The End of the Road...Part 1

Yeah, can you believe it?? One day we're hitting the waves with a broken bike in Costa Rica and the next we're at the very tip of Panama waiting for a boat. Sorry Chris!! We sorta rushed through what was for me the most excellent part of the trip so far but with reason: we made the final decision to make sure we can get a boat across the Gap. It's the only part of the trip that doesn't have a plan, and its probably the most important. You can get lost a hundred times, but if you have to wait 2 weeks to get a boat, thats a lot of time we can't afford to make up. We really enjoyed the last few dyas, and I promise it's not the last Costa Rica will see of me.

I've been trying to save some money, so for breakfast I've been eating fruits and various groceries we've shopped for at the grocery stores. We find here that the best places to buy food are not local markets, roadside vendors, but supermarkets, walmarts, the big-name corps. Look, we're not hagglers, we try sometimes, but we're two young, 6 and a half feet guys who look like they obviously have some money, so when the price is labeled....at least we know what we're paying. So we took off from Dominical after a beautiful....haha.....pshhh NOT, rest. Remember the kids in the last post, I don't know how they do it. Bed at 3 am, up at 7 am. Wish I could do it too, I'd get a lot more travel done that way. Anyway, I snacked on bananos while Nik ate breakfast at the pricier restaurant beside the hotel. It was time to roadtest our clutch cable invention. 20km, 40km, 100km, it was doing the trick. I picked up another cable just in case this one went, so we'd have a backup. But it helps when the Costa Rican roads are pretty well maintained. We traveled along the southern route, the CA-2 I believe, which, with intent on going to the volcano, was most definitely the longer route since the other border post north of us would have been MUCH less busy and it pops out 40 km from the Baru Volcano. Regardless, we were still making good time, when BAM! Tractor trailer in the ditch, whole way across the road. I decide to get to the front of the 200 car lineup to see whats going on, and a bunch of guys block the road with their cars so we can't get by to try and sneak past. I turn off the bike and get ready for a nice long nap when it seems some people are getting restless. One guy on a 150cc bike sneaks under the tow trucks towing cables. Yeah, easy for him, his moto is no heavier than a pedal bike. Our turn....we start getting the usual "haha gringos doing silly things" look and with a hell of a lot of strength we get first my bike, then Nik's almost horizontal under the cables. I'd say fully packed, the bikes are 400lbs + 100 packed? Anyway, we got through and saved a good couple hours waiting around, we pranced on past the cars on the other side prancing and weaving across the road like we were champions. Good news!!! We'll be at the Volcano by early afternoon!!! Unless...a certain...borderpost delays us for nearly 4 hours. Yeah, they can never be easy. The exit procedure built our confidence in an easy passage as it took no more than 10 minutes. If you have read the "Central American Wisdom" guide the part about Costa Rica – Panama border crossing is bullshit. It's not a piece of cake, it was in my opinion both the lengthiest and complicated thus far. Luckily however, they are a lot of english speaking locals and travelers who definitely help out to fast-forward the process. Everyone seemed to be there to help each other, but all we're frustrated at the time it took in line. Just in case your crossing into Panama in the next few hours:

• Get a stamp for your passport, 1.00US from a guy walking around.
• Also get a paper form to fill out, else you have to get back in line if you don't get one filled out beforehand.
• Hand papers over to Migracion, let them do their thing.
• Get insurance, $15.00US from across the road
• Get insurance stamped in upstairs office
• Wait in Aduana line and they will eventually check everything and enter it into the computer; make sure nothing is wrong, or have to start paperwork over again (us)
• Get another customers officer walking around to check your bike, another stamp.

Actually, writing it makes it seem a lot easier, its just when there's hundreds of people all trying to do the same thing it gets hectic, but we were able to do everything before it was due.

