TravelStream™ news feed for member dstrp on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dstrp en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:01:51 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1166971440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1166971440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1166971440/tpod.html Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:01:51 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Tucson, Arizona, United States

Well, you're probably wondering why I'm posting this from the states so early. About a day outside of Mazatlan my rear shock blew something out and started leaking oil all over the place. I was able to get in touch with the manufacturer and found out that I could make it back to Arizona if I rode on mellow roads, but Baja Mexico doesn't fit into that category, so we will be heading home a bit early. We made our way into Mazatalan, then gradually back up to San Carlos to hang out for a bit. The weather is a fair bit colder than when we in this area on our way down.

So, I'll be spending Christmas with good friends Ron and Carol Kuipers here in Tucson Arizona. Should be getting home on our around the 31st of December. A fair bit earlier than we had planned, but I'm getting really excited to be home and see Denise!

Thanks again everbody for reading and keeping up! I have quite a few pictures and will be putting together a slide show soon!

Take care, and have a happy holiday season!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1166287260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1166287260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1166287260/tpod.html Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:38:57 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Taxco (pronounced Tasco), Mexico

Once out of Copan we were headed for Antigua, Guatemala. The border of Guatemala is only 12 Km from Copan, so it was quick getting there in the morning. The great weather we had been enjoying almost the entire trip has finally given way to rain, which seems to be pretty regular now. The crossing back into Guatemala was pretty easy, only 1.5 hours this time, getting close to a record!

The drive into Guatemala City was fairly uneventful. We were traveling the North Eastern route (Central America 1) which is a fair bit higher in elevation that the Southern route we took heading south. The scenery was beautiful, and with the exception of the occasional narrow miss with a head on bus passing around a blind corner, the ride was uneventful. We did get harrased by the military who made us pull over right as we were pulling into the outskirts of the city. Troy in very broken spaninsh tried to ask him "what is the problem?",but it came out "what is your problem?", which could have been bad, but he seemed to have a sense of humor and figured out pretty quickly that we didn't have any idea what we were saying and sent us down the road. The driving once we got into the city was completely nuts. I felt like I was in a movie doing a high speed chase scence. We had to be aggressive as cars will get up next to you and push you right out of their way if you give them the chance, so you have to move pretty quick, and weaving in and out of traffic is just how it is done on a motorcycle. The whole deal was super exciting, fun, and really scary all at the same time. Needless to say we where whooped after we made it out of the city. Fortunately Antigua is not far from Guatemala City, so we pulled in and found a place to stay that would let us keep our bikes in the lobby!

Antigua is a beautiful colonial city. The spanish style building and beautiful churches everywhere were wonderful. Troy scoped it out a bit better than I did as I wasn't feeling too well, and called it a night early.

The next day we made the break for Mexico. Most of the day our altitude was over 6 thousand feet, and we topped out at 9k, which gave us wonderful views of the volcanoes all around Antigua and Panajachel Guatemala. There was a large amount of road construction going on this particular stretch of highway, which meant several miles of traffic back ups at five different spots. One great thing about Central Americal driving is that on a motorbike, you don't wait! Just drive past everybody waiting in line (who will be there for who knows how many hours), and go straight to the front where the flagger waives you through. Dodge some heavy equipment, then back on the road. Makes you feel like a rock star! I had to keep from laughing as we drove past all the people having to wait, certain that if they saw me laughing I would get shot.

The crossing back into Mexico was super easy, and it was amazing how much more laid back the driving there is. Funny how your perceptions change. When we first got to Mexico it seemed like nutty driving, now it was a relief to be back!

It was a long haul, but we made it to the next colonial town on our way north. This would turn out to be one of my favorite places on the whole trip. The town of San Cristobal de la Casas is well worth the trip. The downtown is old style spanish buildings, amazing churches (alot of them) and just a great place to hang out and relax. Much slower pace than Antigua, which was beautiful, but very busy. We found a good spot to stay as soon as we got into town. I did some maintenance on the bikes which are running great, and then we went to check out the town.

