Ok, pologies for the late update ladies and gent, Wifi VERY sporadic here is Xela so I am doing a Cafe hop to find the best Wifi to meet your needs :rofl

Ok, El Chol To Antigua

First things first we had to get Maya out of the market that had set up earlier in the morning, luckily it wasn’t tight and they all thought it was pretty funny.





The road started out as dirt and we had sporadic tar seal of race track quality here and there mainly in towns then back to dirt and with the occasional bordred bridge thrown in.



The entire road was being revamped with heaps of work being done, the entire side of a main town street blocked of with concrete formwork, concrete trucks, workers, screeds etc so they were paving a huge section of the road.





There were newly constructed bridges and detours everywhere which made for interesting riding, this didn’t stop us from getting lost and having a grande tour of a small town through streets no wider than a small car.... it was great fun.





At one stage we were stopped completely by a big digger hacking up the road and were mobbed by little bikes....when the truck left and the road cleared it was like a MotoGp start with bikes fizzing off everywhere trying to get out front ... it was hilarious to watch so we calmly took off giving them all the lead until they reached top speed then we blazed on by like they were standing still ... the look on their faces was funny.



That is Valentino getting the right line out on the right :rofl



Carrying on down the hill the road was that of a freshly laid supermoto circuit and beautifully finished.



Arriving in Antigua we set too trying to find economic accommodation but first I went and found Taz @ Moto Mundo which I did, for those wanting to find him easily the GPS coords are in the above post.

Taz is a great guy and seriously helpful, he took us to a hotel that was reasonably priced and had solid Wifi.

We could not park Maya in there so Taz said no prob leave it at his shop .... easy.

We got settled in and had a walk around town splashing out of a MEGA frappe, it was beautiful.

Tea that night was spent with Dan and Elaine some travellers we had met at Utopia lodge in Semuc Champey... they trustingly lent us $100 Q as we had left our money behind, the restaurant is called Por Que No and the food was excellent.



The climbing rope to get into the loft





REAL food



Next morning I went back to Tazs workshop to spoon off the stuffed MT21 and spoon on a shiny new one.

Also on my list to do was place a fine mesh in front of the radiator to stop fine mud clogging the radiator fins, Kiwi fix will do :clap.



That evening we meet up with Dan and Elaine, Dave and Jana at their hostel for happy hour drinks and a Dave Burger, good times, good chats.

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

Not going to write much as the pictures do more of the explaining, the first photo is one I should have put in the last post of our HUGE Frappes so when we hit Antigua again these are on the list



Antigua is a fairly "gringo" town with many foreigners there, felt kinda funny but to be honest I really like it.

It is a very nice place with the old town typically tidied up and revamped.

The church in centro



There small emblems cast into the footpath for moto parking, something we hadn't seen before.



Very old building having suffered major damage, not sure if it is old age or if the civil war took its tool



A very typical street in old town, makes for interesting riding especially when they get wet :eek1



Local markets selling all sorts



Locals selling their goodies



The place is alive with brightly coloured buildings, this is very typical here at least in old town



We are looking forward to going back to Antigua to have a better look around and meet up with Julio and go on some local rides, also we "should" understand a lot more Spanish which we are really looking forward to using to get in the depth of the Spanish speaking countries rather than just getting by.

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

An uneventful ride once we got out of Antigua, we had a local who decide he wanted to fit in where we were behind a truck and he literally pushed us out of the way, I tooted our spastic horn then blew passed him leaving him stuck behind the trucks in a cloud of diesel. CC beats arrogance! :clap

We did have a wee moment on a corner when we hit heavy rain with a greasy patch and coupled with our shiny new rubber was a bad combo, only 1 km down the road a car had lost it and tried to jump the centre island too..... the island won BIG time :eek1

The road was absolutely mint condition and winding around hills and valleys so a nice ride



The road just before Xela took us up to 3031 meters or 9944 ft for you imperialist, this of course took us well into the fog zone and thus cold, at one stage we slowed right down to about 30 km/hr as we could not see a thing.



Xela was nice and cool on arrival... 20 degrees!!!!! .... cool .... listen to me roflI must be getting acclimatized and I have to admit during the rain it dropped down to 13 degrees so I turned on the heated grips as I was wearing my summer gloves.... gettin soft. :evil

We found our escuela (school) and found out where our host family is, they have courtyard so Maya is safe which is essential.

