Category: Uncategorized

Day 47 12/12/2021

Odometer   29,390 – 29,440 —– 50 Miles (6750 Miles Total)

Panajachel, Guatemala – San Pedro, Guatemala

I still can’t believe this is all real. When will I wake up from this dream?

I packed up this morning after I took a cold shower. (On Purpose) Rode into the city and dropped my bike off at a car wash Greg recommended me to. $6 and they make it look new. He said to come back in an hour. I went out for breakfast in town to get some good wifi and finish uploading pictures from the last few days. I got back to the bike In an hour and it sure was clean. I was super happy about it except for the layers of tire shine he put on my tires. Sure death in a turn if I didn’t catch it. I lubed up my chain and cleaned up my rims a bit since they missed a few spots. I got back to the Airbnb, loaded up the bike and off I was. Of course right off the bat they closed a street and I had to ride on a dirt road for 2 minutes. Bike was still clean.

I had a 2 hour ride to San Pedro and the weather was perfect. 75 and partly cloudy. So many cute little towns surrounding the lake on the mountains. I shaved off 30 minutes of the ride and I was happy. About 30 minutes away from San Pedro google maps turned me onto a dirt road. Hmmmmm. The dirt road turned to shit and uphill on switchbacks. Why you gotta do me like this google maps…why?

The road stops and it’s blocked off. It turns into a walking trail. Google maps you need to get your shit together. Time to backtrack about 20 minutes and take another route. I didn’t have a good feeling about this dirt road. I feel like I can get robbed here after hearing yesterday’s story. I keep an eye out up ahead and get ready to turn around if someone is waiting with a gun or a knife. There was none of that thankfully. I made it to the main road and made my way to San Pedro on some lovely paved switchbacks. I got in the city 30 minutes later and the road I was supposed to take had 398283 vendors on it so that wasn’t happening. I go around a long way and It looks like I get to park my bike right out front on a very busy street 20 meters from the lake.

This is a very very busy area so I’m excited to check it out. I might not end up staying three days but we’ll see what happens. I should take some Spanish classes while I’m here since it doesn’t look like there’s much to do. I checked and unpacked my stuff. I decided I was going to take a boat over to San Marcos until 5pm and check out this town across the lake filled with wannabe yoga hippies from the states from what I heard.  I went out for a little burrito next door and met a Croatian guy. We spoke Serbian for a little bit and it reminded me how rusty it was. I went out front and paid 20Q’s for a round trip boat taxi to San Marcos and back. A quick 7 minute ride across the lake and there I was. I got some ice cream and went to a little outcrop of the town to a park where there’s a dock I’ve wanted to jump off of for a while. Such a lovely little walk on the edge of the lake. I found the dock, stripped down to my shorts and sent it. Looked like it was about 35’ to the water. I didn’t point the toes and my feet stung a bit. I swam in the water for a bit and then got out. Did I ever say how lovely the views are around this lake?

I decided I would look into plans for the next few days. I’m not used to this whole planning thing. I’m thinking I’ll head to Antigua for two or three nights and do an overnight volcano hike, sleep on the volcano and wake up at 4am to summit it and watch the sunrise while volcano Fuego erupts in the background. Just another Tuesday! Well see what happens with that as time gets closer. Panama seems so close and I might actually make it out of Central America by New Years.

I’m not sure I like San Marcos. Too many people coming in here trying real hard to blend in with the locals jacking all the prices up on everything. I found a little bar with live music on the water waiting for a smoothie working on the blog typing this up. I was thinking about going home for Christmas but do I really want to go freeze my ass off. Probably not. I think I’ll stay right here. Sorry friends! 🙂

Things are as good as can be here. Bike is running great. My mental health is incredible. I feel great physically. Very thankful for all of this. It’s nice to sit back and realize how good I have it right now while it’s all running so smoothly.

I took the ferry back to San Pedro at 4pm since the last is at 5 and getting stuck here without a boat ride back would mean 4 different tuk tuk rides back to san pedro. I got my bed and locker, stored all my things and found a Spanish teacher ad on the wall at the hostel. I booked him for an hour and ran out for a quick bite to eat before he came over. The lesson was pretty good. I feel like I learned a lot and I’m happy I get to use it all everyday. I should try to do three lessons a week for the rest of my trip. I wish I started them sooner. After class I sat down and studied as much as I could since I’ll see him tomorrow as well. I went out for a second dinner and some snacks. Then I hung out at the hostel studying while they had karaoke night for a bit before I went to bed.

All fresh and clean for the first time in 50 days.

Stopped on my ride to get a shot of the volcano in the background.

Bike stands out a bit on the street in front of the hostel

Street the hostel is on 20 meters from the lake!

The market is slowly taking over the streets where people drive on.

A view of the lake coming out of the mountains. San Juan is the town below with San Marcos being the two little bump outs in the the lake behind the town you see.