I keep thinking that we will stop and stay someplace, but it just feels good to get moving in the morning. We're both a bit tired, but not sure what to do if we stay, so on to Zipolete it is, (just south of Puerto Escondido). The days ride is a bit slower going than we hoped. Our maps and GPS's are both off, and we manage to take a couple of wrong turns which puts us behind the curve for putting down miles. We travelled back through the area known as Tehuantepec, which is the skinny section of Mexico between the Gulf and the Pacific side. The last time we went through here it was so windy it almost blew both of us off the road several times. I wasn't looking forward to a repeat, but there was no getting around it. Fortunately is wasn't "as" windy, but still it still had my full attention. We pulled into the town of Tuhuantepec only to find we couldn't cross the bridge out of town due to a political demonstration. "Isn't that what teargas is for?" The big bridge was loaded down with people, and nobody was allowed to drive accross. The cops where just hanging out and didn't seem too concerned. I felt sorry for all the truck drivers who were backed up for miles waiting for the bridge to open again. Sombody finally told us that we could go down through town and cross the river which wasn't that deep. Hot damn, moving again. We get a little lost in the town, but thanks to a few folks we made it through the maze of streets to the river crossing, which was pretty easy, but I'm glad I didn't lay it down. Back on the road out of town, and onto Zipolete. A couple of close calls on corners reminded me I was still in Mexico and better be on my toes.

The little place turned out to be cool, but super low key and not much going on. The number of tourists is way down. The business owners think is has to do with all the protests going on in Oaxaca, which is just north there a little ways. There is a beautiful beach there, that we almost have to ourselves, and the water here is still nice and warm. Both of us are feeling pretty tired, so call it a night early. Despite my best efforts to get the mosquito net properly fitted around my bed, at least one of those little bastards found its way in and had a feast. I hope I don't manage to get dengue fever, that would put a serious hitch in our trip.

We wake up and are once again ready for the road. We were kind of thinking that if the town was super cool, we would hang there for a couple of days, but it didn't suck us in like Puerto Escondido, so we decided to head north. We were not sure where we were going to make it to by the end of the day, but I started feeling better once I was back on the road.

The travel once back in Mexico is quite a bit faster than Central America. We covered alot of miles and made it all the way to a little town called Taxco (pronounced Tasco). The closer we got, the more determined I was to get to this spot. It was one of Dixon's favorite places in Mexico, and it felt like the place to be. Taxco turned out to be another of my favorite towns on the whole trip. The churches and general archetecture there is amazing. It is the silver capitol of Mexico, so there are many silver artisans there, and the markets are unbelievable. Busy busy busy. Maybe it was just the holidays, but I got the impression it is like this all the time. We spent that evening cruising around checking things out, and drinking tequila in the parking lot of our hotel with some folks from a wedding party, watching all the hustle and bustle below. Taxco is built on a hillside, so everything is steep! Wonderful place.

We are getting closer to Mazatlan and our ferry to the baja!
Cheers!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165941480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165941480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165941480/tpod.html Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:26:35 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Copan Ruinas, Honduras

We got up early on the morning of the 8th and headed down to the water taxi station to catch our morning ride back over to the little town where our bikes were stashed. The boat ride was much faster and less stressful than the one over the evening before, (way less people, which meant full speed!). Our bikes were still there, and didn´t seem to be missing any parts, so we loaded up and headed out. We had been warned by another BMW rider that had come down from Costa Rica the way we were heading back up that there are two bridges that we have to pass over. One on the Panama side, one on the Costa Rica side, that were both in bad shape, and not motorcycle friendly to say the least. We were a little concerned, but we were commited by this time. We found the first bridge and I thought "this doesn´t look so bad". It was an old steel truss railroad bridge, with railroad ties and tracks as the base, and 2, 10 inch wide planks on either side of the tracks for a cars tires to ride on, which wouldn´t be so bad if they hadn´t been completely warped, rotten and in some places gone altogether. Even this wasn´t so bad except the on either side of the bridge there wasn´t a railing or anything else for that matter to keep you from going over the edge into the water 60 feet below, which you could see through the open railroad ties you were driving over. Ok, so just don´t screw up and I´ll be fine. "I´ll go first!" so off I go, not so bad, but I´ll keep my feet down just in case I need to catch myself, which is exactly what happend about half way across the 300 meters of bridge. I caught my foot which started the bike wobbling a bit, and just when I thought I had it, bang! I go down. Fortunately I fell to the center and onto the railroad tracks. Holy Shit! That was close! Troy finds a place to kick stand his bike so he can help me get it back up, but the problem here is that if you´re not careful the kickstand goes through the gaps (that look down into the water below) between the railroad ties. Fortunately some guys in a truck behind us jumped up and helped me get the bike back up and onto the planks. I kept my feet up for the rest of the bridge. Once we made it across the border into Costa Rica we hit the second bridge that was a bit easier, shorter and it had 3 planks! Hot Damn! I was a bit nervous though.

