Michelle's Motorcycle Ride To GT -- Chronological Order

Sun Apr 11 2010

Day 1: Well I'm about to start this lastest adventure. This is not the big trip I hope to do someday, which as I've mentioned to many people, is riding a motorcycle down through all of Central and South America to the very tip at the bottom, Tierra del Fuego. This is a shorter version riding my motorcycle through Mexico, which is what I can afford right now given my slightly premature (but expected), departure from my company. It will probably be 3-4 weeks on the road.

I'm heading for Kevin & Genevieve's house in Kernville where I'll spend the night. Then, it's off toward Monterrey, where I'll arrive for the ACA canyon rendezvous, which starts on Wednesday. I'll take US interstates on my way down to make it on time. After the rendezvous ends, I'll start back home, looping through Mexico.

Mon Apr 12 2010

Day 2: I spent the night at my friends Kevin & Genevieve's house, and got some fantastic suggestions for sites to see from their many experiences down there. Too many to remember in fact -- I told them I'll have to e-mail as I travel to new areas :) I also had an idea as I was riding to their house -- why not make more of a trip out of it, and go all the way to Guatemala?!? Now is my opportunity, and it's a good time of year. I think I'll give it a shot, and even hope to spend a week in a language immersion school down there (it's only $175 for a week of school, including room and board with a local family).

So I'm about to head into new territory, and am on the way to Tucson tonight.

Tue Apr 13 2010

Day 3: Disaster struck last night. The bike stopped working 50 miles west of Phoenix. The engine will turn over but not start. I was able to get it to coast into a TA truck stop, thankfully. It happened at 5:30 pm, and I spent hours trying everything I could. I met a nice 50's-ish guy who works as a diesel mechanic at the truck stop, and he saved me hundreds of dollars in towing fees by driving me to a motel at 11:30 pm. He offered to help me in the morning, and is confident we can get the bike started again with the help of his friend, Glenn.

Wed Apr 14 2010

Day 4: We've diagnosed the bike, and it's really bad news. Last night we determined that an exhaust valve is not sealing in the engine. This means an engine rebuild of the head including valves is necessary. John (the mechanic) was VERY nice and we loaded the bike into the bed of his pickup, and his wife Janet drove it into the dealer in Scottsdale, who ordered the parts overnight. THEN, they offered to let me stay at their house instead of a motel.

I'm really considering myself lucky -- better to happen where it did, than 100 miles back down the highway, or far worse -- in a remote part of Mexico... Really lucky...

As an aside, their daughter, who is my age and also named Michelle, is getting married on Saturday -- so they're in the midst of wedding planning.

Thu Apr 15 2010

Day 5: Well, the parts did not show up today at the dealer, so I'm stuck here another day. Still staying with John and Janet. They're really nice, but we come from very different socio-economic backgrounds. I am becoming quite eager to get back on the road.

Fri Apr 16 2010

Day 6: Great news! The parts showed up. The service department assures me the bike will be done later today. I'm waiting at the dealer (using their WiFi), and can't wait.

In other news, earlier today I helped Janet and her family move tables and chairs for the wedding, and clean up the junk in the backyard of the house where the ceremony will take place.

Fri Apr 16 2010

Day 7: Last night the guys at the dealer stayed until 11pm to get my bike running (they close at 7pm!) I think they took an interest in me and my trip -- it was incredibly generous of them to offer to do that.

I was so excited to get out of town I rode to Tucson, arriving there at 1am. I have a lot of riding left to do today and tomorrow to make it to the rendezvous by Saturday night, and still catch the gang for the final day of canyons. Luca is staying a couple days later, and I'm planning to do stuff with him, so that will be great -- it's such a beautiful area, I'd hate to only spend a day of doing stuff there.

Sat Apr 17 2010

Day 8: 750 miles and 12 hours in the saddle yesterday. Whew. That was truly an epic day.

I spent the night in Del Rio, Texas. Only 6 hours left to Monterrey!

I stopped for fuel a hundred miles out of Tucson and noticed a steady drip of oil from the bottom of the motorcycle. Not good. I decided to keep going. After 250 miles, at the next stop in El Paso, TX, it was still dripping, and the whole bottom of the bike was covered in oil. I decided to take a closer look. After some sleuthing, I discovered the oil drain plug was loose in its socket! Easily turned with fingers. The mechanic never tightened it. NOT good. Thank goodness it didn't fall out all together somewhere on the road, or I'd have lost all the oil. As it is, the oil level is midway on the dipstick, and coincidentally I only lost the amount that they overfilled the bike with. I tightened it with a wrench and got back on my way. No oil leaks seen afterward.

Mon Apr 19 2010

Day 9: I made it to the rendezvous last night. It took nearly 9 hours. It cost me $28 in toll fees from the border to Monterrey! The GPS had me going on some remote route through the mountains, and the bridge was blocked off. I got scared and just went back the normal way through the city. While driving through town, I hit a speed bump (tope), and the rear wheel ripped off the plastic mud scraper which wraps around the rear tire. There goes $80 in trim pieces.

I arrived just in time for the Saturday night, end of rendezvous party. Everyone was excited to see me. Unfortunately, they've already all done the best canyons. Today we descended two very short canyons, but tomorrow most everyone goes home. I'm hoping Luca, who is staying here with me for the next few days, and I will find some interesting stuff to do.

Tue Apr 20 2010

Day 10: Luca, Choy, Evan, and I explored a pretty extensive swimming and wading cave right near Portrero Redondo. There was an long underwater lake, which ranged from waist deep to swimming, and had a couple duck unders (where we held our breath and ducked under a rock wall, underwater, to emerge in air on the other side). Click here for a video of one of the duckunders.

Afterward getting back to the truck after this, we descended Hydrophobia canyon, which I really liked! It had lots of swimming and great jumps. I was a bit cold with my shorty wetsuit and overcast weather, and I opted out of a few jumps. I think the canyon took around 6 hours or so. Click here for a video of one of the jumps in the canyon.

As we exited the canyon and started the 3 mile walk back to Choy's pickup truck, a thunderstorm started. It made it very exciting for the hike back!

Wed Apr 21 2010

Day 11: This morning I was riding the bike over to the hostel where Luca was staying, and my gear bag fell off the back of the bike, which I didn't notice. Someone waved at me and I was able to get back to the spot within 5 minutes, but it was gone. Lost were my canyon shoes, some misc carabiners and slings, the $80 in plastic parts broken off the bike on Saturday, and the duffel bag itself.

While I was stopped on the road being told about the bag falling off, a huge cloud of smoke (which turned out to be steam) was rising from the motorcycle. It seems the mechanic did not tighten one of the coolant hoses either, and engine coolant was leaking onto the exhaust. I tightened the hose back up and showed up an hour late for our departure for the day's adventure.

Luca, Choy, and I went to Bustamante cave, which is an hour and a half north of Monterrey. Boy has it changed in the 4 years since I've been there. In '06, you had to walk for an hour a thousand vertical feet up from the parking lot on a footpath, to find an old guy sitting at the door collecting 20 pesos. Inside, there was a steep climb down, to the main room with the sodium lights everywhere. The range for the average tourist was limited to where the range of the provided light, but no official restriction.

Now, it's a modern show cave. The hour long hike up is replaced with an air conditioned shuttle bus on a fully paved road. A concrete tunnel was bored into the mountain, and you emerge in the cave on an enormous plastic walkway with railings -- you can only go in a big loop. The lighting is variously colored LED lights on the formations, and the walkway itself has white LED lights to mark the path. It is very different than the old school it once was. We wondered how the new price of 40 pesos for everything could pay for the multimillion dollar visitor center, the paved road, the 6-8 employees we saw working at the time, since we only saw 3 or 4 other tourists along with ourselves...

We ducked under the plastic railing on the walkway and Choy led us to some remote part of the cave off the mapped area. On the way out, try as I might I could not find the helectite room that Kevin, Genevieve, and I stumbled upon last time, which is the most impressive room I've ever seen in any cave.

Thu Apr 22 2010

Day 12: Luca, Hans, and I climbed the via ferrata outside of Monterrey, after Choy led us to the base of it. Choy has to get back to his school work today, so he couldn't join us. We had a fantastic time! It's around a thousand vertical feet, complete with an airy horizontal cable bridge a couple hundred feet off the deck, and 4 aluminum ladders hanging in space that you have to climb, while suspended over a good 1000 feet of air. Fantastic! It rivals the via ferratas I did in Europe.

At the top, we saw some cables strung out hundreds of meters for a Tyrolean descent. Not having the equipment or knowledge of the setup, we simply rappelled down from the top.

Fri Apr 23 2010

Day 13: FINALLY, a day to myself to relax. Luca left to fly back to San Diego at 7:30 am today. I slept in, and had a very enjoyable time working on my spanish with Francisco, who works here at the hostel.

He told me of a Culinary School only 2 blocks from here, and I walked over there for lunch. For $3.50 I enjoyed the student's best efforts: salmon pate, stewed rabbit, and quiche. I think I'm going to be here more often :)

I also switched rooms to the dorm room in the hostel, but I'm the only one in there, so it's effectively the same as the more expensive room, but only $12 per night.

Hans called and we went out for a beer in the evening, and got back really late. We're going to descend El Canyon de Reflexiones tomorrow, leaving at 7am.

Sat Apr 24 2010

Day 14: Hans and I descended Reflexiones today, which was dry but quite pretty. We had tremendous wind blowing up the canyon as we descended the rappels.

I went back to the Culinary School for dinner. It wasn't quite as impressive as the first time, but was still a nice meal of stew, pasta, and fresh papaya juice.

Sun Apr 25 2010

Day 15: Two weeks on the road now. It was a really productive day for me. I went to the climbing store and got the special Vertigo carabiner for my harness. It's a one handed autolocker, and I'll use it for my safety tether.

Then I went over to the muffler shop and they took the muffler off the bike and welded it very well. The muffler has two mounts, and unknown to me, the 2nd mount was completely ripped off! They welded that back on, along with the first mount that was tearing a hole in the exhaust. I’m soo happy that is fixed – they did a great job, and afterward we pressure washed the bike. Total cost was 100 pesos. I was so relieved (the first shop I went to told me it couldn't be done because the metal is too thin), and plus when they first gave me the quote it was for only one mount, not two, and with pressure washing the bike, I gave the guy 200 pesos total (which is still only $16).

