The Darien and Back

Having got myself a boat organised to go to Colombia, I now have about a week to kill here in Panama.
There are a few things to do here (but not in the city) so today I decided Id head down the road into the "Darien" as far as I could get.
So I packed up and headed off. The GPS helped with getting out of the city and before too long I was riding along a small highway headed East.
The highway stayed quite good quality for the whole way... Its paved right to the point where it just stops. I did however have quite a bit of rain... I rode for about two hours in steady rain and being the slow learner that I am, I didnt stop to put my rain gear on till I was already quite wet (actually it was just the pants I was late with... They are a pain to put on!).

Its clearly still rainy season here (later than usual this year) and Im glad I dont have to deal with another suicidally muddy road to get to the boat this time...
This time the boat will leave from a different town. But even if it was from the same place as last time, Im reliably informed that the road is much improved from how it was two years ago. They say even in very bad conditions it takes less than an hour to drive the section of road that took us about five hours last time... There are fewer and fewer "remote" places in the world every year!

So, whats in the Darian?
Not a lot! Its the same rolling green country as the rest of Panama. It took me about three hours to ride from the city to the end of the road . The road is good quality and paved all the way. At the end of the road is a sizeable town in the bend of a big brown river flowing through the jungle. It is about fifty Km short of the boarder with Colombia. They would have to spend quite a bit of money to build a bridge over this river, but other than that there is no reason why the highway cant keep going (just confirms my belief that the legendary "Darien Gap" is there for purely political and commercial reasons!!)

The town at the end of the road is quite large and the people are quite friendly (despite city dwellers warnings about them). There were no white skins there, but I saw just about every other skin colour imaginable :)) There were even a few locals who had dyed their skin from brown to a blue/black.. Not like the coastal Kuna people... More like the Amazon natives with half their faces coloured in etc.
Along the way, I saw lots of roughly cleared land used for grazing Brahman cattle. lots of little wooden houses on stilts. Lots of houses with pallappa roofs (made of palm leaves) and lots of little streams and river crossings... Nothing too exotic or exciting :)))

In fact there was so little out there of interest that I decided to ride all the way back to the city the same day.

So now Im back in the same hostel in the city and wondering what I will do with tomorrow?

Panama - Independence

Pretty much as soon as I crossed the boarder into Panama, all the little "resortlets" disapeared! There are very few of them here in Panama. And its not as if the landscape changed... Its still lovely tropical green jungle and farms. The services etc are about the same too... lots of new cars (though I have to say that the drivers are amongst the worst I have encountered!) on good highways and plenty of "first world" quality stuff... It seems that both tourists and country are happy to avoid each other...

Actually I think its just a different class of tourists here, and they have been here for many decades. There are lots of older more monied type tourists around the city, and I think they are less into the "resort" life style... It seems that they prefer the luxury city hotels :))

One thing I have noticed here in Panama though, is an inordinate number of flags flying. There were lots in CostaRica too, but there are even more here... I have no idea why, but Id guess that the two countries are having some "nationalistic rivalry".
Its either that or someone has attacked them recently and they have wrapped themselves in the flag, are claiming god is on their side, and are about to commit some horrific international punitive atrocity in the name of justice and freedom!.... lets hope not !!!

But even if its just the "nationalistic rivalry"... That sort of behaviour seems completely pointless and small minded to my way of thinking.
I have never seen any country in my travels that was not very (truthfully, overly) proud of its history and its national identity... And I have no problem with this... its good to remember your roots etc.
But it seems to go hand in hand with the attitude that their country (whichever one it is) is way better than the neighbouring country; And that they somehow therefore have a higher moral virtue of some sort.... And I think thats just Bunk!
Its this silly "separateness" thinking that is the exact equivalent of individual ego at the national level... and we know what foolishness difficulty and devisiveness our egos usually generate for us. I bet I know what causes most international wars! ... That ego critter!

Note however, that is different to internal wars which are usually about revolution, which is about ridding ones self of an oppressor... and often results in the "independence" and creation of new states... "separateness" thinking again yes?
Well, yes, but I have a little less problem with the idea of ridding ones self of an oppressor.
The only problem with revolutions is the delusion that the people that we replace the opressor with ("our" people rather than "their"people) will be better somehow.... And the truth is very clearly born out by history a thousand times... Our own people will just as happily oppress us again, and just as badly!!!