OK!! Now we're in Panama, back to American dollars, American food and hot hot weather. The first region you drive through in Panama is Chiriqui, a nice introduction to the developing country. The infrastructure here in EXCELLENT. It was a nice two lane paved road right into David, an hours drive. We drove through what seemed like a flash flood, but was soooo refreshing to be soaked in the heat, definitely cannot complain about that, we've only had one traveling day of rain so far. David is the third biggest city in Panama (there aren't many cities in this country) and our attention was immediately drawn to a Mcdonald's billboard. Supper MOST DEFINITELY:

For 12.99, you receive the Big Box meal (why can't developed countries offer such gold)

• two milkshakes
• three hamburgers of your choice
• two pieces of kfc-style chicken(but better)
• four medium french fries

Until now I have pondered why I have chosen to ride this far....now I know why. Every Mcdonald's in Panama offer's this deal...I may never leave.

Enough about dinner :O We needed to get to Boquette before dark, if only we could find the road. There were no signs, no directions, no big enough roads going up into the hills (I bet it was right beside the Mcdonald's billboard), so once again the Volcanoes of Central America have eluded us. So it with great defeat that we could not witness, climb or experience any volcanoes here. Disappointingly we rode on into the darkess. For me, I don't mind riding at night. As a cardinal rule that shouldn't be broken, I've never had any trouble so far and would recommend it if necessary. Mind you, I wouldn't stop unless I really had to, but riding at night offers its own solitude. You avoid the heat of the sun, distances seem to accumulate much faster, and I like following the contours of a decently paved road at night to hone up on riding skills. Remember, Panama has some awesome roads.

As we rode, we decided to stop at the first hotel we could find. Amazingly enough, the Paradise Inn in Lajas snuck up on us. 4Km off the main road and 5 minutes from the ocean, this place is number one in my books for accomodation. It loses points for not being on the ocean, so it's hard to compare with Verde Mar in Manual Antonio, but this place was rockin'. Quiet, full of people from Canada, and one room left. All the plam trees were lit up with red and green spotlights, christmas lights, very cool villa-style rooms. We had A/C, fans, hot water, two full sized beds across 300-400 square feet, a hammock, and a FRIDGGEEEEE. Ohh yeah, cold beers. And for the first time, we were able to negotiate from 50 down to 40. We are beginning to understand how this game works.

The pool was nearly olympic sized and all to myself, so while Nik checked up on his facebook page, I had myself a pool + camera frenzy. I could have stayed there for days.....BUT ALAS, we have to find a boat.....

So this morning we rode onwards, we needed to cover over 500 kilometres, so we jumped up to a 7:45am start. Food in Panama is cheappppppp, breakfast: awesome scrambled eggs served with Beavertails sans butter, $2.85. Even lunch, a massive plate of combination chinese rice, the size of two stomachs, $4.00.

The roads continued beautifully until we transversed into the next region. It confused me why the roads suddenly turned to much worse shape, until I realized the obvious difference sin regional governments. The budgets can't be matched, much like you'd see an infrastructure difference between Ottawa and Montreal (anyone who's driven Montreal knows they leave the city 2 inches lower on their suspension). But by the time I thought things fully through, the road widened to two lanes once more as we approached major towns. From there...perfection, two lanes the entire way here. We have not experienced that yet, but are really glad as we needed to cover so much distance today.

I'll have to take a pic of my hands and arms, the sun was out in full force today and I had my sleeves up a bit. Looks like I dipped my hands in grape juice. Panama is impressively trying to match Costa Rica now in tourism, a lot of properties are going up along the coast, along with all-inclusive resorts sprinkled here and there. And the sheer size of Panama city itself was pretty breathtaking. We haven't really seen highrises since Galveston, TX, but we weren't going to stick around to get lost in the big city. A couple tolls later and on our reserve tanks, we found ourselves entering Colon – the port to get our boats. Where the hell do we begin though? After riding around a bit (Colon is a bit of an unfriendly tourist town, but very reminisicent of a run-down Havana), we got to the port entrance and immediately talked to the guard to see if there were options available (yeah, Nik's idea, no fooling around I guess, I just wanted more hotels). Anyway, our best bet we were told was to head to Portobello, a town 30km down the coastline. Off we went in search of boats, I knew at this point, there'd be no way of getting on a cargo boat, as this town was much smaller in size.

