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AZ to Ushuaia
Midknightc3
Registered Users Posts: 86 Big grins
I'm not going to lie, I'm reposting this from another forum as I am entirely too lazy to retype everything. I will try to scan through everything and make sure that it is all fitting to DGrin, not something specific to Expedition Portal. I took this trip earlier this year, leaving the beginning of January and returning the very end of April.
I would have loved to take a truly amazing trip and spend a year or ten traveling around, but we all do what we can with what we have. My friend, girl friend and I started with a little mini vacation to see my girl friends family in LA.
The ghost of Ustadza after she froze to death near Lee's Ferry...
The next morning we got up to a solid layer of ice over everything and a low of 27f. We had collected enough firewood to run the Kelly Kettle and have a little fire though, so that made things much better.
James packing up his tent.
James balancing the Kelly Kettle since we didn't have a level place to leave it.
We packed up camp and drove north through Kanab and Zion, where we stopped to do some sight seeing and walking around to stretch the legs.
Ustadza walking the trail to Zion Canyon Overlook.
Doing a valiant effort of holing the mountain up for people to pass...
The view!
While at the overlook, James was kind enough to take some pictures of the two of us.
While driving Zion Canyon we came across a bunch of deer, but this particular buck was utterly fearless and right on the edge of the road, so I took some pictures.
We drove on to Vegas for the night where we met Ust's mom who was there for work. We had Korean for dinner, but Ust was getting sick so we turned in early for the night. The next morning we got up, checked out, and loaded the truck, only to find that my fairly new Diehard Platinum battery was deader then a door nail. We tried jumping it off another truck in the parking garage, but that didn't work so Ust's mom called AAA. AAA was able to jump us no problem, so we drove to breakfast where I immediately noticed the battery was still dead as the dinosaurs when I shut the truck down. We had a great breakfast, called AAA again, and headed off to Sears to warranty out the battery.
New battery installed (and a $20 install charge for their battery that failed early) we headed off through Red Rocks. We had originally planned to do some hiking, but all the dead batteries had delayed us too long, so we just drove the loop.
We arrived in LA late, dropped off Ust's mom, and went over to her sisters for the night where we had spaghetti and meat balls for dinner. Monday morning we took a walk through the original Farmers Market for breakfast and took a walk through the new mall outside.
We had planned to camp in Anza Borrego Tue night, but Ust was getting sicker so we opted to come straight home instead. Was a long drive, stopped for a late lunch in the desert, but no pictures as we were just driving straight through. Ust is still sick, but slowly getting better so hopefully we will be able to go camping again soon!
Clark
I would have loved to take a truly amazing trip and spend a year or ten traveling around, but we all do what we can with what we have. My friend, girl friend and I started with a little mini vacation to see my girl friends family in LA.
The ghost of Ustadza after she froze to death near Lee's Ferry...
The next morning we got up to a solid layer of ice over everything and a low of 27f. We had collected enough firewood to run the Kelly Kettle and have a little fire though, so that made things much better.
James packing up his tent.
James balancing the Kelly Kettle since we didn't have a level place to leave it.
We packed up camp and drove north through Kanab and Zion, where we stopped to do some sight seeing and walking around to stretch the legs.
Ustadza walking the trail to Zion Canyon Overlook.
Doing a valiant effort of holing the mountain up for people to pass...
The view!
While at the overlook, James was kind enough to take some pictures of the two of us.
While driving Zion Canyon we came across a bunch of deer, but this particular buck was utterly fearless and right on the edge of the road, so I took some pictures.
We drove on to Vegas for the night where we met Ust's mom who was there for work. We had Korean for dinner, but Ust was getting sick so we turned in early for the night. The next morning we got up, checked out, and loaded the truck, only to find that my fairly new Diehard Platinum battery was deader then a door nail. We tried jumping it off another truck in the parking garage, but that didn't work so Ust's mom called AAA. AAA was able to jump us no problem, so we drove to breakfast where I immediately noticed the battery was still dead as the dinosaurs when I shut the truck down. We had a great breakfast, called AAA again, and headed off to Sears to warranty out the battery.
New battery installed (and a $20 install charge for their battery that failed early) we headed off through Red Rocks. We had originally planned to do some hiking, but all the dead batteries had delayed us too long, so we just drove the loop.