Crusised on up through Puerto Limon, and then into San Jose through a beautiful cloud forrest, with great twisty roads in good shape. Made it to the bmw shop by noon and they changed both our rear tires on the spot, and then let Troy and I change our own oil and do some general working on the bike, which was very cool cause they could have just as easily said no and sent us down the road.

Spent the night in San Jose and got an early start. We were a bit anxious to get out of Costa Rica as it has turned out to be the most expensive area down here. Definitely beautiful and well cared for, but it has been hit hard by the developers. Of course we couldn´t make it out of this country without being stopped by the police, again, this time for passing in a no passing zone, which must only apply to folks from out of town like us, becuase passing in a no passing zone seems to be the norm down here. Our only problem this time was that this cop spoke english, and he wasn´t having any of the " I don´t understand why we got pulled over" bit. So we gave him our fake drivers licenses, which he didn´t like either, and then wanted our passports, which we knew would be a costly mistake so we stalled until he got really pissed and then I knew we weren´t getting out of this one without paying. So 20 bucks later we were back on the road. Damn, that was a tank of gas.

Nicaragua and Honduras have turned out to be wonderful surprises. It seems like every day we get done riding, we say, Wow! That was one of the coolest places yet, and then it gets better! Nicaragua has some areas where the landscape opened up and reminided me a little of Norhtern Arizona. Troy and I both commented on how good it felt to be in wide open spaces again. We stayed the night in this little town named Sebaco. We hoped a ride into town in the back of a pickup truck as the hotel we were staying at was out of town about a mile or so, and was having an electricity outage, so not much was happening there. Plus we could here that the town was having some sort of hoorah going on. Saturday night! It turnned out to be just the farmers market going strong, and a local bar with its music cranked up to 11. Not a whole lot going on, so we walked around, got some ice cream and headed home.

The drive through Honduras has been through these crazy pine forrests. It is obvious that the government lets the area burn as they are in fantastic shape. The smell of pine really reminds me of being home. Spent the night at a little place on a lake, and then made a short run in the morning for Copan, right on the border of Guatemala, which is where we are now. We decided to stay in the little town next to the ruins as we are pretty tired from riding, and this place is cool for sure. We toured the Ruins yesterday, and practically had the place to ourselves (slow on monday I guess).

Our plan is to cross the border into Guatemal tomorrow, check out Antigua Guatemala, then back into Mexico.

For those of you wondering why we didn´t push on to South America, by the time we made it to Panama we knew we would be able to make it down there, but no way to make it back up unless we decided to ship the bikes, so we opted to head back north and save South America for another trip!

Thanks for keeping up on our trip!
Cheers!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165527420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165527420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165527420/tpod.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:56:14 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Bocas del Toro, Panama

Well, were stuck here for the night, so I figured I would do another update real quick. We had an easy day yesterday driving north to a little town called Boquete. Ran into another BMW GS rider who lives there. He took us up to his place that is in this beautiful little valley, which has this whole little community there called Valle Escondido. It was pretty wild. The whole place is this gated community that has it all. Feels like being back in the states somehwere. They were really cool, took care of us, and David showed us around Boquete, and took us to a great peruvian restaurant.
The owner of the little community told us about a road that wasn´t on our maps that would take us over to a little place called Bocas del Toro, or at least close enough to catch a water taxi out here. We had thought about coming here, but our map shows the only access being back up through Costa Rica, but we thought, ¨hell! that sounds easy enough!¨ The drive over was easy enough, but the town we found on the other side wasn´t exactly a picture perfect place to leave our bikes. We were assured they are safe enough, but we´ll see! Grabbed the stuff that seemed valuable enough to take with us, while the owner of the parking area argued with one of the guys that supposedly showed us the place over who was going to get a cut. I´m hoping I still have a bike when I get back.
We then headed over to the water taxi dock and climbed onboard. Damn this thing is full. I had my doubts when WE got on, but the boat waited an additional 15 minutes while no less that 7 or 8 more people got on. Holy moly this thing is going to sink before we ever get out of the little bay! One of the few times I made sure there was a lifevest handy. My first clue was when everybody on the boat put one on, which is normal in most places, but I´ve become accustomed to safety being marginal at best down here, so to see everyone put on a life vest made me think that these little boats sinking is a distinct possibility.
Full speed ahead, we bashed our way across the little bay to Bocas del Toro. Not exactly sure what the draw is here, as the town is not as nice as many we have been to, so there must be some cool things on the other side of the island. Unfortunately were are catching the 6:00 am water taxi back to the little town Amantila (I think?) and back up to San Jose Costa Rica for tires. After that its back up through Nicaragua and into Honduras to Copan!
Hope all is well with everybody!
Cheers!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165267080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165267080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165267080/tpod.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:36:36 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Panama City, Panama