Now that we're here, I think I might be falling in love with it. Its quaint, small, but it reminds me of the town thats sacked in Pirates of the Caribbean. Hilly, historic, and lots of friendlies. In fact, this town was sacked by Captain Morgan himself (see how to barrel stance). There is supposedly a lot of treasure buried around, but I don't think we're in for the long haul.

The hostel we were recommended to was run by a fellow named Dennis, called Captain Jack's. This is the place to go to catch a boat: all the captains mosy on up and talk to travelers, get a beer, or just hang out. Dennis can also set you up with a boat. We talked to a few fellows and had a few beers here, but unfortunately, unless we were to sleep on the couch (which was delightfully offered), there were no rooms available, so we said we'd be back in the morning to discuss the few options we were given tonight:

• Luc on his 55 foot Catamaran, no timeframe yet, sounds costly.
• Canadian Doug with his sailboat, might leave if enough people, bit cheaper methinks
• Captain John of the Wild Card, huge 60 foot steel hull, probably costly, might not leave for awhile.

Those are our options here in Portobello for now. Looks like we play the waiting game to see exactly when we can get on a boat. We might take a drive up to Puerto Lindo tomorrow, but we're not sure if there are main roads from here. It's less than 10km, but the map shows no roads. Weird enough, this is where Hostel Wunderbar is located, and the contact I've been talking to to get us a boat from there. We'll see tomorrow, as there might be more options up there.

Right now I again have no internet, so as I post this I will know more, but tonight we are staying at a fine little hotel where our bargaining skills honed even more!! Another 55 for 40 deal. We're happy, it's oceanfront (nice and calm) with a beach, hammocks, massive dock; we have 400 channels (YAY FINALLY TV AGAIN no more crappy Two and a Half Men downloaded on the laptop), A/C, three beds, awesomely decorated. Cold water, but after today, it's all I wanted.

Alright, next post should be shortly, updating on what's going on, Captain Jack's hostel has internet so I should be able to post from there when we get a room. For now, I'm going to rest my hands, I feel I can create flames from my palms....I really should wear gloves when I ride.

OK UPDATE:: YOU GET NO PICS!!! There's scarce internet here, a landslide wiped out 8 people and the internet.....the internet NOT being the important part of that equation. Anyway, the internet we're getting for 2.00 an hour from the emergency line at the police station is too slow to upload a lot of pics. I might be back later to upload the rest to you, in which case, you all owe me 2.00 for your viewing pleasure! So we're still looking for boats, and I'll post again soon.

YOU try fitting your bike under that wire.....without losing a breath

Our bikes getting a nice wash in Portobello

Double Posting All the Way!!! Whooaa, Its Almost a Triple Post!! --Rob

Blogging again, how can you tell there's no TV here. Well, I'm only doing this because Mr. Dam so kindly reminded me that I didn't post the picture with the huge rooms. We'll.........

Living room!

One of four bedrooms, completely empty.

THERE....now, lets keep it real. I said huge, you gotta remember the places we've already stayed. We're used to 60 sq. feet. not 1500. It makes a bit of a difference. Anyway, now that I've already started posting, might as well throw up some pics I took tonight and from Niks camera last night. I missed the sunset unfortunately, but I did come close..take a peek.

Nik and the expensive watermelon lady! Mind you, damn good. P.S. You're no longer in the cold Nik what's with the winter coat.

Completely normal road hazards

Massively impressive food, this place is the best we've eaten! A 750ml vodka, a 7-up, 3 redbulls, this meal, and 4 beers for 39.00US.

Dig right in!

Bit too much sun today Nik?? You should hear him suffering right now haha..

All I want to do in El Tunco is eat and post!

Just after sunset on the beach!

The famous pig rock of El Tunco. Obviously I am looking at it from the wrong angle.

Our dinner audience; they sat on our feet while we ate. Cute fellers.