After that, I found my way to Walmart and got a replacement duffle bag (for the one that fell off my bike and was stolen in the 5 minutes it took me to get back to where it happened), so I can carry my stuff to the canyon tomorrow morning. I'll be descending Matacanes, the most beautiful known canyon in all of North America.

I've noticed that things are pretty expensive here. Everything in Walmart was about 50% more than in the US, especially electronics. Maybe the import fees?

Oh, also I heard back from my aunt today, and she’d be happy to see me, so I'll swing by Mexico City on my way south.

I need to meet the group for the canyon at 5 am, so I’ll leave here at around 4 am. Time to go to bed!

Mon Apr 26 2010

Day 16: I was able to descend Matacanes today! Bright blue sky and a couple puffy white clouds. I was on the bike riding from the hostel at 4:20 am today to meet Chuy’s group at the Cola de Caballo at 5am. His two guides, Edgar and Miguel, had 6 clients to lead down. We had a great time. I go so often with experienced people, and occasionally newbies to the sport but who do have some training, that it’s really interesting for me to see a group of people with no skills in a moderately difficult canyon. I think the folks today were exhausted by the end.

I suggested to Hans that we repeat the via ferrata, and he has another canyon in mind. At this rate I’ll never actually head south! At least the hostel is $12 per night.

I am getting a little concerned about my goal. I am truly having a lot of fun here in Monterrey, but Bing maps is telling me it's around 1500 miles to Guatemala. I need to get on the road soon if I even have a hope of getting this accomplished...

Tue Apr 27 2010

Day 17: Today Hans and I returned to climb the via ferrata again. This time, we rented special pulleys to descend via the 3 Tyroleans (aka zip-lines) off the mountain. After we reached the top again, we started the first Tyrolean, which ranks among the scariest things I've ever done in the outdoors! Primarily because it was just the two of us up there, with the cable in front of us that we'd seen on the first ascent, and no one there with experience on these things to confirm we'd be okay (although Hans had talked to a guy at the climbing store who told us "no problema"). I'm glad I talked him into going first! Click here for a video of him just after he stepped into the void.

When it was my turn and I stepped off the platform and the pulley started buzzing, louder and louder on the steel cable, going faster and faster over literally HUNDREDS of feet of air (probably 500 feet if I were to estimate), I thought my heart would pound out of my chest. I didn't quite make it to the other platform, and had to hand over hand the last 30 feet or so.

Then we found out that we hadn't quite brought enough rope for the rappels to the 2nd platform. We BARELY made it, using our extra webbing, slings, a pack, and very nearly our shoelaces.

On the 3rd Tyrolean I went first, and as I approached the ending platform, I thought to myself "okay, I should start to slow down about now... Ummm, any time now!!" But the cable was just a bit too taught and I crashed into the platform, fortunately okay. With Hans it was the same story -- I don't know how the commercial trips do this one!

We reached the bottom of the mountain right at sunset with a nearly full moon in the sky. What a fun day!

Thu Apr 29 2010

Day 18 & 19: The last couple days Hans and I spent together in the mountain town of Iturbide, 2-3 hours southwest of Monterrey. We rented the upper floor of a duplex for $26 each night. Yesterday we met up with a Czech guy that Hans knows, named Radko. I at first suspected he was not really Czech, because when I greeted him in his native tongue, he just looked at me funny.

We descended Las Encondidas, which is a series of 12 rappels down a cascade of nearly a vertical kilometer. It reminded me very much of a canyon in the San Gabriel mtns north of LA -- low flow, thigh deep pools at the bottom, lots of foliage next to the waterflow. Radko was a kick -- he is a professor and on the hike back to the top he kept grabbing different species of plants and telling me to eat them -- some tasted like spearmint, another like sugar, etc. Then he'd tell me the scientific name (in Spanish, so none of the names stuck with me), but at least I trusted him that I wasn't eating anything harmful :) It was a pleasant way to spend the day, and the lady of the house was really sweet, bringing us tea and cookies afterward.

Today Hans and I drove to a sculptor's house in a nearby town, saw the sculptor's alabaster mine, and went to his house where Hans asked to include him in a project of local artisans that he's working on. The sculptor was a really nice grandfatherly type -- well dressed, and showed us many of his current and past projects. Now, I'm back at the hostel, planning where to ride south, on the next phase of my trip.

Sat May 01 2010

Day 20 & 21: I have finally made my way out of Monterrey and started to wander south. I was at the hostel nearly two weeks and hadn't met anyone like-minded, but as luck would have it, on the last day two Aussies from Perth showed up, 6 weeks into their trip to Tierra del Fuego, at the southern most end of South America. Exactly the trip I want to do some day.

We had lunch together (at the culinary institute). They are not on motos, although they said they wished they were, but instead are going to take buses all the way down (20,000 miles). They intend to take 16 months. I was quite jealous! As much as I'd like to stay and hang out with them for the weekend, it was time for me to hit the road.

I headed out, riding through the mountains south of Monterrey, taking the road up past the Cola de Caballo hotel that we stay at so often for the ACA rendezvous. I'd been wanting to see where that road would lead me ever since I first experienced its winding, twisting, mountainous path with sheer dropoffs in 2005. It didn't disappoint. The road gets narrower and more rough, and leads high over the mountains, hour after hour. It took nearly 3 hours to cross through the mountains to the altiplano on the other side.

I ended up in Real de Catorce, an old silver town high in the mountains at 9000 feet (recommended to me by Hans). The last 10 miles into the town are cobblestone, which is very tricky to ride on the bike -- it was sliding all over the place at 35mph. Then, you travel through a mile long tunnel hewn out of mountain by hand, and you emerge into the town, nestled securely in its high valley. The air is fresh and brisk (cold) up here -- such a difference from the 105 deg it was in Monterrey yesterday. I found a nice hotel for 200 pesos ($16). There are some nice hikes from here to the ruins outside the town -- I'm about to head out and see where my feet will take me.

Sun May 02 2010

Day 22: Out of the desert altiplano and down to the fertile lowlands. I left Real de Catorce and rode across the hot desert for most of the afternoon. I eventually began winding through twisty mountains again to the east and emerged 5000' lower into humid farmlands.

I found a nice cheap hotel in the village of El Naranjo ("The Orange") which is well situated for tomorrow's swimming hole trips. I stayed up talking to the owner at his bar next door, who spoke Spanish I could understand very well. He told me a lot about the outdoors stuff to see in the area -- El Cielo, a national preserve just to the north, has bear, jaguar, and crocodiles. (Crocodiles!)

I went to my room for the evening and had my first encounter with my own terrifying animal, a 3" long cucaracha (not counting its 4" long antenna). It was very agitated when I turned on the light. I let it scurry around for a few seconds to find whatever hole it came out of, and instead it decided to go into one of my shoes on the floor. After that I took all my clothes, shoes, helmet, bags, off the floor and piled them on the sink. I didn't want any surprises when I was getting dressed in the morning!

10 hrs earlier...

I hiked up out of the town of Real de Catorce, and explored the mining town ruins above. I'd been approached by probably 8 vaqueros (cowboys) in town asking if I wanted to rent a horse to go up there. Apparently it's the tourist thing to do, because there were about 300 head standing saddled up, waiting to receive their payload, just outside of town.

Far from the dream of riding fast through the desert brush, wind blowing back your hair, you just sit on the back of the beast and a vaquero walks the horse to the top, bridle in his hand. So I walked up with my own two feet. I went probably twice as fast as the clusters of horses, tourists, and cowboys.

The ruins were nice, and I got a great view of the town nestled in its valley. I hiked up to the highest peak nearby, with the local radio antennas, and the wind was HOWLING. It was hard to stand upright. It was becoming early afternoon, and time to move on, so I made my way back down.

Mon May 03 2010

Day 23: Why do people criticize Americans for speaking slowly and loudly when they aren't understood by the locals? I really wish the Mexicans would do that to me! I ask so many questions with yes or no answers, and instead of telling me Si o No, they prattle off for 30 sec, at a volume I can barely hear. Then we both look frustrated at each other for a bit. Argh. But I digress...

This morning I headed off from town to the swimming hole of Minas Viajes, about 10 miles south of The Orange. It was very beautiful, and had a lot of people swimming and grilling out. I spent about an hour and a half cooling off in the milky emerald waters. I swam over to the waterfalls and went behind them, then swam down through them. What fun! On the way out, I bought a skinned mango on a stick with lime juice & chili powder. YUM!!!

I headed south to the town of Aquismon, where our group stayed in December 2008. I have now come full circle! While of course conceptually I know that getting on a plane and flying somewhere, I travel the same ground as driving, it's different when I actually have DRIVEN here from my front door. I've experienced all the land between there and here, instead of getting into a plane, and getting out of it once I've arrived. Make sense?

Last night I dropped off my luggage in the hotel room, and rode the bike up to Golindrinas cave just before sunset. It's a vertical cave, the deepest cave in the area, popular for watching the tens of thousands of birds that live on its walls, fly out at sunrise and fly in at sunset. At the top is a circular hole about 300' across, overlooking a vertical shaft that drops 1250 feet straight down. It's actually bell shaped, so the ground above is undercut on all sides, overhanging the cave below.

In 2008 there were 3 guys or so that would wrap a rope around your waist and hold you as you leaned over the abyss. Well word must have gotten out, because now there were around 10 guys with ropes, working for tips only. And for $10, they'd lower you 20 meters down and haul you back up. I decided to partake (in the cheaper option), and hung out over space looking at the other world more than a thousand feet below me. It was almost primeval, like looking into the window of a million years ago...

Mon May 03 2010

The face of a boy, glimpsed in passing by the side of the road... who smiles in wonder and delight at the passing Rider from a foreign land...

The boy grows into a man, still smiling, surrounded by his family -- wife and children...

The man becomes old, his face wrinkly, and now sits in a rocking chair by the side of the road, smiling at the traffic that passes him by...

...with no longer any memory of the Rider that passed by, so many years ago...

Tue May 04 2010

Day 24: Today I backtracked a little -- I left from Aquismon back up north. My goal was to see the Tamul waterfall, which is around 100 meters high.