Again, when will we learn to stop screwing each other over???
..... But, I digress :)))

So, if they want to wave flags then what can I do :))
Actually, I was thinking about Panama today because it is an "independence day" holiday today. And I had no idea which particular independence it was... They have so many here...
Not even considering what went on before Europeans got here...

There was independence from the Spanish Conquistadores
Then there was independence from Colombia
Then there was independence from the French (who did most of the building of the Canal)
And most recently, there was independence from the Americans (who finished the canal)
I have to admit that the Panamanians have had to do a great deal of separating to become themselves :)))

So, Im here in Panama City now.

When I arrived, I tried to find the hostel I was at last time... It was two years ago and I was following people so I didnt really pay too much attention to the route.
Needless to say I became pretty much instantly lost!
I then did what most men I know do which is to "consult my internal compass and inertial navigation system" (as opposed to most women I know who would insist on getting hold of maps or street addresses etc). I then proceeded to "wander around" for a bit in directions that "felt right"...
And I predictably stayed quite lost :))
Then the skys opened up and it poured rain, so I pulled off the streets under covered parking, and with nothing else to do, I got hold of a phone directory to try the alternate system... But, The hostel was not in the book!... And there was no one with internet nearby...So I asked some couriers in the street if they knew of the place... still no luck!
Hmmm. So then I tried asking about a hotel that I remembered being nearby... Trouble was I was not really sure which hotel I remembered (could have been Hilton, or Marriot, or Sheraton).
But I took a guess at it and asked another courier (they were thick in that area)...

... Yes, Yes... Just over there, Take a left, go two blocks...
And so it was! My inertial system had got me to within three blocks of where I wanted to be even though I didnt recognise anything!... Cool :)))

But, problem not solved!.. I made my way to where the hostel was, but it "was there no more"!!
There was just a bare lot ready for construction!
Undeterred, I parked and asked one of the nearby shopkeepers... Yep, gone, No, Moved... where... just over there.... Drive one block and there it is.... Nice !

So, now Im at a hostel in the inner city where they kind of act as go-between for tourists and various yacht captains. The yachts do regular runs between Panama and Colombia, and they earn enough money to live here by taking tourists back and forth between the two countries.

Its easy enough for the back-packing tourists and any boat will more or less do, but its not quite so easy for motorbike tourists. Only the larger boats can take the bikes, so it takes more time to organise. Last time I came through here, my friend Terryk did all the organising, but this time Im on my own and Im doing the running around.
Last time we went on the largest boat doing the run and there were four bikes on the deck. This time however, that boat is not doing the run and the choices are far more limited.

But, after a day or so, I seem to have hooked into about the only boat leaving in the next two weeks or so that can take bikes.... so thats looking good :)))
And Im glad about that too since Panama city is not a very nice place to have to hang out for long. Its very hot and humid, The traffic and noise is terrible. Its very expensive for food and accommodation, and there is virtually nothing "to do".

So if the confirmation goes through tonight, Ill go riding for a few days around Panama and come back just in time to catch the boat (on 5th Dec)

Road Kill Tally!

Today I rode through into Panama and am now pretty much half way to my destination at the Southern tip of South America.

Not a great subject but I thought Id share the "Road Kill Tally" for today
Today I saw:
Two dead Dogs,
One long, green (and now flat) Iguana
One very flat (and too grizzly to photograph) Monkey of indeterminate species.
And one arboreal Anteater!

Its really sad, but on the bright side, when you see dead native critters it at least means that there are still native critters out there!

Costa Rica - Land of a Thousand Resortlets.!

Rode through the town with the really big round rocks again (they are seriously round - within 5mm of perfectly spherical)....
I think I like them more than the big stone heads from Mexico... They are so "Solid and ROUND"... Cant explain it, There is just something beautiful about a sphere like this, and the rough texture adds to it.... maybe I need help!





And lots of pineapple plantations down here too...


From southern Nicaragua I headed into CostaRica. But I didnt really have anything that I wanted to do there, so I just rode along the Pacific edge of the country to try to avoid all the traffic that I experienced last time.





It was a bit better this time but still very much the same thing...
The country is lovely and rolling and green. All the cars are new and clean; There are way too many big trucks on the narrow roads; and frankly, the whole place is just one very large low-key resort!

