On two BMW's with a food budget of 5 bucks a day for both of us we started in Vancouver and headed North, our intended destination....South. We both quit good jobs and sold all our personal belongings, we've overpacked the bikes and said goodbye for the last time. With no home, no material stuff left we headed out to find people and places and interesting things. That was June 1st 2010 and we've covered over 30000 kms so far, met other travelers and managed to stay... almost on budget. Our goal is not and will not be to hammer from point to point since we effectively have no time limit the golden rule applies, you either have time or money, and so with time there is less expense in the now. Stopping to smell the proverbial roses becomes a necessity and people met are simply amazing and without an honest way of describing. This wasn't intended as a trip of self discovery but it's turning out that way. With one odd coincidence after another our ideas of the world are changing and being solidfied, I can only hope that the great fortune we've found so far follows us deeper into the Americas. In the end, we'll get what we need, good or bad. It's a little late in the game to start posting on ADV but if folks want to hang out with us then I can do my best to post here, we could probably use the input and advice as we slip south past the bandito's and corrupt officials. Let me know.
"All the worlds a stage and the men and women,the players" W. Shakespear The greatest threat we have isnt the drug cartels in Mexico, the Rebels in Colombia or the grizzly bears in Alaska, it's the general driving traffic. It's interesting, from one who's broken many bones and suffered a goodly amount of pain that I'm much more cautious about the small injuries. You know the cuts on the hand from opening a can of tuna, or failing to care for your feet. When riding these are a major inconvienence and I find I'm accutly more aware of simple things that otherwise would not be a big deal. I wonder if any other distance riders have noticed the same things? Are you cautious not to have a swollen toe in your boot for 3000 kms, riding with a gouged knuckles because of a stupid slip of the wrench on the oil filter? Stuff like that. We're heading into Guatemala in the next couple of weeks and working through customs and other nonsense. We have a couple little tricks up our sleeves that we'll detail later of which we hope not to have to use. Originally we had planned to visit the Yucatan and head to Cuba to ride the island but due to our complications we've been seriously delayed in veracruz and our Visas are running out.
Thanks, it's old news by now but had an important effect on the decision to head towards South America for a couple of years.
After we left Vancouver and headed to Vancouver Island our route would be the ferry to Rupert then onwards to Alaska. It started raining fifteen minutes into our journey and never really stopped for almost 6 weeks. If you´ve heard others talk about the Alaskan highway on the Canadian side being total crap they are right. Some folks on a Harley were thrown right off the road by the frost heaves. You can pick them apart for the lack of coution or the overloaded trailer but at the end of the day the road is still brutal. We made the decision not to go all the way to the top (Deadhorse), it´s been done by everybody and there were too many cool things to check out in Alaska Like Hatcher Pass versus a long boring truck route. Besides the Dempster is much nicer, I recommend that if you must choose. Hatcher Pass is definately a must do, not too long but a beautiful ride. After leaving Alaska through the Top of the World, one day before it was closed due to slides, we headed through the Yukon towards Faro and south on the Canol road. Simply amazing. On our exit we had various adventures along the Alaskan Highway and back down to southern BC before heading North again. Our intent was to cross Canada further north if possible. Unfortunaely time kept constraining us, this blew me away because having set two years aside I thought we´d have plenty of time. It doesnt work like that. Our destination was the east coast, Newfoundland and Labradour. We seemed to be racing against weather despite the rain having stopped we needed to get to where the lobsters live and the snow comes early. p.s. I´m buringing throught this report to get caught up to our status in Mexico.