They now (since I was last here in '08) have these highly graphical tourists signs all over the area here, which make it very easy to find the natural attractions, since each sign tells you not only what is right where you are, but has arrows pointing which way to see other stuff in the area. In Aquismon my GPS showed an "unpaved road" as the direct route north to Tamul, vs the long way around on the highway (50 miles longer). The colorful sign in Aquismon, though, pointed the "unpaved road" as the way to Tamul. So I took that, and found it was fully paved, and a wonderful ride through lightly traveled farmlands.

I passed a group of 4 vaqueros, their white cowboy hats shining brightly in the sun, riding atop horses, herding a group of cattle off in a field. I waved at them from the saddle of my own iron horse, and they waved back. I also saw a basketball hoop at what I assume was a religious school, because they were able to make it look like a cross!

I arrived at the river to see Tamul, where you have to pay to rent a boat and they paddle you 4 kilometers upriver to see the waterfalls themselves. I got in with a group of 4 Mexicans, and paid 200 pesos ($16) for my share. There were hordes of people doing this; the river was a madhouse of boats going up and down. When we finally came within view of the falls themselves, we stopped at a rock in the water a considerable distance away. Click here to see us rounding the final corner for the first view of the falls. It was fine for a photo shot, but I wanted to be much closer! The guides let us all take a photo, but then hurried us back into the boat to leave, as more boats were arriving. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed at the experience. Midway back down the river, we stopped at some crowded tourist shacks, to buy refreshments (I had more mango with chili powder & lime juice, my favorite).

When I left back on the bike, I continued riding up the road towards Tamasopo, where I'll spend the night. I then came across another graphical sign for Tamul, this one telling me of an overlook. "More interesting!" I thought. 5 kilometers down a rough rocky road, I reached a campground. I paid 10 pesos ($0.80) at the gate, and followed a windy trail for 10 minutes, straight out to the top of the waterfall! Literally, you could go stand in the middle at the very top if you wanted. But be careful -- it's a 350 foot drop. There were only 4 people there with me, off swimming in one of the many gorgeous , crystal clear turquise pools. Click here to see a video of the view from right at the top.

Then, I found some rickety bamboo ladders, leading down, which I decided to follow. They lead me right to the base of the falls themselves! There was no one else here, and I had all the time I wanted. What a much better experience! And for 10 pesos, instead of 200...

Wed May 05 2010

Day 25: Puente de Dios, the swimming hole of the gods. It is the best place I've ever swum. I highly recommend it!

After spending the night in the town of Tamasopo, and having a lazy morning with a breakfast of fresh mango, yogurt, honey, & granola, I headed just out of town to cool off in the beautiful waters.

The hole has a healthy waterfall flushing into it, water running down all over the walls from above, and several spots where water flows straight out of the holes in the rock that you can sit under like showers. Plus a gorgeous cave tunnel about 20 meters long with a high ceiling that you can swim through (while in the cave the light from outside makes the water glow bright blue from below). It's over 20 feet deep everywhere, and there are jumps from whatever height you want! Click here for a short video of this fantastic place.

I spent around 2 hours swimming and playing here, before deciding it was time to hit the road again. I met a Canadian guy who is studying in Guadalajara (and impressing everyone at Puente de Dios with his backflips off the wall from 25' up). He whet my appetite for Chiapas coming up next week -- he said it's just like this area but even more rustic and beautiful.

I headed south on the bike, back through Aquismon, to the town of Tamazunchale. The hotel owner in El Naranjo had kept expounding that I must go there. I rode into town through reasonably beautiful countryside, more or less the same as I'd seen everywhere else. I wasn't sure what he had been talking about -- that is, until I headed out of Tamazunchale on Rte 85 to Jacala, high in the moutains.

I went through the most fantastically beautiful riding I have ever done! It was late afternoon with the dramatic colors that brings, and I climbed higher and higher on winding mountain roads next to sheer dropoffs, a broad river flowing thousands of feet below me, speckled with whitewater rapids. The air had cooled off, the road was in great condition (except the one spot where it had completely fallen away -- there was still SOME adventure left), and I went in and out of tiny hamlets every few miles. Off in the distance peaks were hazy and gorgeous with the setting sun, and the sense of expanse was incredible. Tamazunchale is barely above sea level, and the road to Jacala crested over 8000', sometimes on a ridge with vast dropoffs on either side.

I wished for a helmet cam to share this -- I'd considered handholding my camera to take some video, but without a wriststrap it would be too distracting, and I didn't want to be distracted, not with no guardrails :)

Thu May 06 2010

Day 26: My aunt ("tia" in Spanish, which I rather prefer to the English word) and uncle ("tio") live in Mexico City -- she for 44 years, since she was 18. I last saw the two of them when I stayed at their house for a couple days when I was 17, which was 18 years ago.

I'd sent her an e-mail a couple weeks ago mentioning I'd be in town and perhaps we could meet. I was very excited when I got a reply that they would be free! We've been coordinating back and forth since my ride down is slightly unpredictable, and it has been one of the things I'd looked forward to the most. This morning was the big day, and I left Jacala at 9am and raced to make a lunch appt with them at 2pm near downtown Mexico City.

I arrived (about 15 minutes late) and we had a marvelous lunch at the very nice restaurant they had selected. We caught up on everything, family, work, life, etc. But then it came time to say goodbye. They left, and I'd been so excited about meeting them, I didn't realize until afterward that I'd forgotten to take out my camera for a picture of us together. :( Also, I have two cousins that live here in the city (my tia's sons) who I haven't seen since I was single digits in age, but although we talked about them, there wasn't a mention of us meeting up, so I guess I won't see them this time either.

I'm going to be here in Mexico City for the next couple days at least, so I have plenty of time to see them more, but that unfortunately isn't going to happen, so I'm feeling a bit deflated at the moment.

Fri May 07 2010

Going to Mexico City was a big detour on my route, and I went expressly for the hope that it would be possible to rekindle relationships with my aunt, uncle, & two cousins that live there. Due to geographical distances I haven't been able to know them my whole adult life. I knew there was a significant chance it would not work out. In the end, I stayed in town for 72 hours, but only 2 of those hours (the first two) were spent with my aunt and uncle.

I am glad that meeting happened at least -- this particular aunt has always been my favorite (of the 4 I have) -- I have always thought she was so adventurous, and also the most beautiful (still). But I was very disappointed that there was no interest or effort on the part of my cousins to meet with me, and that more than just that first meeting for lunch couldn't be arranged. Needless to say this type of circumstance is so rare -- it had not happened in 18 years, and may never again. It shook me up for a few days, and I'm still saddened by it.

Sat May 08 2010

Day 28: Today, while hanging out in Mexico City, I decided to walk from the hostel to the National Anthropological Museum, which I'd visited when I was 17 and is internationally renowned. The girl working at the hostel reception told me it was a 20 minute walk, but it ended up being over an hour each way. I wasn't bothered though, as the weather was nice and I enjoyed the exercise.

Some pics are above -- the ape-ish thing is Lucy, that 3.5 million year old human ancestor they found. The depiction of her in the museum was quite weird to look at -- it was just so... half human, half ape! I also filmed a short clip of the Aztec sun stone -- see it here. To be honest I'm not much of a museum person -- seeing all those objects out of their natural environment -- I just can't relate very well. I like it much more when they build sets. (They did have a few nice ones there.)

I spent some time talking with a young British couple at the hostel -- the guy was asking me if there was food other than tacos -- I laughed to myself thinking of the scene in "Brokeback Mountain" where Heath Ledger's character complains about the beans... "It's a little too early in your trip to be complaining about tacos!"

Sun May 09 2010

Day 29: Well, it's time to leave Mexico City! On my way out of town I went over to a BMW dealer and bought a replacement rear sprocket for the bike. This trip is going to be much longer than I thought when I left home, since the idea to go to Guatemala came to me after I'd left (!), and though I don't need it now, I'll need it later down the road. We also topped off oil, coolant, and tire pressure.

And on a positive note, I managed to get out of Mexico City without paying a fine to the corrupt cops which apparently are everywhere. I ran into two other American motorcyclists who had to pay $200. Everyone from Hans to Mauricio at the hostel had warned me about the cops there, so I was glad for that.

I headed to the ruins of Teotihuacan on the outskirts of Mexico City. I find these ruins fascinating -- they were built by not by the Maya, but by people long before the Maya that almost nothing is known about. The Mayans stumbled across their abandoned city centuries later and thought the Gods had built it and left it for them there, so they moved right in. It was a bit hot there though -- not many trees around.

I'm headed to more ruins tomorrow, those of El Tajin, near the coast. I rode down out of the mountains, on another beautiful ride. It started to drizzle a bit the last hour before sunset. It was the first bit of rain I've had to ride through since the day I crossed into Mexico.

At dinner, at a roadside cafe next to a bus stop somewhere in the mountains, a dog came up to me begging. I saw that she was breastfeeding and had pups somewhere. The owner shoed her away with a broom, and I saw that she had a hideous wound on her neck, all the skin was torn away and it was just red, raw. I felt so bad for the dog I grabbed the rest of my uneaten tortillas after dinner and caught up with the thing down the street, and gave them to her. Life sure can be hard here.

Upon reaching Poza Rica, the town near the El Tajin ruins, I only found two hotels -- the first was $100 per night, and the second was $60 per night. These are both WELL beyond my budget, especially from paying $12 the last 3 nights at the hostel. So I went with option 3 -- a sex motel. It was $30 for 12 hours, was clean and nice, had my own garage to pull the bike into, and also a huge mirror above me on the bed. I've never slept like that before! And blessed A/C. It's hot and sticky now that I'm down in the jungle...

Mon May 10 2010

Day 30: Based on Bruce's suggestion (thanks Bruce!) I headed to El Tajin today, which is a ancient city built by the Totonacs. These people were the first natives encountered by Cortez when he landed on the coast near Veracruz. They had lived here for 800 years and were conquered by the Aztecs just 25 years before Cortez's arrival. Thus they were eager to revolt against the Aztecs and ended up being instrumental in the Cortez's conquering of them.

The city is very different than Teotihuacan, in that it is in lush jungle as opposed to high desert. A short view of the grounds can be seen here.

The 3rd picture above, which looks like bleachers, is a Mesoamerican ball court. I'd come across one of these while playing Tomb Raider Underworld, and always wondered what the heck it was! In this game, which is like volleyball without a net, and using hips only, both the losing players and their fans would be beheaded and sacrificed to the gods. Depictions of these sacrificial ceremonies were on carved sculptures all over El Tajin (as in the rest of Mesoamerica too).