After Jaco we had an easy day down to Domical, still in Costa Rica, but close enough to the border for an easy shot the next morning. It has been raining like hell there so it wasn´t nearly as nice as it had been when Denise and I had been there previously this year (February), so we were glad to be on the road early in the morning heading for Panama.

The Drive down through southern Costa Rica is wonderful. Way less developed and over-run by tourists, it was the most enjoyable part of Costa Rica we had been to. The border crossing was easy, Troy had us out in just over an hour, and we were on our way. The main road in Panama is in great shape almost all the way down, so we were able to put on some miles.We made it to a little beach just outside Panama City Called Santa Clara, camped for 2 bucks each and slept in the tent under a palapa. It was pretty sweet!

Our plan for the next morning was to head into Panama City, possibly get some new tires for my bike, and check out what the locals thought about the drive down to the Darien. It was pouring rain, and traffic was nutty, but we found the BMW dealership and were able to at least get in out of the rain. They didn´t have any tires, and nobody there had been down into the Darien in about 6 years, so we got several conflicting stories about the conditions of the roads, and how safe travel there was. We cruised out to the Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal, checked that out, then followed a crazy taxi driver to a hotel in the city he said was safe. Turned out to be good, right downtown, easy walking distance to the city center, which is hopping with holidy shoppers, although that still didn´t make it feel like Christmas to me. Beer was only 27 cents though.

Next morning we got up early and heading for the Darien and the end of the road. We followed the map out past the airport, and through a pretty run down area outside of there, and then we were on this beautiful road, surrounded by the jungle, and in some spots a really cool lake on both sides of the road.

After a bit we came across our first of 4 miliary check points. The guys seemed friendly, and I was able to get them to sit on our bikes which was pretty cool. We left that spot thinking ¨cool, that was easy¨ but we ran into more military check points that got less and less friendly the farther down the road we went. It was beautifully paved in some sections, then it finally turned to dirt and the military guys were hassleing us a bit. We were still about 50 km from the very end, hanging out at the military checkpoint, having them go over our passports for about the 4th time, asking us what the hell we were doing down there, and this guy drove up that spoke good english, told us that we were pretty much as far as could get anyway as the road turned to muddy hell just down the road. We were on rough dirt at this point, so decided to call it good there. The place we turned around looked sketchy, so we bailed and headed back to Panama City, only to get stuck in some of the craziest traffic yet, lost in yet another downtown market or something, then found the road that put us back on the Bridge of the Americas outta town! yeah! holy shit! that place was nuts!

Made it back to the beach, had a two beers and fell asleep! Heading back north tomorrow!
cheers!
Doug

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165019280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165019280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1165019280/tpod.html Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:22:51 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Jaco, Costa Rica

We got an early start out of Panajachel on Tuesday. The drive down out of the mountains was spectacular, with the clouds blowing down over green hills and a fantastic view of Lake Atitlan, it was quite a sight. We made our way back onto CA2(one of the main roads in Guatemala)gassed up, and got ready to hit the border of El Salvadore. Not sure what to expect after our last ordeal crossing the border from Mexico into Guatemala, we figured it would be best to get there early. I was sure we had just seen the most beautiful part of Guatemala, but the ride through the southern area of Guatemala was fantastic. Super lush every where, and very clean, which is something you notice after awhile. It seemed to be farm and ranchland, and very well taken care of.

