Day 20-23 La Paz --> Ferry to Mazatlan

La Paz Condensed

La Paz has been a great stop, both super productive and increadibly fun. Day one we all got a decently early start and took off to collect parts and services. We all had a list of stuff we either wanted to take care of or pick up, and for the most part I think think it was a big success. Frenchie and I went looking for a leather shop to get me riding pants repaired -- If you'll recall I slid no less then a hundred feet on me arse resulting in a shreddered seat on my pants. Ran to a few places each suggesting another, but no luck, so we switched gears and headed over to a local moto shop where I found slime for my tubes, a new tube and a used front tire that had nearly 80% of its tread left for only 200 pesos or roughly 17 dollars, good effing deal. Also, we aranged to have them straighten out and de-twat my rim from when I hit the rock. Oh and get this, there was an expat working in the shop who recognized Frenchie's accent and started speaking french to him. As it goes, he was on a bike (no motor) tour from Mexico to Canada and liked La Paz so much that when he completed his trip, returned and never left.

After the bike shop we set out looking for a welder so I could get my cracked pannier frame repaired. After some searching we found a mechanic shop that said it would be no problem. Within 5 min of pulling in there were three mechanics working on my frame, and no less than 10 min after that I had a newly welded sold rack. While I was there I decided I would attend to a few other things as they offered me all the space and tools I needed. Ended up moving my horns, requiring creating new brackets, drilling a few new holes and gathering the necessary hardware (which they had all in shop). I also wanted to add spaces to two attatchment points on the rack to straighten the camber of my boxes out a bit (recall, I've now fallen on both sides having bent both in and causing my boxes to tilt). I asked if they had anything that would work, and they said they did, so I thought the just had some on hand. One of them ran to the back where I imagined that all the nuts and bolts were; really it was where the metal lathe was and they actually spun a custom spacer to the dimensions I needed.... increadible. They also had on hand several bolts I needed to replace that had rattled loose somewhere along the road. All in all I probably spent about two hours their, and the whole time three mechanics were buzzing around my bike helping me. It felt like I had a mechanic support team, HA! After sorting everything out I nervously asked the shop owner what the damage was, to which he replied, get this, "nothing". For the welding, and handfull of miscellaneous nuts and bolts, custom spacers and three mechanics time he didn't want a peso. All he asked was that I leave a tip for the mechanics, which I gladly did. Felt really great, awesome people. The shop owner also pointed us in the direction of a little custom shoe and leather shop in a house down the street... went there and it was exactly what we needed. My pants and jacket (had a hole in it as well) would be ready tomorrow.

That evening we cruised down to the waterfront for a bit, then Steve and I found a Hookah bar in La Paz Mexico, owned by an Italian guy from Naples. Afterwards, thought we were heading home but ran in too a couple from Belingham (the guy was actually from Russia, but married a B-Ham girl) traveling around in their van. Super fun people, had a beer and ended up going dancing for a bit. Fun night

The Next morning was filled with internet, wrenching, and early beers. I ran into a friend Esteban and I had met while in Santa Rosalia, who was couch surfing around mex and central am. She was with two others who were doing esentially the same tour as us though on bicycles. We all grabbed lunch and went back to the courtyard of the hotel and had a few beers. I napped, ralleyed and then we all went out for Halloween in La Paz. Beers, Dancing, Hilarity. Lots of fun, didn't get in till 5 in the morning.

Slightly HOed (Hangover = HO), but not terrible, grabbed breakfast, and a ferry ticket, which took forever (mucho paper work). Our ferry was to depart at 5. I then ran back to the hotel, gathered all my stuff and packed my bike up.

A note about the hotel: Really cool place, lots of travelers from all over, let us park our bikes in the courtyard and wrench like made. As for the room, wow, we destroyed that place, so sorry for whomever had to clean it. Perhaps it would be better just to quarntine off that room and burn it to the ground... 5 stinky dirty, greasy, overlanders all in varying stages of gastro-intestinal distress. Honestly it was disgusting, but hilllllllarious if you like poo humor. Colin actually got another room to himself on the second night as it was to much for him to handle. Even better was the auditory effect of a window that wouldn't close that opened to the courtyard. Sitting in the courtyard, you may as well have sat next to whomever was ashemedly destroying the toilet at that moment.

