Video's of the Mexico trip!

     


                During our trip, I tried to shoot some video with just an iPhone holding in my hand, while driving, what caused the quality not to be first class, but at least gives some impressions. as well it was almost impossible to upload the video's, the same day it was shot, mostly due to slow internet connections, so I decided to put them all together in my last blog-post of our trip. Probably in the future I will obtain an helmet cam, so the quality improves and can keep both hands on the handlebar.

Back in the Homeland again!

Wednesday 1/25/2012


Day 11 Distance ( 364 km)

Early start again, because we had to do a lot of things.

1) See the wells, waterfalls of  Semuc Champey.

2) See the caves from Lanquin.

3) See that we get back into Copan Honduras, before dark.

To get to the water falls, we had to take another bad road for about 10 km down to the river, fog was still present and we went through a rain forest and as usual we were the only tourists on the road. We had to pass an iron bridge to get to the national park and arrived there before opening and $ 10,00 did the trick to get us in.

       It was pretty impressive how the roaring water disappeared under ground and showed up, later down the stream again. Spend an hour there and then backtracked to Lanquin to visit the caves. Once arrived, we entered in a dark cave system, but Scotty had 3 flaslights, so we did not had to buy the overpriced candles to get in. It was a little disappointed, due to the fact, they didn't want to put the lights on for only 3 tourists!

       Spend some time there and decided to pick our bags up in the hotel and then take off for Honduras what was at least 6 hours away.

So we had to get again on a dirt road to get back to Coban and from there it was a very nice highway through a national forest to the intersection Guatemala City, Puerto Barrios, called los Ranchos.

We lost Scotty during this part of the trip and decided to continue for the border and hopefully meet up there again, I needed some gas a little later and rested my sore bones for a while and asked a cop outside, if he see a similar bike with a Gringo on it , to stop him and tell Scotty then, we are inside in the A/C bar area, waiting on him.

       Police stopped him and a little later, we continued to the border, where we arrived around 5 pm, took us 5 minutes to cross and an half an hour later we pulled in the yard of Hotel Patty in Copan. The owners are a nice older couple, I know for 33 years, so we had to catch up some stories.

Later that evening, Scotty and I had a great T-Bone steak in the restaurant next to the hotel. It is the only place I eat in Copan and it is always good, but never can remember the name of it.....

Dirt roads to Lanquin

Tuesday 1/24/2012


Day 10 Distance (246 km)

Scotty on the dirt road

      We decided Huehuetenango sucks, polluted, trashy and smelly, but it was the cheapest hotel this trip $2.00 p/p, you can't beat that and you didn't need A/C or fan (There was not one any anyway) 

So after a good breakfast just before 7am, we left  the town towards Lanquin. The road in the beginning was good and soon we were again up high in the mountains and all we did was making  curves and pulling brakes, but eventually we hit the washboard road with potholes and the road was so bad, we only were making 15 kph. The biggest landslide, I ever saw in my live, was on this road and I guess one third of the mountain must have collapsed from 3000 meter high and block the only road, but some farmers created their own road on their property and were charging toll, but only $1.00 per vehicle. Made some interested video, but the internet here in Lanquin is terrible, Anyway after suffering for a couple of hours on this dirt road, we reached Coban, ate at  McDonald and continued to Lanquin were we reached around 4 pm. Took a well deserved shower to get the dust out of everything and  hit the town for some beers. 

Old Pan-america highway into Guatemala 2500 meters

Monday 1/23/2012

Day 9 Distance (268 km)

San Cristobal 

Last night, we walked in Cristobal, to check out the street scenery and looking for a good steak house. The place was crowded after dark and soon we found a good Argentina restaurant, which was showing the size and different cuts, outside in front of the entrance on display. Decide to go back into Guatemala tomorrow and were looking forward to the high mountain roads we had to cross.

San Cristobal 

San Cristobal 

     

San Cristobal de la Cases

         
                                  They didn't see me and they got lost!!


