10-18-05 Late night

I had good luck taking my little computer into the Internet store and being able to hook it up to their network lines. By doing it that way I was able to use the Front page program that I use to work on my website. I hope ya all are able to get it. I got a couple of emails back on the email with the blog link and it didn’t work for some. Sorry, I don’t know why it didn’t work.

After leaving the internet store I headed down the street to the square where there was something going on earlier but what ever it was, was over by then. The folks that we ate at last night were now set up down there and I went over and had three of the tacos and a cold drink. After supper I noticed one of the shops that sell the frozen juice bars and went in and picked out a dark purple one. The gal told me what it was but I have never heard of anything like it before. It was fantastic as all the bars from those vendors have been. They have maybe twenty different kinds and some of them you can see the big seeds in them. Bill says that the prices are higher for gringos but even at 50 pesos they are cheap enough for me. She did have some that were 70 pesos that I will have to try maybe tomorrow. I think they are made with milk products and that is why they are more expensive.

I made it back to Bills and told him all I learned about using the network hookup at the internet store. Bill didn’t know about the little usb memory stick either so now he has more possibilities to use his old laptop computer. He doesn’t have a phone line in this rental and it would cost something like 250 dollars to get it in. He uses the internet store now and then but it is sometimes full and noisy as it was tonight. By having my own computer I just hooked up even though all the computers were in use.

I actually slept better this night, I must be somewhat getting accustomed to sleeping while sweating. I guess the body needs sleep and will put up with even sweating if necessairy. It sure isn’t nice sleeping weather.

I loaded up in the morning and tried to thank Bill for his hospitality. He said he was very happy to have me come visit and I am sure he did like to speak English to someone after 5 months. He is very relaxed guy and gets up early and goes outside and hangs out in his hammock watching the stars and the first morning light. He doesn’t even consider going up north again. He will have to go to Nogalas to get his wife who will be flying in on Sunday I think it was he said. He is apprehensive in how he and his wife will get along. I think he is comfortable enough with himself now to know if it will work or not after a short period. It will be interesting to see how she will fit into the Mexican life. I sure do wish then well.

10-19-05

I had a great ride out to the main road. I stopped to take a photo of this guy cultivating a planting with a horse. I have seen these cultivators many times but never seen one in use.

This was early in the morning and it was just so peaceful and quiet. Quite a few of the fields had new plantings starting and I went by many places where there were bedding plants under shade netting. The other fields were being disked and hilled up in preperation to planting. It evidently is the planting season here. There has been a lot of rain and as you can see in the above photo there is water in low lying places. Some of the fields were much worse than this one.
A small new bananna planting along the road.

There were quite a few nice coconut plantations along the way and this one was really nice looking.

Some of them have cattle grazing uner them and it makes a nice clean operation. There are not many places to stop and take photos along the road but I did find a place across from this flowering bush or vine covered tree that I had to stop and take a photo of for my flower friends. I have forgotten to say that all along the highway there have been flowering trees as well as small bushes and shrubs in flower. It is almost like spring time display but I am guessing that it is just normal for something to be in bloom all the time down here.

I made it out on the highway going south when I went through a little town and saw this guy that had a really nice looking mule in the back of his little pickup. She was just as calm as could be and was interested in looking around and seeing everything.

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I had a good ride south toward Puerto Vallarta. On  one stretch of road I was waiting in line for road construction when I noticed a guy on a motorcycle passing the line up and going to the front of the line. What an asshole I thought, then I recognized him as my buddy Rich!!! After the line got moving again I found him pulled over to the side of the road checking his map. We were both sweating in the humidity and heat. We talked for a bit and it sounded like Rich was headed for the hills as he hadn’t acclimated to the heat and humidity. I think it gets worse as we go further south. It was good to see him again and I am sure we will see each other on our way south. He did say that he never did make  it to Creeel but did see lots of bikes on the road. 

On of the little towns I went through had some new construction going on and I took this photo of how they support the roofs as that they poor of concrete.

