Month: October 2008

Great day of riding – for me at least – Marc was tired and didn't seem
to enjoy it as much as I did…
The twisty roads were many… the cross winds were CRAZY!
Took tons of videos but the internet connection here is terrible so I
don't know if they are going to go tonight.
In summary we left the mega resort in Huatulco called Las Islas and
immediately got some nice winding roads along the coast.
We then hit some flatter roads with quite a bit of traffic.
We then cut inland and went up some amazing mountains.
We met another lone rider – at first I thought it was Ari – but it
turned out to be West, from California, also riding a KLR. We rode
together for a little bit but I think he stopped to take some pictures
and we lost him – kind of hard for a 650cc to keep up with our 1150cc
and 999cc.
We got to Txcla Gutierrez at night – quite a big city with big traffic
as well – the hotel we got is also big and quite nice.
We tried to do some laundry but all the places were closed already –
will do tomorrow morning maybe.
Tomorrow we're going to do some sight seeing in San Cristobal de Las
Casas and Palenque – about 3 hours away.
While parking our bikes we ran into a group of locals who had been
traveling around this region for the past 13 days filming a tourism
video. Lots of tips and ideas of what to see.
All is good here… no economic crisis fortunately here for us…
scary to hear about it "out there"…

Day 24 – Zihuatanejo to Playa Ventura:

Day 25 – Playa Ventura to Huatulco:

Last night we stopped at a very small beach town a bit before where we
wanted to get to since it was already dark. Marc and I had a hard time
sleeping due the heat, humidity, mosquitoes, and a dog that would not
stop barking. Around 3am I managed to to finally sleep with my iPod
on…
We woke up pretty early and hit the road. We got to Puerto Escondido
and had lunch there at a cute restaurant in front of the beach.
We got some tips there and decided to do a little less riding than
planned today and stay in a nice hotel with air conditioner, so we
stopped at Huatulco in a hotel called Las Brisas. The place is HUGE.
Met a Mexican guy – Mario – who had run a triathlon yesterday and gave
us some good tips as far as where to go.
We are thinking about not going to Belize and stick to a more straight
route since it will be both shorter and more scenic… let's see how
the planning goes later on tonight.
Todays video turned out to be pretty boring today so don't expect
much 🙂

“Sigue derecho!!”

Finally got good internet to upload the videos 🙂

Day 21 – Waiting for the ferry – quick video

Day 21 – La Paz to Puerto Vallarta:

Day 22 – Puerto Vallarta to La Ticla:

Day 23 – La Ticla to Zihuatanejo – pitty I didn’t get the bike’s rescue on video – it was lifted by a chain placed on the crash bars – surprisingly easy for the tractor/crane to take it out. If we had to muscle it out it would’ve been quite hard!

First of all – I am LOVING all the comments 🙂
We were without internet for the past day or two so am doing a bunch
of updates today – new videos and some new photos.
We had some rain this morning but it wasn't bad at all – just meant
that it was quite a bit warmer because of the waterproof layers you
have to add on. At one point I just took them off since I was probably
better off getting rained on than totally wet from sweat… yeah…
kind of gross but that's how it is 🙂
Today's riding was quite tense because of the rain and a lot of
traffic – cars, animals, people… not to mention a little bit of mud
that sent Marc shooting off the road! Absolutely no damage to the bike
or him. Fortunately it was a construction site so there was a crane
that pulled his bike out of the mud with great ease.
On the way Ari wanted to stop to eat but Marc and I kept on going
since we wanted to make it to Acapulco. Turned out that it was too far
for one day on these roads so we stopped in Zihuataneho. We first took
a peak at the hotel Marc stayed in the last time he was here but it
was way too expensive. We then found a marvelous hotel at a more
reasonable price. By far the best hotel so far and I think one of the
best hotel rooms I have ever seen! Check out the video for some
footage of it.
For lunch we stopped at a beach where I had some pretty good octopus
with garlic – officially my favorite dish now 🙂
The waves along this coast are also unbelievable – they are HUGE! And
the lady at the restaurant was saying that they were just about
average today! Amazing!
So now off to get some dinner!

We had a really late start today but managed to put in 260 miles in…
a little sketchy at the end of the day when it got dark but we made it
safely to La Ticla – a very small surfer village where we are staying
in a little shack.
The ride was very good – full of little turns and hills – again, so
much like Brazil's Rio-Santos road!
Ari stopped to weld some parts on his bike and we went ahead –
amazingly he found us in La Ticla!
I guess the most notable part of the day was to notice how
psychological riding is – at one point I was feeling great and taking
turns as if I was cutting through butter – then later in the day I was
slowing down a great deal more than I needed to and just didn't feel
the confidence I had earlier. Thinking logically I know that I am so
far away from the limit of what the bike and the tires can handle but
you still feel strange… and that is a good think – keeping it safe 🙂
One guy told me once that when you loose your fear of the bike, you
crash… just like the ocean – if you loose the respect for it, you
are going to get yourself into trouble.
Tomorrow we will shoot for Acapulco – 310 miles away – should be
doable since we were told that the road becomes a little straighter
about an hour and a half from here.