic. Two lanes of highway turned into three lanes, plus motobikes were scooting along the drains, the footpaths, between traffic, everywhere! We joined in the mess and soon we were bumping down footpaths dodging pedestrians and tuk tuks. It was fun and kind of scary all at once. If we hadn’t taken such an aggressive riding method I am sure we would still be sitting in line at a traffic light in the city. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-2.jpg?w=480 C - Back to the drawing board. We tried to find a hotel under an ever darkening sky. The cheapest we found with vacancies was $50US a night, without secure parking for the motos. Nope! We decided to get out of the city before it got any darker, as we were told it was not safe to drive around after dark, particularly in the suburbs where the cheaper hotels were. Both feeling deflated, frustrated and out of ideas, we jumped back on the highway to Leon. The main highway this time though. We got back to Leon in the dark, but the ride was sensational. Watching the sunset, seeing the full moon rise and feeling the warm (not hot!) air blowing around us. T - It was like a punch in the guts. I felt like we had fought so hard to get to this point of actually having the parcel in our hands, and suddenly it was gone. All the emailing, all the chasing this thing from town to town, country to country and when we could almost smell it, it was taken away. Damn it! I will admit I got really sour on the whole thing and I was quite happy to just abandon it right then and there and ride away. I seethed in my helmet for the next hour. Mentally writing emails to Parcel Force full of death threats and swear words. Neither of us could understand why they would have handed it to the local postal service. Deep breaths, deep breaths. F$%kers! C - We tried to check back into Via Via, but alas, they had no vacancies. Nevermind, plenty of hostels all in a row, so I went into Hostal Los Cheles. One room left, great price, with aircon and we could park our bikes in the lobby. Perfecto! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-2.jpg?w=480 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9395.jpg?w=640 After a cold shower, we both needed food, as we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We had a great dinner then settled into bed to read for a bit before sleep. Todd was in the bathroom when I noticed three small bugs on his pillow. I leapt off of the bed and called out to Todd, who said no, they can not be bed bugs, as there were a few in the bathroom too. You never see bedbugs outside of the bed right??? I wasn't convinced but decided to roll it, as I was sure they didn't live in bathrooms. A minute later… sting! I slapped whatever bit me… yep, another bug. We googled it and it was most definitely a big, fat, stinky, rat-bastard bed bug. It was then we examined the room a little further. Within a minute, we had spotted at least 20 of them, crawling on the mattress, sheets, pillows and walls in the room and in the bathroom. I was thankful there we didn't see any sign of them on the floor - as that's where all our stuff was! We both sighed and hung out heads. It had been a long day and it was already 10pm. The owner was most apologetic, but they didn't have any other rooms. T - Wow. I couldnt believe it! I have never really seen bed bugs. We thought we had once but we couldnt really be sure. These things were coming out of the walls, the pillows, the mattress, every where! I was shoving our loose clothing into our sealed bags as fast as I could, hoping we hadnt picked up any passengers. The roof was badly infested. When we first walked in we both noticed a smell of kerosene in the air. But we thought nothing of it. Just assuming that maybe they had cleaned the bathroom and tiled floors with kero to kill germs maybe. It turns out it is a fairly common practise to use a kerosene based mixture to remove bed bugs. Now we know! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9398.jpg?w=596 C - After a quick check on the internet, I found another reasonably priced hostel close by and we packed up the bikes, feeling even more deflated than before. But… a blessing in disguise? The new hostel was cheaper and everyone was so lovely when we arrived. The other guests all introduced themselves and one was an overlander who is travelling from Argentina to Mexico on his Yamaha. We finally relaxed, after thoroughly checking the few things that did touch the bed or walls in the last place. Tomorrow - hopefully we have a reply from Parcelforce about which agent they are using in Nicaragua so we find out how to access the parcel from Customs. I was so close to my new boots today… a few hundred metres away I suspect! |
10 February 2017
T - Well we both slept in fits and starts last night. Chantelle dragged her mattress out onto the floor and slept there and I curled up on my sagging bunk. I kept waking up and scratching at myself. I had phantom bed bugs crawling in my hair, my beard, my undies, everywhere!
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2/DSC09400.jpg C - It was a little warm in the room and the fan couldn’t reach both of us at the same time, due to the placement of the powerpoint. So I just dragged my mattress on the floor and slept next to Todds bunk so that the fan could reach us both. Bliss! T - But it was nice to get a good sleep and I felt it was much needed. We had an email about the new boots. Basically the courier company from the UK had given the package to the Nicaraguan local postal service. Groan! From what we knew this meant that it would now be stuck in customs for weeks on end. C - I did not really know how to proceed, other than to try and call the postal service. My spanish is not terrible now, but I was concerned at my ability to comprehend rapid speech over the phone. I gave it a go.. But alas, it just ended up with the poor girl on the other end getting frustrated with me because she was obviously telling me something simple but I just could not grasp what she was saying. T - We ran around making phone calls and trying to find a translator so we could ring the postal service and sort it out. 15 phone calls and many hair tearing hours later we finally managed to stumble onto a gentleman who spoke English and told us he would try to sort it out for us. It was pretty late in the day and we knew he would be going home in two hours, plus it was a Friday so we weren’t to hopeful of a resolution. But then, 1 hour after his knock off work time he rang us back. He had managed to get the parcel out of customs, with no duties, into a truck and on its way out of the city and that it would be delivered tomorrow. Thank you Mr Postal man! C - I was really pleased with this news and felt cautiously optimistic! T - So we went and had a beer to celebrate and treated ourselves to a good dinner, some tv and some relaxation time. Both of us thankful that there was light at the end of the tunnel. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9401.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow we shall, fingers crossed, pick the boots up and head to Grenada! Cross your fingers and toes for us. |
11 February 2017
T - Today is the day. I can feel it in my waters. We are going to get moving again.
