Days 15

As you can see were moving right along. Welcome to honduras...We'll be just traveling thru Honduras for a short while but still got to do the wonderful border crossings. I can assure you it will take just as long being detained at customs as it will to actually cross the part of Honduras we are riding thru. This was another active volcanoe that we passed on the road into Nicaragua.

This was at a small village were we stopped in for some delicious melon. Pulled off the side of the road and this family was amazingly generous and kind. We had great snack and hung out with the kids for awhile. This family had a young girl 4 days apart from my son Jaxson...I miss you buddy. The father Juan was a great guy and had 5 children of his own with 4 grandkids all living right here in this small structure.

Here is a picture of Antonia she is just 4 days older than my son Jaxson..I almost cried....

Here is Bridger picking out a melon for our roadside snack. It was handed off to be machetted.

This would be considered a modest average home in this area where usually a least one of two families would share. We truly enjoyed our time with this family and they seemed to truly want to learn about us. One of the highlights of the trip for me so far....

I gave the little girl Antonia a toy I've been carrying for many of the kids we encountered and her eyes just lit up. We have been buying small toys for the kids in the market areas and then giving them out in the more rural areas...its been really fun to watch them.




This is a common means of transportation in these parts. I'll bet we were 10 miles from the nearest anyhting at this point .. and they were just trotting along. I shared a warm flat bottle of coke with one of the kids here and he was thrilled...Really appreciate things when you see whats out there.

Well another day another country...Nicaragua

This is supposed the oldest and largest cathedral in central america.

Day 15

Were wearing them down as we cross these borders. Supposed the toughest of all the borders today. El Salvador into Honduras. They were right..shit this doesn't get any quicker easier or less intimidating...and definitely not cheaper.

Day 13 ..i think day 14 as well its getting blurry

We rode the southern coast of El Salvador along the Pacific sideand its was amazing coastlines. Some really hardcore obscure beaches for surfers are found here. Although very little tourism in these parts of El Salvador. The mood defintely changed abit as we pulled into town quite late, after dark, to find a place to spend the night. One of the unwritten rules while riding motos in Central America is don't ride after dark especially in unstable places like El Salvador. Its had it share of newsworthy stories for unstable government again. So what do we do...that's right pull into small town that seemed to fit the El Salvador Mafia (cartel) just perfect. We ended up riding thru the streets of Acajulta..a shady trucker town where we got more than our share of yells and stares. We pulled up to this autotel which we werent sure what it is but was located near an adult club but only place we could find. So the guard with his loaded ak45 greeted us at the gate let us in and we tried to ask about rooms. As with all our communications with minimal spanish we got the idea across and he let us see the rooms. Well Hugh Hefner would have been proud as the rooms were perfect for entertaining..suave looking curtains over bed...couch for chillin and best of all the rooms were by the hour......haha

Back on the bikes we spent another good while looking for another place to crash for the night. We should have gotten the picture earlier as the neon lights were done in same style as the nearby strip club. We found another place also with armed guard that was actually quite acceptable. We are getting used to this sleeping with weapons around. Its sad but just a way of life after dark in these parts. The owners of the place were quite nice and even fixed us some good dinner.

You be the judge here...

Although the rodes were quite nice you do have to be on the lookout for many animals that are walked down the only access from point A to B ..the highway

Days 11 and 12

Sunsets in guetamala are not all that bad, especially here at lake Antitilan. One of the great rides one can take on a motorcycle to get into lake area. Lake is surrounded by 2 towering volcanoes on each side.

Here's a good looking chap over looking lake in southern guetamala. You can see one of the volcanoes in backdrop. We truly treated ourselves and stayed at very nice resort right on lake with this view. Price for american resort with this scenery and amenties...OUTRAGISH...guetemala skip a few meals

In the little town of Panajachel, mostly Myan influence, sits this amazing lake at 5,100 feet. The town was quite charming with a fair amount of European and American visitors. Anyone wanting a nice getaway with minimal distractions fly into guetamala city and short drive.

One of the local myan nina's selling handcraft stuff. They work the tourists well as it cost Randy and I five quetzals for her picture.

Below is one of the locaL markets just before we hit the lake region. A town called Solola'.

These buggies are called tuk tuk originally from thailand ..used widely as taxi and some private vehicles. They seem to move thru the stone streets fairly easy..cuz my bike was shakin pretty good. Went out for a good night on town here..lots o fun ..guetamalan style

Some other wonderful views as we rode into town.

Day 12 we get into our 3rd country ...El Salvador..a country of beauty and hope.

As illustrated below the border crosses have begun to take a toll on us as we haven't quite figured this customs thing out. If it looks pretty doscile from the pictures it's b/c I wouldn't dare take pictures of the many many armed guards with machine guns all over. The borders are difficult to navigate when you have to go thru on motorcycle b/c of bribes and fees.

How the weather has changed. We have now been riding in 90+ temps...hit 3 digits around lunch time. It is a nice change from some of the elevations we climbed to. Heres a good picture of the polish power sticker on front of my moto. She's been running well gotta like the pols that can really last. After about 3 hours of bribes, fees, other fees, fees for people to access fees and many many photocopies we were thru. We read alot about border crossings and how tricky and time consuming they may be but until you do it...just can't imagine.

So were off in running in El Salvador. We are now nearing 2,000 miles ...yahoooo

Video try it out

Team Mauritius

We have assembled Team Mauritius in honor of my nephew or neice to be. Congtaulations to my Sister (Stacy)and her husband (Scott) if you had the little bambino. They are due 3 week of January and living in Mauritius Africa. So I decided to get everyone on board with team Mauritius. Its been fun...Here is everyone with their Mauritius flags all over the bikes. We even recruited someone today named Scott who joined our team.