Hey guys, we just got your message. You guys must be having the time of your lives. Keep the dream alive! A&W
I noticed something disturbing, the difference between the mountain provinces and the prairie provinces. While we tavelled through the mountains and the north we bush camped pretty easily, filtered water from the streams and enjoyed the smell of various flora. The prairies was much different though, very beautiful, good people and amazing views. But when it came to camping we struggled, it seemed every square inch of land was being used for human purposes and with it every stream seemed to filled with oozing fertalizers and pesticides. We coudnt bring ourselves to filter or boil it. It´s a mass, vast land of chemical treatment. The corn in Ontario is fantastic (off track), I say this as a fond memory of it vaguely lurks in my mind at the moment. I´m tourmented by this corn (good for tortilla´s and cattle) they have in Mexico. But I digress. We got into London Ontario (the Budgie story) to stay with a friend and drop our TKC80s. We were mostly on paved road now and we were getting tired of carrying the extra tires. We had the TKC80s since Smithers and had over 12000 kms on them. Even though we could have gotten another 2-3k we decided it would be better to change them there. We had inteneded to go north into Labradour and ferry our way into the south through Newfoundland but due to many small events including weather forecast, Ferry schedules and other midless stuff we decided to spend the time touring the Maritimes instead. But first we intended to head into northern Quebec a bit, not too far as to lose time east but far enough to miss Montreal. We would spend the night in Quebec City for Deya´s birthday compliments of friends back in Vancouver. I was distrurbed by the all the homes, bikes, trucks and kids for sale in the front yards. We hadnt seen any of that kind of reccession damage anywhere else in Canada, I hope they can recover in time not to vote themselves out of their own country! Anyways, we headed into the Maritimes and our very first stop we were welcomed by the Maritime greating party. I´ll post a short video of Deya wiping out in a little sand which is awesome because she´s full of excuses, but not this time.....oh no.....not this time, I have video!
So we rolled into New Brunswick looking for a place to camp, so friendly folks there pointed us to some crown land on the beach. I riding was beautiful and the weather spectacular. We got out to the beach and started slowly down a sandy road. Deya messed up, but her Egor doesnt like to admit it. This time though I had gotten some video and finally I could get her to admit she made an amatuer mistake...haha (cant seem to get it to stick, 3 min.) its about half way down the post http://andthenweweregone.blogspot.com/2010/09/quebec-city-to-newfoundland.html After the dump a crew of drunk Maritimers came along in a truck. they pulled up and started greating us, beer was a plenty and invitations to stay at their camps (RV´s) on the beach were generously extended. I´m the designated drinker (somebodies got to do it) so I shared a few beers but we politely refused the offer to camp, this was our first time on the Atlantic coast of Canada and the beach we had picked to camp on was outstanding. After that it just kept getting better as we met more and more friedly and hospitable folks. in the effort to find places to camp we ended up staying with many people, on sailboats, in backyards, frontyards, etc. We toured around PEI and finally headed over to Newfoundland we´re we intended to saty for a few weeks. Newfoundland was good and bad for us, we cut it short and went back to the Maritimes were things got awesome again. Newfoundland in summary, Lobster season ended the day we got there, all across Canada I dreamed of Newfy lobsters but no luck. The weather sucked and our tent was destroyed by hurricain Earl The Newfy drivers were the most brutal we had encountered to date and in 80kmph winds while trying to stay on the road long enough to find shelter one of them road raged on Deya, until I get to them then he took off. Deya was a little broken up at this point. The Island seemed to be a bit of a tourist trap and in two days we had blown our budget for camping of 9 days. The positive was the team of 14 ATVérs that were riding the old train tracks a 1000 kms across the island. We would, by coincidence, end up taking two ferries with these guys and spending several weeks with them and their families all across the Maritimes. Special thanks to Arch and his cabin in the woods. We hit the Cabot Trail and the weather was mostly good, the trail for whomever is thinking about it is probably one of the best all around areas for riding you can get. You´ve probably heard this before so I wont get into the details now but you wont be dissapointed with spending time around there. The good times continued and we we´re super lucky to meet fantastic people who took us in fed us and again, the Maritimes is simply fantastic. For the Canadians reading this, the day we exited Canada we stopped for one last coffee and breakfast at Tim Horton´s. Tim´s gave it to us for free, it was a good omen for the journey going forward.
Wish I'd had more time to talk with you that morning at Tim's in St. George. Keep the reports coming, and enjoy your adventure!
Next time, we´ll go back to your neck of the wood, we absolutely loved it there. I´d like to do a lot more exploring around the whole region actually but first this trip.