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

Xela Week One

Starting at escuela (school) is a whole new experience after not being there since 20 years young ... now at 46 years young here I am again...don’t think I will get the cane this time tho.

I was introduced to my teacher Dayma, she was very fluent in English to the tune of 0, luckily her Espanol is fantastic.

So with deafening silence we started ...... ummm ....... yeah.... my name is Andi and I am a moto bikeaholic

OK, we did get going after a slow start, luckily with spending 4 months in Mexico and 3 weeks in Cuba I had a basic knowledge so I could pick up the ball and run with it which was our saving grace.

At first I thought it was a complete disaster with her not talking english then when I thought about it I was there to learn Spanish so “sink or swim” here I come, luckily I could swim albeit a little but it was enough to understand her and start making ground.

Me wif my skool book ... just like a mug shot in jail



And Ellens



With the first day finished I am surprised I got home cos my head was not on my shoulders and thankfully autopilot took me home to a good feed waiting for me.

To be fair I had mixed emotions, one of accomplishment, one of stepping outside my comfort zone, one of total torment and misunderstandings so apparently I had a very successful day.

Another student who had been there for 5 weeks said if you go home feeling you know it all you have stuffed up, these words are very very true.

Fast forward to Friday to the end of the first week that went faster than my first date with a hot chick I feel in my mind that I have actually achieved a huge amount, not knowing it all and coming home every day with a saw head and having to focus hard to answer simple questions I know I am going forward.

Ellens teacher Kartie



Action shot with my teacher Dayma



There is also the aspect that we are living with our Guatemalan host family who speak 100% Spanish only so the Kiwis have been teaching them Chanish and Spinglish (known as Spanish to the educated people) coupled with smiles and larfs which go a long way.

All in all a very successful week so obviously I have no clue what is going on.

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

Xela Week Two

Greetings people, this week has been a trial of man and machine, I thought I was a machine but nup. :eek1

The week started like every school weeks starts when you are having your mid life crisis and learning a second language ..... for fun.:huh

Although I managed to drop a few bombs in the Latin American section of ADV Merino Wool Shirts?? - ADVrider in my Merino T Shirts thread (go have a look at my expense) progress has been good.

Everyday I felt bombed in the head means I am going forward, Ellen on the other hand is flying through with honours and doing extremely well.

We are surrounded by mostly younger folk (hate saying that) ((approx 15 - 20 years younger than us)) and wanted to feel a little more sporting although most of them take their hats off to us for our trip and they too feel totally spent after each day so we don’t feel so bad knowing that. :clap

Ellen decided to ditch her grey hair and sportingly go slightly rojo (red), I decided it was time to honour my long time want of a getting a chain tattoo ... so I did just a symbol of my passion for motorcycles and mountain bikes ..... hope I never wonna buy a BMW 1200 GS !!!!



Finished pic will be posted when complete :evil

So all in all really enjoying Xela and the Spanish lessons as they will make such a difference south of here.

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

Xela, The Weekend No Two

Sabado (Saturday) a leisurely start, breaky and the usuals.

Game plan was to catch up with Dan and Elaine in San Pedro at Lake Atitlan.

Setting off from Xela we fueled up and looked down the road, the entire main road out of town for (as it turned out) 10 km was closed for a cycle race coming into town. :huh

Hmmmm, needed a game plan to get out cos we had no other way of getting out of town, seeing another big bike with lights on and camera gear ...hmmm ...saweeet.

We rode across the road, passed the Police and some organiser looking types with day glo jackets and proceeded to head out of town at around 40 km per hour staying close to the crowd who seemed to assume we were crowd control.

I switched on the LED lights, Ellen had her camera out so we carried on with thousands of people lining the streets and us looking like official crowd controllers staying in the right lane!!!



So we carried on looking as official as we could pushing the crowd back who respected our authority and we carried on all the way out of town, 3/4 the way out we had a Police vehicle come up behind us then beside us .... they waved at us and acknowledged the great crowd control job we were doing and carried on....too easy, these guys even have a welcome sign :rofl



It was really surreal seeing thousands of people lining the streets and we having the entire road to ourselves, the racing bikes had already headed passed us in the opposite direction so we knew we were not causing trouble and turns out unwittingly helping out, Ellen waved to the crowd and they waved back so we just ran with it. clap

So back down to earth from ten minutes of respect and royalty we carried on our merry way .... Mrs.Garmin was having a siesta and sent us AWOL, we found ourselves taking an incredible little shortcut which turned into a very steep and rutted dirt road, down to first gear and making our way up I was hoping it was not going to get much steeper as I was running out of skill very quickly.