Again, we dominate this place by ourselves.

Don't eat the shrimp here, this man catches it from the swamp...and it smells. He can't hide in the dark from my shutter speed!

30 second exposure makes nighttime daytime.

But nighttime is pretty nice.

And a video I added tonight onto Youtube showing what Atitlan looks like from the beach!



I also apologize, looking over the massive post, my punctuation and grammar suffered immensely. I'll be on the lookout from now on, so stop judging me. :(

Alright, no more posts for a bit. We gotta focus on getting to Leon as fast as possible. Want to make it to Diriamba for the San Sebastien festival on the 20th! Wish us luck, we're gonna try to get out of El Salvador, into and out of Honduras and into Nicaragua and a 200 km ride to Leon all in one day! Let's do this!

Finally! Some Sun!! ....Too much sun..... - Rob

Figured I'd post a bit about the sun and surf here in La Libertad. No pics (see post before) until I bring out the camera a little before sunset. Our room here is a bit boring...no TV, we miss our Warner Bros. station with terrible commercials but awesome shows.

QUICK< SOMETHING I FORGOT. MORE BORDER CROSSING ADVICE.

Guatemala - El Salvador (Southern most border).
- Buildings are all together, very easy to navigate. Exiting Guatemala proved a lengthy process, but it was made easy by my friend (see post before tambien). We joked and laughed with him until our paperwork was done and off we went to El Salvador. Exiting cost us 10 Quetzals and 2.00 US.

- Pass a checkpoint, into El Sal. El Salvador is by far the easiest crossing. It still took a long time, but we only had to get through Migracion, Aduana and a few copies (0.40US). Everything else is free as El Salvador is part of the CA-4 Border Control agreement (guatemala..don't see how tho, it wasnt free and easy; el salvador, nicaragua and honduras) which makes life a little easier.

So far we're lucky, no lines at any border. We typically go early and I'm pretty sure it's not busy season, I hope I didn't jinx myself.

Anyway, the road coming up to La Libertad was hot and chocked full of semi's going slow. Once we hit the ocean things got interesting: massive dark and cold tunnels, and a ride that would hone anyone's cornering skills in any type of vehicle. At least 30 switchbacks tucked us into our bikes as we climbed and descended over and over again next to the ocean. Very cool.

When we got to El Tunco, we drove right by it. All the beaches here have very small entrances into what are like small communities. Inside are restaurants, bars, hotels, hostels. There's pretty much a 50/50 population of locals to white people here. So lots of conversation to be had because it's nice to be able to talk fluently in native tongue once more (its very draining struggling in broken spanish all the time). We asked one laid back girl what hotel was best, and she pointed us to the Tunco Lodge. Decent place, woman said 50 bucks a night, what we expected to pay by the beach, but a young kid took over and showed us around, then said the price was 40. Awesome deal! ...So we thought. Talked to a guy later that night who's staying here for 8.00. Well, now that we have our sunburns, we're gonna look a little more local and a lot less foreign so hopefully we can get some deals soon. Doesn't mater, we're happy. We have a pool, cheap food, and a/c. Lots of people to talk to, a huge surf population and a backpackers destination. We celebrated with a beer at the beach bar; 8 later and we chowed down on some much needed spaghetti. Total bill: 8 beers, 2 huge spaghettis, 20.00. Awesome again! I love this place.

Watched the sunset over the ocean, incredible and went back to the pool and back out to dinner. We had fried fish which was much better than I thought it was going to be, another 4 beers. After a stupid bet that if I ate the fishes eyeballs Nik would buy a bottle of vodka, we found ourselves swallowing Vodka and redbulls and 7-up all night. Well...Nik's night ended early, I talked to the Tyler guy from Canada for a couple more hours and polished the entire bottle of vodka..Good thing we're by the ocean, hangovers only affect me in-land.