We were at the post office about 3 seconds after they opened and soon we were staring at our box. Sitting right there. But we couldn’t have it. It didn't have Chantelles name on it, only the name of the friend of a friend who was going to take delivery of it. Damn it. So close. We tried to explain to the post office that it was our package but she wouldn't release it to us without the ID of our friend. But she eventually said she would accept a copy of his ID via Whatsapp. C - It was so close! I was not entirely surprised that there was one more hurdle to jump. I thought the courier company was going to address the package to me, but put care of the hotel owners name. I felt terrible bothering him again, but a quick phone call and he was more than willing to send me what I needed to collect the package. T - So we went and had some breakfast while we waited. In the end we had the box and Chantelle was soon sporting her new RST Adventure boots. What a saga! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9403.jpg?w=427 C - The customer service rep from RST is seriously going to have the best Monday ever when she reads my last email and realises that she never has to hear from me again! I am sure the Nicaraguan postal service feels exactly the same way about me. But I dont care… por que I have NEW boots!! Thanks RST! T - We zipped back to the hotel and soon we had the bikes packed up and idling in the street. It was time to head to Granada. Around 3 hours worth of riding. We hooned down the highway, both of us feeling free again! Such a good feeling. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9405.jpg?w=640 It didn’t take very long and we were soon skirting around the edge of Managua city and turning down the highway towards Granada. The traffic here is cray cray! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9406.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9407.jpg?w=640 We rode into Granada and instantly fell in love with the city. It was colourful and lively and had beautiful Spanish architecture! We found our hotel after riding down a narrow street that was crowded with markets and pedestrians. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9408.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9412.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9411.jpg?w=640 After we unpacked it was time to walk into the town square where we ate the local specialty of Vigoron - yucca, cabbage, pork and pork crackling. Very tasty. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9415.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9416.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9420.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9417.jpg?w=640 We then climbed a bell tower over in the nearby church and took in the views out over the city. Beautiful! After which we enjoyed a nice beer and wandered back to our room where our mate Aaron had also decided to stay. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9423.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9425.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9426.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9428.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9431.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9435.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9441.jpg?w=427 The three of us wandered off into town as darkness descended for some dinner and chatting. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9454.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9458.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9459.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9462.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow we are going to head further on south possibly stopping at Ometepe Island which is formed from volcanoes in the nearby lake, or we will head for a town near to the border with Costa Rica. |
Those damn boots have been a chore and a story unto themselves doh
At least insert a piccie & a scratch & sniff panel thanks guys :rofl::smartass: |
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12 February 2017
T - Granada is a nice little city, I would rate it as one of my favourites since Mexico. It was full of life and charm. A beautiful place for sure.
We checked out of the hotel pretty early as we had decided to cross into Costa Rica today. Both of us are keen to get to South America now. So we said catchya later to Aaron and hit the road. The border was about 100km’s away. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09457.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09465.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09464.jpg The ride there was pretty uneventful and we just sat on the Pan Am as trucks and cars whizzed by at crazy speeds. One truck came flying up behind us, swerved at the last minute, overtook us on a blind curve and rattled off into the distance. 10 minutes later we caught up to him. He was stopped in the middle of the road and there was a small crowd forming near the cab. Initially I thought it was maybe a road block and already was preparing a way to talk our way through. As we got closer though I saw a very bent bicycle laying in the road, it was twisted and buckled quite badly, and in the centre of the crowd lay a man. Face down on the bitumen and not moving. Crap. It looked bad. It appeared the truck had hit him. Chantelle and I have had some very basic Ambulance training in the past and we spoke quickly about stopping to help the guy. But being as there was 20 or 30 people now crowding around, some filming, and more running towards the scene plus the wail of an ambulance coming down the road, we thought it best if we silently moved past and carried on our way. The guy wasn’t moving and by the looks of his bike I suspected he may have been quite badly hurt. We both rode along in shock for a while. That stupid truck driver could just as easily have taken us both out. The locals weren’t letting him go and were trying to get him to park off of the highway. Some of the drivers in Central America have been downright stupid. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09467.jpg Eventually we made it to the Nicaraguan exit point. It took 1.5 hours to exit. The longest so far. It was just a lot of waiting around, collecting stamps and signatures, and just generally trying to be patient. It was without a doubt the most inefficient process I have seen. Until we tried to get into Costa Rica. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09468.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09469.jpg C - It was such a ridiculously, ridiculous exit procedure for the bikes. Find a policeman in a light blue in the uniform, wandering around in the carpark and market somewhere. Get a form from him, fill it out. Find him again. Get him to check your form and your vehicle import and stamp both. Then go find another policeman, but one wearing a black uniform, and get him to stamp both of your documents as well. Then walk through the incoming immigration counters (this is just a weird border control situation) and into the baggage scanning area for incoming people. Thats where the exit customs desk is?? We laughed a lot through this crossing! T - The process to get us into Costa Rica was easy and straight forward. Line up, get a stamp, done. Plus it was free. The we had to tackle Customs for our bikes. First we had to go to one customs office to get our documents checked, then copied, then rechecked. Then to another building tucked away from the others where we had to fork out $30 each bike for mandatory insurance, then another customs office to import our bikes temporarily. This process took just over 2 hours. It was crazy and made no sense. There was no signs, no directions, no smiles, nothing. I rate this as the worst border crossing I have ever done to date. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09472.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09471.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09474.jpg Finally though. We were free to ride into Costa Rica! After we had stopped at a gate and shown another man our papers again so he could recheck them all. Costa Rica was green and cool and the road from the border had a few nice twists in it as we climbed a little bit. We decide to head for the town of Liberia today, just 80kms away, from where we could make a plan for getting our yellow fever shots in the city and ride some twisty roads. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09477.jpg C - Upon approaching Liberia, we noticed how much more modern Costa Rican cities are. There was no rubbish and modern buildings and roads. But it is a little bit lifeless. T - We were soon checked into our very expensive but very basic room and wandered off in search of food. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09481.jpg I have some repairs to do in the morning on the two bikes, Mabel is spewing oil out of an oil seal on her stator and Rosie needs her new clutch plates.So after that we will head for the city of San Jose for our injections before moving ever southward to Panama. |
13 February 2017
T - I was up at dawns own crack today. I wanted to fix Rosies clutch and Mabels leak before we started to tackle the mountains to the south east of us. It wasn't long and I had Rosie keeled over on her side, her old innards ripped out and her new ones chucked back in. I had the whole thing done and dusted in about 20 minutes. Similarly Mabels stator was out and hanging by its wires and her new oil seal being jammed into place with every else that looked like a oil seal of some type receiving a good splash of RTV silicone. Hopefully both bikes will be back to their usual slipless, dripless selves again for a while.
