The Nomads

Left San Juan de llonos, Guerrera Province, Mexico

Temp: 30 degrees C

Sunny

We started the morning early trying to locate a motorbike dealer within reasonable reach and eventually found a Kawasaki dealer in Acapulco about 250 km up the coast. The Kawi dealer was the only bike dealer(there were Honda, Yamaha, Lika, and Suzuki) where there was someone who could speak and understand English. Lucky us!

The next hurdle was to find out if he could obtain tires that we could use and if he was able to install them…..Yes to both! However, he could not help us with the transportation of a “down” bike nor suggest any options. And the tires could not be ordered with my Visa over the phone; we would have to come in and pay up front for the tires prior to ordering.

Now the hurdle was to find some form of conveyance for the bike to go the 250 km to Acapulco over very bad roads.

Off we went on my bike and after some inquiries, we were about to give up when a tow-truck went by and Denis flagged him down while I was trying to turn around on the very narrow road. I explained to the driver that we needed to transport a bike the same size as mine to Acapulco and it turned out that he worked for a boss who had a flatbed with built in ramps and winch cable which would be ideal for the job but he was about 15 Km away in the mountain town of Ometepec. So of we went to Ometepec to see what we could arrange. After some bargaining we managed to get a agreement to truck the bike to the dealer in Acapulco for $275 US.

Turns out that the dealer is only about 6 blocks from the main drag which is the beachfront drive in downtown Acapulco and four blocks from the hotel where we are staying! Bonus!

It will take a couple of days to order in the tires(I’ve decided I might as well avail myself of the downtime to change mine as well rather than wait another two weeks and go through another three day delay). In the meantime we are having the brakes checked front and back and an oil and filter change done as well as having the shocks set up to the max.

I have discovered that all the hammerings from the outrageous topes have broken a bolt flange off of the bottom of the crankcase cover and I now have a steady oil leak at that point.

From here on out we are scraping the plan to go all the way up the coastal roads to Tijuana (another possible 500 topes) and have decided to go the “Cuota” (toll hwy.) routes all the way to Nogales!

No way we would make it otherwise as it’s impossible to avoid the topes. There are no shoulders on the roads, and another couple of hits would destroy the crankcase cover which is part of the engine casing and would definitely end the trip.

We are enjoying this unexpected stop over in Acapulco even though the prices are through the roof and we have yet to find any place where the food and coffee are anywhere near palatable!

Today we had the most disgusting breakfast and coffee of the entire trip. We could not even eat the breakfast or drink the coffee, got up and left!

And the price for breakfast was higher than home!

Ughh!! How hard is it to fry eggs and bacon and make coffee???!!! The bread was at least three or four days old, dry and hard enough to hammer nails with, the eggs were way over cooked and you could hardly cut through the rubber with a knife, the bacon was either rancid and/or bad as well as undercooked and tasted so bad I had to spit out the bite I took and walked out of the place with a bad taste in my mouth for the next half hour! The restaurant…. The Xcarete….stay well away!!!

We spent the afternoon wandering the main drag and the beach and settled in at some beachside bar for a round of margaritas and daquiris, then a walk on the beach and back to the hotel.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 211km total: 17,468
Gas: $ 9
Lodging: Hotel Acapulco Diana $ 50

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 11:05 AM 0 Comments

Left Salina Cruz, Oaxaca Province, Mexico

Temp: 28 degrees C

Sunny

We were on the road at 8;45 without breakfast and headed for San Marcos, Guerrera Province, Mexico with a nice blue sky on the coastal road. This route has more ups and downs and twists and turns than an Alfred Hitchcock story! We had a very close call on one of the switch-back turns when it got too tight and the bike was two or three inches from the drop-off into the cement culvert on the outside of the turn. I was a hair’s breadth away from panic as I managed to keep the line and finish the turn still on the pavement. This was the absolute closest call we ever had so far on the trip and one second away from very serious injury or death, no exaggeration!

The pavement was in turns great and horrible and some of the worst topes were liberally scattered throughout! We were talking to some Texan surfers who had come that way and they claimed to have counted over seventy topes in a ten mile stretch. My bike bottomed out hard at walking pace at least a dozen times. There is no way around as the pavement drops off on each side ten to twelve inches to the loose sand or gravel shoulder (not an option with any bike).

And to top it all off, Denis has worn out his rear tire and is riding on the bias-ply canvas. We pulled up at a roadside hotel (desperation stop) so that if the tire blows getting to San Marcos or Acapulco it’ll be in the daytime. We desperately need to get to a place with internet to find a bike dealer who can order the tire for us and hopefully install it as well!

The plan is to leave really early in the am while the road is cold and make our way at 40-50 km per hour to San Marcos where we hope to find an internet café and make arrangements.

Tomorrow will be a tough day.

Kilometres - Daytrip: 477km total: 17,257

Gas: $ 21.24

Lodging: Hotel Venus $ 40

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 10:54 AM 1 Comments