Woke up to hammers banging at 7 am, had some french toast for breakfast and decided we'd get some surf boards. I'm not going to take pictures of my wounds, but after three hours we decided to give up and try at another destination. The waves here are slightly forgiving, but the shallow rock shelf make it dangerous. The board popped me in the head, I've got multiple scratches on both arms, deep cuts from jagged rocks on both feet and hands. Surfing is a rough sport....not to mention arduous. Everytime we'd attempt a wave and then fall, 4 more would knock us 300 feet to shore (we're on point break) and we'd have to start paddling all over again.

A Canadian surfer girl sat down with us and basically gave us a free lesson, nice of her, she was probably just afraid we'd kill her if we went back out. Anyway surfing's done....we're toast, Nik's burnt, and we've been sleeping the day away haha.

I'm hungry for food and pictures, I'm going scrounging.

MIA At 3000 Feet - Rob

It's been an unexpected while since I've been able to post. At the time of this entry in fact, I have no internet. I'll be uploading this one the next time I get some wireless, but it's a little bit hard to come by around here. Here? Roach motel tonight....we really had no choice, we've travelled the past two days from San Cristobal to here in Escuintla, Guatemala, one of the few mistakes we have made on this trip so far. More on that later (as ants crawl on the bed and people since and dance outside the room making all kinds of noise).

I can't even remember where I left off, the past couple of days have been quite the blur. The last I remember posting about was the cold, the damn cold that seems to follow us through these mountains. The rain has passed completely, we have been graced with mostly sunny skies sicne that one day. If I can think back to where I left off, we travelled the farthest we had yet on this trip through that rain. 670 kilometres in one day. Along the way we met a traveller from Alberta fully loaded for a round the world trip. He had he would try and make it to San Cristobal with us, but I doubt he has our stubborness and persistence. We did make it, through, hmmm if I can recall, by passing through 7 TOLLS. Yeah, 7...lucky number, our wallets ran dry three times with the unexpected stops. It ran us a total of $50.00 US, our whole daily budget, just to drive from city to city. I only once we ran through our last toll did I realize that Libre meant free and Cordo (or something similar) meant pay up. As I rode through tropical rainstorms I wondered how the hell most of Mexico's inhabitants can afford routine travel. Let alone Canada (basically no toll roads) in the U.S. Tolls are FAR less expensive, and to take "La Ruta Libre" would mean countless more kilometres in detours and far less impressive roads. We'd pay 15.00 to travel one section of road that would have potholes a foot deep and 3 feet wide. You hit one of those and guarenteed you're not coming out on two wheels. Gotta also account for the whole-lane puddles and nearly no visibility. It was not a pleasant ride but we knew where we had to go, so I compain now, but we sucked it up and rode on. When I do get to upload pictures, I'llshow the better half of that ride we talked about last post.

San Cristobal – not quite as impressive as I read about, but we didn't tour around the whole town. There is a lot of poverty here off the main drag (San Juan etc.) and we found ourselves looking for a hotel in the wrong side of town. We stayed directly in the square at the foot of the historical distract in a place called the Alcatraz Hotel. Funny....because the temrperature in the room/outside felt like the icy waters of that very prison. Nice place though, $25.00 a pop, we came to accept it, because it is more of a tourist town. We found a delicious chinese food chain I wasn't at first so sure about, but if I do see it again, it'll be my first stop. The town has pretty much everything you want, giant supermarket, chain auto shops, and for us a much needed "Laundaria". We were down to our last set of clothes...haha who am I kidding, we wore all our shitty clothes twice before we got them cleaned. The problem here was that it took our laundry lady until 1 pm to finish the clothes. We worked on the bikes, did an oil change, I readjusted my chain again, and goofed around in the sun until they were ready.

1 pm and we're on the road. In terms of Mexican road signs, I'm very pleased. Never did I have to rely on my map to figure out where I'm going (I'm the navigator of the trip: Man with the Maps). The signs always point you in the right direction, but I do have a damn bone to pick. When a road sign gives you a distance, say for example, 200 km to San Cristobal, why when you approach the next one 40 km later, it tells you 212 km to go. This is evident EVERYWHERE. Everytime you think you get somewhere, the next sign will put you 30km behind schedule. Regardless, we had time to make up, we had to get through the Guatemalan border yesterday.

