South of 'Mer'Ka by Motorbike, Winter 15-16

[skiandbike4fun]

South of Mer’Ka INTRO #1


So this is just a little introduction to my site. The catalyst for creating this site is that it will be my blog/trip report/write up of my upcoming motorcycle trip this winter with Kalil Allon. From December 16th (+- a couple days) to the end of March 2016, we will be traveling by motorcycle south from California, hopefully making it to Argentina this spring.


Don’t tempt me with a good time!

The trip: To ride my motorcycle from California south, through Latin America, through the western part of South America, down to Argentina. I will be taking approximately 3 and a half months to do this, starting mid December, 2015 until the end of March, 2016. I will be riding my 2012 BMW F800GS, which already has accumulated 29k miles at this point and many random adventures, from mud to nice, curvaceous roads tucked away in scenic places.


No kickstand required…

My riding partner: The person who spawned the idea and has continued to encourage me not to give up on this idea is Kalil Allon. He showed up a couple years back at Alpine Meadows, where I was grooming snow at the time as a veteran of the Israeli army who had never been around snow before, but was going to attempt to be the best middle eastern snowmaker that Lake Tahoe had ever seen. With a seemingly endless amount of enthusiasm and a knack for meeting people, we became friends. That spring, I was going to be working in Colorado, but my motorcycle was back in Vermont. So my grand master plan was to get to VT, then take 2 weeks to ride to CO. In the process, I roped in Kalil into the plans and we decided we would buy him a motorcycle when we got to VT, and then we’d ride together to CO, where he would continue back to Tahoe for the summer.


Taking a break after riding the Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap on the Tennessee/North Carolina border in the Smokey Mountains) 318 curves in 11 miles. VT to CO May 2014

That summer, Kalil calls me up and asks, “what are your thoughts on riding to South America next winter?” So the idea for this trip was born!

[skiandbike4fun]

Shakedowns & Wrenches #2


So now let us get a little bit up to speed with whats happening! Today is Sunday, December 13th, and as of right now, Kalil and I are staying at my lady friends’ spot in Sacramento, California. We are getting all of our last minute things in order. I’ve spent a bunch of money on shots and pills (because who wants to have to quit early because they’re sick?!), bought a bunch of parts for the motorcycle (tires, valve shims, chain and sprockets) and spent a couple days skiing.


I also spent a couple days taking some windy, back roads down to Santa Cruz to go mountain biking and get a sweet new headlamp from my only sponsor of this trip so far, Light and Motion! Go out and get your own sweet headlamp ASAP!! These are great, by the way, especially when your dealing with motorcycle valves…


So after getting my bike all tip top, covering all the basics, she’s ready to go for a winter of exploring a bunch of new places! Kalil showed up after 2 weeks of training for his job (he hangs by ropes off of the top of windmills… Yeah, windmills, like the 300ft high ones you see all over the midwest…) and we got busy on his bike, so that’s all ready to go!

As of now, we are getting set to start our slow ride south on Tuesday! Stay tuned….

Quick Update #3

Hey everyone! It looks like we will finally be on the road today! So the past few days have been very busy. Tahoe had been getting quite a bit of snow, so of course as a ski bum, I had to take a day and see what I was going to be missing this winter. Kalil came along and we got some sweet turns in! It was difficult to leave to be honest...


Yesterday we had a big day of getting all of our documents in order and getting the bikes all together. But we as of right now, we are doing our final packing and about to start to head to the coast in a couple hours.

[skiandbike4fun]

Lost In The Dark #4

Good morning, folks! Today finds us tucked away in a hotel in San Diego, getting the last of our things together before crossing the Mexican border at Tijuana. OUR FIRST BORDER CROSSING!!

By the time we got going on Wednesday, we had an agenda of places to go for more last minute organizing. First stop, San Jose, where the great people at Sena (we invested in very good in-helmet communication so we could talk to each other without stopping, which was VERY handy in LA traffic last night!) who helped us out of a huge jam with a malfunctioning bluetooth receiver in one of the units.

We then continued on to Marina, CA, just in time for sunset and to meet up with my good friend Stokey.


We then had to make a decision. We hadn't made it as far as planned, so should we ride on in the dark and take it slow? We were going down one of the most scenic highways in America (hwy 1) for at least an hour or more, however, we had both ridden here before, so the decision was made to plow through to get to our scenic campsite in the dark.


Camping is not my strong point, so after getting comfortable, warm enough (it was a bit chilly!) and a few good hours of sleep in, I was awoken by an extremely loud howl of sorts. Being half awake now, I could of sworn there was a coyote that just howled a few feet from my tent! Turns out, as a stayed awake for a half hour, not necessarily as comfortable as I had been before, I heard it again, and again, getting closer each time. Realization set in that it was an owl! He must have landed on my bike the time before! Scary, but funny. And yes, Kalil slept through the whole thing.

So we continued south on the "road" that got us to our campsite for a few more hours.


And another:


So apparently it had gotten cold enough to freeze over the puddles with a very thin layer of ice (which may or may not be obvious in this picture) Get some, Kalil! His riding skills have come a long long way from our first road trip!


We continued along until, FINALLY! Highway 1 again!


Each turn of the road led to an even more amazing view:


So at this point, with our goal being San Diego for the evening, we had to start pushing south in earnest. With the exception of one or two errands, which included extra fuel storage for Kalil, which led us to a hardware store where this super helpful guy (I'm sorry we never got your name!) helped us find the perfect solution for mounting up Kalil's spare gas cans:


After a successful mounting, a nice sunset just as we entered the Santa Monica mountains, we braved LA traffic (why and how do people survive without going insane there!?!?!?) and made it to San Diego around 9:30pm.

