Chiapas

Here are some photos from wonderful Chiapis.  Today we are heading up in to the high mountain air (the mountains are huge and steep in Guatemala!).  Then to Antigua, and down in to El Salvador for more surfing :)

We made it to Guatemala

We made it Guatemala yesterday, and it was quite a day. We tried to cross the border at one place, but they would not let us export the bikes there so we had to drive 2 hours south to another crossing. It was not that bad once we got there to get the bikes and ourselves across. From there, we drove in the dark to Huehuetenango in Guatemala. It is a nice little town. Today we are taking a rest day becuase Eric has a stomach bug. It is kind of nice in a hotel room with cable tv. I have to say that Chiapas might have been my favorite state in Mexico. We loved driving through it. We stopped at one point near the jungle and the howler monkeys were so loud. We will post pictures from there soon. In the meantime I want to share this helpful file that my friend bucky sent me.

We are almost to Gautemala

Hi everybody! We are in San cristobal in the state of Chiapas. It has been an amazing week or so since we last posted. The ride from Oaxaca to Zipotle was the best stretch yet, perfect windy roads from 9000 feet down to the ocean. We spent a couple nights in Zipolite which was nice but kinda touristy. On the ferry across from Baja we chatted with a surf photographer and he recommended a beach near Huatulco and we spent a few days surfing there. Miles and miles of beach and maybe just a couple people around...and the surfing was excellent. We rented a cabaña next to a wetland which was full of storks, egrets, and spoonbills. The roosters were nocturnal in this town, and would get in to shouting matches all across the valley intermitently throughout the night. Pepe, who we were staying with, told us how he and some friends years ago would go on rooster hunts late at night when they were drunk and got hungry. The roosters kept quiet that night. It was hard to leave that place.

Now in San Cristobal, at 7200 feet. Its beautiful here, crystal clear high mountain air. We spent yesterday changing oil and running errands, so we are goign to see the town today and head to Palenque tomorrow, and then to Guatemala! Going to miss Mexico...


Alex and Finn, who we have met up with three times now. Hoping to see them again in Guatemala and maybe Costa Rica.









waiting...













Paul waiting for the waves













Paul dropping in!










las cascades, way up in the mountains not a soul around.











our morning comute to the beach













A church on the ride from Oaxaca to Zipolite











on the beach. the atv tracks are the marianos looking for sea turtle eggs to bring to the sanctuary. We saw a turtle laying its eggs one night, amazing!










Fin, Eric, and Alex about to see Avatar in 3D!










Our home in Zipolite













Alex and Paul paddling for a wave










Our Cabaña in Zipolite










A nice bouldering spot in Zipolite










boards on the bike











Camping and sky at Pepes

¡waca oaxaca!

We are still in Oaxaca, still enjoying it mucho.  The spanish classes have been going well and we´ve had some great times exploring the city and surrounding area.  We drove out to a hot springs today and stopped at a few mezcal fabricos, which were mostly small houses with a mash pit (where a donkey pulls a huge stone around in a circle mashing agave) and a big firing pot and still.  We bought a bottle from the guy in the picture and its delicious!  The drive out there was beautiful and felt amazingly like the Salt Lake foothills, except for the 30 foot tall cacti and the packs of dogs that would ambush us at rest stops (one pack got hold of my left pant leg and right boot as I was driving away, Paul says they were peritos but they were huge monsters, let me tell you).  Linda was visiting for the past week but sadly had to leave yesterday so we are on our own again.  We´ll be in Oaxaca for another 5 days or so and then back down to the coast and in to Guatamala.

We´ve met some great people at the place we are staying now, including 2 guys who road in on fully loaded bikes (bicycles, that is) who had ridden from Prudo Bay, Alaska.  They are part of a larger project, filming a documentary of the trip down to Panama.  They have some amazing stories, and I´m starting to wonder how I can go on a bicycle tour any time soon....  It sounds like a cool project, check out their web page: http://www.going-south.tv/

Here are a few more pics from the past few days in Oaxaca, hope you are all having a great 2010 so far!

  

Feliz Anos!

We had a wonderful new years in Oaxaca - lots of music, great food, and LOUD fire crackers gleefully thrown in random directions by kids. It sounded like a war on every corner. We've gone to a few amazing markets, and to visit Monte Alban, the Zapotec ruins outside of Oaxaca. Mexico continues to amaze us, everyone is so welcoming and friendly and Oaxaca is especially incredible. Here are a few pics from Oaxaca.

We met mama in Oaxaca

Well we made it by some miracle to Oaxaca within an hour of our mother and stepdad. There were a lot of long days riding, and we drove 2500 miles of coastline and didn't get in the ocean once, but we made it mostly in one piece. We have very sore butts, and are glad to stay here for a while. In Acapulco Eric slipped on some oil and dropped his bike which broke the clutch lever. Thankfully we had a great group with us who helped to get things fixed within an hour, which included Mario finding a clutch lever in a little shop on a GXSR (the owner insisted on GIVING it to us!) which we had to file down to fit and Marcel knowing how to hot-wire the clutch release relay. Amazing! Somehow this would not have been so easy in the USA.
The drive up to Oaxaca from Puerto Escondido was breathtaking for its beauty and lack of oxygen (went over a 9000 foot pass within a few hours of the ocean). We passed countless bicyclists riding up crazy steep hills on single speed bikes, one with a cinder block strapped to his back. Ate lunch made by a lovely grandmother and granddaughter in a large shack alone in the mountains, huevos con chorizo with freshly made tortillas....mmmmmmm.

We will go to language school for a couple weeks here now before continuing south. Oaxaca is a lovely town. Below are some pics from along the way showing the mountains near Oaxaca, the rooftop cabana we stayed in right on the beach in Puerto Escondido, and one of the many beautiful beach vistas that we drove past.

A bottle crushed by Eric's bike (oops...)

¡In Aculpoco!

The last few days have been a real adventure. We have been driving from Mazatlan down the coast and today we are in Acapulco. We spent Christmas eve in a very cool little beach town called Barre Navidad (by some cosmic chance), which had wonderful Christmas eve celebrations. Christmas was a really nice long day of driving along gorgeous coastline and through twisty (very twisty!) roads. We met up with 5 other bikers on the ferry from La Paz and have started an impromptu biker gang. There is Mario from Guatemala who lives in BC, Marcel from Switzerland, Robert from Oregon, and Peter from San Diego. It has been a great benefit to ride in a group, and the camaraderie is really nice. Yesterday Mario got ran off the road when a car went into his lane, and we all went and got him up, and going again. He was ok, but really shaken up. His rear rack was broken, and his front fork was out of alignment, but we found a long piece of rebar and we managed to get it straight again. The moral of story is to expect oncoming traffic at every corner.