Category: Uncategorized

The Germans and Canadians figuring out where were going to sleep the next night.

Talking shit and drinking!

Swinging in the hammock at my hostel  enjoying a peaceful moment

Going out for a walk in the town exploring a bit.

 

 

Day 36  12/1/2021

Odometer   27,845 – 28,535 —— 690  Miles  (5835 Miles Total)

San Cristobal De Las Casas – Tulum, Mexico

I started out on this trip wanting an adventure and I sure got one today.

I got up at 5:30 today. Thankfully the fireworks weren’t going all night. I threw my bike in a parking garage last night in case those shit heads decided to steal my bike as well overnight. I hit the road at 6:20am. I took the long route to Tulum. Saw a lovely sunrise over the mountains near San Cristobal and suddenly the desert turned into thick lush forests with low fog and rain. When I left San Cristobal it was 45 degrees and it quickly turned into 75 and humid as can be. Slowly the temps creeped up to 95 which it stayed at for the rest of the day.

The ride in the morning through the jungle was a cool experience. I have never ridden in a thick jungle like that before in my life. The humidity and low fog and clouds on the hillsides were incredible. The small villages with everyone taking care of each other, growing all their food in the backyard on their farms. Everyone was just hanging out in their driveways enjoying a leisurely life. It was beautiful. I got off the busy main roads and my GPS took me through a 30 mile twisty road in a light drizzle and it was quite slippery on the roads. The views I saw there were lovely. I wish I could have pulled over to take some pictures but I didn’t since I was rushing a bit today.

When I left San Cristobal my GPS said 14 hours and my arrival time was 9:48pm. I was planning on stopping at a town 10 hours away where I saw some ruins on google and it would be an easy day but the more I rode I noticed I was shaving a lot of time off my 14 hour trip. Every three hours of riding I would knock an hour off my ETA. At one point I was supposed to get there at 6:48pm. THREE HOURS OFF MY ETA. I figured I’ll keep pushing hard to try to make it to Tulum right after sunset. Most of the ride was boring after I got out of the jungle portion of the drive. Just straight roads that reminded me of being in the everglades of Florida. I was doing 80-85 for hours upon hours. I stopped for fuel twice, didn’t eat a single thing all day and had maybe a cup of water out of my camelbak at noon. I was really excited to get to Tulum today and have an extra day here so I didn’t want to lose any time for anything.

I was getting closer to the 6:30pm arrival time. I was pretty bored and threw my legs up on the crash bars to stretch them out, I took a picture and typed up “definitely one of the most boring rides of my entire life” and as I was hitting post on Instagram I was slowing down for a speed bump and boom my front end started wobbling like crazy. Fuck. I got a flat. Literally the second after I hit the post button on IG my front tire blew out. So much for one of the most boring rides of my life. I almost crashed with all the weight of the bike on the front wheel slowing down for the speed bump and I was slowly heading into oncoming traffic. I got the bike turned to the right a bit and pulled off the road.

Well thankfully I went to auto zone and replaced the bare minimum of my tools needed to change a flat if I got one. Number one rule is always be prepared to fix a flat. Well I guess I wasn’t making it to Tulum at sunset. I wanted to try to beat my 20 minute record I set in Monterey in the beginning of the trip. I got the front wheel off ASAP, sprayed lube on the tire, popped it off, slapped the new tube in and when I tried to fill it up with air it had a leak. OH NO! I pulled it out and realized the guy who sold me the tube yesterday sold me a tube with two holes in it. Well shit. I bought a patch kit for a super rare emergency like this. I pulled out the patch kit which I’ve never used before on a motorcycle tube and figured I had a better shot at patching the old tube and not the new one.

I put the patch on and threw it back in the tire, filled it up with air and no good. It was leaking again. It did not seal right and folded up in the tire when I filled it with air. I realized I was screwed at this point. I scrambled to call my friend Alex who speaks Spanish and sent him to a few motorcycle shops nearby about 45 minutes away in a large city. He called a few shops and found a guy that had tubes in the shop and would deliver them to me for $120 USD. Not bad but not great. He sent me his number and I called Jesus. Jesus said he would come at about 8PM. No good, I couldn’t wait on the side of the road for another 4 hours and then fix it. Pretty sketchy in my opinion. I don’t want to be on the side of a deserted road at dark and then I definitely wouldn’t get to Tulum. I said get over here as soon as you can, which was still 8pm for him.

I wasn’t going to sit there and let time pass. I pulled out the patch kit and ripped the tire off the rim again. I cleaned up the tube with brake cleaner and applied a bunch of rubber cement on the tube and then slapped the patch on. I pressed my knee cap on the patch for about 5 minutes and then slowly put it back in the rim. I filled it up and I couldn’t believe it. It held air! I didn’t go too high on the pressure initially and decided I would leave it at that and limp into town to the guy’s shop to get the tubes. I cleaned everything up, loaded the bike up and rode into the city Chetumal. Jesus hooked me up with two heavy duty tubes for $500 pesos and I decided I would ride to Tulum on this patched tube. If I changed it in Chetumal I wouldn’t make it into Tulum till about 9pm. But if I did get a flat on the way to Tulum I would be changing it on the side of a busy highway with no shoulder in the dark and there’s a ton of cartel around here. I took my chances and hit the road. The rest of the 3 hour ride felt like forever. I was praying every minute that my front wheel wouldn’t start wobbling again which would mean I had another flat. Slowly I made it to Tulum. About 45 minutes out it starts to rain. This day just isn’t getting any better. My clothes were covered in grease and lube from the tire removal. My hands were covered in grease, my face was soaked from sweating because I did the work in my motorcycle pants and boots. I was over it. I needed a bed, AC, food and water. It was down pouring for the rest of the ride. The inside of my helmet visor was covered in dead bugs and dirt from the last few days of exploring. I couldn’t see shit it was terrible. I made it into town and of course it’s been raining here for a few days so the streets were flooded. Water was everywhere. My bags were gonna be soaked when I pulled them into the hostel and I was going to make a mess. Oh well.

