Around the World in 800 Days

If you know me and have been following my blog, you know that I can't pass up a dip in a natural hot spring (agua thermales). And besides, it is a great way to clean off all the road grime
So near Creel I see a sign that says there are some hot springs about 8 miles down this dirt road so I thought I would check it out. The sun had just set and thought it would be fun to camp there<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
I had no idea what to expect.<o></o>
About 7 miles back the road started to get very steep and headed down in to the canyon. The road ended at a parking area and you were supposed to hike down to the hot springs from there. But there was no one back there and it was dark at the point so I thought I would ride down the trail to the springs. The road was a very narrow single lane and was made out of rocks......VERY BUMPY ROCKS. It was also very steep and from what I could tell, it was straight down on the sides. Because it was dark, I had no idea how far the drop was.......which it hind sight, was a good thing as I would find out in the morning. THe road/trail had some sharp switchback corners that were hard to negotiate with such a heavy bike. But I finally got to the bottom and found the springs and here is what I found<o></o>

The hot springs were at the bottom of the 1500 foot canyon. Hot water poured out of the side of the hill in to different pools. Also the river in the canyon was hot with lots of swim holes. I had the place all to myself that night. And there was a full moon that lit up the sky. I still had some left over 2005 Taylor Flatgate LBV Port so I had a glass while I soaked in the tub.
But I figured that I would get out of there at first light before anyone else showed up as I was not supposed to ride my bike down to the springs.
In the morning, as I was packing up my tent, some mexican guys started to show up. They just looked at me and didn't know what to think. I gave them some of my beef jerky as a sign of friendship and peace. I got all my stuff packed up and headed out. There was tricky spot that I had to get around and I tried to baby the bike thru it and it fell over. I looked back and all the guys were laughing at me. My first thought was I wanted to take back my beef jerky. But my second thought was the engine was on top of my foot and the bike had me penned under it. I yelled out......SOCORRO! They came over and helped lift the bike up and then I gave it a lot more gas and made it up with a problem. One thing I learned is that is is better to gas it thru rather than try to walk the bike thru a section. The bike is just too damn heavy to try and keep from falling over if it starts to lean over going slow.
Going up out the canyon was exciting. The road had a cliff on one side the whole way up. I called it Mexico's road of Death!!! I will post a video later. I must do in Copper Canyon.......just don't get caught doing it.

Copper Cyn....gotta do it
So close but yet so far

Larry.....please tell me how to do this. I have been uploading my pictures and videos to photo bucket.
I also want to figure out how to edit and cut the video so I can leave out sections on the same video
Thanks
ed

When I get to Greece, I would like to sleep on your couch so I can save my money for wine
Right now I am traveling thru Mexico and I have been drinking some good anejo and extra anejo tequila
If I didn't buy and wine and tequila, I would be spening about half as much money

Making my way to Colombia. You should come down and meet me

You should be able to redo the images in almost any software, I use photoshop but Sue uses windows media. Open the pic and there should be a box with DPI. Most cameras capture in 300 or 200 dpi. I change it to 72 and then "save as" and rename it same name plus add "lo-res" so you don't forever change the original leaving it hi res.

Some places here you can ride for an hour and only pass maybe 5 cars the whole way. But in other places, you go thru these little town every few miles. And in these town you see traffic and congestion. And the worst part about having to go thru all these little towns are the "topes". If you ride down here you will know what I mean. These speed bumps can be small or big. They can be round or square like hitting a curb. and sometimes there is no warning and you hit them at speed (and find out what teeth fillings are loose. Plus you slow down and it ges hot riding slow. Not a fun part about going thru the towns. But every town has a church and it is always the nicest thing in town amongst the shantty buildings

I took the road from Durango to Mazitlan. It was one of the best roads I have ever done. It was very twisty with great pavement and spectacular scenary. You have to do it! And if you do, you have to visit the Nat'l Park there. I went to see the waterfalls but I ended up spending the night there. Here is what I found

to get to the second waterfall, you have to go thru these old train tunnels. It was a highlight. They were wet, dark and rocky-bumpy. It was challenging and it was a cliff on the road outside of the tunnels. Not quite as scary as the Road of Death I did a couple of days before, but frightning nonetheless

here's the second waterfall (from the backside)

in the park, there are these cool rock features
I took some video of me rock crawling thru this area and thru the tunnels which I will try to upload

Amazing RR! I want to do one of your Baja rides.

every night, I try to find an interesting place to spend the night. I am not always successful. Some times it is hard just trying to find a good, safe place to pitch my tent so I can rest up for the next day's adventure.
But this night was special. After riding thru the 4 tunnels, I found this trial to ride back on and found an awesome spot over-looking the canyon. I had it all to myself. I made dinner and had a little tequila as I listened to my i pod player. Then a full moon rose up over the hills off in the distance and lit up the canyon. It will be a night I will always remember

The road from Durango to Maxitlan is amazing. Perfect asphalt and more twisties than you can handle.
but the views are amazing too. The road is mostly at 8000 feet and follows the natural contours of the land.
They building a new toll road which will be quicker as the road goes straight thru the mountains thru a series of tunnels and bridges, but for me, I will stay on the free road. But if you go, watch out for the semi truck drivers. They use all of the road. And I mean all of the road. Mad max style

here is the new toll road under construction.
the is picture shows the contrast between the haves and the have nots.
Only the haves have the money to use the toll roads so the are little used

I found a beach to camp on just south of Mazitlan. I was able to ride my big bike right down on the sand. As I was setting up camp, a guy came up to me and said I couldn't camp here. I asked why. He told me that the tide would come up that far and I would be under water in 2 hours. Good thing here said something otherwise me and my bike would have been washed out to sea

Enjoying a Cocos Hieldos con tequila on the sand watching the sunset

Made it to Puerto Vallarta.................hated it! Too many people......$5 beers.......$20 dinners....etc
After having the beach all to myself a day earlier and drinking dollar beers on the beach, I wanted out of there. I stayed long enough for a swim and get wifi to make a Skype call to my GF

I think the question I get asked most is what do I bring on a RTW motorcycle trip by myself. The short answer is everything! I saw a guy yesterday traveling south on a KLR 650 and he had about half the stuff that I do. I like that he can get by with less but for me, I want to have it all because I want to be as comfortable as I can.
I looked at all my stuff the other day and I thought......what I could do without. And when I eliminated those things, it would take off maybe 25 pounds.. And that is a lot of weight but when your bike weighs maybe 550 and your stuff is another 100 ponds, I just didn't think saving those 25 pounds would make a difference. And when the bike is moving, it doesn't make much difference. But when the bike is moving slow or if it falls over (it has happened twice in the first week in Mexico and I didn't drop it once all the way up to Alaska and back), I wish my bike wasn't so heavy.
I have done lots of shorter trips on motorcycles but never one this long. And honestly, I didn't read up on what to bring or how to pack the stuff on my bike. I just thought about it and did it my way. For example, I didn't want a hard bag to be hung way off the back of the bike so I put the lockable hard bag in back of me and hung the soft bag off the back. And that hard luggage behind me is mounted to a plate that can be removed with the key just like rear seat cushion is on a stock GS1200 I am trying to keep the weight as centered and as low as possible
So here is how I have my stuff organized and what I am carrying....................