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9483.jpg?w=640 Channy was soon up and we packed up our bikes, checked our oils and headed for San Jose. We need to get our yellow fever injections and WHO certifications otherwise we may not be allowed to go back home! It was going to be a long day and our intended route was about 260 kms of mountains and lakes and city traffic. C - It was very exciting to get on Rosie and be able to ride up hills without dropping back to third because of her slipping clutch. It was wonderful to be zipping back in front of Todd and Mabel each time we ventured up a hill! I also had my overtaking power back, so it was nice to be able to overtake the slow cars and trucks again. T - We were stuck on the Pan Am highway for a while but soon we were turning off onto the backroads. We climbed a little and then started zipping down hills and around sharp little bends. We miss this kind of riding! There was a few cars on the road and even on our little slow bikes we eventually ended up stuck behind traffic. This was to become the norm for us from this point on. We would pass a car, or truck and then catch up to another, and another, and another. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9486.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9487.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9488.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9507.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9508.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9509.jpg?w=427 The lake we skirted around was absolutely gorgeous and had we not been intent on getting into the city today we would have stopped and camped at one of the free camps listed on iOverlander. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9490.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9492.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9493.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9496.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9498.jpg?w=480 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9501.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9504.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9503.jpg?w=640 We were soon spat out on a super busy freeway type deal and after paying a 10c toll each we immediately were stuck in a huge traffic jam. It went for miles. We sat in the line for quite some time and it took us 40 minutes to do just one kilometer. Then I saw an opening and twisting Mabels throttle wide open we roared into the closing gap in the traffic and started forcing our way to the front. Sitting in the heat behind a bus belching out fat diesel fumes was no longer fun. We scraped past bumpers, squeezed down drains, and raced through fenced off roadworks and eventually we were free, back into clear traffic again. It was actually fun to be riding so aggressively. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9524.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9519.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9520.jpg?w=640 C - The traffic was absolutely nuts, with Todd commenting that it seemed to be busier than our ride through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. There were cars, buses, trucks, motorbikes, cyclists and pedestrians all vying for the same space of road. Just insanity. We passed so many accidents and it was easy to see why - it was every vehicle and person for him or herself. T - By the time we hit the city it was 4pm and it was a snarling angry mess of hot cars, big accidents and traffic jams. We ducked and dodge and weaved and ran red lights, we needed to get to the hospital before 5pm come hell or high water. We made it there at 4:35pm. In no time at all I had a 17 inch long 2 inch wide needle gouging its way through the sinew and bone in my arm to deliver an icey cold shot of live yellow fever into my system. I do not like needles. No I don't. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9526.jpg?w=640 C - The vaccination was simple and painless… except for the cost of course! But its all worth it in the end. I do not need yellow fever to add my travel experiences!! T - We couldn't get our certificate for the injection tonight so we decided to find a cheap hotel in the dodgey part of town for the night. The cheap hotel was a love motel and they happily relieved us of $32 for a basic, ugly little room that had tiny little towels, with free secure parking for our bikes. The room was worth maybe $10, max, but it was dark and we didn't want to be wandering the streets of the city for too long. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9527.jpg?w=427 We found a cheap place for food nearby and then it was time for a movie and sleep. Tomorrow we were going to go and meet up with a Canadian guy who lives in Costa Rica but we have to get to Panama and get the shipping for our bikes organised. So we will head for the border to Panama. Our last Central American crossing. |
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14 February 2017
C - We awoke nice and early this morning to get to the Ministerio de Salud offices nice and early. The nurse thought they opened at 0730, so that's when we arrived. They didn't open until 8, but we found a little cafe nearby for breakfast and wifi. The love motel did not offer wifi as one of their services!
After a security guard checked our documents at the health offices, we had to find an internet cafe to get a photocopy of the certificate. Back to the offices and we had two forms to fill in before we an official sighted everything and gave us our official certificates. We quickly packed up the bikes and were leaving the city by 9am. Yay! San Jose was not a terribly enjoyable city for us - we did not get much to look around or check out the highlights, but it was dirty, polluted and had an uneasy vibe to it. T - It was so busy in San Jose. The traffic was crazy and buses and taxis just pulled up and parked where ever they wanted, across lanes, intersections, footpaths, anywhere! Enough to drive every other road user crazy! We saw buses reversed into cars, cars t-boned into other cars, crashed bikes, it was nuts and I for one couldnt get out of there fast enough. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9535.jpg?w=640 C - They way out of town was all a bit confusing, but we were soon on our way to what we had been told was a very enjoyable motorbiking road. As soon as left the traffic behind, we started to climb, climb, climb. We passed through beautiful villages and got some fantastic views back over the cities valley. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9528.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9530.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9534.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9533.jpg?w=640 T - As the city fell away and the country side enveloped us, the riding just got better and better. And steeper and steeper. Poor Mabel was groaning and struggling to cart my back side up the mountain. She was back to third and sometimes second for about 40kms as we wound up up up. C -We spent the morning climbing to a dizzying height of 3308mts! Much of this time was spent stuck behind trucks and slow moving vehicles, but when we got some clear air, the riding was sensational. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9538.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9540.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9539.jpg?w=640 Once we reached San Isidro, the road flattened out, but we took the minor road down and followed the coast for the a while. The ocean was the bluest we have seen since we left Australia and it was lovely to see tropical beaches with white sand. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9545.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9548.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9549.jpg?w=640 We pushed on to campsite we found on iOverlander and we are so glad we did. The camp is beautiful, with real lawn to pitch a tent on! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9552.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9553.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow, we will head into Panama and complete our final Central American border crossing. We are both super excited about crossing into Colombia and can not wait to get the paperwork organised for the shipping! |
15 February 2017
T - One last border crossing in Central America. Thankfully! I get really stressed at borders. I worry about our paperwork, I worry that we will be one of those horror stories we read about, I worry about all the potential scams and bribes we could possibly be subject to, and most of all I worry about being stuck in no mans land. Its a silly thing I know, but I get really stressed and anxious and its not until I have the new immigration stamp in my passport that I start to relax.