I got to the hostel and was so thrilled to finally be here. I met a nice guy at the counter who is from Nashville. I’ll be teaching him how to skydive next summer after our chat! hah

I dropped my stuff here, showered, went out for two dinners, cokes, OJ, chocolate cake and shot back to the hostel to write this up. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I have a feeling there’s something sharp on my front rim so I’m gonna wrap the center of the rim with some sort of tape tomorrow, sand down the inside of the rim as well and then reinstall the new tube that doesn’t have a patch on it. I might also do an oil change and check up on everything on the bike before I head to Belize in a few days. Would be very happy to also lay on the beach for a day or two with some Mezcal sours after today’s events. I’m very happy I’m here safe and sound and the bike is ok. Today could have been much worse. I was on the road today at 6:30am and got here at exactly 8pm. It’s been one hell of a long day at 690 miles.

They just shut down the hangout area at the hostel so it’s time for me to take an edible and pass the hell out hard tonight in this lovely AC. I’ll wake up tomorrow and post some pictures before I head off to Crossfit. Night Y’all! <3

 

 

Day 35  11/30/2021

Odometer   27,835 – 27,845——10  Miles  (5145 Miles Total)

San Cristobal De Las Casas

Theres a festival about to happen here in San Cristobal.

Ask me how I know.

Well from 8pm – 8am there’s fireworks going off. Literally. I don’t know why these people stay up all night long to shoot off the same boring fireworks that don’t even explode at the top. Well they do but no show just noise. We barely got any sleep with these explosions going off every single minute.

We got up around 8 or so and decided to burn off some of that food we ate the last week. When we walked outside I looked at my bike and something looked different in a tenth of a second. I walked up to my bike and everything was missing that I usually leave on my bike overnight.

Toolbag, tools, spare parts like wheel bearings, yeti bottle, solar lanterns for camping, camping stove, cooking pan, both front and rear extra motorcycles tubes in a expensive waterproof bag,  fuel stabilizers, and a god damn microfiber towel. All in all about $1200 of stuff no one will be able to use for the most part. I bet they walked down the block, went through it all and threw it in a trash can.

I was fuming most of the morning. We made it out to Crossfit and that got rid of some of my bad energy from the morning. I was in a rush all day ordering parts to get shipped to a friends place in NY so whoever is coming down here next can bring them to me. I went to Autozone in town and bought some tools. Bare minimum to get my bike fixed if I get a flat. My biggest issue is they took my bead breaker for my tires. If I get a flat I have to pop the tire off of the rim since its sort of locked in there and then I can remove it to change the tube. They don’t sell things like that here so ill have to use the old school method of using my kickstand to pop the bead which I’m sure will be a huge pain in the ass. Im praying someone comes down here asap and can bring them. We got some breakfast, took Lilly to a medical center because she got hit by a car.

Joking, she took a covid test so she can fly home in the morning. I found an internet shop and I paid to get some decent wifi. I got to upload pictures to the blog that I haven’t been able to upload in a week because of the internet and how slow its been everywhere. I have a feeling its only going to get worse the more south I go.

We went out for some Peruvian food. I think its safe to stay its my favorite food ever. Such clean tasty protein and its been so cheap. After dinner walked around and did some more Christmas shopping for friends at home at the city center. I bought a Baja Sweater its called. Just a fancy little knitted sweater they sell all over Mexico. I totally look like a local now.

Tomorrow I have a 16 hour ride to Tulum. I  decided as of this morning I’m going to take the dangerous road. Route 199 hoping someone would mess with me because I have a lot of anger to get rid of after this morning events. But after cooling off a bit more I think I’m going to play it smart for once and take the long “safer” road to Tulum. I hope I like this part of Mexico. All I hear is drugs, cartel and expensive hotels. Im gonna get up at 5:30 and hit the road. Ill probably camp ten hours into the ride in the middle of Yucatan Mexico from looking at the map. Well see what happens. Time for bed as I have a long long long day of blasting over speed bumps all day tomorrow. Sorry suspension and everything else attached to my bike.

I will try to upload pictures either tomorrow but if were being realistic here till be in three weeks with the internet situation.

 

 

Day 34  11/29/2021

Odometer   27,714 – 27,835 ——121  Miles  (5135 Miles Total)

Cintalapa – San Cristobal De Las Casas

So last night after I finished typing up the days events I found out we couldn’t make the hike to Arco because of heavy rains the last few days. I was pretty bummed as we revolved the last few days of our trip around this hike. So we made some other plans. We got breakfast with Lillys family before we left. She mentioned to her aunt that I was going to ride to Cancun after we part ways in San Cristobal. her aunt brought up how there’s a road through the mountains going to Cancun from San Cristobal where indigenous people block the road and ask for a decent amount of money from you to pass and there’s a chance of being kidnapped by them.