We arrived in LA late, dropped off Ust's mom, and went over to her sisters for the night where we had spaghetti and meat balls for dinner. Monday morning we took a walk through the original Farmers Market for breakfast and took a walk through the new mall outside.
We had planned to camp in Anza Borrego Tue night, but Ust was getting sicker so we opted to come straight home instead. Was a long drive, stopped for a late lunch in the desert, but no pictures as we were just driving straight through. Ust is still sick, but slowly getting better so hopefully we will be able to go camping again soon!
Clark
I recommend wearing trashcans on your heads to avoid any accidental exposure to knowledge - Dogbert
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Took us forever to shake the truck shadowing us!
Marble Canyon sunrise.
Yar, it be a frosty morning.
Two people wanting the fire to make itself. [not shown: third person, ditto]
So today (Christmas Day) Streakerfreak went for a ride, picking up a nail just north of Black Canyon City, so James and I went down to help. The damage was more extensive then we could repair at the time, so he just called AAA and got a tow back to town.
The offending nail
James and Phill
Having some fun on the way to meet AAA, it was the only part of the road that wasn't well graded, so I couldn't resist
Clark
Antique store in Cordes just south of Mayer.
Forrest
The gang with Porky (my BMW).
We rode down through Bumble Bee and stopped in Black Canyon City where Phil topped off his tank, before we continued south to the New River exit and FR41. The first part of FR41 was well maintained and we stopped shortly for some lunch.
The view from my seat...
It didn't take too long before FR41 went rapidly from well graded road to a much rougher, rockier, muddier trail. We stopped before a mud hole to stretch our arms before riding through. The first three of us rode through, I told Phil and Forrest I would continue down the trail to take pictures of them riding down. I waited at the bottom of the trail for a few minutes, but no one came down. Wondering what was taking so long, I started walking up and noticed that there were two bikes, but no riders at the top of the trail. As I got a little closer I see James bike sideways in the trail, while he inspects it with great care; Phil standing next to him holding the windscreen. I come walking up and to get the story, and James looks up;
Turns out, when he went through the mud, he caught the edge of a rut, spun sideways, high sided, got in a fight (and lost) with a mesquite tree, broke his top case, and landed in a ditch with a bush.
The windshield went back on with relative ease as it was only held on with rubber grommets, and amazingly nothing was actually broken on the bike. James shook it off and I got to take the pictures I had been waiting for earlier.
The trail continued to get worse as we went, well beyond the abilities of any 2wd I'v ever seen. Less then a mile from the mud hole where james tried to wrangle the mesquite, we came to a rather steep hill covered in fist sized ball bearings. Having just fallen, James took one look at the hill, at Forrest and Phil having trouble on their much more worthy dirt bikes, and started to wonder, "how far is it back to the interstate?"
I got off to check out the trail my self, and after some convincing, James agreed to give it a try (which he was quite successful at I might add).
After James went, it was my turn. I had a rocky start with Porky not wanting to get moving on a steep loose hill, but once we gained a little momentum and traction, we made it up with everyone else just fine.
Feeling good about ourselves and making it up with out any falls, we continued (but our confidence was soon to be bruised again). I stopped to take some pictures while everyone else continued:
Once again I missed out on some of the good action. I came around a corner to a beautiful creek crossing with golden trees, pools of water, and James standing on the far side of a ditch having just picked up his bike on a steep decomposed granite hill. I pulled up next to him, almost falling while crossing the ditch my self, and told James that I would return when I found a better place to park my bike. Nice thought, but my best intentions didn't last long. I could see Phil and Forrest parked at the top of another hill, so I figured I would just ride up to them and enlist some more help. I picked my line, gave it some gas, slid sideways, and stepped off my now napping pig.
The offending hill.
We managed to get both my and James' bikes down to a flat place, and Phil explained they had taken a bypass around the hill I had attempted. Before continuing however, we all agreed it was hot, sunny, dusty, and time for a break. I ate some left over lunch and we all enjoyed some shade near a shallow pool in the creek.