We popped up and out onto the main road and literally had the bike length to stop in on the shoulder and given I was still up it she was all hands on deck to stop with big suspension compression and full anchors.

I headed straight across the road only to find we where heading the wrong way, Mrs.Garmin then got her shit together recognising we were on a main drag and told us to turn around .... in 6 km!!!!

We stopped, looked around, with no-one watching I lined up a plastic bottle on the curb using it as a ramped and we jumped the center island and back on track.

The rest of the trip was normal so that was easier and with the day being stunning we had epic views 3000 metres above stress level seeing for mile each side.

I missed our turnoff, was gonna do another stuntman maneuver but we had Feds watching us and given our earlier game we decided to play it safe and take the next turn off in which we rode through villages etc so quite a cool wee side tour.

Carrying on the road to San Pedro we crested the hill which overlooked Lake Atitlan, coupled with the clear day and our elevation we were wowed.



With potholes, shingle, fine powder etc we finally made it to San Pedro, fluffing around we tried to find a cafe with Wifi so we could contact Dan and Elaine so we rode up the street ..... well their she was on her way back from a tramp so we pulled up beside her and said “where do you think you are going?”



Being a non petrolhead and tired she didn’t even recognize us until we stopped so it was funny.

San Pedro is a cool wee place, very gringo but nice, this is the alleyway leading to our hotel which was 50 Q so about $6.45.



For some reason which are to find out yet some old waterfront building are in the water and half submerged.







Wifi .... yeap :evil



This place the basement is totally under!!



The "ex" waterfront still makes for great photos.



There is some really groovy painted shops there too with incredible colours.



The cab drivers seem to be having some sort of hotrod competition dressing their taxis with all sorts



On Sunday morning we walked up the hill behind the town and watched soccer game, these guys were good with some real expert footwork.

See the ball, 1/4 of a second after I took that pic the ball slammed the fence straight in front of our noses .... that is 300mm away :eek1 ... I shit myself



Leaving San Pedro the streets wee busy with markets and we found a sign, no need to say anything more :eek1





On our return home at 3200 meters the fog came in so thick we were down to first gear in places and the temperature dropped to 8 deg C

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

Great report,photo's up to your usual standard.

Buenas dias de Guatemala

Good morning from Guatemala

Today is our one year anniversary having been 365 days on the road, we left New Zealand on 3rd May 2012.

We celebrate our day in Xela at our Spanish School with our other inmates over dinner and drinks

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

Congratulations Andi & Ellen....One year already! Well Done! time sure flies....

I hear you with the Espagnol at our age....old dog, new tricks etc...

Keep up the good 'work' guys!

(man) Hugs from Lisa & me

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

Heya guys great to hear from you.

Espanol gettin better s l o w e l y

Man hugs accepted and big hugs to Lisa

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

Xela Week Three

Well another torturous week of espanol full on training and learning, head saw everyday so progress is good.



This week Ellen and I did half time change sides with our teachers, Ellens original teacher somewhat more fun than mine. :clap

I learnt that in spanish if someone says “es muy caliente” it is very hot, if you say “yo estoy muy caliente” (I am hot) it means “I am hot for you and want sex” :huh :evil :eek1:lol3:eek1:shog

Do I seriously need to explain on a hot day my wee stuff-up .... no I didn’t think so, lets just say gramma was not my strong point when I was younger and whaddaya know it still isn’t ... but I am learning, I should be out of jail next week. :hung

Wednesday night we were treated to a lightning storm, we were about 15 minutes late back to the casa to catch the storm on top of Xela but it did provide some neat backdrops again the mountains.

Muy bonito (very beautiful)



Just stunning watching the anger and listening to it :clap



What a treat clap





Got the mid week study blues and had to take a pic cos this is just wrong, Maya lookin lonely and me wanting to go for a ride rather than study so a severe warning to other travellers of these inherent dangers.:evil



So with a mostly uneventful week at school we were looking forward to Friday for two reasons, firstly it is Friday and our working week finishes, secondly and more importantly it was out 1 year celebration on the road so with a potluck dinner at school planned it was game on.