I popped open google, typed in route 199 in Mexico and of course it comes up. One of the most dangerous roads in Mexico. People have been killed, robbed and kidnapped on this road. Most busses that take this road have a armed truck following and leading the bus full our tourists to make it through the section. I also read that some people have gotten through this portion of the drive only paying 100 pesos to the people that stopped them. Being that I’m older now I should probably be smart and take the longer road to avoid all of this even though 199 looks like a blast to ride on with all the twisty turns on it. Theres a saying about Chiapas which is the region I’m in right now along with the dangerous roads. “You are entering Zapatista territory, where people rule and the government obeys.”

We made a 45 minute ride in the morning to Cascada El Aguacero. Lilly understood it was 124 steps to the bottom of the canyon where there was a waterfall and a huge canyon with a river flowing through it. It was quite the sketchy road to go down and if I got a bit wobbly on the bumpy dirt road covered with jagged rocks we would for sure have gone off the cliff to our deaths. We parked, paid 100 pesos and started the walk down. 124 steps later and the bottom of the gorge was nowhere to be seen. Im starting to think Lilly really isn’t Mexican and lied about it all because it seemed more like 1000 steps! Hah. Also good news for all my guy friends. I lost my speedo this morning rummaging through my luggage so no more speedo pictures on Instagram until I find a new pair down here!

We got to the bottom of this gorge a few minutes later and the view was incredible. 6-700 foot walls on either side, vertical, with a purely clean river flowing through the middle of it. We walked up a few hundred feet to find a huge waterfall dropping into the river as well. We walked all the way up under the waterfall crawling through small caves to access the waterfall where it was landing on some rocks. Got my daily shower in!

We hung out there for maybe 45 minutes admiring the views. The walls were stunning, birds flying in the thermals everywhere, the sun beating down on us through the clouds passing through and the river was actually warm. I don’t understand how water can be this clean without being freezing cold. Maybe its magic! We started our hike up and tried to count the steps. I got to 400 and gave up, Lilly hit 720 at the top. I think she’s a fraud. Who knows what she’s hearing people say to her in Spanish!

We got back on the bike and made it up the sketchy dirt road without riding off the edge. Our next destination was Sumidero Canyon. 1:40 minutes away. We rode near a city called Tuxtla and rode up into the mountains. We went from 1000′ ASL to 5000′ ASL I think if I recall correctly. The view of this canyon was insane. I wish you all could see it in person. It looked completely fake in front of my eyes. The rover flowing through the canyon was huge and the walls surrounding it were 3000′ tall. Pictures don’t even do it justice. When we walked up to the edge we noticed part of it was closed off with a camera crew. A few guys from France I believe set up a slackline from one side of the canyon to the other and they were going to try to walk the line across to the other side. The width of the canyon they were trying to walk was probably 3/4 of a mile. WILD! I hope they make it and I can’t wait to see the video. While we were just looking at the canyon I realized my friend Miles Daisher did a wingsuit BASE jump in this canyon a few years ago and landed in a boat in the river because the river is full of American crocodiles.

Next stop was San Cristobal about 2 hours away. We went from 1000′ elevation to about 7000′ on this ride on a highway through the mountains. The whole ride was pretty much climbing through the mountains and it got quite chilly which was nice since it was pretty hot the last few days. I almost ran out of gas but we made it. We got ourselves a hotel in San Cristobal where we will be for two nights until Lilly flys out and I start my ride to Cancun but I’m still undecided on it.

We went out for a walk, got a bunch of food, some snacks, did some shopping for friends at home, walked around some more and that was our night.

In other news. I was supposed to be taking a sailboat from Panama to Colombia since its one of the ways around the Darian Gap. I have been emailing the captain about dates and he told me he’s doing a trip December 20 and January 10th. I have been emailing him asking him to book my slot for the January 10th date. he finally replied to me yesterday saying that the owner of the boat is giving them issues and they won’t be having anymore tours until they find another boat. He says they found another one but the boat is being overhauled as we speak and he’s pretty certain there will be tours in January but he just doesn’t know when. Seems pretty unreliable to me so now another huge headache has opened up. I have to find a way to get my bike to Colombia VIA airplane hopefully which will be pretty expensive. Im hearing $1400-$2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 33  11/28/2021

Odometer  27,415 – 27,714 —— 299 Miles  (5014 Miles Total)

Puerto Escondido – Cintalapa

5014 Miles in 33 days. I can’t believe I’ve moved this much in the last month. Those are some big numbers!

Rolling out of bed this morning at 6:30 am was dumb but we had to get on the road early so I didn’t overheat on todays ride. My bike is packed to the max with Lilly and her things which means I can’t quite take any of my winter riding gear off and stick it in the top box where I normally have room. We were planning on having a 4 hour ride to Salina Cruz and hang there for the day at the beach and then finish the rest of the 5 hour ride the next day to Arco Del Tiempo.

