Two Moto Kiwis Arctic To Antarctic May 2012...

Next day we woke up to a beautiful day after a wild night of lighting and thunder and seriously heavy rain making its mark on the access road up and carving some good ruts in it.... as I discovered on the way down .... no problem to the mighty Mayan!!

We rode across the Volcan and out north and picked up where we left off on the supermoto highway, from there we turned right and down toward to lake to catch the ferry crossing, this is a stunning part of the country and a very enjoyable ride indeed.





Arriving at the docking point at San Francisco Lempa on lake Embalse Cerron Grande we were the only ones there, the price went from $6 to $7 to $10 when the lady told the ferry operator the bike was grande (big) .... at that rate of change it would be cheaper to get a helicopter.



We decided to do it rather than ride back, so we sat down, bought a watermelon and scoffed into it, soon after a car arrives so our price went back down to $6 ... then another car arrives but the base price is $4 for the moto and $1 each person.

Finally the ferry turns up ... all aboard, Maya has a AZ plate on her and one of the guys from one car was from Phoenix and asked which part of AZ we were from .... I shoulda said Bevans.



So much interest when we said New Zealand and conversations were rolling with one guy very interested in the bike.... it was a nice feeling chatting in English and some Spanish especially learning moto style words you don’t get in class.



The big dude holding the handlebars was fascinated by Maya



Arriving at the docking point at Suchitoto we rode off the ferry and up to Suchitoto township for lunch.



The exit ramp was lumpy, wet, greasy, stoney ... everything we all love



As above I rode off the ferry and over the greasy rougher stuff solo then waited for my photographer, again beautiful setting.



Lunch stop in Suchitoto, street lunch as the town square was being revamped.



Very nice older town



The mission from here was to get to Marios workshop to change Mayas oil, we had ordered 15 - 50 Motul fully synthetic fresh blood, this will see us through the rest of Central America and beyond, at nearly 5000km the old oil was black although gear shifting etc was still fine so the Central American heat takes its toll on oil with the bike running hotter in the 35 - 40 degree daytime temps.

Interestingly the engine is quieter with 20 - 50 GTX dinosaur oil in than the fully synthetic 15 - 50 Motul....even after nearly 5000 km on it!!

Getting the job done was easy, both screens were pretty clean, both magnets had virtually nothing on them and the main filter was also very clean which is very comforting given her start with us.

I washed the Scotts washable filter and two screens and back in they went followed closely by new blood.

Big thanks to Mario for getting the oil in for us and allowing us some space to do the change, although he has very competent mechanics I still prefer to do it myself so I know it has been done and cleaned well...piece of mind for me.

WOH HOH .. good to go!!

Great meeting Andi an Ellen



Hola ADVs



Ride safe amigos

Subscribed.....better late than never!

Good to see you had such a great time with Salvadors finest
Ride safe !

Andi,

Yes, I'm on PHOTOBUCKET now and have uploaded a few albums, but haven't used them yet to here.

Give me your bike details and what you think you may need and I will check if Carlos has them in stock at the dealership. Is there a specific brand of chain you prefer?

What month do you think you will be through Lima? DO NOT come down the PANAM! The interior of the country is much cheaper, beautiful, solitary, and friendly. I haven't met a bad cop away from the coast yet! But out on the coast there are MANY! Others will confirm this!

Come down the center of Ecuador from Quito into Peru and all the way to Huanuco (where I live). Wife Sara and I have an extra bedroom and will be glad to put you up. From there it is a 7 hr ride down to Lima....

Then after the bike work, zip south down the coast 161 km, and turn up the Yayos valley to Huancayo and go from there to Cuzco. You will miss Nazca, but honestly it is not much and fighting the crazy trucks and buses on the coast is NOT worth it!

Cheers! Toby

"So this is the start of our new approach to seeing the places on our RTW trip whereby we bunk down at a central location, ditch both panniers and box and ride day rides out with just our wolfman soft bag for our wet gear and some water."

We call this "Shamrock Touring". Ride in settle down do a few clover leafs and then head to the next place. Great way to travel.

Great meeting you too Mario, you made our El Salvador experience superb.