(warning.... Rant imminent!)

Im not kidding when I say that absolutely every where that I went, the place was peppered with a constant supply of "mini-resorts" (every 5 or 10Km on every road there would be another resort...) This one is an "eco-resort" and has a zip-line canopy tour... This one is a little hacienda and has lots of horse riding and "cowboy" activities... This one does 4WD and ATV tours... This one does surfing and beach stuff... etc.
Its as if everyone swallowed the same pill :)

Seems like everyone in the "wealthy North" of the continent (and the wealthy ones from the South too for that matter) has the same idea... They want a piece of the tropics (a nice piece that is) but they either dont want to be there full-time, or they cant afford to live in the style they want without income, or maybe they are just greedy and cant help but try to make money out of others... Whatever the reason, it seems like absolutely everyone is trying to make money out of tourists to pay for their own little "slice of heaven" - Note, no one is trying to make a living out of the locals... Not nearly enough money there to support the life style people want!

And it was no different in San Juan del Sur or in any of the other tourist and colonial towns Ive passed through, etc.... Everyone who I meet who lives here is working in the tourist industry (as a slave for a business owner, or as the slave master with their own business). And everyone who has a business is flat out trying to push it on you (as a tourist)... Hey wanna come stay at my great place.... or Come to my bar tonight I got a band playing... or How about a massage and yoga at my new holistic spa? etc.

Its just a bit tiring!

And I was definitely considering more or less the same thing too about a year ago... And I was running my own very little motorbike rental business too (though I like to think I was not at all pushy about it), so I know exactly where those people are "coming from".

But at the moment, it all seems quite "greedy" to me.

Its like we "wealthy ones" have found "something nice" and now we are going to exploit it... And by doing so we change it... We make it like the place we came from, and we are "consuming" as much of the nice stuff as fast as we can!
And I have been no different!... I hardly meet a traveller down here who is not looking for a nice place that they can "buy into" before it gets too popular and they cant afford it! We very deliberately want to take maximum advantage of the local cheap land and labour.
We dont want to be fair at all!... We want to exploit the locals as much as we can... There is no way we would want to pay someone else the amount we would want to be paid if we were doing the work our selves... Its just plain old greed, nothing less!

Sooner or later, we will run out of places to run to.
Sooner or later we will run out of places and people we can exploit.
Sooner or later we will just have to find a way to be happy with the places we are from.
Sooner or later we will have to learn to be happy without screwing over someone else...

But people never seem to figure things out till after theyve gone too far...
So my guess is itll be later rather than sooner! :)))


Like I said, it seems like a "bad flavour" to me at the moment!
Hmmm I wonder how much of a hypocrite Ill have made of myself when I reread this post in a years time?

For now, I guess Im gonna keep on riding :)))

Got Me Again!

I just fell victim to one of those pesky money changers again :))

Im down in the "very small" countries of Central America. Its quite easy to ride right across most of them in a single day each.
My side pannier that I put stickers of each countries flags on is getting quite full already!

If you take a big wad of cash out in one country then you have well and truly got way too much to spend in a day or two before you move to the next country.
But if you take out just enough for your short stay in that country then you will get clobbered by the size of the duties and exchange rates, and non-client ATM machine charges...
You cant win :)

So, I end up taking out the big lump of cash and changing it at the boarders as I ride along.
Now, having done this trip three times now, I can tell you with assurance that the CostaRica-Panama boarder is the most complicated (largest number of items- about a dozen), and the Nicaragua-CostaRica boarder is the most painful (Takes hours in line-ups and the hot sun).
But at the end of each crossing, I find that Ive usually spent about $30US for visas and insurance etc... Not too bad really.

My usual plan with the money is to check what the official exchange rate is on-line a day or two before I get there. Then I know what to aim for - not that I get it but I at least know how far off their rate is :)))
Then, once I have exited the country I am coming from with both immigration (for me) and customs (for the bike) I find a money changer and get the best deal I can (usually I have to move to a second or third money changer to make it clear that I know what Im doing)
Then I go through immigration and customs for the new country Im going to.

