G-Money Entry
The title of this entry comes from an old Elvis movie which we are dying to see because it takes place in Acapulco and also has a scene where Elvis cliff dives. We´re staying right next to where all the cliff diving is taking place so I feel some connection to Elvis these days. Nothing major or anything, not like I´m going to start impersonating the guy but its pretty cool.
Anyways, the pòint of the entry´s title is watch the movie and don´t bother with visiting the place. Acapulco is kinda nasty, on a good day. More on Acapulco later.

Now going back to Ticla
Ticla Dec 15- Dec 23, 2005
Ticla was great. Our setup camping was even better then in Sayulita. We had easy access to electricity although made due without any hot water. I also learnt how to sleep in a hammock, because as I might have mentioned previously, sleeping on sand (in the tent with no mattress) is like sleeping on a boulder. I probably messed up my shoulders during the Sayulita stay and the first two days in Ticla. But then we bought a hammock and it was great. Although sadly my first night in the hammock coincided with my first case of the ¨Mexican Runs¨. And it ain´t easy leaving your sleeping bag when you´re on a hammock all zipped up. There are many hammock sleeping techniques, the key one is head support and that´s all I´m going to say on this subject.

So more about Ticla. Basically a surf town and nothing more. The week we were there the waves were small for Ticla standards but still big for ours. Overall, I think I took more steps back in Ticla then forward regarding surfing. I now have fear which I didn´t have before. When that wave crashes down on you, it does with you what it wants, all you can hope for is: 1) No rocks to the head, 2) No board (your own) to the head or foot, 3) that your head\ or foot doesn´t go crashing into the ground, 4) that the guy next to you who also took the wave doesn´t lose his board which could end up in your head, 5) etc etc. All these things unfortunately have now entered my mind.
Unlike in Sayulita where you could basically grab any wave, in Ticla wave selection is critical. And also where to catch the wave, again a new concept. Maybe this is why people take courses on surfing. That´s all on Surfing for now.

The atmosphere in Ticla is special. Everyone is generally open and nice. We met a great couple from Texas (Captain Steve and Terry). They had the spot to our right. Really cool people. The Captain surfs and fishes and drinks, what else would one want from life. Although, I still think the Captain was working for the CIA in the seventees. Who goes to Nicaragua in 1976 (just when the revolution starts, see your history) and has a pilot´s license. Come on who was he kidding. I´ll probably be snuffed out for saying that, but we all have a record of it now so if anything happens to me we know its the Captain. Overall, very cool man and both of them were very hospitable. I´m beginning to really appreciate Texans, good people.

Besides Texans, Ticla is crawling with Italians and Canadians. I haven´t seen this many Italians since leaving Montreal and they are really cool. Definitely different then Italians back home. Why do Italians back home seem like they are from my Mothers generation, even the young ones? I know I´ll get hate mail for that one. Although please if you are gonna send hate mail place ¨Hate Mail¨in the subject line. Thank you.

Well that´s all for Ticla. We did nothing on the bikes there, not even a cleaning. Sorry girls (Katy and Lucille).