[mollydog]

Have a great trip!
I hope you can support HU and HUBB by posting your reports here as well as on your Blog. Posting links doesn't really help this site at all.

With no ride reports HU could go dark. If not too much a hassle, post updates pics here!

[skiandbike4fun]

Originally Posted by mollydog

Have a great trip!
I hope you can support HU and HUBB by posting your reports here as well as on your Blog. Posting links doesn't really help this site at all.

With no ride reports HU could go dark. If not too much a hassle, post updates pics here!

Ok! I'll do my best, for me the blog comes first since it's for the family and friends. I haven't ever contributed to here since it's my first trip worth writing about, so if I can make it work smoothly and easily, I'll do my best to copy and paste it

[skiandbike4fun]

The Long Lonely Desert #5


So we left off in San Diego, where we camped out in a Quality Inn, getting ready for our first border crossing. Took our time in the morning getting ready, since we couldn’t find any information about how long it would take to cross the border. Seemed like plenty of information about crazy wait times coming into the US, but nothing about any wait times getting into Mexico…. Oh wait, because there is none. We had almost gone too far when we realized we had to stop and walk into the building, otherwise we wouldn’t have done any of the proper paperwork. So we parked our bikes up next to some security guys, who didn’t really seem bothered or think that anything was going on weird, even though we pretty much pulled a U turn leaving the border.

Walk up, took care of all the necessary paperwork (it wouldn’t have been necessary if we were only staying in Mexico for less than three days and not going past Baja) in about an hour and a half. Everyone was super friendly and helpful, so it was looking up!


Spent a couple hours getting to Ensenada, where we stayed with Randy, who Kalil met through the couchsurfing website. We couldn’t have asked for a more welcoming host to Mexico! Randy had a sailboat parked in the harbor where we were going to stay for the night. He had just finished working as an engineer on a boat that did commercial dives with great white sharks off of Cabo San Lucas… yeah… crazy!! Super interesting, took us around town, got our money changed to Peso’s (by the way, if you go to Mexico, change your money over, a lot of places offer far cheaper prices in Peso’s than dollars) and took us to the oldest bar in Baja.


which led to our first siting of the traveling Mariachi


Whom we saw later on in the evening. We had a great time on our first night in Mexico! Thanks again, Randy!!

The next morning we headed towards San Felipe, Randy (who also has a motorcycle) rode with us for the first part (the twisty roads) before heading back to town. We made it to San Felipe where we did our final prep for the Baja, which means getting our extra fuel cans filled… which I should have checked mine… buying factory seconds isn’t always the best idea, because when you start filling it up, sometimes you will notice it pissing out gas from a pinhole in the bottom…. Fail on the Rotopax deal! But +1 on Mexican plastic JB weld which set up enough in the time it takes to eat lunch!


Met some locals saying there was camping several KM’s down the road, which we got to at sunset.


The next morning we noticed the place was a ghost town, a bunch of houses on the beach of the Sea of Cortez (some of them even looked nice) but everyone was gone for the holidays or something. Off we went. For lunch we stopped at a little cafe on the side of the road where we met some interesting guys on pedal bikes. One of them, Mike, from Austria, was carrying more gear than I was on my motorcycle! He had all of his downhill mtn biking gear on his BOB trailer, including mountain bike tires. He had put road tires on his mtn bike, and had started in Alaska, going to different places and going downhill mountain biking and was going to try and make it to Argentina eventually!


So yeah, that’s humbling. Then they proceeded to tell us of someone they’d met up in Alaska who had WALKED!!! with a shopping cart with all of his things from Peru… So just when you think you’re doing something special and perhaps a bit off the beaten path, prepare to be humbled.



We stayed in the Bahia Los Angeles, saw whales breaching in the distance at Sunset while talking to 2 very interesting Swiss couples doing overland trips. One couple had just spent the past 2 and a half years traveling the world in their Toyota landcruiser, from Iran, all over Africa, South America, then Alaska, all over the US into Baja. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise, packed and left town with the intentions of getting some serious miles in towards La Paz. Took a side road which looked like this for 4o miles:
http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/a...bajadesert.jpg

And ended up having a couple sandy sections where we both spent some time playing (picking up very heavy bikes)


Just at the time when our patience and our bodies had enough, we stopped falling over, and got back to the main road! We motored along some very desolate and straight roads to make it to Mulege by nightfall. It’s getting close to Christmas and we want to make it on the ferry to the mainland before then, so we got up early and headed out of town. On our way out, someone waved us down, saying that the fuel station he was just at was out of power. We said we had plenty of extra fuel, and we would be happy to ride behind him to the next fuel stop heading South. So by now, everyone reading this is ready for bed, so I’ll end it with, we have tickets for tomorrows ferry to the mainland. We had to drive through a street festival, up a couple stairs, and into the courtyard of our hotel tonight though. Stay tuned!


What a neat hotel! And one last picture, my dream bike!


As always, you can see where we are by clicking SPOT Shared Page

[mollydog]

Great start! Some of my favorite places!

[skiandbike4fun]

"Hello, Hello, I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, hello, hello." (Beatles, "Hello, Goodbye") Ending our time in Baja, and starting our long journey down the mainland of Mexico.