Anyways, after getting packed up I took off to meet the boys that were already at the ferry (about 20 miles away). As I was leaving town I had my first encounter with the local policia, and it played out exactly like every story I had heard about how crooked the cops down here are. First thing out his mouth was license, which being late for the ferry and flustered, I hand over without protest (first mistake). He proceeded to tell me that I was speeding and swerving (I was actually testing my tires, nothing exceptional), and that he would have to write me a ticket for both and they were "expensive tickets". Well, they didn't have a radar and I was actually being passed by the rest of traffic. I apologized effusively and told him I was late for my boat (mistake number two), now he had my license and knew I was in a hurry. It was at this point he told me we could settle it right here and save me the trouble.........for $1500 pesos.... WTF!!!!!!!! That's like 120ish dollars. No effing way. I argued with him for about ten minutes, and he kept dropping his price, all but still around 600 pesos, lots of $$ to me. It was at this time that a gringo on a turqouise KLR came riding up. Apparently he saw me get pulled over from his multi-million dollar home up on the hill from where I was stopped, jumped on his bike and zoomed down. He addressed me first, "How you doing, are the giving you a hard time?" To which I responded "Yea, sorta getting worked by these two and I'm late for my boat." I'll save you all the details, but basically after about 5 more min of him talking to them and making a few phone calls, I had my license back, was on the way to the ferry, and didn't have to open my wallet. I didn't even get the guys name, but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

I got to the ferry terminal, just as they were loading up the motorcycles, perfect. Quite a relief to get on the boat and relax. Calling the our vessel a ferry is a grevious misnomer. In actuality it was a small cruise ship with room for cars. It had a pool, a bar, a videogame room, a cafeteria, a nice resturant, shops, etc. In-effing-credible sunset, watched a bunch of Trailer Park Boys (if you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and go to Veoh right now and watch it) on Spence's laptop, got some food and slept out on the deck of the ferry, while the others slept inside.


Day 24 Mazatlan --> San Blas

Woke up round 7 on the deck, just as we were just approaching Mazatlan. After unloading we grabbed a bite and got out of the big, dirty city as quick as we could. Put down about 200 some odd miles before we arrived in San Blas.

What an beautiful little city. First time we got some dinner at a little resturant that I would end up eating at no less then 5 times before I left two days later. Great food, the best camarones I have ever had hands down. Then walked around the square for a bit, which was decorated for Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead), really cool. I strolled into a rad little bar, "San Blas Social Club), which would become my living room for the next couple of days. It is without hesitation one of the coolest little bars I've been to anywhere in the world. It was full of local ex-pats, who gave me some Beta about where to camp, and what to see. There I also met the owner of the bar Augustine, a gentleman from New York who splits his time between the city and San Blas, and Pernaldo, his bartender and bar manager. I can't say enough about these two, genuinely good and cool people. If your ever anywhere near San Blas, go, and take a seat at the S.B. Social Club.

Day 25 San Blas (Gonna fill this in more when I have a moment)

Day 26

Last night was a bit rough, hot humid, and swarms of insufferable wee mosquitos and no-see-ums. Felt more like diner (me being the main course) than rest. Apparently I had been sharing my tent with a few mosquitos last night, as I woke up with no less than 40-50 new welts and at least 4 blood gorged, too fat to fly much less move out of the way when I swated them, buggies. Honestly we should do away with mosquitos, what a bunch of a-holes! Yeah yeah, circle of life yea... I'd gladly throw out a few handfuls of bird seed or whatever to make up for their place.

Anywho, David, Marco and I packed up camp and went into town for coffee and breakfast at the social club. On the way in I stopped of and a local banana bread shop, got a loaf con nuts, and a homemade yoguret fruit (jackfruit, mangos, and apple) and granola parfait. The bread was still warm having come out of the oven less than ten minutes before, utterly delicious. Made a few calls, checked emails, and bunches of coffee the social club. After saying our goodbyes to Augustine and Pernaldo (thank you for your gracious hospitality, we'll definatly return) we set out for Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful mile ticking, though all in all a mere 100 or so. We didn't quite make it to Tequila as it was quickly getting dark, instead we poached a spot down an old abondoned road of the highway, setting up camp in an old crumbling little structure (maybe an old house or perhaps resturant?). Though now the area seems to be fenced off for pastre, bunch of cows milling arount who seem more than a little wierded out by the three crazy gringos camping in their grazing area. We cautiously fenced ourselves in with our bikes so as not to get awoke by a curious bovine. Just outside of town we got some realllllly good tostadas de camarones, with a homemade habenero salsa that just about burned my lips off. Can't get enough of the seafood, sooooo goood and sooo cheap (two giant tostadas for 30 pesos (about $2 US).