On my way out, I caught a performance of the Voldadores (video here). Four of them climb up a pole and then spin around from a rope tied to their waist as these ropes unwind from the pole. One guy, the priest, stays up top playing a flute and beating a drum. It has an interesting tradition, but I think it's absolutely ludicrous that the training takes 10 years. Seriously.

A sixth guy in costume went around asking for money before the performance. He stood in front of me for quite awhile and gave me a dirty look when I didn't give him any. I might have done so AFTER the performance, but I'm not too eager paying to watch somebody do what I'd rather do myself! I was hoping he didn't put a hex on me. So after the performance I went around trying to find him to give him a dollar but...

...A local girl saw me, and came up asking (in English this time) if she could interview me for a school project. She was with her family, and they video taped her asking me a lot of questions (in English) about who I was, how I heard of El Tajin, which is better -- US or Mexico, etc. So that was neat!

I headed down the Gulf of Mexico along the Emerald Coast (named so because the water is a beautiful green), to Veracruz. I tried to stop by some more burial ruins on the way but they were closed. In Veracruz, it was getting late so I just decided to stay at another... sex motel. This one was really nice too -- honeymoon sheets that spilled beautifully across the floor, nice music controlled by a switch on the wall, tiled wood floor, and the all important A/C.

Tue May 11 2010

Day 31: Today was a big travel day. I needed to go nearly 300 miles from Veracruz to Villahermosa. So I didn't have a lot of time to dilly dally (and don't have a lot to report), but in the morning...

...I headed over to the Spanish fort, San Juan de Ulua. This is where the ending of Romancing the Stone was filmed. I was really excited to see it (it's a famous fort), but it was closed!! It is Monday, and lots of stuff is closed on Mondays in Mexico. Oh well. I thought of trying to talk my way in (not that I'd have any chance of doing so, of course), but saw that they were installing a new bridge to the fort, and unloading it from the trailer. So even if I got through the gate no way of getting into the fort itself :)

I caught a delicious meal of fresh fish, Veracruz style (basically with sauteed red peppers and onions on top), and started the long, HOT (100 deg+) ride.

I was nearly wiped out (financially) by the bloody toll booths! I paid over 500 pesos in tolls to get there, that's $50. It's frustrating they charge my little bike the same as a big SUV full of people. This along with the $30 per night hotel rooms are killing my budget.

C'est la vie.

Wed May 12 2010

Day 32 (morning) - Villahermosa is mostly an industry town in the middle of the hot flatlands. According to Wikipedia, it's a stopover point between Mexico City and Cancun. Or in my case, between Veracruz and Palenque.

Before heading out to the famous Mayan ruins at Palenque, I noticed in Lonely Planet that there is a worthwhile park/museum/zoo in town named Parque La Venta, and I decided to check it out.

I really don't like the concept of zoos for the lives that animals have to endure when caged up, but my 50 pesos ($4) to enter this one wasn't going to change anything. And I thought it might be interesting to see the more "jungly"-ish animals.

The park actually turned out to be pretty interesting, and I spent a couple hours there. It's part zoo, part path through the woods, part outdoor museum with a plentiful number of large Olmec artifacts along the path.

There was a black panther in a large caged area, which was really freaky because it was making loud hoarse noises, but all I could see were its green eyes glowing against its inky black fur. It was sitting in the shade under an overhang not 5 meters away from me, but it was really hard to see. I stood there imagining it stalking prey (including humans) in the jungle, and a shiver ran up my spine.

The toucan had to be the most ridiculous animal I've seen. I mean it literally looked like it had a fake toucan beak strapped to its head. I just wanted to take it off the poor guy! It stood there moving its eye to look at me and I felt so sorry for it having to go through life with that ludicrous thing attached to it's face. I suppose it's normal though and he felt perfectly fine.

There is a large hemispherical aviary that you could enter with a large number of species flying around, plus an underground dark section with big fat bats hanging from the ceiling and some sloth like creature. And on the path in the thick jungle large animals the size of small dogs kept running across in front of me. The information sign called them badgers and said they were friendly. Must not be the same as the MEAN badgers we had growing in Wisconsin!

The Olmec sculptures were interesting, and at the end of the walk is a cage with the "biggest predator in the world", which is a mirror behind some bars. Cute!

Wed May 12 2010

Day 32 (afternoon) - A hundred miles from Villahermosa is Palenque, a "medium sized" site of Mayan ruins, which is located right in the front range where the flatlands of Chiapas rise into the mountains behind. It is in a beautiful spot up on the mountainside and commands a vast view of the plains below.

The site closes at 5pm and I got there right at 4 (I spent a little too much time at the zoo I guess :), so they let me in for free. Even with just an hour, I was able to walk around and see most of what is available there, and not roped off. Click here for a video.

Palenque was smaller than I anticipated, but did have the best preserved architecture of the three sites I'd been at so far (Teotihuacan & El Tajin being the others). I'd read that howler monkeys live in the woods surrounding the site and you can sometimes hear them, but I guess this day they were saving their voices because I didn't hear them.

I have to admit though, that something about these sites is a bit underwhelming for me. I know they were built without iron or the wheel, but they had centuries -- thousands and thousands of people over dozens of generations. Perhaps it's because I went to Peru last summer and saw what the Incas were able to accomplish -- their craftsmanship is absolutely stunning in comparison (and Machu Picchu is out of this world beautiful).

Thu May 13 2010

Day 33 - Leaving Palenque yesterday I stopped for the night at a hostel on the road just outside of the ruins. They had beautiful thatched huts for rent (with mosquito netting over the beds) for 200 pesos ($16).

I walked down the road a few hundred meters to catch dinner at a restaurant nearby, which I thought was lucky since we were in the middle of nowhere and there didn't seem to be anything around. I was completely surprised and taken aback to find they had a large outdoor seating area, extensive menu, and full open air bar. Even a stage. It seemed like such an anachronism out there in the jungle. There were even a few groups of gringos sitting around eating. I use the term "gringos" to mean white, non-Latino people, though in what was to happen later they were all Europeans -- no Americans.

I sat and had a couple drinks, and as time passed more, and more, and MORE people showed up. Then a live band started setting up on the stage. Before I knew it (those margaritas were STRONG!) the place was completely packed, literally about two hundred people (all European/Australian gringos from what I could tell and what my waiter told me). The band was playing, tour agency booths were set up on the side, people were selling trinkets, etc. What was going ON?!? By this time I was really feeling it too. Around 11pm the band shut down, but the entertainment was far from over! Poi (dancing with flaming balls on chains) and fire-stick performers began in front of the crowd to a second band of bongo drum players. I caught a video here. Finally at midnight I walked back ("walked" being perhaps too generous a word) to my thatched hut up the road and crashed on the bed. So weird! The place was called El Panchan. And on a Tuesday night!

This morning I heading out of the hostel to reach San Cristobal de las Casas, at 7000' in the Chiapas mountains, by the end of the day. The road was winding through the mountains and just beautiful. Watch a video from the saddle of the motorcycle here.

I stopped at a swimming hole called Agua Azul on the way up. It was really nice, and a lot of people were enjoying the beautiful day there. I caught an hour or so of swimming and playing around, and then headed back up the mountain on the bike.

The last hour or so before reaching San Cristobal it started raining, pretty hard. This was the first rain I'd ridden through since entering Mexico. I was pretty nervous (and for good reason), but there wasn't anywhere to stop. I finally made it into town around an hour before sunset, completely soaked through (I hadn't stopped to put my waterproof liners on). Plus, I have been in over hundred degree temps the last couple weeks, and here it is in the mid 50's and raining. What a difference! I stopped at a large hotel and ended up getting the room for 200 pesos, down from the 590 pesos advertised on the wall. The guy agreed to it immediately, without hesitation. It must be their off season :)

Sat May 15 2010

Day 35 - I came to San Cristobal de las Casas, here in the Chiapas mountains, in the hope that I could descend a cave called Chorreodero. It is a 3.5km through trip which drops 330 vertical meters. Most of the drops, over 40 of them, are jumpable. It is one of the world's funnest caves and ranks as one of Mexico's most sporting trips.

Unfortunately, the monsoon season started the day I arrived. Despite having clear weather for weeks, torrential rains have happened every afternoon since I got here. Within 10 minutes of starting the streets here in San Cristobal have water a foot deep. Normally the season does not start for a month or two, so this is quite unusual, I'm told. This means it is impossible to descend the cave, as it is flash flooding every day.

I haven't been able to do anything but walk around the town. I just don't want to be caught out somewhere on the motorcycle when the rains start. Even though it's bright and sunny in the mornings, once it starts raining, it continues until sunset. Instead I'll come back through here on my way back from Guatemala -- maybe this will just be pre season stuff, and be a little better then.

San Cristobal de las Casas is a really beautiful town. It's high up in the mountains, surrounded by pine forest. The streets are clean, cobblestone, the air fresh and cool, and lots of people walking around. There's a lot of stuff to do around here -- I just wish the rain would hold off!

I met the guide for Chorreodero, Carlos, who is really nice and introduced me to his friend Maurisio. As it turns out, Maurisio grew up in Monterrey, and was a caver and canyoneer there. He knows everyone from Chuy (who put together the rendezvous there a couple weeks ago) to Fofo (vice chair of my local caving club in the Bay Area). We had a nice dinner at his house in town. He and his flat-mates were hosting 5 couch-surfers at the time. I think I'll try doing that on my way back up through Mexico -- I'm tired of the $30 per night hotel rooms!

There is a Museum of Jade here in the town. I got to try on some $2000 jade necklaces. They looked fantastic! I seem to remember the jade in Thailand was considerably less expensive though, so I was able to resist. Jade is definitely my stone -- my favorite item is a small jade necklace I got in Thailand that I almost always wear.

The pic of the day is of my hotel, in the morning before it starts raining :)

Sat May 15 2010

Day 36 - I've found that a good way to discover things to do is to walk around and see what where the local tour groups are going, and then go there on my own.

From San Cristobal a popular tour is to spend a day visiting the large waterfalls at a place named El Chapin, followed by a group of beautiful lakes near the border with Guatemala, named Lagos Montebello. Wanting to visit these without worrying about the afternoon rains, I very nearly signed up with a tour agency's day trip (for $30), until I realized that these sites were 3 hours in the very direction I'm heading out of the country. So I decided to seek these out on my own.