The walkway from the boat dock going into San Marcos. The trees make a little cover over the street almost like a tunnel!

Working on the blog in San Marcos having a pineapple smoothie with the volcanos in the background while listening to live music.

Heaven

Day 46 12/11/2021

Odometer    29,390 – 29,400 —–  10 Miles (6700 Miles Total)

Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

I got up fairly early again today, took a shower and got right to work catching up on the blog on the balcony of my Hostel overlooking the small city i’m in. The sun was hitting me as it was rising up above the mountains nearby as I was wearing my Mexican Baja sweater curled up on a comfortable couch on the balcony. I spoke to Greg And Jess who I met up with last night and they sent me the address to their mechanic they use. He opened at 8:30 so I went down the block on the main strip and got myself a nice breakfast and then packed up my new small arrangement of tools and headed over to the shop early.  On the way out of the hostel I asked to book another night but she said they were all sold out. Shit. I’ll figure this out later.

I wanted to get there early so I can get all the plastics off the right side of the bike to access the radiator and cooling system. By the time Greg showed up in a Tuk Tuk the shop opened their doors and he started chatting with them about my bike. They had a few ideas about the thermostat but I was fairly sure it was air in the coolant lines from the last mechanic. He asked the mechanic if they had distilled water for me and he came out with two bottles. I started the bleeding process to get the air out of the system. When I opened up the radiator I noticed it was very low on water. That explains why it started to overheat so quickly the second time around. It was a good sign because if I opened up the cap and it was full I definitely had other problems. So I topped off the radiator, put the cap on, opened the bleeder screw for a few seconds, refilled the radiator and repeated that process about 6 times.  Some air came out of the bleeder hole the first shot but not sure if that meant anything since the radiator was so low on coolant. I turned the bike back on and it took a while to get to normal operating temp which is 184 Degrees F. That was a great sign. It stuck at 184 for a while and then slowly started to creep up to 200 and 215 and 222 before the fan kicked in. It took maybe 7-8 minutes to get from 184-222 which was a great sign because yesterday it took about 20 seconds at a dead stop. 

While Greg and I were waiting for the bike to get hot we talked about a route for me to take to BMW in Guatemala City. As we were chatting I mentioned that I’m going to take this small road along the lake to San Pedro on the other side of the lake. He said no, don’t take it because it’s a dangerous road and everyone here knows not to take it. I’ll get held up at gunpoint and get robbed. He saw the skeptical look on my face. A few minutes later the bike shop owner came outside and he asked him in Spanish about the road. The owner agreed. He told Greg that last summer he took that road, they stopped him, put a gun to his head and took all of his belongings.

Everything happens for a reason. Small bike issue made me bail on going to San Pedro or San Marcos on the other side of the lake. Yak found out I was in Pana for the day since he mentioned I should go here which led me to meet up with Greg and Jenn which led us to this moment. Imagine my bike didn’t overheat and I went right to San Pedro on the small road next to the lake and had my whole bike robbed. He was telling me when they stop people most of the time they come out with tools and start stripping parts off of your cars and motorcycles. There are cops at either end of the road and you have to pay them to escort you through but they don’t do any patrolling without getting paid because these cartel guys give them a cut of what they rob everyday. Wild shit huh? Thank you mechanic in the Bronx for screwing my bike up because I might have had all my stuff taken on that road. 

Greg was done  translating and helping me make some decisions on the bike so he got a Tuk Tuk and went home. I sat on the side of the road for another 30 minutes assembling my bike back together, paid the shop for the water and off I was. The bike was running at 184 again which is the proper temp instead of 187. Job well done. 

I found a good deal on an Airbnb right outside of town for $11 a night with free secured parking and sent them a message about checking in early. Bingo. They replied and I went back to the hostel, packed up and made my way to the Airbnb to drop my stuff off. Now I can finally start to enjoy my day around 11:30 with no stress. I went out for some ice cream and a woman I spoke to yesterday about paragliding recognized me and brought me back to her shop to try to get me gear. Still no luck. I messaged a guy who’s number I got from a friend and he said the winds weren’t good for the next ten days.

I went down to the water and went for a swim. I can’t believe I’m swimming in Lake Atitlan looking at two volcanoes about 10,000’ tall right in front of me. It’s like a dream but it’s real. It’s just another day in my life now. Nothing out of the ordinary. Life is good. I can finally relax. I brought my towel up on a bench and this is my spot now for a few hours. I pull out my phone and can actually do some research on what’s next. I booked three nights in San Pedro on the other side of the lake. First time in my life I’ve booked a place for three nights right off the bat. I’m changing. I like it. I catch up on a few calls and texts. Set up an emailing subscription on the website so people can get emails when I make a new post. Pay a few bills, say a few happy birthdays. I work on my tan some more. 