Chantelle has been the rock for our little team though. She isn’t fazed at all by the borders or the officials and so I was worried today when she told me she was stressed and feeling unhappy too. The biggest shock was when she told me that she had been thinking she might want to go home. But she also knew that as soon as she booked the plane ticket she would regret it. After we chatted a bit about it we both knew we wanted to continue the trip. Chantelle has been the one who has been under all the pressure to speak Spanish at all the borders, deal with all the changes in Spanish from one country to the next, she has been doing all the leg work for dealing with finding hotels and dealing with new currencies and the constant almost weekly crossing of borders has taken its toll. I know people think that travelling like is easy. But all though it is amazing and we do love it every day, it is damn hard too. It has a whole heap of other stresses that we never realised we would have to deal with. Little things that all add up. Where do we eat? Where do we sleep? Language barriers that wear us down and all those types of things. The one thing we don't really stress about is the bikes. I worry about them in the heat, but they are solid little things and we know they will be easy enough to repair should the need arise. So I would like to give a big shout out to Channy. You have done an amazing job and should you ever truly need to go home, I will be there with you. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9556.jpg?w=640 C - We have crossed a lot of borders recently, and each time there is a slight change in language, but there is also a lot of cultural changes. Ordering food, getting accommodation and all other interactions are just a bit different. Then the money is different - getting used to different notes and coins and then having to do different currency conversions, constantly checking your change and what you are charged. It's all added up recently and I had this sudden feeling of just wanting to go home - where I know how everything works, I speak the language, I understand how much everything costs. But I know that I do not really want to go home - I would instantly regret that decision if that's what we decided to do! T - The crossing today. I had read a little about it on the internet so we could go in prepared. It always helps to know where each building is, customs, immigration and insurance, plus of any issues we may encounter. This looked like a complicated border and along with each set of instructions there were horror stories of corrupt officials and hours and hours of waiting time. One guy had to wait 14 hours! Yikes. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9566.jpg?w=640 When we got there it was the usual chaotic mass of honking trucks blocking the highway and we did our usual trick of zipping past them and parking up the front of the line. We were soon stamped out of Costa Rica and had the bikes temporary import permits cancelled. Then it was onto Panama. The immigration and customs centre was packed. Cars and trucks blocked any access to it and there were people everywhere! It looked to be the busiest crossing yet. We parked at what we thought was the end of the line and started taking our gear off. An aduana (customs) official came over and told us we could bring our bikes to the front of the line if we wanted. Well ok then! It meant our bikes were in seeing distance for every step of our immigration and importation process, which I was happy about. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9568.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9569.jpg?w=640 In the end it went quite smoothly. Officials and truck drivers seemed to be keeping an eye out for us and whenever we either looked lost or wandered into the wrong office someone would come and get us and show us the right place to be. People were being lovely and again this has been our experience for our entire trip. Canada, USA, Mexico, Honduras, everywhere. People just wanted to help and wanted nothing in return. The only people we have found to be scammy bastards and shifty in general have been the money changers. Sure we know they are just making a living too but they are tricksters and we have had to be very careful any time we use them. This was certainly the case here at the Panama border. Chantelle had $90 US worth of Costa Rican Colones to change. Normally we would work off of around $85 for that after a bit of haggling and allowing that the money changers need to make something. Sometimes we get more than we allow for, say in this case we may even get as much as $100. Not here in Panama though. $74 final offer or go away. We went away and stewed on it. Chantelle was mad. We found out we could use the Colones to pay our way through the border crossing process, but man we got a bad rate and soon we had spent $40 on $30 worth of services. In the end we had to suck it up and take what we could get from the money changer as we had nowhere else to change out the Colones. Going back the second time we got an even worse rate and he wouldn’t budge a bit knowing he had us over a barrel. I wanted to smack the smug wanker right in the face. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9567.jpg?w=640 C - Exiting Costa Rica and entering Panama was nice and easy and relatively straightforward after the convoluted steps of some of the other Central American crossings. I was glad to exit Costa Rica - I found the country a bit confusing. It looked western, but felt Central American and things worked in the typical Central American fashion. The prices were similar to that in the US for Central American services. Strange! But the strangest thing of all, was that I saw not one person smile the entire time we were there. The minute we approached the Panama border though, all the officials smiled as they greeted us! We had one hiccup on the Panamanian side though - other travellers had warned us to carefully check our documents, because Colombian officials are fastidious on document checking. We noticed on our vehicle import permits, the bikes were listed as Australian, but our nationality was listed as Austriaco. Austriaco? I questioned the Aduana official, but she was adamant that Austriaco was Australian. We were positive it was not. But without internet, we could not double check and I was not quite sure how much I could argue with an Aduana official? T - Then we were free. Our wallets empty and sad looking. We were in Panama. No more Central American crossings left. We rode down the smooth 4 lane highway to the town of David where we had cheese and tomato sandwiches and then headed up into the mountains to the town of Boquete. We were contemplating a free camp to try to recoup some of todays losses in the money department but we needed to sort out the shipping of our bikes around the Darien Gap. So we found a cheapish hostal and soon had emails and whatsapp messages flying back and forth. It looks like we may have a chance to get on a sail boat with our bikes from Panama to Colombia so heres hoping that works out! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9570.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9572.jpg?w=640 C - On riding into the town of Boquete, the town looked very pretty, nestled in amongst a valley surrounded by clouds and mountains. We rose 1000mts in the 30km from the David, and the cool air was sensational. David had been stiflingly hot, so it was lovely when it started it rain on our ride up to Boquete. The freshness of the rain and the coolness of the air did make a nice end to the ride. We ventured into town for a look around and wandered into the grocery store to pick up some dinner and breakfast. We were both very excited to find red wine to be so cheap and so splurged on a box (yes, a box! For $3). It was just what was in order and surprisingly, the wine was from Chili and damn good! Although it has been a very long time since I tasted red wine!! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9575.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9576.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9586.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9582.jpg?w=640 Once back at the hostal, we used the free wifi to check our TVIP document and sure enough, Austriaco is Austrian in spanish. So, we will need to head into an Aduana office tomorrow and hopefully they can correct it. We would hate to arrive in Colombia and be sent back here to correct a such a silly mistake. T - Tomorrow we return to David and then head for the big smoke of Panama City. Both of us are feeling very excited to ride over the Bridge of the Americas! |
16 February 2017
T - Have you ever had a day where you not only went forwards but you also went all the way backwards too? Well we now have! What a day.