I somehow managed to stick my riding boots and pants in the top box and was stuck with just my winter jacket for todays ride. As we were leaving today we saw about 10 other guys on bikes heading out as well in the morning but these guys had a support car with them. So lame! No sense of adventure!

We were on the road by 7:10am and had a 4 hour trip in front of us. It hit 90 degrees fairly quickly. The ride was nice, most of it by the ocean and then as well through the mountains on some more twisty roads. The scenery went from tropical to desert like once again which I didnt like. I had a feeling we weren’t going to like Salina Cruz and would have to continue to Arco Del Tiempo.

When we got to Salina Cruz the place was a deserted city for the most part. It was interesting to see the look on Lillys face. I said to her, All you guys ever see on instagram is the good stuff but this is what my ride is usually like. Hours and hours of riding to get to a spot that wasn’t as pretty as I thought it would be or the middle stopping point was kinda creepy with no food to be had anywhere. We decided to search for food as it was 11am and we haven’t eaten anything yet to discuss what we were going to do since this city was not fun to be in.

We eventually found a place for some delicious tacos, horchata and another coke. We decided to finish off the drive to Arco which was another 5 hours. Wish we could have figured this out before we left Puerto so we could have spent another day there but its just the way life goes on the road! We filled up on fuel and got back on the road. We were fighting 30-40 mph cross winds which was super annoying for the first 90 minutes. My helmet was nearly getting ripped off my head from the wind grabbing my visor on my helmet.

4 hours later we got to the destination as we shaved a lot of time of the GPS ETA. We ended up stopping at Lillys Uncles house in Cintalapa where we got some home made food. We went out to exchange some money since we were both out of it. We got a little tour of the city and their ranch that they own. They hooked us up with a tour guide for Arco. I cant wait to show you guys pictures tomorrow of this place were going to go! It’s going to be a 10 mile hike in the jungle with some repelling involved in a huge gorge with a clean blue river flowing through it. We’re still waiting on final word if we’re able to get permits to do the hike. If we get the permit we’re gonna be up at 5am to do a 1 hour motorcycle ride up a nasty dirt road to start the hike at 8am and we will hopefully be back in our hotel room by 9PM. Its gonna be a long day!

 

Day 32  11/27/2021

Odometer  27,395 – 27,415 —— 20 Miles  (4,705 Miles Total)

Puerto Escondido

We woke up pretty early to get a full beach day in. Lilly has a flight out on Tuesday which I’m begging her to change until Wednesday so we can spend an extra day in Puerto Escondido so so have time for a hike in this huge gorge on Monday and Tuesday. We were eating breakfast by 8am at this lovely little cafe by the beach and on the beach before 9am. We found this cool little cove down the block from our hotel room where the water was super calm. We dropped the towels down, I lathered up in sunscreen and that was pretty much our day until 3pm.

Lilly found a guy selling fresh cold coconuts for 50 pesos each. These coconuts must have have 1.5 liters of coconut water in them as they were the size of a huge pumpkin. I can’t believe how cheap they were. We brought the first ones back to throw out as we were going to order a second round and they chopped them up for us and fed us the meat from the inside. The sun was so strong and the water was so clear it was perfect.

We were waiting for our friends Tom and Sasha to land from Oaxaca. They found a guy who owned a Cessna 182 to fly them from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido for a few hundred American which wasn’t a bad deal considering the only other way for them to get there was a overnight 10-12 hour bus ride through the twisty roads we took. We got word that they didnt crash in the mountains so we shot over to their side of town to hang with them. We ate some delicious food, my stomach and Sashas stomachs were killing us but Toms and Lillys were fine. Bastards.

As usual my stomach and jaws hurt from smiling and laughing so much just chatting with them. We went for a long swim, body surfed a few waves in and watched the sunset. We went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for some Peruvian restaurant they heard great things about. of course there was a line of about 20 people outside of the restaurant but we waited to get a table and my god was it worth it!

We got 5 dishes of ceviche, tuna tartar, a solid chunk of seared blackfish and a bunch of mezcal sours (they are my new favorite drink by far). This restaurant was so much fun. The ground of the restaurant was just dirt, the waiters and waitresses and anyone that worked there were barefoot. They had some lovely music playing and at any point the waiters would just grab a girl from a table they were waiting and dance with them in the middle of the restaurant. People were also dancing all over the restaurant. Tom made friends with a group from Turkey residing in San Francisco now and they started a dance train where pretty much 25-30 people from the restaurant joined in. The energy this place has was incredible I just never wanted to leave. It was one of the best nights of the trip for sure with the energy! I danced for the third time in my life and I wasn’t even that drunk! We just hung out at the restaurant ordering more drinks until about midnight and we parted ways. I was so sad to leave them and Puerto!

I told them before I left that I was only a month into my trip and they were my favorite couple ill probably meet on my whole trip. I don’t see anyone being able to top them! Sasha and Tom if you’re reading this you guys are so much fun and have the best energy. You’re a pure comedy show. I love you two!