The road out of San Cristobal rose even higher. We're getting on 3500 feet and still climbing. The ride was again spectacular, the Chiapas region is beyond my favourite area to ride. Constant climbs and descents, a great strain on my chain, but who cares, these rides are what motorcycle enthusiasts only dream of. Full hairpin turns at a 15-20 degree slope for 30-40 km. The pavement and road conditions were perfect with barely anyone on the roads. The termperature rose as we approached the border...ha the border, this is always the fun part. So the Frontera (border) towns are busy, I can't explain to you how busy, but it's basically a line of people two deep, both sides of a single lane road. You're also contending with of course traffic, 18 wheelers, motorcycles, the works, on a road that climbs at such an angle it's even hard to walk up. I heard from Central America advice on ADVRider that you can sneak through Mexico exit and go right into Gaute. Not true....must've been old. We were told immediately to go back 4 km to the Mexican migracion to get our exit stamps. It was getting dark fast, and no one....trust me, no one travels Guatemala roads at night. We figure there's no rush, even if we did clear the border we wouldn't have gotten far, so we, along with our bikes "exited" Mexico and dropped into a hotel right beside the Migracion. Again, the only people there, and for 200 pesos, theres no way to go wrong. Locked parking, and a whole house to ourselves, incredible. This place (look for the many pictures at the end of the post) had like 4 oversized (WAY OVERSIZED) interconnected rooms upstairs with a whole enormous wrap around balcony, all to ourselves. "Let's get dinner", we agreed suspiciously.

Not much around other than the post, and its dark. We walk up to the store for some beers, and decide instead to get dinner first. One slightly fellow told us in english that they had beers there. When we walked to get dinner instead, he insisted they had beers, and "you know what, I'll show you where to get some beers"......"wat", I look at Nik. The little feller points over to the darkest corner by some houses, and asks us to follow him over there to get some beers. This was our first encounter with, well we thought he was friendly, dunno what he wanted, but whatever it was, he didn't get it, not from us anyway. Got some local burritos, I loved them; Nik not so much. I'm a newb to burritos, maybe it was the cheap beer that helped it so gracefully wash down. With nothing to do, we fell asleep playing crazy 8's and reading Robb Reports. No internet and no english channels that we were used to everywhere else so far.

Didn't matter, because we were up at 6 to be the first to hit up the border. We hurriedly packed our bags and were the first ones there, luckily.....because it still took well over an hour. Again, we expect this with the knowledge we have. I know for me, when I was planning this trip, the borders scared me the most, but this is our first true crazy border we crossed, and there really was nothing to it. But since it helps to understand it better, I'll point form it again.

1. After Mexico exit, we first went to Migracion. He looked at our documents for 2 minutes, gave us our stuff back, and off we went. Too easy.
2. Going to Aduana, fumigation man stops us and tells us we need it "after", we tell him. Aduana consisted of filling out entry form, correcting the documents they print (make sure to check the VIN's, they seems to most often screw up the numbers), and after 45 minutes here (the printer broke for the copies), he sent us to the bank (right beside the Aduana) to pay the 55 Quetzals.
3. Officer checks your forms, and off we go. Too easy.
**We did have to use a moneychanger, there are no moneychanging banks around our checkpoints, it was 3:2 exchange rate from the buggers......

The best part, well, I don't know if I can say best, but officials seem to treat you with the upmost respect. They push you to the front of the line anywhere you go, interesting. Makes up for all the shady looks and/or "monster" comments about our height (I guess it doesn't help we're 6'4 and 6'5, 1-2 feet taller than most locals).

The ride through Guatemala was very similar to Chiapas, with the exception of more towns and rougher topes. It slowed us down at the beginning, but after taking out some money and getting some gas, we sped up towards Lago de Atitlan. As I was taking a video of one of the crazy roads with a ton of switchbacks, a couple of police wave us over (this is another one of my fears on the trip) but he just asked us where we came from, where we're going, and to have a good time. Super friendly amigo! So, not to jinx us, but we've been lucky. No military checkpoints (they all seem to be northbound), no corrupt cops and friendly locals. Fingers crossed, we just began.