This is the menu board and I will explain one word which essentially you can read the entire board, each of us had to bring something and note it so we didn't end up with 20kgs of tacos with no filling, the word you need to know is Frito .. this means fried, the menu was recklessly attacked by an american :rofl .... the rest is up to you :evil ... do read it all.



Armed with a box of cheap (frito) wine, a (frito) chocolate caked lovingly baked by visa and some home made (Frito) guacamole we went to the party with our school amigos.



365 days since we evicted ourselves from New Zealand and here we are back at school.:huh

The night was an early finish (11pm) for us given Ellen had a 5.00am start and I was heading away for a ride.

Good night all, thanks to all who have followed us and supported us through thick and thin. clap

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

Xela, The Weekend No Three

Sabado (Saturday).... no leisurely start today, things to do, people to meet, places to go, Ellen hopped up at 5.00 am for her hiking trip up Tajumulco Volcano the highest in Central America, breaky as usual for me though.

Meeting up with Juan (what car?? from ADV) we were also making our assault up the mighty volcano but ours was at a gentlemanly hour of 9.00am.

Leaving Xela was easy with local knowledge and we were soon up to 3000 metres looking down on the world, the road conditions pretty good with the usual Guatemalan stuntmen on the road and the weather playing perfectly into our hands.



They paint the big rocks purple with the curbing painted purple and white, something we had not seen before, purple and orange go well together :evil.



Turning off at San Sabastian we started our assault on a cobbled road that soon turned into dirt and rock, wet in places and rolly rocks wanting to steal our front wheels we had to keep our mind on the job.





Juan was obviously thinking of hot chics or something as his bike decided it was time for a break and lay down, Maya on the other hand was scared of getting her hands dirty and stayed upright.

We rode a few km up to a turning point and stopped there, the track was getting steeper and wetter and with the fog rolling in we were not going to see anything and it was almost 2.00pm by then anyway so we turned back, also the bit we are allowed to ride on finishes at the red hilux just above my right mirror ...you will have to look hard.



Views all round when the mist cleared momentarily



The two amigos



Looking back down the hill with the fog beneath us.



Juan on an easier section on the way down



The paved section only 1 km from the road


Given the time we stopped for lunch in a place call Los Vegas ....it was kinda the same as were were on the main drag.... not a bad view :evil



From there taking the coastal way home we ventured off into the unknown, although we didn’t get lost we had a very, VERY good look around with Mrs.Garmin not being as local as we wanted her to be.

Riding through some stunning back road territory we hit some mainish roads and swapped bikes so I rode the 990 Adventure and Juan rode the 950 SE, this was a great comparo back to back with the SE engine being a lot smoother in the engine..... hopefully not from low compression!!!:eek1

The SE certainly feels like a bigarse trail bike compared to the Adventure with the Adventure feeling a lot more roady like, interesting the seating position with really sitting into the SE and sitting on the Adventure, certainly with the bar risers on the SE it makes life easier standing offroad.

We hit the inland road back towards Xela bordering dark then hit the fog in the dark .... this slowed progress a bit, for the first time I got to really appreciate the power of the Rigid Industries lighting which is outstanding in a very black night that just stole the OEM headlight so very grateful for these, also for nasty Guatemalans who didn’t wonna dip their lights they had the floodlights poked in their face ....that made em dip.:clap

We eventually hit town again and I rocked in the door at 7.45 pm with a grin and a half like this guy -> , slightly completely stuffed.

Huge thanks to Juan for local knowledge and just having a dudes day out riding.

Domingo (Sunday), Tarea (homework) for most of the day until Ellen got home at 2.30 pm then off to the cafe to post this stuff.

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

We had dinner in an Indian restaurant. The asian restaurant we were going to go is closed on Tuesday.

Anyway, I have to say the Indian restaurante is really nice.

We invited Juan as well, here is the photos to approve.


I have to test Andi's shaved face, he did a good job



dinner with Juan

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

I wanted to hike in one of the surrounding volcans in Xela, finally chose to go with Kaqchikel - a local tour company to do a two day hike.

Saturday 6am I meet other hikers at the company’s office. Two chicas from spain and one chica from Germany, todos las four chicas! Our guide Jose is a 26 year old local boy. I know what Andi would say about him : the lucky bustard. But if he knew what Jose had to carry, a backpack loaded with tent, water, food and cooking gear over 35kg, he might change his mind. We set off on a local bus to get to the bus station, then changed to a chicken bus from Xela to San Juan then another chicken bus to the bottom of Volcan Tajumulco.

