September 4, 2006

Hola!! from Mexico. We arrived in Mexico on Thursday August 31^st. The border crossing was an experience in its self. We approached the crossing with anticipation of being checked over from head to toe. Nope, no such thing. The Mexican authorities have no interest in you until you go to leave their beautiful country. We drove straight through with only one guard with a gun waving us by. We actually drove two blocks shaking in our boots, saying to each other on the autocom, What just happened? We circled around the block and found an insurance office. Once we parked the bikes in a parking lot that wasn’t going to get us a ticket from the Polica , we started to process of obtaining liability insurance for the motorbikes. The program at this particular office was down, so the kind senorita let me go and start the other process of getting the paperwork in order to actually just travel in Mexico. Kelly had to be with me for this one, so we were able to park the bikes in front of the insurance office where the staff could keep an eye on them. In the building that requires you to declare your reason for coming to Mexico and then charging you $200.00 pesos for entry, the guard was very business like almost scary. He wouldn’t stamp our papers until we went across the road to the HSBC bank and pay. Once we paid the fee, the guard stamped our passport and paper to enter the country. Then we had to go to the military banko and pay to have the bikes temporary imported into Mexico. There we needed the registration and proof of ownership as well as our passports. That fee was a mere $370.00 pesos. For those of you wondering the exchange of money, it’s 1 dollar to 10 pesos. We began the entire process at 9:30 a.m. and were finally set to leave Tecate at 1:30 p.m. Kelly says this was our first lesson of patience. Yup, patience in Mexico is exactly what you need. From the officials to the drivers you need to just be patience. The driver’s are far from patience, but we have to be, other wise we’ll end up needing to use that insurance.

The road from Tecate to Ensenada is really beautiful. It winds you though the hot climate of the low lands and mountains sending you further towards the cool ocean. We could feel the heat start to dissipate once we road closer to Ensenada. When looking around you, you first notice all of the small homes with many old cars and junk collecting in the yards. This is a true introduction to the display of poverty that is everywhere in Baja. We crested one last mountain to see Ensenada in our sight. You could smell the ocean air and feel the coolness of the wind. Thank goodness for the change in climate as we were trying to deal with the intense heat of the desert the day before. We were impressed to see all of the cruise ships in the harbor. This was a pretty interesting city. The signs were all in Spanish so we guessed pretty well at which way to go. The sign that read “tourist de tranvia” was the road that took you through the water front.

There were vendors selling everything you can imagine. The cars and people didn’t stop.

Kelly and I decided to continue to the outskirts of the city to look for a place to stay. We had been informed that there was a hurricane touching land further down the Baja. It sounded like it could be a pretty bad weather situation. We found a beautiful campground just south of Ensenada owned by a man named Alfredo and his esposa, Maria. They live in a castle at the top of the hill. It is literally a castle. Alfredo has done very well for himself. He has one of the largest homes in the area. The campground is very clean and well maintained. We decided to camp here on the ocean to wait out the storm.

We have tried our taste buds out on the local restaurante. The food is always very tasty and hot. Hot as in taste, not in temperature, this coming from a gringo that doesn’t like pepper on her eggs.So we wait. Enjoy the area, the people and the incredible weather. Camping just a mere 20 meters from the ocean isn’t too difficult to take. We will post photos on the gallery of the area we have seen so far. Thanks to all that have been e-mailing us. We are so excited to hear from you. Nicole and Kane tell us that the families have been keeping in touch with them. Thanks everyone. My father has now become the Chief Meteorologist for our trip. He is watching every weather forecast in every area that we may be traveling to. Thanks Dad.

News from home is much appreciated. Even it’s only been just two weeks since our departure we still wonder what is happening there.

Adios, until next time…Kella

September 5^th, 6^th 2006

We left the campsite south of Ensenada this morning. The rooster in the campground had us up by 6 a.m. We were packed up and on the road by 7:45 a.m. Leaving the area was exciting. We are going to ride to the town called “Rosarito” It is located approximately 250 kms south of Ensenada on the Mex 1 highway. The road winds through the mountains and along the coast. A few of the communities that we passed through were: Santo Tomas, Cabo Colonet, Vincente Guerrero, and San Quintin. Each little town has its own flavor. Street vendors are always set up on the side of the highway trying to entice a sale or two. In the community of San Quintin we stopped at a very nice little restaurant called: “El Faro de San Quintin” It was a first class place, cloth napkins and the whole deal. We ordered “Enchiladas de pollo” Pollo being chicken. This was one of the best meals we have had so far. I wanted to take note of this place for our friend Tim Yip. He has traveled extensively and always has a story of a restaurant that he has experienced. Tim, if you’re ever riding the Baja, the El Faro de San Quintin is a sure bet.

The temperature reached around 93 degrees today. We decided to take a hotel by 3 p.m. since the ocean is only going to leave us as we ride further south.

The hotel was excellent. For three hundred pesos we had a king sized bed and a shower that 6 people could fit into. The entire room was tiled in beautiful rust colored tiles. A room like this in Canada would cost over a hundred dollars. I was able to do some laundry. Laundry means washing our clothes in the sink of the hotel room. We were able to hang them outside on the railing, for a few hours to let them dry in the warm wind of the evening.

We left Roserito at 7:30 a.m. The morning air was great to ride in. We had been told that the day was going to heat up a lot. Our destination is to go across the Baja to the Sea of Cortez side. As we rode through the desert today we saw every kind of cactus that you can think of. There were the ones like you would see in the cartoons or on westerns, three prongs up, only these had several prongs and were so huge, they must have been at least 10 meters or higher. Then there are the ones that are just one prong that grows straight up with “hairy” stuff that goes all the way up it, with a tuff of hair out the top. Then you have your garden variety clumps of cactus that are very low to the ground with large pricks, these grow close to the ground. There are ones that are turning pink and so on. I’ll include some pictures on the gallery of the entire cactus families that we saw.

We are going to stay in a small fishing village called “ Bahia de Los Angeles” The hurricane has caused problems all alone the east side of the Peninsula. We heard that there maybe no gas where we are going today. We filled our tanks up in Roserito before we left. The total mileage of this day is going to be right around 300 kms. We should have enough to make it back out of to the Mex 1 highway from there we can make it to Guerrero Negro. Guerrero Negro is the entry city to the south half of the Baja. The south half of the Baja is called “ Big Sur Baja” You would classify it as a different province. We will then be back on the Pacific side of the Peninsula. The highlight of the day was our swim in the Sea of Cortez. The temperature of the water was 87 degrees, or roughly 31C. It was like swimming in a bathtub. The water was so blue that you would think that someone spilled a bottle of food coloring in it. I’m looking forward to spending a bit of time at the tip of the Baja. I’m sure the water will be a little cooler there as the Pacific mixes in with the Sea of Cortez. Just the same… it will be warm.