I left the hotel around 11am hoping to avoid the afternoon rains, under a blue sky. About an hour out of town, higher in the mountains, it clouded over and started pouring. Fortunately it only lasted an hour or so.

These rains are very dangerous -- it's quite hard to see the road with all the water on the visor of the helmet. Think of a car windshield without being able to run the wipers. And because the visor is only two inches in front of my eyes, it really obscures things.

In any case, I was able to find my way to the waterfalls at El Chapin, a few hours from San Cristobal. The site has a large number of picnic areas next to a beautiful stream of the same pretty cloudy emerald water I've been seeing everywhere. A lot of families were grilling out and swimming in the gentle pools.

The concrete path is level for a long way, then begins climbing steeply alongside many named waterfalls. The grand finale is a long cascade a couple hundred feet high. See a video of it here. Here the nice concrete path ends and you can continue another kilometer higher along a dirt path to see more waterfalls higher up, which I did of course. Also, there are two ziplines from one side of the gorge to the other, which you can cross for 50 pesos.

While I was at the top of the series of waterfalls, overlooking the whole canyon before me, the rain I had ridden through earlier caught up to me, and it began pouring hard. I headed back down through the jungle to the zipline structure, where I caught a little reprieve from the rain under the overhang. The ziplines were now closed due to the rain. I'm not exactly sure what affect water on the cable would have on safety (none?), but regardless they were done for the day.

The owner was also huddled underneath with his family -- a late 30's-ish Mexican guy who immediately began speaking to me in English. Ugh, I'm getting tired of people doing that. I'm here on this trip to get better at Spanish and this isn't helping! I decided to tell him I didn't speak English and was from an island in the Pacific named Topocunkoonga (don't bother looking for it -- I made it up on the spot!).

"Really?" he asked, "Because you look like you're from the US. Where is it?" "Near Fiji," I said. "What languages do you speak then?" "Topacokoonga-ese, and I'm learning Spanish." This was all in Spanish of course. It was easy to keep a straight face because inside I was a bit perturbed! :)

After waiting out the rain and making it back up the mountain to Comitan, it was now just at sunset, so I found a hotel and will wait until the morning to visit Lagos Montebello, followed by crossing the border into Guatemala!

Sun May 16 2010

Day 37 (morning) - Ahh, if only all days could put a smile on my face like this one did.

In the morning I headed out of Comitan towards the Carretera Fronteriza, the "Last Frontier", a lonely road that goes for hundreds of miles alongside the Guatemalan border on the Mexican side. It is known for heavy drug traffic, and Lonely Planet warned of numerous military checkpoints. I did not encounter any however, only a gorgeous road through misty jungle and mountains in the distance.

I reached the "Lagos Montebello", which are pretty but not especially so. A couple of them had an attractive deep blue colored water, but honestly they are no different than any of thousands upon thousands of other pretty lakes. The locals had the access roads to the lakes all blocked off with toll booths and wanted 10 pesos from me. I balked initially but on the 4th road where I attempted to try to get in, I finally caved and paid the money. I snapped a few shots of the lakes and headed back out.

From the lakes I went a bit further along the Carretera Fronteriza, beyond where the last tourist shuttle stops. It felt very adventurous out there on the remote road, in lawless land. After just a short while my imagination got the best of me, and I got scared and turned around :)

Next stop on my way to the border crossing was a place of some more Mayan ruins, named Chinkultic. I had a very enjoyable time there because I ended up being the only person! The ruins included a small village area, and next to them a steep hill atop of which is a partially restored temple pyramid commanding remarkable views over the surrounding lakes and forests for dozens of miles. It was very picturesque and peaceful there, as I imagined people centering their lives around this place centuries before me. Here's a video from the top of their outlook pyramid.

I spoke with the young guy at the entrance for nearly an hour -- he wanted to learn a few English words to better direct tourists (such as, how do you say "por alli" ("that way") or "juego de pelota" ("ballgame")). He said he didn't know why no one else showed up today -- normally 300 - 400 people a day visit, but yesterday there were only 40, and today I was the only one. Weird! The skies were darkening quickly though so I had to cut things short and bid him adieu, and head to the border crossing with Guatemala.

Sun May 16 2010

Day 37 (afternoon) - After a couple hours ride I finally made it to the Mexican/Guatemalen border. The emotions running through me were tremendous! The last bit of Mexico is mostly flat farmland, and a literal WALL of mountains in the distance, below dark storm clouds, marked GUATEMALA! See it here.

I got my passport punched out of Mexico, and headed into the country of my destination, Guatemala. I must confess something -- I had absolutely no knowledge of Guatemala before this trip -- whether it was flat or not, or even that it was the country bordering Mexico to the south (I had to check). To my supreme pleasure I have learned that it is a wildly mountainous country with active volcanoes (complete with flowing lava!), farming fields on extremely steep slopes high above the valley floor, where the farmers literally rappel down to tend their crops, very good roads (better than Mexico IMO), and all of this combined amounts to the finest riding I've done. Yes, much better than the ride from Tamazunchale to Jacala.

When entering Guatemala, if you have a vehicle the first stop is a mandatory fumigation, where a guy sprays a pesticide on your tires. You have to pay for this on the spot, and in the local currency of course, which is now Quetzales. And there is a guy there happy to change Pesos or USD for you. I had completely forgotten to check the exchange rate on the computer before leaving in the morning, but remembered a couple people online who wrote that the exchange rates they were offered were pretty good. So I exchanged about $100 with the old guy that was there (I didn't see anyone else). About 10 min later I walked out of the immigration office and saw another money changer guy, and out of curiousity asked him how many Quetzales he would offer for the amount of pesos I had just changed. I took a step back at the number he showed in the calculator -- about 20% more! I couldn't believe it. I had really been screwed by the old guy. I'm going to think of it as paying a $20 fee for the transaction, rather than a 25% exchange rate!

I'd read a story of this border crossing, describing Mexico as being calm and tranquil, and crossing into Guatemala where it was a madhouse with people grabbing at you and being very forceful about selling their wares to you. There was none of that though. It was nice and pleasant and after getting my passport stamped and the bike import papers filled out, I was on my way. Total admin fees to enter the country including the fumigation and bike import papers were around $8 USD.

Now for another confession. Ever since I got interested in the activity of adventure motorcycle touring last summer, I have had a single picture on my wall at work that I've stared at fondly month after month, longing for the day I could view the same sights with my own eyes. The picture was taken by a rider 2 years before me, of the road shortly after he entered Guatemala at the very border crossing I just used. After 20 minutes riding, I was standing in exactly the same spot! Viewing the scene I'd longed after hundreds of times, there before me! I was living the dream -- I'd made it!!!

My goal for the night was a town high in the mountains named Quetzaltenango -- or Xela, as everyone local calls it. For the next week I will be in "Spanish immersion", staying with a local family and attending 5 hours of classes per day.

I rode for hours through the mountains in Guatemala, with vast dropoffs and vistas, seeing waterfalls gorging out the sides of cliffs. It was phenomenal and breathtaking. I have a feeling I'm going to really like this country.

Mon May 17 2010

Day 38 - Today was my first day of Spanish classes at the Minerva Spanish school. It is kind of funny, in addition to not knowing anything about Guatemala before getting here, I also did not know anything about the town I'm living in, Xela. I had picked it because I'd read that it is a good place to study Spanish -- it's not touristy and is high in the mountains, and few people speak English so you don't have them all trying to talk to you in English all the time. I had imagined a tiny hamlet with narrow streets, chickens running around, and mothers ushering their children inside doorways as I passed by on the motorcycle.

Instead, it turns out Xela is Guatemala's second biggest city with over 120,000 people. It's huge! Plus it's really crazy here. Large garishly painted US school buses ("chicken buses") barrel down the streets at crazy speeds, belching enormous amounts of black smoke from their exhausts. The tiny corner convenience stores all have floor to ceiling security bars. You basically stand in a virtual cage in the doorway and point out what you want, and the guy on the other side will get it and hand it to you through the bars. There are security guys with shotguns standing all over the place -- any store with merchandise of value (clothing, tv's, banks) has an armed shotgun wielding guy at the front. And they don't have it slung over their shoulder -- they stand with the weapon in both hands, at the ready. Volcanos surround the city on the outskirts -- most of them dormant, one of them active, with steam eruptions every hour or so (you can't see the steam from the city though -- it's on the backside of the mountain).

The Spanish classes went okay today. It's the same rote verb drills I remember from my two years of Spanish in high school -- "me, you, he, us, them" versions of verbs. Not super exciting, but I guess it's the way the language is taught. The picture on the left above is of the school.

My family seems very nice. They live across the plaza from the school, so it's less than a minute for me to get there in the mornings. In the picture on the right above, I'm living in the house in the middle with the blue gate. I have my own room and bath. The head of the household is a late 50's lady, Leti, who works as a teacher at a school an hour's public bus ride away. She is raising her 10 year old granddaughter, Mishel (same name phonetically as me). From now on we all decided to call her Mishelita, to avoid confusion :) Also living there is Leti's older sister, Ilda, and Leti's son, Ludwig, who is about my age (he's an uncle to Mishel, not father). And their nephew, Fernando, who is 24. None of them speak a word of English, except for Ludwig. And they are very Catholic, praying to their god and genuflecting before they eat anything.

Ludwig is a professional, working as a lecturer in the university by day and a volunteer firefighter at night. He is applying to study for a master's degree in Germany. He has a Swiss girlfriend, who is coming to visit this weekend for a couple of weeks.

Fernando is a party guy and a freeloader in the house. Apparently a couple years ago he had a job for a month and didn't care for it. He stays out late, doesn't contribute, and brings home questionable people. Leti and Ilde now have padlocks for all the doors in the house, and whenever they are out of the house at the same time they go around and lock all of inside doors, so that none of Fernando's friends steal anything.

Mishel(ita) is an adorable 10 year old girl. She is really spunky and loves to ride her bike around outside the house in the plaza. It's sad that her mother abandoned her at birth (she is now living somewhere else in Guatemala), but very lucky that her grandmother is raising her.

