Phrase of the day

Thought I'd start blogging about the best phrase of the day.

Last night's phrase was:

"Thank God I knew Judo!"

That's what I was thinking before I had my mountain bike accident 12
years ago… We had a very good laugh about it last night.

Today's was:

"Just give me a Mexican minute!"

Day 20 & 21 – La Paz – Mazatlan – Puerto Vallarta

On the 20th day – wow – can't believe it's been that long already!
The dreaded bureaucracy to import the bikes and get on the ferry was
completely unfounded. We got to the port in and it all went smoothly.
We headed back to a small beach we saw along the way to hang out and
wait for the departure time. As we pulled in we saw the sidecar
motorcycle and a KLR 650 parked there. It was Kevin and his wife
Albana, their dog and Ari, who turned out to be going on the same
ferry with us. We ate some and then headed to the ferry close to
boarding time.
The ferry was a true cargo vessel. Only truckers maneuvering their
massive trucks into the tight quarters of the vessel's bowel. The best
part was going up the elevator from the bottom level to the open deck
of the ship – you can see that on the video. We tied down our bikes
with the help of one of the deckhands and started exploring the ship.
Well… not much to see there… there was the "restaurant" where they
served a dinner and a breakfast… and a sitting area with airplane
seats, no windows, a TV and many people sleeping. The smell of Doritos
and the loud snoring sounds dominated the ambience… we realized we
would have to find a place on deck to sleep.
The scenery was beautiful and it felt good to be at sea – reminded me
of my previous big adventure – sailing from Miami to Brazil via
Portugal – something about the water and the gentle swaying of a boat
is very soothing.
When night fell we found a place on the top deck and laid out our gear
which consisted of a tarp, an air mattress, a sleeping bag and a
pillow. I actually just brought a cotton liner I have because I knew
that the sleeping bag would be way too warm for me. Turns out that the
cotton liner was perfect – it allowed the breeze to go inside keep me
cool. I also brought the GPS out to keep track of where we were. I
wish I had a telescope since the sky was cloudless and full of stars.
Saw shooting stars, satellites zooming by and even a nocturnal bird I
could not identify.
The boat cruised at around 15 knots – half of what it usually does –
one of the engines was not working. By 7am the sun was up and the buzz
of people waking up started to grow. We had our breakfast and started
to gear up for the ride. Once the boat docked in Mazatlan we were hit
by the heat – no more breeze from the boat moving – just stagnant
humid air.
Because of the heat the ride to Puerto Vallarta took a little longer
than expected. We stopped more often to take breaks and drink water. I
also ditched my jacket and rode with the body armor – was a little
cooler but still incredibly wet.
The change in scenery was dramatic – from desert like conditions in
Baja to lush vegetation on the mainland. Reminded me of Brazil –
driving along the Rio-Santos road – very similar look.
We stopped around 5pm for lunch/dinner at Punta de Mita and then
headed into Puerto Vallarta to find a hotel. All three of us were
exhausted but found a place – Los Arcos Suites – we wanted a room for
3 people – no problem, they said. When we got to the room we saw that
it would be impossible to fit a bed there so we asked if there was a
bigger room. We must have seen about 5 different rooms until we found
one that did not stink, had the AC working, and was big enough for 3
beds. Up and down stairs and around corridors carrying our gear… We
were exhausted… but we still needed to park the motorcycles!
As we were waiting for the guy who had the keys to the garage we asked
the concierge for keys to our new room – 423. We thought she was
joking when she said we could not stay on that room because it was
reserved!! Some lady comes every year and wants the same room… I
started humming the Twilight Zone theme… surreal… the lady must
have lost her virginity in that room or something!!
In any case, they found a room close to it – 425 – they moved our
stuff into that new room and put in the extra bed.
Ari and I then went down to the pool for a well deserved swim only to
be told that the pool was closed!! Hehehehe… at that point we were
laughing about the entire situation.
We ended up in a small taco stand drinking some beers and laughing it
all out.
Today we're off to… we don't know… Acapulco is the next big
tourist spot but we want to avoid it. Preferably find a nice smaller
surfer town along the way.

Night update

Just came back from the pool and it felt soooo refreshing!! It is quite hot here – we’ve been told that it’s not quite normal – a heat wave came in today we were told.

La Paz is quite nice and apparently it was running against Cabo San
Luca to be THE tourist spot in Baja… Cabo won 🙂

Ran into a couple who is riding this really beautiful motorcycle with a side car. They usually ride a BMW GS 1200 – they’ve put 100,000 miles on it since 2005!! But they would miss their dog so much that they decided to start riding this other motorcycle so that could take
the dog – and yes, the dog rides the side car and his wife rides behind him! Forgot to take a picture of them and the dog…

We then had dinner at a nice restaurant with a good view of the city… El Patron…
Funny thing happened – at least at the time it was – Marc ordered some regular bottled water – agua natural – and I said that I wanted a sparkling one – con gas. When the waiter came back he brought me a mixed fruit drink – I asked him what it was – CONGA!!!

Tomorrow hopefully we will have a little time to relax at a beach we saw on the way to the ferry but first we’re going to take care of the paper work and tickets. Then around 1pm we’ll go to the ferry which leaves at 4pm to arrive in Mazatlan at 6am of the next day 🙁 We might 
finally use our camping gear! Hehehehe…

Day 19 – Loreto to La Paz

Short riding day but quite uncomfortable because of the heat.
As expected the ferry ride to mainland Mexico was not as smooth as we
would want it to be.
We rushed from Loreto to La Paz to see if we could get the ferry to
Mazatlan today at 4pm but the ferry was not running.
We found another company that does that route but when we went to do
the import of the bikes, the offices to do that had closed at 1pm – so
our only option was to stay in La Paz tonight and go tomorrow.
The catch is that the company we're doing it tomorrow has a cargo ship
meaning there are no sleeping quarters, just chairs and it takes 16 to
18 hours to cross. It will leave tomorrow at 4pm and get to Mazatlan
around 6am.
To compensate all that we found a GREAT hotel here in La Paz – by far
the best hotel so far and the cheapest!

Quick post

Thanks for all the comments – here are some replies 🙂

– Marc and I thought of getting intercoms to talk while riding but
thought we were carrying enough equipment already and we rather listen
to music 🙂

– Going to document a little less of the road and a bit more of the
activities – even though 80% of the time is on the road 🙂

Today we're going to La Paz and go through some crazy burocracy to
cross to mainland Mexico. Baja is kind of a free zone so now we have
to do the temporary import of the bikes and try to get the ferry on
time – if they are running on time or at all 🙂

Day 18 – Catavina to Loreto Photos

Woke up really early today for some reason… intense dreams… so went out to take some pictures of Catavina… tested out the Nikon D90’s video capturing capabilities – in DH mode only about 5 seconds of recording. Could be that the memory card I am using is not fast enough for more. I then switched to 640×480 and then I got more time. The full quality of the video is quite amazing..

From Motorcycle NY to SP