The guy I messaged earlier about paragliding called me and said to meet him in the landing area in 45 minutes because he’s going to go home and get me his rig between work. Shit I thought he said no flying for a week but people are flying. Awesome! I grab some food before I go meet him since it’ll be a long day of flying. I met him in the parking lot with a few of his friends. It looks like a technical landing area but I like that. He ends up having to do a tandem and leaves me with a few guys at the bottom. They’re all vetting my skill level. They seem confident I’ll be fine. I’m watching the tandems land in the small dirt lot on the lake surrounded by cars, trees, rocks and boats. I start to get a bad feeling and I’m not liking the winds. They’re a bit strong but this is normal they said. My stomach starts to feel really weird and I get more anxiety than normal. If I get a 6/10 anxiety feeling before a flight this was a 7/10 maybe. Just a bit more but enough to feel it. I’m listening to my stomach for the first time. WEIRD

I sit there watching people land for 30 minutes and I’m ready to tell the guy I’m not going to go. But maybe I should. Parachutes are my thing and I love a challenge. Check your Ego kid, listen to yourself. We’re watching the first solo paraglider come in without a tandem and he’s deep, there’s a tree in front of him that’s going to create turbulence. I know this guy is fucked. He starts getting thrown around left and right up and down and the canopy starts to collapse. He’s right behind the tree now. He gets thrown hard to the left and then right, the left side of the wing rolls under and he’s gone. The guy I was with drops his shit and runs over. I’ve seen too much of this. I’m not going over there. I took my shoes off, put my sandals back on, threw my beach towel over my shoulder and was going to wait for him to come back before I left. Ten minutes later I put his gear in Sebastians car and walked over. There’s a group of people surrounding a woman on a brick street and the gear is stashed away in the shade. The pilot came up super short and crashed between the booths where they sell things between trees as well. He must have hit her when he ate it and she had a huge hole in her head with blood everywhere. She was about 60 years old. Bandages and bandages soaked with blood through her hair. 

The worst is when an innocent bystander gets hurt. Super rare and it shouldn’t happen ever. I said bye to my new buddy that ran over to help and went back to the beach. Never before in my life have I really listened to that feeling in my stomach. Just one time in 2015 when I was standing on the edge of a cliff in Arizona and decided nope im gonna quit BASE jumping right now. There’s the slightest difference between adrenaline and anxiety and I think I just figured it out. Don’t let the Ego take over and kill you. You gotta know when it’s time to walk away from something. Its my birthday in 2 days and I don’t need to be jacked up with an injury for as stupid paragliding flight. There’s always another day for a flight.

I sat on the beach for another 2 hours and did a little workout. Went home to change into something warmer and met with Greg and Jess to watch the sunset. We walked into town for a nice dinner with them. That was very sweet of them and I’m so thankful. We told some funny stories over dinner which were nice to hear, I showed them my camping gear and we parted ways. I got some more food after and walked around for a while. Back at my Airbnb it’s like a hostel but I’m the only one here. I tried to go outside to talk to someone about the wifi since it’s not working but no one is here. As I walked outside I heard my door shut behind me. Shit. I’m wearing shorts and that’s all. It’s cold out here. I can’t believe it just did this. I broke the screen in the window but my hand can’t reach the lock inside. I go to my bike, grab a can of brake cleaner and use it as an extension to open the handle inside the room. Nights over!

Do I have to even say anything about this photo?

The bike stripped down to bleed the coolant lines with Greg talking to the owner of the bike shop.

Free coffee from the bike shop while I put my bike back together.

My spot to hang out for the day. The views….

Where the guy landed and hit the woman in the small market. You can see the medics tending to her.

Greg and Jess with their German Shepard!

Another sunset over the volcano.

Day 45 12/10/2021

Odometer    29,090 – 29,390 —– 300  Miles (6690 Miles Total)

Flores, Guatemala – Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

I slept great last night which was surprising since I thought I was going to be way too hot sleeping outdoors. I got bit by a few fire ants in the middle of the night I’m pretty sure. The clocks rolled back an hour since I crossed the border into Belize to the same time as NY time. I’ve been waking up at 6am the last two mornings which has been nice since I have a bit more time in the day to catch up on the website and a few things I can do on my computer. I laid in bed at 6am and pulled out google maps. I literally had no idea where I was going today. I poked around a bit at my saved pins on google maps and some of the stuff I saved a while ago looked boring so I picked a small village in the mountains halfway to Lake Atitlan and it said 6.5 hours the long way. Great, let’s go! I went downstairs and finished off my dinner from last night as my breakfast, loaded up the bike, brushed my teeth and off I was already riding the wrong way down a one way street. It’s 6:30am and I can make mistakes.