James and Phil
Your's truly
And Forrest resting his eyes
After resting, James remounted his steed, and following the bypass made it to the top with the other two bikes. Forrest rode his bike back down, and being the stubborn folk that we are, we were bound and determined to rode up the harder hill. A quick scoutting made me wonder about my sanity the first time around as it was plainly obvious that while the left side was fairly simple, the right side (where I had originally attempted) was virtually impossible. Forrest went first, and while he stayed on the bike, his first attempt was a complete failure, spinning him sideways and completely off the road.
I gave James my camera and made my way up with ease following the left side rather then the rutted right.
We didn't make it but another 1/2 mi before we had to stop to fix James' bent handle bars, where I also realized I had lost my Spot.
This isn't ment to be a flattering picture of James, but it clearly shows the thoughts of the entire group.
Forrest and I returned to our river side lunch spot while Phil and James continued on. We made it back down and up the bad hill, having found the Spot, and opened the throttles to catch up with James and Phil. The rest of the ride went well, though it took us much longer then we had planned, putting us well after dark. We all agreed that as much as we wanted to complete the proper loop, we were now very cold, tired, and more concerned with getting back for a late dinner. Interstate it was!
It was a great ride, and while it was more then we had planned, I enjoyed all the unexpected challenges. Forrest was quite surprised at how Porky did on rough trails and has finally stopped giving me crap about how his KTM is better, and I was rudely reminded of a lesson I learned long ago as a kid...always plan on being latter then you planned, colder then you planned, and hungrier then you planned...next time I wont bloody forget to bring extra warm gear and food!
Clark
My Gallery
Clark
The gang at the border in Luke Ville where we split ways, Dad SE for work and we went SW for Rocky Point.
Parting shot of Dad
The crappy view from my bedroom window...
Looking east from the roof top patio under a moonlit sky...
And post sunset looking west from the patio
I got up around 630 thinking I'd watch the sunrise, but that only lasted until about 6:30.30 when I said screw that and went back to sleep...Forrest and I didn't get up until 9am, when we then sat on the downstairs patio and drank a few cups of coffee before taking a stroll down the beach.
Forrest infront of the house playing with his new circular polarizer for the first time
The beach
Another shot of Forrest and his new toy...
Wild flowers between the houses
And a shot Forrest took while holding my camera. We were getting the "little" boat ready for 7am deep sea fishing tomorrow morning...gee it sure is a tough life down here, I hope Clay hurries up!
Clark
Forrest and I wen't over to Cholla Bay in a borrowed Jeep, had a Pina Colada, and took some pictures of the local pelicans.
The next morning we left early to go back to Tucson, pick up a few last things like my new GoPro 2, have lunch and drop off fish at my grandparents, and camp out in the desert.
Clark
One of Forrest I forgot to post earlier.
The roof of my friends house.
Neighbors
Looking north towards Rocky Point
Forrest workin hard on culling the 700 pictures that he's taken in the last few days.
Clark
Camp...the picture was taken later in the day, and no, I didn't sleep in the hammock as it's too cold at night.
Our delicious breakfast!
After breakfast we rode around doing some exploring and looking for a good dive shop.
Playing with the GoPro for some time lapse shots.
Taking a look see at a new development going in on a beautiful little bay.
Almost all houses and gated communities had mass quantities of flowers growing infront of them, all deep red's, pink's, and purple's. This picture is true to color...
For lunch we decided we had had enough of spending $10 or more per meal, so we stopped by the Ley's down the street; we picked up some bread, cheese, donut and empenada, papaya, apple juice, and agave liquor (not Tequila???). It was delicious, though the bread needed something more then cheese with it, and I'm not going to lie, that agave crap is just that: CRAP. But we drink it anyways, it was $1!
Our spread.
The appetizer
After lunch I finally got around to setting up my hammock. I wasn't certain that it would work, but I wanted to try using my bike for one side of it. Turns out that as long as you have it set up all in a straight line, it works great!
My thought's on the matter...
And while I was loosing some water wate in the john, Forrest found he had the same thought's about this...