We were intending to be up early so we could be at the aduana office 40kms back down the mountain for when they opened. But the bed was comfy and we were still lounging about come 800. Finally we pulled ourselves together, slugged back a litre of milk mixed with oatmeal for breakfast, packed everything up and got under way. The ride back to David was quite nice. It was reasonably cool, downhill all the way, and the road was fairly quiet. We were soon navigating the slow very calm traffic of David. Everyone here in Panama seems extraordinarily nice and we are really enjoying it. So many people have come and spoken to us in the street, cars stop and allow us to merge into the traffic, its all so lovely and civilised after the chaos of the last countries. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9589.jpg?w=640 We made it to aduana and an official was soon telling us that he could fix it no problems and we could just take a seat and he would sort the documents out. About 1.5 hours later he called us in to sign the completed new forms. Which after checking the VIN numbers, our passport numbers and then making sure our nationalities were now listed as Australianos we signed them. Just as I was walking out the door I noticed that the official had put down the exit date as the same day as the entry date, So back we went. Third time lucky right? Wrong. He apologised profusely and said that he would again need to cancel the new permit and reissue yet another one. So we went back to the sitting area and waited it out. It was at this point Chantelle realised she didn't have her phone. I had used it last. In the hotel. In the mountains. 40 kms away. Damn it. We decided to ride back there to get it after we finished with aduana. We were called back into the office where we received the new forms and after checking them very very carefully and noted there were no mistakes we signed two copies and handed them back. The aduana official shuffled them together and handed us our new copies back. Phew. Done. Or so we thought…. C - I thought this fix would be quick and easy! Apparently not. It took the official two hours to do these forms for us. The office was nicely airconditioned though!! T - We high tailed it back up the mountain and retrieved Chantelles phone before setting our GPS for the camp we had picked 200kms to the south. It was now 2pm and this meant we would probably ride in the dark a little. We took a back road that brought us out on the Pan Am and soon we were riding through km after km of roadwork. About 50 km’s of road works all up. We had a few decent showers of rain but we really enjoyed it because it was sporadic and allowed us and the bikes to cool off for 10 minutes before the brutal sun would come out and steam us dry again. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9590.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9588.jpg?w=640 At about 80 kms from camp we went through a police check point where we had to show off our fancy new and very correct import papers. The Policeman looked them over then came over to me and said “Theres a problem here” I was expecting some type of shakedown or something. Nope. He was right. There was a problem. When the aduana official had taken our signed correct papers back and shuffled them about he had mixed in our incorrectly dated ones. So we had two import documents now. One was my correct one for Mabel and the other was my incorrectly dated one for Mabel. Chantelle didn't have any proof that Rosie was in the country legally. That is a very bad thing. It can mean impounding the bike, fines and or arrest for Chantelle. Luckily the police officer didn't read the name on the import and was only concerned that there was a mistake on the dates. He told us it was no problem but that we should get it fixed as soon as possible in Panama City. I hurriedly took the papers from him before he could see they were both mine and thanked him profusely saying that we would rather return to David and have them fixed straight away. He seemed a little confused and even unhappy about this but we kept stressing that we knew they were important documents for the bikes and so on. So we turned around and rode back to David, just as the rain came belting down. C - I was somewhat concerned about this. We had a choice of 70km to camp (where we had arranged to meet a fellow traveller, Aaron, for the evening), then onto Panama City (about another 300km) and hope the aduana there would be helpful, or just return 80km back to David. I wanted my bike on the road for the least amount of time possible! The rain was already bucketing down and we were drenched before we could our wet weather gear on. We both decided it was way too late to consider the wet weather pants, our boots already half filled with water. Sigh. I had just been thinking this morning ‘how could I have wanted to go home yesterday’? T - Feeling extremely low on the morale front we decided to stay in a nice hotel with hot showers, enjoy a steak for dinner with a brownie and icecream for dessert. So after a total of 280 kms of riding today we ended up right back where we started. I enjoyed 2 very hot, very long showers as my leathers and jeans drip dried in the room. Although part of me is so annoyed and so down about this I am glad we discovered it when we were close enough to return to David and not when we were in Panama City trying to export the bikes. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-6.jpg?w=480 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-5.jpg?w=480 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-4.jpg?w=480 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....ge-3.jpg?w=480 C - The hotel was perfect! The dinner was perfect. We both went to bed happy with our choice to stay here. It was worth every penny! Then, just when we needed it, we got a beautiful message from a blog reader in Australia, Simone, which made us both smile! Thank you to everyone out there who has been so supportive. T - So tomorrow we will have another try and see how we go. |
17 February 2017
T- We certainly splurged last night, but it was worth every single penny! I was one very happy boy with my steak filled tum. We received a beautiful message this morning from a lovely person who has been following our blog. She really helped lift our spirits and made us grateful to all of you out there who have supported us even when you have never actually met us. It means so much and I cant begin to say thankyou enough.
So this morning we were at the aduana office right on opening time. The gentleman who helped us yesterday greeted us with a very confused look on his face. We explained to him about the mix up with the papers and he soon had us heading back out the door with the correct ones in hand. Time to head down the road and meet up with Aaron for a camp out. The first half of our trip was a repeat of yesterdays ride and the second half was pretty well exactly the same. Mile after mile of roadworks. It was quite warm and both our bikes were working very hard. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9591.jpg?w=640 Finally though, we pulled into the campground, met the lovely hosts and soon had the tent hoisted, a glass of cheap red wine poured, and we were settling down and chatting away. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9593.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9592.jpg?w=427 Not long after we arrived another couple turned up on push bikes. They were cycling from Portland in the States to Patagonia. Bloody mad they are! We spent the evening swapping stories from on the road and soon enough it was time for lights out. Tomorrow we shall head for Panama City, around 270 kms away. |
18 February 2017
T - The beauty of camping out means getting up nice and early. And this morning I was down by the lake before the sun even came up. The birds were singing, there was a little bit of mist rolling along the lake surface and I had my own little private moment and took a few pictures over the water.
https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9595.jpg?w=640 We had a breakfast of porridge, a cup of tea, and then packed up the bikes before heading out. The camp was free but we left a small donation to the caretakers as we want to make sure others can enjoy it in the future too. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9597.jpg?w=640 As we whizzed down the Pan Am the sun rose up and the temperature soon followed. Aaron had decided to ride with us today and he sat behind us on his much bigger Suzuki DRZ400. We just basically sat on the highway and ground down the miles. Slowly but surely getting closer and closer to Panama. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9600.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9599.jpg?w=640 There wasn't too much of note on this ride. It was a busy trucking road and there was quite a fair bit of traffic zipping past us. Then seemingly out of nowhere a door was flying in the air. I didn't see where it came from but I watched fascinated as it hung up there about 10 metres off the ground, fluttering and twisting in the air. I wasn't sure where it may land and so rode along keeping my eye on it. The amount of air time this door had was incredible. Then I noticed it's very odd, very unique shape. It looked to be a lid off of a coffin, but it had a window in it. Eventually it crashed down in the lane next to us just as a pile of thundering traffic blasted over it smashing it to bits. What a weird thing. Imagine the irony of that, being killed by a coffin lid. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9603.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9602.jpg?w=640 Eventually we made it into the very busy city of Panama. It was quite a cool moment to be riding over the Bridge of the Americas and seeing the canal stretch off into the distance. It was definitely a milestone moment for sure. Next stop from here is South America. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8362.jpg?w=640 C - The riding today was a real slog but seeing the Bridge of the Americas bought a huge smile to my smile. We have ridden from Alaska, the length of the North American continent on two small, little plucky motorcycles. What a moment!!! T - We found a hostal after some searching around and ended up having to take a couple of beds in a dorm room, but soon we were off looking for a celebratory beer. We had made it to Panama. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9604.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow we have to ride to the nearby, 100kms away, town of Portobelo to meet the captain of a yacht that will take us around the Darien Gap and into Colombia, and our bikes too of course. |
19 February 2017
T - We have not slept in a dorm room like this with other people before and I was worried about late night party animals coming in drunk, making loads of racket and generally interrupting my beauty sleep, of which I don't need much of course. Right?