It’s my second time on the chicken bus, they don’t leave until it’s fully full. The seat is comfortable to sit two people, but in Guatemala they fit three. Now I know why it called " Chicken bus."

It took us two and half hours to get to the entry of the park, then we start to climb. The hiking itself is not difficult, but with my backpack over 15kgs, it’s pretty hard. We stopped mid way having our lunch. I knew Andi and Juan would come up this way, so I was keep looking back, hope they come in time I really missed him then (for the right reason).

The same place Andi took his photos, unfortunately we were about an hour earlier.



The "lucky" boy



After lunch the fog/cloud started to roll in. We also meet a big group of people from US - They are talking pretty loud, we could hear them from a distance. I preferred our small group and I practiced my Spanish as well.





After 4 hours hiking we got to the camp site. There was a big local group up there as well. We set up our tent a little bit further away from the main group so we can have our “tranquilo” camping for the night. We boiled some water for coffee and then Jose cooked us spaghetti for dinner. I was really tired, maybe because the altitude is very high at about 3900 meters so I went to bed about 7:30pm.

toilet in the camping site



Quarter past 4.00 am I heard Jose calling out: “chicas” so we all got up put our head torch on and started to climb the last 300 to 400 meters to the summit. It was dark and cold, my icebreaker leggings and tops saved me. Jose carried sleeping bags for us, we only took a little bit of water. I have to say it’s much easier not to carry big backpacks.

When we got to the summit, the sun was just about popping out of clouds. Although we aimed to watch the sunrise the weather conditions were not up to it. We can see the volcan next to us, but not Mexico and the pacific ocean, they are all hidden behind the cloud. We managed to take some photos then came down the camp for breakfast.






Walking back down was my reward. Firstly, my backpack was 5 kg lighter, I got rid of all the water and food, secondly, the sun was shining and the view was incredible.







Morning is definitely the time to be in the mountains to see beautiful vista. In the afternoon, you can only see cloud.

The trip to volcan Tajumulco is the highlight of my time in Xela, I really enjoyed it.

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

Friday May 3rd 2013, one year ago we left home amidst excitement and tears, a very special thank you to our great mates Richard and Margaret in Wanaka for kicking us outa the country.

First the recognition needed to those who have made our trip possible .... that is YOU our readers, supporters and sponsors!

Our Sponsors helped get Two Moto Kiwis off the ground proving Kiwis can fly thus deserve a good mention as they play a huge part in our everyday life,
Klim Adventure Riding gear
Scala Rider communications
Arai Helmets
Kevin and Keiko from Te Anau NZ for making our logo
Bro Paul from Delis Tools
Icebreaker
Alaska Leather
Barkbuster
Sargent Seats
Mike and Mei from Linguis International and Stay at NZ Immigration Service
Screens For Bikes Australia
Sidewinder chains and sprockets.
Sara and Roger from New Zealand.

These guys have given us tremendous support and enabled our trip to be better by providing outstanding gear and equipment so please if you are considering buying products give them the support they gave us and many other RTW (and normal:huh) bikers.

The people, gezz hundreds, if your name is not on here it is because my head forgot so nothing personal (at least don’t look into it too deep 8-) :rofl

Barb and Victor Smart, owners of Alaska Leather gave us access to their (heated floor) home workshop to assemble the bikes and start our trip.:clap

All you mad Alaskans that made us feel so welcome.

Canadians .... well.
Grif and Lisa,.Micheal and Jing you guys rock
Pierre, unreal dude.
Mel in Fort St James
Richard in Dunster
David Barrett unwittingly climbed in to help without hesitation when Chiwi blew her seal.
David & Kandi for Vancouver Island, took us out and led us astray ... WOH HOH.

Americans .... hmmmm
Shann Florer long time mate in Fresno, had my 46th birthday with him which was great
Doug Holck from Lodi (Holckster on ADV)
Edward Wilkinson (Questor on ADV) you have my drinking problem.:freaky
Bevan and Clare Walsh ex ozzies from Phoenix AZ, helped pick up the pieces, gave us support and a place to gather and recoup after Ellens crash and a sale for the two bikes. :clap
Spencer from Phoenix in AZ, took the time to help us sort Maya after being ripped off by Alfred Lamarre the previous owner.
The rest of the AZ contingent who also helped us out and Dillon from Zen Motorcycle who got Maya back in shape.
Craig and Sharon (although Ozzies :evil) who we met under a wet tree, good buggas and currently RTWing too.