Anyway, by this time the constant hills are taking a huge tolls on my chain, and I'm driving the bike with the upmost care. I don't know the best method to prevent it from too much tension, but I've been riding with low revs (around 2500-3000 rpm at all times) as it seems to not jerk the bike back and forth, which is what the chain tension seems to be doing before this. All's well...so far...hope I make it to San Salvador Kawk. Dealership. We get to Lago Atitlan....like eveyrone says...beautiful..The pictures can only describe it, my weiny words are insignifcant in comparison. There are a ton of white people, an awesome local yelling out that we should buy some cocaine and skunk from him (laff) and turquoise waters. Mind you, if you've ever been to the Florida Keys in the dead of summer, expect similar smells.....not so nice, I wouldn't try swimming in this water. We had a pineapple on the beach and proceeded to get to where we are now, a helluva lot slower than we anticipated.

We came to a fork, and unlike Mexican road signs, Guatemala seems not to care where we have to get to. Both destinations were not on my map, and both looked semi-promising. The one we didn't chose (put my foot in my mouth) ended up what seemed like the wrong direction. We followed the water...

**IF YOU ARE EVER IN LAGO ATITLAN AND NEED TO GET TO CA-2 DO NOT FOLLOW THE WATER***

I didn't take pictures, because I wasn't sure we'd get out of it. I took a small video but it pales in comparison to what the ride would be like. It starts off decent, a lot of nice villas and more white people. Then the road gets narrower...and dustier....and sandier...and more inclined. After about 45 minutes of riding, the road became what appeared to be impassable by most vehicles. There was no one else on it but us, and a lonely villa, and it climbed. It basically rose 2000 feet in the matter of two or three kilometres. Even without the luggage, I have never rode my bike that hard. Nik has already told you about the fall (since I'm posting this first I'm guessing). I wish I could explain it better, but I'll let you know more if my bike falls apart before I get a tune-up. Just when I stopped Nik to ask him if we should turn back......I seriously throught we'd have to go all the way back and go the other route (it was harder going down), the path popped out onto the main road...wow. So we gunned through the coffee route of route 11 and CA-2 and made it to Escuintla. I thought for some reason this town was a landmark, a place to see, but I wish we had a few more hours to keep riding. I wouldn't recommend a stop here, we found only one hotel after riding for twenty minutes. The traffic is insane here, it is not a tourist town by any means. There is a market, but we dare venture out here, there is no key to our room. It cost us 130 Quetzals (15 bucks), no hot water, beds with mats upon bricks, and ants crawling everywhere. Mind you, we have 70-some channels, some of which are in english, but I'm very looking forward to moving on tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, La Libertad, our first look at the Pacific, and a much anticpated stop along our trip. A lot of riders avoid El Salvador, but if you stay in the tourist towns, it'll be like any other country. Safer than Mexico, and Mexico was like a daycare (almost..). Besides, I have to meet my fiancees family!

These waves were massive for the Caribbean. The wind was relentless.

Hey, if you're handicap, Veracruz will do everything to make life as comfortable as they can for you, just watch out for the potholes.

The historical part of town (museum)

Veracruz Centro

My favourite vehicle of the trip so far. Plentiful, yet I've never even seen these in Canada

But I've seen this beast before.. Note the ceaseless and cold downpour to San Cristobal

I told you, cold...

A fellow Canadian traveler whose name escapes me now. He's from Alberta and heading anywhere his 800GS takes him. So awesome!

As soon as we enter the region of Chiapas, magic happens!

Skies clear up, beautiful mountains

And climbing 3000 feet looking out over the area.

This is the Cristobal mascot; he wasn't as friendly as he looks.