The next day I lay in the hammock (Forrest gets to borrow my recliner this way) and kill time. At some point I had to go down and get fitted for SCUBA gear, but that's about all we had to do (maybe some fishing for lunch?) The third guy, Clay, was supposed to be here the next day so we could leave Thursday, but apparently he doesn't understand schedules. Mostly we don't want a specific schedule, but we were supposed to leave last Monday, putting us in Panama by now, but multiple changes later he agreed to be here tomorrow...that has now changed to Thursday. I had Forrest pass along that we head south Friday whether he's here or not, we've had enough waiting. The up side of this of course is that I get to go diving Thursday morning, and try out the GoPro underwater!
Clark
From there we continued south to Los Mochis where we stayed the night.
Riders eye view with the GoPro
Some scenery
We ended up taking much longer then planned to get there, so we pulled into town at dusk, and not wanting to ride around in the dark we took the first hotel we could find, which claimed to have internet and good security. Turns out, the security part was right, but the internet only worked if we sat on the ground outside the main office, and only for about 5min at a time; as consolation they gave us the jacuzzi sweet. Given as sore as we were, we put the jacuzzi to good use (they were a little concerned that we were not concerned about only having one bed...I'm sure the remains of a bubble bath in the jacuzzi didn't help their perception any in the morning!) After a decidedly heterosexual night, we left Los Mochis at the lazy hour of 9am and picked up breakfast at a taco stand at the first money suck (toll) of the day.
Un carne y un puerco!
Drinks came from the vender next door
While getting our Coke, some crazy guy came by and started ranting about how he could give us a meal for only 2 pesos; or maybe it was 2 dolores? He couldn't remember...
The cook
and her kitchen and helpers
My thoughts on her cooking skills...
We had been warned that south of San Carlos the Federales didn't patrol and it was Cartel controlled, but as yet we hadn't seen any sign of this with every toll having a half dozen heavily armed Federales with multiple patrols in between. This all changed quite rapidly. We had gotten rather used to seeing military and police trucks with high canvas covers for troops, so when we saw a grey truck similarly equipped, we didn't think much of; only when they passed (and smiled and waived I might add) we realized they were by no means military or police of any government. Knowing the heavy police presence at tolls, and that there was one coming up, we began to fall back a bit so as not to be involved in the potential shoot out at the toll 1km ahead...only when we got there, there was no sign of Federales, Marines, or Army, and they gunmen payed their toll and drove on...we were out of the Federal Zone! Due to no fault of the militia, that was our last toll. We decided we had had enough of paying the same as a large truck, so we got off and took the scenic road instead. At one point we decided we wanted to take an even more back road, which lead to lots of aimless wandering around back roads, lots of confused locals, and then a few amused locals when we ended up coming back the same way realizing that we weren't going to get anywhere that way. The ride was absolutely beautiful, and as expected the small towns were much more interesting then on the main toll road. Shortly before Mazatlan we encountered a heavily defended military checkpoint, then an almost as heavily armed Police checkpoint right on the edge of town. I apologize for not having any pictures to show of this ride, but we were trying to make time so I didn't have time to pull out the camera. We pulled into old town and found a caffe with internet so we could do some research on where to stay the night. Initially we were thinking the famous Hotel Belmar with advertised prices of $300 pesos ($25USD?) for a beach front suite, but in reality they are $450 pesos, so we are now sitting in the Hotel Lerma just a few blocks away (highly recommended for anyone looking for a cheap, $150 pesos, place with good secure parking and nice room!)
We wandered around, studied maps, did time to distance calculations, explored, and took lots of pictures. Not too much to tell, so I will just get to the important stuff with a few captions where necessary.
The start of old town
Apparently the artest had had enough, she looks rather disheveled and obviously not in the mood to continue working
Clark
This little girl was having a grand time dancing around in her chair right until I brought up the camera, then she was suddenly all business
I love the abundance of flowers here!
And the color of all the buildings is great too!
I'm a great fan of good door pictures, so I decided to start playing with those too (not something I have actually studied, so I'm learning as I go)
This poor little guy was sitting in a window, apparently convinced that something was going to come out of my camera and end it all...
Might have had something to do with the reason his house was bared and ringed with this stuff...
The next morning we started early, headed for somewhere Guadalajara way, then on to Guanajuato where we will try to stop in and see a ranch family my dad knows, maybe get one of the younger girls to give us a tour of the historic silver town. We will see how that goes as they have no warning that we are coming and are a very modest family with no phone or internet with which to contact them.
