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

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

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

The Long Lonely Desert #5


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

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


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


which led to our first siting of the traveling Mariachi


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

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


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


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


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



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

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


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


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


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

Great start! Some of my favorite places!

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

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


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


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


My view of the situation:


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


And this beach was quite scenic as well:


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


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

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

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


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


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

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


Snorkeling and testing my camera:


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


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


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


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


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

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



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

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


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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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

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


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

Check out this iguana!


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

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


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

Gino