OK, not much to put up on this report, probably quite good really given the monster Batopilas report.

The road was pretty good and great fun, we did see two other bikers (locals) and with bigs waves etc was a neat find, not many big bikes here.

The only other locals we found were these fellas, they are EVERYWHERE, I came around one corner and there was a huge pod of them, my front wheel went clean over the top causing my front to slide momentarily :eek1 ... they are slippery little buggas when you crack em open!!





Due to Ellens foot injury we took it easy on a road ride, arriving at Matamoros we decided to call it quit there for the day so headed into town central to find a hotel.

There are NO hotels in Matamoros so take note ADVers, we asked some locals and found a lady who could speak basic english which was a god send, she rang the Police .... not normally what I like doing but we were not in trouble this time

They said no problem we can have a small room to stay in with our bikes secured too, I am picturing a cell but it wasn't quite like that. :rofl

Arriving at the Police station we went around the side of the building, he showed us a big shed, with a little room.



Turns out we were given a basketball stadium ..... now THAT is something new!!

Back to the walking wounded, as it would happen the medical centre is only 50 metres away, the officer (Jorge)((no relation to Mr.Lorenzo)) (((Doon ... he IS the world champ))) insisted she go to the Doc, the Doc said at worst it could be fractured, more than likely at least torn ligaments and bad bruising so it will be uncomfortable and weak for a while.







He restrapped it back up and gave Ellen some hard drugs to HTFU with, she kinda has to as we have no choice.

His whole family was there too ... and had food there eating as you do in a Mexican Doctors Surgery, they also gave us food for two to take away and eat so Ellen came back to our Staduim for tea.





We had great chats with all the guys here on the force, really great guys, very welcoming and very friendly, would have to say we stepped on a gem here by accident ..... thus proving that not ALL accidents are bad.

This is Jorge who took Ellen to the doctor.



This is the chief who gave us the stadium :eek1 :clap



These are the rest of the lads and me showing them our trip, it was great showing them.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

We were lucky enough to have access to the Police station mess room which had toilet lighting and Wifi as well as a car seat to sit in so we managed to get all our reports up to date.....saweeet !! Office work done.:clap

Waking up in a basketball stadium to the sound of chirping birds was quite different, to be fair it is the biggest room we have had.



Size does matter, we had a 4 tier table and seating system and a stage which was just excessive , it rained earlier in the night so both Hobbit and Chiwi enjoyed the dry room. :rofl



Packing took a new sequence of events too, something to make a bit of fun with our room.

Take one exped pillow and place back in bag, tighten bag.

Take one ortleib waterproof bag and place under basketball net.

Throw ones exped pillow at hoop and hope...

Aim



Fire



Net!:rofl



Exped pillow, thrown correctly, nothin but net .. packed

Our trip today was down the Mex 45, turn right to San Maria del Oro and through to Tepehuanes, arriving at San Maria del Oro we took a wrong turn or more to the point we didn't turn ... we went a further 15 km to San Bernardo which is kinda the end of the road ... damn!!

We did stop for lunch along the way at a small worship place which was nice.





We asked for directions and headed back to San Maria del Oro, I spotted a KLR 650, an oldie, got talking to the dude and he said follow me, he promptly took us through the streets and showed us the road out which turned out to be 45 miles (75km) of concrete paved road....unreal condition like new.



Beautiful





We arrived at Tepehuanes and found a hotel, we agree a price of 200 pesos, about an hour and a half later a lady with big boobs flagged me down in reception and started demanding money, I said but have already paid! but she would not have a bar of it, thankfully Ellen just arrived back so the chat/pubscrap was on.

I got the lappy and Google translator helped a lot, one phone call to someone (obviously to the same person earlier) then that was it, pubscrap over all smiles and we were good so not entirely sure what happened there but we were not thrown out :evil

In the village square there was brass band playing, the dudes where good, even the Police clad with machine guns were watching.





Bikes parked .. .should be ok there



Tea was on the agenda as we were both hungry, we got one of these to start with between us.





Then some other english speaking guys asked if we still wanted the room .... WTF it was sorted.... apparently right hand does not talk with left hand, anyway all sorted in the end.

That concludes today.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

I think the article might have been from an American reporter.

Back to the trip.....

Dr650 ... left outside in the cold :cry



Breaky was some local burrito style of thing, we had run out of muesli and heading to the main centre we though we would eat out.