Here's a shot of the sunset in La Paz:


We stayed in a very interesting hotel that provided us with parking inside of the building, in it's courtyard, which we accessed by driving through their reception area. This was in the morning on our way out:


There was a Christmas market gong on, and the street in front of the Hotel was shut down and full of stands where people were selling anything you can imagine could be useful at Christmas time, from clothes, toys, and several booths that would wrap your presents for you with some quick ornate hand made bows. We received an escort to and from the hotel by these nice gentlemen dressed in blue, and Kalil made sure to have a picture taken with them:


My view of the situation:


So off we went. We had a ferry to catch to the mainland. So when we made it outside of town to where the port was for the ferry, we realized that we were a bit early, so continued on to find some very nice looking beaches. This one in particular was very shallow, and you could walk out for perhaps a quarter mile before it reached above waist height:


And this beach was quite scenic as well:


After a very long, hot, and sweaty wait to get onto the ferry, where we watched what seemed like hundreds of semi trucks (this ferry is BIG) and even more personal vehicles of many different types, we finally loaded the ferry LAST! I started hoping that we'd get to be the first ones off since we would be landing on the mainland at night and would have to drive half an hour to the next town to get to our hotel. Once on the boat, Baja gave us one more spectacular view before night fell:


So the next morning we got to meet up with Francisco and Romain. Francisco is a good friend of a friend of Kalil, who is also passionate about riding motorcycles. Francisco invited us in for a wonder "Mexican style" breakfast, introduced us to his son-in-law (who was just starting to get into motorcycles) and asked us all about our trip.

So let me stop the story here for a second and let everyone in on a little secret: I really don't have a specific plan for this trip, other than being in Panama City by January 21st to do paperwork for the boat trip to Colombia, and to pick up my lady friend from the airport who will be sailing to Colombia with us. Then, the only OTHER plan is, to make it to Argentina by early March. The rest, my friends, is completely open and subject to change.

Francisco was so helpful in helping us figure out what we wanted to see in Mexico. So after breakfast, and some good laughs and a few stories, we were on our way. Suddenly armed with a very organized travel route supplied by a knowledgeable veteran of traveling by motorcycle in Mexico! What a great way to start our journey on the mainland! Thank you!


So our first destination was to make it to Sayulita, just over 400 miles away. A cute little surf town that is also quite a tourist attraction. We made it there after dark, set up camp. Kalil went out, and I, feeling quite exhausted, decided to just head to bed. In the morning, we found ourselves still quite tired. Kalil from being up all night in a tourist town celebrating Christmas Eve, and I for being kept awake by continuous random bursts of fireworks that occurred throughout the night. Kalil had made some friends from a hostel a couple blocks away, one of whom was doing a similar trip to ours, who had started in Quebec on a R1100GS. He currently was stranded in Sayulita with a blown rear shock and a bad battery. Here he and Kalil are staring sadly at his wounded ride:


One of his new friends, Marcela, a Brazilian gal who was working at the hostel while on summer break from school. She was very helpful in helping us find a good price for a boat to take us to Marieta Island. This place was quite interesting, you take a boat 8 or so KM to the island, then you jump in the water (life vests required...) and swim through a tunnel onto the beach. It was a volcano that has eroded to the point were the water has reached the cone, and the walls of the cone remained intact, or some such thing!

Then we did some snorkeling and I got to use the underwater feature of my camera! Here is Marcela and Kalil posing underwater:


Snorkeling and testing my camera:


And on the way back to shore we saw a couple boats gathering, then we saw this:


The tail of a young humpback whale! The sea was a bit rough, so I wasn't able to get a clear picture, and missed the best part, which was when the mother had her fin in the air which was taller than the tail... Pretty epic day, I'd say! Then we returned to our camp for the evening: (coconut trees are everywhere.... and I mean EVERYWHERE) Merry Christmas!


A little homemade bridge in the town over a small stream had a bucket which was labeled: "tips for bridge" I was going to, but then realized they probably couldn't read English well, and might get offended with what I had to say! To be honest, I really like the ingenuity that comes forth from people solving problems while not having many resources to work with, an art that has been lost for the most part in the US.


So off we went, heading south, trying to stick to the rough draft of the plans we had made. We've been making a habit of trying to find interesting spots to eat on the side of the road. This little stand had a fire oven and advertised "pizza". Lets use that term loosely, but it was pretty darn good, including something called "Queso de Philadelphia" which turned out to be cream cheese rolled up in a really tasty bread roll. The son of the lady running the place was interested in Kalil's camera, but once Kalil showed him what it did, he didn't want any part in being in the picture:


That evening found us in a small town past Manzanilla, quite a bit short of our original goal, but we had found what should have been a good hotel on a black sands beach. Upon taking a couple mile road along the beach, we rolled up to the gate to find out it was closed for the Holidays. On our way there, we had noticed an open garage with a trike and a car with Ontario plates. On our way back through, they were standing outside talking to their neighbors, so we of course had to stop and say hi, and ask where the next best hotel was since it was getting dark. So Daniel and Suzanne were the couple from Ontario, and George and Kathie were both from Colorado. Both couples were very much into motorcycling (George and Kathie actually have done the Iron Butt together!!! 1000 miles in a 24 hour period!) After a bit, we had to go, but instead of leaving, we were invited to spend the night. Daniel and Suzanne were the most amazing hosts! After some excellent leftovers from Christmas dinner, and a few hours of great conversation, we enjoyed our most comfortable sleep of the trip.

The next morning a plan was made to ride as a group through a few of the neighboring towns all together, with George and Kathie, and get breakfast. We posed for this photo where we separated ways, a glorieta (roundabout) with a statue of the Colima Dogs (Colima is the state, and if you're interested, google it...) We couldn't have ever expected such hospitality on top of getting to meet some more amazing people!