Mexico
Norbert, life saver supreme, mate your blood is worth bottling.
Our non petrolhead Canadian family that supported us after Ellens big biff.
Spencer Harris ... great info and had us stay for a few days in La Manzanillo.
Gary and Ivonne Dymond in Mexico city and their daughter Leslie in Playa Del Carmen, the model family and very welcoming, we look forward to having you guys in New Zealand.

Guatemala
Julio otherwise known as Guaterider taking delivery of parts for us after Maya did more poos in her pants, hopefully these new nappies will stop more 8-)
Taz from Motomundo saving a front tire for us and giving us workshop space :clap

Finally, everyone from ADV rider, Kiwibiker, The Hubb who have all contributed to our trip with advice, support, giving us shit, giving us props and even being nice.:huh

Also a special thanks to ADV Grifter a for being a dick on our Ride Report and Alfred Lamare for ripping us off blind plus Lawnman who happens to be ADV Grifter and a couple of other lowlifes who tried to bring us down, all you guys have made us much stronger in life and we realize that your pathetic attempts to bring us down are feeble uke1, just because you are miserable you don’t have to try and make ours that low, the great thing is we have learnt from this to step up and carry on ... you lose.clap

The Heart Speaks One Year Anniversary

This year has undoubtedly been the hardest year yet the best year of my life (from what I can remember) :evil

Fulfilling a dream of travel by motorcycle has bought freedom, tears, extreme anger, extreme love, outstanding friendships new and old, total devastation and unreal accomplishments.

To say it has all been fun would be a complete lie, some RTWers seem to want to paint perfect pictures so as the readers don’t feel bad but envious.

Being Kiwi our heritage is tell it how it is, no sugar coatings just reality, this has its good and bads and to be fair across the board our trip thus far comes us with a huge tick.

The People and Places

Starting in Alaska was seriously cool as Alaskans are just like Kiwis but on the top side, we were welcomed in and helped tremendously with the likes of Bezzer cutting our side stand and welding a decent footprint on them.
Charlie in Homer took delivery of us in Homer and took us around, the place is simply stunning and you Charlie are great company.

Dicon and Leslie also helped us out and Gary and Debs were great company and continue to be (noting new friendships).

Memories of our first ride out







Coming down through Canada from Inuvik down .... gezzz, we must have been the luckiest travelers alive with mostly great weather and surviving a coupla bears outside our tent Lake Kitwanga.

The Columbia Icefields ...... u n r e a l, we believe that coming from New Zealand and specifically Wanaka we are qualified in what is beautiful thus when we say it is stunning it comes from heartfelt views, grandeur and beauty that can only be had from being there and photos don’t really cut it, many locations have bought a tear of appreciation to my eyes realizing how lucky we are.

Then the USA, again some of the most stunning scenery and beauty, we have not seen enough of the mid and east so we will be back to torment you lot on that side.

We were wowed many times and to be honest it is hard to pick one place that we would say that is it!!

One of my favs



Mexico, is it safe?, the straight answer is NO as you will love it and NOT want to leave thus causing concern and grave fears from anyone who has not been there, unfortunately a lot of US Americans will never experience Mexico due to their govt machine and homeland security handbrake leading them astray.

Cuba, cool place but that box is ticked, we enjoyed it having spent 3 weeks looking around and taking it in, there are aspects that smack you in the head as insane tho, these being two currencies - one for the whiteyfoos and one at 1/24th of the cost to locals, also the Revolucion ..... next time they have a "great idea" the people should become better off, this coupled with the US embargo leaves Cuba in a huge whole to which they will never recover, these two combined see the locals line up daily for bread, banks and basics while the wealthy few run (ruin) the country so a crime in my eyes.

Bonus, we did buy a painting that did make it home so we do have a wee slice of Cuba



Belize, the people there were really cool, a huge influence of african american black people, some of the most beautiful woman I have seen (apart from Ellen :evil), we were told the place was mighty expensive, this is quite the opposite and not much more if any than other CA countries give or take one or two exceptions.

We will go back there for a better look down the track.

Guatemala .... bloody awful, couldn’t see myself living here for more than 50 years.

What a cool place (except havin ta go ta skool agin:deal), to be fair the place has incredible scenery and diverse areas from chilly mountain tops to extreme hot and humid beaches.