On leaving from Tepehuanes it was a nice ride through mounts with rock bluffs and interesting scenery. Exiting the hilly part we hit 20000 miles (32000km) on the speedo since leaving from Alaska.



A place of worship on a HUGE rock



Some spiral shaped building, quite cool really.



Straights greeted us for the rest of the ride into Durango so pretty uneventful except one driver who tried to bulldoze us off the road, the lady was yelling out in Spanish at us, we were only doing 90km/hr in a 40km/hr zone so we were obviously holding them up.

I reciprocated with the finger for their good effort, they continued to weave in and out of the traffic ahead without making much progress, thus far they are the only nasty Mexicans we have met.

Arriving in Durango one of the ten most dangerous cities in the world (9th) we found our accommodation with a small round the block trip with streets not quite being where they were supposed to, we had to stop and ask directions from some locals and after arm waiving and directions in Spanish we were on our way eventually getting to where we were meant to be.

The previous night we had looked on Google Maps and Google Street View which was a great help as we then knew what we where looking for.



Ulises and William were running late so had a gutter lunch with a bunch of local boys who were fascinated by our bikes, with big smiles they all had turns at sitting on the bikes which was well cool.





They even had a geography lesson on our RTW sticker



Ulises the owner and William a couchsurfer from the UK greeted us, we tried to fit the bikes into Ulises courtyard for safe keeping but the luggage despite being not very wide managed to not fit in by 10 mm, rather then remove the luggage a neighbour from down the street kindly offered her courtyard with plenty of room, we duly accepted this offer.

It was decided that we would head into town for the later afternoon to the centro on the bus, that way we didn’t have to carry our riding gear which made it easier and didn’t have to ride in the traffic.

There was a cafe strip which we noted, Ulises took us for a walking tour of beautiful buildings, churches, shops and stalls, at one of the stalls we bought a bottle of liqueur that was nectarine based flavoured and very sweet bordering on a sticky dessert wine so a real treat.

Some shots of Durango centro











Our impromptu tour took us underground to a mining museum under the city centre, this was very well done, from there we headed to the cable car for a night view of Durango only to find it was out of order....bit of a bumma.









Heavily finished detail on some of the buildings



Rubbish and recycling



It was decided that Tea time was the next plan as it was about 8.00pm, on the way up to the cable car we spotted a burger cart with wood smoke pouring out of the roof and the beautiful smells of cooking meat torturing our hunger sensors so there really was no choice.



On collecting our burgers we walked back into the town square sat down and had a feast we were supposed to have chilly corn on the cob however our monster burgers filled us all up.



The town was lit up beautifully with the lighting looking very cool.







Returning home we cracked open the Liqueur and had a few rounds, Ulises decided not have too many as he had an exam the next morning, actually it turned out to be the next next morning so he dipped out a bit there.

With our day to be had in Durango Ellen and I headed back in centro for more of a look and to go back to the coffee shop we had spotted.

I had a cappuccino which was the best I’ve had since leaving New Zealand, Ellens Americano was the same so pretty cool to have such a treat here in Mexico.



I had a gut cramp and thought it was the coffee assisting things but it turned out to be more than that, thankfully Mc Donalds was only 50 metres away and after two brisk visits there I decided the best looking shop to me was the Farmacia (Pharmacy) to by some stop cramp and bum binder.... perfecto!!!

Ellen got an Icecream and I got some pills..... not fair. :cry

Heading toward home we stopped in the supermarkedo for supplies for the next day on the road to Mazhatlan, the next mission was finding our way back home, we picked a bus and asked the driver and he gave us the thumbs up.

Somewhere in the middle the translation was lost and he stopped outside and Ambulance station, I showed him our piece of paper with the name of where we wanted to go so he carried on, the lady behind him asked if she could have a look too, she discussed it with her mate and the guys behind and beside her so soon the whole bus was in on it.



The bus driver stopped and pointed down a street and everyone else on the bus concurred that we were in the correct place .... not bad for a bunch of dangerous people as it turned out they were all right so we found home base pretty easy.

Ellen did her ride report and we took some more pics.



The alley in Ulises house.



The view from th top



Last but not least Ulises doggy!



When Ulli and William came home we all headed out for tea trying local food combinations, again the food was superb and very cheap costing around $10 New Zealand Dollars to feed three blokes and a chic.

