A couple of xt225s on the long haul.

Wow!

Thank you so much. My rear tire is as bold as can be, so your generosity will be going towards a safer ride.

I have spent a far amount of time surfing in N.J. Had some great waves there. Very cold, but worth it for sure.

Thanks again, I will try my best to keep the updates coming.

Matt.

Haha!
I doubt you would be able to find me. Have a great free camping spot though around Puerto Lopez area. Let me know when your close and I will meet you somewhere.
Enjoy the road here, much beauty on the way.

Matt.

Puerto Lopez it is. I'll find you. Anywhere in Ecuador is close. According to maps.google.com Puerto Lopez is 5 hours and 56 minutes away. Which means two days when you goof off as much as I do.

It is cold and drizzling in the mountains this afternoon. I need some sun and fun and free beach camping in my life.

Cheers,
Tio Juanito

I will keep my ears open for the sweet sound of your Super sherpa.

I would once again like to send a huge thank you to some more very kind hearted people who have helped me keep going on this ride.

John AKA, junglemototours and Davie, AKA. Garfey

I must say I am over whelmed with the kind hearted folks on this site. However I need to confess, I also feel a little guilty taking and not giving much, if anything in return. So if anyone wants a print of any of the pictures here, or on my website who has donated please let me know, and when I am back working I will send you one. It is not much I know but all I can offer at the moment.

Thank you so much again.

Matt.

I want the print of you crouched, arms horizontal in a 6 foot tube with a wave curling over you in Puerto Lopez with your mighty XT parked on the beach in the foreground. Oh wait, I don't seem to see that pic on your blog. Dang it.

One can only hope. I guess I'm going to have to come down and get some decent surf shots for your ride report. I'm a few hours north stuck on the beach in Canoa. Lord only knows when I'll make it down your way. This place is a little slice of heaven.

Your ADV pal,
Tio Juan

Subscribed and donation sent.

Here's to you living life on your terms...cheers!

I want that same picture! great minds think alike.
Swell has hit so I might be heading back north to some spots I rode passed. If I do I will come into Canoa and have a look for you.

Thanks a great deal. You are living up to your name superstar. Was riding with a engineer from Texas for a few days. It was not you was it?

Canoa surf report:

Surf picked up overnight. Currently 3-4 ft. with slight offshore breeze at 9 AM:



Nobody out yet. A couple sketchy surfers free camping on the beach. You’d fit right in.

Not sure if you know about this website:

http://magicseaweed.com/Ecuador-Surf-Forecast/30/

It's what the owner uses here at the Baloo hostel in Canoa where I'm staying.

Cheers,
Tio Juan

Here are a few things the guide books did not tell me about Latin America. Well to be completely honest I have never read a guide book on Latin America, Partly due to Instagram fucking my attention span, so I could not focus on a book if I tried and partly to the fact I enjoy just heading out each day and seeing what I see.

1. DIRECTIONS:
Should you find yourself lost and in need of directions, there is not a great deal of point in asking for any. Even if you speak fluent spanish, (which in noway do I.) you will not understand where on this big beautiful world you are being sent. The same thing goes for asking how long it takes to get somewhere. If you don't believe me, then simply take this test. Ask three separate people the time to a destination. I can assure you that three different answers, ranging from two hours to two days will be given. The best part to this game is when you find yourself on a dirt road and they see your on a bike. The time is sliced at least in half. Now I am not sure the skill level of the riders who commute in Baja and other such places, but I am here to tell you, it is impossible to get to wherever it is in the time which you will be told. I am not trying to imply that my dirt skills are that great, however I did try many times and still am trying, to reach the destination in the allotted time frame given. Even when riding with complete disregard for my bike and personal safety, I could not come in close. Not once have I managed to beat the locals clocks, and to be honest it is really undermining my confidence. Come on! What the hell! The locals I ask are normally on beat up 125cc bikes with no suspension, no breaks and all kinds of shit onboard.