So heading into the USA we planned some maintenance and valve adjustment in Portland, Maine. We stayed with two different couple who were both fantastic. We were able to get some work done on Deya's bike and I changed my chain and sproket. I had about 35k on them by now and you could almost pull them off the back sprocket. Our hosts let me use their garage for my repairs and took us out for dinner at a fantastic shusi spot. This is where we also learned that Portland had over 60 Micro Breweriesin fact you would be hard pressed to find a 'bulk' beer at any restaraunt worth attending. I was going to rant about the ability of good micro brewed beer having a positive effect on the culture of a place but I'll save it for my own biased fantacies. Now I mentioned previously that a lot of weird coincidences have happened to us as we started out on this journey. Everyone we've met have had been important to us but some people seem as though it's more than just chance. Theres a little story about meeting these folks, technically we shouldnt have but as it turns out we did. I wont bore you but Doug (Elizabeth-right) there will show up on a course at the BMW performance training center later on for a road course with John (Special agent of the FBI) who we met later on the Blue Ridge Parkway and helped us out with a little kidnapping incident in Mexico recently. The weird thing is, not knowing each other, they both took the same course offered at the same time in the same place in South Carolina and ended up talking about us. Maybe I'm nuts but that kind shit'z been happening to us since we left, talk about a small world. En route south we had the misfortuneof stopping at a gas station where I got in a mildly heated conversation with a dude that all intelligent Americans hate. I know all you travelling types hate this guy because it's him who makes the USA look bad. He was of course beign robbed by the evil government and had it all figured out but when he said matter of factly,"If it wasnt for the Might of the USA, Canada and all the other European countries wouldnt exist." Deya said she started looking for the exit sign when my face went red and I smile politely. She said I started to ramble out the years previously when 10's of thousands of lives were lost, how the Mighty USA used the sales of war to come out of it's great depression while Canada alone sent over 10% of it's population and how it's tardy start hardly deserves nation saving status. (as a former soldier, not to undermine the actual effort made!) Jerk, I said something about the statue of liberty as well, as you all know was formal recognition, from a 'superpower' (France), without which the other 'superpowers' may not have taking it so seriously and there would have been more trouble, which was forgetten during the 'freedom fry' crisis....(sorry another rant, loose on the facts too but hey...). Anyways, we started south south west and had numberous encounter with amazing roads, great rest stops and wicked people. By the time we got to the south, Georgia, Alabama, etc. we were so impressed with the country. The USA is a great place to travel through and camp in, the south is way cheaper and easier to hang around than Mexico, in my opinion. The roads and parkways are first rate and folks are very friendly, (Not like Maritimes but that place is special). I have to say everyone we met was interesting and kind. Every place we stayed was good. Anyone who is thinking about touring the USA, should. We stopped for snack in Massachusetts, when we got back to our bikes there was a crowd standing around them, we walked up behind and asked a lady who was excitedly waiting with the group what she was doing and she responded, "We're waiting for Charlie and Ewan, they're hear somewhere!" You should have seen the look of dissapointment when I anounced that Charlie and Ewan would not be showing up. On the Blue Ridge we found John G. having a coffee. Trudy (84 year old adventurer) and her dog Rascal, in the middle of the night somewhere in the bushes in a national park being lost. At the end of it we met with Jud (ADV Jud), hung out with Dave Despain; funny note, everybody kept coming up to us asking for a picture, I kept saying sure....they kept grapping Dave around the shoulder..odd I thought...later I asked Dave what he does for a living and he said something about motorbikes and media. Funny....We ate great food with great people like Robert and bumped into the Motus, Barber, Brown crew of important people doing important things (in my opinion). We ended up going through Texas, and again good people the whole way, hit a texas BMW ralley and got a couple of awards for being super kool...lol..went to Beemerchef's photo gallery in Bisbee (Awesome Ara & Spirit) we shared the rug with this gem and Shawn that evening before getting escorted by some other riders to Tucson to stay with Tucson Tony who ended up accompanying us into the Copper Cannon. This was a great time with great people of whom I have a great respect. Many not mentioned here. Next I'll blast through Tuscon, our trip into evil Mexico (http://andthenweweregone.blogspot.com/2010/11/attacked-by-bandits.html Attacked by Bandits) the shit I stirred up because of the 'media terror' we encoutered and our final arrival to our current location in Mexico. From there I'll slow it down and go live with my blog and ADV. Hope folks will tag along on the interesting bits. :eek1
