the Kamloops "motorcycle riding fools" south american adventure

[cactusreid]

well we have a snowfall warning here, so a jacket that's a "bit' hot-not a big deal! =you probably get it? seriously,glad to hear that everybody is doing fine. did big Al find out where he stashed his helmet? some countrys will want him to be wearing it.

 

[relentless]

How come you guys aren't camping more? Are you saving that for where the snakes and spiders are really big? Or are you just prentending to "rough it"?

 

[motoged]

Wayne,
Thanks for the gear review

Keep safe, guys.

Ged

 

[mrpeeperz]

hey wayne, chris here, finally got signed up an approved. showing the family the pics and have updated them with the correct spot page. have fun.

 

[mugs]

Well we have been out of Mexico for a day now and are in Antgua Gautamala . I,ll try and recap the last few days going back to Zihuatanejo , a town of around 40,000 people . I had mentioned to the guys that I have a sister who has a place there but did'nt have her address and she has no phone there and being we were a hour from entering the town emailing was to late .Oh well we,ll just find a room because it was getting late in the day. So leading the way into town I picked a random exit and followed a sign to the city center, after afew kilos we came to a traffic circle which we went round exiting to the left. Still looking for a room we rode a couple more blocks and hung a right straight ahead we notice a hotel and its attendent standing at a door , I asked him were the office was and he said take a right and then the first left, so off we go but I missed the turn so I made the second left instead wich went down to the beach . realising the mistake two of the guys waited up on the main road while we rode down to find a place to turn around , this is were I saw a women waiving franticly , having a good look I realized tht it was my sister Wanda and her husband John NFW ! After laughing and hugs we all couldn,t believe how that all happened , we rode right to them ! So we had dinner with them tht night nd went for breakfast the following morning and headed on our merry way.The next two days was more great riding on extrme twisties and elevasion changes . We got to the Guatamala border at around 10:00 am one morning and rode up to the border only to find out we passed the Mexician customs 4 kilos back . going back to get stamped out of the country and applying to get our $400.00 deposits credited back to our visa cards we had one little problem, Floyd lost the receipt for his tourist card and they wouldn,t stamp his passport. Now the fun begins , they tell him to go to the bank wicket wich is just a short ways away and get the guy to look it up on his computer and print it out and that would be it, wrong, the guy couldn,t find it on his computer and informed Floyd with the help of my crappy translating that he had to go to a town 20 kilos away to get the receipt from a bank there ,WTF . So by this time were getting a little pissed so Floyd goes back to the first guy and simply tells him the other guys computer is slow and won,t retreive the receipt, so the guy takes Floyds stuff and stamps him out. What a country. Now off to the Guatamala border and through a street so narrow we could hardly get the bikes through. It was a circus up there people circling around us yelling , it was mass confusion . We had heared of these guys who want you to pay them to help you through the process of crossing and that you should avoid them because its a big ripoff . So Floyd rides right through them all and I,m about to follow when two big red cones were dropped in front off the rest of us, this is were you stop to get your bike sprayed down with who knows what and most of the yelling people were money exchangers , so after getting Floyd backed up and paying the equivlent of about $2.00 dollars cnd we exchanged some money and proceeded to imagrations to get our passports stamped . From there you go to customs to fill out a form present your reg,s , drivers licence, passport and whatever else they ask for, you sign a bunch of papers and they give you your entry papers. Taking the papers over to a bank door guarded by a guy with a shotgun you knock on the door and another guy opens it just wide enough to pass your papers and $160.00 quetzeles through , about 2 minutes later the door opens and he passes them back stamped. Done . Not so fast , Als bike is registered to the shop and they won,t put him through. Now what? They phoned the superior to come down and deal with it. The guy had the smarts to look it up on the internet and that Al is truley the owner of kam. hd , problm solved and off we go. More to come later

 

[2warped4me]

Thanks for the latest update. Now the real adventure begins. Have fun and ride safe.

 

[04klr]

arrrrg! after a long winded batch of typing the friggin internet blipped and knocked me off line poof gonzo! same thing happened to robin yesterday.