But I slept really well and this morning I was awake at 6am and ready to take on the challenge of a free breakfast of cornflakes! Yummmmmmo! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9605.jpg?w=640 After stuffing my face we decided we should get on the road to Portobelo to meet the captain and see how legit this whole yacht thing was. We haven't heard of this boat, or this captain before so we were keen to meet him and see the boat before we decided to agree to anything. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9609.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9607.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9611.jpg?w=640 The road between Panama City and Portobelo was long and boring. It was basically a four lane highway and we just slogged it out over the next two hours. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9624.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9628.jpg?w=640 Once we turned off the highway and onto the more rural road we started to see some very unusual things. Men covered in mud and dressed in reeds were dancing in the street, blocking cars, blowing whistles, drinking beer and asking for money. But when we came close to them they always let us pass straight through. It was very odd and we saw this repeated numerous times. I felt like they were witch doctors perhaps? https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9613.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9614.jpg?w=640 Finally after those guys and then masses of traffic jams we pulled into Portobelo and met up with the captain. He took us out to his beautiful yacht, showed us where our bikes would go, where we would sleep and then told us that it would only be four of us on board for the trip! We were pretty happy and handed over a small deposit each. He explained to us what we needed to do and what he needed to do in order for us to take our bikes from Panama to Colombia on his boat. Done deal! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9616.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9618.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9619.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9621.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9622.jpg?w=427 From there it was back to Panama City where we got lost on the mess of highway junctions, had to sneak through toll road barriers, saw a ship in the canal locks, rode along the seafront and saw the city skyline, and generally just made a nuisance of ourselves. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9630.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9646.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9647.jpg?w=640 After all that we all felt a little tired and decided to go out for a walk, find some beer and gorge on Burger King. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9658.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9656.jpg?w=427 Tomorrow we need to go through the process of now exporting our bikes from Panama which isn't as simple as it sounds. So that will be fun! Oh and as a side note, the yacht we are on is called the Calypsa. It is the yacht featured in 50 First Dates. Yep Mabel and Rosie are going to be on the same boat that Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler were once on. |
20 february 2017
T - Now it begins. The process of getting our bikes out of Panama. We know nothing of this process except what the agent for the sailboat has told us. So this morning we had to go to a place only known to us as the DIJ where we would get our bikes inspected, wait around for the day, and then hopefully be given a certificate clearing us to leave with our bikes within the next 8 days.
Getting to the DIJ office was insane! The traffic banked up in every direction. It didn't take too long and we were lost. Our GPS maps just can't handle the on off ramps of the myriad of highways in this city. Eventually though we pulled up outside of a place with a huge DIJ sign. Found it! Actually no we hadn't. It was the wrong DIJ. The one we wanted was about another 5kms away. This time we asked Aaron if he wanted to take charge with the navigation. It seemed his Google maps was way more up to the task of navigating us through the traffic than our GPS. In a very short amount of time we were pulling into a fenced yard full of dusty cars and soon we had our VIN’s checked and then it was just time to wait. We couldn't pick up the final paperwork until 2pm. So that left us a good few hours to kill. What is the one must see thing in Panama? That would of course be the Panama Canal. A monstrous feat of engineering. So that's where we went. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9671.jpg?w=640 There was a great little museum there and we were lucky enough to witness to massive cargo ships passing through the locks. Very cool! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9664.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9672.jpg?w=640 C - I did not expect to enjoy the trip to the Canal as much as I did. It was absolutely amazing watching the massive cargo ships move through the lock system. The museum was also really well done - both informative and enjoyable! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9663.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9668.jpg?w=640 T - From there it was back to the DIJ place to pick up our papers, which took ages and involved an earthquake, and then we were told by aduana that we were free to leave the country with our bikes! Woohoo! Colombia here we come! C - There were a few dodgy characters hanging around the DIJ office, so Todd stayed outside with the bikes whilst I went in to organise the paperwork. Whilst waiting, I met a really lovely Australian couple who were overlanding in their vehicle. After sitting down to wait, the whole building began to shake and the walls visibly shook with two massive wave like motions. It was incredible! Most incredible though, was that the entire staff began to evacuate, with not one person stopping to tell the tourists waiting what was going on. Eventually an American staff member approached us and advised to evacuate too. It was a very weird experience! T - We planned to head straight to Portobelo for the night so we would be ready to load the bikes and leave tomorrow. But the traffic had other ideas. All the roads in the city were at a complete standstill. I have never seen traffic like it. No one was moving and it was damn hot. Luckily we managed to filter up through the traffic with most cars moving around a little to let us through. Even still it took us the best part of 2 hours to travel just 15kms. Finally many many hours later we broke free of the city and rolled on towards Portobelo. A simple 100km ride turned into a four hour venture. We feel like we have everything in order now and trust that the Captain knows what he is doing. |
21 February 2017
T - We received a message late last night that we needed to be at the dock to load our bikes onto the boat at 11am today. We were all very excited!
https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9715.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9716.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9687.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9682.jpg?w=640 Channy and I were both looking forward to having one last night here in Portobelo where we could relax and have a quiet corner of the world after the hectic bustle of Central America. But it wasn't to be. Plans were changed all of a sudden and without notice. The Captain wanted to sail today. It was a little upsetting, especially for Chantelle, as we were both aching for our own private space and to have just a smidgen of control over what was going on just for a day. Both of us have felt like it's all spiralling out of control at the moment. C - It is high season in Panama and as a consequence, we have been destined to sleep in dorm rooms for the last four nights or so. Knowing that we would be trapped on a very small yacht with 5 other people for up to 5 days, I was really keen to have some quiet time for an evening. I love to be social, but I also very much need alone time every now and then to ‘reset’. So I was most upset to have my plans disrupted and feel like we had no control over the situation. T - After the bikes had been dragged into a small dinghy and the hauled aboard the yacht, a very tense and scary 10 minutes, we proceeded to check ourselves out of Panama. Our passports were soon stamped, but not before the captain had to get a taxi to another town to get a different official to stamp them and then return to the immigration in Portobelo and also have them checked by immigration. I’ll be honest here, the whole border thing in Central America is crazy. I know it creates jobs, but for those of us who don't know where to go or what to do, these border crossings are a confusing and illogical nightmare. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9691.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9696.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....2151.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....0201.jpg?w=640 Then we grabbed a few snacks to take on the boat and that was it. We were ferried out to the boat to swim and relax while the crew went and did some shopping for the trip. We chilled out and waited. And waited. And waited. We swam a little and then watched the sun go down. Still we waited. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9709.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9721.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9720.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9725.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9728.jpg?w=640 Around 8pm the crew and the captain came back to announce we weren't leaving after all. In fact we wouldn't leave until possibly midday tomorrow. I hope we have made the right decision taking this boat. At this point Chantelle and I both agree that using an agent and either using a shipping container or just flying the motorcycles is a much better idea. Tomorrow we sail for Cartagena! It will take us around 3-4 days dependant on the weather. |
22- 24 February 2017
T - The sailing was beautiful. The ocean was smooth and the temperature just right. We spent most of the time on the boat either sleeping, reading or eating. The captain told us that the weather was quite unusual for this time of the year. Normally it was windy and wavey. Lucky us!