We made it to the border around 10:30, and Troy took on the task of taking care of the paperwork. This border seemed less crazy than the previous, but it still took us 3 hours of hanging out, waiting in line, and waiting for the border folks to get back from lunch. Once through it was an easy ride down the coast to the little town of La Libertad, a surfing destination. We stayed at a great little place close to the beach. El Salvadore was definitley different from Guatemala, which is something we are finding to be the case as we travel through each of these countries, they all feel a little different. Maybe it´s just me. Still a beautiful place, but garbage on the beach is pretty normal.

Wednesday we were hoping to make it a ways into Nicaragua. The western section of Honduras is only 140 km or so from border to border, so we figured it would be easy to zip on through. It was my turn to take care of business at the border, and this one would prove to be the craziest to date. We got there around 10:30 and again were mobbed by the guys that want you to pay them for taking you through the process, which in hindsight is not a bad idea. I think if you are walking across the border it wouldn´t be so bad, but taking a vehicle through is an exercise in patience and frustration. Not to go into too much detail, but you have to get a vehicle entry form in one place, pay for the form only in another, pay the fee for the vehicle in another, then take all the reciepts, forms, multiple copies of everything to another office, by this time wait for lunch to be over, and then get everything stamped, they love stamps down here. Three hours later, on the road again. We got lost in a little town as is isn´t always obvious how to get through them, I guess you just have to know, but the people there were super friendly. After we had driven through the same intersection about 3 times, it was obvious to more than a few folks that we were lost, so they got us back on the road, just in time to attract the attention of a bunch of military guys in a truck who stopped us. Before he could get started on asking for paperwork I handed him a map and told him where we were going, he didn´t seem sure what to think, so just gave me more directions and we left as soon as we could.

Exiting Honduras and entering Nicaragua was about the same as before, but not quite as hectic. We stopped at the first little town we came to called Somotillo, found a place and called it a night. Not as far as we had hoped, but in a safe place with a room that had AC (which felt so good it was unbelievable).

Early start in the morning, not sure what to expect of Nicaragua. The road was the worst yet. Huge potholes, where there was pavement, the rest dirt or gravel. After about 20 miles it turned into great pavement through what has turned out to be one of the more scenic places on the trip. The road took us around this very large volcano (I´ll get the name later) which still has steam comming out of it. Unbelievably beautful, and clean. Very surprising. We were reminded again of why you don´t drive at night when we came across two dead horses in the road that had been there for a few days. I don´t think it is real popular to move dead stuff (especially big dead stuff) out of the road. So if you are a small vehicle, you go around it. If you are a big rig, you just run it over again. yikes!

We took a road that bypassed Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua, as we have been trying to avoid big cities. This turned out to be a great idea (Troy´s call), as it took us over another not so great road, but through some spectacular scenery. The road did end up on the outskirts or suburbs of Managua, which were super nice. We got pulled over for speeding, or for being gringos as our bikes don´t exactly blend in down here, and had to pay once again. This time we got off for 15 bucks each, down a bit from the 200 they were asking for. One of the police didn´t look too happy, so we got the hell out of there promptly, but payed more attention to the speed limit, which only applies to out of towners.

The lower half of Nicaragua is as beautiful as the northern section. The section of land that runs along Lake Nicaragua looks similar to southern Guatemala, in that it appears to be farm or ranchland. Surrounded by water it was so lush it was amazing. And everywhere seemed to be well taken care of. This was for sure a place well worth the visit.

I´ll wrap this up as it is getting a bit longer than I like to read. We made it that same day all the way down to Jaco, Costa Rica which is where I am writing this from now. We spent today driving into San Jose to get Troys rear tire fixed as it is still giving him trouble. Hopefully it will last the trip, we´ll see. Got stopped again by the traffic cops, but we have our speil down well, so this time it only cost us 4 bucks each! I love the system down here!

We´re off to Dominical here in Costa Rica tomorrow, then on to Panama. I´ll write more then.

Cheers!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1164635460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1164635460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1164635460/tpod.html Mon, 27 Nov 2006 09:16:18 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Panajachel, Guatemala

The drive down from Puerto Escondido was beautiful, with the exception of the wind through the Tuehauntepec area. A couple of times I thought it was going to blow me off the road completely. We had been warned about the state of Chiapas, that it might be a bit dangerous, but we didn´t have any trouble, and I thought it was one of the cleanest areas we had been to in Mexico. The roads are generally better, and less garbage all around.