Not once did we feel threatened or have any dodgy dealings, I guess you can always find trouble if you want it but here in the centro there are woman and children out walking so I guess that says something.

All in all Durango gets the big tick yet again from the people who make the place, thank you to Ulises for hosting us and William for being the translator.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

In my travels rarely are the people you meet are A typical of others experiences.great you are having a interesting time.How's the sore foot?
photo's still of a high quality.Noel

Thanks for the great journey log, I have been enjoying it. We are resident now in Caloundra, Qld.
Next month, we are going to start a 6 week (or so) tour of NZ, certainly passing through your home town (Wanaka?) I do not suppose that you will be home, Dec/Jan?
My bike (HD Sportster) is already in Christchurch, but my wife's Sporty had to stay home and I have had to buy a 400 Honda for Jill, awaiting us in Gore.
So: whether we meet or not, keep riding on!
Rob and Jill Hall.

Heya Rob and Jill

Not likely we will be home unless in a coffin so either way we won't be able to help.

Bit of a bumma as we would love to have had you guys stay, if you are going through Wanaka and want somewhere to stay let us know and we can probably hook you up with one of our dodgy bikie mates from The Wanaka Motorcycle Club, just let us know.

If you time it right the third Wednesday of every month is the monthly meeting where they all meet for tea at a pub, usually slightly out of town during summer.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Sorry to hear you've had another spill ,maybe find a nice beach somewhere and take a break for a week or so.Noel

Heya Noel

Again thanks for your comments, always very positive.

Yeah everyones experiences are different and ours have been diverse so far in Mexico, some really outstanding and some not so good.

Although we have travelled many third world places before riding them full time has added a new dimension to it and certainly the highs are higher but the lows are lower.

We are in a difficult patch at the moment with Ellens foot and yesterday she had another bad binning on an off camber corner where a truck had lost its load and with her right foot injury biffed the bike further wrecking her and the bike.

Time for a regroup and assess damage today.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Upon leaving Mazatlan we said goodbyes, it was already 30 something degrees c when we mounted up and put our riot gear on at about 9.30 am and very very sticky, I was wet with sweat before we even left.

Again we took the libre (free) road as it was quieter than the cuota (Toll) road and LOT less expensive, the speeds that we are doing we make no ground on the cuota roads and the libre roads always go through villages and town which is why we are here is to look at the place.

The trip was uneventful apart from one wrong turn thankfully as Ellen is riding with only half the footing capacity.

Arriving at San Blas it was 38 degrees c and REALLY sticky, we found a hotel and decided to stay, they had a secure yard and a pool (as we later found out) so game on, I took the bikes in and there was a BMW 650 already parked there.



In through reception





The owner Marco turned up shortly after and we got chatting, the were too others there as well Andy and Andrew .... cool easy to remember.

So we had 3 DR650s, 1 BMW650GS, 1 KLR650 so we were comparing notes and chatting about our mods, setups, hiccups etc which was great fun.



Nothin but front row seats for Hobbit to watch TV



Looks like Hobbit picked up some freeloaders too



Tea time was knocking so we all headed off to a local taco place (patten forming here) and had a feed, 36peso each which is about $2.70 we had a huge feed, very very nice indeed.





Town buildings



After tea we sat in the town square and chatted some more about Burt Munro, John Britten, and bikes in general, great to talk with Andrew how is an enthusiast like me, by this time the temperature had plummeted to 29 degrees C .... time to bust out the puffy jacket.

Ellen headed of to bed early being tired so I took the time to get this ride report up to date for you lot!!! 8-D

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Our plan is to get back to the US and get sorted to continue on one bike ..... what can possibly go wrong???

We employed a fello and his good lady with a ute to bring Chiwi and Hobbit back to the USA as Ellen could not ride.

We left Lo De Marcos, 7.00 am sharp so 8.30 Mexican time... hmmm what happened to 7.00 sharp?? a n y w a y the trip was uneventful, we arrived at Navajoa and got a Hotel at midnight after clocking 1000 km of our 1600km drive.

Following morning we set off at 9.00 am sharp, 10.15 am Mexican time ... hmmm what happened to 9.00 am sharp ... there is a pattern forming here.