So, this all went fine and I got it all done for going into CostaRica...
But, at the next boarder, I have a snag...
Ive settled and exchange deal but the guy does not like my money...
Actually its just one note he doesnt like...
I take a look, and he is right... Its not the same.
We give it a good looking at and I have to agree with him its a fake... quite a good one but a fake.

It was just one of the four notes of that size that I got... Id likely have noticed if it was all of them, but it was buried in amongst normal notes...
Fine, Ill keep that one... Its about $16US in value which is quite a lot down here but in the scheme of things I can absorb it and Im not too worried.





Thats how it goes though... You do what you can but every now and then, they "get you"... Its just another part of the overall fun :)))

Slow Grower

After three days of surfing and such at San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua (which by the way, has the absolutely best beginners surf beach I have ever seen!) I decided to move on.
One reason to go was as I mentioned that there was some risk of me "losing the plot" and just not bothering to continue riding South... or North... or anywhere at all really :)
But life seemed to be giving me a push on my way too...

I decided Id stay there a week and I had found a nice private room that I could rent for a week at a good low rate. It was way better than staying in a Dorm room at the Hostel... or so I thought!
The first night I was in the new room things got off to a bit of a noisy start... The other people in the other rooms of the place were occupied by a bunch of young surfers. They were having a bit of a party in the evening but I figured itd all be fine since they said they'd keep it under control

...

and mostly they did too. But one guy in particular just didnt seem to have much idea about being considerate... He went out at about 11pm (when the others were wrapping it up) and came back at about 3am quite volubly drunk and proceeded to bang around the kitchen and the hall and argue with one of his friends who got up to ask him to be quiet...
... and then he left again...

... and came back again at 5am and hammered on the door... Till I got up and let him in... to which he responded with copious drunken verbal apologies and gratitude...
And by which I was "not particularly amused" but I was gracious enough to sincerely accept the apologies... and then went back to bed.

OK, so not great but it was just one night.

Next night things looked better and everyone went to bed at a reasonable hours
Everyone except my "special friend" that is... and he went out till 3am again and repeated the noise and arguments with friends again when he got home!
Again, I had to get up and politely ask that perhaps they could continue the loud discussion either quietly or at a later hour... which seemed to do the trick.
Again, I went back to bed but I was even less impressed than last time!
I didnt have to get up and let him in again at 5am, but when I went out at 7:30am he was there in the entry way (having continued his falling-out with his friends... I gathered they were no longer on talking terms!)...

Again, when he saw me he started his apologies but I was not so accommodating...
I suggested that rather than repeat the same old pattern of .. Get drunk, come home late, make noise, argue loudly with friends, and then apologise to neighbours etc in the morning...
Perhaps he might consider changing the original behaviour that required the apologies in the first place...
He didnt get it...

I explained that there was actually no one making him be loud except himself, and no one making him argue except his ego...
... and predictably, that went over like a "lead balloon" and set him off arguing at me :)))

I say "at me" because it was not "with me"... I wasnt playing the game...
I listened to his tirade for about a minute... It seems that he felt that his actions were fine and that the situations had been unavoidably caused by others... his friends, me,... anyone but himself... or that he even had the choice to not argue...
It seems that he was apologising not because he was sorry, but because it was "the form" of behaviour that he/everyone did... ie He was not sincere with the apology since he felt he had done nothing wrong!

Id had enough. I should have just left it at that, but I too have my issues, and I left him with a parting thought :) ...
So I quietly told him that it didnt matter, and "You can take your time, and grow up at your own rate" ... and I left to go get some breakfast.

I considered things over breakfast...
Id had three nice days of sun sand and surf.
Id paid in advance at the new place for only two nights and after the first night I thought that was rather fortunate... After the second night, I revised my opinion and felt that it was "prescient"!
When I got back about 45min later, everyone was gone. So,I packed up and left...

Back on the road heading South :)))

Some Risk of Losing the Plot

After the Island being a bit of a let down, and not wanting to blow through Nicaragua too quickly, I decided to try another tourist destination.
There is actually another place in Nicaragua that I want to visit as well. Its called "Little Corn Island" off the Caribbean coast... Supposedly a nice little beach and diving place thats quite hard to get to so should not be overly touristified yet... But Im done diving for the moment so I wanted something else... Ill get to the island on the way back North (like Leon).