I can already tell I’m going to love Guatemala. there’s just a certain vibe here. I might like it more than Mexico. On my ride I realized I didn’t get Insurance last night. But I got some contacts from a motorcycle group on Facebook. These guys always come in handy. I sent the company an email  while I was riding so I can show the cops if I got pulled over that I was in the process of getting it. The ride was lovely. I feel like this is what Costa Rica and Nicaragua will feel like. Lots of speed bumps still unfortunately. A light fog in the morning with smoke from people burning things. A man on a horse with a backhoe over his shoulder riding in the fields to work. Kids running on the side of the road playing with smiles on their faces. It was cool out this morning, 68 degrees. I hope it stays this way but it was very humid. Lots of people ride to work in the morning on motorcycles today. I saw about ten guys with sawed off shotguns hanging around their neck on the motorcycles. Off they go to work as security guards at stores and banks. Pretty wild to see. No one bothers them, it’s completely legal. Maybe I should get one so no one will mess with me.I took a few peeks at the shotguns while passing them and they’re riding with the guns empty.

Women in the rivers washing clothes like my grandmother used to do in Europe. Refreshing to watch that. I like it. I passed a few rivers and they were all crystal clear. “Board ferry” my GPS says in 5 Km’s. Weird. I guess I’m about to cross a big river and I hope the line isn’t long. As I pull up to the dirt road there’s about 15 cars waiting. I sneak past them all and the boat is about to take off from shore. The man on the back of the boat waves me on and I gun it! I made it on with seconds to spare. I park it and pay the 5 Q’s. That’s what we’re calling the money here. It was about $1 USD. It takes about 2 minutes to get across the river and already people are driving off. The temps are still nice and cool. I was thinking about stopping for a swim but I might actually get cold from being wet.

Somewhere along the drive I decided to change my mind. I’ve been to too many small mountain villages for there to only be nothing. I was going mainly for a cute hostel and a river but sometimes the river isn’t what it shows on google maps. I bail on the small mountain village. I’m not sure what time I changed my mind but I hit Lake Atitlan on google maps and it says 5:45 arrival time with a 9.5 hour ride to go. Shit i’ll be there in the dark. Game on google I will beat your time. I got up into the mountains and there was a ton of road work where we had to wait for traffic to pass. It was hot here and we waited about 15 minutes 2 separate times. The roads were shit since there was gravel in the turns and I almost ate it a few times with the back end washing out. One part of the road went from dirty asphalt to light gravel which I didn’t notice until a turn was coming up. I locked my rear wheel up for maybe 80-100 feet and I thought that it was going to eat this mountain granite wall in a few seconds. I let off the brakes and downshifted into first and got back on the brakes lightly since my ABS isn’t working and started to steer to the right a bit and I made it. Luck or skill…who cares!

I stopped for lunch and got half a roasted chicken with potatoes and a coke. I stopped a few minutes later for an ice cream at which a few people surrounded my bike staring at it mind blown. Onwards. GPS now says 4:45. The day is going well. Music is blasting in my helmet, life is good, weather is lovely, the views are lovely. People keep waving and throwing up the peace sign and thumbs up. Man Guatemala is good. Then the messages start coming in. Everyone knows I’m in Guatemala now. A few people are telling me to be careful in South America. Cool guys, I’m not in South America, I’m in Central America. Oh and you’re going to give me advice about being careful in a country that you don’t even know what continent it’s in? Oh and let me guess you have never even been to Guatemala. Correct.

I’m getting sick of people telling me to be careful in a country they have never stepped foot in. They just watch the news and make up their own minds about what’s going on. It’s getting quite annoying. Stop believing what you see on tv and get out there and experience it yourself. Until you break down in front of a house in Mexico for an hour and the owner comes out with free food and offering any sort of help while he doesn’t even have a front door on his clay house don’t tell me im gonna be murdered here. The people are so helpful everywhere. Sure there’s some bad people here and there but we have them in Brooklyn too.

Anyway as I was about 1:30 away from Lake Atitlan I was in a little town and there was some traffic. I stopped in it and decided to creep up on one side of the road to get past it. I got as far as I could before I couldn’t move anymore and then I decided to turn my bike off since it looks like no one moved for a while. Something felt weird and smelled weird. I looked down and noticed coolant was shooting out of my reservoir about a foot in the air getting all over my bike and tank bag. FUCK. I turned my bike back on and the fan finally kicked on cooling the coolant temp from 225 to 200. I have a feeling I have an issue with the coolant because it’s never done this before I brought it to the mechanic in the Bronx to get the coolant changed before the trip. About ten minutes later the same thing happened. Coolant started to boil and the fan kicked on too late and another geyser moment. Now we’re in trouble. My temps skyrocketed past 200 to 225 in an instant the second time which is not normal. I  made my way through traffic as best as I could and luckily the ride to the lake was all downhill from here so my bike wouldn’t overheat again. But coolant boiling is a really really bad sign. I’ll have to deal with that asap once I get to my hostel. I got to the lake about 45 minutes later and checked in. I parked the bike in a parking lot that cost me $6 USD for the night.