hey Chris.
We've made it to guatemala! after a scant 2.5hr transition out of mex and into guatemala we were on our way. our transition thru Mexico was as every other trip there full of friendly helpful people (with the exception of the low life that swiped my runners) and tasty food. Our end of day destination in guatemala was san sebaston de butt ugly, which greeted us with the craziest intersection we've travelled thru yet as we literally weaved thru the zooming intersection full of trucks and busses i fanned the clutch only to have the engine quit due to the elevation, that'll get your attention! i hit the starter button in a blink and zoomed on thru! not many pics on the first day here as it was all i could do to hang on to the bike, floyd as well, eat a bad sandwich at home and you go yuk! eat bad sandwich here and its "donde esta la bano por favor, es el emergencia!". On arrival here in antigua i rolled of the bike and layed in the street and promptly semi fell asleep, as it turned out so did floyd, we're much better today thankyou very much. antigua is surrounded by dormant and semi dormant volcanos that every couple hundred erupt and force the cities to rebuild and have done so many times. three times now the internet has refused to take my pics!! though there are massive bars and locks on every door the people are very friendly and twice while i was "napping" on the street people stopped to see i i was ok including one concerned elderly lady who was insisting it was unsafe laying there, i tried to smile and let her know that I was still paying attention to things.. I give up, the computor refuses to up load the pics sorry bout that perhaps later four times now it has refused. too bad because i had some good spider pics for ya, one pic is from the room in san sebastin when i hung up my laundry to dry on the curtain rod about a gajillion spiders came out to see what the commotion was about, oh and that room was about 10m from the road which was very steep and the heavy trucks descending on full jakes thru the night was real special.

all for now perhaps pics later, who knows. wayne.

 

[cactusreid]

sounds very cool so far gents! it has always amazed me, at just how powerful,those microscopic bugs can be! That's so cool robin that you drove right to your sisters house? There is something up,aka good karma,when stuff like that happens! Hope to see more of your photos wayne , but high speed technology,probably has not got to a lot of the places you guys are going through. Good luck and safe travels guys! Keep us in the loop when yah can.

 

[homer592]

Thanx for the Posts Boys, sounds like Many Adventures already , you need to get out of the city and find some quiet beach for some Sleep, Wayne sounds GrumpY.. Bugs in the guts and no sleep will do that i suppose ~~ Wayne hopefully the Pics will upload, wonder if you made them smaller on the Size setting in camera would Help ? GreaT Pictures so far Hope to see More , Love the Scooter ShOT Big AL..Ohh we got 4o cm fresh fluffy powder at the Peaks Yesterday ..NICE .. Cheers Happy Trails Safe Travels.

 

[04klr]

wahoo after three and a haf sweltering hours and a weebribe later weare in el salvador at some beautiful surf spot splashed inthe warm water a bit and time for grits
more tomorrow and with luck pics


ps floyd says his darian iswell vented andthinks the features like the magnetic neck closure work great (though he seems to beable to turn street lightsonand off)

 

[jbob]

Hey Smitty Boy,all is well with your homestead.Enjoying your commentary and pics. Cheers buddy!!! You guys be safe and well! JB

 

[04klr]

JB we just rode thru the countryside that you did on pedal power a few years ago, el salvador.

and now ducking for cover from all the guns here we are in honduras, I'm calling it that because thats what it cost us to get in here a hundred bucks and we're not really sure what the real cost was? hopefully at least most of that, we used a "helper" referred to us when we crossed into el salvador and though we were happy with the entry result, not so sure about the exit and we'll find out in the morning if we really have everything paid for and in proper order. We've heard this place is corrupt and according to my "cost of a beer" travel cost estimate it looks to be true as a cold one is more than twice what we've paid anywhere yet.
El Salvador was awesome, cool twisty roads, friendly people and prices, 7 bucks a night for a bed at a trendy surfer place and i believe it would be easy to find a room for 10 bucks including a breaky. the coastline scenery was spectacular. It would make a great fly-to travel destination very tourist friendly, we were stopped a few times at roadchecks and i thimk it was mostly just to check us out and say Hola! I will once again attempt some pics. some of which are from a while back now.

the first one is of a huge windfarm in mex. likely around a 1000 of em and we rode right amongst them pretty neat and "friggin huge!" (austin powers)

the next pic. is not exactly a "road closed" section but at is the very least a pay attention section with no warning indicators of any kind

starting in mex. each state has different colored taxis, all sedans you can tell when you've crossed into another state by looking at the taxis, in Guatemala all the busses are pimped out truck nosed school busses which even at high elevations are driven pedal to the metal belching thick chewable black smoke, and the small taxis are, depending on which town a variety of things from thai style tuk tuks, to three wheeled covered trikes (pic following) and bicycles, to motorcycles pulling 5th wheeled trailers, and in each town everything would be the same type of vehicle from the above list, we passed thru one very small town that was choked full of the tuk tuks, and in el salvador all the busses are pug nosed and lifted in the front ala chicano lowriders, and again pedal to the metal.

this somewhat inebriated fellow insisted i take his picture (perhaps he knew his fly was open) then he wanted me to pay him for it, clearly he didn't pay attention when taking the how to scam a tourist seminar.

this pic needs to be cropped, at home you have to have a certified professionally installed car seat to take a baby home from the hospital, while not quite babies, there are at least 20 boys in the back of that truck, which is railing the corners on a very twisty piece of road in the high mountains of mex. and yes is about to be passed by robin

as the pics are taking a loong time to load and its getting late, and we have another border crossing tomorrow, i'm ending this edition. I will say that the crossing into here today was a gruellng 4+ hours, and i know that winter has finally arrived back home, but today it was friggin hot!