And so now we continue south... south... and MORE SOUTH!! Stay tuned, and as always, feel free to check out where we are by checking out our SPOT Shared Page

[skiandbike4fun]

Might as well start out with a little serenity before immersing myself into a long winded story of what has happened since I last posted, where we were headed south to Puerto Escondido to visit a coworker of Kalils’ who was vacationing there. So where to begin? Oh, I know, lets talk about horsepower:


Yeah, that happened! I had seen this guy earlier in the day and was quite upset that I didn’t get the shot, until after getting gas and getting stuck at a long stoplight, this guy rolls up right next to me! (they all take a long time, probably to support all the people selling stuff at the lights, fireworks, drinks, floor mats for your car…) I couldn’t imagine my luck, as I pulled my sticky, sweaty gloves off, pulled out the camera, the light turned green. Several honking horns later, a few extra beads of sweat, and off we were again. Honestly, this is one of the nicer looking trucks that I have seen carrying horses in the bed, however, it was the first one that had 3 horses!

After 2 long and sweaty days (did I mention it was HOT?!?! Like, 95F hot?) We didn’t quite make it to Puerto Escondido. Now, I should have taken some pictures of these evil creations called Topes, but honestly the frustration of these hellish speed bumps escalated to a point where stopping near one would have resulted in swearing, kicking and yelling. Ok, ok, maybe not that bad, but seriously, the kids sit next to them waiting to see how hard some unsuspecting driver will hit them, and they show up out of nowhere, with very little warning at any sign of a building, or town.

So that being said, progress was a bit slower than expected. We did travel through Acapulco, which both Kalil and I decided must have been a fun place until it got destroyed by mass tourism and cramming so many people into one small area. On an interesting side note, pretty much every other car in that town was a beetle… and most were taxis, but occasionally you’d find one not quite so beat up that someone actually cared about.


Onward and southward from Acapulco, we made it to Puerto Escondido for breakfast on Tuesday, the 29th. Met up with Marko and Audrey to get the day off to a great start and started exploring the town. At the end of a crowded beach, we hiked around some rocks and found ourselves on a long and deserted beach….


What a relaxing day! Coming back around the rocks added to the excitement as the tide was coming up.


We couldn’t have timed it better, the sunset was prime just as we were nearing the long walk on the beach.


After a shower, clean (kind of) clothes, we spent a few hours on the town.


The next morning we took off trying to find cooler weather. Head for zee hillz as they say, and so we did. And my oh my, they are pretty! Over the course of the day we went from 100F (sea level) all the way down to 75F (at 6000+ft). The roads up to Chiapas were so much fun to ride as well as the scenery!


That night found us in Chiapa de Corzo, where there was plenty of Christmas festivities still going on, and we saw some native dances, a whole lot of Christmas decorations, and some amazingly delicious Horchata!


The next morning we walked down to the boat launch, and took the boat up the Sumidero Canyon. This is one amazing canyon! The walls are over a kilometer high, straight into the canyon.


There was a lot of nature to be seen in the canyon, lots of birds of many different types flying overhead, a few monkeys could be seen swinging in some of the trees in the areas where it wasn’t completely vertical, and to top it off, a crocodile.


For New Years Eve, we made it to the town of Palenque. This is a major tourist attraction, since it is just down the road from the Palenque ruins. We celebrated by having a big pizza and a few drinks before hitting the hay around 11. Well, we tried until midnight struck and the fireworks started… The pizza was very good, in fact, most foods are really good here in Mexico. The few times the food has been sub par, the salsa accompanying the food makes anything tasty!

The next morning, we hit up Palenque first thing. Hoping the tourists were too hung over to make it out in time. Kalil and I have made the decision that getting to these places early results in the best experience, as it usually is getting crowded by the time we leave. here is one shot of Palenque, with Kalil studying… the ruins?!


Oh, and don’t forget to buy your selfie stick! Here are four locals making sure you can take your selfies properly:


After the we ran away from the selfiestick guys, we headed out of town to head south. It is amazing how hard some of these people work, and it shows when you see hillsides planted with corn (by hand) in what seemed to a certain extent, straight. This field continued up over the hill, onto the front of the next hill, probably totaling 5-6 acres. Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, a perfectly flat pasture (where I would have planted my corn) had a herd of cattle.


So our goal for the day was to make it to Frontera Corozal. This town lies on the bank of the river that separates Mexico from Guatemala. There were two goals we were hoping to accomplish: A) see the ruins of Yaxchitlan, another major Mayan city located several miles downstream of this town, accessible only by boat, and B) hopefully pay someone to ferry our bikes across to get into Guatemala. Goal A was easily accomplished this morning. This place was by far more impressive than Palenque in my opinion. The reason for so few pictures of these amazing ruins is this: you need to see them for yourselves, as well as there are so many better pictures of these places online that my photography skills don’t do it justice.

In my exploration of the area on a long path to another section of ruins, there was a fellow tourist signaling to be quiet, but come up to where he was. I’m not kidding anyone, I promise, but I got to see a Jaguar! A full on, jet black jaguar. It was high up in a tree, about a 50 yards away. With all the leaves, it was impossible to get a picture, but I got to see his tail and his head poke up…. Terrifyingly beautiful to say the least!


After an awkward Spanish conversation (I tend to go silent as I try and remember words, Kalil fills in the silence with Ummmm… haha) we found out we will not be able to cancel our Vehicle Permits at this location, so our $400 USD deposit would not be returned. Plan B FAIL! Head north, do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars. (In this case it was $400!) So tonight leaves us in a hotel, just north of the border of Guatemala, where we will head south to Tikal tomorrow!

Check out this iguana!