Left 10 am after we did some sight seeing and soon we were on the  road to La Mesilla, the border town in Guatemala, it was amazing scenery and beautiful mountain roads, we passed and 2 hours later, we hit the border, checked out of Mexico and they told us by Aduana, they would return the deposit of $ 400.00 for the bike on our credit card! Towards Huehue, we hit 2500meters. There was a landslide on the PanAm and traffic was already lining up for miles, but with the moto's we were in no-while first in line. After an half an hour we were allowed to pass and continued our way.

Traffic jam mud slide

Border La Mesilla

Mud slide Panam

 Around 4 pm, we reached the town @ 2000 meters, settled down and checked out the town

Belize, finally I found some-one who can understand me

Wednesday 1/18/2012

Day 4 Distance ( 256 km)

The hotel, we were staying in was overlooking the lake and was quiet comfortable and in the morning we had breakfast there, took some scenic shots and packed up the bikes and left around 8 am. It was more or less an hour to the border with belize and half the time the road was unpaved with waterpools, pot holes and felt like a washboard, I guess the Guatemaleans were still pissed off the British took their "province" and decided to make a shitty road to the border. Once at the border, we had no hassle and within 20 minutes we passed both borders and had to stop at a little office to buy mandatory insurance for the bikes @ $ 6.00 per day, so we bought for 2 days!

Insurance Office

Road sign to the capital

The first little town San Ignacio was interested and soon after that it became a waste land, without people, restaurants, houses and gas stations and reached on fumes a gas station, where I filled my 5 gallon tank with 6 gallons  premium gas @ $ 5.66 and told them "They were giving it  away"

Had a beer to rinse the bad taste out of my mouth and around 2 pm found a very good road restaurant and had curry, my favorite meal! 3 pm we reached Orange Walk and we wanted today, A/C, Internet and cold beer and were asking around where the Chinese restaurants are, where Orange Walk famous for was.

Tikal, a must see place in the Jungle.

Tuesday 1/17/2011

Day 3

Distance ( 188 km)

Entrance Finca Ixobel, Poptun

The Hilton

Woke around five and finally had some internet and found out my son Ulysses was supposed to leave on a plane to Brasil, so had to make some phone calls to see he was going on his first trip alone oversees. updated the blog and hopefully on our way to Tikal today, but it is drizzling, just enough to get wet!

Tikal

Ceiba tree

The finca we were staying in was very basic, but very nice and it was actually cold last night in the Hilton, getting some home made bread for breakfast, so the day started out good for me. 

Going Tikal

Tikal

We left in drizzle rain, but pretty soon it stopped and an hour later we were in El Remate, where we checked in a nice hotel, left all the luggage there and an half hour later, we were heading for Tikal what was just 40 Km away, parked the bikes and started hiking to the pyramids. An hour later i noticed that I left my keys still in the moto and started to get worried, if I will ever see her back. Anyway we returned around five, tired from hiking and was glad I saw the bike again and went back to the hotel to get a few beers to celebrate that all went well today.

Tikal

Tikal

Tikal

Tikal

To the end of the world "Maya Country 2012"

Monday 1/16/2011

Day 2

Distance (411 km)

Tela view

   In the morning, we had an excellent breakfast at 7 am and we left the hotel around 9 am in overcast weather and were expecting rain or at the least drizzle,

Bridge Rio Dulce

Rio Dulce

Bridge Rio Dulce

We had some small mechanical problems, but fixed it all and took off for San Pedro Sula, the industrial capital of Honduras and traffic was outrageous and were inhaling plenty of exhaust smoke from worn out trucks. Passing through the outside of the city, pretty soon drove through Choloma were we fueled up and short after that we hit drizzle, just enough to get wet and passed Puerto Cortez on our way to the Guatemala border. Had  lunch just before the border and past the border without complications and before we realized, we were on our way to El Peten province in the North of Guatemala, where the Maya ruins are, with the most famous one called . About an hour before we hit more rain again and decided to stay in Poptun, where a Finca was located, I had been to in the past and arrived around 5 pm, so just in time to for happy hour!

The place is full with backpackers and ego orientated people.

Chris had to fix his carburetor, which was stalling out, Scotty was short on beer vitamins and I had to figure out this blog with a very slow internet connection. Dinner is served at 7 and hope to be finished with the blog before that.