So, just before the southern boarder of Nicaragua there is a turn off to the Pacific coast and a town called San Juan del Sur... Its supposedly an up and comming tourist/surf spot... I decided Id go there and see what its all about...

Turns out that its Really Nice here!
Strange as it sounds, the place is actually very tidy... Almost no litter anywhere to be seen. There are about a dozen bars in town. There are also about a dozen surf shops and several motorbike and quad rental places. Plenty of restaurants from local style meals to western hamburger joints. But not a single "chain store" in town. The town beach is very nice too... Its light brown sand but not mud... and again, amazingly, there is no litter on it. There are a few dozen small boats and several yachts anchored in the bay and there are quite a few tourists about but it does not have the frenetic feel of a big resort. (Though high season has not yet started)

Id say its probably like Puerto Vallarta in Mexico was twenty five or thirty years ago.
It is definitely already a "resort" but its small and friendly still.
Its big enough though for things to be being done effectively... The local tourist businesses are doing a good job as far as I can tell. Their "products" are pretty good quality and are very cheap too... Its not like back in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala where its easy to come in and start a bussiness and out compete the locals... The competition here is far stiffer... They know what they are doing and they are doing it well.

Actually, I like it a lot!
Ill stay a day or so and then see how I feel, but I may stay here a week or more... Definitely some risk of "loosing my way" here ! :))))

Many a Tethered Piglet!

After Honduras comes Nicaragua.... Well, that is if you are heading South :)

I crossed the boarder with minimal effort (by about 2pm) and headed into Nicaragua. I had a couple of choices of destination... Being Granada, or Leon. Both are small colonial cities and both have good reputations for tourisme.
I decided on Granada even though I have been there before, with the reasoning that when I ride back North, Ill probably go through El Salvadore, and Leon is more on the way to there.
So, I made it to Granada and found a hostel for the night with time to spare :)

I only stayed a night and then rode south again along the western edge of the very large lake.
The lake has an island in it called Ometepe and Ive heard good things about it as a nice place to relax for a while.
The lake is quite interesting in that it is freshwater but it drains to the ocean by a river... And over the milennia, assorted ocean fish have made their way up this river and addapted to life in the fresh water lake... Among these freshwater addapted ocean fish there is even a shark... A Bull shark in fact (one of the most common types to attack people!) hmmm
The lake is about 8000Km in area and the island is quite big too. It has not one but two quite large volcanoes (I guess the second one is a spare for if the first one malfunctions or something?)

Anyway, I rode along to the town with the ferries and caught one out to the island. Then I rode around and found a place to stay. The island has two good sized towns on it and a bunch of smaller villages too. There is a paved road between these two towns but all other roads are dirt, and they form a sort of figure-eight perimeter on the island around the two volcanoes.
I headed off the paved road toward a small village and a hostel Id heard good things about.
The road was dry and sollid, but very rough... Again I am reminded how my bike is not designed for off-road :) A dirt bike has long travel suspension with a very "compliant" feel... which means you dont feel any of the little lumps and bumps, but you also get a fairly "soggy" handling characteristic on windy paved roads... But my bike is a road bike and it has far stiffer and shorter travel suspension... Which gives far better windy paved road performance, but it means you get to feel every little lump on a rough road and the bike tries to shake its self to pieces!

It was really rough, so after a couple of Km I stopped and let about half the air pressure out of my tires... This really helps smooth the ride out but I gotta be careful about hitting hard edges now :))

I got to where I was going and settled in for the afternoon and evening. But I have to say I didnt think much of the place... It was "rustic boardering on dingy", and the food and facilites were expensive, limited and very average... There were a few other tourists there but the atmosphere was not particularly inviting.
Im sure it was great when my friend was here but Im also sure that the impressions we get of a place are very dependent on our own state of mind as well as who else is around and the atmosphere they create... This place was not for me!

I stayed one night and then moved on the next day. I rode around on the rough roads a bit more and found the island to be a very tranquil place. Its pretty much all small farms and plantations. Its very simple and rural feeling and the people a friendly too.
One thing I did note was that there did seem to be an over-abundance of "piglets on strings"! They were everywhere along the side of the road. Pigs have no neck to speak of, so when people tie them up, they tend to tie the roap tightly around one foot - or trotter I guess :))
There was plenty of other livestock on the roads too and bullocks seemed to be the most popular "beast of burden" around the place with quite a number to be seen pulling those increddibly "middle ages" looking carts with solid wooden wheels.
The tourist type facilities are only collected together in the two main towns but there are plenty of small hotel/hostel type set-ups scattered around the place... but moving between them would be a pain for the average back-packer... Not so for me cos I have my own bike :))

After riding around a bit, I headed back to the town and caught a ferry back to the mainland.