Days and nights like these are what makes me want to do this forever. Those days of anxiety about traveling and everything I was worried about are completely gone and they will not be coming back at all on this trip. While we were sitting on the beach and at dinner I said to them this is what life is about. I don’t understand how people can be stuck in New York traffic for hours in the morning and evening just working to pay for rent, buy things on amazon and be stuck in their routine. It made me really sad to think about all my friends at home doing the same old thing instead of being here in Puerto dancing their night away drinking mezcal sours and eating seared blackfish after a long day of laying on the beach in 95 degree weather with the only worry for the day was making sure you have enough sunscreen on. Today makes me want to stay on the road for years. What am I going to go back home for? Work, cold weather, New York traffic. Nothings going to change back there. Life is great down here. Maybe I’ll buy an apartment down here and live the good life like everyone else. Walking around barefoot all day long with a surfboard strapped to the side of my motorcycle soaking in the sun. It doesn’t sound like a bad life at all. I think the locals here have it all figured out.

 

Day 31  11/26/2021

Odometer  27,230 -27,395 —— 165  Miles  (4,695 Miles Total)

Oaxaca, Mexico – Puerto Escondido

We packed up all the things in the morning and loaded up the bike. Damn was this bike heavy. Not very happy about the weight. It was gonna be a rough ride with all the speed bumps! We were on the road before 8am. GPS said we had a 6:45 ride ad I was praying Lilly’s butt could handle a ride that long since my ass 100%b goes numb after about 4 hours. Ive been looking forward to this ride for a very long time. It’s just pure twisty roads through mountains all the way to the beach from Oaxaca which is at 7,000′ elevation. We stopped for breakfast about 2 hour into the ride and get an incredible home cooked breakfast from a family selling food on the side of the road. It was so god I even ordered my meal a second time which filled me up real nice.

It started to get warm and we took the glove off. I was so excited to get to the heat and not be cold anymore. About two hours later the roads turned to complete shit. The side of the paved roads were gone from land slides and washouts from heavy rain. There were a few turns where the road just suddenly disappeared off the side and we were inches from nearly exploding if my tire clipped it. As the roads got even twister which I just couldn’t believe, the air started to smell different, the heat was getting more intense and the trees were very very green with so much foliage everywhere. It felt like I was in Puerto Rico with the way the scenery looked especially with tropical plants everywhere, big big leaves on these trees, palm trees and clean rivers everywhere. As we passed a beautiful waterfall I turned around to Lilly and said want to go for a swim. I already knew the answer. We turned around, pulled over, stripped down to our underwear and jumped in the water with the other locals cooling off too. We sat there for about 30 minutes just staring at this waterfall knowing I would be really sad to leave it. I wish I could just live there. We put our riding gear back on and off we went. We rode about another hour until we pulled into PE. We checked into the hotel packed a few beach towels and immediately shot down to Skydive Puerto Escondido to try to work something out with the place to take Lilly on a jump. A bunch of skeptical questions from the other instructors and a lot of funny looks later we were filling out paperwork to jump. The guys didn’t quite believe anything about me. I showed up in sandals, short shorts, half a shirt on, my hairs a mess, no ID and I’m telling them I have 13,500 jumps and I want to take my friend on a Tandem. I showed them a video of me doing a jump with one of their friends last week at Skydive Cuautla and they were convinced, this guy might know what he’s doing! hah

Next thing you know were taking a shuttle with everyone else to the airport down the block where they take off from. They’re blasting some Spanish music dancing in the shuttle, the guys are twerking, everyones having a great time and this is exactly why I love this stuff! We get to the airport, Lilly isn’t sure if she should trust me, I’m telling her all the dad jokes scaring her. A few minuter later her feet are dangling off the side of the plane 13,500′ over the beach in Mexico. I throw a few backflips, get stable and get to finally enjoy this view. I opened the parachute and we were good. My god was it lovely. We flew up to the other Tandem Instructor under the parachute said hello to them and waved. We get to land on the beach here which they do on a daily basis. I haven’t done that in years.

We landed next to everyone else, walked a half a block back to the office dropped our gear off, said our goodbyes and ran right back down to the beach where we jumped in for a long long swim. We got some ceviche on the beach with too much Mexican Coca Cola, walked back out to the beach for another swim watching the sunset and then shot back to our hotel room.

I got a bit sick the last few days. My stomach was hurting after every meal and I think it was because of too much hot and spicy things I put on all of my food. We will see what happens!

 

 

 

Day 29, 30-  11/24/21, 11/25/2021

Odometer  27,090 – 27,230 —— 140  Miles  (4,530 Miles Total)

Oaxaca, Mexico

My day in Oaxaca on Wednesday was pretty much spent on my hammock at the hostel enjoying the lovely view that I will very much miss when I leave. I helped the hostel owner fix a few odds and ends around the compound, went out for a little food in the city two times, met an American couple for lunch at the meat market and then just enjoyed being lazy the whole day.

I got some bike maintenance in. Cleaned my chain, checked the oil and found out by bike finally started burning oil like my bike in Europe does. I was wondering how long it would be until my bike here started to do it too. I threw a few things out of my bags and did a lot of minimizing little things I got with me. My friend Lilly was flying in today and who knows how many bags of things she would bring with her that shew wouldn’t use. She will probably read this when she leaves so I can talk trash now and she can’t do anything about it after she leaves! Hah

She flew in and I grabbed her from the airport. We went out for some good street tacos in the city, walked around a bunch and then called it a night.