Today, we acting as gringo tourists, 2 fortresses in 1 day

Day 11 (90 miles)

Today, we visited 2 fortresses in 2 countries and the first one was Castillo de San Felipe in Rio Dulce, what was not really a stronghold and was pounded to pieces many times over in the past, according the ferry tales, mostly by Dutch buccaneers, so I got interested in the history of the fortress.

                         

After an hour or so. we left for Omoa, Honduras, what was only two hours away, the border took less as 5 minutes and nobody asked anything about bike papers and an half hour later, we reached Omoa and checked into the Flamingo hotel on the beach, what seems one of the better hotels in Town, after unpacking, I drove through town and visited the 2nd Fortress, named "Fortaleza the Omoa",

     Scottie said it was beer and a half time and we decided to meet up later for dinner, where ever his bike is parked!!

Walked around for a few minutes, but it was too hot for me and still had to check out the Marina Marcante, what their deal is to get certified as a seaman ( It is not for me, so don't worry), They have a school there, where most people from Central America come to, to get their papers, from basic to captain.

After been informed, I left and went looking for the A/C in the room till sunset.



            


          Tomorrow we have to get up early to visit the Kawasaki dealer in San Pedro Sula, to put some pressure on them. to see that they get our plates, so we can go foreign with the bikes, without having fear to face borders and police.



Lake Izabel, Rio Dulce Guatemala

Day 10 (151 miles)

   Got up around 7am and after a good breakfast in 'Vamos a Ver" in Copan, the owner is Dutch, so I had a real Dutch cheese treat (Edammer). The owner of the Hotel said it would be impossible to cross without plates, but we still wanted to try it. Reaching the border a Hedman Alas bus was just before us and that made the scene a little more chaotic as it was already, and I thought this is good for me. The Honduran guy told me to pull over, but I had my title papers already in hand and crossed quick, without incidents, The immigration went fast, It was the last immigration guy Utila had, we knew each other and we stayed silent, (We had some problems in the past in Utila, he wanted to check my papers, when I went for a day trip on the Yate to La Ceiba and on the end he didn't see my papers, because I told him, I was in Utila, before him), I crossed this border in the last 30 years more as a 100 times and know how the system works and now, because there is a treaty between 4 Central American countries (CA4)The idea is to promote tourism and give all residents and locals access to the other 3 countries without having to have passports (Foreign residents do)  and use their vehicles without having to do temporarily importation and without charging nobody a one cent and in 5 minutes we went through this obstacle.

The Guatemala immigration officer charged me a Dollar, what was not correct, but today I was not going to argue with him and besides that I received my first dollar from a reader who donated, using Paypal
This is by the way the maximum you can donate and it is for a good cause!

       Then  we pulled up by the next boom and the SAT guy (Aduana) of Guatemala, said we couldn't go further without plates, even putting in all my charm didn't help, so 2 minutes later we passed, next stop would be the local police, which is another 100  meters further and driving on the blind side of a 18 wheeler, the police didn't see or stopped us and we continued.

Rest Stop Guatemala, the Tigo sign caused the dent.

 

Knowing how the transito operates in Guatemala, we kept a low profile on the road and used mainly good highway to reach the east part of Guatemala towards the main port of Puerto Barrios. About halfway we took a rest stop, during this stop my bike felt over, caused by the breeze and hit a galvanized traffic sign and dented my gas tank, what made me sick after keeping the bike scrape less for 10 days in the worst conditions and then this.

Dent in tank

          

                Any way we continued to Rio Dulce and crossed a high bridge and saw all the sailboats all over the place in the Harbour 

 Rio Dulce is the place in Central America to store their sailboats during hurricane season and play the rest of the year in the Caribbean and most of them visit Utila from here. Lots of sailboats have Yanmar engines in them and me being the only guy in Central America, who actually stock these parts, lots of these boat owners bought from me and actually looking for one guy tonight, I guess, he would be surprised to see me!!

Found a small hotel with A/C and Internet, besides this, the recession must have hit hard here and the place is dead and deserted. Tomorrow visiting the local castle ( Castillo San Felipe)