Tuesday, December 11, 2007

 

Fixing tires,meeting new friends, crossing borders and breaking windshields...

The plug I had installed on the back tire started to leak, and was getting worse. It needed to be fixed properly. Getting a tire patched, or vulcanized, is a real experience in itself. First, we found the Honda dealer and thought we were set, until the owner showed up to open the place and all there was inside was three scooters and a desk. No accessories or lubricants for sale, just three scooters and a desk! We told him our situation, and he says, "No problem. The mechanic will be here in just a few minutes. You take the tire off the bike, and he will look after it."

mexico 198
That's the owner in the red.
So I take the tire off the beemer, and hand it to the mechanic who is about 19 years old. I wasn't about to let the wheel out of my sight, so I followed him thinking that he had a tire machine inside. You can imagine my surprise when we walked two blocks down the road to a tire shop!!!


mexico 206
It was a family business: a father and his two sons. They did a superb job. All work was done by hand - no tire machines here. It took the three of them about an hour to fix it, and the whole thing was a grand total of $4.00.


mexico 034
Ooopps........

Even though we have had some problems, so far the trip for us just keeps getting better and better. Last night, we stayed at the nicest hotel of the trip for $20 Canadian, or American, for that matter. We even had our own garage. Here in the city of Tapachula, 20 minutes from the Guatamala border on the Mexican side, we met the first other long-distance bikers of the trip.

It turns out that Leo and Cheryl are from Red Deer! Not only that, but Leo's brother Norbert owns the Honda shop in Cold Lake! What are the odds of that?
mexico 240
Here they are just arriving at the hotel. Each of them is riding a BMW GS 1150.

mexico 242

A night out on the town before the first of the famed Central America border crossings. We all felt just a little better crossing as a group.

mexico 259

Dan is surrounded by the "border helpers." It is mostly kids that are trying to make a buck by helping you through the whole confusing process. Notice that one of them is holding his helmet.



mexico 261

With all those people jocking for attention, the KTM got knocked over suffering a cracked windshield. We were all very impressed with the way Dan handled it. He taped it up wearing a smile, and said "I didn't really like that windshield anyway."

After crossing the border, things changed. We all felt it. Gautemala seemed greener, cleaner and more friendly than Mexico. We rode up to 9,000 ft through little indigenous mountain towns.


mexico 376



mexico 386

Mam is the first language in this town, with Spanish being taught in school.

mexico 407

Riding through the city of Quetzaltenango, we met up with the character on the right. He said he belongs to the local BMW club, and invited us over to meet some other members. Dan was able to repair his windshield using a drill and some zip ties, and we met a bunch of good people. Later in the evening, after showing us to our hotel, the club members picked us up and took us out for dinner - with the president footing the bill. Amazing!



mexico 329

Today we are off to Lake Atitlán and the city of Antigua. Our Lonely Planet guide book says these are some of the highlights of Guatamala and of all of Central America as well.

B C and D


# posted by GSRider @ 6:13 PM
Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?