Zihuatenejo Dec 23-25, Dec 2005
On the 23rd for some unexplained reason, Smokey decided we should head out. And I was ready to make a move as well. Ticla had a feeling similar to Sayulita and we risked a chance of overstaying, so I was glad to keep moving.
We headed to Zihuatenejo, and on the way made some stops at Troncones (not sure why this place is popular with surfers, although we did catch one guy surfing who sadly broke his board in half, first time we saw that) and another stop at Ixtapa (the next Cancun, maybe).
Zihuatenejo is an okay place. The beaches are not much to talk about but the city itself was quite lively.
We got to hang out at a very interesting/cool/mellow bar called the Jungle Bar. A couple of things struck me about this place. First off it was being run by two women during the night shift. Two women were handling EVERYTHING for about 40 clients. Not being sexist or anything, but I´ve never seen that before. And they were good, really good. Never once were we waiting on anything and they were always around doing something. I can´t imagine two guys working the place as well as these two did. So hats off to those two. As for the second thing, the ¨bathrooms¨(at least the mens) was just a urinal. No joke just a urinal and nothing else, which obviously means no place to wash your hands. Even in normal circumstances that´s a little gross (and I´m not a clean freak by the way, I just like my hands and the hands of others washed after I or they pee), but at the Jungle bar they have free peanuts, so everyone is just digging into these peanuts, there were bowls everywhere. Sadly enough I only found out that the washrooms were lacking wash basins after I finished my first bowl of peanuts. Although to be honest I did have a second bowl, since I´m not a clean freak, but the second bowl wasn´t as satisfying.
Okay, besides the Jungle Bar, Zihuatenejo was the site of our first theft. Yes, it finally happened, someone stole something from our bikes. This guy (probably a guy) during daylight while our bikes were just outside our hotel managed to get the whole air filter assembly including the retaining bolt and frame (see clymer manual chapter 3 photo 53 for all parts stolen, I think its photo 53). This theft was mind boggling, just crazy, this guy simply messed us up. The air filter is an important part, highly required, and to make it worse he took the frame and the bolt making it very difficult to recreate the whole assembly. Sick, sick man. So we were somewhat screwed. The two motorcycle shops in the area said they couldn´t help and had no foam filter. We´d have to wait at least a week if not 2 until the parts were ordered and received. So we consulted our motorcycle guru in Montreal and got a quick lesson on how to put a make shift filter together (pantyhose and dish foam cleaners was where we were leaning towards). When we got to the motorcycle shop (second time) to get some supplies we´d need we received some divine help. Moments like what took place next is why I believe in God. Miraculously an old banged up KLR 650 (same bike as ours) was found in the back of the garage. Its as if the bike showed up out of nowhere, since the first time Smokey visited the place he came back empty handed. When I went to the back of the shop after looking over a KLR 250 hoping it has a similar filter (no way since it´s a much smaller bike) I saw Smokey standing next to the KLR and light was shining from the bike. So we made an arrangement with the guy to buy the used parts for the cost of him replacing the parts with new parts which we couldn´t wait for. Not quite sure why we didn´t buy the parts as used but spending $70 to get out of this jam felt really cheap. We learnt a very important lesson for $70. Lesson being, bike security. Till then we were either very lucky with where the bikes were staying or we were lucky that nothing happened. From now on we look for indoor parking.
The used filter had to be reworked a little (which a mechanic did) but it was more then enough to get us to Acapulco.
Ányways, I can go on about the whole theft, but talking about it makes me angry so we´ll leave it at that.

Acapulco Dec 25th
Great riding day. That reminds me that soon I´ll have a full entry on Mexican road conditions and general driving notes.
After being in Acapulco for 3 days, i can safely say that this isn´t a place I would revisit. The city itself is filthy, the beaches are primarily dirty and the heat is insane. Coming here we were hoping to find a good place to party for New Years and hopefully be around some Gringo´s (foreign tourists). But it turns out that foreinghers have stopped coming to Acapulco, we seem to be one of the few. I can say with confidence that in 3 full days of being alllll around Acapulco, we have seen less then 50 Gringo´s out of a holiday population of over a million. There was one bar/lounge that was kinda chic called Ibiza Lounge (damn you can call any club Ibiza something and people will go) which had great decor on and off the beach and even had Hukkah pipes with a huge selection.
As always there are positives to any negatives, and here in Acapulco we found a great place to stay at (Torre Effel near the cliff divers in Old Acapulco) and have found a first rate Kawasaki dealership. Yes folks, our girls are getting a full service job as I write this entry. That should take us easily for another 3000 miles.

Well, tts off to siesta time. I´ll have to end this entry.
Happy holidays everyone,
GMoney (although I now also have a psuedo name of Jamie Wolf [still under review], while Smokey´s psuedo name is Mike Jones, ¿who? MIKE JONES)