2. BOWEL MOVEMENTS:
You will shit yourself! It may just be that you are going for a surf on a empty beach and you are to lazy to pull your pants down to cop a squat. Maybe it will be your refusal to buy water in single use plastic bottles and you think that the bucket of water next to a well is pure glacier water. The chances are, said bucket will do more then refresh your parched palate. Free bucket water for the most part also comes with a free bowel cleanse. But fuck it right? No one likes going to a beautiful place only to find plastic everywhere. Yet answer me this, who does not like craping their pants at a beautiful vista? Now here comes the good news. You have made it to a toilet, taken your time and really enjoyed the dump, only to find? Yep, no paper. First comes the panic, which does not last long, for by this point you have already shat yourself at least half a dozen times, so the thought of a stinking crack is not that bad. But you will be dammed if you let this lack of paper ruin your feeling of joy. So with a swift kick of the cubical door you pull yourself up into a bow legged waddle over to the basin, while trying to act like nothing out of the ordinary is happening, as you stumble passed the two people pissing in the urinal and try to warn the person waiting for the throne, in some of the worst broken spanish ever heard, that there is a distinct lack of papel higienico.

3. EFFICIENCY:
Now I am not the most efficient person on earth, that title belongs to my dad, I come in a close second. But Latin America is one of the funniest places I have ever seen for efficiency. Lets start with the boarder crossings. Why all the photocopies? By the time you are done at the boarder you pretty much hold enough paper in hand to transcribe war and peace. Would a simple stamp in the passport not do for your bike? But who has ever heard of bureaucracy being simple? So maybe I started with a bad example. This picture may do a better job of expressing how things are done.

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But now I think about it, this might be high efficiency, why cut the grass back? just paint around it.

4. THE POLICE:
Most are not out to rip you off, it is only the ninety seven point five percent of them who are. If one should wave you down. You have three options.
1. Stop. Sounds kind of boring right?
2. Smile and wave as you go by. Most of the time nothing will happen. As they can not be fussed about much.
3. Stop, take a picture of them, get in a heated augment, tell them to "get fucked!"Twist the throttle and take off in a cloud of dust. This option will make your heart rate go though the roof and may, or may not land you in prison. Should you end up in prison, don't panic! The book deal will make the pain of all those long nights with Lil Loco drift away.So that pretty much wraps up what I have learned thus far on the journey though the Americas. Life is great here. Don't trust the prime time news. If I have not been killed yet, I highly doubt that you will.
Get off the couch and see the world. There are still way more good people then bad.

Thanks for the swell update John.
Maybe heading up that way tomorrow.

Excellente.
I'm not going anywhere. Surf climbed to 6 feet this afternoon late. Tubes. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Surf report out.
Tio Juancito

You are a funny man.

Funny ha ha.......

We found the 'don't stop' way of dealing with cops the best.

When we did get stopped by a cop car pulling in front of us we adopted the now popular ADV words "no fumar Espanol" just keep repeating it over and over with a goofy smile.


We would any one stop you anyway? Nothing unusual about your appearance!

I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said " Life is far to important to be taken seriously" Would have to agree with him.

Happy to hear you two are back in the comfort of your home. What a trip you had!

Any Advice on cleaning a tank?

Do I just take it off, and hose the dirt out. Let the water dry and fill her back up?

Looks like half of Baja is sitting in the bottom.

That'll work but pull the petcock first so you don't screw up the filter screens or knock them off, in which case you'd have to pull the petcock to put them back anyway. After washing the tank, rinse it a couple of times with gas to get rid of the last of the water.

As Garfey says, remove the tank and dump it, pull the petcock and tank cap, swish around some gas and re-install the tap and cap. Install gas tank. Fill with gas and you are good to go.

I remember telling a Brit this many years ago on an email forum when the internet was young back in the 90's. He mentioned using his torch to see if the gas had cleaned his tank.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Okay, my bad. I didn't realise a torch is a flashlight in the UK.

Heading south tomorrow. Maybe see you down the road.

Saludos,
Tio Juan

After flushing with water, rinse it with some form of drinking alcohol
approaching 190proof before the gasoline rinse. The alcohol will absorb
the water much better than gas.