The next photo shows our Italian friends who we shared the boat with to Yaxchilan, so much fun to meet up with all the different travelers and hear their stories. Everyone is traveling with different budgets and time frames which makes each story unique. And to all of you whom I’ve left out, I’m sorry, but I do remember you! I’ve just run out of time since I've already made everyone late for their bedtime!

Guatemala is on the bank to the right…. sooooo close, yet so far!


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[Rondelli]

Far better to share your story here and the blog, well done, enjoying the ride....

Gino

[skiandbike4fun]

Hello again, everyone! So we’ve made it another few days, several pictures, a couple hundred miles, a bunch of new friends, and a whole bunch more experience in the world of “adventure motorcycling”! Ah, where to begin… well, I guess lets add an explanation to the picture above. As we were heading out of town to head towards the Guatemalan border, there was a police checkpoint and the officer stopped us. He was telling us we couldn’t go to the border the way we were going. After several minutes of attempted translation, we started to understand something had happened to the road, and that we would have to take a detour that involved several kilometers next to/on railroad tracks. Luckily, someone drove by suggesting motorcycles could possibly make it if we continued the way we were going. So off we go, how bad could it be?

A blown out bridge could be a good reason. So after some assessment, I decided that I could get the bikes across, since any sort of railroad track riding seemed like a potentially more dangerous situation. After that small victory, we got to the border 40 minutes later and with a bit of trepidation, we made our way towards all the buildings to figure out the process. 2 hours, several copies, a few people laughing at our sad attempts at speaking Spanish, we were smiling and taking pictures with the guy that signed our bikes into the country! AND we officially put up an Alpine Meadows sticker in Guatemala! (FYI our Spanish has been improving!!! haha)


This guy kept our bikes safe while we walked to town a 100 yards past the border to change money and get copies. Say goodbye to Mexico!


Now we are riding in Guatemala! Our first dirt road in a long time, and it was nice to be experiencing the Guatemalan countryside.


Our first destination was a town called Flores, which is the hub for tourists going to visit Tikal, one of the most well known sites to see Maya ruins. We booked our tour for first thing the next morning where a bus would pick us up at 4:30am. Everyone suggests being there for sunrise, so some people actually get a bus at 3am to insure they get there in time. Luckily we were not feeling that ambitious (it costs $20 usd more!) and skipped the first bus and went at 4:30, since there never was a sunrise that morning.

The first thing we see as we entered the park is a beautiful and quite impressively large tree. This is what the Maya called ‘the tree of life’. I don’t remember the whole spiel about it, but it was impressive!


Just as we were settling into another long walk around a bunch of rocks moved around by humans, a guide started motioning for everyone to come around.


A tarantula! Apparently, they are very common, and not very dangerous, since they picked it up and let people hold it. Focus, people! There are many impressive ruins about!


Yes, that is a picture of a temple, in the natural state that the explorers would have scene them when this site was discovered in the 1800’s. The soft limestone the Maya used to build these buildings didn’t last long against the jungle.


Hey, seriously people, quit monkeying around and look at ruins!

So all of these buildings that we see below is the result of many tens of thousands of hours of painstaking labor to remove the vegetation and rebuild the outer crumbling stone. Tikal has been the most impressive ruins we have seen yet!


Gobble gobble! There were hordes of these colorful turkeys all throughout the complex. Tikal must have been an immense city when it was in its full glory.


After getting our fill of ruins, we relaxed the rest of the day and headed into the city to grab a couple cervesas. We ended up meeting Joe, a fellow adventure rider who had come down from Texas and was riding around into Belize and Guatemala to get a feel for the difficulty of border crossings for a future trip like ours, then heading back north in a few days. He was curious about our next destination of Semuc Champey and the time it would take to get there. So we laid out our plans for the next days ride, and he would get back to us in the AM about whether or not he wanted to ride with us for the day.

So in order to add a little randomness, we saw this on our way back to our hotel:

So the next morning, Joe contacted us, excited for the days ride to Semuc Champey. The day started out great, got on the road at a decent time, got gas, got out of town, then sat down for a quick breakfast…. and then the rain started. No big deal, we three had no fear, so onward we charged until we came upon a large river crossing our road. Before we could think about what to do, a couple people pointed us closer and closer to the river until this little boy in blue grabbed my handle bars and started backing my bike onto this little boat!


After the laws of physics had been tested by that crossing, we bravely pressed on in the rain until our GPS told us to take a left. One discovery about riding in the rain is that you are a little less likely to stop and chat about what the GPS is telling you. We were making great time, and so this MUST be the way, right? RIGHT?! WRONG!!!!! After a half hour of dirt, we started to climb, and the road got worse. And yet it climbed farther, and sure enough, the conditions got worse until we came across a rope across the road and a guy with a shovel asking for 100 Quetzals ($14 USD) for the passage of all 3 bikes. Kalil boldly took the lead and told the guy in broken (but improving!) Spanish that unless he’s going to fix the road with the shovel so we can go quicker, he’s only going to get Q40 (~$5 USD).

So off we go, climbing higher with slightly lighter wallets. This cannot be the way to Semuc Champey we all begin to say! But alas, we find a local saying 2 more hours. Not long after, a group of fellows with a shovel and a rope tell us that we need to pay yet another toll to pass. This time, I’ve had enough as well. So before Kalil could work his bargaining magic, I immediately told the person I was not giving up more than Q10 (about a $1.50) for the three bikes riding on this terrible road. The man starts to argue and I point at the road explaining, road is terrible, not worth more than Q10. If they fixed the road, and I could go faster than 1st gear, I’d pay more, handed him the ten, gunned the throttle and the rope was slowly lowered for us.