https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9803.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9798.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9800.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9789.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9784.jpg?w=640 The food on the boat was amazing. The crew consisted of a couple from Finland who helped with the sailing and also prepared all the meals. We had everything from tuna salad right through to Thai curry! Amazing! On the last night we caught a breeze. The sails were billowing and Calypsa was racing across the now slightly wavy ocean. We were looking at being in the harbour of Cartagena by around 7 am. Then we would unload the bikes and go from there. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9753.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9747.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9746.jpg?w=427 It was at this point that I thought I might look over the paperwork from Panama. Not for any reason, it just so happened that I had the paperwork file out. That's when I noticed a mistake. Another one from Panama aduana officials. When we had received our exit permits from the DIJ I had checked and double checked every number. VIN, passport, everything. It was all correct. But in my haste I had missed one crucial error. No longer was I riding a Honda CT110. I was now riding a Toyota Moto. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9834.jpg?w=640 Great. |
25 February 2017
T - We rolled into Cartagena nice and early this morning. The sea was a little rough last night and I lost count of the amount of times that I woke up as I was being bounced off the bed and into thin air as we slammed over waves. It was great! I have quite enjoyed being on the boat but I am looking forward to getting back on the bike and exploring Colombia.
The captain soon had a small boat out to meet us and had the bikes unloaded and parked on the dock. He then left to go and do something. We weren't really sure what but assumed that he was off to immigration. http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09741.jpg http://overyondaonahonda.com/wp-cont...2/DSC09734.jpg C - As stressful as loading the bikes onto Calypsa was, unloading them was worse. It was completely terrifying to watch my little bike get lowered down by hand, from a yacht swaying around into a dingy that was swaying around even more. Thankfully it all went smoothly but I did not relax until both girls were safe and sound on dry land! T - 4 hours later we were all sitting on the side of the road in the city with our bikes, no passports, no papers nothing and we had no idea where the captain was. It would be an understatement to say we were all feeling very frustrated and a little concerned as we were also pretty sure we couldn't just unload our bikes without some type of customs inspection. People came and went and chatted to us. Pretty much they all knew what boat we had come from and what was going on more than what we did. Eventually the captain turned up and told us that the passports wouldn't be ready until 330pm. When we asked him about aduana he said he didn't know but that it shouldn't be a problem to have it all finished today. He has contacts in aduana for this type of thing. After he came back with our passports he said that unfortunately aduana wasn't open today and it wouldn't be open until Monday. Aaron told him that he didn't think we should have unloaded the bikes just yet and the captain agreed that perhaps he had been in too much of a rush. So now we were legal in Colombia but our bikes weren't. This meant we couldn't ride them without fear of them being impounded so we pushed them to a nearby hotel. Is it worse to be caught riding a bike that probably shouldn't be here or pushing it? This last leg has certainly has had its ups and down. From paperwork that is constantly wrong to now feeling like we are creating a mess for ourselves here in Cartagena. I'm feeling quite, actually very, stressed about the whole situation now. Chantelle keeps reassuring me that it will be fine. I hope so. Roll on Monday. Once I actually know where we stand in regards to the bikes then we can make a plan. Until then it's all limbo land. C - We are not the first bikers to be in the situation and I am sure we will not be the last. I have no doubt that Aduana will process our bikes on Monday without question. We are not alone either, the other two bikers on the boat with us are here, along with another rider who came in the day before us on a different boat. Whats the worst that can happen, right?!?!? The hotel we have is nice, comfortable and is close to the aduana for Monday and close to the old city for an explore tomorrow |
26 February 2017
T - It's certainly off to a messy start for South America hey?! Just when I thought we had stuffed up enough things for Colombia to cause me a big enough headache I discovered something else. We never officially cancelled our temporary import permits in Panama.
When we received the all clear to leave Panama with our bikes from the aduana officials we thought it was done and finished. Chantelle and Aaron both made a point of asking the officials in Panama City if there was anything else we needed to do before leaving and the answers had both been ‘No’. Turns out there was one more item. We needed to cancel the TIP’s in Colon once the bikes were loaded onto the yacht. In theory we shouldn't have received an exit stamp from immigration in Portobelo before we had a stamp in our passports showing the TIP was cancelled. Chantelle is staying nice and calm and she keeps reassuring me that it will be fine. We will get the bikes sorted out tomorrow morning and be riding for the Andes in a day or two. Inside I know she is right. But I am still worrying myself silly. The other bikers with us are also in a state of panic and they are worried we will somehow have to return the bikes to Panama to actually officially get them out of Panama. We have no bill of lading from the boat to show how we got them here either. Oh its crazy. My advice to anyone also thinking of doing this, do your research, use a reputable service to get you and your bike around the Darien. Today Chantelle and I both feel we should have just forked out the money to have just flown the bikes. We would have had them already and probably have been riding through the city. C - I really do not feel there is any reason for concern. We have spoken with another biker who did use the ‘reputable’ service - the Wildcard. It appears his paperwork is really not that different from ours and Aduana in Cartegena did not ask to see his exit documentation from Panama. So I am not stressed about this about this all, but Todd is having a stressful day! T - We went for a wander into the old part of Cartagena. It is a walled city built way back when. Cartagena used to be plundered by pirates who wanted all the Spanish gold, so the Spaniards built themselves a nice little fort. Its very beautiful with lots of colour and life. I really like it! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9811.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9813.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9814.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9817.jpg?w=640 We had a tasty lunch at a bar that was dedicated to KGB relics which was quite cool and we both enjoyed just walking around. https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9823.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9824.jpg?w=427 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9826.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9831.jpg?w=427 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9833.jpg?w=427 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9829.jpg?w=640 https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9827.jpg?w=427 Tonight we might head out for some cheap eats or just stay in and watch a movie. Tomorrow we tackle aduana and should have our bikes legal by the end of the day. |
27 February 2017
T - Nothing too much to report today. We woke up and wandered off to find insurance for our bikes and then went and made the required copies of basically every document we had. We weren’t sure as to how we would go at the customs end because we had no proof of how we got the bikes from Panama to Colombia, and we hadn’t officially exported our bikes out of Panama. To be honest this whole thing has been our fault. We should have made sure we knew what we and the bikes needed before ever boarding the boat. But we are here now and so are the bikes so it's time to stop moaning and get cracking!