September 7th, 2006

We arrived in Guerrero Negro at noon today. The temp was around 42 degrees. It was a good time to stop, as I was starting to feel the heat. The heat in Bahia Los Angeles this a.m. was very high in humidity. By the time we loaded the bikes up we were both soaken wet. It felt like we had just stepped out of the shower. We roade into a dense cloud coverage for most of the morning. Once we were closer to Guerrero Negro the clouds lifted and the sun was out in full stream. We met a couple from La Paz that are trying to make it back home. Quintin and Mike have just purchased their dream home and are on their way to start a new life. The information that they were able to share with us has been incredible. We feel like we have a good handle on the situation with the hurricane now. They tell us that a lot of the damage happened in two communities just north of La Paz. Santa Rosalia and Mulege were both very damaged from the hurricane. There has been deaths of several people as well as many animals. The roads were washed out in several places causing the traffic to stop for several days. Quin and Mike just let us know that the road is now opened up and passable. We will head out tomorrow for a town called Loreto. The camping and beaches are really good there. La Paz sounds like the "real" place to be though. We will make our way down there by the weekend. La Paz in on the Sea of Cortez so the water will be warm and the wind soft and cooling. This has been such a adventure so far. All of the people we have met are so kind and concerned about us. We feel like there is a whole network of people guiding us as we travel.

Pictures are to follow as usual. We just haven't taken as many as we would like to. We are either riding or forgetting to take the camera with us. This will be our goal in the next few days. pictures are worth a thousand words!! Perhaps I could write less and show more photos.

Until next time

kella

September 10, 2006

Buenos Dias Mi Amigos!!

As you can see we are continuing to practice our Spanish. We have arrived in La Paz as of yesterday, September 9th. The city of La Paz in located 150 kms from the bottom of the Baja. We rode a long way in the last few days . The hurricane completely destroyed the communities of Santa Rosalia and Mulege. This was really awful to see , there we homes that were completely destroyed with nothing left for the people to even try to work with. We rode from Guerrero Negro straight through to Loreto, which worked out to be around 450 kms. It was a really long day of hot riding. As we got closer to Santa Rosalia the roads became much more difficult to maneuver. Every so often there is a deep dip in the road called a “Vedo” They are dips to help move the flooding water across the highway. Since the hurricane many of the vedo’s were left with sand and debris in them. The highway crews were doing their best to clean up the mess, but there were places that even parts of the highway and bridges were washed away . The main intersection in Santa Rosalia was filled with water as well there was a huge hole in the road . We had to cross this intersection with the bikes. We watched the other vehicles with anticipation and worry to see just how deep the water was. Kelly was in the lead as usual, so I had the opportunity to watch him go through before I had to take the plunge. Kelly just went for it!! He made the biggest splash and slid back and forth. Then I just bit my lip and did the same. We were both pretty wet from our knees down. Thank goodness we didn’t dump the bikes. There were at least 30 people watching us.

We both just laughed the nervous laugh as we made our way through the rest of the town. As we rode through Mulege we could see where the water had washed away a swath of about half a kilometer wide of the town. There were trees and what was left of houses in huge piles. The smell of decaying animals and garbage was really strong. The clean up crews were loading as much as they could into large trucks. This was going to be a major clean up that would last months. We weren’t able to even stop as the military kept the traffic moving. We made a donation to the hurricane relief fund which hopefully can help get these people’s lives back in some order.

In Loreto we found a campground to stay in. It was located right in the town, within walking distance from the beach and the malecon. The “malecon” is the road that runs along beside the beach. As we were setting up camp a young man named Petro arrived to stay for the night. Petro was from Mexico City. He was hitchhiking down the Baja to look for work in Cabo San Lucs. Petro was a 22 year old philosopher student who was able to teach Kelly and I a lot about the Mexican history. One of the most interesting things that we learned is where the term “Gringo” came from. Back over a hundred years ago when the Americans were starting to take over Mexico the Mexican people were very unhappy with what was happening. So they started to say “Grin go”, which in Spanish grin is green, which was the color of the US armies uniform. They wanted the Americans to go home. So, Petro told us that some of the Mexican people still feel the same way and that Canadians are not felt the same way about. So we’re not gringos, just the Americans. Petro also told us about the political concerns that the people have as well as many other interesting facts about Mexico. Petro is planning to work long enough in Cabo to save for a motorcycle so that he can travel all of Mexico to see his country. We wish him all of the luck. He will accomplish all of his goals, we are sure of that!!

We attended the town festival that evening. There was a stage set up for dancers; a bunch of midway games to play and the most interesting event was the “Rooster Fight” commonly known here are the “Cock Fight “. Well this was the event of the year for these people. There were at least 40 roosters that were brought to fight. They came in all colors and sizes. We were told that the fights would begin at 10 p.m. so we made sure that we were at the ringside by 9:45 sharp. Kelly was really interested in seeing this event. The process that took place to even get the first fight started took until 11:30 p.m. Each bird had to be weighed and sized up. Then the men who owned the birds walked around the ring showing the crowd their rooster. THEN the betting started. Just before the fight the owners of the roosters tied a hook to the roosters leg, then they went to their side of the ring. We thought the fight would then begin… oh no, they had to readjust the hook… then the entire fight took all of 1 minute and 15 seconds. The roosters jumped up in the air and clawed at each other. The rooster that won killed the other rooster, and that was it. Done. Kelly says to this hombre, “looks like they’ll be eating chicken tomorrow”. The Mexican started to laugh at Kelly, he said, “NO, the meat is not good to eat”. Kelly was just making a joke. That was it, one cock fight and I was done. Kelly didn’t want to wait around for the entire process to take place again. We were curious to know how many roosters were alive in the end. The heat that night was so intense that we couldn’t sleep. The dogs barked and the roosters crowed in the neighborhood the entire night. By 4 a.m. we had no sleep, Kelly was out in the campground looking for an axe to kill the roosters or even the barking dogs. We were up and on the road by 7 a.m. We were very tired to say the least. We had been told that most of the damage to the roads was over… nope not true. About 2 kms out of Loreto there was a very large part of the road washed out. The water was flowing very quickly across it. Here was our very first river crossing. We really didn’t want to do this but there was no option. The traffic was very busy for as early as it was. There were trucks of road crews heading out to work on the road repairs. Kelly was in the lead again, thank goodness. We watched to see where the water was the shallowest. It looked like that was on the side that the oncoming traffic. So we had no choice but to just go, as the traffic was starting to back up behind us. As I watched Kelly all I could think of is, please let me just get through this and I’ll be o.k. We could see that the rocks were pretty big under the water, which made for a pretty crazy ride. Kelly made it with no problem, this gave me inspiration. I just went for it. It certainly wasn’t pretty but at least I didn’t have a bath with my bike. We figured that the worst must be over, not even close. We rode about 3 kms and there was another large section of the road washed out. The water was about half way up the panniers and moving fast. We let some traffic go past us, so that we could move to the opposite side of the road where the water looked more shallow. The traffic didn’t let up so Kelly just road it through. I however had just watched Kelly slip and slide, with the water washing up past the panniers. I chickened out. I had to have Kelly

September 13, 2006

Hola Amigos!!

Well we are out of Cabo San Lucus already. We entered the city at about 5 p.m. yesterday and were headed back out by 10 a.m. this morning. We had a difficult time finding a hotel that wasn’t over $190.00US plus 13% tax PLUS 10% gratuity tax. The one that we did find was very old, with rooms that were in rough shape. We took the small room hoping to enjoy Cabo’s night life. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of the city.When we returned to our room the a/c was not working. We thought that it was just going to take a little bit to cool off the room. The temperature reached 43 degrees today making the room a little hard to take. We ended up moving rooms at 1 a.m. this morning. The maintenance man just couldn’t understand why the a/c wasn’t working.So after all of that we ended up with a bill of $189.00US for a pretty restless night.We decided that Cabo was just a little too rich for our budget. We have a long way to go on this trip. We certainly don’t want to spend too much in one small place.The hurricane wasn’t too bad as far south as Cabo or San Jose. The tourist business suffered from the hurricane. The hostess at our hotel told me that they have had a lot of cancellations because of the possibility of a hurricane. People are having a difficult time understanding that Cabo wasn’t affected very much by it, plus it is a slow time of year for the area. The Americans and Canadians are not quite ready to start their winter vacations just yet.