11/25/20201

We got up pretty early and were planning on going to Hierve Le Agua for the day which was some 2500 year old waterfalls about 2 hours out of the city. We got on the bike, headed into the city to get some breakfast. While we were waiting to get seated this couple from London was sitting across from us and he asked me who made my trousers since he liked them. I told him the company was called Kuhl and since I’m super picky about my jeans I stood up and started to unbutton my jeans to look at the type of jeans they were, (free rydr) so I could tell him. Thats when everyone at the waiting area gave Lilly a funny look like what the fuck is this guy about to do! We were all cracking up after. When we sat down the couple from London ( Sasha and Tom) sat next to us and I’m pretty sure we made some new lifelong friends. This couple was just pure comedy the whole time. We loved them. We exchanged contact information and were planning on meeting up later on in the day.

We got on the bike and thankfully I had Lilly with me because at the toll booth the guy started to tell Lilly if we were going to the waterfalls this ay was blocked off and we had to enter another way.

We backtracked through a small town and the road turned to dirt. 20Kms to go up a mountain and around it. This was gonna be a rough ride. We rode through some pretty gnarly stuff for about 30 minutes going through some pretty steep climbs. There was soft sand gun many places with some sharp rocks. I was just praying I wouldn’t drop the bike and crush Lillys leg or get a flat which would slow our day down a lot. We pulled into the small town and when we got to the attraction I couldn’t believe it. Sort of looked like we were on Mars during some small parts of it. We hung out there for a while took some pictures and went for a swim. On the way out the ride was super dusty and brutal again but we made it without dropping the bike once or getting a flat. Very thankful. There was two spots where we came around a turn and the view just made me start crying in my helmet. These are the views that make my trip and I will never forget those views.

We got back to the Oaxaca, grabbed some food and met up with Sasha and Tom. We went to a nice restaurant with them where we just had front row seats to a free comedy show. These guys were hilarious!!! Once we ate we shot back home to get some warmer clothes on since the sun was setting. It’s still getting super cold up here in the mountains and we’re wearing down jackets. I can’t wait for actual heat all day and night long.

 

On the way into the city again there was a ton of traffic and as I creeped through the traffic we saw they were doing some sort of protests. I got right up behind the protest to try to creep through and suddenly we were surrounded. A feminist protest. And here we have a white man on a motorcycle trying to get through. They stopped walking at a slow pace and just stopped al because of me. They surrounded us yelling things in Spanish, taking pictures of us and my motorcycle and my license plate. They were getting very aggressive and had cans of spray paint in their hands. I turned my bike of and took a deep breath before I snapped and lost my shit. I kept looking at my knife on my tank bag to let them know they shouldn’t dare think about using that spray paint. After a few minutes Lilly told me to turn around and get out of there. I made a U turn and rode on the sidewalk for about 750 feet, made my way through the side streets to get ahead of the feminists and off we went to meet our new friends.

We went back out with them and went to the city center to watch some live music. Our hostel owners brother owned a mezcal tasting bar so we went there, talked a lot of shit to each other, told a bunch of stories, laughed a ton and then I took them to a street taco stand Christina told me about. Then Tom made some friends and we went to a bar with live music where he fed us some margaritas and met some of their friends they made in the city too. They were flying out to Puerto Escondido on Saturday so we found out we would be seeing them there too! It started to get late, we said our goodbyes and went back to the hostel. We had a 6 hour ride ahead of us tomorrow for Puerto Escondido which I was looking forward to for a very long time.

 

 

 

Day 28 11/23/2021

Odometer  27,070 – 27,090 —— 20  Miles Today (4,390 Miles Total)

Oaxaca, Mexico

Day 28, 4390 miles. I can’t believe its this deep and this far already. I woke up today and had to take another cold shower since the water heater was broken I assume. I’m starting to get used to these.

Oh my god I just had a sip of my Mezcal sour I got at at Casa Oaxaca (thanks for the rec Christina) and I’m pretty sure I’m about to melt from how good it is! And my lamb tacos were sooooo good. Sorry back to the blog!

I hung out around the hostel this morning enjoying the sunrise and hanging out with the hostel owners. Chatted quite a bit. Packed up my stuff and shot out for a Crossfit class at 9:30am for a 10am class. It didnt start till 10:20 since its on Mexican time! These guys were brutal today. After class I went out for a breakfast that Christina recommended to me as well at Boulenc. I ordered the Shakshuka. You guys, its worth flying to Oaxaca from New York just to eat this, its insane. Pics will be posted of the food.

Today was pretty leisurely. I ran around town and found a charger for my MacBook since I needed another plug for it. I exchanged some more money. Ate a bunch of sweets and cookies and chocolate. Went to the meat market and got a few slabs of meat they threw on the grill for me and had that for lunch with a coke. Big day huh?

Went back to the hostel to hang out with the owners again. While I was there a man came up to me asking about the bike. He was telling me how he had the same one but sold it after a few weeks because his business partner bought a 2021  BMW 1250GS and died on it with less than 60 miles on the bike. It was at the hostel near where I park mine and it was trashed, I was wondering what happened to it. Sucks to hear. It upsets me when someone dies on a bike and immediately half of their friends sell their bikes too because one person did something dumb and couldn’t ride and then got themselves killed. Ive been riding for 17 years and never crashed once on the road. The guy was riding and didn’t know a sharp turn was coming up. He tried to turn and on the new bikes when you are in a turn and try to lock up the ABS the bike automatically straightens out so the wheels won’t slide and make you crash. Well there was a brick wall In front of him that he hit doing about 60. Ouch.