Ilda, the cook and cleaner of the house, has a bit of dementia I believe. Last night I told her I wanted to get up at around 7:30 am and would eat breakfast then. At 6:30 am she was pounding on my door. "Michelle! Queires desayuno?" "Yes! I mean Si! A las siete y media!" Then at 6:45, more pounding. Same question. Same response. Then again at 7:15! What is it with her?!? At breakfast the same questions we'd gone through the night before. "Do you have brothers or sisters? Where do you live, the US or Mexico?" (I can't quite figure out the last one -- it seems pretty obvious!)

Tue May 18 2010

Day 39 - Same pounding on my door this morning by Ilde as yesterday. Same questions about my family and where I'm from. Argh! What is it with her?

There are only two students in my school, me and another girl. Both of us have 5 hours of one on one instruction per day with our "maestras" (teachers). In addition, the school most days offers "actividades". Today was a trip up "El Baul", which is a hill overlooking the city. Eager to get a little bit of exercise, I said sure! It ended up being just me and the 18yo guide, Pepe (the other girl didn't want to come).

We hopped in a mini-van shuttle bus which is the preferred way for locals to get around the city. This is quite an experience, let me assure you. It's 1.25 Quetzales (15 cents) to take one anywhere in the city. The drivers drive like absolute maniacs. They all have an assistant riding shotgun, standing upright in the open sliding door of the minivan, handling the payments and shouting out where the van is going to people on the sidewalks. On the old cobblestone streets it combines to be an experience more thrilling than any amusement park ride I've ever been on.

After a half hour hike to the top of El Baul, we had a very nice view of the very large city before us. This is a popular area on the weekends with a lot of picnic sites. Pepe and I walked around a bit, and then he led me to the most incredible thing! Slides built for adults! These were over a hundred feet long and made of concrete. Pepe demonstrated that the best way to go down them, is sitting on a bit of plastic. He stomped his empty water bottle flat and showed me how it's done. What fun! See an exciting video here.

Wed May 19 2010

Day 40 - Again, in the morning the pounding on the door! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, I want breakfast in the morning! Only today it was worse. She had asked me last night, "Queires leche en la manana?" I had said yes, expecting a glass of milk. So what do I find waiting for me? A bowl of chocolate rice krispies with milk that had been poured goodness knows how long before. Completely soggy. That was all there was. I poked at it with my spoon. "Mishel, no te gusta la leche?" Ummm, no Ilda, not like this...

Today's activity after classes was a hike up La Muela, a volcanic rocky outcropping that also overlooks the city. We had a different guide and a few students from another school joined us. They were Canadiens studying here too. It was very foggy today and we didn't have much of a view, until the very summit when the fog parted a bit and we could see the city. The hike was quite fun -- very steep and even some Class 3 climbing on the rock.

I asked the other students how their homestays were going. One of them told me her family was great -- they made chocolate pancakes for her this morning, all she could eat. Grrr...

Thu May 20 2010

Day 41 - FINALLY! No pounding on my door this morning! I had just about had it and was going to ask for another family (yes, it was THAT bad!) My alarm actually had a chance to go off today at 7:30. Thank goodness!

Today the activity after class was free salsa dancing lessons. I wasn't really interested and skipped it. Ludwig instead invited me to a meeting of his poetry club in the evening. It sounded very "cultural" and I decided to come with. Well, cultural it might have been, but it amounted to listening to people talk in a foreign language for 2 hours, of which I couldn't understand anything. When it came my turn, they very nearly skipped me, but I said "Oh no, I have one, I can go". Thus my poem in Spanish (which I came up with off the top of my head): "No lo tengo. Por eso, es el fin." Very poetic I thought! Everyone clapped :)

Little Mishel had two hours with an English tutor today at home. He comes every Thursday. I hope they're not paying too much! It's a retired Swiss guy living in Xela with a VERY thick German accent. I tried talking to him in English and it was almost easier to use Spanish -- his vocabulary is very small. He referred to me as "the expert", haha.

Fri May 21 2010

Day 42 - Incredibly, my week of classes has finished already! My goodness that went fast. I didn't quite get to cover everything I'd wanted to though, and decided to sign up for two more days next week. The other student that was here earlier in the week left for Tikal on Wed, so the school has consisted of only me the last two days.

My teacher told me today that the student that was with her before me, studied here for 4 months. She (the student) arrived knowing no Spanish (other than what everyone knows -- where's the bathroom, what's your name, good morning...). At the end of the 4 months, she is very nearly fluent -- speaking fast and comprehending very well. She's now found an apartment to rent in town with some local girls for a few more months. Wow! Hearing that made me really jealous, in a good way :)

After classes I accompanied Leti, Ilde, and Mishelita out of town to some public baths, which they go to every 15 days. It was a fun experience -- interesting for sure. You pay for a private room with a big tub sunk in the floor. Natural volcanically heated water, which is quite hot though not scalding, fills the tub. They sell shampoo and soap so you can, well, bathe. The three of them shared a room and I got one by myself. It was quite dirty inside actually. The once white walls were completely brown, the tile covered in brown, a plywood door for privacy, a grime coated window for light, and the guy working there quickly snatched a 2 inch beetle off the floor as I walked in. Riding the chicken buses to and back were fun. Mishel slept on the seat with her head on my lap.

I'm now at the point where I like the family. Everyone has their idiosyncroses, of course, and this is a real family like any other, not an ideal construct. In the photos above, from left to right, is Mishel, Ilda, Leti, then in the other Ludwig, Natasha (his girlfriend who arrived from Swiss), and Leti again.

The second was at night when the power went out, which has happened nearly every night. All the restaurants and banks on the street have diesel generators sitting outside that they fire up when this happens.

Sat May 22 2010

Day 43 - Today was another great cultural experience -- I attended a wedding! One of Leti's students from years ago was getting married and she asked me if I wanted to come. I said sure!

It was an hour chicken bus ride out of town for the 3 of us -- Leti, Mishel, and myself. The ceremony started at 10:30 in the morning and was very Catholic with a full mass (the religious part that Catholics have on Sundays). I of course stuck out like a sore thumb, being 3 inches taller than anyone else in the room, and the only person without dark skin. I tried to be polite and stood and sat with everyone else, but I drew the line at kneeling before their god (I just sat). One thing Catholic mass's have is a lot of standing, sitting, and kneeling.

There was lunch afterward with chicken, rice, tamales, and tres leches cake. They were very nice and gave me a portion of food. I felt very awkward though -- especially since they asked me to sit at the head table! The bride and groom had finished and walking around greeting people, and I was sitting outside, For some reason they asked me to come in and take a seat up there. Needless to say everyone in the room was looking at me (about 200 people). I really didn't want to take any more attention away from the bride and groom on their day and I was happy when Leti said it was time to go home.

Sun May 23 2010

Day 44 - After yesterday's wedding experience, I felt it was time to do something more in line with my interests -- so I climbed a volcano :) It is named Chikabal, and is about an hour outside of Xela. The volcano is long extinct; the slopes are thickly covered in vegetation and a lake now fills the cauldron. The shores of the lake are a popular place for local Mayan people to have small ceremonies.

I went with a tour group, and along with the guide, we had three young women from Connecticut who were volunteering at an orphanage in Xela, and an older lesbian couple from Oakland -- the latter two rode horses to the top.

The hike was pretty steep and strenous, so it felt good to be stretch my legs and work off some of those tamales! There was a nice mirador (observation platform) from the rim, and then we descended to the lake and walked on a trail circumnavigating it. Along the way I saw a small group of people burning something that looked like brownies and I asked what they were cooking. "It's a religious ceremony" one of them told me. "Oh, lo siento!" I whispered back.

Later in the afternoon, back at Casa Leti & Ilda, I filled them in my activity. They wanted to know how much I paid and I was embarrassed to mention it was 200 Quetzales ($25), which I knew was a lot of money for them -- about as much as Leti earns in a day as a teacher. In fact I was a bit upset myself at having paid so much -- I easily could have done the hike sola with the bike, and moreover we had passed two tourists from Britain who had gone alone. Oh well.

But the funny part came when I mentioned that the two older women were married to each other ("casadas juntas"). Ilda about had a heart attack. "A dios mio, a dios mio, aqui en Xela! Aqui en Xela!" ("Dear God, here in Xela!"), in reference to the fact that they were lesbian. Leti actually had to console her, holding her hand and soothing her! I was holding back laughter at Ilda's response -- it was, comical to watch. But truly sad at the same time.

Tue May 25 2010

Day 46 - My last day of classes was today. I was awarded with a certificate for having completed basic level Spanish (woohoo!).

In the afternoon a few of us from the school went roller blading at an indoor skating rink nearby. One my new words to learn last week was "patinar" ("to skate"). I'd rolled my eyes at that one -- I mean how often do you use it? Who knew I'd have the chance within a week?!

I paid for Mishelita to come along and she had a great time. Plus it's good to know that I can still do crossovers skating backwards around the whole rink several times. I played hockey in high school so my forte is on ice -- I've only skated with wheels instead of blades of steel a few times, and it's a lot harder (with wheels). Incredibly it had been over 5 years since I skated! (Note to self: try to get to the year round indoor rinks in the Bay Area more often...) Mishelita and I skated around, dancing to the disco music hand in hand, and had ice cream cones afterwards. I'm gonna miss that kid...

Wed May 26 2010

Day 47 - Well my plan was to head out of Xela today, to Antigua where I will climb Pacaya, the active volcano with flowing lava that you can hike right up to, and roast marshmallows on sticks while the bottoms of your sneakers melt. I was going to stop by two places on the way: a glass blowing factory, and some pretty hot springs named "Fuentes Georginas".

However, it was getting too late to do those things and avoid riding through the rain which is coming every day in the early afternoon. And Ilda told me that Mishel was crying last night about my leaving -- "Mi amiga! Mi amiga!" she sobbed. So I decided to spend another night with the family -- go to the two places today, and head out first thing in the morning for Antigua.

I first went to the glass blowing factory, where I was told by the lady that they won't be blowing more glass until July. "Julio!" I exclaimed. Apparently they have too many items on the shelves to sell right now. So she showed me a 20 minute video on what glass blowing looks like instead. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking of my friend Jef (who works as a glass blower) ;)

Next I headed up the road to Fuentes Georginas. It consists of a series of pools, the topmost which has naturally heated, scalding hot water flowing into it from a hole straight out of the mountain. The outflow of this pool goes to a lower second pool, then a third, and a fourth. I only went in the topmost though, which was about the temp of a typical hot tub (except right next to the inlet, which was really quite warm!)