We have safely made it into Nicaragua unscathed through Honduras, we expected the worst and were delivered something substantially better.

Heya throttle Dave, never too late mate, we have a long way to go so hopefully we will keep you entertained and thanks for coming along with us.

Gracia Amigo, thanks for all your help and comrades manship, your almost understanding when I was down

Seriously appreciated it and yes we had a great to with El Salvadors finest, Mario is a gentleman and half.

loving this, keep it up yah'll!

Heya Toby, great stuff on the photobucket, it is easy to use and quick to post photos, if Baldys (smugmug was the same we would have stayed but as we said on the road internet time is precious so posting pics quicker etc is great.

We are not sure when we will be through Lima, no worries staying off the Pan Am that is pretty much what we have done most of our trip, you get to see a heap more.

We are booked with Ludwig on Stahlratte 12 August so with hit Colomba on the 16 th I think then down from there but we travel slow and poke our noses in everywhere.

Will send you an email of the parts we need with the numbers and all (if I can) to make life easy.

Maya is going well now, will do a valve job in Colombia then other further south.

Appreciate the bed offer and would love to take it up, will keep in touch and email you closer to the time.

Cheers Andi

Mate it is working well so far, find a central place to leave gear and stay then explore lite.

Much easier for this ol fella to manhandle the monster

More to come on our shenanigans shortly

Thanks man, appreciate your words, you know we are doing it just for you

In for the show!

Nice report you two. It has taken me a week to come up to speed. I enjoy reading about your trials and tribulations, though I am sure that from your perspective they seem a lot less interesting and more of a chore. But they will make great bar stool stories! Thank you.

... there is a lot more of the show to come, glad to have you along with us

Heya Blind warrior, thank you for your kind words, none of this is a chore (except the ribs bit) and for the most of it we are covering new ground, new faces, places and challenges ... some harder and some easier.

It definitely isn't all beer and skittles but I wouldn't change it for my office desk for a minute.

Greetings all, well I have to say I have a love hate relationship with Guatemala, to be clearer on that I love Guatemala but I still hate hospitals.

The medical treatment I received for my ribs was excellent and my nurse was yummy so that was good, I just hate visiting hospitals so on this next leg of the journey we are staying right out of them.

This is my happy happy joy joy hospital photo



So starting from the beginning, entry in to Guatemala was not really smooth with the big fat customs guy leaving for his lunch break while 90 % of the way through our paper work, a small bell rang and he just left the building and no one would say he had gone to lunch for an hour, so we and many other behind us were left standing wondering what was going on.

If they had said lunch time then sweet we would have got some lunch but it seemed to be a secret and they seemed proud to make it a secret and just hold everyone up ..... not good tourism relations and that guy really should get another job, apart from his secret unexplained exit the process was straight forward.

We both love Guatemala, it is the start of the Jurassic Park section of Central America and we found every bit of it excellent.

Sumec Champey is our favourite location in Guatemala .....the place is nothing short of stunning.



We took up Spanish lessons in Xela and this has provided an excellent base to start with but we need a little more practice and hopefully with immersion this will help.

I was lucky enough to hang with what car?? (Juan) and we did a big boys day out to Tajumulco Volcan which was great, we rode up to about 3400 metres (11200ft), thanks mate it was a sanity break from Spanish lessons!!!



We also had the pleasure of meeting Guaterider and Mrs.Guaterider Julio and Luisa in Antigua, even tho he rides a BMW he is still a great guy.

Richard Chang from Guate City (GC) took us from Antigua to GC which was really cool unfortunately the crash bringing that to an early finish ... that is where the I hate hospitals comes in.

I had the three hour ride to GC in the back of a heavily sprung ambulance and I felt every toppe and bump from Palin to GC.

Having four breaks in the ribs things were crunching around, it would be fair to say it was slightly painful and at one point I had tears rolling down my face and I just wanted to go home, if I could have pushed the escape button and be back in New Zealand in one piece right then I would have done it. No other way to explain the value of home comfort, I was not happy.