Its a nice island, but its not where I want to spend my time at present.... On to the next place :)))

Report Card for Humanity.

I came across this article the other day (while killing time by surfing the web during the rainy patch we just had).
Its an independent research report for over 140 countries in the world, on "Perceptions" of Corruption" ie, how people feel about the honesty and integrity of "life" in these countries.


http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table


Once again it reminds me just how privileged I really am (and most of you who read this blog are too by the way).

Now, for my part, this is one of the real overall measures of how we as a "sentient species" are all doing... and sadly its not great. But what it also does is reminds me just how lucky I have been to have been born in and lived in the countries that I have. And that also reminds me that my "expectations", and sensibilities are so different to most of the rest of the world.

So, having a quick look at the list, it shows that Australia and Canada are both in the top ten (about the top 7%). Places like the UK and the USA are significantly lower at 18th rank or so (still pretty good though).

Now, most tourists I see down here have very little good to say about the locals when it comes to business ethics and honesty, and I have to say that I can see where they are coming from, and this survey backs those impressions up.
But, those same people pretty much always have nothing but scorn for the locals with regard to "why they dont just change the way they do things"... And I dont see it quite the same way.

The survey says it all again.
Corruption is endemic in most of the rest of the world at many times the magnitude that it is in our homes.
This means that the locals have never ever had a working model of what an honest society looks like. And if you have never seen it in real life then it must seem to them, more or less like that foolish dream world of mine in which people dont lie to each other.... Bahhh! Impossible!

(I use the term "honest" here quite loosely... 'cos there is still plenty of dishonesty where I come from and corruption in official organisations too for that matter).

Chances are that pretty much every one the locals have ever had anything to do with, are all involved in dishonest activities on a regular basis - particularly when it comes to official organisations like government offices, taxes, and police etc. They all try to get away with whatever they can. They steal from each other just as happily as from the tourists. Many of them are still very nice people to meet and talk to though.

So, its all well and good to dream, but it takes a great deal of moral conviction to live that dream when the rest of the world isnt doing it too!... And the people who do have those sorts of moral convictions, quite often resort to unacceptably violent behaviour to try to bring the rest of the world around to seeing things their way ... or so it seems to me, and thats just "not cool" either!

So, I can see why it is so hard to effect changes in this area for so much of the world.

Just another reminder of the privileges I have inherited rather than earned.
And the only solution I can offer is to try to live by example.... Which is what I do as best I can and thereby try to earn the privilege :)

Mud Wrestling Again.

I decided to try to head directly South from Utila.
This meant using some smaller roads but I figured that would be fun. I like to try to get onto the dirt roads at least a bit in each country. It lets me see what the people in the really small villages are doing :)


Well, clearly the bridge on this road is out!

So, I used the GPS and pretty quickly found the road I was after.
Thats actually a bit unusual. As I have been getting further South I have been finding that the quality of the "worldmap" in the GPS is getting rappidly worse... There are plenty of highway routes that are completely different in real life to what is shown on the GPS... They can be out by 20Km or more at times!

But, this time it worked OK. The road started out paved... then after about 10 minutes it bacame dirt (but good dirt). I toodled along this for about a half hour. It went along the side of a beautiful river that wound down from the mountains. Not too many people out here, so not too much litter, and the jungle and mountains and waterfalls etc were beautiful too.
But then, as the road climbed up into the mountains, it came to a point where the local chicken buses clearly stopped...
Its a kind of a measure of road quality that I use... If the chicken buses and the Coca Cola truck can get there, then I can too :)