Mishel was happy to see me when I got back. In a store I bought UNO, the card game, and the two of us played most of the evening. Ilda even joined in on a game, and managed to win. Beginner's luck!

Thu May 27 2010

Day 48 - My plan from yesterday, to leave before the afternoon rains, didn't quite work out! It started raining at 8am (!) today, pretty hard. I looked at the weather radar online and saw that a large storm is sitting right off the coast and is going to hit tomorrow. So instead of going east to Antigua, I decided instead to head north, to Semuc Champey, which is "the most beautiful place in all of Guatemala". Then after the storm passes in a couple days I'll loop back south to Antigua for the ascent of El Volcan Pacaya.

I was sort of undecided -- a lot depended on the weather I encountered as I went north. Leti insisted that I NOT take the north road to Semuc Champet, as it is "muy peligroso (dangerous)", rockslides, muddy, very remote, hours between towns, blah blah blah (I mean, "etc.") Ludwig told me he tried riding the road once on a motorbike and fell, breaking his arm. So I placated them by assuring I'd be heading back to San Cristobal (Mexico) today, while secretly planning to make the decision en route. I left their house around noon, under a light drizzle.

At the decision point, whether to go left, returning to Mexico, or right, to unknown wonders in the remote mountains of Guatemala, it was not raining and the roads were dry. I went right.

Fri May 28 2010

Day 49 (morning) - Wow. Just... Wow. Today I had two, (and nearly three), laugh out loud moments while riding the bike on the mountain road to Semuc Champey. Laughing out loud because I just couldn't believe what I was experiencing (in a good way!) The last time I can remember having a laugh out loud experience was descending my second canyon (Dry Meadow), rappelling 5 feet away from a thundering waterfall, which immediately addicted me. Today I had two (and nearly three!).

I was riding on dirt roads, in the middle of nowhere, passing through tiny villages consisting of a few thatched roof buildings, amidst drizzling rain and fog that lay thick over the jungle but parted ever now and then to reveal either massive mountains towering around me, or deep, deep valleys far below.

This, truly, is the stuff dual sport bikes dream of when they go to sleep at night.

Yes, there were many small landslides, and one enormous (I mean, ENORMOUS) landslide where over a half mile of the mountain slid away, but nothing the BMW couldn't handle with ease. Splashing through puddles, pulling confidently up deeply rutted grades, bouncing over dirt speedbumps, purring along as schoolkids out for the afternoon cheered and ran alongside, what an incredible, incredible day. Click here for a short video enroute.

Fri May 28 2010

Day 49 (afternoon) - The bike finally met its match in the form of a steep grade on the way to Semuc Champey, which was solid mud due to the rain. The back wheel just spun and spun. Fortunately, it was an uphill grade (so I could turn around), and also only half a mile out of Lanquin, a town within 10km where most of the people going to visit Semuc Champey stay anyway. So I went back and found a hotel to stay at in Lanquin.

Just before entering the town of Lanquin, there is an extensive cave system which I stopped to explore. The first quarter mile or so is commercial, with a walkway lit with electric lights. The lit section was actually pretty long, and it took awhile to get to the end. The cave was quite muddy inside (even on the walkway, it was slippery) and I didn't go off exploring on my own. At dusk this cave is known for the thousands of bats that emerge from deep within. You can sit in the narrow entrance and feel them fly all around you on their way out.

Sat May 29 2010

Day 50 - I visited Semuc Champey today. Maybe it's time I describe exactly what the place is? There is a river, the Rio Cahobon, which is entirely swallowed up by a cave, where it flows for 300 meters underground, after which it reemerges again. The second photo above is of the river being swallowed. And click here for a video. This alone would be interesting to see, but on top, are a series of cascading pools filled with beautiful turquise water -- quite large and deep for swimming and diving. It's really a special place in nature and well worth a visit. And I was well overdue for a swim :)

The local tourism board has also hacked a trail through the jungle to get you a view of the series of pools from a mirador (remember that word?) about a thousand feet up. This is a really fun hike too, with narrow paths, wooden stairs, and rocky bits to climb. And the view is fantastic. Click here for a video from the mirador.

After spending a couple hours hiking the path and swimming in the pools, my group (yes, I joined a small tour) went on a cave exploration. Only this one was very different! You are led by a local Mayan resident, and everyone is given a skinny 12" candle. You enter the cave, which is filled with a flowing stream, and you must wade, swim, climb small cascades, and jump, all whilst trying to keep your candle lit. There was even a 15' waterfall we climbed up the middle of with a rope, while getting blasted with water in the face. Should your candle go out in the water, it's a group effort to relight it.

It was actually really fun and adventurous. When we first started I was regretting having left my Stenlight (uber powerful light for caving) at the hotel, but then I started getting really into the whole "one candle per person", the challenge of keeping them lit, and the flickering on the walls from only the few candles we had.

The only part I got frustrated with was when our guide announced it was time to turn around. All of our 12" candles had burned to about 3" left! My caving experience was screaming in my head, "don't enter a cave without 3 sources of light per person!" It was quite crazy really. We made it back out rather expeditiously, just in time, and some guys singed their fingers abit since they were holding nothing but nubs of candles at the end.

Sun May 30 2010

Day 51 - Semuc Champey is the furthest south I'm going on this adventure motorcycling trip. I was about to head back today, but decided to take a rest day and do laundry, and will head out in the morning. It is hard to turn around and point the nose of the bike north, because even though it's a long way back, mentally it means the trip is over.

It rained really hard last night, and while waiting for my laundry to be done, I caught a ride back to Semuc Champey from Lanquin. Click here for a video of what the shuttle is like. Wow, what a difference from yesterday. The river is now too high in volume for the cave to drink all of it, and the water is flooding over the tops of the pools. They are completely flooded and brown, unsafe for swimming, and quite unnattractive as compared to the beautiful turquise of yesterday. Compare the first photo above to the shot of the same location from yesterday. It was quite exciting being right next to the raging river, and what a contrast from the day before. Click here for a video the river at flood stage.

In other news, reports are starting to come in from arriving tourists of two separate natural disasters to the south: Pacaya has erupted! After 12 years of being a good little tourist friendly volcano to roast marshmallows in the lava, it erupted, covering Guatemala City in 2-3 inches of ash, closing the airport, and destroying the road where you hike from (in fact the whole town nearby is evacuated). It will be weeks or months before it is reopened to tourism, so that's a real bummer for me.

Secondly, the storm sitting off the coast became the named Tropical Storm Agatha, and flooding from the rains destroyed dozens of bridges in the country, wiped out a lot of roads with landslides, and killed over 170 people in mudslides. It's going to be tricky getting out of here.

Wed Jun 02 2010

Day 54 - I just spent the last 36 hours in bed, sleeping nearly the whole time. I got a really bad intestinal infection the night before last, starting with vomiting and diarrhea, and followed by extreme dizzyness, malaise, throbbing headache, and nausea. I couldn't even walk straight. I haven't been this sick in years.

This morning my head felt clear, and I really wanted to get back on the road, though I'm still a bit queasy. I've made friends over the past couple days with a Belgium guy named Paul, and we decided to rendezvous in Coban, an hour away from Lanquin on the way out of here. Well, an hour for me on the bike, and 3 hours for him in the shuttle bus ;)

So I said goodbye to the thatched roof cabanas next to the river, and pointed the nose of the bike north, to start the long ride home.

Fri Jun 04 2010

Day 55 - Today I rode back to the Huehuetenango in the west on the glorious road I had taken last week (see day 49). It was sunny today, as opposed to the mist and drizzle I had experienced last time. Due to the good weather there was a lot more traffic on the road, and also a lot of dust from that traffic. Furthermore I was able to see the views in their entirety, instead of glimpses through the mist as before. All this combined resulted in not *quite* the spectacular experience as I had previously, sort of like once you know the secret behind a magic trick, it utterly shatters the illusion. The road was still very beautiful though.

I also saw some results of recent natural disasters. The first picture above is of a MASSIVE landslide that happened a year ago (they have rerouted a temporary road through it), and the second is of a bridge that was lost just last weekend from the rains of Agatha.

I talked Paul into heading to Huehue with me. The poor guy took a local shuttle bus, which followed other trucks the whole way, and he was eating their dust for hours! Thankfully I'm able to pass other vehicles much easier, so I usually don't have to put up with the dust for too long.

Sat Jun 05 2010

Day 56 - Paul and I stayed up last night discussing what we should do next. He suggested going to a small village in the mountains a couple hours from here, named Todos Santos. It is quite strongly Mayan, and is unusual in that the men also wear traditional dress, instead of only the women as most everywhere else in Guatemala. The dress of the men is exclusively red pinstriped pants, blue & white pinstriped shirts, and a bowler's hat. No kidding!

However we have to watch out for taking photos there -- both Lonely Planet and Rough Guide tell of a Japenese tourist who took photos of a young girl in the year 2000, and it upset the townspeople so much they beat him to death, and his bus driver too!

The ride up to the town was really beautiful -- cloudy and misty with just a very light drizzle. I also crested over 11,400 feet on the bike -- the highest elevation I've ever ridden it!

Todos Santos is exactly the town I had pictured Xela to be in my mind -- very small, on a steep hillside, with chickens running around, one paved street leading to the main plaza and just a few cobblestone streets leading away from it. And it even has a couple language schools! Hmmm... maybe next time :)

In other news, I am quite worried about a bad infection on my right elbow that is spreading fast. I got a cut there a week ago in the candle lit cave, and it was healing fine, but I think my recent intestinal illness caused my body to overlook it, and now the infection is spreading.

Sun Jun 06 2010

Day 57 - The infection on my elbow is now so bad that people on the street are asking me what's wrong with my arm. Thus I started a 10-day course of Cipro antibiotics today (bought OTC at the pharmacy). I am really worried, especially since hearing a story when I was in Lanquin of a girl who got a cut while vacationing in Africa, and had to have a doctor flay her arm open every day and debride the wound, or she would have lost her arm. :(

Paul and I went for a really nice hike today near Todos Santos, up to some small ceremonial caves. On our way back to town the skies darkened greatly and I kept thinking it would pour, but the rain held off.

