Almost ready to go!
"Still round the corner there may wait A new road or secret gate, And though I oft have passed them by, A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun." from a "walking song" in "Lord of the rings" by J.R.R Tolkein
Well, as they say, "the best laid plans...." ! I'm still in Montreal after missing the best weather window on Monday because I wasn't as ready/prepared as I thought I was. So as of today, the next "window" appears to be this Friday, and this time I will be ready!
Here I am in Waynesville North Carolina, just W of Ashville. My good sailing buddies, Dick and MaryAnn Brashler are both "putting me up, and "putting up with me", in their beautiful summer home high up in the Smokey Mountains.
Sorry for the delay but the internet supplier was down where I was staying in Dallas, TX. of all places.
I´m now in Chihuahua, MX., and leaving for a little village called Creel in the "Copper Canyon" where I will stay for approx 3 days.
Every thing is fantastic. I´ll add more details when I get to Creel tomorrow.
It's finally time to fill in the details since my arrival in Dallas.
Hola,
Well something always happens.....I was supposed to be leaving La Paz, Baja for Topolambampo/Los Moches, MX. this afternoon...bought the ferry tkts. this morning...when I noticed one of the saddlebags was loose. I found one of the bolts holding one of the luggage racks had cracked. The local machine shop could not deal with it in time for me to make the ferry, so for 100 pesos ($12) I changed my tkt. for tomorrow. That also meant another nite in La Paz at 200 pesos ($25....8 pesos to the $CAD).
Since my last entry as I was leaving Creel, MX., I crossed the Sea of Cortez which separates mainland Mexico from Baja, by a 12 hour ferry ride.
I will continue this one later.........OK, NOW I'M BACK......
The ferry from La Paz, MX. (pop. 200,000), was a huge modern ferry - escalators, elevators, restaraunts, bars - compared to the much smaller, slower ferry from Guaymas (pop. 130,000). As an example, this ferry could easily hold 100 loaded 18 wheelers, and a few hundred cars. It took 5 hours to cover slightly more distance while it took the Guaymas 12 hours to cross! (For my sailing friends, it moved at 40 kts, vs. 13 kts.)
After Parque Mirador it was off to Tlaquepaque, which is sort of a suburb of Guad. It's raison d'etre today is centered on it's creative talents and has converted many old 19 century country homes into stylish restos and galleries.
Guanajuato (pop 74,000, elev. 6,000 ft.), is a beautiful city crammed into the steep slopes of of a ravine with narrow streets that twist and turn around the hill sides and then dive underground into a series of tunnels. The subteranian roads have all the characteristics of normal roads...intersections, street names, parking,...etc., and to get anywhere you are half of the time above ground and half of the time below ground. Neither road system has a straightaway that exceeds 100 meters.
Mexico D.F. (pop. 20,000,000 elev. 7,000 ft.)
Well, finally, here I am in "big, bad" Mexico D.F. (Well, actually I am leaving tomorrow for Taxco.
(My writing plan will be to write about an area when I'm either leaving it, or at the arrival at my next stop.)
Well NOTHING COULD BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH! I think the general opinion that Mexico DF is a bad, dangerous city is probably the biggest "urban myth" ever created.
Taxco, pop. 52,000 elev. 5,800 ft. (SW of Mexico DF).
Now I am in Puerto Escondido, after a beautiful 2 day ride from Acapulco.
Hi again, Im way behind in my reports (see Simon...its not ONLY with Xerox)
Now I am in beautiful San Cristobal de las Casas. Previously since Taxco, it was Pie de la Questa, Acapulco, Peurto Escondido, Zipolite, Tuxcla Gutierrez, and now here!
After a few days in beautiful Taxco, and a day in "not-so-beautiful" Acapulco...Much to busy, noisy, crowded, etc.
I´m leaving today, and heading SE along the coast to Puerto Escondido/Puerto Angel, where for $15CAD you can spend the night on almost deserted beaches in a cabana/hammock including a freshly grilled (al carbon) seafood dinner.
Weather on the coast starts at 28-30oC at 0700h, and quickly hits the upper 30's by noon...I love it....riding down the coast on my bike in nothing but a pair of gym shorts and the warm wind on my face.....
I just got back to civilization after spending the last 5 days living and rafting in the jungle of Mexico on the Guatemalan border. I am now in Comitan, MX., and will be in Guatemala tomorrow.
Puerto Escondido (PE), is a real gem, notwithstanding the beautiful ride there along the coast from Acapulco.
After a great 2 hour drive to Puerto Angel, I found heaven on earth .the beach at Zipolite, around 2 km. west of Peurto Angel. Zipolite is one of 3 beaches/bays that run west from Puerto Angel each one is around 1 km. apart.
Zipolite though is one of the least developed and the least expensive for great food and lodging. It was almost deserted, despite it being prime vacation time for the Mexican People. Most of them go to the other 2 beaches. You could choose any part of the beach to lie down on and there would be at least 100 meters between you and the next person.
This was a really long ride from the coast to San Cristobal de Las Casas (SCC). In fact I had to overnite it in the town of Tuxtla Gutierrez, approx. a hundred kms. from SCC.