I’ll do my research on it later on. I’m too stressed out by it and I don’t want it to ruin my arrival at this beautiful lake. I go for a walk down to the lake and give Grandpa Yak a call. We chatted for a bit about the lake and the bike and I feel better now. I go for a walk around the small town and get some ice cream, exchange money and get an incredible dinner I got lucky finding. I talked to a few paragliding places about renting gear to go flying but no one has their own gear or it’s a bit too sporty for me. Yak told me he met some friends here on his trip 5 years ago so he connected me with them and I went over to their house to meet them a few blocks away. They have been traveling on bikes for a long long time and own a website where they sell dog products. They wanted to take their German Shepard on trips and no one sold dog baskets big enough for her so they started to design cages for motorcycles for people to take their dogs with them. They’ve sold over 100 in the last few years to people all over the world.

Their next trip is going to be from Guatemala to Alaska and then Toronto. Then they will ship the bikes to Europe and ride to Morocco where they will head to Cape Town on the western coast of Africa and then they will ride the eastern coast of Africa all the way to Egypt. Then they will cross back over to Europe and ride to Asai, ship to Brazil from there and ride back to Guatemala. They already did the US to Argentina a while ago. And this is all with their dog. I can’t wait to ride Africa and the Middle East to Asia as well. Their trip sounds incredible and it will take a few years, they assume. I can’t wait to follow their adventure.

I got asked a certain question last night. How did I like Mexico. I paused for a moment, they made a funny face and I said it was phenomenal. I passed. Every person they meet has been asked that question and whoever says they didn’t like it usually has a bad trip on their way to Argentina, their trip just plain old sucks or they give up and go back home. That makes sense. Mexico is a good break in period for this trip. If you can’t have fun in Mexico then go back home and don’t travel because you have no idea what you’re doing. We both agreed on that. I can’t wait to go back to Mexico and really see every corner of it for months another winter. There’s so much to see! We chatted nonstop for three hours about so much. I’m pretty sure I just cost them about 2 grand in new gear since they showed me their camping gear and it was quite old, large and bulky. But my new gear recommendations should make their trips way easier since it will all pack up smaller. I seem to do that to everyone I meet on the road. I got lucky with my gear selection!

We called it a night at 10pm and I went back to my hostel. I did some research on the overheating issue and it seems like the mechanic that did the coolant flush in the Bronx didn’t bleed the system properly and there might be air in the lines. Hopefully that is the issue because if not then I have some really really big issues to worry about. I’ll rip the bike apart in the morning and see what I can do!

Bart who I met up with at the Hostel last night.

The ferry across a small river I took today.

A little walkway in Panajachel

A mountain pass from Flores to Panajachel. We stopped a few times for roadwork and this was the view.

Leaving Flores at 6:30ish AM

Somewhere along the ride today.

 

Wild cloud on my ride to Flores

The little alleyway they made me drive through at the border.

Praying they’ll let me out of Belize only staying one night since they require 3.

My hostel in Belize.

Riding to big rock waterfall in Belize

Big rock waterfall. Oh and me. Hi!

The dirt road on the way out of pine mountain reserve. The mud was slippery like ice. Naturally I ate it once.

My ride up into Pine Mountain Reserve. It was lovely as you can see.

The gypsies I met tonight from Belgium and Israel.

Rio on the pools from the viewpoint.

Rio on the pools.
Big rock waterfall again.

My bike at the viewpoint.

The water was so clear at Rio.

Rio

My huge order of food at the hostel. Chicken and shrimp with rice, two smoothies, a coke, a croissant filled with Nutella and an OJ. Im fat.

 

 

Free ruins in Belize next to my hostel

The woman who waited 45 minutes for her battery to charge to take two pictures of my bike at the Mexican to Belize border.

My first Belize lunch. Simple and delicious

View from my hostel while I work on the site

Walk back down the hill from the ruins to my hostel

The people I went out to dinner with tonight while we all hung out in the lobby.

 

 

 

Day 42  12/7/2021

Odometer     28,760 – 28,780—– 20  Miles  (6100 Miles Total)

Bacalar, Mexico

Well no one got home at a decent time last night. But the crew wanted to party hard last night since it was their last night here. Yannick packed up and left in the morning. I said my goodbyes and I’m going to miss him. The girls were in town till 11pm since either bus was an overnighter to Palenque. And I still wasn’t ready to leave so I’m staying another night! WOOOOOO!!!!! The sun is what I’ve been dreaming of next to water for a while so I’m taking advantage of it while I can. Last night was our last night in the hotel and I wasn’t paying $50 for a night myself so Kimelen made a call to the woman she was renting a room from and I scored a room next to hers for $300 pesos. Perfect. We all left our stuff in the hotel lobby while we got breakfast and dropped off laundry. We all met up at Cocalitos which was a beach/bar next to one of the cenotes on the lake with the hammocks in the water. We paid 50 pesos each to get in and that  was our day. Luckily I had my hammock so we didn’t have to wait for one of the hammocks set up in the water. I set mine up and we shared it between ourselves for the day. The water was crystal clear and it was actually warm which was incredible. That was the next 6 hours of our day.