Well we spent some time in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Tucson</st1:City></st1lace> with our new pal Tony and had a great time. Tony has a pretty good routine and is a really good cook. We got a few things for the bikes at Iron Horse before heading into <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region>. We had originally decided to enter <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> through <st1:State w:st="on">Texas</st1:State> but the BS was soooo heavy, with tourist being shot for sport and all kinds of nonsense, that we changed to <st1:State w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Arizona</st1lace></st1:State>. Later we realized that it really didn’t matter much and that as coincidences go it was probably more about the opportunities that came up vesus the safety we ‘theoretically’ would enjoy. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> As we planned our route, Tuscon Tony and Recon Richard decided to join us. Lead by Richard, a veteran <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region> rider, we would head across the boarder and into the Copper Cannon. We had our border crossing around Agua Prieta and the BS turned into Horse shit and I became seriously frustrated. <o></o> At one point we had stopped for some lunch at a grocery in <st1:State w:st="on">Chihuahua</st1:State> and got approached by a well dressed guy who warned us with all his heart to leave <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region> immediately. He seemed genuine in his concern and his warnings we not dissimilar to other things we had been hearing. For weeks we had been barraged by this kind of media terror and I was about at my limit. 30 minutes later the gentleman returned with his wife to plead for us to leave <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region> for our own safety claiming they were recently victims along the only route out of town. They went on to explain, my wife is originally from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region> so speaks the speak, that she would be raped and kidnapped that we would be killed and robbed. <o></o> Deya was terrified, Tucson Tony was worried and I think Recon Richard just laughed. I on the other hand was furious, if I could have got my hands on an assault rifle I would have gone hunting, no kidding. I was pissed at being trapped by this terrorizing bullshit, we couldn’t go back the way we came or (DEATH), we could leave along our route or (DEATH). Piss me off. <o></o> I ended up blogging what happened from the perspective of what I was feeling and what was supposed to happen to us and it stirred up some angst amongst folks reading it. The fact was the threat of assault is no different than an assault itself. Read it for yourself and let me know if you think I was wrong for blogging my frustration at this overwhelming BS. I know that the Striking Viking has thought cautiously when considering his girl on trips through potentially risky areas. As a former soldier and martial artist I know that if I was alone without the language skills to capture me that I would blissfully bang along with my spidy senses alert ready for whatever fate might feed me. This is however not my case now and I would simply kill for my wife put in that situation. http://andthenweweregone.blogspot.com/2010/11/attacked-by-bandits.html <o></o> We ended up having a great ride all the way to Creel though the day after we left Creel I believe 7 people were shot in a gun fight. Ha. The <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Copper</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Canyon</st1laceType></st1lace> was fantastic, the views, the riding, the road. We got into Botopilas and parked inside a hotel, there was a lot of tension in town and a lot of expensive trucks with very young guys driving them with Sinaloa plate. In all we had a good but exhausting ride, the way out seemed easier except for Deya dumping in the corners, she was tired and making mistakes. I was going to coach her on her mistakes but when she dumped in a corner because she let the throttle off at the wrong time I ran into the back of her and put mine down too….stupid, now I cant even give her shit cause I’m a dummy too. <object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object> We ended up taking the number 16 into <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Hermosillo</st1lace></st1:City> to stay with a friend. This is where we parted ways with Tucson Tony and Recon Richard. We would head on by ourselves to <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Mazatlan</st1:City></st1lace> and spend three days before going towards Guanajuato and the Route of Independence. <o></o> Tony, by the way lives in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Tucson</st1lace></st1:City> and just before we arrived had hosted Ted Simon of Jupitors Travels and another motorcycle author I cant remember, sorry. I call Richard, Recon, because we never saw him the whole trip but enjoyed spending the evening with him. A 747 pilot, I guess he was used to flying and getting there before the passengers…lol.. <o></o> Deya and I decided to get to Mazatlan in one go because the north is expensive and full of BS, the police were saying there were a lot of hijackings and people were getting shot on our intended route so we did the Hermosillo to Mazatlan (1000km) in one day. It was a good ride but this is where we found out about the BRUTAL toll roads. I wont go into it here but they are crap and really expensive. A total rip off since you can exit one (Federal) only to enter another one a short while down the road (State) and pay again. Bikes pay the same as cars so it’s a scam. <o></o> Deya got pissed and told one booth to shove it and blew the booth, I didn’t understand what the conversation was about but figured it didn’t go right. A short while down the road we stopped and I asked, “wholly shit!” I said, we’re going to jail. The next booth had radios, cops with guns cautiously approached us. One cop walked out in front of me with a serious look, I was sweating bullets, he took a good look then stepped over to the chick at the booth, smiled and passed her some lunch. Shit…I though…it’s like they knew and were screwing with me. We carried on, no problemo. <o></o> We arrived in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mazatlan</st1lace></st1:City> intended to spend three days and spent three weeks.