After a few hours, a couple slip and slide falls for Kalil, and many other close calls, we started to get out of the clouds. The limestone rock used to make the road, combined with some sort of red clay dirt made for what seemed like a skating rink! Collectively exhausted from the very slick and rocky road, we were ready for a break.


We came across a small village where they were sorting through the coffee beans they had harvested that day.


We must have been a strange site to them! This was a good sign, since it seemed as if civilization was getting closer, which meant the roads were getting better. With several sighs of relief, we reached the final turn heading towards Semuc Champey and took a quick break. The rain was clearing, the view was amazing, a couple deep relaxing breathes, and we did the last few miles of what one could consider true adventure riding! Later on, as it turns out, the GPS sent us on “the shortest route” through 40+ miles of single lane dirt mountain road, instead of 70+ miles of established paved roads… True adventure riding! Luckily for us, Joe was a seasoned rider with a considerable amount of off-road experience, so it helped keep the spirits high all day, even when the conditions seemed the most daunting.


When we reached some signs advertising a hostel and immediately followed them, only to find it sitting on top of a steep hill and decided, the view might be worth the challenge, and as we crested the hill into the small parking lot, I spied two more BMW F800gs bikes with Quebec plates and immediately knew we were where we were supposed to be!

We checked in and immediately realized we had found a true diamond in the rough called “The Zephyr”. We met Eric and Israel, the two fellows on the F800’s that were heading the same way, on a similar time frame as Kalil and I! Anyway, this part of the story will be saved for later, because that would be getting ahead of myself. We have just arrived near Semuc Champey, and you deserve to know a little bit about that before I lead you prematurely into the next chapter of our adventure!

After many libations, several new friends, and a couple hours of sleep, we headed to Semuc Champey. This place is difficult to describe. It is a set of naturally created pools in the middle of a canyon, just above a raging river. That pretty much sums up the basics, the internet will have the rest, as well as some better pictures to do it justice. Needless to say, it’s quite the spot! After some swimming, a lot of slippery hiking (remember that limestone? Yeah, well it’s everywhere!) to a wonderful viewspot, it was time to head back to the hostel to lay down our upcoming plans!


Back at the hostel:



Yes, I’m leaving you hanging, but hey, we’ve got to keep you on the edge of your seat… Thanks again for tagging along!

As always, you can see where we are now by clicking SPOT Shared Page
Still not ready for bed yet? Check out the guys we will be riding with a for a few days at The Wind Seekers – Adventure Travel

[skiandbike4fun]

We left off at a little oasis called “Zephyr Hostel” in the town of Lanquin just near the Guatemalan National Park of Semuc Champey. Joe, or friend on the KTM 1190 Adventure who had joined us on our ride from Flores, had left us the day before heading back north to Mexico. Yet as we left the hostel, we found that our group had doubled in size as we picked up some new good friends and fellow F800GS riders, the Wind Seekers.

We climbed up out of the valley of Semuc Champey and found ourselves off of the slippery rocks and back on pavement, so first things first, lets inflate our tires! In order to ensure we had sufficient grip on the rough and quite sketchy dirt road to Semuc Champey, we had decided that we all needed to reduce our tire pressure to increase traction. Once on pavement, it’s necessary to inflate the tires to the normal operating pressure for handling and tire life.


There is a couple of locals in the background to the right who must have been quite confused by the show of the four of us pumping up our tires.

So off we were, headed as straight as possible to get to the border of El Salvador. The Wind Seekers are on a similar schedule as ours: get to Panama City by the end of January to catch a boat to Columbia. However, no road is straight in Guatemala, and so while we took a minute to regain our bearings and choose our destination, Izzy found a new friend! This guy was hanging out on the roof of the building and we didn’t notice him until after Izzy climbed up on a van at the gas station to get an aerial view of all 4 bikes parked close.


That night found us in Jalapa, Guatemala. Not exactly a tourist attraction, but we were still able to find a nice hotel that had secure parking for us. That night, we crammed four of us into a 3 person room. Traveling with 4 is a lot more interesting! That morning, the receptionist and a couple of the other gals that worked at the hotel were interested in our story, so after a bit of talking, they wanted to get pictures with us and the bikes:


Not long after, we arrived at the El Salvador border! The process is simple: stamp yourself out of the country you are leaving. Then cancel the vehicle permit. Now you are free to leave the country. Enter the next country, get yourself (your passport) signed into the country, then acquire a new vehicle permit for the country you are entering. Simple, but somehow, it still takes a couple hours for the entire process. Here is a big sign just above the “welcome to El Salvador” sign saying to be aware of all the corruption that occurs at the border:


We definitely spent a little more money, and a little less time by hiring one of the guys who hangs around these border crossings attempting to “help you for just a tip”. All said and done, we got through and we didn’t get charged too much of a tourist tax. Tourist tax in this case is when a traveler pays more than what a local would pay, or a tourist pays for something that is completely unnecessary. That being said: hello, El Salvador!



Some great windy roads and a couple great scenic lookouts were waiting along the coastline of El Salvador! It was quite obvious however, that El Salvador was not as glorious as it once was. Roads that had been built well in the past were slowly crumbling. People seemed to be a bit more impoverished than elsewhere, along with many closed down tourist attractions that would have been quite nice back in the day. That being said, it still has beautiful coastline!