Random pics and captions

These first 2 pictures are with my new camera I had to purchase while on the trip. I have really gained some photography knowledge while touring with Roy Bridger and Rob as they all seem to have interest. I show these 2 photos taken at the same time on same street. Bottom was with night setting the top on regular mode. Pretty cool...

This was in the town of coatzcolocolus. It was extremely rough seas because of all that nasty weather you north americanos are giving us...stop it now

This is a little place we had some lunch along the way. Really not sure of where it was.

A cathedral on a high mountain in Mexico.

Day 10 ..Bienvenidos Guatemala

This was a party we stopped in and gave the kids some candies. Ricardo and I found this small village at about 11,000 feet up mt orizaba. amazing how everything is so similar no matter where you go. We stayed and found a guy who spoke some english and leanred alot about this little village..pretty cool. Here is Roy firing up the team as we went seperate ways. Roy was certainly instrumental in setting up this great trip..thanks again Roy and stay off that foot.

A wonderful building in the square that we found in the town of Orizaba.

We finally got over the border into Guetamala. We took the high crossing and though there was alot less people it still took awhile to navigate the system to cross these borders. It is about a 4 step process that will hopefully get quicker as we get further south. Anyway welcome Guetamala.

Day 10 has brought aweosme riding and yes the elusive sunshine.

How we became the 4 Amigos

Upon starting the trip we had seis amigos as you have read we are now down to quatro amigos. How we got there. Ricardo had planned to head in another direction the whole time and has been traveling westward and northward. Good luck Amigo and have a great time with the kids.
El capitan had to make the very difficult decision to return back to the states. Hope your trip was safe. As I have mentioned we had a member injured.
In one amazing feat of moto driving Roy managed to miss a wildly running bull, 2 elder mexican senoritas, 4 motorcyclists, on a rain slicked road in the streets of Pachula. As Roy swerved his bike to avoid this disastrous road block he slid on some gravel and controlably slid out of the way avoiding everyone. The Kawa was fine except for his poor panniers as they have seen many injuries thus far. Unfortunately the weight of the bike had been a bit too much for Roys ankle and it fractured. In great spirits and determination we headed into Orizaba to later get confirmation of the fracture from the mexican medical community thru xray. Total treatment for xray, wound care, cast and crutches was a mere 2 cervesa ...yes thats right it cost about what 2 mexican beers cost...TOTAL
Roy...well miss ya and thanks a whole bunch for organizing this wonderful trip.
Hasta luega ...amigo

Day 8 and 9

These 5 pics are on our ascent to Mt Orizaba. It was a really cool drive although it rained fairly heavy.

We have settled in a town called San Cristobal..yeah my town baby. It in mountains just over the Guetamalan border. We had an awesome ride thru some of the most amazing landscape in the state of Chiapas. Cool winding roads up and down the mountians. Muy Bueno

Wow ..My espanol in coming along great. We are again at about 8-10,000 feet so its quite cold. It was near freezing last night. We are off to an active volcano in guetamala today hopefully...It seems to go much slower than expected when traveling by motos. The city of San Cristobal truly is an amazing place with its mayan culture and artisitc flare.

I have no clue ????????????????????

Day 7

Richard and I headed up the mountain. We are staying in the town of Orizaba so we decided to head up the south side of Pico de Orizaba. We went about 15 miles north into the clouds as we continued up an amazing winding switch back road made of concrete, mud, dirt, rock and anyhting else that a road can be made of. Although the views were limited because of weather the sites were not.
One of the coolest trek you can make on a motobike.







Holy smokes we made several wrong turns because its freezing and raining all day so we must be in Canada. Seriously it was a difficult riding day with rainfall probably over an inch today. The team has had some changes today as we are down to 4 members today as we head south.
We are staying in a town called coatzocoalcots or something similar. We are hope to look around tomorrow without rain. It was kinda fun today trekking thru in the downpours. After you get that wet it really doesnt matter so i was ready to roll.
The town tonight

Day 5 and 6

This is a shot overlooking the town we stayed day 4 San miguel de Allende. Its really like the aspen of the san madre mts in this area. Unfortunately there are many European and other international residents. The town was gorgeous with amazing plaza and cathedrals.

This is a religious parade we saw at dinner one night

This is ricardo as he is now known in a small mercado in Huamantla ..i think its beginning to blend together most of the towns...

All you pharma geeks viewing this a a shot for u they have these dancing people outside on the sidewalks with music blasting to help draw customers. Maybe I can get CVS to give me a job doing this gig. Its kinda cool going in farmacias as you get get almost anyhting over the counter. We may have to hit a farmacia for one of our team members.

To the left is street musicians..quite good

Here is one of the many awesome plaza in the town we stayed. We need something like this in bloomsburg. Great place to watch people and certainly be watched by the mexicanos.

Motorcycle travel is a lot more grueling than expected. We left San miguel heading towards pico de orizaba heading thru towns of pachuca and apizaco to finally after 10 hrs travel arrive in Huamantla. It was a very traditional mexican town with centro plaza and simple yet wonderful architecture. As we arrived in town late we had our first small casualty. One member had to have Doc Rob do some patch work. He´s a bit gimpy but a tough ol Brit. We stayed the night in town then headed for mt Orizaba to clim to base camp with the motorbikes. base camp is around 15,000 feet but we been staying at around 6,000 - 8,000 ft most nights. Hoping it is going to be nice weather for our trek to pico de Orizaba. Overall awesome 2 days as we had no runnings with the federales.