TG., pop 425,000, elev. 2,000 ft. is the state capital of Chiapas one of the many states of Mexico. It lies in the west side of Chiapas' hot humid central valley...a valley that runs N-S from the Carribean to the Pacific.
The only "problems" between San Cristobal de los Casas and Lacanja (pop. 500 elev. 950 ft.)were the hundreds of topes along the road, the heat combined with the humidity, and the first rain storm that lasted longer than 15 minutes. Other than that it was a great ride. The roads from Palenque to Lacanja were mainly straight and flat, with only the slightest curve here and there.
Just before Palenque I pulled into Misol-Ha where the Rio drops 150 feet into a wide pool surrounded by lush vegetation. It was a refreshing 1 hour stop playing in the natural pool under the waterfall.
Well hi again.
The ride from Lacanja, south and west, to Comitan was a beautiful ride, in beautiful sunny and warm weather on relatively straight and deserted roads......except for the military!
Because this road runs for miles along the Guatemalan border, there is major drug and weapon smuggling in the area. As a result there are military blocades around every 20 kms., all staffed by around 20 Mexicans with machine guns. They are all very professional and friendly though, especially when they see the bike....then it's always the same questions;
It was a beautiful early morning ride to the Guatemalan border less than 1 hour south from Comitan, Mexico.
The border crossing at La Mesilla via CA 1 was smooth, painless, and quite professional despite all the horror stories I heard....1 hour and I was done.
After a great 6 hour ride on relatively straight and smooth roads, I arrived in Rio Dulce (RD), a small town on the Rio (River) Dulce about 10 km inland from the Caribean town of Livingston which is about 20 kms south of the Belizean border.
However, along the way I had to pass through Guatemala City, Guatemala's capital, where I promptly went around in circles for an hour before escaping to Rio Dulce.
After leaving Rio Dulce, Guatemala, it was a beautiful early morning ride under clearing skies on nice road into El Salvador.
Riding south for 50 kms from Rio Hondo, Guatemala, one comes to a fork in the road....5 kms east, and you are in Honduras, and 5 kms south and you are in El Salvador.
Other than the famous ruins of Copan, Honduras, and the fantastic scuba diving in the Honduras Caribean Islands of Roatan, there was not really much else for me to see, and since I now had enough of ruins, and I don't scuba dive, I headed South to El Salvador.
The plan here was to ride the 3 hours straight through Honduras, and try for San Salvador, El Salvador.
The border at Honduras was something else... TOTAL disorganization....different ramshackle buildings with no markings...that houses the customs, imigration, insurance, security, and the ever present fumigation people.
I was instantly besieged by at least a dozen kids, shouting in Spanish and waiving hand made, plastic laminated ID's in my face, essentially saying that they will facilitate my passage through the "system".
My entry "Honduras" dated 2004-08-14 had a few errors...
#1 - I only entered Honduras only AFTER El Salvador.
#2 - I was attempting to enter San SALVADOR, the capital of El Salvador....NOT San Jose, which is the capital of Costa Rica.
Sooooo....see the 2 previous entries.....
Checking out of Honduras was much easier than checking in, thank god, and checking in to Nicaragua was suprisingly the quickest and easiest so far.
But despite this, I lost so much time checking IN to Honduras that it was now a race against time to get into Managua, the capital, before dark.
It was an easy ride south to Granada (pop. 90,000), Nica's oldest city. Although it did see some recent fighting between the Sandinistas and Somoza's forces, it was spared the shelling seen by other cities.
Today Granada is the major tourist center, retaining it's colonial character - streets lined with Spanish styled houses with stuccoed adobe walls and large doors opening into cool interior patios.
After a pleasant 2 hour ride, interrupted by a 30 min. downpour, I arrived in the fishing town of San Juan Del Sur (pop. 6,000).
SJDS is set on a nice horseshoe shaped cove with dramatic cliffs forming at it's far edges. Although the beach is nice, I found it a bit dirty.
With Costa Rica's (CR) reputation for being the most "North American" like country of all Latin America, I was off from Nicaragua with high hopes!
Not only is CR safe but it's also very friendly.
It's been a democracy since the 19 century and is now one of the most peaceful nations in the world. In fact the armed forces were abolished after the 1948 civil war, and CR has since avoided the despotic dictatorships, military coups, terrorism, and internal strife that has affected the other countries of Central America.
First of all, some corrections and additions on my stay at the coffee plantation south of San Jose in the town of Jerico. The "Finca" is owned by JEANNETTE'S family who is married to KENNY, the brother of Laurie (and Glen), my sailing friends from Boston.
Kenny and Ginette live in Maine, but set things up for my stay in their second home next to the family home in Jerico, Costa Rica (CA).
There I met most of Jeannette's family, Don Francisca and Dona Celina, her parents, and Juan Bautiste, William, Olman, Celi, and Henry, her brothers and sister.
Here I am in front of the Jaguar Inn in Tikal, Guatemala.
My "border brokers" entering Honduras.
Waiting out the rain on the way to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.
On Nina's porch, San Juan Del Sur.
At 2000h on the 17 September, I sadly left Mexico, and crossed the border into Brownsville, TX. (on the Gulf of Mexico).
Stay tuned for the Costa Rica and the return trip stories.
N