Clark
We turned off on a few side roads and did some exploring, which was great for the view, the locals, and experiencing how the bikes handled off road fully loaded.
Lunch was at a great little family place in the hills above Tepic. Their house specialty was asado, which sounded amazing so despite it being a little more expensive then tacos, we both indulged.
It was such a nice place that we ended up staying there almost two hours, which put us behind for getting to Guadalajara, but it was well worth the stay. From there we blew threw Tepic despite some horrendous traffic jams. After Tepic was a beautiful ride, and thanks to some more great views and trail exploring we were beginning to run rather late even for Tequila.
While stopped on some twisties for the above photos, we also ran into a German couple who have been on their bicycles touring around the EU, US, and Mexico for the last 8 months. They were really neat people, and I wish I could say I got a picture, but right as they rode up I slipped taking a picture of the scenery and tore my arm up pretty bad (picture in my smugmug for anyone interested, I'll spare the rest by not posting it here...) We weren't even close to making it to Tequila, so we just picked a random hotel that looked safe for the bikes and crashed for the night.
Tuesday morning we just hit the road and made time to Guanajuato. My Dad worked with a family that has a ranch south east of Guanajuato that we were told would be a great place to camp. They have no power, no phone, no internet, and no idea we were coming, so we wanted to get there in the afternoon so as not to ride up and surprise them when they were winding down for the night. We made amazing time getting through Guadalajara, but were less lucky getting through Zapatlanejo, which is a big fashion center, and the shoe capital of the world. Fromt here it was a pretty easy ride into Guanajuato, where we followed Dad's directions to a place to eat outside of town called Dona Chuy's.
After dinner we followed the rest of the directions, which were spot on down to 1/10 of a km and found the ranch and Munoz family about 1km across the valley and 25km from Guanajuato. The rancher, Lupe, was out working in the mine near by, so we introduced our selves to his wife Clara and I did my best to explain to her (in my very broken spanish) that I was the son of the American geologist that her husband had worked with a few months prior, and that we were hoping to camp on their property. She understood, and said that Lupe would be back within half an hour and that we needed to talk to him, so we parked our bikes and hung out.
Lupe showed up right on time, and as soon as Clara told him who we were and what it was that we wanted, he got very excited. He came over, shook our hands (which was more like crushing our hands) and then slapped us on the back, which almost knocked us to the ground...did I mention he's a big strong guy who has spent is whole life ranching and working in the mines?
Did I also mention he was very excited to have us there? We decided we would camp up by the mines the first night, but agreed we would stay with them at the ranch house Wednesday night. Dad had given directions to an old adit from the 1890's which I thought would be a great place to find a sleeping bag sized flat spot, but as it turned out the road leading up there was rather steep, loose, and windy. This combination, mixed with being exhausted from riding all day meant that when I went to start after a short break, Porky bucked, sputtered, stalled, then laid over for a nap. Forrest's KTM, not wanting to miss the opportunity and nudged on by a solid impact from Porky, laid over for as well. Ok fine, we'll camp further down the mtn. No pictures of this as it was dark by the time we made camp.
Wednesday morning we awoke late and rode back down to the ranch where Lupe and one of his daughters were working so that we could unload our bikes before heading in to explore Guanajuato. We wanted to stop at Dona Chuy's for breakfast, but they were packed. Dona Rosy next door was almost as good and empty.
I'll only post my favorites of the day as there are many, most of them being of doors, which the town has an amazing plethora worthy of pictures. For those of you who don't know, Guanajuato is an old silver mining town built on a hill side, so for space saving reasons many of the roads are underground which is great fun to ride!
Clark
While walking around I saw this old guy with a photogenic face, so I walked over and said what I thought was, "can I take your picture?" Turns out what I said was, "tu pictura porfavor?" which translates as can I have you painting...NO clue what he thought of this, but he got very excited and said yes. Sadly, thinking that he had just agreed to get his picture taken I was not very fast about taking the shot. As soon as he realized what I wanted his toothy grin vanished and he got angry and started saying no. Too bad, I had already taken the picture, scowl or no!
The church doors. While taking this picture a little girl started to walk by, and realizing I was taking a picture she ducked and ran which I thought was funny. Forrest happened to be taking a picture in that direction anyway and managed to get a fabulous shot of her running, so hopefully I can get him to post that in here!