The Motorcycles

Ok, we didn’t really have an ideal run with Chiwi and Hobbit with engine casing replacements etc so losing 6 weeks out of 6 months was a huge pissoff as we missed Colorado etc because of this, Suzuki said the would compensate us but we have seen nothing from them and to be honest I don’t think we will, shame on you for bad production and promising to make good then not coming forth.:cry

Maya, the story of my life, trusting a “stand up” guy on ADV rider, maybe we should have gone to look at it but it is all money and again we were completely misrepresented from the pictures we (and everyone on ADV Rider) were shown.

The PO has been permabanned from ADV but we are still out of pocket big time to the tune of an extra $2500 USD to fix all the **** ups, we will never see anything from the lying arsehole but we will go back to the US and will visit him, the game will be evened out make no mistake.:norton

We have a pile of parts to put on when we get to Antigua and we are hopeful this is the last of the major fails.

Andi & Ellen

The interesting part, Ellen starting with little “technical” riding experience made very hard work for me, her riding is smooth and good but her U turns etc tormented me on a daily basis.

As you know this came to a head on the Denali highway with serious words being said, serious enough to have everlasting consequences.

We continued our trip and made the best of it, in Moab Ellen wanted to do the white rim trail as a learning platform and I was dead against it but we did it and she had her big off.

Fast forward to Mexico and her final unexplained off on a straight road was the finish as I said I was not prepared to ride any further having to ride my mirrors all day.

On the way back to the USA stress levels exceeded safe levels and we had an epic scrap and I wanted to go my own way.

Things were going very wrong, Ellen was injured, her bike was damaged, the tow truck drivers tried stealing from us, the bank gave us the run around with Mayas payment and it was all too much, my reaction was “**** it” and walk away.

With Ellen going to her sisters in Montreal it gave us time apart which was essential.

We held it together, got Maya fixed and fixed Ellens bike and sold the two of them and continued two up, this has its own set of quirks too as I had NOT planned to ride two up whatsoever.

Good advice I will give to anyone contemplating riding around the world with your partner, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, alien or whatever is make sure you have you own time and plenty of it as you will be together 24/7.

Also make sure your riding partner is within a bulls roar of your own ability as this caused grief even in traffic let alone back country roads or off road.

Although I would prefer to be riding one up I would prefer more that Ellen is alive and well, that is not to say we won't get injured or even killed two up but with my riding experience I would like to think that will pay dividends for our safety.

Conclusion

You have to be overly and very accepting of different cultures and ways or you will fail so when in Mexico drive like a Mexican, don’t get pissed off!!! ... join in.

When an oil pipe blows off as you enter a town think how lucky you were that it shat itself there and not in the middle of nowhere, there is ALWAYS an upside.:clap



When it is raining extremely heavily and you are freezing your balls off think what it would be like at work on a bad day ... rain isn’t that bad ... see how fast you can corner without binning it :rofl.



Go play in the rain to fend it off :clap



When you drop your bike cos you are so tired, dehydrated and stuffed and you look straight down a 10 metre drop less that 300 mm away and the dirt is crumbling away under your feet think how lucky you were not to go down the drop.





Little things mean a lot on the road and simple seems to go out of the equation some times.

Logistically you have to be a better manager, we pretty much wing it each day but my engineering head is thinking tires, chains, sprockets, oil changes not to mention “what happens if Maya shits herself right here” :eek1

Some days quite simply you will have to be superman and wonderwoman and other days you just say hell yeah with a grin so wide you could not measure it with a speedo!!!

With triumphs of having Ellens writing published in China this has been a huge thing for us knowing that others are living vicariously through us, hopefully others will find inspiration in this too :clap



So one year on the road, stresses greater than work at times, 40 deg plus days, -2 snowing days, rain and sun, arseholes cutting you off, great food from side of the road vendors, listening to bears outside your tent, side of the road repairs, barking dogs everywhere 24/7, meeting new people, going new places, mosquitos, beautiful beaches, mountain vistas not to mention riding ... my passion in life ..... I would not swap it for the world.

We are still in love hardships and all, we have been tested to within an inch of insanity or maybe 1/4 inch at times, just stand up to it and say "**** it" this IS all about us and we WILL make it happen.... which we are doing and looking forward to carrying on doing .... besides you guys need our reports on your desk as promised :clap

Luv to all

Andi & Ellen
Two Moto kiwis :clap

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