We had some good convos between the four of us. Kimelen loved the girls. I did too. They are like little sisters to me. I was like a hawk watching over them every night for some shit head guys that might annoy them or do whatever shit head guys do to women at bars and clubs. But they took good care of themselves. After we saw the sunset we all went out to Mr Taco. My stomach was acting up a bit at the end of the beach day but it didn’t seem too odd to me since it was off a bit here and there. At dinner it got worse, I couldn’t eat my food. Kimelen took me to a pharmacy and got me some pills. I had the worst diarrhea ever. TMI…whatever…it’s my journal. It was like a hose shooting out of my ass. I knew I was in trouble. I took the pills. I was hoping this wouldn’t screw up my day tomorrow since I was leaving as well and heading to Belize.

The girls wanted to sleep in my room until they took the bus so I went over to the hotel and transported their bags which weighed as much as my bike and brought them to my new home. Right after I was done with that I fell apart. I had a really really high fever. I’m assuming it was 103-103.5. Kimelen took care of me while I was in and out of the bathroom every 5 minutes. I drank two bottles of pedialyte and she gave me some pills for the fever. I was so out of it I barely remember the girls saying bye to me. I had  cold sweats and my stomach was turning inside out. I told Kimelen to go to bed at about midnight. I felt bad watching her sit next to me with a towel on my head for hours upon hours while I was just dying. She’s such a sweetheart. I got up at about 2:45 although I don’t remember what time I fell asleep. Maybe 1am.

I was hallucinating really badly when I woke up at 2:45. I remember checking the time on my Garmin watch and then I tried to get up to go to the bathroom but there was a pathway about 15 minutes I remember taking to get to the bed and before I started that trek there was a river next to the bed. I couldn’t do it. It was too much work to go to the bathroom. I laid in bed staring at the river next to the bed and was so confused. Why the hell was in a bed in the middle of the forest next to a river 15 minutes away from the bathroom. I laid back down and woke up at about 5 and as soon as I opened my eyes I wanted to cry. It was all gone. I felt much better. Fever was gone, my stomach had sharp pains from being bone dry but I think it was all behind me. I’m not sure if it was food I ate, or ice cubes in the water. I also swallowed water from the lake and the river the last few days doing flips into it so it may have been that. But god damn after this i’m going to watch out what I eat for sure because I don’t want to relive that ever again and especially without a babysitter.

Me and Marianne are living our best lives.

Living the dream
The girls

So happy

My last dinner before I got sick

Ill miss this lovely hotel

The girls enjoying a nice breakfast with live music

Scrambled eggs with goat cheese and salmon.

 

 

The “Pirate Ship” at Pirates Cove

The water really was this blue. I promise

Unbelievable. This is where I took a bunch of pictures of the crew.

The hotel getting their Christmas decorations out.

The dock two blocks from our hotel leading to the lake

The crew on the boat tour at pirates cove.

The start of the boat tour

The view walking out of my hotel for my morning run.

Eyyyy they finally took some shots of me!

Hi!

I told Yanni to play charades and tell us he’s a mountain.

The look on our faces when we saw the menu again. This restaurant was incredible!

The girls dancing at Che Hostel

 

 

Day 40  12/5/2021

Odometer     28,760 – 28,780—– 20  Miles  (6080 Miles Total)

Bacalar, Mexico

We lounged around all morning at the hotel. The girls decided we were going to go to a crystal clear blue river that came off of the lake in town. Sounds good to me! We walked down the block to a little cafe with live music. Little did I know I would be eating here two times a day for the rest of the trip. They have live music all day as you’ve probably seen me post on IG every morning. All the food here is so delicious and so cheap. The girls got a taxi with Yannick and we picked up another member of the team Kimelen! She said she loved bikes so the hotel owner got us a helmet and she hopped on for the 10 minute ride down the block.

We had a few things planned for the rest of the day after the river but once we all showed up those plans went right out the door. We decided to just stay there for the next 6 hours and soak in the sun while swimming and having a great old time. There was a lovely lawn next to the river, rope swings, lines going across to hold on to. Naturally we were all fun seekers so we started to search for some trees we could climb up really high to jump off of into the river. I got up about 12′ on one and threw my second backflip into the water! The girls were doing gymnastics off the dock into the water singing and laughing all day long. The sun was so warm while we were trying to hide from it at times in the shade of the palm trees while the music from Mariannes speaker was blasting some good music all day, until WAP came on and the look on Kimelens face was priceless when she heard the words!  Mariely I thought of you from our trip to Florida when I first heard this trash! HAHA