With the confirmation of broken ribs from X Ray they said nothing they could do, having had broken ribs prior I knew what I was in for so we bought some tape and taped me up BIG time for support and this worked very well.

Me doing some electrical work on Richard wee Honda, I was going mad so had to do something, note the strapping on my back to hold me together., sorry Mike no girl bum shots :eek1



Enter in to the equation Victor who is a good friend of Richards in GC, he had offered us to stay with him but by the time we arrived at his place he had inadvertently picked up a broken whiteyfoo patient more than a RTW traveller.

So our three days turned into two weeks, Victor your blood is worth bottling mate, you are a true gentleman and a welcoming host, we didn’t know how we could reciprocate being in our position.

We then headed back to Antigua, funny thing was prior leaving Antigua to go to GC we had talked about extending our stay in Guatemala ..... irony is turning up back in Antigua not quite in one piece but we got to enjoy it for another month and do more Spanish so we had a bonus there.

Not long after we went back to Antigua Gene and Neda arrived and Gene was kind enough to bring Maya back from GC to Antigua as I could not ride her, thanks mate, the ADV tree works well.



This then provided a great platform for a few social nights of international travellers, we were also joined by Phil and Jane so we had quite the gathering for a short time.



Upon leaving Antigua when I was ready to ride again we then spent the last weekend back at Victors as RTW travellers and not broken patients, we had organised a ride with his cuzzies on the Sunday so that was cool.

Unfortunately Victor had a binning on his bike and broke two bones in his leg .... and he rode home ..... I am feeling like a girl now taking an ambulance.



So very quickly it turned around that we were there to help Victor and reciprocate with help for him in his time in need, so yet again our stay we extended to help Victor as he couldn’t drive so what comes around goes around, coupled with that our cable and pinlock insert that we ordered 6 weeks earlier had not arrived so we extended our VISA’s and TVIP, Victor needed help so that concluded it it was worth staying on to help, I became a personal driver to help him get about for that following week then his cuzzy was going to take over.

Funny how things can change in an instant, seems to be the basis of our travels.

The Bike

So we got a lot of parts out of the USA and sent to Julios in Antigua, these were the final mop up after the shitty purchase issues we had, thanks Julio, again you made life easy for us.

Maya is all good barring any issues from riding but oil changes are netting nothing unusual which is great and now we have our washable filters etc working for us.



I am looking forward to wearing shit out now as that means we are travelling!!!

Us

Across the board we have been good, life has been treating us well but it was a difficult time for us with me being broken and I have to admit I probably don’t make the model patient.

Ellen did well to see me through the hard time of the first couple of weeks of the ribs including a couple unwanted sneezes bringing tears and crying and not being able to breath .... it was hard for both of us at this time ..... and with all the drugs there was no drinking so a double wammy.

Ellen also tortured the guys with her sushi making several batches for the team to scoff.



So at the end of Guatemala we still live and we are still in love and we have realized a few things,

I don’t bounce like I used to
Gene likes KTMs
I still hate hospitals
Fresh fruit from the eternal garden of Guatemala is world class
Guatemala is somewhat of an adventure biker paradise
We still hate mozzies
Guatemalans love blowing shit up

Where does this leave us now?, well since the beginning of our trip we have lost 18 weeks to failures in just 13 moths, 6 weeks to Suzuki failures, 6 weeks to Ellens crash and now 6 weeks to my ribs, we are now miles behind where we thought we were going to be ... who cares.

We are lucky enough to have the time, not many people get to travel for 18 weeks let alone have 18 weeks off the road within a trip.

Now things come in threes so they say so from here on in our trip will be boring with no more BIG issues but we promise to do our best for photos and writing ...maybe some more bum shots for Mike.

I am very glad I could not push that escape button as I would have regretted it, like all horror moments there is always a silver lining born to see you through and yet again people went out of their way in our time of need so just when you say to yourself well how the hell is this going to unfold ... it just does and unfolds with bonuses.

I don’t suggest for a moment you rush out and break your ribs tho .... it is not recommended.....however these are



So to finish up, thanks to all in Guatemala, luv to all, Andi & Ellen

So cool that the ADV tree brings all the ride reports I am following together.