But now, the road turned into a definite 4WD trail...
I asked a couple of questions of the locals and they said "Yeah, its fine... It goes about 25Km till it hits the Highway, and it doesnt get any worse than this"... So I decided to give it a go.
I toodled along more slowly over the rough stuff and through the creek crossings etc for another half hour or so. The road got higher and the quality got lower... but not too bad.
But! It had been raining quite a lot recently, and Im more worried about the mud than the rough stuff. As the road got smaller, the mud factor was increasing. I made it to the summit of the road with no spills and only a few dodgey sections of slimy mud...Then it was down the other side...
Immediately, things get trickier! Going up is easy since I control speed with the throttle and the clutch and if things get out of hand I just stop (clutch and brake held with the hands). But going down, if things get tricky, I have to use the back brake to control both speed and stopping... whuch means one foot off the ground... And that means much more chance of the big bike toppling over. The problem is compounded by the fact that I currently have road tyres on the bike... These are fine on firm rough stuff but useless in the mud.



So, as soon as I hit the first steeper section of track with mud, things go all swimmy and Im struggling. The bike topples over a couple of times but Im only about 5-10Km from the next highway and its well over an hour back to where I came from...so I keep trying to go forward...

But then I meet a local guy on a 200cc size dirt bike coming the other way. He and his bike are well and truely plastered in mud.
We have a bit of a chat and it seems that the rest of the track is both steep and very muddy.... Best I turn back!



So, he helps me turn the big bike around on the narrow trail and then it takes us another 20min to get both his and my bike back up th short 50m section of steep mud that I just came down. The bike topples over even with the two of us working on it :)
But we get there and I then head off back the way Ive come again.
Where the road gets good again, I stop to check the bike over and I have another chat to that same group of guys who told me the road was fine... I tell them that its actually quite a bit worse etc....
I was not actually surprised that they were wrong. They dont have cars... They take the chicken bus when they travel... It goes the other way... They have rarely if ever actually been far down the road they sent me along... They only know what other people tell them about it, and they were just passing the info along to me. It was just that they hadnt spoken with anyone who had been along the road recently ... certainly not since the recent heavy rains... Oh well.


And thats how it seems to go for me when I tackle these dirt trails by myself.... I get quite a way but after the bike has been on its side a few times, and Im trembling with exhaustion from the effort of manouvering it and picking it back up... I turn around and retreat...
The fact is that If I want to do this sort of thing then I need to find a traveling partner, and I need a different bike...

Oh well, Im having fun doing it this way for the time being...
But I think Ill get a different bike for the next trip... No more mods for this one...
Its just not the right bike :)

Done Diving

I was out in the Caribbean for about five days. I did six dives and had a good time, but I feel like I should get riding again now.

Its easy to see why so many people want to give up the "struggle" of modern city life and just head down to islands like Utila and live a relaxed life. I can also see why so many people want to be dive instructors down here... Its so easy to do (Like REALLY easy!... which is why it can be dangerous if you are not paying attention!). Its just like being a cub-scout and collecting badges!...

PADI has this wonderful little progression curve of skills and qualifications. There is always something new to learn, and with each step you get a little certificate (and probably a gold star if your good :) )
There are different options for people who like to be in charge and to instruct, or people who like gadgets, or people who like to do "dangerous" stuff, ... or people who want to rescue others etc... pretty much everything is catered for.... Its quite the well thought-out marketing set-up :))... No wonder there is an alternate acronym for PADI (Put Another Dollar In) :)
That said though, it is quite fun. The down side of course is that so many people want to try to do it for a living, that they become virtual slave labour for the dive shops... And thus the "professionalism" of the dive shops can be rather variable!


Utila its self is quite the definitive party town for the kids. The down side though is that there is a fantastic abundance of sand-flies (midgies, no-see-ums... call them what you will) as well as mosquitos. The little ones are really small (I reckon you could get about five of them on a pin-head!) but they are voracious... You have only a couple of seconds after they land before you are feeling it; And their bite leaves a 6-7mm red itchy patch on your skin for days afterward. Its really quite amazing given their size... Their mouth must be absolutely minute!!
But, there is a fix for them.... You cover your self in baby oil and they either cant land on you cos they get stuck, or they cant hold on to get a bite, or it gums up their tiny mouths... Whatever it is, the oil is effective :)



Not so for the mosquitoes though: They are vicious too and willing and able to bight you through your clothing (thats not common in my experience!)


So, Ive had enough of being food for the bugs for a little while and Im back on the mainland. If the rain eases up (its back again today) Ill ride on tomorrow.