I took my drone up and almost crashed it into the trees over the water trying to get a shot of the river which came out great. It was such a nice day to lounge around. It’s what I’ve been looking forward to for over a year now. Just hanging out somewhere warm in the winter getting tan without a care in the world. The only worry was not applying enough sunscreen for the day and getting burned. I did it, I was living the dream. The amount of times I looked at my surroundings and just smiled like a child blew my mind. I felt like I was doing it every hour or more all day long the last few days. What the hell was I thinking being all anxious and stressed out about this trip weeks ago. Was it the company I had now? Maybe. These girls have so much happiness and freedom in them it’s so refreshing. I used to have that but I feel like my last relationship sucked all the life out of me a year and a half ago. I want to be more like these girls and I’m getting back there slowly. The happy Marko that was so happy it almost annoyed everyone! I think that’s the next thing I will work on. I need something to work on for this trip and it seems like the perfect timing to get the old Marko back.

Kimelen kept saying how she loves these girls because of how much energy they have and how happy they are as well. Everyone sees it! Who wouldn’t want to hang out with them? I’m going to be sad when we split up tomorrow.

We found a trampoline on the lawn next to the river and it was Kimelens’ first time on one. I couldn’t hold back and tried to give her a big boost on her third bounce and almost shot her off into space. I scared the hell out of her! Back to the water where we all kept cooling off for the rest of the day. We decided it was time to head out and go back to the lake to watch the sunset. We got some tacos and went down to the lake on a dock to catch the sunset. LOVELY!

Afterwards Kimelen split up from their group since she’s been staying in hostels and she finally has her own private room so she went home to enjoy her privacy in her room alone, or she was really just sick of us and wanted a reason to ditch us! The old gang went out for ice cream and crepes in the center right near our hotel. Then we went for a walk down to Che hostel to see if anything good was going on down there. We got there and it was pretty quiet for a Sunday night so they got some drinks and we played a few rounds of shithead. I lost every game, ugh. We were all exhausted from a day at the water so we all slowly made our way back home. On the way back we stopped at a bar to see what was going on. Yannick and Marianne dropped the old “let’s just get one beer” line. Caroline and I decided to split off from them and head home ourselves. We know they were just going to have one beer. Thankfully we know them pretty well by now too know what they’ll end up doing for the night. We got home, cleaned up, turned up the AC and I worked on the blog for a bit while she chatted with her boyfriend and we were both snoozing pretty early thankfully.

Here comes a ton of portrait shots of everyone!

Drone shots of us hanging out next to the lake

Marianne living her best life.

 

Day 39  12/4/2021

Odometer     28,580 – 28,760—– 180  Miles  (6060 Miles Total)

Tulum, Mexico – Bacalar, Mexico

I went out partying with the kids last night. I got home at 2am. 4am Caroline decided to jump on me in bed since she was a drunk child. I heard Yannik yelling at her to cut the shit and I fell right back asleep thankfully. They got home at 4am and Marianne strolled into the hostel at about 10am. I don’t know how they do it. Actually I do. One night out till 4am, the next two nights off recovering. Smart. I got up at 8, threw my running shoes on and went out for a 3 mile jog. It was a nice little tour of the city in the morning while everyone was out starting their day. My knee started to act up at 2.25 miles like it always does so I just made it to three miles and called it a day on that. Breakfast was delicious at the hostel and the kids started to get up slowly and pack up. We booked an Airbnb in Bacalar about 3 hours south or west of Tulum whatever direction you’d call it. Everyone had different plans when we were leaving Tulum. I sat on the hammock after breakfast and relaxed while editing pics on my laptop. I airdropped some pictures I took of them which they loved. I feel like my photography skills are getting very good in the last month. I’m really happy with the results! Marianne walked in around 10 so I went out and grabbed her a smoothie since she was still drunk. I loaded up the bike slowly, said bye to everyone I met there that wasn’t continuing traveling with us and hit the road!

I felt sad leaving everyone in Tulum. It was a great batch of people. Tom was a tall Canadian man with long hair with a hell of a personality. He was so funny all day long and got along with everyone. Some other dutch people all blended into the group very well. The girls and guys that worked at the hostel had a grand time as well. I was happy to see Yannick, Caroline and Marianne later on tonight since we would sure have a good time. The ride was pretty nice. Partly cloudy skies and 88 degrees. The first two hours were weird since I had no service and it was just a long long straight road. Happy I didn’t break down.

Once I got to Bacalar it seemed like a deserted city which was quite the difference from Tulum. I checked into the hotel/Airbnb and it was very clean and beautiful. I unloaded the bike and went out on the search for oil so I could do my second oil change on the trip. I had to go all the way to Chetumal which was 35 minutes to the guy who sold me the tubes a few days ago. He hooked me up with 3 liters of oil I needed that I couldn’t find anywhere else. Once I got back to the Airbnb the owner let me park my bike out front and even brought me something to catch the oil in. I stripped the bike apart, changed the oil, looked over a few things and threw the bike back in the driveway so I can head back down to the beach for the sunset.

