It's Saturday, so we must be in Nicaragua

The countries are blazing so fast now that I cannot spend it all
before I leave.

So many quatches, so little time!

Finally!

Finally we found some network in Nicaragua. Ken found this keyboard/
printer combo at the border office. What a wild ride!

Day 9 Begins at the Border

Wish us luck with Guatemala.... we slummed it last night.... see the breakfast buffet. :) DAMN these PC laptops, all out of time and will have to post something later.... sorry folks! One country down, many more to go!

Speed bump lunch.

Thank goodness for AT&T and the cell service. Without much time or
connectivity at our hotels, it's keeping us on the correct map and
sending pix :)

Our first ruins sighting

Breakfast day 8

Morning day 7

Four hours sleep and another day of riding ahead! This is our view
from breakfast in Acapulco.

Buenos tardes!

Day 6 Begins

Once we figure out how to update our mexican auto insurance, we{ll be on our way to Acapulco today. Weeee :)

Day 5 Exhausted and Still Wanting More

Left Tepic today - got off the superslab - en route for Puerto Vallarto. We saved a few hundred dollars in tolls, and rode the wildest set of twisties ever. Tight road, chock full of conga lines of traffic, dancing with danger every few miles and smiling through the humididy the entire way.

Stopped for lunch in PV and then pressed on into the night, attempting to catch up to schedule.

More to come when we have more than a few hours to sleep, shower, recharge our body and batteries. Enjoy the photos and pray we get the Spot tracking working again tomorrow. :)

Day 4 closure

Great people on this tour and so far we've been very lucky in our
travels. Friendly folk and smooth roads! Low Internet access but very
high on cultura!

The tollroads have been eating our money up nicely,but they've been
great for keeping us near to our schedule.

Tomorrow we turn off the highway, and follow along the coast roads
through puerto vallarta and beyond. :)

Day 3 Wheels Up

Tomorrow

Thanks to a minor paperwork snafu, and sluggish departures, we're off course a tad, but after a long freeway slog tomorrow, we'll be back on schedule. Wish us luck! "Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all day long".... and I will be!

Day 2 Round Up

What a ride! Great weather (not too col andnot too hot for riding gear - yet), beautiful scenery and smooth riding. Only disturbed by the occasional monetary transaction... whats is that up ahead? How much will it cost and where do I go to pay somebody? Banking, border crossings, immigration stops, tolls and insurance wrangling filled most of our day. Although we still rode around 300 miles. Every step of the way has a learning curve for Jeff and myself, no habla espannnnol. Meanwhile our leader fearlessly lead all of todays miles, I see him now wrestling an '@' symbol from a mexican keyboard. Very long day of cactus lined road ways punctuated by 24 pharmacies and passing tractor trailers outside our roadside motel in Santa Ana. Good night. :)

Day 2 Yuma and Out

Well, we didn't cross any borders yet, but we did leave the state of California. With a later departure than expected yesterday, we happily choose to stick to our rule of not ride at night in Mexico. Approaching the Mexicali connection @ 630pm, we chose to stay another night in the states and head to the next border crossing near Yuma AZ. Morning folks, away we go! Fill your water bottle boys, we're going in.

And away they go!

T-Minus 12 hours

Almost completely packed now, the time has come for adventure!

Where Are They Now?

When you think of us during this trip, you can track our progress online thanks to the SPOT GPS tracker. Each day we'll alert SPOT of our location and they'll tell you where we are on the Google map interface. Check us out!


Our intended route and schedule is as follow, but it's just a sketch...
Day 1 - Tomorrow!
Irvine – Calexico Hwy 405, 5, 8, 3.5 hours, 200 mi.
Calexico – San Luis Rio 100 mi. 2 hours

Day 2
Hwy 2 south via Sonoyta, 15D S at Santa Ana, Mexico to Hermosillo 375 mi.

Day 3
Hermosillo – Culiacan 420 miles (mostly straight, flat highway)

Day 4
Culiacan – Puerto Vallarta 370 mi. coastal roads

Day 5
Puerto Vallarta – Zihuatenejo 360 mi.

Day 6
Zihuatenejo – Puerto Angel 370 mi.
Note: This is the point where would could head over to Yucatan, or change route and head more directly toward Panama.

Day 7
Puerto Angel – Salto de Agua 395 mi.

Day 8
Salto de Agua – Chitzen Itza Mayan Ruins 375 mi.

Day 9
Chitzen Itza – Morning visit Chitzen Itza, then go to Tolum Mayan ruins 75 mi.
Afternoon Tulum – Chetumal 143 mi.

Day 10
Chetumal – San Ignacio, Belize 140 mi., visit Xunantunich Mayan temples, Rio Frio Caves

Day 11
San Ignacio – San Pedro Sula, Honduras w/ border crossing 270 mi.

Day 12
San Pedro Sula – San Benito, Nicaragua with border crossing 292 mi.
Or divert to Copan ruins (extra 50 mi. or so)

Day 13
San Benito – San Jose, Costa Rica, with border crossing 250 mi.

Day 14
San Jose – David, Panama with border crossing 205 mi.

Day 15 David – Panama City, airport 255 mi.

Total estimated mileage 4,420.

ExoSkeleton Install

Within just a few hours, like five, I was able to mount all the crash protection and luggage systems that Tim from Happy Trails so gratiously provided us. It's coming together nicely, and thats a good thing, cause we're leaving in a just a few days! Yikes!

Dress for The Job You Want

A few years ago, I found myself hiking the backcountry trails around the highest point of the lower 48, Mt Whitney. I've always enjoyed the adventure and scenery of the outdoors, and the preparations involved with such a trip are often of equal pleasure.

This time around, I'll be packing not my back, but a motorcycle pannier and the prep is much the same. Weight savings is less an issue, but still a strong one to consider when choosing between sleeping pads and underwear. How quick will it dry? How small can I pack it? Will it fit in a tankbag? All good and common questions.

I just love an excuse to visit my local REI store!

Luckily, choosing riding attire is more easily figured out as I'll never need to pack it for this trip and finding gear that wears in an many seasons as possible is the best stuff for the trip. So with my Hein Geirke kit finally coming apart at every zipper, sadness I know, I need some new adventure gear. And some boots. I'll keep you posted what I find on the market when I get to that bridge. So many more errands to run before take off.

Every Trip Begins In First Gear

I know it's an advertising slogan for riding gear, but it's a great place to start a travel blog for a group motorcycle tour thrrough Mexico and Central America on our 2008 Kawasaki KLR650s. Come along for the ride....

My name is Al Palaima, aka Fonzie, and I'll be representing the online motor media world on this tour. Our ride leaders name is Ken Freund and he'll be recording this tour for the printed pages of motorcycledom and lastly, in our camp is the KDX doctor himself, Jeff Fredette.

Long story short, we're departing Southern California on Feb 17th and wheeling our way to the Panama Canal in only two weeks. Tourist stops are surely included and laborious border crossings are inevitable, I hope to keep you all posted along the way. It appears that there are internet cafés along our route, so cross your fingers that I can get connected long enough to post at least a photograph.

And I myself will be making this tour the precursor to my visit to the '09 Daytona Bike Week... truely the long way round.