We stayed the night in a small town called Mapastapec, about 105 km from the border so we could hit it in early in the morning. The ride to the border in the morning was easy, but it started getting interesting about the time we hit the first section of Tapachula, the last big town on the Mexico side of the border. As we drove downt the road, these guys would jump out in front of you trying to waive you down. We shook our heads and manuevered around them. We had read that the border crossing at Talisman (close to Tapachula, Mexico) was a good crossing, but there would be plenty of people trying to get you to use them as your border crossing "guide", and they were right. As soon as we reached the border it got crazy. We were swarmed by all sorts of folks trying to get us to hire them, change money, or sell us something. We knew it wasn´t required, or particularly difficult to get through the border, but we got tired of telling people no after awhile.

First, you have to get stamped out of Mexico, no problem. Second, you have to get stamped into Guatemala, not too big a problem, except for still being swarmed. Then we moved on to get our tires fumigated, easy enough, about 2 bucks. Finally on to get our temporary vehicle registration. This is not a fast process, and made the permit process in Mexico lookvlike a well oiled machine. You take your paperwork up to a desk, they look at it for awhile, eat some ice cream, talk to some other folks, then give you a piece of paper (a bill basically) that you have to walk about 50 feet away to another window and pay. Stand in line for 45 min, pay, then walk back to the first window and get back in line there. Once you give him the paid bill, he goes back to the computer, eats another ice cream, comes out looks at my bike and puts a sticker on it. Cool, but know I want my passport back. So go back to the first window, get told to go around to another window to pick up my paperwork, and get the same info written in to a huge book. 2 hours later we are back on the road.

The driving in Guatemala is a bit more crazy than Mexico, but we managed to make it to Panajachel, where Denise is taking spaninsh lessons. We got here on thursday (Thanksgiving) and will be hitting the road tomorrow early.

Panajachel is a crazy town on lake Atitlan. Surrounded by inactive volcanoes and small towns. We took a boat taxi to a couple of the towns and spent the day checking them out, and one day hiking a volcano. I will post some pics later on, as the upload speed here is pretty slow.

I´ll write more later and let everybody know what is up!
Cheers! Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1164127320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1164127320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1164127320/tpod.html Tue, 21 Nov 2006 12:19:49 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Puerto Escondido, Mexico

We made it to Acapulco around 3:00 in the afternoon. I took a wrong turn and we ended up in some of the craziest traffic we have seen yet. Driving in this town is full on at this time of day. We managed to find our way back to the strip which runs along the beach, and started looking for places to stay that we could park our bikes. No luck, so we headed off the strip to see what we could find. The first place we stopped, we got directed to a house around the corner that might have a room to rent with safe parking for the bikes. As I came to a stop in the intersection, I lost my footing and my bike tipped over. Fortunately is wasn't one of the really busy intersections, although I still recieved plenty of attention. We looked around for the place we were told to check out, but didn't find anything. We must have looked lost, because a lady saw us and asked if we needed help. We told her what we were looking for and she had us wait a minute. When she came back out she introduced us to a Canadian fellow named Dan who now lives down there. Dan hooked us up with a fantastic place to stay, with a garage for our bikes. He also gave us the grand tour of downtown Acapulco and gave us some great lessons on staying out of trouble while in Mexico.

The ended up staying in Acapulco the next 3 days as it was raining like hell due to a tropical storm off the coast, plus Dan hooked us up with tickets to the Acapulco Symphony Orchestra.

On Friday, a friend of Dan's, Joe, who has been living down in Acapulco for over twenty years (from the states)spent the afternoon showing us the best way to get out of Acapulco, as the signs lead you a direction that is not necessarily the fastest. We were amazed at how cool everybody was, and how much time they took out of their day to make sure ours went better.
It was completely random hooking up with Dan and Joe but we couldn't have gotten luckier, or had a better time. Thanks Dan and Joe!

We moved on down the road Sunday and made it here to Puerto Escondido. We're told it is the surfing capitol of Mexico. When we arrived, the town was going nuts. Turned out to be a large surf competition, complete with fireworks, fashion show, rap band, rock band, and mariachi band. We were tired, but figured we should check the town out a bit more befor we left. Come to find out it slows WAY down once the Mexican holliday and surf comp were over, and is a wonderful place to hang out. We opted to stay one more day as we have our first flat tire to fix (Troy's), and a few maintenance things to take care of, and then we should be hitting the road in the morning, I think. This place is pretty sweet!