For the first evening in El Salvador, the destination was El Tunco. This somewhat gated tourist town seems to still be thriving on the tourist dollar. We met up with David, who Kalil grew up with in Israel who was searching for waves and wind in Central America. During breakfast, comments were made about the rampant (mis)use of selfie sticks. So in order to prove that a long armed Dutchman does not need one of those silly inventions:


Meanwhile, lets not ignore how beautiful the beach is and the fact that someone was just riding along the beach on a horse:


Ok, I lied, yet again every local you see in these areas is trying to sell something and before we knew it, this man was trying to sell someone at the restaurant a horse ride, or something? After breakfast, some time was taken to pack, relax, go for a swim and prepare for a few hour ride to bring us closer to the border of Honduras.

The days are very hot down near the ocean, and after a couple hours of riding, we stopped to re hydrate. This spot was directly in front of a cemetery (no picture) and a few minutes after stopping we had someone with a little cart selling ice cream show up (no picture). It seemed like the day was really coming together! After enjoying some nice cold ice cream, a few old ladies were walking by and seemed interested in our bikes. So after a few minutes of broken Spanish, this occurred:


After several thumbs up and many more laughs, the road beckoned and we rode on. The roads became increasingly more difficult to navigate. Not only were the pot holes becoming bigger and deeper, there were also a few times we had obstacles of the 4 legged variety: (please excuse the blurry picture, and I won’t tell you about the difficulties of trying to take a photo and ride at the same time… We will call it even, eh?)


Finally arriving at our destination, hot, sweaty, tired, and probably one of the more tiring days after only 4 or so hours of riding! I miss the snow!


Good night everyone, the lights need to be turned off, and a lot of rest needs to be had. The windseekers (Eric and Israel), Kalil, and I have a big goal ahead of us tomorrow. Enter Honduras, drive 3 hours, then attempt to get into Nicaragua all in one day!

See where we are now by clicking SPOT Shared Page

And if you’re not tired enough yet, and would like to read another perspective of a similar trip, feel free to read up on our fellow motorcycle adventurers at The Wind Seekers – Adventure Travel

[mollydog]

Great up date guys ... yes .. you have fans who are following along!

I see by your heavily overloaded bikes that you must be packing camping/cooking gear on board? Yes? The question of bringing camping gear always comes up here on Hubb ...

So ... how many nights have you guys actually camped so far?

Would you bring the camping gear if you had it to do over?

!que le via muy bien!

[skiandbike4fun]

Originally Posted by mollydog

Great up date guys ... yes .. you have fans who are following along!

I see by your heavily overloaded bikes that you must be packing camping/cooking gear on board? Yes? The question of bringing camping gear always comes up here on Hubb ...

So ... how many nights have you guys actually camped so far?

Would you bring the camping gear if you had it to do over?

!que le via muy bien!

Glad to know people are enjoying the write up! haha, sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the time. (leaves less time for ) Then again, it's a good journal for myself for later! haha.

That being said, yes, both the windseeker fellows and ourselves are carrying camping gear. We have camped several times so far, and if you're on a budget it is definitely worth bringing! That being said, in the warmer and slightly more dangerous areas we have been aiming more towards hotels and hostels. When we get to the cooler climates in South America I feel as if we will do a lot more camping again. The cooking set up is another matter. Here in Central America, it seems that it's often cheaper to go out to eat than buy the supplies and cook it up yourself. We will see how it goes when we get away from civilization in South America though!

Thanks for following along, I haven't had great internet to update as much, so I have another that I have ready tonight.

[skiandbike4fun]

Where did we last leave off? Seems like ages ago there was a group of 4 people crammed into a sweaty room in the south of El Salvador preparing to cross two borders in one day. The room may have been sub par for the price we paid, but at least the parking situation was quite favorable!

The group unanimously agreed that although Honduras would definitely have a lot to offer if there was time, it was best to get through as quickly as possible to leave the group with more time in Nicaragua. So off we went! 15 minutes got the group to the border of El Salvador and Honduras. 2 hours, 95 degree heat, 16 copies (4 copies each) and far more money than anyone wished to spend on driving through Honduras, we were driving south through Honduras! However, that heat must have messed with our heads because not too far into Honduras we were seeing strange things, like a coffin being transported in the back of a truck being held in by the Honduran equivalent of baler twine! Good thing we had a picture to prove it!


We also ran into several herds of cows that seemed to wander all over the roads in front of us:


The Honduras segment of the trip seemed as if it would fly by too quickly to remember anything remarkable about it (other than our hallucinations of coffins and cows). That was until we got to the last 20 miles before the Nicaraguan border. The potholes were so deep and so many that it was impossible to dodge all of them since you had to dodge all the oncoming traffic which was using the whole road! Needless to say, there was luck on our side and the only casualty was a slightly bent rim on my rear tire from taking a deep pothole straight on.

So as the group neared the Nicaraguan border, the patience and hydration was slowly wearing thin. As we pulled into the border, we noticed a cyclist pulling in behind us who we had just passed. Turns out the wind seekers had met Andrew several days earlier at the Mexican/Guatemalan border! This guy was a true manimal! (Man/Animal) who was capable of covering 200 to 240 km a day with no stress! (120 to 135 miles per day). He was from New Zealand and has been traveling the world by bike for the past couple years and is a true adventurer. Spent time cycling through Iran, had been hiking up an erupting volcano in Guatemala avoiding the flying debris, and was planning on going through the Darien gap… Yes, THROUGH the Darien Gap.

Anywho, border crossings are hot and a bit stressful, so sometimes pictures are forgotten which means I have no pictures of this meeting. We entered Nicaragua at 4:15pm and had 2.5 hours to ride… We arrived at our destination of Simple Beach Lodge in Las Peńitas after dark and were greeted by the owners, Matt and Ceci. They had come up from Argentina on a motorcycle and when they reached Nicaragua decided to stop for a bit and ended up buying a place on the beach! The next morning, we awoke to this view:

It had been a long and difficult day the day before, so Eric and Kalil decided to relax, get their ears lowered, and explore the town. Izzy and I decided we wanted a closer look at the big volcanoes we had seen in the distance the day before as we neared Léon. So a few way points on what looked like some back roads, stripped the luggage off the bikes and off we went!


