Two Moto Kiwis Arctic To Antarctic May 2012...

I know this sounds weird but I still distinguish between humans and non humans

(EDIT) damn 100 pages !!! we need to get out and ride more!!

Great to be out again mate, hopefully hitting El Salvador tomorrow

Sent from Victors office seat using my laptop

Don't wait for us Pierre you will die .. rack of lamb ... y u m m y

I have told everybody in our photos to frown now so you don't feel bad , we were actually trying for offensive rather than demeaning per Voodoodickhead but I guess demeaning will do for a start

We are only doing this cos you live in one of the most beautiful parts of thr world in one of the best settings so it is your fault

...you are asking me for advice .... not sure if I am privilaged or if this is a set up

Ok, my experience (which can be bought for a small failsafe cut of 90%)((and this will differ from others)) I reckon the DRZ400 with Safari tank, Colbatch soft luggage, wolfman tank bag and small Wolfman or similar rollie for the back.

This is based on one up.

Two up the SE is a fantastic platform with how we have it set up, or the new F800GS Adventure or Tiger 800.

The next adventure will be only me (and Craig I hope ...so far) .... back to Iceland, 2-3 months June, July, August, then over to Europe, Russia, Stans, Asia and up to Anadyr in eastern Russia, looking for dudes to ride with

Bike will be DRZ400 as above, light, economical, Japanese, a little slower than a big bike but you get to see more ....bonus.

If adventure touring say two up then the SE with hard luggage as you can carry more, nothing less than Jesses end of story, Adv, F8 etc are all great bikes and all have their weaknesses .... there is NO perfect bike end of story.

All in all you need an extendable retractable, deflatable, inflatable, carburated, fuel injected, auto hight lowering road bike that is superior in mud ......easy as

We haven't posted our border post yet for El Salvador. It's about the same as the rest. We took the La Hachadura crossing.
Simple, but slow.
Leaving Guatemala: no costs outside of photo copies. A couple extra 'friendly' helpers who simply don't take no for an answer. So you just end up with a puppy following you around.

Entering El Salvador: Migration officer will scan your passport, but no stamp in the passport since you have the CA-4 already.
If you're Jayne, the customs man might buy you an ice cream. Paperwork takes awhile, and was FULL of mistakes. Check everything over. But no charge for any of the paperwork.
Must buy the "insurance" for the bike at 10$.
Also had to pay 5$ for the "community road improvement tax". This seemed more like a gringo tax, but they gave a reciept, and the cop wasn't letting us go anywhere without paying it. Other borders may not have this, or may have a different community tax.
Have a great time in El Salvador!

WOH HOH in GC (Guatemala City) ...this time with nothing to do with hospitals etc as promised.

Arriving back to GC was great and arriving by bike to meet up with Victor in one piece was even cooler, we had to pick up our passports from immigration as we had spent our 90 days and we had not even left Guatemala .

Arriving in GC at about 1.30 pm we discovered that Immigration had closed at 12.00 noon that day for renovations until the following Tuesday... hmmm, our plan was to leave Monday morning .... OK, plan B.

We had also ordered a pinlock fog insert and SAE cable 6 weeks prior through a professional shipping company, we were also stood up on this too with them saying it was all held up in customs....but we paid for it NOT to be held up in customs.:huh

Argh

Well, Sunday morning, 7.30 am, planned to go for a ride with Victor and some local lads.

As mum nature would have it she decided the road needed a wash ... all night and in the morning.

No problemo I have flash new wet weather gear, part of the team rang in earlier and cancelled so it was up to the hardy souls.

We headed off to the petrol station that is the designated meeting point, Victors cuzzies Fernando and Carlos were a little late and with every moment that passed the weather was on the improve.

Wasn’t too long and they turned up, gear on and off we went with local knowledge working well.



We headed through and out of GC, a little bit of rain here and there but nothing much, as we got out of town the cloud dispersed and although still overcast it was not wet at all.