I made it to the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta and found a nice big sign outside some sort of big housing development that had a good lawn in the shade. I was tired after riding all morning and thought I had better take a little rest before heading into that huge town and trying to find my way out. Last year I made three trips around town trying to find my way out and ended up staying the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Ugh.

I was just starting to get comfortable when I noticed I still had my earplugs in and sat up to take them out when I noticed a guy holding a camera next to me. It turns out that he is a BMW /GS rider and stopped to make friends. His name is Alfonso and he is an engineer and has lived and worked here for 25 years or so.

He was on his way to a project that he needed to inspect or something and said that he would be back in about an hour and he would like to talk. We ended up going to his house and he showed me around. In his back yard he has one of the coolest little bike shops you have ever seen. A big sliding door opens to expose a well layed out shop with a bike rack and tools and spare parts all organized. Alfonso has four BMW’s here and a couple more in San Diego and one in Germany I think it was. He follows the Paris Dakar race and has been over to see it. We went up to his computer room and looked at lots of photos of the preceding events of the race. I had no idea that they raced everything from motorcycles to huge trucks. Alfonso has a R100GS/PD like mine only red. He had never seen a yellow one before and as I always tell everyone “it is special, the only yellow one in the world”. (hee, hee, thanks John)

We spent so much time on the computer that we didn’t go get the roasted chicken that his wife wanted us to go get so she cooked up supper super of roasted salmon and some of the biggest pure white asparagus I have ever seen. I have heard of the pure white asparagus before but I have never seen them. I know that they are grown that way under huge mounds of dirt and never let reach the sun that will make them green. Alfonso’s wife Lorena if a very beautiful lady and speaks excellent English. Their house is absolutely gorgeous and is down near the waterfront. The house was redesigned by Alfonso and is full of extraordinary art work and lots of cool car and motorcycle toys. He has two daughters and a grandson that live with then and they are very nice too. The little grandson name of Alfonso was drawing a picture and I asked if he was going to be an artist, his mom said that he wanted to be a doctor. He probably will be with the family support that he has here.
After supper we took a ride across town to a motorcycle dealership and I was able to buy some quarts of oil that I need for an oil change I need to do on my bike. Alfonso had offered to let me change my oil at his place as well as anything else I needed to do on my bike. He is so nice to offer that but my bike is running well and the only thing I really need is to change the oil. It is running a little rich but that may be because I am down at sea level and don’t want to change anything as I know I will need to be taking it up to very high elevation especially in Peru Bolivia and Chile.

Alfonso drives that little red car like a race driver and I had a good time keeping up with him in traffic going to his house. When he gets on his R1150 he goes like the wind. He is really part of the bike and he is wonderful to watch. I however had to ride like hell to keep up with him and his fast lane changes as well as keeping an eye on the other drivers all around. Alfonso was a go kart racer when young as well as motocross racer so you get the idea of how he rides. His bike has a really loud muffler and he likes to hear it make noise. He isn’t very tall or heavy so he can really make his bike fly. After getting the oil he led to the way out of town. It was such a beautiful afternoon he couldn’t resist taking me down the highway to the south past all the beautiful large and small hotels. Just as the highway takes off over a small range of mountains he pulled over and we said our good byes. It is so nice to meet such special people that are interested in what you are doing and let you see a part of their life too. He has a wonderful family, a nice place to live, good motorcycles to ride and the time and money to enjoy them. I felt really good about our encounter and hope to see him again someday. I gave him one of my bmwdog stickers and maybe he will put it on one of his cars or bikes someday. I am sure he will find just the right place for it.

The road over the mountains was great with just a little cloud cover and cool temperatures. I saw a little sign that said 137kilometers of curvy road and curvy is what it is, with only small straight stretches to pass the slow moving cars and trucks in. I met up with a huge line of slow moving traffic and it must have been a half mile long. I finally made it up to the front with wild bursts of speed and then cutting in. I finally found myself about four cars behind a slow moving hearse. I felt like a fool then. There was a little pickup in front of me with an old man and several young women and kids in it. He gave me the ‘look’ like to say ‘you dumb Yankee bastard’. At that point there wasn’t much I could do about it, so I stayed in line and not too far ahead the hearse pulled off to the left and I continued on straight. I felt like a fool and hope they didn’t put any curse’s on me as I went by.