We returned to Dona Chuy's for dinner and then back to the ranch where Lupe was waiting for us so that he could make some amazing Cow Boy Coffee and chat with us about what we were doing.
Lupe stoking the fire for the coffee
Clara washing clothes
Their humble abode
We sat around the fire shed and chatted for a while. About the time coffee was ready Lupe asked if we would be interested in some bread, to which we said yes. Turns out that while they were excited about that answer, we felt horrible and utterly confused at what happened next. Rather then just walking to the house to get bread, everyone jumped up, piled in the truck, and before we realized what was going on they drove off into town to buy us some bread. We were extremely honored and horrified that this family, surely making very little money, would drive all the way into town to get us some bloody bread when we really weren't hungry, we just didn't want to be rude and say no to what we had assumed was home made bread in the house :Wow1: They returned about 30min later with a huge tray piled high with pastries...we then understood the excitement at our saying yes! We sat around for another few hours eating the delicious bread they were so proud of and drinking coffee, using one of my flashlights wedged in the roof for light. The girls slowly made their way to bed, leaving just Lupe who would get up every few minutes, remind us that there were more pastries to be eaten, and stoke the fire.
I managed to get this shot one of the times that he got up to put more wood on.
Forrest and I were beginning to feel bad again, knowing that Lupe had to work early and we were keeping him up, but eventually he headed off to bed, leaving us to roll out our bags under the shed roof.
Thursday morning we awoke from a long night of barking dogs, and as we rolled up our bags Lupe and Clara came out and began making a feast of a breakfast for us.
We started with some more coffee
Then Clara began making tortillas
Lupe fried up some eggs
Just in case that wasn't enough, there were of course more pastries from the night before, and Forrest and I also contributed some honeydew mellon, papaya, and pineapple. It was an awesome breakfast, leaving us with happily stuffed bellies
I took a few quick shots around the ranch houses, and then it was time to go as we needed to get to Mexico City at a reasonable hour.
We made good time down to Mexico city where we were able to find Forrest a much needed rear tire and some other parts before following our next host, Lance, to his house in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City last night.
Today has been a long, enjoyable, and frustrating day, but seeing as how we will now be here for the next few days while Porky gets a new clutch, I will have plenty of time to update all that at a later time. For now, it is 230am and I am totally exhausted.
Clark
That broke while we were riding over to Taxco, which is a really neat silver town, simular to Guanajuato, but even more mountainous. Despite the cable breaking on the way into town, I managed to coax the bike into a parking spot so that we could enjoy the town regardless. It's quite touristy, but also quite beautiful. Sadly, as per most of the places we've been, I don't have any good landscapes because it was just too hazy and you can barely make out the town. I do have some from in town though!
One of the first little restaurants we saw was covered in these flower...
As we walked into the Zocalo (central park or the like, depending on your translation), two little girls came running up asking if I wanted some gum for 10 pesos, so I told them gum and picture for 10 pesos...they thought that was a fabulous!
A view from our beer drinking patio looking East. This is upwind from the edge of town, hence why it is clear.
A rather colorful store...
Another shot of a little girl in town. She was apparently confined to the store and was not pleased to be there...
While walking around I found a perfect gift for Ustadza, but didn't have enough cash on hand and needed to find an ATM. While we were out looking for a functioning ATM, we got caught up in a parade celebrating the patron sait of the town? Or at least thats what I think it was all about.
Another girl on the square stuffing her face. For the record I'm not sexist, there were far more little girls then little boys.
The center of a hand made straw floor mat.
Church steeple. Apparently the son of a very rich miner wanted to be a priest, so the miner built the cathedral with his own money and the blessing of the Catholic Church in a record 10yrs. The interior was Godly with 24k gold plated everything, and different kinds of elaborately carved wood, etc. I tried to take some pictures but I didn't have a good lens for low light, so they were all way too blurry.
After having a good look at the town, we hit up a moto repair place on the way out of town to get a universal clutch cable installed. Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried driving a manual anything in heavy stop and go traffic and world class rude drivers with no clutch? Let me tell you, you are NOT missing anything!