On my way back from the city today to go home and change for the evening I noticed my top box was very loose. Here we go! One of the mounting screws holding the box to the bike rattled out. I made it back to the hostel without losing the box. Scrambled to make a few phone calls to friends at home that had the same set up. My friend Lilly is flying here tomorrow to hang for a few days so I got the parts lined up with her, she just grabbed them and they will be here tomorrow. I couldn’t believe how perfectly that lined up. I would have wasted a whole day rigging this thing from parts I would have to find around town to make it hold up for a while. Glad that’s all taken care of and I even got some spare parts incase it happens again!

I went back out to town to grab some street food and ended up at this restaurant I’m having this delicious drink and tacos typing this up.

I got a few messages the last two days asking about how I travel through these countries with all the bad stuff going on,  how I deal with it and how do I feel safe with it. I thought id take some time out to explain since I didn’t do much today and didn’t have much to talk about.

I was worried about this trip for sure when I first started. I heard a lot of stories about people getting killed. A man from Brooklyn did this trip a few years ago and went to a beach in Mexico where Shawshank redemption was filmed I believe. He traveled quite a bit for years everywhere so he was pretty experienced. They found his body a month later after he went missing. People suspected it was cops that killed him that had relations with the cartel. It hit home when a friend told me he was a friend of a friend as well. Not just some stranger. Thats always in the back of my head. When I got to Morocco some girls were camping in the Atlas Mountains and some ISIS shitheads found them, raped them, beat them and then cut their heads off.

Every now and then people remind me how dangerous it is here and everywhere I’m going and they think I’m crazy. I don’t like hearing about it. It’s like they’re trying to put fear in my head. The more people hear about something the more real it gets.

When I teach people a skydiving first jump course I recently started to bring up how dangerous it is if you have an ego, and you’ll lose many friends to the sport that are being idiots. It’s good to remind them about how dangerous it is because all they know is about how much fun it is. That little conversation is good to have with them because they will think about it for a while and it might keep them alive. But not too much because it will scare half of them away

This trip on the other hand its not sitting well with me when people keep mentioning it. I know how dangerous it is, hell it’s dangerous in New York right? Some guy got shot and killed two blocks from me in Greenpoint which is a great neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Sorry Mom but maybe don’t read the next part! hah

So, how do I deal with it? I think it’s all about letting go. I think I have a great relationship with fear and not letting it take over my body and some decisions I make. I know a lot of people that will be crippled by fear because they don’t play with it at all. I know if I’m setting up my tent where the cartel is I’m at some risk. I take a few precautions. I leave my GPS rescue beacon in the bushes along with my knife. If they come and take my bike and all my stuff which is what they do they can have it. I heard they even strip you down naked and take your clothes. I text two friends each night I camp and tell them hey if Garmin contacts you tonight this is probably what happened, track my bike with the GPS tracker I have on it and the rest of the plan depends on if they killed me or not. If they show up and take my stuff and it’s one person with a gun, it’s probably going to get taken out of their hands if they are close enough, if not they can have my shit. But I know for sure I’ll be putting my knife to use that I hid a few feet away that they weren’t expecting me to have. And I’ll hit the SOS button to get someone to me ASAP. ]

I don’t  just go into these situations with no plan, I have a few, I know the way I’ll act in front of them to throw them off. I have a few outs. But this is as far as I can go planning, the rest is just up in the air. When I camp I don’t just pull into an open field and set my stuff up. I take a dirt road deep into the path its going and then try to find a spot that covered up really well in the brush. I got into some shitty situations camping in Morocco where someone shows up at 2am demanding money and I’m not gonna lie its disturbing seeing the look in their eyes. Like I said before it’s all about letting go and just dealing with it as it comes. If someone wants to take my motorcycle and my clothes and tent and I don’t feel like I can handle myself in the situation they can just take the shit and I’ll start all over again. If I see a window to stop it I will.

Theres certain places I won’t go from word of mouth, and it’s all about instinct too. The more you travel the more you have of it. I don’t trust anyone on my trips, people, cops, military, no one. Who knows what they would do and who they are involved it. Always keep an eye over your shoulder and try to make the best decisions. I keep my large knife on my tank bag and people 100% look at it wherever I am.

For the people who asked please don’t let those scary stories stop you from traveling. Just be smart about it. If I go to a country that’s super super sketchy I’ll hire an escort to take me through it that knows their way around and will try to keep me safe. Theres always a way. In the end just let go, don’t let fear control you, make smart decisions, try to not lose sleep over them and most likely it will be fine.

OK I’m off to get some street tacos and walk off these two drinks I had! Love you all. Get out there and go explore and front let fear hold you back! <3

 

 

 

Day 27 11/22/2021

Odometer 26,870 – 27,070 —— 200  Miles Today (4,370 Miles Total)

Jose Maria Morelos, Mexico to Oaxaca, Mexico

I wish I opened up my google maps last night and looked around there area before I went to bed. I would have seen there was a shooting range nearby and I wouldn’t have been so jacked up all night! I passed out at 8pm last night which was great, I woke up  thinking it was sunrise and couldn’t believe I slept through a whole night in my tent without waking up once. I opened up my tent and man was I off. It was midnight. I climbed back into my cozy sleeping bag and went right back to bed.