We have had such a good time in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mazatlan</st1lace></st1:City>, staying at the hotel Lerma for 150 pesos a night was a big break on our budget. We were actually able to start recovering some budget by not travelling, no gas, tolls, etc. which put us in the green 4 bucks for every day we stayed .yeehhaaa. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o> We spent time walking <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mazatlan</st1lace></st1:City>, doing oil changes, interviewing top police officials and Consulates, touring Breweries and Tequilla distilleries among other things. Quick note on Agave, if youve never tried it streat out of the steamer youve missed out, wow! Part of our journey includes looking for property throughout <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> and <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mazatlan</st1lace></st1:City> was one of the spots that fit our criteria. But what seemed to good to be true turned into a real bummer when we started to look but found only insecurity and fear. People selling their properties said they could not, in good conscience sell to us because of the threat of violence in the area, in fact its getting late and you need to leave back to the town center, RIGHT NOW! On at least two evening we had gunfire going over our hotel, what for, I dont know, bad guys thinning themselves out, we were safe. <o> </o> Our talk with the Canadian Consular and the police were about the same, 20 people every day murdered in the state. Theyre not looking for you but if theyre busy doing business and you happen by, well, no witnesses are good witnesses. Top cop said, its not going to change, theyre not going to just pack up and leave and itll likely get worse before it gets better. We decided to scratch this state off the list. <o> </o> We headed south again after saying goodbye to some fine folks that we had befriended while bumming around town and proceeded to get totally ripped off again by the toll roads. Again its time or money, we wanted to get past all the areas of BS the police dude marked on our map and that meant toll roads. But the toll roads suck and we passed several burnt out and blown up vehicles on the sides of the toll road. You can see where a ramp is thrown over the culverts and the bandits block the roads. Hard core, but we approach <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Guadalajara</st1:City></st1lace> things just started getting better and better. <o> </o> I got bumped by a nutty driver in Guadalajara but chose to err on the side of caution instead of having a road rage, the traffic was nuts but once we cleared the city, 2 hours at 7 am, it was smooth sailing. We were now on the Road of Independence and we would travel through some of the best places in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region>. My favourite, Guanajuato. <o> </o> There was a lot more to this road but Im cutting it short because Im getting ready to leave for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Guatemala</st1lace></st1:country-region> tomorrow morning. Suffice to say it was rad. Later Tucson Tony would ride down for a month and take Spanish lessons with me. We would follow a fellow Canadian (Les), because he was being escorted by a cop, to the local hospital where Doug (Canadian) was taking, his riding partner damn near got killed, broke 7 ribs and a hard cough could puncture his left lung. Helped the boys figure it out and learned a few things about Mexican insurance. Finished our construction project without loosing any hair, though I feel older now and did a couple more oil changes on the bikes. Good times. <o> </o> Check out the blog if you want more details but after today Ill be on the road so my blogs should match my posts here with a reasonable delay. www.andthenweeregone.blogspot.com our <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Cordoba</st1:City></st1lace> project at www.mdholdings.blogspot.com