It is a long confusing story of miss communication and lack of mechanics knowledge, but we were lead to believe that not only had the cable broken, but that the clutch was completely shot. With this news we rode out of town trying not to think of the impending delay waiting for a new clutch. With the air cooling it was also clearing up, so I was able to get this by putting the camera on the railing of the moto shop and taking a long exposure. Gives a good idea of the town and it's prize cathedral.
The next day we left my bike and Lance was nice enough to let me borrow his 1200GS (he rides the GSA) and we took off for Tepoztlan. Lances girl friend and her two daughters came along in the car, and they treated Forrest and I to a feast of local foods. I can't even begin the remember all the names, but I will caption them with the simpletons version;
Yes, those are grasshoppers, and they were delicious when all made up!
Squash flowers made into stir fry. Again, delicious!
And in our opinion, the best thing we had was the corn fungus! Trust me, it really was amazingly good, and I would eat it on a regular basis if I could find it!
The salsa was amazing as always, and I love how they make it from scratch and serve it in these bowls.
Waiting for our food to arrive...
Afterwards we wandered around the town for a while watching some local indian celebration, eating cotton candy, and looking around the mid 1500's Spanish cathedral before heading back to Lances for the night.
We took it easy Sunday, not even leaving Lances. On Monday we took the bike in to the local BMW expert who played with the clutch and said it was adjusted wrong, and that while the clutch is worn to the last 25% or so, it should make it to Argentina no problem. This was amazing news, as that meant we could leave Tuesday rather then Thursday or Friday, giving us more time to see the sights while getting to Panama in time to sail on the Independence. We agreed however, that since we had to ride through Puebla where the well known BMW mechanic was and who had all the needed parts, we would still stop in and get a second opinion, if he didn't like it he could go ahead and change the clutch starting right then. More good news that night, as Clay finally showed up, looking like the Beverly Hillbilly.
Clark
We camped in the park that night, and all thought it would be real slick to sleep in the hammocks. Just a little foreshadowing here, Forrest looked at the starry sky and asked, "you don't think it's going to rain do you?" I of course looked at the same starry sky and said something to the effect of, "no way..." WRONG. All our gear was sitting out, strewn about where ever it had been convenient to set it, and Forrest had his tent up with no fly just as a place to store things during the day when we were gone. Well come about 1am? (I really don't have a clue) it started to sprinkle some, to which we all pulled the hammocks over our faces and went back to sleep. Well long story short it soon began to pour, and despite our best frantic efforts, the tent had standing water in it, our riding gear was wet, the sleeping bags were soaked, etc. I got lucky as I woke up faster and managed to get my tent set up and sleeping bag in it while it was only damp, but we had moved all our gear to a covered area, which as it turned out merely funneled the water through holes in the roof and straight onto all our gear. We got up in the morning, feeling rather depressed about the whole thing, and slowly slogged off towards the Guatemala border. It rained most of the way, and my rear suspension gave up the ghost just south of Palenque. We made it all the way to Paso Hondo where we spread everything out to dry, and stunk up the room something fierce with sweaty wet clothes, and I managed to find an internet caffe where I could order some anniversary flowers for Ustadza to be delivered the next day.
Saturday we had an easy border crossing and met a Brit, Alex, who is traveling around in a van with surf board. He was pretty excited to meet some people who spoke english, and is now a member of the group until San Salvador in the next day or two. With nice clean dry gear, I promptly dumped the bike in a mud hole going through some construction, coating the right side of the bike, and me, in heavy mud.
A view of my dash and the scenery riding along CA1.
Forrest patiently waiting while I play with the camera.
We made it to Antigua in record time from the border, and had a blast riding there as CA1 is hands down the best road we have been on since we crossing into Mexico, and very windy through the mountains, enabling us to just rip along. I have very depressingly few pictures of Antigua as we went out for breakfast, which overall wasn't too photogenic, though I have a shot of my plate, which was eggs, chorizo, and beans.
After that we went back to the hotel and dropped off all our gear thinking we would just walk down to the corner for coffee. Turns out leaving the cameras was a huge mistake as we walked around the whole city, used up all our exploring time, and didn't get a single bloody picture of this beautiful city. Here are the few I took walking back from breakfast.
Clark