Back on the road for Phase 2



Well, the adventure begins once more. Its been about ten days since I flew out to Cancun, Mexico from Manchester, UK and I've had a few mishaps and wins already! Here's a quick update so far:

1\ Bike required some revival after a year of being in storage, having rode it for some time after jumping it, the battery was not holding charge so I went and bought a new one and the bike was good as new. After a service and the fitting of a new chain set, sorti g out a new luggage system and fitting a new USB chargerI'd brought from the UKwe were ready to.

There was, however some drama with missing\stolen lock up keys & bike keys & my leather man multitool - this eventually sorted itself out with me having the lock up\garage locks grinded off an getting a new set of bike keys cut.

2\ Have been beaching at Playa de los Ninos, Cancun, Island Mujeres, Island Blanca & right now in beautiful Bacalar. Adjusting to the heat and browning my body is a must! This has practical reasons too.. So I dont look like I've juststepped off the plane.

3\ Visited Valladolid town and Chichen It Za Mayan Ruins.

4\ Am back to sleeping in my hammock after leaving the hostal in Cancun 😁.

5\ Im learning that adjusting to the heat wearing all my riding gear may take some time. Palletarias (for refreshing drinks and ices) are my new best friends.

6\ My Spanish continues to both amaze and disappoint me depending on who I'm talking to.. But it can be amusing and I do get stuff sorted out. I'm currently speaking on the phone to a limited extent and the past tense I'm picking up.

7\ Im making friends along the way - one might say the bike is quick the magnet for Mexicans and foreigners alike. Its nice to talk to ppl along the way.. I sort of forgot about that.

8\ Today I went to the Belize\Mex border to obtain my TIP (Temp. Import Permit for the bike - like it's visa). This is  necessary to travel out of the free state of Quintanaroo I'd stored the bike for the last year. Also there's a 400 USD bond\deposit to post (via credit card). I'd been aiming to do this today as it's Sunday.. Generally the best days for border crossing I've found.

Happy days with this one as I'd sort of imagined abit of a nightmare with the bike not having any papers from when I crossed from Belize a year ago. Absolutely no bother at all!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Copper Canyon - Barrancas del Cobre - the long trip via pavement

Image
Every time I enter a new state in Mexico, I think 'this is it, I've found my favourite state', and Chihuahua was no exception. The Copper Canyon is somewhat out of the way, however the riding around 85% of the route shown below has been fantastic with huge vistas, pretty decent pavement, beautiful twisties and a remote cowboy culture that really does make you feel as if you're in the wild west. My fully paved route was 2,095km in total and is described briefly as follows: Day 1 Mazatlan to Durango, 250km.. Day 2 Durango to Cross roads, 240km.. Day 3 Cross roads (el Ciento Veinte) to Hidalgo de Parral, 170km.. Day 4 Parral to Batopilas (canyon base), 350km.. Day 5 Batopilas to Creel, 140km.. Day 6 Creel roundtrip to Barrancas del Cobra\Divisidero, 90km.. Day 7 Creel to (Basasiachi falls) Yecora, 280km.. Day 8 Yecora to Alamos, 330km.. Day 9 Rest day in Alamos.. Day 10 Alamos to Topalabampo, 245km (for the La Paz ferry).. The route is highlighted by the r
Read more

Journey complete - a bittersweet ending in Canada

Image
Well there you have it, my trip has reached the end of its chapter, all the way from Chile to Canada; 59, 500km through 13 countries over 20 months. That's a long time to spend in the saddle. Im having mixed feelings of course, looking back on all those incredible moments is quite overwhelming and difficult to assimilate. Heres a few interesting stats from my trip: 13 countries, 59,500km, 20 months; 15 land border crossings and 1 sea border crossing; 3 crashes, 0 broken bones, 0 ambulance rides, 0 emergency room visits, 0 illnesses 4 times run out of fuel (including 2 police rescues); 3 flat tyres; 1 runover dog (Panama - so sorry doggo) and 2 bird impacts; 0 breakdowns; although I did have some issues with a relay for a week, had to jump start a bit; 1 police caution; 1 police tow (Argentina); 1 non-passable sit down road blockage (Peru on the major highway north to Quito); 0 hostile situations (obviously avoiding the sketchy areas i'm hearing about here and there);
Read more

Overlanding Camping Lesson 101

Image
It takes approximately 4 hours out of each day to make and break camp.  Thats half a working day, then theres the 200 - 300km we ride each day.  Its pretty tiring to be honest, and obviously its easier to stay in a hotel, but at $100+ a night (in North America here), its just not feasible for the length of time we are both travelling.  So, we generally wild camp for free, or every now and again, we stay in a Forestry/ National Parks managed campsite when we either can't find anything for free or we have left it too late in the day to be looking for something for free! We have been using the IOverlander app as a guide for free camp spots, although often (especially on the offroad trails out in the bush), we come upon something before we get to a particular destination we may have pinned for that day. Theres a picture above of the two 250s loaded up.  We are both individually self sufficient for camping/ living off the bikes, although together, we are sharing (my) tools
Read more