In Cristobal our hotel was pretty (if you go to this place and wonder where the hell any of the hotels are, keep going past the "Cristobal Centro/Historico" sign..we took a long time to figure this out.

Cold air, breath is visible at all times of the day and night here.

Quick and easy oil change. The bikes have a hard time not stalling (full idle for a long time) at this height. We wonder what the Andes would be like.

Our border hotel, all to ourselves.

Our view, which I kept thinking were clouds as I was not used to scenery so looming.

My favourite pic of the trip so far, its just creepy...and it smelled really bad. Burning garbage is a favorite activity of the locals.

This is really close to being my favourite pic..You really don't want to take one step back, its a long way down.

A look at Lago de Atitlan

I was being serious too, this is actually a hairpin curve too.....watch the brakes!

Las Pinas son fantastico!!

Couple more pics, because its so beautiful.

Nik making non-english speaking friends. 

Cool view of the Atitlan Volcano (tours available, but time was of the essence).

We're hurried to make sure we could get the best hotel in Escuintla.

Unfortunately...there was only one hotel, and it was a dump of a town.....Note the blood stains / ants everywhere.

This is my new friend. I was told to watch out for helpers at border crossings. He immediately came up to us offering help, we really had no choice as he followed us around and kinda took over. We were really skeptical whether or not he'd hold our documents until we paid him (I've heard amounts from 50-hundreds of U.S. dollars). Although we tipped him 20 Quetzals, he never bugged us for money and made everything so smooth getting out of Guatemala. He even offered me a beer!! He gave us contact information of his friend who also offers help at the Honduras border! So cool.

Our little resort in El Tunco, La Libertad (Yes, I now have internet).

The moon looks much bigger in person.

Mountains and Waves -Nik

Guatemala! What a drive! most extraordinary ride of my life. We just wrapped around the mountain over and over again up and down (which is awesome on a bike). It was such a difference entering Guatemala. The thing that struck me first was Toyotas. Almost everyone drives one 90%+. We spent a night at Esquintla where we hit the a new low in hotel; cinder block bed, ice cold shower and ants. I had to seal the edge of the windows with toilet paper as to keep the mosquitoes out. Leaving early in the morning we made it to the border of El Salvador and headed to our surf spot; El Tunco. The place we are staying at, tunco lodge is great and cheap. Food here is awesome! Waves are fair and the beach is stunning. Tomorrow we going surfin! Wat!!!

Much better but colder -Nik

Hey! I feel soo much better! I(heart)antibiotics. Getting out of Veracruz was a challenge. Poor weather caught up to us and got us soaked on our way to San Cristobal for the first few hours. Once we got up in the mountains into the cloudbank things took a turn for the best. If there was scenic drives before well this second half of our daily journey topped it right off! Ñ*¨[ Amazing.. Some of these sights where like storybook landscapes as we climed steady to 3000ft to San Cristobal. We entered the small town (still probably 1m ppl) and got lost for a while but found a quiet hotel with freezing floors. It does not get warm here. The locals are all dressed in jackets and this morning we where able to see our breath just to give you an idea. Chille! We got planning to make it to Guatemala this morning but might not make it since we are waiting on laundry which was overdue.

Winter All Over Again - Rob

Gonna have to be a quick one today, were getting our washing done in San Cristobal de las Casas, and itll be ready at 1pm. Were gonna scrounge around and see whats up in this town. Ill post pictures of yesterday, we had both the best drive and the worst drive of the trip so far. One road....190 kilometers...straight. Awesome. Better yet, pouring rain, most of the day. Best part..cold. It was a terrible ride in to Chiapas, but I remembered hearing from somehwrer how beautiful it was, and that is an understatement. From the entrance sign, it is the difference from being in the prairies to being in the Rockies. Beautiful cliffs, panoramas, you name it. One problem, you climb high, and you climb cold. And when youre wet, your frozen. I never knew San Cristobal was at 3000 feet elevation, but more on that later. Were off to look for some meracado somewhere or another (mnarket). Need some fresh fruit, and some fresh clothes.

Huge update next time I get wireless.