So we headed back towards La Paz. The roads were very good. There was little damage to any of the roads. We took a side tour to see if we could find some beaches with motels to stay at on the way back to La Paz. We ventured back towards the ocean at a small community called: Las Cuevas. From Las Cuevas we road out to another village called La Ribera. It was a pretty little village with no electricity or amenities. From La Ribera we headed further towards the ocean on a tiny paved road. From the map it was supposed to take you right to the ocean. We ran out of pavement so we decided to try to make it on the half gravel and half sand road. Everything was going pretty smoothly, with just a few patches of very deep sand. Our sand riding skills are (o.k. Kelly just said that they suck) so we had to take it pretty easy. As we made our way down this road the sand got deeper and looser. Kelly in the lead, lost control of his bike and went down. The front wheel hit a lump under the deep sand and zig zagged him from the left to the right and back again. All I could hear is a lot of OH! OH! OH! and a few choice words, in the communication system. He had a pretty spectacular crash. There was sand spraying and the bike was sliding. Thank goodness he wasn’t hurt. It always looks worse than it is. We were able to pick up the bike with no damage done to it. We walked a little further down the road to see if it cleared up any. It appeared to just get deeper with sand. We could hear a car coming pretty fast so we go the bike to the side of the road. A woman in a jeep came flying around the corner and down the hill. We were able to flag her down quick enough for her to stop. She told us that there were no amenities when the road reached the ocean, so we turned around and worked our way back to the pavement. It’s too bad that we are so weighted down with our luggage it makes it limited as to where we go in the sand. These bikes are meant to be able to go down these off roads. They do really well on the parts of the roads that are not sandy. Gravel and dirt are no problem. Perhaps it’s the experience of the rider too. We certainly will gain the experience as we progress through this journey.

Speaking of… When we finally found a motel within our price range… I was pulling my bike over to the room and slid out in the gravel. I know what you’re all thinking… can’t be out done by Kelly. This was the old habit of applying the front brake from riding street bikes. My tire hooked the gravel and I went down. I wasn’t hurt nor the bike.We are staying in a very nice little motel with a pool. It’s not on the ocean but it’s within walking distance of the ocean. This community is called Los Barriles. Cute little town, even though it had some damage from the last hurricane. We will decide if we head back to La Paz tomorrow or stay another day.

September 17, 2006

Well it’s been a few days since I posted anything. We did go back to La Paz on the 13^th. We looked at little rental property to stay in, at Los Barriles, but as we were inquiring about it we ran into a couple of men that were packing up because of the threat of another hurricane (Lane) that was expected to hit the Baja Sur by the weekend. We didn’t have enough cash and supplies to stay so we rode back to La Paz. We checked into a motel called Hotel Perla.It is located right on the malecon. With Mexico’s Independent Day celebrations starting we had a awesome view of the parade as well as we were able to walk to many of the bands that were playing. The evening of the 15^th all of the celebrations began. We didn’t go to the town center party, we stayed on the malecon and listened to music and just enjoyed all of the people.The party didn’t end all night. We could hear people partying at 5 a.m. the next morning.On the 16^th we watched a parade from our patio in our room. The parade started with school children marching. They marched to the beat of a teacher yelling una, dos. Over and over again, una, dos. Some even blew whistles to keep the beat. The ages worked up to college level. All of the students wore uniforms of their school. They looked so professional. You could see that there were some of the girls who added their own personal touch to their look. They either shorten their skirts or wore their shirts just a little more open than the rest.

The parade continued with all of the emergency personnel for the city. The police, ambulance, and fire fighters. All of the sirens were turned on in full force. They didn’t stop ringing them the entire parade route. Then came the military. Now that was impressive. We saw the sections of the Mexican military in full uniform and all of their weapons. The Mexican government is very proud of their troops.

The famous Mexican cowboys with their sombrero’s and costumes were so beautiful. There were the senoritas on their side saddles, riding 6 abreast. It was impressive to see the ladies in their costumes, so elegant. The celebration continued the entire weekend. We have never seen such enthusiasm for a party as we have seen in La Paz.

Besides the celebration we have also managed to spend part of the 4 great days playing at the beach and eating great food in La Paz. We tried many restaurants.. The one we enjoyed the best was called “La Dolce” We dined at La Dolce two times. We met one of the owners by the name of Salvador Olmos. Salvador was a great source of knowledge for the next leg of our trip. He was able to give us very detailed information about the ferry crossing and the roads we are going to take on the mainland over to Copper Canyon. Salvador has traveled extensively throughout Mexico, Central and South America, as well as much of the rest of the world. We thank him greatly for his conversation.

Tomorrow we will head to Topolobampo. We have a 5.5 hour ferry ride to take. We will ride north from Los Mochis on highway number 15 to Cudad Obregon and then we’ll head inland to Creel. We have about just about 3 weeks to spend on the road before we have to be at Creel for the Horizons Unlimited meeting. We are going to look for a beach front place to rent for a week. Hopefully we are able to find something. If we can avoid a hurricane we will be doing great.

There are new photos on the gallery

Until then…

Kella

September 19th, 2006

Hola from mainland Mexico!! (Navojoa)

We made the journey on the Baja Ferry ride without a hitch. It was an incredible day. We were able to purchase our tickets for the ferry in La Paz. This is a much better place to do it as the ticket office at the ferry terminal is very noisey and busy. The total cost came to $2520.00 pesos. The "motos" were $580.00 and we were $680.00 each. We arrived at the ferry terminal at 12:30 p.m. with the wind blowing and the heat tipping the scales at 37 degrees. We watched with anticipation as the ferry was loaded up with electric workers and their trucks of every size, from the main electric company called CFE . Kelly counted at least 100 trucks with three men in each one. Then there was the other trucks carrying freight to the mainland. The ferry was massive. It swallowed up the entire fleet with room to spare. We entered the hull not knowing where they were going to send us. We were the last to board. All of the trucks had to back onto the ferry. The ramp was very steep. We ended up deep in the hull on level 2B. The temp. must have been at least 45 degrees(stinking HOT) we had to secure the bikes to the metal railing with greasy rope that was provided. Once we had everything in place we ventured up several flights of stairs to the reception area. The "free" meal that was included with the ticket was being served right away. The crews from the electric company filled the dining area so we headed to the "lounge" With my sea sickness we found the spot farthest to the back of the ship and planted ourselves there. It turned out to be a 6 hour ride of floating time. The ship rocked back and forth pretty good as we moved away from land. At one point if you watched out a window you could see most of the ocean up the window one minute and then nothing but blue sky the next. To leave out any gory details,, I felt pretty sick for most of the way. The electric workers were very friendly, they wanted to talk to us, but the language difference was too much. We did a lot of hand gestures and smiling. The guys consumed a truck load of Tecate beer on the ride over. We wondered who was doing the driving when they left the ferry? We arrived in Topolobampo at 9:00 p.m. in the dark. One of the first rules we were told by everyone was NOT to ride in Mexico in the dark. We had to as there were no motels close to the ferry. The ride to Los Mochis was only 27 kms on a fourlane highway so at least we didn't have to meet any cars on our side of the road. We found a great motel. We have made it as far north today as Navojoa. We are going to stay here for a few days and take day trips out from here. Now everyone can stop worrying about the ferry ride. We didn't even have anything go missing off from the bikes!! All is good.