Our destination was laguna de Ayarza, we stopped for breakfast at a small and were fed and watered like kings and queens setting ourselves up for the day.



The bikes, left to right, Fernandos, Maya, Victors and Carlos.



The crew, left to right, Ellen, Fernando, Me, Carlos and Victor.



The lake was only half hour on tar then about 20 minutes on gravel, Victor of course is on his little 250 hyosung roadie which was less than ideal for the rougher road, both Fernando and Carlos were on the two F800GS’s and us on Maya.



We all but made it to the lake, Victor only had to turn into the car park but unfortunately lost the front end, he went down at an awkward angle and was not happy, his foot swelled up like a ballon quickly.



This is a photo of a man who is in a bit of pain



The bikes lined up at the lake.





Back to Victor, we carried him down the road to put his foot into the cold water



He tried to soak it but the lake water was warmer than colder ... NOTE, NOT me this time.



Time to regroup and sympathize with Victor and formulate a plan to get bike and rider home



Now Victor is a hairdresser by profession and this leaves him open for a bashing (as most of us office style workers endure ) however, this tough little guy said get my bike back to the tarseal so he is not jarred by the shingle road and he will ride it back!! ..... a true soldier

So we headed back to the town for lunch, we stopped at a petrol station as well while waiting for the lads to return with Victors bike, a local was so taken by Maya which was nice, he gave me a good luck pendant so I will keep that with me for good karma.



There was a Policeman, the forecourt attendant, shop attendant and a couple of his mates, I put Maya up on the centrestand and one by one they all had there photos taken, it created a great atmosphere with huge larfs and huge smiles all round ..... makes a great day out.

So we sat down and had lunch, fish from the lake, Victor grinned and beared it while keeping a sense of humour.





After lunch we set off back to GC, Fernando and I swapped bikes so Ellen and I took his 800GS back and he rode Maya, a great back to back comparo pointing out strengths and weaknesses on both machines.

All in all the weather held and barring Victors off it was what one would consider to be an almost perfect day out.

And a good word for our soldier, Victor rode back unassisted back to GC with TWO broken bones, both at the bottom where his leg bones join the angle, his foot got smacked heavy breaking the smaller leg bone and breaking a piece of the bottom of the opposite side.

Victor, you are hard mate!!!



So we have got to partly reciprocate with Victors injury as he took us in when I did my ribs and he looked after us, goes round comes around, came round a little quick (the bugger of being injured) so we have extended our stay a few more days to get Victor set up as best we can before heading away, this has given me time to help with repairs on his bike to get him back on the road.



Maya has to stand in the rain and watch :eek1

What a trooper! Obviously broken bones wasn't enough to put him off his appetite!

Excellent to see you are not the injured party there this time. Nasty fracture though, a tough cookie. No Lion rescue chopper involved either!
Recently watched a YouTube clip by some Texan Alex Chacon? about the same route. Terrific vicarious pleasures to be had there. Looks like he got tired and lay down a few times too!

Heya Pete, nothing much wipes the smile off his face.

Heya Mark, yeah plenty to do here for sure, trying to avoid Maya stopping for unplanned rests

Some cool stuff in this region with it coming up in our reports, have wifi today for the first time in a 5 days.

We FINALLY made it to El Salvador, despite our love for Guatemala having spent a total of 3 months there party for study and travel and partly for my ribs so we had to extend our VISAs and the TVIP for Maya, pretty painless other than some stuffing around and a bit of cash.

From GC we set off just after 6.30 am, the traffic was building up real quick, we did get stuck in a small traffic jam but we split lanes and sifted our way through it so only 20 minutes of sitting in traffic and we were starting to roll.

Getting out of the city and heading towards the border was pretty straight forward, no dramas really and the only thing that amused me was a chicken bus within in internal flat on the dual wheel set on the back axle, I don’t know if he knew or not but the tire was rolling around like a pig in mud.