Only 10km out of Navajoa BANG and the left front of the truck drops to the road amidst grinding and thumping sounds, our driver to his credit held it straight and bought us to a stop, we all bailed out, we just past a road cone on the side of the road so I ran back and placed it 100 metres back from us in our lane.



Upon returning back to the truck we had established the bottom suspension ball joint had failed (mostly cos it was fncked to start with) and bailed out of the swingarm and the whole lot had gone to ground, it had hit the tire and gutted that wide open too.







The swingarm was ground down and torn open so was stuffed and they had to find a replacement.



We were there two minutes when a couple of mechanics pulled up, they organised the tow truck (uh ouwh ... here we go again) and we were on our way back to town.







So here we are right back at the beginning of the report sitting waiting for parts to turn up, we are supposed to be in Nogales tonight crossing to the US tomorrow.



The guy for the shocks turns up, yes the RHS is yesterday so he takes off and gets a new pair, he comes back, argh wrong ones, hmmm, ok come back 1 hour later and has the right ones, but only one has rubbers and washers .... WTF.

We sit and wait another 1 and 1/2 hour.

This is how Mexicans can two a 2 hours job into a 6 -7 hour job so easily and as usual the only time we DO have something organised like our pick up in the USA at Nogales this shit happens and we to simply sit around and wait for others for the most of it seemingly simple shit.

For the most of the time we have no timetable or organised deadline as this seems be the only time when shit happens and it stuffs things up.

See what happens now.

We finally hit the road again some 7 hours later and drive into the night to Hermosillo, we ended up staying at a love Motel and we had to be out at 6.00am which enabled us to get a good start by 7.00am, we carried on to Santa Anna for breaky which was very nice.

Upon finishing breaky we continued to Nogales to the border, to get out TVIP back turned into a bit of a drama as the bikes were loaded front first ....where the VIN numbers are, the (huge) lady wanted us to unload them completely ... we managed to get the manager across an shuffled things around enough to read them and get our deposits back.





We carried on to the border and had to fill out an I94 and pay some money to extend our VISAs in order to get sorted again.

We met up with Neil a fello ADVer who offered to come and pick us up, very kind indeed, also a HUGE thanks to his boss Al Jesse Welcome to Jesse Luggage Systems who gave Neil the time out to come and pick us up, in this harsh world there are still great people around, you guys rock!!!. :clap

The bikes were unloaded from the ute and reloaded on to a trailer after a carpark reassembly job







Neil in action



Both bikes loaded we were ready to do the finally leg to Phoenix so time to say goodbye to our driver Manuel and his good lady who we will catch up with again when we head south.



Now we are in Phoenix, re grouping, ordering replacement gear and selling bits and pieces off and playing the waiting game with Maya and here arrival.

Not much to report other than slowly waiting.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Thanks for the update.

No worries mate, just playing the waiting game for the new scoot to arrive probably later in the week.

Got some projects to do in Phoenix now with the people that we are staying at so nice to get into something, don't think we will be on the road much before Christmas at this rate.

I have to be patient .... have coupla

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Just had a big catch up of your ride report. Really glad to hear you are both OK. "That which does not kill you only makes you stronger". If that's the case, Ellen must be bullet proof by now! Take care and keep up the great stories.

Cheers

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

Heya Nigel

Based on that we will be able to enter a weight lifting contest shortly

All good now, hopefully take delivery of Maya soon.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Couldn't believe it, was out on a ride around Phoenix, was riding down the road minding my own business ..... the DR swerved all by itself into a back street and turned into a carpark.

Not sure what to do I went into the shop..... turns out it was Zen Motocycle ZEN MOTO: Mechanical Piece of Mind

So with Dillons help he sorted us out for luggage for Maya

1 x Wolfman Large Duffle

2 x Wolfman Tank Panniers

1 x Wolfman Tank bag

Also picked up screen, bars and front guard so came away with everything we needed.

So with our new setup on Maya we are running full Wolfman soft luggage setup complete.

These are them.



Maya comes with the two Wolfman Expedition rear panniers and a Giant Loop Coyote bag, we won't be using the Giant Loop Coyote Bag so that will be up for sale.

Can't speak highly enough dealing with Dillon at Zen, free plug for a good man.

ZEN MOTO: Mechanical Piece of Mind

info@zenmotostore.com

Ph 480 600 2978

GIve him a call or email as he can sort you out for pretty much anything.

Now we just need Maya to turn up !!!!:clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere