Random pictures and thoughts

We spent one week in Ushuaia, arranging shipping for the motorcycles.  The shipping agent will ship them out in May, hoping to find something else to put in the container.  Then it will take 50-60 days to get to Long Beach, Californina. We have decided to ship the bikes via ocean vessel from Ushuaia. 

We made it to the south end of the road!

We make it to Ushuaia and the end of the road!  Even the wind could not keep us back! 

Argentina, Patagonia and Wind!

Argentina, the land of wind, nuts, beaches, llamas and ostriches!  We are getting closer to our goal of Ushuaia, Argentina, Fin del Mundo (the end of the world).  Some days it feels like a death march other days it is a ride in the park.

Chile, Oh How We Loved Chile

March 10, 2012, day 56, we arrived in Chile; crossing the border took about 3 hours. Customs for the motorcycles always seem to take a little longer than you expect.  The border crossings in South America are very laid back, easy to figure out, no running back and forth and best of all no bandits trying to scam you by "helping" you. 

Cusco and beyond in Peru

It was a very hard day getting to Cusco. 

Who could that be down in a water crossing? Note the front end loader that was moving the rocks out of the way. Do you suppose we should wait until he is done moving the rocks and mud?  No, let us ride on through! Down she went with a big splash! A young man was waiting for the bus and hastily took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants to help. Where is Carl? Documenting the first wreck of the day.

Satipo, Lima and Nazca Lines

We are getting ready to leave Cusco in the morning.  We have had a very nice break from the road and are now rested (if you can call getting 4 hours of sleep last night and getting up at 4:30am to watch the sunrise over Machu Picchu rested!)

Northern Peru

Here I sit in Miraflores, Lima, Peru!  Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe that all of this is happening.  Miraflores is a very nice section of Lima, nice shops, clean, safe, less crime.   We should be leaving here today as soon as a package arrives for us from Trujillo, Peru. Our last post ended in Loja, Ecuador and so much has happened since then.  So on with the story!

Just when our fun-o-meter hits empty, then we are in Ecuador!

We had a couple of rough afternoons, having difficulty finding hotels or our way through towns but the people of Ecuador have filled our fun-o-meter!

More photos and ramblings in Colombia

 Carl is saying let us go North so we can continue our journey South!

Colombia is in the bag!

I have found that keeping the blog up to date and riding all day is not working so good for me.  Either we stay at a hotel that does have internet but it is so slow I barely can get emails read and answered, or there is no internet or I am so blasted tired I would not make sense if I wrote anything.  Well, today we stopped early because Carl wants to do some preventive maintenance on the bikes and I thought I could get this thing caught up.  So here goes....

Who would have thought 2 hicks from Wyoming would be sitting in Bogota, Colombia?

We made it to Bogota this afternoon. What a beautiful city, surrounded by mountains and the weather is nice and cool and comfortable. After Panama's 90+ degrees today 60ish feels great. Only problem is neither one of us have a jacket or even a spare shirt with us. When we readied the bikes for shipping we packed as much on them as possible and that included our riding gear and liners, after all we are only going to apart for 24hours. But when we got to the shippers we found out it was going to be longer.... Oh well, back to the story.

Honduras to Panama City

We have not blogged since our border crossing into Honduras. The rest of our time in Honduras was uneventful. We pretty much just scooted through the country and the border crossing into Nicaragua was a snap. Jonnie did the paperwork and Carl sat and watched the bikes and read his Nook. The roads in Honduras were rough, many pot holes and many speed bumps, the dreaded topes have returned. 

Honduran Border Crossing

Day 16, 2012  San Salvador, El Salvador to Choluteca, Honduras

Gas: $19.25 US  El Salvador currency is US Dollars and they sell gasoline by the gallon!  It is over $4 per gallon
Miles: 187
Food:  We had an El Salvadoran buffet at an open air bakery cafe for $11.50 just outside of San Miguel and then in Choluteca we went to the Pizza Hutbfor pizza and Pepsi for $275 Honduran Limpira.  Damn that pizza was good.  The Pizza Hut was very modern and nice.  We had to hire a taxi to find a bank that would take MasterCard to get cash and we stopped at Pizza Hut, picked up pizza and brought it back to the hotel room.

Party, Rest, Air Show, Rest and Photos

January 29, 2012  Day 15
Miles from Huntington Beach, California to San Salvador, El Salvador: 3227

We are at Carlos' in San Salvador.  We arrived Friday afternoon with him escorting us from the Guatemalan border.  Since arriving here we have rested, enjoyed a late night surprise birthday party which included a mariachi band, rested, had the bikes washed, attended a fabulous airshow and now Carl and Carlos are down in the garage working on the bikes.

Acapulco traffic and hot

Day 9 January 23, 2012  Caleta de Campos to San Marcos, Guerrero

Miles ridden: 302
Gas $320
Meals: Breakfast was eggs, beans, chips and salsa and tortillas for $95; Dinner was a hamburger and hotdog and 2  coca colas for $61
Lodging:  Hotel Castillo $200 bare bones accommodations, no toilet seat, no air conditioning but they have wi-fi that works better at  the little diner next door than in our hot, sweltering room!

Twisties continue!

Day 8  January 22, 2012  El Tuito to Caleta de Campos

Miles ridden: 310

Gas:
Meals:  $120 chicken with coleslaw and rice  $70 for some kind of fish tacos (5) and  2 Pineapple juices. 
Lodging:  Hotel Real Campanario $400 pesos, parked bikes inside the lobby

We did get up and out the door earlier this morning but we were still an hour off because Carl’s watch was an hour behind the actual time.  Well, maybe tomorrow!  I know we are retired but we really need to make some miles now because the weather is going to change is South America.  If we want to cross the Andes before the snow flies, we need to get moving.

Today we rode highway 200 that goes along the west coast of Mexico.  There were miles and miles of twisty mountain roads.  Up and down the mountains we went.  The traffic was fairly light, tho.  We were both longing for a stretch of straight road that was more than 1/8^th of a mile long.  It seemed like the longest straight stretches were bridges. Carl says that anybody who says they never get tired of twisties has never ridden the west coast of Mexico!

Today I seemed to have more day dreaming time than usual.  I got thinking about what is different about Mexico this trip than our last one in 2006.  The roads seem better, there are more Pemex gas stations and now they have added OXXO convenience stores at some of them.  The toilets are definitely cleaner and the only pay to pee I have encountered was in Cabo.  To me, it seems that there are more big American cars, SUV’s and pickups.  There seems to be more highway directional signs, highway 200 is well marked.  Granted we have the GPS maps telling us where to go but it seems like it would be easier to get around than before.  I suspect the economy in Mexico is better than 6 years ago.  We talked to 2 different young men that had worked in the US for several years and they both said, “the money is good in US but life is good in Mexico!”  I think they are right! What the same about Mexico?  The people are still friendly and helpful and full of good cheer!

Will need to post pictures when we have a faster connection. Internet south of the border does not seem quite as good. 

Twisty roads all day!

Day 7 January 21, 2012  Tepic to El Tuito, Jalisco, Mexico

Miles ridden: 137, we must get an earlier start tomorrow!
Gas: $248 pesos                                                                           
Meals: Birria somewhere before Puerto Vallarta, Chicken here in El Tuito
Lodging: $300 pesos

Photos

Boulders and Cacti

Ferry to Mazatlan and beyond

Day  5  January 19, 2012   Todos Santos to Cabo San Lucas and then to La Paz to the Baja Ferry

Miles ridden  197 today, 1193 miles from Huntington Beach to Cabo San Lucas

Long Beach, CA to Todos Santos, Baja California Sur

Good internet service tonight so getting the blog caught up.  We are still having fun and I think we will keep going!

Pick up is stored and now on two wheels

We dropped the pick up off at Norm Wilson and Sons Construction this morning.  Randy Wilson graciously is providing safe storage for the pickup while we are gone on our adventure.  Randy was out playing in the desert and we were not able to meet him but the other Randy and Colin were there to help us unload the motorcycles and store the pickup. 

The unloading crew, Randy, Colin and Carl

Did I mention that it is hot and sunny!

We are officially on two wheels! Now to pack the bikes when we get back to Araceli's.

Tomorrow is Dylan's 2nd birthday party.  Sunday we are planning on crossing the border at Tijuana. Kenya has a soccer game and would like us to stay for it.  We may if it is early enough in the day to get across the border and down the road a ways. 



Pointed south!

We are pointed south and have made it as far as Beaver, Utah, approximately half way to Long Beach!

Go South, Have Fun!

We are about to embark on another once in a lifetime adventure.  We are going to ride our 2005 Kawasaki 650 KLR's from southern California to Ushuaia, Argentina.  As usual, we do not have many set plans.  Go south, have fun! are the only set in stone plans we have.  We will decide on the road whether we ride back or ship the bikes back or ship them to another continent. It will depend on whether or not we are having fun or not.