 

[jbob]

The one thing I found riding from N to S was that it kept getting better the further S you got.Really enjoyed Nicaragua,found San Juan Del Sur on the south pacific coastline an awesome spot and it was an easy cross into Costa Rica.I think I paid a kid $2 US to hustle us thru. Good luck and keep safe.Cheers!

 

[Bora20]

this somewhat inebriated fellow insisted i take his picture then he wanted me to pay him for it, clearly he didn't pay attention when taking the how to scam a tourist seminar.

His zipper is undone, I think you were meant to pay for something else... There's a hot dog and a pub crawl story in there somewhere...

 

[Zuki]

LMAO!!! What made you look there? And dammit then I had to! Too funny

 

[Ann Vandrick]

Oh you amazing guys - I am loving every picture and story you send to those of us you left behind. All of your friends at Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada are sending high fives and 'atta boys' your way. Al, thanks for calling on Tuesday - your 'coming to you live' description of the environment at the border was priceless. From Al on the scooter (a definite keeper) to the pony-sized cockroaches to randomly riding right to your sister, Robin, (wtf!) to locals trolling with unzipped flies, you all DO know how to add technicolour to a blog! Be well, be safe, and continue to have the time of your lives. Huge hugs for a very Merry Christmas and a round of cervezas for my friends! Ann V

 

[Ann Vandrick]

Oh you wonderful guys – I’m loving every photo and story you’re sending to those of us you left behind. From Al on the scooter (a definite keeper), to pony-sized cockroaches, to randomly riding right to Robin’s sister (wtf!) to photographing locals trolling with unzipped flies – you most assuredly know how to add technicolor to your blogs. Al, thanks so much for your phonecall on Tuesday. Your ‘coming-to-you-live’ description of your environment at the border crossing was great. You sounded as giddy as a kid at Christmas. Everyone at Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada sends high fives and “atta boys” to all of you. Keep the adventures happening and the stories coming – your loyal fans are lapping them up.
Warmest hugs and Merry Christmas to the Fab Five.
Ann V.

 

[cactusreid]

how are all you guy's holding up as you have been riding almost non stop for 20 ish days now? are you going to give anyone a break,or is AL going to have to catch up on the flight over the darian gap?

 

[mugs]

Hi ann thanks for the christmas wishes , after the marathon border crossing into honduras we spent the next day riding on a stretch of road that i have never seen the like of ,pot holes as far as the eye could see for 20 kilometers. Semi trucks swerving from one side to the other to try to miss the big ones looking mutch like a formula one driver warming his tires for the start of the race, and not caring if they were in your lane. You could not avoid them all and al took a big one for the team putting a nice bend in his front rim. The border crossing out was far less of a hassle then coming into the country , we decided to try it with no helpers and it went much better , no bs of they'll make you wait if you don,t pay them and the bs of a road tax was totally false. We spent the last two days on a amazing beach in nicaragua , can,t remember the name of the place but it wasn,t far from a town called el viejo . Stayed with some freinds of floyds , terry and kent who made us feel right at home ,thank you guys ! Thier freind rudy made us a dinner with mussels and lobster soup which was excellent ! So that should answer your question on the break reed. After many miles of topes , tumulos ,vibradores and police checks we are now in costa rica. I,ll turn the computer over to wayne and see what he has to add . Luego amigos

 

[04klr]

over 6000 k now sitting in liberia costa rica now and it rained a bit for the first time on the trip. As Mugs mentioned we were treated to some of the hospitality that Nicaraugua is known for, thankyou kent and terry for your hospitality and sharing your beach with us and to Rudy and his wife for treating us to an unplanned and unexpected dinner treat. With the exception of a case of foot in mouth disease by myself we are fairing the miles well, two days off in fact Reid, one in Antigua and the second at the beach. The border crossings cannot be over exagerated, they are un-b-frickin-leavable! go to adauna #1 and get piece of paper, back to aduana #2 to get the paper stamped, return to #1 with the stamped paper get it signed, return with the signed and stamped paper to #2 arggggggg! today i, with piece of paper in hand (already signed and stamped several times) went into the office to have the police officer put his stamp and signature on it then across the 12feet to the lady to have her turn and she says i have to have the police guy stamp it which i had just done, without getting out of the chair i turned to look towards the officer who was smiling and pretending to read the paper, turns out he didn't scribble the date at the top of his stamp arggg! 3.5 hrs today and that isnt the record, 4 is the time to beat and i hope it doesn't happen.
all for now wayne.