1800 km - very hot today, about 35C. Highway all the time, at the end boring. Tomorrow I will try to get into Guadalajara.
I decided not to stop in Alamosa (nice colonial town) because it was only 3 in the afternoon and I realize I will have to ride without losing to much time in order to be in Managua by the 20th. If I have the bad luck to have rain, I will need all the resting days to get there in time. The more that the situation after the mudslides in El Salvador is not very clear. Apparently I will have to through Honduras.
Gaspard asked me if I already arranged a partner to ride down, but the more I think about it, the less I will try to find one. There is one who will be on the 16th in San Cristobal (contact made through horizonsunlimited.com), but I'm afraid it will be to difficult to adjust our plans. Overlanders and Adv riders in particular tend to have a ego bigger then themselves, and I include myself. It goes very quick out of control when it comes to adjusting plans. You need to be very good friends to hold out a ride like this. I have some friends with whom I could make this journey, but then timing and availability is the issue. It took us 40 years to come to some harmony with Annemie when travelling ( and of course when not travelling ) and I must admit she did most of the adjusting. So, a young american macho riding down to Tierra del Fuego adjust his plans????? And an old belgian macho adjusting his plans????
1200km - 2 days of beautifull riding through the desert of Arizona and the greener landscape of Sonora. I slept in Gilda Bend at 150km from Tucson. Hot when I arrived, but cool in the morning. I got a similar feeling as when driving through the Sahara in southern Algeria, the black mountains against the blue sky, but highway 8 changes everything. It's definitely America and if you want to experience the real desert, you still have to go to the Sahara. Border crossing was fast, the Americans even didn't look to me, and I had to beg the Mexicans to put a stamp in my passport. It's incredible how the street and the traffic changes over a distance of 500m; I felt immediately at home, being able to drive cowboyway a la portuguesa and park the bike on the footpath in front of the ATM. But getting the permisso for the vehicle was a 1 hour affair, some 20km further when the "free hasstle zone" ends, and every foreign vehicle has to be temporary imported. I had to take a nice hotel in Hermosillo, because I need to tell home I'm fine and my phones do not work in Mexico. The only communication is the internet and since this town is not touristic, there are no internet cafes. But on the other hand there is a marvellous taco restaurant : Jaas, in front of the Santa Fe supermercado, when coming in from Nogales. I'm happy I did not fly the bike south, because it feels good to be back in Mexico. And the riding will be cheap : 70usd cents or 1/2 euro per liter. Tomorrow a shorter ride to Alamosa, the most colonial town of Sonora.
For uploading pictures, I will have to find a way to reduce the pictures in size while being on these kind of "hotel"computers. I do not know if picasa works online, facebook does reduce being online. I will test it tonight or tomorrow.
The bike is packed. I replaced yesterday the tires, battery and with the help of Gaspard, we replaced the headlight and complementary lights. The glass of the old headlight was broken before the bike arrived in the US 3 years ago and since I do not ride at night and since you have to buy a complete headlight of 300$ I never replaced it. Scott from the BMW dealer in Escondido went in the back of the garage and got me one for free from a RT. I have now 5 big lights, so I hope the Mexican drivers will notice me when I cross Mexico City in some days. We had a ***** diner last night at Gaspard's place, prepared while talking by his friend Chef Cook Gillet. It's a little bit of a weird feeling to know that in some 2 hours I will pull out of the La Plancha street in Carlsbad, San Diego, drive to highway 5 and from there on just straight south.
I started at 5 o'clock monday morning in Salet, Belgium and arrived in Carlsbad, US on wednesday evening 8pm local time (thursday morning 4am belgium time). It was a little bit ridiculous : arrived in Chicago, flew down to Miami and in the morning flew all the the way back north to Philadelphia to catch a plane to Los Angelos. My friend Gaspard picked me up at the airport, Breea had prepared a delicious meal and today I recovered completely from my jetlag. Took the bike to the BMW dealer for replacement of the brake pads but got the bad news that my ABS pump is dead. I will do without ABS. I arranged for my insurances for Mexico and Central America and will pack the bike tomorrow. Saturday I will spent some time with Gaspard and Breea and I will start riding on Sunday.