Tomorrow we will hopefully get to the Guatemalan Border, spend the night, and then on to Panajachel on Thursday.

Cheers!
Doug
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1163520720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1163520720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1163520720/tpod.html Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:39:53 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Ziwatinejo, Mexico

It is amazing how the only thing dependable about our schedule is that it is always changing. When we left Molaque I was sure we would be making pretty close to Acapulco, but we barely pulled into Ziwatinejo before dark. It didn't help much that I spent the night being sick, so wasn't feeling like charging down the road that morning either.

We pulled into Ixtapa and cruised around there just long enough to get pulled over for going the wrong way through a turn around. Apparently there are some traffic rules down here. So after figuring out what we were being pulled over for, and asking kindly if the policeman would be willing to take the payment instead of us waiting to go court, we were back on the road. Come to find out later we could have paid nothing, or way less than we did and been just fine. Learning all the time.

We then decided that Ixtapa was most likely out of our price range so we proceded to the the town of Ziwatinejo, looking for a place to stay. We ended up finding this little place on the side of the road just outside of town, thinking it would be good and cheap. It was an odd looking place but what the hell, we were tired and anything would do at this point. The lady running the place came out, gave us a funny look, and then explained that we could have a room, but it was going to cost us 150 pesos (15 bucks) for 3 hours. Then it sunk in that this probably wasn't the place we wanted to hang out.

We made it back to Ziwat in the dark, which doesn't sound bad, but driving a motorcycle down here in the dark is not a good idea, and found a hotel where we could park our bikes. The next morning we went into town and found that Ziwat is a very cool place. Downtown is very busy, and driving there is nuts, but it was worth going in to check out.

On to Acapulco next!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1163470980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1163470980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dstrp/southbound-2006/1163470980/tpod.html Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:20:57 -0500 Heading south in Central and South America as far we can and back in 3 months.

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Molaque, Mexico

Well the paperwork turned out to be a bigger hassle than we thought. Once we got down the road to a little town called Empalme, right outside of Guaymas where we were told at the border in Nogales to get our vehicle permits, we found out we couldn´t get the permits we needed to go all the way through mexico. So after talking with a few different people we discovered that we had to head all the way back to Nogales and get our vehicle permits, then continue south. It was thursday evening at this point so we decided to blast off early in the morning, make it to Nogales, get our vehicle permits and head back down to San Carlos, all on Friday. Got up at 5:00 a.m. and made it there and back by 4:30 that evening. The toll roads are great if you need to get somewhere in a hurry.

Finally, we were ready to get moving, so we got up early again and made the run to Mazatlan on Saturday morning. Again we used the toll roads, which are great for going fast, but not much to see, and they kept getting more expensive the closer we got to Mazatlan. Pulled into Mazatlan around 4:30 in the evening after another 500 mile day, Troy and i are whooped. We got lucky and found a cool little RV park right on the water, outside of town away. A nice couple from California invited us over for dinner which was great, as neither of us was ready to get back on the bike and head down the road in search of food.

Sunday and today´s ride have been the best yet. We decided to get off the toll roads and see how we fared on the free highways. They are a little slower, alot more exiting, and the scenery is superb. Sunday evening we made it to LaPenita, just shy of Guyabitas, at a great rv park. We arrived just in time for hamburger and beer night, and we kept company by Melanie, Terry and Leslie, all RV´ers for the winter. They filled us in on great places to check out on the way down, and made sure we had enough beer to sleep well too!

Today (monday) we cruised through Puerta Vallarta and on down Hwy 200 along the coast to a place called Molaque. The scenery was again fantastic, with a great road winding through the jungle, every now and then giving us a view of the coast. Molaque, Like most of the towns this time of year, you can tell it is geared up for alot of snowbirds and other tourists, but they haven´t arrived yet, so fortunately we have been lucky enough to find places to camp.

That´s it for tonight. We should be getting close to Acapulco tomorrow, but not sure how fast the travelling will be. It may be another day after that. It is looking like we should be arriving at the border of Guatemala by Wednesday, maybe Thursday, or possibly friday, who knows.
I know this probably sounds a bit disorganized, but I´m pretty tired, so I´m just writing things as I remeber em.
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