Quick rest stop to spend the last Q's on coffee etc.



The road was absolutely mint condition



We made it to the border in good time, approaching the border we rode past what would be 2 km easy of trucks lined up as far as you could see, we snuck around the outside right up to the front and the border guard nicely pointed us in the right direction.



Our last point in Guatemala





Clocking out was a 5 minute affair that took 40 minutes from Guatemala then on to El Salvador which took about 2 hours as their computers were out to lunch, no biggy we were clocked in (no stamp though as were are in the C4 zone which is Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua which have an open border agreement for up to 90 days for tourists/travellers) but Maya had to get a new TVIP.

Our destination before the rain set in was Parque El Imposible (Impossible Park), it got its name due to the near impossible route from over the top were they bought the coffee from inland to the sea and it had taken many lives and been very difficult to cross.

We had recommendations of cabins right by the park entrance however less than 1 km back down the road in Hostel Imposible which is where we ended up at, a very nice place and the price we negotiated a better deal for three nights as it is the off season, add to that we agreed to eat there as well so they get it back through feeding us, all in all a great place and highly recommended.

As I am writing this we have a massive downpour, so loud on the roof I almost can’t hear Ellen speak ... there is a God ... as luck would have it it is 6.26 pm and we have to walk up the path for our tea at 6.30 pm ... we got wet.

Tea was nice with bar b q beef then we settled in for a good old fashioned sifi movie ...... which I enjoy but Ellen fell asleep, lights out at 9.45 pm in preparation for our 9 km stomp around Parque Imposible the next day.

(Impossible Park)

Day 1

Named because of the pass that is near impossible to get through having claimed many lives, this was the route from the highlands bringing coffee down to the lowlands for shipping.





We set off at around 8.30 am with a short 1 km warm up walk, we were both soaked by the time we arrived at the park.

The park entry building is interesting with local animals found there on display

Spooky looking cat



Ant eater



Something else



Paying our entry fee and getting our park guide because it is dangerous (BS) we payed dearly for him as they had no change so they got a pretty good tip really.

We walked through a combo of bamboo and lush rainforest and in places looking very much like Jurassic Park ..... we didn’t see any dinosaurs tho.





We arrived at the top view point called Leon with a pretty epic view of stunning rainforest and looking across to Pase Imposible



Our guide couldn’t use a camera for love nor money and it was a struggle to get any photos, never mind we have enough of us anyway.



On the way back we caught a coupla butterflies shagging on the side of the track



We did the full loop circuit up to the top and back down via a steep ridge and small creek crossing which provided beautiful surroundings to walk in.

Along the way we found some funny mushrooms with a very ...erotic shape and a net over it, kinda looked like man parts with an exploded condom (so I was told cos I am a virgin)



Also his family just further down



Back to the track our guide was picking food to take home, some spiky plant that he cooks then eats the inside of.



The day was semi overcast and semi sunny but still very hot and humid, we took 2 litres of water with us and used it up 500 metres before the end of the track so not bad timing on a 9 km climb and decent.

Finishing up there we wondered on back to the hostel for a shower and gear changing session cos we were soaked through from sweat and tomorrow we will do it all again to the mirador (view point) and rio (river).

The afternoon we sat down to do the write up and had beautiful El Salvadorian coffee (actually I have two), the coffee here is simply superb.

During the afternoon we played ping pong with the weather trying to dry our clothes, although very warm it is very humid so it take hours to dry a lite shirt and gruds and they still feel damp when you put them on, this isn’t bad though as it is cooling.

Not having the internet or telephone brings us back to having time to write and relax a little, it is nice to have communications but it is also very nice not to be owned by it, the other thing is to sit and watch the world go by, it happens a lot here so we just join in.

Sitting here this afternoon with an El Salvadorian coffee (or) two in my hand watching the rain come down then stop and cycle again was really nice, knowing we can just relax and take the place in was excellent.