We also snuck some extremely covert photos of the local Mayan descendants. It's really quite wierd seeing all the men with their pinstriped outfits. I mean that's all they wear! I kept trying to convince Paul to buy an outfit so he will fit in better (they sell the clothes to tourists too), but no luck :)

Tonight our innkeeper (a Swiss guy who has lived here for 15 years, married locally, and has two kids), told us the real story of the Japanese murder. It wasn't about taking a photo; it was actually even more crazy.

There had been rumors going around about a gang of "Satan worshippers" who were abducting children. Then, entirely coincidentally, a tour bus (painted black and grey no less!), full of Japanese tourists rolled into town. Out stepped a bunch of Japanese, some of whom were dressed all in black. They strolled around town for a bit sightseeing, and by chance a local girl tripped and fell next to one of them. One of the old Japanese men tried to help her up, and her mother, who apparently had been known for some mental instability, began screaming that the man was going to take her child and sacrifice her.

Of course the man let go, but some local guys stepped in and began roughing the old man. Then a young Japenese guy (30's I think), dressed all in black, tried to push them away from the older man. All the while the mother was screaming nonsense, but getting everyone riled up.

To make a long story short, the young Japanese guy got beaten to death, because they thought he was a "Satan worshipper" and wanted to sacrifice the girl. Then the townspeople wanted to search the bus for dead children, and the bus driver (a local Guatemalan) thought they were wanting to rob him, so he ran away. Unfortunately for him, they saw this as a sign of guilt and caught him and beat HIM to death.

A sad story, and the guidebooks don't tell it accurately. But it sure has cut down on tourists bothering the locals with taking photos!

Mon Jun 07 2010

Day 58 - I said goodbye to Paul this morning. He is taking a shuttle bus back to Lake Atitlan, before leaving for home later in the week. I'm planning to head out of the country, hoping to be in San Cristobal, Mexico, by tonight. I'm going to make a small loop to the north, and hope to see some more mountains on my way. There are some 250 meter waterfalls on the way that I'll try to hike to, named Pepajau.

The guidebook describing how to get to the Pepajau waterfalls turned out to be pretty inaccurate on distances. In fact, the town it mentions starting the hike from, is many miles off the main road on a rough dirt track, at the bottom of a big valley.

I got to the bottom towards dark in advance of a large rainstorm, to find nothing else around but a few buildings. It was a good 45 minutes back out to the nearest town. A local guy VERY kindly offered me a bed in his house for the night! He is older, with a bunch of grandkids running around, so I felt safe. He actually kicked his father off the bed into another room for the night. The bed is absolutely filthy and there's no pillow, so I slept in my clothes on top of the covers. But it's better than the alternative, which is nothing. He said it's very dangerous here out of doors at night -- there are a lot of local guys who cause trouble, every single night. Hmmm...

In the morning he said I can hike out to the Pepajau waterfalls, which are a couple hours from here.

Thanks to the Cipro antibiotics (I think), the swelling on my elbow is gone, and it's now just red where the infection is. I'm not quite as worried about it as yesterday!

Tue Jun 08 2010

Day 59 (morning) - In the morning I hiked out to the Pepajau waterfalls. It was actually slightly tricky finding them, only because I could only half understand the directions that Alejandro (the older guy whose house I slept in) gave me in Spanish.

On the way I walked by a house on the road where guy stopped me and told me to go back the way I came, that it wasn't permitted to go further. I asked why, and he said it's too dangerous -- many bad people in the woods. I said that Alejandro had told me it was okay. "Oh, well if Alejandro said it's okay, then go ahead!" he said in Spanish, seemingly without sarcasm. Ummm... so I kept walking, but with a bit of apprehension now...

I ended up missing a turn, and after 100 meters encoutered two guys, who told me I was going the wrong way. They also said it was very dangerous out here. I asked why, and they said there are packs of "javelins", little pig like creatures that hunt in packs of 6-8, and if you're alone, they'll attack you and eat you. But two or more people together are fine.

I said thanks for the advice, and walked back to the correct turn. They followed, and seemingly with a lot of concern for my safety, offered to show me the way to the waterfalls for 120 Quetzales. I didn't really like the idea of paying for a guide, but becoming increasingly worried about all the warnings I'd been getting, I agreed. However, I told them I could only pay in Mexican Pesos, because I had only 45 Quetzales on me. They said that was fine.

The waterfalls turned out to be only about 30 minutes away from there -- not too bad. However, most amazingly, I ran into another tourist of sorts at the base of the falls -- a French guy with his own guide (I think he was doing some university study). He said the story about the javelins was bunk -- there weren't any out there. Then he and my guides had a slight argument over whether or not it was true!

Regardless, we hiked to the top of the falls on a little used dirt path, where the stream is born straight out of the mountain. We all had a much refreshing drink from the nacimiento (spring).

On the hike back, all was well until it came time to pay my guide fee. The 120 Quetzales is around 180 pesos, at the current 1/1.5 exchange rate. However, my guide thought the current exchange rate was in fact 1/10. So he became furious when I gave him a 200 peso bill (around $16, quite high as it is!), telling me it was only worth 20 Quetzales ($2). What a pickle. I sure wasn't going to give him any more than the 200 pesos, especially since his story about packs of javelins was bunk! We argued for a bit, and finally I just walked away leaving him with the 200 pesos, hoping he wouldn't come after me with a machete. I made it back to the bike at Alejandro's without further incident, though, and headed on my way.

Tue Jun 08 2010

Day 59 (afternoon) -

M I N D - B L O W I N G.

I have already used up all the superlatives I know, so I have none left to adequately describe how my last day riding in the mountains of Guatemala was. I just... have no words. I laughed (maniacally), I cried (very nearly), I screamed in frustration, I pounded my fist on bike, I swore at the country for keeping me a prisoner within... I stood in utter awe at the sights before me, I experienced things like never before...

I spent those last 45 Quetzales I had on a gallon and a half of fuel for the bike, and headed out in what I thought would be an easy, paved loop back to the border to Mexico. I didn't make it. Not this day, anyway.

The road wound higher, and higher, further north and away from the border, (and the road that my GPS showed). Then the pavement ended, and I rode for hours on graded dirt, through remote alpine forest. Eventually the dirt gave way to rough rocky cobblestone. For HOURS. I was so low on fuel and had no money left! There was no other traffic out there. The air was freezing cold and the wind howling -- I had the bike near 12000' and it was gasping for air. I was alone, on dirt roads, along mountain ridges with 6000’ drop offs on both sides. Dropoffs so intense I was getting vertigo. VERTIGO.

From time to time I would come across someone walking, and with EVERY person I stopped to ask if "this was the road to Nenton", the nearest large town I'd seen on the map. Two of them outright ran away from me into the woods. Of those that stayed to answer me (with the ones holding machetes I kept my hand on the throttle), I couldn't be sure with the answers they gave, if they were telling the truth or had no clue what I was saying and were just trying to be helpful. I tried to mix up the questions -- intentionally pointing the wrong way, etc., just to make sure they weren't automatically saying yes.

A pinnacle moment was when I had followed a dirt road for half an hour going down a ridge dividing two extreme mountain valleys, and came into a small cluster of houses. I stopped and asked a family sitting outside, if it was the road to Nenton. They stared at me for a second in disbelief, then started laughing. "No, the road to Nenton is over THERE" they said -- pointing 20 miles away at the other side of the valley, a 6000' deep chasm between. I had just coasted down the hill for 30 min conserving as much fuel as I could, and now had to throttle back up it. My rear brake had failed -- I guess there was some water in the line and it overheated.

Finally, after many hours, and just after twilight, I made it down into the jungly lowlands and stumbled into Nenton, finding a nice hotel for 30 Quetzales (~$4, which I paid using pesos). My last full day in Guatemala was one I'll remember for a long time.

Wed Jun 09 2010

Day 60 - "South of the Mexican border lies a country so breathtakingly beautiful, one would think upon entering it that he had been transported to Paradise. This land of mist-veiled mountains and lush, verdant jungles bursts with a profusion of rich and brilliant color from the riotous waterfalls of its tropical flowers to the shimmering plumage of its rare Quetzal birds. The country, of course, is Guatemala. And far from being a Heaven on Earth, it is a turbulent land that has been plagued with years of unremitting tragedy and a decades-long civil war."

A quote I found on the web, which couldn't be more true about what a fantastic experience my travel in Guatemala has been. And thus I headed out of that amazing country, back into the relative safety of Mexico. I didn't get to see the lava flows of Pacaya while I was there (which the picture above is of, though disappointingly not taken by me), and passed by a lot of other things, vowing to return to see them someday.

I made one quick side jog 8 miles out of the way to see my inspirational photo spot a final time, and then headed back to San Cristobal de las Casas, in Mexico. The border was very easy to cross back into, no bribe had to be paid, and once in the relative safety of Mexico I instantly felt like it was boring -- lacking the raw primitive nature of Guatemala. And also a lot more expensive...

Wed Jun 16 2010

Almost caught up now -- just a week behind...

Fri Sep 06 2013

Epilogue:

I safely arrived home on 18 Jun 2010, and never finished the entries for my last week and a half of riding up the Pacific coast of Mexico. Mostly because it was rather anti-climactic after those last few days in Guatemala. After re-entering Mexico, I immediately felt safe and bored.

Oh sure, I still had some adventures on the way back, but it took only 10 days and not a whole lot happened, relatively speaking. I couch-surfed several times, rode through a lightning storm (it was striking the ground on fields next to the road), fed horses at a ranch I stayed at, poked my head in the exit of Chorreodero cave, jogged along the beach in Puerto Escondido and had a room that opened onto the sand for $20, watched the cliff-divers in Acapulco, took a 14hr overnight ferry from Mazatlan to La Paz (and gladly paid $60 extra for a personal state-room instead of the open seating), rode through 110 deg heat in Baja, and so on. But it was nowhere near the excitement and sense of adventure I experienced in Guatemala.

One happening of note: I was selected for 'secondary inspection' at the border crossing when re-entering the US in Tijuana. The border agent asked me what I did for a living and I couldn't remember. I told him I had just ridden up from Guatemala. He immediately called security over. The secondary inspection guys were really cool though and said the other guy usually drives a desk, and they were really intrigued and impressed with the trip.

This was the greatest trip of my life and I dearly hope to repeat it someday, only extending it and riding all the way to the end of the earth in Tierra del Fuego, "Land of Fire", at the southern tip of Argentina.

Michelle

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