I was covered in sweat and got eaten alive by red ants while working on the bike so I was dying to get in the water. I got down there, jumped in the water and went for a good swim. Laying on the dock I met a girl named Kimelen from Argentina and was asking her about the weather in Argentina. She says it doesn’t snow in Ushuaia until about July so I have plenty of time to get down there and not worry about the snow slowing me down. We met a couple from the Netherlands. Bart and his girlfriend. I can’t for the life of me remember her name. We were all chatting for a while watching the sunset. Bart and his girlfriend quit their jobs recently, submitted their apartment at home and decided to hit the road until they felt it was time to go back. A few months maybe, they weren’t sure yet. Bart was kind enough to invite us to dinner. I was happy about that since my friends weren’t in town yet. I wasn’t sure if the girls were even going to make it since they texted me saying they might not be able to catch the bus since their bags were so big and the bus was so small.

I went home and cleaned up and walked down to the fancy restaurant Bart found. I was the first one there and asked for a table of 6 since Yannick finally made it to town but a few minutes later there were about 13 of us at the table. Some of Bart’s friends he made at the hostel showed up and a few other people that other people knew showed up. We had a lovely dinner. The seafood was incredible. One of the best meals I’ve had in Mexico. Bart came over to our side of the table and asked Kimelen a ton of questions about Argentina. Man this guy has some knowledge in his head and is very well traveled. I wish I could think of these questions to ask but I couldn’t ever think of them. He knows how to learn about a place with the questions he asks. I want to be more like Bart.

After dinner we all went to Che hostel for a little party. Everyone was dancing and drinking. I took some pictures of everyone as well as I could with the lighting. Spoke to Bart for a little while and then he and his girlfriend had to leave since they were catching a bus to San Cristobal for a day or two and then Guatemala. I only met him for a few hours but was sad to see him leave. I started to chat with Kimelen after finding out her story. She’s kind of a big dancer in Argentina and quit her job, got rid of her apartment, sold most of her things and decided to travel for a while. She told me she’s only been traveling for about ten days now and how new she is to all of this. I was listening to all of her emotions about the trip and how she felt and to my surprise it’s the same ones I had in the beginning. It’s nice to hear some other people feel the same way in the beginning and it’s not just me. The smile on her face was priceless hearing her talk about how much freedom there is and how much fun her whole trip has been so far. I bet she hasn’t smiled like that in a while at home. We had a nice deep conversation about life for a while and then we decided to go for a walk down to the lake and watch the stars for a bit since the moon was finally gone for one of the first times in my trip and the stars were so bright! Yannick was in the corner making out with a girl so he was fine on his own.

We took a walk down to the dock where we met Bart and just chatted for a bit about life and I was trying to explain to her what feelings she might expect on the rest of her trip and just some traveling tips since she’s completely new to this. I feel like an experienced traveler after giving her all this information. Maybe I am? We split up and went home after a bit and I called it a night. What a lovely first day in Bacalar.

Roadside chicken and a coke on my ride to Bacalar.

Doing my oil change in front of the hotel in Bacalar.

A hell margarita at La Playita restaurant.

Sunset at the lake

Bart and Kimelen chatting on the dock

Kimelen and Barts girlfriend chatting at Che Hostel while Bart is eyeing something down in the background.

 

 

 

 

The girls took full advantage of my photography. Marianne climbing out of the first cenote we went to for the day. Grand Cenote

Using me some more for my camera.

I got busted taking shots of them jumping into the cenote. I was supposed to pay 200 pesos for taking pictures but they never got my money.

Yannick contemplating his life choices and how he got on the back of a scooter with a crazy Canadian!

Yannick shot at being a model.

Caroline, Yannick and Marianne at the second Cenote.

A shot of me working on my bike in front of the hostel with no success in fixing my ABS and Traction control!

Tom giving his best shot at being a model on the swing at one of the cenotes. He crushed it! haha

Everyone climbing out after we all dove in for the 20th time.

Riding home from Crossfit in the morning. Way to hot and sweaty to put a shirt on!

Caroline got on the back of my bike for a ride to the denotes with everyone else behind us!

The water at the denotes were so blue and clear. No editing here!

Tom after he came back from the beach. He came with us to the lagoon but had to turn around because he was going to run out of gas. So he went to the beach instead after he filled up.

Pre gaming at the hostel before we all went out at 11pm. The hostel cat was so cute I might steal him and throw him on my bike with me!

Maarten from Belgium sneaking in a shot of me working on the blog while they’re all having a good time.  Caroline sneaks up behind me filling up my 6th Pina colada for the night. Thanks girl!

Free breakfasts at Mamas Hostel in Tulum.

The crew lounging out at the lagoon while recovering from the mushroom microdose! I learned how to do proper handstands here on the edge after going over a few times into the water. Thanks Marianne and Caroline for the coaching!