until next time

kella

September 22, 2006

Well it’s been one month since we departed from our home in Alberta. Time has moved quickly for us. I’m going to start this journal entry with a few answers to questions that have been asked by some of our readers. One of the main questions is; Do you like Mexico? We have really enjoyed the country so far. What we like the most are the people. They are so friendly, in a shy and reserved manner. If you smile and give them a nod they respond with great enthusiasm. We have not experienced many unfriendly Mexican people. The roads is another query; the roads are really quite good in the areas that we have ridden. We have encountered some that are full of potholes, but for the most part they are narrow, with no shoulder and a very deep drop off if you did have to exit the road quickly. The drivers are certainly another issue. There are posted speed limits, on most roads, however the drivers don’t seem to remember that they use metric in Mexico. If the speed is posted at 60 kms, they tend to double that and add a few points on for good measure. As far as road safety, well here is an example of that. We were riding through a section of the road where paving was being done, the workers were on the center line of the road so we slowed down to about 30 kms, We gave a wide berth as you would in Canada. We were passed by a guy in a truck going at least 110 kms with very little room to leave. We are very alert at all times when riding.

The food; It is really good. We are quickly learning to read the menus in Spanish. I have ordered only two dishes that I just couldn’t eat. Every meal begins with a dish of salsa and nachos. The heat intensity of the salsa varies. Green means a bit hot, red is flaming hot, it’s most likely pretty mild, but we are still training our taste buds.

Gas prices are pretty much the same as in Alberta. We are having no problem with finding gas. The government owned gas stations called “PemMex” are everywhere. They are in the smallest of villages, even in the middle of no where. All stations have at least 6 gas attendants. We think that the attendants maybe paid on commission, because as we ride up they all want us to go to their pumps. We have started to run premium gas in the bikes. The bikes seem to not have the sluggish feeling at low speeds with premium. The bikes are running very well. We have changed the oil once at our 5000 km mark. No other problems so far.

The last question that I’ll answer is one that a few have asked but we are sure many are wondering. Are we tired of being with each other 24/7? I asked Kelly his option on this before I started to write. He just laughed and said this; “we talked about this before we left, so we knew that we would have to watch for signs of frustration or the need to be alone”. “Its one month into the trip and that hasn’t happened yet”. We aren’t really “with each other” when we ride. We have the intercom system on for communication but really we aren’t with each other. We are able to have silence and solitude when we ride. I think the silence part is good for both of us. We have always spent a lot of time together so really it’s not new for us. Most of all everyday is a new adventure so we have plenty to talk about at the end of the day. The vacation feeling has now left us. We are getting into the mode of journey. We are not home sick as of yet either. We have been in touch with our families and friends on a very frequent basis, which has certainly made the trip more fun. There are the daily duties that need to be done. It is a lot like being at home, with chores and deadlines; you are just nomadic with your duties. We hope that our journal entries are interesting and informative. Keep your comments and questions coming, we enjoy hearing from you. The web site is really just for fun, so don’t take it too seriously. The pictures are still a learning curve. We will try to post more photos on the journal page, not just on the gallery.

We are still in Navojoa in the state of Sonora.(Northern Mexico) We have spent a few days doing day rides. The area is very traditional Mexico, with a lot of farming and small communities. We rode out to a town called Alamos. This was a silver mining town in the mid 1800’s. The history of this town was very interesting. We were having a late breakfast, when a man who worked at the tourist office came by with a couple of other Canadians taking a walking tour of the town. He was very insistent that we come by the office and have the same tour when we were finished with our meal. We took him up on the offer, with no regrets. Jose has lived in Alamos for the last thirty years. He was educated in Arizona and returned home to Alamos with his family. Jose took us to many of the original buildings that housed families and the businesses. He was able to tell us the some of the family history of the people. The church in the town center was built in 1856 by the Spanish Catholic priests. The priests lived in a home directly across from the church. A tunnel was built for the priests and the wealthy families to use to enter the church on Sundays. The Spanish brought the Chinese over to work in the silver mines and the Japanese to work in their silk factories. Once the three cultures started to mix with marriages the Spanish government sent the Chinese and Japanese back. This was a little history that we certainly didn’t know of. Alamos has become a retirement spot for some Americans. The two cultures don’t really mix. You can definitely see the line of where the locals frequent and where the Americans live. We really enjoyed the Mexican experience of Alamos.

We also took a ride out to the west of Navojoa towards the ocean. The rode through several small farming towns. The poverty was very prevalent in many of these towns.

There were several shanty villages set up just outside of the larger communities. The shacks that were called homes consisted of four 8ft poles placed about 8 feet apart, with what ever paper or plastic that could be found for walls. One of the areas held at least 100 of these shacks. You could see that this was home to many, many families. As we rode by anyone who saw us always gave us a wave and a smile. We have no idea of how fortunate we are in Canada. The farm workers were all busy in their fields. There is a lot of good farming machinery in the area. John Deere and New Holland are the main machinery providers that we could see. The crops were at many different stages. Some fields were bare while others had crops that were ready for harvest. The cattle just roam the sides of the roads with no fences. They seem to be pretty docile as we pass by, perhaps it’s just the attitude of standing around in the heat day after day. Kelly says that the cows are so skinny that they don’t have the energy to move too quickly.

Here is our last adventure of this area. We were out for a walk in the evening. We had just crossed the road and were starting to walk up onto the sidewalk. I spotted something black and LARGE. We came across the BIGGEST bloody spider that you can imagine. It’s body was at least 4 inches long and the legs extended out to 6 inches. It was black and HAIRY!! A couple of local women happened to come along at the same time. They moved quickly away and made the gesture to us that it could bite us. We didn’t have the camera with us. Lesson learned “always have the camera with us!! I know this sounds like the fish story of the one that got away… believe me.. it was HUGE!!

We are moving on today. We will ride towards Creel. We are thinking that we will stay in the Creel area until the Horizons Meeting. There is a lot to do in the state of Chihuahua (like the dog) where Creel is located. We will post again from there.

Until then…

Kella

September 23^rd , 24^th 2006

Buenos Dias from Creel!!

We arrived in Creel today. Our days ride was 600 kms. It was a great ride through the foothills building up to the mountains. The view ahead was amazing with the high peaks approaching as we journeyed closer to the mountain range. We left the city of Obregon at about 7:30 a.m. and arrived in Creel at 7 p.m. We traveled at a very slow pace through the mountain areas, mostly due to the condition of the roads and the spectacular scenery.