We were also graced by a local butterfly posing on the window sill for us.



Tea tonight was mushroom spaghetti and pupusas with some fresh water, it was extremely nice .

Hey Andi,

What is the trick to upload such great pictures? No matter what size or compression I make them it seems to be wrong and won't load! :huh

Toby

You cant actually upload pictures, they have to be hosted and then you link to them, using the little icon that looks like a moon over the mountain in the reply box is one way to attach a hosted picture.

Details Here:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=919

THX, I'll try that.

Heya Toby, we have photobucket pro which allows us to upload unlimited pics and vids full size, when we post to the form photobucket auto resizes them to 1075 x something or 1280 x 960 I can't quite remember, we still retain full size pics but with the auto resizing it speeds things up for viewers.

$39 US for 2 years so cheap really, we tried smugmug first to support baldy but posting pics takes a lot more time so we changed.

That is the way to do it there Toby or you can copy and paste links depending on your provider/hoster, if you have any queries ping us an email at twomotokiwis@gmail.com or pm and we can you through it with you no worries.

Started our with the same warm up walk to the park, a guide who befriended us (or at least our wallet) and tried to convince us how dangerous the park is and that there are Pumas up there bla bla bla..... yesterday we only saw butterflies.

Being wised up from yesterday and already having left a far bigger donation we said no thanks and went on our merry way much to his disappointment and advice....we lived.

Our walk took us to an outlook first off overlooking the valley we were about to go down into, from there we dropped off down a very steep zig zag for 1.2 km before the track semi levelled out into and undulating scenic tour of beauty .... not to dissimilar to the beauty of Haast pass in New Zealand in places.



The track dropped very quickly



Again bamboo the order of the day



We found so very twisted trees which caught our fascination and this led us down to the river where we enjoyed the whole place to ourselves, Ellen decided it was skinny dip time and I settled for a sit in the sun to take in the peaceful bit of paradise we had been given for the morning.







The weather started to change which meant the mozzies were back out so we took on the accent back to the top which was a grunt to say the least, being hot and humid meant we were both soaked in 5 minutes and the rain would have been a clean welcome but it only spat for 2 minutes and left again.

Approaching the top we came across two locals heading down and they had some scuba gear with them ???? then another group loaded with camera gear so something was happening.

We made it back to the park building HQ without being eaten by a Puma, I would love to have seen one but yet again butterflies were the order of the day other than one fluffy tailed something that darted off into a hole in a tree.

Two killer butterflies



The afternoon saw showers to freshen up, clothing washing and some Spanish learning and writing all graced by Papas fritas (french fries) or for the Kiwis readers chips!! and pupusas, tortillas glued together with cheese etc and a coupla cups of beautiful El Salvadorian coffee for lunch.

I must say Parque Imposible and a great tropical forest and Hostal Imposible is a very nice place to veg out for three days with great accommodation, food and hosts.

The Hostal





The path down to condo TMK



The small pool at the bottom of the accommodation units



The view from the hostel towards the ocean



There are mango trees everywhere ... they are just falling off the trees and rotting so we had them for breakfast and afternoon tea snacks etc ... just beautiful .... and free.

Wow, that is paradise. I'm being there sometime. Ellen, I saw yer bum.

Heya Mike ... no more bunny photos so a bum it is

.....for me wasting about 12 hours (I guess) of my employers time over the last three weeks.
I have sneaky followed your journey and now feel like I know u both. Weird, eh?
I'm a West Aussie Kiwi, who has yet to embark on any ride longer than a two week Sth Island adventure back in Xmas 1976!!! (When the Shotover Jet ride cost $5...and we had to think hard as to whether we thought it would be value for money)
Anyway, I feel the juices starting to bubble. I NEED to do a big ride. You have been an inspiration and I hope you both are proud as. Great riding effort. Cheers, Hewzie