I continued on over the hills and finally came down to the area where the highway comes down close to the ocean again. Not too far after that is the sign for Punta Perula. I was hapy to see that sign and have been wondering if my friends I made last year were still there. I rode through town and pulled off when I found their road behind a hotel. I pulled up to the gate and recognized their car and was happy to see that there as that must mean they still lived there. I saw Jill at an outside sink and yelled at her to open the damn gate. She was really surprised to see me and yelled at Carolyn to open the gate. They seemed to be really happy to see me and it was wonderful to see them again. They had a new friend staying with them for a few days from a town down south. Her name is Carol and they all seem to get along so well. I made a run up town to see about getting a juice bar like I was in the habbit of getting last year. The little place I used to go was closed but I found another store that had maybe ten or so kinds. I bought four of them, all different colors and brought them back and we all enjoyed a cool little snack.  Later Jill, who is a gourmet cook, proceeded to make a beautiful salad that we all wolfed down. I am not much of a salad eater, but it was that good.

It was hot as hell and no breeze but they pulled out a couple of sleeping mats and I made a bed across the room and spent the night under a big ceiling fan. They keep the fan on to keep the two parquets comfy.  It was nice sleeping under the fan and I finally had to pull an edge of the sleeping bag over me.

10-21-05

I got up this morning and had a good cup of coffee that Carol made. Good coffee is a rarity as the Mexican usually make instant coffee and serve that in restaurants. We sat around this morning and watched CNN news about the hurricane down in southern Mexico and they said that is why the weather here is so hot and muggy. 

I had told Jill that I needed to change my oil and she got on the phone and called her mechanic here in town and had a little talk with him. Her alternator in her little car wasn’t working so she made an appointment to go right down and get things done. When I got there the guy was going to do it all but I only let him put the pan under the bike to catch the used oil. He did come up with a funnel made out of an old gear oil container that I used to fill it up with the fresh oil. It was a pretty tough shop but I have an idea he can get a lot done with his few tools.

Jill’s car was a different story and we had to leave it there and they were going to work on it this afternoon. Several hours latter she got her car back and supposedly the battery was what was bad. We are going to go to the town where Carol lives and eat supper as well as I think they are going to drop off a load of laundry. I sure hope that was the problem as if it wasn’t the battery will go dead and we will be out on the road at night with a dead car. I think they say I will be able to hit an Internet place too so I can check my email. I am waiting to hear from Anna’s husband who is a doctor about what malaria medicine I should be taking. I think I need to take it at least a week or more before I hit the areas in Mexico that have malaria. There are several different kinds of drugs to take and they can have some sever side effects. Another method is to take a drug that kills the malaria if you get it. I will wait until I hear from Oscar before I do anything. I may have to hang out here with the girls until I feel it safe to travel. The beach here is very nice and I know they like me staying.

10-22-05

We were going into town last night but I noticed that the generator light was on when the motor was running in the car. The mechanic evidently put in a new battery but I told her that we might make it to town but not back at night on just the charge on the battery. We went back and the guy said it needed brushes and a regulator and she should take it back to the guy that was supposed to fix it before. Damn guy sold her a battery that she didn’t need and was just going to send her down the road. I made her ask the guy for the old battery as there is noting wrong with it. He didn’t want to give it up I could tell as I am sure he would sell it to someone else. Women are sure at risk when dealing with a mechanic. I guess we all are when out of our known areas.

We left to go into town this morning and they have dropped me off at a Internet store and the girl let me plug into their network system so I sould be able to get this off.

The trip goes well. I think I will try to get some malaria pills today at the pharmacia. 

Gotta go. Rx