Buenos Noches, Gelb ---> Out


27 Camped outside Guad Next to pigs (Gonna fill this in more when I have a moment)

28 Met Ian in Guad, David Got a tire, watched that new John Dillinger movie with Johnny Dep (Gonna fill this in more when I have a moment)

29 Ian took me to get another x-ray and a small cast at the Red Cross in Lake Chapala, then a little tour around the city as well as the rad little neighboring town of Aijijic. Got back to the house, decided to stay another night and all three of us did a bunch of maintenance on the Bikes. That night we went back into Aijijc to Tom's Bar, got some drinks and a bunch of interneting in. (Gonna fill this in more when I have a moment)

Woke up to Sunday mass being held in Ian's party hall, kinda funny/odd. We were quite the spectacle for the church goers as we packed up and prepped our bikes. Got a shower in (ahhh! nice) gathered our air dryed laundry, watched some mythbusters, and headed back into Aijijic for breakfast. After breakfast we thanked Ian and said our goodbyes, definatly will stay in touch (Thanks for everything Ian, you were an endlessly gracious host, as well as great company). We actually made some ground for a change, about 155 miles to be exact. Set up camp in a field, cooked diner, looked at some maps and caught up on a bunch of blogging. Buggy as all get out. As I am typing this I can count.... 7 bugs of various species crawling across my screen, thats not counting all the bugs crawling on me. Well, gonna read some and call it a night. We're gonna try and make some serious miles tomorrow and maybe even catch up to the others. Night.

Gelb ---> Out

Day 30 Dew Bomb

Holy eff, woke up to dew covering absolutely everything. Everything was soaked. We even had the foresight to set up a tarp between our bikes, covering our sleeping area, which helped a bit but the volume of dew was so great that it would drip from the tarp on to us in the middle of the night. Well, despite everything being wet we packed up, cooked a bit of oatmeal and set off. Ahead of us we had laid a fairly ambitious day. We were going to try to make it to the other boys about 300 miles down the coast.

By noon we had already made about 150 miles, but the last half of the day would be a bit different. We stopped just outside of Manzanillo for some tacos, really really good bbq pork tacos, that was around 1. We had been informed that the road got a bunch more twisty from there on out, but we had no idea. Twisty doesn't even come close to descibing this road, it was more like a curly-cue vomitoriam. I reckon I spent more time on the side of my tires then the center. Must have been perpendicular to the road less than 10 percent of the time. Some turns I thought we were going to turn back on ourselves, it felt as though we were going in circles. While it is more fun to be in the twisties on a motorbike, after about two hours of constant hairpins it begins to loose its luster, and gradually slides from thrilling to exhausting. Though, let me say this, the sceanery was unimaginably gorgeous. Mammoth, sheer cliffs covered in dense jungle plunging into crashing oceans, quite something. Its been striking how fast the flora and fauna has changed so dramatically as well as rapidly as we head south. From stark desert in the North of Mexico, to the dense jungle cliffs of Manzanillo. OHhh! And I saw my first roadkill lizard along the way today, must've been at least a foot and a half long and about 5 pounds. Also, a dead horse, two dead skunks, a dead cow and a bifurcated snake. Solid day as far as roadkill is concerned.

Funny sidenote: We stopped for a break from the twist and turns at unbelivable vista. While we we're there a truck full of mid-twenty year olds pulled up to talk to us and offer us a beer. We chatted for awhile and they ended up inviting us down to the beach for a party, but we had to decline as we had a bunch more miles to go today. But the funniest/oddest part was that one of them had a Seattle shirt on.... Ha! I got a picture with him, you can see it on the Picasa site.

Around 5, exhausted from the road behind, we pulled over for a rest, which just happend to be at an empty "eco resort" if you can call it that. Not quite a resort but on gorgeous none-the-less. I bargained the owner down from 150 pesos to 100 pesos for three campers, as there wasn't a single other person staying there. She said we could stay in any of the three little covered areas along the beach, each with their own hammocks. I was really excited to sleep in a hammock for the night... I wouldn't have to pull out all my stuff, and I love sleeping in them. There were two hammocks there, but when I asked for a third, she informed me that the hammock would be another 50 pesos per person!!!! So less than 35 per person to stay in the little pagoda, but if you wanted to use the hammocks that were already there it was going to be another 50?? Whatever... It was clear that she had just made that up to try and get a few more pesos out of us. Though we did have a great dinner: carne de mexicana, con papas fritas y frijoles, and a grande sized cerveza. Good night, and lucky finding such a rad spot just as we were ready to stop. Oh, and, so clearly we didn't make it all the way South to the boys, but we did crush 235 miles despite going no more than 35 for the last half of the day. Buenos tardes....

Gelb ----> Out!

Day 31

Not much happend today save for a morning full of more bananas-crazy-curves and a bunch more miles, 130 miles, not exceptional, butr decent. Oh, which reminds me, most of those miles were put down in the morning on our way to Lazaro Cardenas where we were to meet Steve and Spence, but neither of us recieved any email from them so we were unable to find them. So, we got all our stuff together for a solid afternoon of miles, but just as we were leaving the net-cafe, I noticed a broken link on my chain. At just over 10,000 miles on the stock chain, after a bit of discussion I decided it best to replace my chain, and thus my sprokets as well. I had hoped that the stock chain would've made it a bit further, maybe Central America or even the first bit of S. America, but with a broken link it would be foolish to push on risking possible crankcase damage, or worse rear wheel lock up.

In order to do the swap we had to find a way of breaking my stock chain. We tried a few shops, looking, albeit unsuccessfully, for a proper grinder to grind the pins off before a gentleman offered to take us to a shop where they had one................ FUCKING OWWW!!!

Allow me to digress, as I was writing this, as on many other nights of blogging while rough camping there are crap-loads of bugs everywhere, all of which are attracted to our screens and headlamps. Haven't really though much of it, until just now... I set my hand down for just a second and something has bitten or maybe stung me on my finger. I feel that I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, but that effing HURT! Felt like I got poked with a red hot needle.... and its still burning. Didn't see what it was, hopefully I don't swell up like the state puff marshmellow man. I'll keep you posted. Which come to think of it reminds me of something else that happened this morning as we were riding. Stuff is always hitting us in the face, neck, hands, ankles, whatever as we're riding, most of it dust off of overloaded trucks or small bits of road debris. But this morning as we were going about 65 down a straight flat road, something hit me square in the neck and then started hurting like crazy. Apparently I had hit a bee, which was just as surprised as I, and it started stinging me in the neck... three times! Good thing I'm not alergic to this kind of thing.

Anyways back to my story. We found a shop with a grinder, though at first the brought out a chisel and a block of wood; needless to say this didn't work so I asked again for a grinder from a next door mechanic. Thankfully he had one and the chain and sprockets, with David and Marco's help, were sorted shortly afterwards, though it had taken about and hour and a half.

With not much time left to ride we got back on the road and headed South. When we stopped for water two other overlanders spotted us and pulled over. They were both originally from Urugauy but living in Virgina. When work went South the decided to hope on their bikes and do the same. Though they were on a tighter budget and shorter time frame...considerably. They had made it from Virgina to the where I was, which has taken thirty some odd days, in just 8! Well we exchanged stories for a bit and decided to all find camping together. About 45 min more driving we found an incredible little beach called La Saladita. Had a few beers and tons of good conversation, slept, or tried to sleep in hammocks, but they were the cheap variety, and in the middle of the night, one by one, each of us ended up getting our sleeping bags out and sleeping on the ground. I bid you a good evening sir!

Day 32

Wow what a day... I'll fill this in a couple day, lots of writting to do. I'll have to devote some serious time to this entry, stay tuned.

Day 33 -- Feliz Cuplianos a Mi!

Between the Benedryl and that exhastion from last night I slept super hard, though David said he kept thinking about snakes and was a bit restless. I still had all the syptoms from the bite, though lesser severity. Still had tingling all over and my finger was burning like crazy. Well, we packed up and headed to the net cafe to check our emails once more for word from the boys. Spence was all sorted and heading as far South as he could that day. Being only 60 or so miles behind us in Lazaro Cardenas, and it already being 10 in the morning, he had surely already passed us.

Got on the road around 10:30, rode. Stopped, ate, road, stopped, gas, road and rode. Made it to Acopulco, tried our best to B-line through it but its a dense city, lots of traffic and terrrrrible drivers, especially the Taxi's (more and more I am finding this to be an international standard). By the time we got through I was at my wits end. Headed out of town Marco spotted another overlander heading in the opposite direction waving at as. Pulled over, and sure enough Spencer came round the corner. Spence was supposed to meet Steve in Acopulco, where he had been waiting for his Title, but despite showing up at all 4 Starbucks, was unable to locate him, kinda weird. Exchanged a few exciting roadside stories before heading out to look for camping.

We thought we would find camping in San Marcos, but when we got there it was a fair sized city, no camping, so we got a cheap hotel room. Hungry we headed out for tacos, but first I made a stop by the mini-super and got a bottle of decent Tequila for my birthday. Tacos, beers, tequila and me mates, en mexico, couldn't ask for a better birthday. Only thing better would've been to see all my people and family at home, but this was pretty rad. Thank you for all the warm birthday wishes, miss you all!

Day 34 Effing Topes!

Staying up late, tequila, beers, and mucho tacos made for a late start. Had a nice slow morning, 2 showers (sooooo hot and sweaty), and we we're on the road by noon. Today was fullllll of Topes (speed bumps), very effective at slowing progress. Despite being the main southern highway, every time the road passes through a town there are a series of monster speed bumps/humps/lumps/giant mounds. All day I don't think we were going 60+ mph for more than 10-15 minutes at a time before we went through another city and we're slowed down to a crawl. All told we made about 180 miles today, not bad. Still no word from Steve, we'll check our emails again manana. Found yet another sweet spot on the beach, pretty tired. We'll talk tomorrow!

Gelb ---> Outro