The highway was number 12 on the map and on the road sign it was called “Son 117”, this is what we have learned so far with our map reading skills in Mexico, what the map number is isn’t always what it says is on the road. We guessed at this one and guessed right!! This was a really interesting little back road through farming areas leading to the start of the mountains. The foliage covered the hills to the top. The colors of the trees varied from green to yellow to a deep red, with the soil a deep orange hue. We worked our way up one side of a mountain to drop quickly in a canyon just to climb out the other side. The twists and turns made our focus to the road fine tuned. Luckily we were able to pull off the road every once in a while to take a photo our two. Once we turned onto Highway 16 is when we really started to climb in elevation. We went from 1700 ft. to a chilly 8500 ft in roughly 3 hours. The scenery consisted of sheer rock formations with a thick pine forest. It was really interesting to go from cactus and small brush to a lush pine forest. This is a excellent example of the diversity of the Mexico landscape. We rounded one more curve in the road and before us was a vast plateau that took your breath away. We both said at the same time “WOW”. You could see across the plateau as far as your eye could see. We descended down from the mountain as quickly as we entered them. The plateau was covered in farming and orchards of apple trees. It looked like God had had enough of the mountains and decided to make a flat spot to grow food for the people. It was truly amazing to see. We wondered where the heck Copper Canyon could be with all of this flat land before us. We traveled another 90 kms from the plateau heading towards Creel. What an awesome days ride!!

We found a cute little hotel y cabanas called Pueblo Viejo. We are in a cabin that is 180 square feet on one floor. We have two floors… yup, that makes 360 square feet of living space. We have a small fridge and an even smaller sink to wash our dishes in. We are able to cook out the front door on the porch, on our camp stove. I made a delicious dinner this evening that consisted of “soupa” and tomato sandwiches. I couldn’t wait to do some of my own cooking. We are going to find the super market tomorrow, today is Domingo (Sunday) and most of the stores are closed for the day. Manana (tomorrow) we will find a bigger store to buy some more food. We are planning to stay here for veinte el dias (20 days) We have been told that there is easy that much to do in the area. We will investigate tomorrow all that there is to see, make a plan and go from there.

We met this man today that told us that in Mexico you have to adopt the attitude that “everything is going to happen that you want, it will most likely happen manana… tomorrow. So we are practicing this new found attitude. If you want it to happen, be patience and wait. For a couple of “doer’s” from Central Alberta this is an attitude that is going to take lots of practice.

We are having internet connection problems again so.. we will try to post a few photos in the next few days.

Until then..

Kella

p.s. we are going to ride one of the canyons tomorrow so we will have a lot to share after this day is done. A man at one of the tourist info places told Kelly that there is even a swinging bridge that we could ride over,,, we just have to get the bikes up a few stairs in order to get onto the bridge…. We’ll see !! Is it rope or cable?? I’m not going if it’s rope!!

September 28, 2006

Hola from Creel.

We aren’t sure of how to even begin this entry. We have just rode two days of the most amazing, breath taking scenery that you can ever imagine. It is going to take some time to sort through all of the photos that we took in order to post the best ones. We must have taken over 300 photos in the two days. Every time you looked in a different direction you experienced another sight of spectacular scenery, which took your breath away. I’ll start from the beginning of our first day. We road out of Creel at 8:30 a.m. the temperature was still well below what we have experienced in the past few weeks. The coolness of the air made it easy to set our cruising speed at 85 kms per hour and just enjoy the smoothly paved, twisty road. From the map we knew we had 75 kms of pavement before we had to turn off to a gravel road. Our destination was Batopilas, which in located at the bottom of the largest canyon called: Batopilas Canyon. The pavement was lined with farms of the local natives called the Tarahumara. They farm quite closely to the side of the highways. The small homes, with the few out buildings are built into the sides of the mountains. Each farm has its own small corn field, rock wall to keep in the small animals and a clothes line for the woman of the house. The clothes line could consist of an actual line with poles or the more common one is the fence that surrounds the property. It seems that it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is there is always clothes that have been washed hanging out to dry. The cloth lines are magnificent; they add a splash of color to the rustic beauty of the landscape.

Once we reached the gravel road we checked the GPS to make sure our direction was correct and we headed up a steep loosely graveled hill to a days ride we will treasure for a long time to come. With the steepness of the hill and the size of the rocks we knew we had our work cut out for us on this road. We bumped and weaved through pot holes and around rocks for the first 5 kms, all the while either climbing or dropping into small ravines. The road improved somewhat or we became accustomed to the terrain, we have discussed this and think that it was a combination of the two. Our pace continued to be the same; slow and steady with many stops for photos and a rest for our bodies and minds. Our off road riding skills were being tested to the maximum. We have done some forestry roads in Canada, but this was a different circumstance. The road leveled out for a short period of time, just long enough for you to think that you could relax on the constant attention needed to stay on the road and not down the side of the mountain.

Now the fun really started. We finished with the plateau of an altitude of 7700 ft. and the decent into the canyon really began. The road was a series of switch backs that dropped in altitude between 200 to 400 ft at a time. Many of the switch backs also entailed a small water fall or huge boulders to traverse. At the most amazing moment we stopped to take a photo, only to look down to see the road wind slowly below us in a snake like manner. In the distance you could see a bridge to cross that would continue you on the other side of the canyon. The river that ran through the canyon looked like a small stream from our view point. We finally came to the bridge, after many photo stops and gazing at the vastness of the canyon. At the bridge we stopped to take a swim in a natural swimming hole. We were then rejuvenated enough to continue the ride to Batopilas. From the bridge crossing we had another 35 kms to ride. At the rate we were traveling we knew that this was going to be a finish of the day at supper time. The temperature was increasing as we descended further into the canyon. Watching the sides of the canyon was a never ending treasure hunt of finding small farms of the Tarahumara people. There were no visible roads that lead to these homes. We could see small white dots that moved around, we were able to figure out that they were sheep. We had many questions to be answered; how can you live is such isolation, where do they get their water from, and most of all, how the heck do they get to their homes. If you watched closely you could find the smallest trail leading away from the farm. It is a lifestyle that you can only imagine living. Life would consist of just doing what needed to be done for your survival.

Onward we road to our destination of Batoplias. We arrived in Batoplias at 4:30 in the afternoon. Hungry and exhausted from our day we looked for a cheap room and a good restaurant. We were able to find both pretty quickly. We rented a room from a lady who ran a rooming house. She didn’t have any place to park the bikes that was secure outside so she told us to “just drive them into her courtyard”.

So we did, in through the front door, through the living room, kitchen and finally into the courtyard. This was the most secure our bikes have been so far on the trip. It is a pretty weird feeling driving you bike into someone’s home. It didn’t seem unusual to this woman in the least. She just kept telling us “No problem”. Kelly asked the woman what kinds of trees were in her courtyard. They were; banana and orange trees.

After a good rest we were ready to embark on our return trip to Creel. We left Batopilas at 10:00 a.m. Our ride out was much easier than the ride in. We decided that we had the advantage of knowing what was expected and feeling much more confident with our off road riding skills. Our trip back lasted only 5 and half hours. We were really glad to arrive back in Creel at our little cabana and have a shower.

We are now looking ahead to our next canyon expedition, or a trip to the Basaseachi Falls or to the forest of frogs, mushrooms and monks. We will keep you posted on our next adventure.

Adios for now from Creel. We have new photos on the gallery.The photos look like they didn't download... they are there.. just click on them and the photo comes up.

Until then…

Kella

October 2, 2006

Hello from Creel.. still

We are still here, enjoying everyday. The feedback from some of you is that the photos keep changing in the gallery. Yes, this is how it works.. I'm going to try to post more photos here on the webpage for your viewing. So here it goes. It may work or may not.. I'll give it a try.

We rode to Mexico's largest waterfalls on Sept. 30th. They are over 800 ft high. The road was 100 kms of gravel or 180 kms of pavement to read them. We chose to ride the gravel there and the pavement on the way back. We are certainly becoming much more comfortable with the off road riding experience.