Pigs, cows, horses, horses pulling carts, cows pulling carts, fences made from volcanic rock, provided a nice ride and experience getting away from the main drag.


The next photo is not for the feint of heart. As we were nearing the main road, we noticed a flock of black vultures flocking on the side of the road. On close inspection we found they were naturally disposing of a dead dog. It’s a sad reality in Central America that there are so many non domesticated dogs roaming around that barely are surviving. They survive by eating the scraps of trash left on the sides of the roads. A big negative point on this trip has been seeing all the trash left on the sides of the road, the dogs that are skin and bones sorting through it, or even worse, these trash piles are lit on fire on the side of the road and you have to drive through the smoke.


Well, lets move along to happier thoughts, shall we?! How about a shot of the volcanoes!


While setting up for this shot, a few of the locals came up to watch us. After a minute or two, conversation was initiated and they were convinced to join us for a group photo!


These kids had been working in the fields all day and were headed home. They seemed like good kids who were trying to get ahead in life. So when one asked to sit on the motorcycle, caution was thrown to the wind, and before second thoughts could be had, a local was riding Izzy’s bike down the road!


Time to head back to the beach and catch the sunset!


The following day found us packing into a van and heading towards Cerro Negro, a very young (1850 wikipedia tells me) and very active volcano for an up close view and some thrill seeking as well. After a 45 minute hike carrying a 3 foot long wooden board and a set of coveralls, we were at the top. After exploring around the top and looking into the different crevices and rims of this volcano, we prepared for our descent.


Yup, it was a long, dusty, and gravely way down. I say a long way down, but it didn’t mean it took a long time. Supposedly some people have reached 90kmh (about 54mph!). I was hoping to try and do it standing up, however, it isn’t quite sand, it’s more similar to course gravel, so I stuck with the sled and still ended up taking a little tumble at the top which provided me with a few good scratches on my calves (the overalls weren’t quite tall enough for me, go figure…) The last stretch you have little choice but just to hang on as it gets steep and managing speed was a bit of an issue. Out of a group of 8 people, there were 2 big crashes which resulted in a few scrapes and bruises, however as we loaded up the trucks, everyone was still smiling!


That afternoon, the ocean provided a great way to relax and get a mild sunburn since there was only one other task to do that day. Earlier I had mentioned that our hosts at the Simple Beach Lodge had been traveling on a motorcycle until they decided to put roots down in Nicaragua. Well, Matt’s bike had been sitting in the kitchen for the past three months with a dead battery and a pile of towels on it. So after a bit of rearranging, we had his bike running and out of the kitchen with the intent of having him ride with us for a couple hours the following morning. That 660 Tenere really looks like a natural part of this group!


Our first stop for the day (other than getting gas which is shown above) was Masaya Volcano National Park. A place where you can drive right up to the rim of the volcano and check it out. This volcano is constantly belching out large amounts of sulfur dioxide, so much in fact, that the signs suggest you spend no more than 5 minutes at a time near the edge of the rim.

Apparently in the dark, you can see a faint glow in the mist of smoke. In my mind, I was staring at the center of the earth.


I however did not enjoy the volcano to the fullest since only a few minutes before I made a horrible realization that my motorcycle was not charging properly. This is a photo taken later, but it looked the same as it did at that moment: the engine running, and the voltage only reading 12.5 volts…. That seems ok, right? Well, not if for the past 10k miles it had been reading 14.3!


Before leaving on this trip, I researched extensively what sort of problems I might encounter on this trip. Of course one of the main area of concerns is; what problems might occur with my motorcycle? One issue I had read about is that over time, the stators (the main part of the generator which generates electrical power for the bike) fail. Hence the reason for installing the aftermarket voltage gauge. So the days plans were thrown to the wind and we rode back into Managua, the capital of Nicaragua to find some place that might be able to help.


After some basic tests, we narrowed it down to it most likely being the generator. So off we go to find a hotel to spend the night and figure out the situation. The Wind Seekers and Kalil were very patient with my impatience and stuck with me the whole day, so I found us a nice hotel nearby to the airport to relax for the night. This could be the end of my trip folks.

According to BMW parts, it is necessary to buy the entire generator assembly for $900!!! Not to mention the fact that by the time it arrived at my location, I would have already missed my boat to Panama! Um… Yeah. After some cries for help to the adventure rider community online, several potential solutions presented itself. The first one being that, if I unplug as many electrical things as possible, the bike may keep charging enough to stay running so that I can continue south to where I might find a potential solution. However, it is obvious that the generator is in its final stages of life and might die at any moment, leaving me with a dead battery and no way to keep going!

The next morning, I unplugged the headlight, made sure all my gizmo’s were charged and we rode with Rick and Izzy to the ferry to Ometepe where we had to say goodbye. Kalil and I were headed south to see if my charging issues could be fixed without having to put an end to the trip.

That night, Kalil and I found ourselves in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. Most likely the most popular party/tourist destinations in Nicaragua. The bike made it, charging the battery just enough the entire day. Will it keep working tomorrow? Will this amazingly helpful online community of adventure riders be able to help me with my problem?


See where we are now SPOT Shared Page

And if you want to see what Rick and Izzy are up to, feel free to check them out at: www.thewindseekers.com