Getting out of bed at 7 was rough since it was 49 and everything outside was wet from the rain. I was hoping the sun would dry my tent off before I packed up but was so deep behind some brush that the sun never hit my tent. I packed everything up, threw my rainfly from the tent in my top box and would open it up later on to dry off once it warmed up. I got right the hell out of there this morning after the cartel info at dinner. I rode about 2 hours and still no where to get food on the backroads. Google maps is starting to play games with me finally and took me through a small town where the paved road turned into dirt. Ugh. I would have been ok with it if I had breakfast but who knows what this would turn into and on an empty stomach it would test my patience. I ended up doing 15 miles on the dirt road. I stopped once to take some pictures and aired out my wet rainfly. I only stayed for a few minutes because it was a weird area to be in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t know if the road was a dead end and my 7 hour ride to Oaxaca would turn into a 12 hour journey if I had to turn around and backtrack to some real roads.

Quite some time later I popped out onto some paved road and came into a small town with everyone giving me funny looks. I rode a bit more and decided I had to stop and eat some food. They ended up feeding me cheese and yogurt on bread with a piece of chicken on the side! Not my best meal but I had food in my stomach. Few hours later my GPS had me stop on the highway to look at a dirt road up into the mountains to get to Oaxaca….not this time google, not this time. I stayed on the highway where I assumed I had to pay tolls. This is where it got weird. The line for the tolls were about 2 miles which I haven’t seen before which I obviously skipped since I’m on the bike. When I got to the front there were about 30 guys hanging out with signs and I thought they were looking for work or something until I got next in line there was a guy holding a jug to put money in. He said something in Spanish and I told him I didn’t know Spanish. I put my 50 pesos for the toll in the jar and when I looked up a the guys I noticed they were all holding pipes and bats in their hands. It got weird quick. I paid the toll and hurried out of there. Im sitting down at the hostel getting snacks fed to me by the hostel owner and her friends and I just asked her what that was all about. She was telling me how to the govt took some peoples land a long time ago and they’re just being a pain in the ass trying to get justice back. So they take over parts of the city and the toll booths at time charring people money to get through certain areas or just light stuff on fire to block the road. The hostel owner is telling me how sometimes she can’t get her kids from school because they light tires and block the roads so she can’t get through. Pretty annoying. Her mother and herself are telling me one day they’re going to snap and run them over. I like it! hah

After the toll booth incident I got to my hostel. It was 2 miles from the city center but I read a lot of good reviews about it. Im so glad I booked it. It’s a family run hostel in the mountains behind Oaxaca and it’s perfect. It’s got a pool, a lovely view of the mountains, a huge area for people to hang out, small restaurant, lovely rooms and hammocks everywhere.

I hung out here and unpacked sending a bunch of people videos of the place and then it started to downpour while it was sunny all around especially on the mountains. It felt like the amazon for a little bit with the view. They said they haven’t gotten rain here in a long time they were all outside watching it rain. I see I’m bringing the rain wherever I go again!

Once the rain stopped I hopped on my bike for a quick ten minute ride into the city. I walked around a while, saw a couple eating a delicious brownie looking thing and I asked them where they got it, I went straight there and got one. Then I went off to dinner to a place Christina recommended, then off to the meat market where they have tons of booths selling meat they just throw on the grill for you and its all indoors so its all smokey in there. It was delicious.

While I was walking around I took a picture of some grasshopper or crickets and posted if someone sends me $50 ill eat a handful of them. I hate my friends. No less than 5 minutes later Yvonne messages me and said deal. She Venmo’d me and I started walking back to the area I took a picture of them. I gave the woman 10 pesos for a full bag and I started shaking my head and fingers at her to dump it all out she laughed at me. I walked back to the city center, sat down and counted ten and took a video of me eating them. Boom, the hostel was paid for 3 nights by eating crickets! Hahaha

I watched a wedding outside the church in the city center which was pretty fun to see. Walked around some more, had some hot chocolate and cake, then I went out for a drink at a place Christina recommended too. I people watched for a while and came back to the hostel and hung out with the owner and her friends for a bit as they fed me cake and tea which was perfect. Thats my day and night!

I can’t believe its been almost a month and over 4000 miles since I left. It doesn’t feel like that long at all.

The hostel owner told me this afternoon there were three guys here the other day that are doing the same trip. One of them was from Canada, Seattle and Florida! She said another guy was here recently from Russia. he was about 65 years old and was riding here from Russia. Supposedly crossed the Bering Strait via motorcycle on the ice which is hard to believe but the guy is Russian so……

Either way if he took a ferry over and crossed into Alaska that’s pretty wild as well. She said he left Russia went to Siberia crossed over into Alaska and rode down here stayed with her for a few days and was riding to Argentina. The guy doesn’t have any social media no smartphone nothing at all electronic wise. I was wondering how he found this hostel and she had no idea. She said the guy looked unfazed by anything and was telling her this trip was the last thing he wanted to do in his life and was probably going to die on it on the way south. Pretty wild stuff but I believe it since those Russians are on another level!