These are Basasechi Falls. They are the 20th highest waterfall in the world. The stream coming from the top didn't look really big but when the water hit the bottom on to the black rocks it was pretty impressive.

We also did a day ride to the Valley of the Frogs, Monks and Mushrooms. The rocks really do look like frogs and mushrooms. We took a wrong turn at the church and missed the Monks.. so we just have the frogs and mushroom photos. While Kelly was out walking around taking photos, I found a group of boys trying to build a ramp to jump their bikes over. I spent about a half an hour helping them build this ramp. They enjoyed watching this old lady pack sand and rocks to make the ramp stronger. Each time the ramp appeared to be a little ready one of them would take a run at it. They wouldn't let us take their picture without paying them..a peso. . Toad I'm the one bent down to the left digging up sand.

We carried on and tried to find another set of waterfalls. We didn't find the falls.. but we did find a little boy and his friend who were so excited to see the motorbikes that they chased us all the way down the road. We finally stopped and they came running up to just stand and smile at us. They called out "motos" at least twenty times. I have balloons in my tank bag for just this reason. So I pulled out a couple of balloons and started to blow them up. Well you would have thought that I was killing one of the boys. He was yelling his head off... and out of the woodwork came 7 more kids. Just when I was about to ride off.. two more little girls came running from a farm. I couldn't just not stop... so out came the balloons again... Kelly turned his bike around to come back, he sees this little guy just running like crazy to make it to us.

You can't believe the smiles on these kids faces.. they maybe a little larger than mine.

The little guy in the middle with the yellow balloon is the one who ran so fast not to miss us. He had no shoes on and a booger that was growing with each breath. Gotta love all of them.

A long the way we came across a family or two living in a this cave. There are several caves in the area that have been lived in by families for hundreds of years. They just build a wooden wall around the outside and move in. You can see smoke coming from inside of the cave. Some of them even build pens for their livestock. We could see a few pigs in a pen just to the left of this cave.

We have read on the Horizons webpage that there are going to be upwards of 100 riders attending the meeting here on October 10. We are looking forward to meeting with a few. We have met some other Canadians while here in Creel. Ken, Heather and Ralph are three that we have had the pleasure of spending time with. Ken and Heather are riding to Central and South America also. They are two up on a 2007 V-strom. They have been having problems with bottoming out on the topes with their bike so they had to return to the US for some modifications to their bike. We hope to meet up with them somewhere down here and ride with them for a while. Ralph is going to continue on his way to Kentucky and then over to the Baja for the winter. Have a great winter Ralph!!

Well it looks like the new format may take more time, but it does look more interesting. I'll try this again. Kelly is fixing his springs on his center stand today. He has lost one spring and the other just about fell off yesterday. Hopefully he is able to find some here in Creel. Tomorrow we are going to ride the next canyon. It is deeper but not as far. The weather has been awesome.. except for the rain and hail we rode through the other evening coming back from the waterfalls.

Until then...

Kella

October 5, 2006

The weather is still beautiful here in Creel. We have been so busy riding the canyons that the journal has been neglected lately. We just returned from our last canyon ride. This canyon has several villages in it with the town of Urique at the bottom. We left Creel prepared this time for a two day ride. We had met a fellow named Justin Lopez when we first arrived here in Creel. Justin and his wife, Oralia run a small tour business called Rosen Rides. They also have a motel on their property called Copper Canyon Moto Lodge. The Moto Lodge is in the canyon that we rode this last two days. We stayed with them over night. This was a awesome experience. A very clean motel room with a excellent shower. (I always follow Kelly so I’m a bit of a dust storm at the end of the day) Oralia cooks very good home cooked meals for the guests.

This canyon was defiantly the most challenging ride I have experienced so far. The gravel road was much steeper with more loose rocks and sand. The view of the canyon was worth the work of negotiating the road. By the end of the first day of riding we were completely exhausted. We welcomed a good shower with a soft bed to sleep in that night.

The next morning Oralia prepared another awesome meal for breakfast and we set off for Creel. While leaving the Moto Lodge, I took a fall from by bike. The driveway was very steep with a lot of loose rocks. We had adjusted my handle bars the night before to make it easier for me to stand while riding. We just didn’t adjust the clutch, so when I needed to grab the clutch it wasn’t there and I stalled my bike. I was standing up on a steep hill with no power. Gravity got the best of me and down I went. I stopped some of my fall with my right hand and right shoulder. I gave my head a pretty good crack. Thank goodness Justin and his hired man were to the rescue. They got my bike upright while I shook off the shock. On we went. The ride back to Creel was pretty uneventful other than a headache and some sore muscles for me. Is it the older you are the harder you fall? Or is that the bigger you are the harder you fall? Which ever way it is, it still hurts. J

It’s starting to feel like we are going “home” to our cabin after being away for a day or two. It’s a strange feeling. I guess home is where you make it.

October 6, 2006

Today we took the Ferrocarril Chihuahau Pacifico, Chepe Train from Creel, Chihuahua to El Fuetue, Sornora. It was a really interesting ride. We boarded the train at 11 a.m. departed from it at 7:30 p.m. The view from the train was spectacular. Kelly took at least another 400 photos. We traveled some of the same road that we had ridden on the bikes. Once we left the area that we had ridden we were in for a real treat. The canyon continued on for what seems like 1000 kilometers. I watched out from my seats, as Kelly hung out the side of the train with his camera. Kelly had the time of his life, being a train lover for a long time he thoroughly enjoyed himself. There were several other train buffs on board. They had a small group hanging out “literally” in the opening between the cars. It was just a little too freaky for me especially when you enter a tunnel, which there are a total of 86 on this route. The longest tunnel was over 2 and a half minutes long or 1830 meters by measurement. One of the tunnels was a 300 degree turn measuring 980 meters. This railway has taken over hundred years to build. It was started in the late 1800’s and was completed in 1961. The engineering feat is a wonder in it’s self. We have met so many wonderful people on the trip. An example of the people we have met are a couple from Hayward, California by the name of Len and Elaine Leavitt. This couple is the role model that every traveler needs to know. They have traveled extensively throughout the world. They live by the attitude of; don’t say, would have, could have, or should have. Go and do it and live everyday with an open mind. We will make a point of visiting this couple when we return from our trip. Keep traveling, Len and Elaine; we’ll share some more stories!!!

When we arrived back to the motel the bikes for the rally were starting to arrive. They rally is expecting 108 bikes. Most of the bikes are BMW of every model, KLR’s, and Honda XR’s. There is every shape and model of bike and well as riders.

An oncoming train we had to wait for. Kelly really did hang out the side of the train.. Pull your head in for the tunnels!!

A great view from the back of the train Kelly's view of the train entering a tunnel. Pretty Cool!!

This woman was selling her crafts at one of the stops we had while on the train. She had so many lines in her face.. a story of untold hardship in her life.

October 11, 2006

It has been several days since I’ve posted anything. I guess that means that we’ve been busy. We are leaving Creel tomorrow. We are heading south and then west back over to the coast. We are going to ride with a couple we have met from British Columbia. Ken and Heather are two up on a 650 V-strom. We are now looking for sunshine again.

Our route is going to be roughly this: Druango to Mazatlan to Tuxpan to Tepic over to Guadalajara, east to Morelia to see the Monarch Butterflies then over to Guanajuato, which is slightly north, then we’ll drop down to Taxco (perhaps) and then from there we’re not sure. We know that we’ll head east over to the Yucatan state. When we get there I guess we’ll get there. It’s a really good feeling that you can just get up and ride for the day and where you end up is just that, where you end up!!

