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