There were 5 of us in total that were basically all in the same situation. We knew that there was a slight possibility of our bikes being seized and us facing hefty fines. So we agreed to keep the bikes at our hotels, chained to concrete piers and well out of sight of the customs officials. We marched into customs, handed our paperwork in, which we had filled out incorrectly, and were told that we would need to return later with the bikes to prove that they existed and be able to have them inspected. The customs lady also told us that the way we had come into the country was not good. They were no longer accepting motorcycles that turned up on the beach after being strapped to the side of a yacht. The fact was that bikes like ours were skipping customs protocols at both the Panamanian end and the Colombian end. Not once had our bikes or documents been inspected by customs, meaning that we could have left with stolen bikes, drugs, animals, people etc etc. Fair point too and we knew that we were doing things potentially unlawfully when we booked the boat by taking advantage of a very grey area in the shipping side of things. So we will advise people to research it before booking these boats to take your bikes. Sure its an experience, but having lived through the last few days and not knowing whether our bikes would be penned away and never seen again, or we may receive huge fines or be looking at having to somehow return the bikes to Panama and start again kinda sucked. Next time we will send by cargo ship and take the yachts as a passenger. Also means our bikes wouldn’t get covered in sea salt! As we were leaving the customs building the Customs lady told us that we could just prove our VIN, number plate, and colour of the bikes by just showing her a photo and to return with the photos at 2pm. Suited us as we would have had to push the bikes for a good distance to get them to her otherwise. https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9843.jpg?w=640 We hung out at the hotel for a bit and then returned to show her the photos. She ticked all the papers and told us that they would be ready to go in the morning and we would receive our temporary imports then. I felt so relieved but I decided to not get too excited too early as things can change so fast! Then it was more chilling out by the pool and a bit of relaxation time before wandering into the old town for some amazing pizza and a well deserved beer! https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9846.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9848.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9849.jpg?w=640 Tomorrow we should hopefully be legal in Colombia and would like to head out of the city and into the country side. I need to find a new sleeping mat and a Leatherman as I seem to have lost mine on the boat trip over. A shame too as it was a good one! |
28 February 2017
T - It was 8am sharp and we were straight in the door at customs. The lady we have been dealing with came out smiling which we all took as a good sign. The papers weren't ready yet but if we came back at 10am then they would be finished. It seemed like a done deal.
We had a free breakfast with our hotel so we were quite happy to meander back and fill up on eggs, juice, toast and coffee while we waited. By time we had eaten and packed some of our clothes away in preparation for a swift escape, it was time to head back to customs. We had to wait for a while longer as it was super super busy and we were a little ways down the queue. But then…… She came out with our documents. Stamped signed and dated and with a big X in the “Authorised”. Oh thank eff for that! We were free to ride south! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....8560.jpg?w=640 We went to a little cafe and I had a celebratory iced milo and cake! Then it was back to the hotel where we packed like mad so we could get on the road. I then spent the next 20 minutes kicking the bikes but they refused to start. Rosie would grumble to life and then die as soon as I applied any throttle. Mabel was so mad at me for putting her on a boat in the middle of the ocean that she was still sulking and refused to even acknowledge my efforts to get her to run. Finally after draining the carbs and flooding fresh fuel into them and giving each carby a whack with the handle of a screw driver they both fired up on the first few kicks. Riding away from the hotel was great. We were free again! We both had big grins and soon we were neck deep in the sphincter clenching crazy traffic of Cartagena. Bikes were the problem though. Those guys are crazy. They were zipping into the fast moving traffic without looking, riding up the wrong side of the road directly into oncoming traffic before shooting into gaps between trucks and buses. We saw them do U turns without slowing down or looking and watched as the traffic around them braked, swerved and screeched to a stop. We witnessed so many near head ons, bumps, scrapes and lockups that my head's still spinning from it. Normally we get a sense of the order of the traffic but this was total and utter chaos! For the first time on this trip we actually feared for our own safety. Riders would pile past us with bare millimeters of space between us and the stare back at us while weaving across the road into oncoming traffic. It was frigging madness I say! https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9852.jpg?w=640 https://i1.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9850.jpg?w=640 C - Today was really the first time I felt uncomfortable in the traffic. Central American traffic is crazy to be sure, but today in Cartagena it appeared every single biker was seeking an early death. On top of this the intensity of the sun, the humidity and the sheer number of cars and buses surrounding u left us both dripping with sweat and we were aching to be free of the traffic and moving at a speed which would allow us to cool down. Just as suddenly as the madness begun, we were free of the madness of the outer suburbs of Cartagena and on our way! T - We both eventually tore ourselves away from the scrum and soon we were cruising down the road. It was stinking hot but we were very happy! We ended sitting behind a small convoy of trucks for a while and it turned out to be a good move. Some locals had set up a small road block with a piece of rope across the road and were waving a stop sign at everyone trying to get a toll. We sat right up the back end of one of the vehicles as the trucks honked and just kept driving. The rope was down and we all raced on by. If we had of bypassed the trucks I am sure they would have tried getting money out of us! Cheeky bastards. https://i0.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9853.jpg?w=640 C - Initially, the scenery was dry and scrubby, much like Panama, but after cruising through a few small villages the vegetation started to change and became a brilliant green. We crossed some wetlands and rivers and before we knew it, it was 4.30pm and time to look for somewhere to sleep the night. T - We found a hotel in the town of San Juan where we were greeted with handshakes, big smiles and secure parking! Always the secure parking is most important. Then to top it all off, we were told by the young guy running the place that even though their restaurant was closed tonight he would order us some food from nearby and have it delivered. Total cost for a huge serving of hot fresh food, hand delivered to our room, $7.50. For the both of us! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9855.jpg?w=640 https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9854.jpg?w=427 C - The dinner he organised for us was amazing - a massive slab of beef with yucca, rice, beans and salad. I only needed half of it, but ate it all because it was so damn delicious! https://i2.wp.com/overyondaonahonda....9859.jpg?w=640 T - Tonight I will sleep so well. I can feel it. Tomorrow we head for the town that time forgot, Santa Cruz de Mompos. |
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