Until then..

Kella (on the road again)

October 16th, 2006

Happy Anniversary to Us. We are celebrating our 24th anniversary today!! Time flies when you're having fun!! We are on the road to Tequila. Not the drink but the town. We have just spent three fun filled days on the road and hanging out in Mazatlan. The route we rode was Highway 40 from Durango to Mazatlan. It is called the Devil's Spine. We started out at 9800 ft and decended to sea level in a matter of 5 hours of riding. What a road!! The twisties, and switchbacks were non-stop. We did have a bit of rain and some pretty cool temps. All in all it was a awesome day of riding to get to Mazatlan. We will post some photos once we get them edited and we get ourselves off the beach!! Mazatlan is a city of sun, fun and very pretty beaches. Two days and we are ready for the road again.

This is a short post as we have to go and celebrate our day of bliss.

until then... Kella

October 22, 2006

O.K, we know that we haven't posted anything for 11 days. We have been traveling a lot and having a difficult time getting an internet connection. Tomorrow we are going to be in a community that has a good connection and I promise that I'll discipline myself to write where we have been. Too many stories to write in just one sitting, but I'll try.

From the road of dogs, donkeys and crazy taxi drivers....Oh, I forgot the bus drivers too.. they're REALLY crazy!!

Kella

October 20, 2006

We have been spending a couple of days in each community that I mentioned in my last posting. Durango was a really industrial city.the smog that hung over the city was really bad. We walked around the “town center” or called the “Centro de la Ciudad.” The Mexican people are so social, they gather each evening to visit or listen to music played by a local artist. We have noticed that in a climate with warmer weather, the people socialize outside much more than we do as Canadians. We only actually spent one night in Durango because we had the “Devils’ Backbone” to ride the next day. The Devil’s Backbone is a mountain highway that takes you west towards Mazatlan. Highway number 40 is one that we will NOT forget. The altitude climbed to a steep, 9200 ft with twists and turns that kept you focused with the intensity of watching a suspense movie. With the weather a bit foggy and a touch of rain it made for a challenging ride. The semi-trucks that traveled the road were very comfortable in taking up both lanes as they conquered the tight corners. We utilized the bottom three gears on the KLR’s to their fullest. Kelly dreamed of riding his Honda ST1100 on the road, not just once but 6 times; Two times to take photos, two more times to enjoy the view, and the last two times to ride it “really” fast!! Dream on was my response! We descended to sea level in two fun filled hours. Kelly has now changed his back break on his bike.. he rides much more aggressive than me. The foliage changed from huge pine tress in the mountains to spectacular vines in full bloom and palm trees full of coconuts. The heat also increased to the low 30’s again.

We arrived in Mazatlan in the early afternoon. The “Malecon” or beachfront road is really beautiful. We found accommodations in a nice motel just off the malecon. While in the parking lot, Kelly met a fellow who was from Guadalajara. Humberto had also been in Creel. Humberto invited us to visit him and his family in Guadalajara when we got back on the road. After two restful days in Mazatlan we decided to hit the road again.

We would recommend a visit to Mazatlan for a winter vacation. It is a pretty city with a beautiful beaches and great people.

A view of Mazatlan!!

We road highway number 15 south from Mazatlan through Tepic and then east to Tequlia.

Tequlia could be an entire separate journal posting due to all of the fun we had there. We found a awesome motel right in the town center. The price for the room was only $280 pesos. This was by far one of the nicest rooms we have had so far on the trip, amazing for the cost. After a good walk around the Centro de la Ciudad we found out that the Jose Ceurvo tequila factory was giving tours at 10 a.m. the next morning. We were in!!

The factory was amazing. The tour guide taught us the history of tequila in Mexico as well we were given “several” samples of the tequila. With me not drinking, Kelly was forced to consume my portion of the tequila. After “several” samples (11 shots to be exact) of the different blends Kelly was pretty much feeling the affect of the tour.

Here is the entrance to the Jose Cuervo factory. Here we all are ready for our Tequila tasting tour!

After two relaxing days in Tequila we headed onto to the very large city of Guadalajara. With approximately 10 million people this was going to be a challenge driving for us. Luckily we had made the contact with Humberto Moro in Mazatlan prior to this, other wise I don’t think we would have attempted to even go to Guadalajara. Just spelling the name is a task, let alone driving in the place it’s self. We did manage to find Humberto’s factory so, we now had a host for a few days. Humberto and his beautiful wife Billie, and daughter Freeda,(who is 2 years old) welcomed us into their home. Humberto and Billie own a health food supplement company by the name of “Yourney” These products are first class!! Humberto founded the company himself. Within two years this company is a up and coming force to be noticed in the health food supplement industry. We look forward to ordering product once we return back to Canada.

Humberto escorted us around Guadalajara the first afternoon. We visited many motorcycle shops. Kelly was able to find a new helmet. That evening Humberto and Billie hosted a “Welcome to Mexico” party for us. We met many interesting friends of Humberto’s who also enjoy motorcycles. The next day Humberto escorted us on a ride over the country side to a local town for breakfast, and then it was back to Humberto’s estate and onto a city tour of Guadalajara. The evening before we left, we had the pleasure of one more visit to the Yourney factory. Humberto was hosting a meeting with some of his top sales associates. We met several of the very successful people who distribute the products. The energy in this meeting was so high that you could have provided light of all of Guadalajara!! We will never forget the kindness shown to us by complete strangers in a country filled with gracious people, beautiful scenery and spectacular weather. We look forward to hosting Humberto and his family on their trip to Alberta!!

(We carry the hand print of Freeda in a sticker form on our motorcycles. She is now coming with us on our tour. She will keep us safe.)

Here is Humberto Moro our wonderful host in Guadalajara!!

It’s now October 20th and we have been on the road for 62 days. It is not feeling like a vacation anymore. Daily travel is just part of our routine. We are still enjoying getting up each day with a new plan of where we will rest that night. Our plans change on a daily basis. We left Guadalajara with the plan of continuing to ride east via central Mexico, but with the weather looking like rain we decided to head south in the direction of the coast. Checking the weather forecast does have some bearing on our route we travel.

One of the plans we did have is to go to Morelia to see the Monarch Butterflies, unfortunately we are too early for their migration. We are just a month too early to experience the millions of butterflies that return there each year. Kelly and I have decided that this area of Mexico is one that we will return to in the future.

October 22, 2006

We rode through Acapulco today. WOW!! This is a huge city, with mostly Mexican’s from Mexico City in it right now. We spent a total of two hours in Acapulco and we were reading to ride on. Acapulco is great place to go to for a vacation, just not a spot for us on a limited budget. There you have it… an update of our adventure so far. We are now 45 days away from meeting Kane and Nicole in Costa Rica. Our e-mails back and forth are getting more exciting for all of us. We should mention that the kids hit a moose in Kane’s car on the way home from my brother, Blair’s on Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for this year; neither of the kids was hurt. The car was written off and Kane has a piece of the antler, thanks to Uncle Bill. We can’t wait to see the kids and give them a big hug. We also received an e-mail from Kelly’s sister Gay, she and Martin will be in Playa de Carmen at the end of October. We are going to try to meet up with them for a few days of fun. Also my sister, Cindy and her husband Paul are going to be in Playa de Carmen by November 11 too!! If there is anyone else out there that would like to make a time to meet us, we are taking requests daily. You might just have to put up with a few smelly bikers that could use a good meal and a comfortable bed!! (and a toilet with a seat!!)

Until then….Kella

October 28, 2006

As we rode through the state of Oaxaca (pronounced Whoa-hawk-a) we stopped in a beautiful surfer’s beach town by the name of Puerto Escondido. We stayed at a motel run by a German woman. Many of the surfer’s were European. We met some from France, and Germany. A couple of the better surfer’s were from Chile. The beach was right across from our motel, so surf watching was a late night event. The life guards had to call the last surfer in about 25 minutes after the sun went down. They were certainly die hards out there. I personally love the beach towns; they are so laid back and fun to watch people in.

The beach from your motel in Puerto Escondido

We wanted to ride to the city of Oaxaca but there is a very dangerous protest happening in the city right now. The indigenous people of the area are not happy with the state government that was elected two years ago. They have been protesting the government this the entire time. However, this May the teachers went on strike to protest the government, and there hasn’t been school since last May. So now the newly elected federal government is trying to put a stop to the protests that have been happening all of this time. The protesters refuse to quit until the state governor is removed from office. This last week the federal government finally sent in the military to start to clean up the city center of Oaxaca. There have been a few murders and a lot of violence already. We had been told by several people that the center of the city is like a war zone. So we rode over to the city of Tuxtla in the state of Chiapas. We have heard so many great stories about Chiapas that we are looking forward to spending a bit of time in this state. Tuxtla is a city of about 400,000 people. The area around it is a beautiful combination of high mountains, deep canyons and lush vegetation. The mixture of vines, cactus and large trees is absolutely breath taking. We took a city bus out to a community called; Chiapa de Corzo. We took a river boat tour of the Canyon del Sumidero. This canyon is 3000 meters deep with walls that rise to meet the deep blue sky. We enjoyed the 2 hour tour viewing crocodiles, howler monkeys and an arrangement of birds that was so vast that you couldn’t start to identify all of them. In the afternoon we rode up to the summit of the canyon to have a look down at the river that we had toured in the morning. It was so cool to see the canyon from the top and the bottom.

Tuxtla was a really progressive Mexican city. The town center was full of bands and the indigenous people selling their products.

The next day we rode to Cristobal de las Casas, a city just 65 kms from Tuxtla. The weather was so bad with rain and fog that we weren’t able to ride any further. Visibility was very poor and since the roads are mostly twisty mountain ones with no shoulders or guardrails we decided to wait until we could see better. Ken and Heather, that we have been riding with since Creel departed us today. They are heading straight to Guatemala from Mexico rather than going up through Yucatan and going through Chetumal into Belize. We enjoyed our time traveling with this awesome couple. We hope to maintain contact with them and even cross paths somewhere in the South. We wish them all the best in the rest of their travels!!

Kelly and I have come up with some interesting observations that we have experienced several times here in Mexico, so we thought we would share a few of them with you just for fun!!

1. All Mexican dogs have fleas… they can contort their bodies in the most interesting ways to try to scratch the fleas. We have met several dogs that we could adopt and bring home with us.. o.k. I would like to adopt many of them, Kelly just laughs at me!! Or I could just supply them all with flea collars and a bag of dog food. They’re all so skinny!!

2. You have to drive twice as aggressive as the Mexican bus drivers, just to save your butt!! While in Acapulco we came upon a part of the road that had been flooded, so we had to file into one lane. Up come two local busses on the side where all of the water was. We thought that they were just going to pass us in the deep water to stay on their schedule. NO, they get right beside us and start to squeeze in right where we are sitting, while honking their horns and squeezing us over to the curb with no where to go. So we have to honk our horns and aggressively move forward so that we’re not ran into the curb. Tough to challenge a city bus with our motorcycles, but we did it.

3. All taxi drivers’ are right!! Today we were riding through a city of about 60,000 people. In the middle of the highway which ran through the town, two buses were stopped on the side of the road, which left just enough room for two little cars to just fit through. A full sized truck and a taxi were head on in the middle of the road. Neither was going to back up to let the other pass. They just sat there until ALL of the cars started to honk their horns that were waiting behind them. We were just two cars away from this “Mexican Standoff” We were laughing so hard, many of the people standing around watching us, watch this “standoff” didn’t know why we were laughing so hard. AND in the middle of this a taxi stopped and loaded up a passenger and his luggage off one of the busses. The truck finally backed up into the crowd of people. We learned that the taxi no matter how little is always right!!

4. We are now not worried about hitting gophers on the road, we have to watch out for lizards and snakes. How the obstacles change with the climate!!

5. Bus stops are where ever you happen to stand. We were on the local bus, in a traffic jam on the highway and a guy came up out of the ditch and jumped on the bus!! He got off a few kilometers down the road and didn’t have any money to pay either. I guess that’s why they call it public transportation!!

All in all we have loved everyday of our time in Mexico. We just get a few chuckles out of situations that have occurred more than once.

October 30, 2006

Today we took a tour of the Ruins called Palenque just outside of the city that was named after the Ruins. These Ruins are known to be the “best” in Mexico. We were so amazed at the structures and the rich history. We hired a tour guide that spoke English so that we would benefit the most from our time spent. The cost was a bit steep but in the end it was worth it. We paid 650 pesos for a 3 hour tour of the ruins. The Maya area of Palenque was built in the early 400 AD, lived in by the people for 500 years and then deserted. The structures were discovered in 1891 by an English gentleman. Over the years more and more ruins have been unearthed by several others. There are still many that have not even been discovered yet. We could see some ruins that were still covered in the trees and plants. It is too expensive for the Mexican government to continue to uncover anymore at this point in time.

Tomorrow we will leave Palenque. We will ride further up the country to a city called Campeache. We are working our way through to the Yuatan in order to meet Kelly’s sister, Gay and Martin for a week.

Tomorrow is Halloween, we’re not sure of how much it is celebrated here in Mexico. We do see some decorations displayed in some of the shops and motels. We do hear that they celebrate it as the “day of the dead”.

We have been told that the snow has hit Central Alberta, too bad for the treat or treaters there. We’re not missing the cold!!!

We’re off on another adventure …….

Until then… Kella

November 10, 2006

Hello from Playa del Carmen. We are spending a few restful days with Kelly’s sister and her family. We are also meeting my sister, Cindy and her husband Paul for two days. It is great to see some family!! The weather has been good. We are planning to head to Belize on the 14^th.

After checking our calendar, we see that we have now been on the road for 85 days. It is hard to believe that so much time has passed. With a total of 70 days, 11 thousand kilometers and many memories of a welcoming, beautiful country, we will always think fondly of our time here in Mexico.

As we move onto Central America our expectations are unknown. It feels like we are leaving the security of a country that is known to us, as we enter another leg of our journey.

We will ride through, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and then onto Costa Rica. We plan to enter Costa Rica by the first week of December.

On December 7^th we will be ecstatic to see Kane and Nicole. We will spend 10 days with the kids touring the west coast of Costa Rica. This will be our family Christmas. It will be a long count down for me just waiting to see the kids. Kelly will surely be tired of the term, “How many more sleeps till we see the kids?”

We have been given some awesome suggestions of what to see and where to visit in Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua. We thank all of those kind folks for sharing their knowledge with us.

We will post our next entry from Central America. Wish us luck at the border crossings!!

Until then…

Kella