last night we were headed up to the two Canadians hotel when we noticed another big loaded down bmw gs parked out front. It turns out it is one of the guys that was at Creel, Mexico meeting I was at a couple of months ago. Dan recognized him right away but I had never met the guy. He is headed out for a trip around the world and has a website www.worldrider.com . I haven’t been to the website yet as of this writing but Dan said that he thought he was going to write a book about his travels. On his bike there is his website and the dates of 2005-2007 so I guess he figures to take two years to do it. After supper last night he evidently had his wallet stolen. Fortunately he had his mugger wallet stolen and not the one with his good credit cards in it. Gee, somehow this sounds almost familiar eh?
When I hear from my friends in miles city that they have sent my new debit card to Anna’s husbands sister, I will make plans to make my way to San Jose, Costa Rica and pick it up from her. It is a very big city and I have been told that it is very expensive as is the whole country. I have been warned by several people down here that I have the feeling that they know the real situation, to be VERY careful in Costa Rica as well as in Panama. It sounds like it is more of a problem on the Caribbean coast than on the Pan Am highway that I will be traveling on.
The Canadian dad and daughter (John and Linda) I finally had a chance to talk with. The daughter finished college and worked for a year as some sort of computer systems operation for a small bank. She is 25 and really has a good outlook on life and seems like a lot of fun. Her dad has a large machine shop where they work on large projects and not production work (100 employees). He is having a great time as well. They are headed to the end of South America as well but will have to take a short break while he has to go back to Canada for some sort of court proceedings. It is going to be a problem, as when you leave a country and don’t take your bike with you, they want to charge you import duties, which can be excessive.
It turns out that another couple I met in Creel is already past here on their way south so I guess I finally found some of the people that are headed south or at least now there is only one road that we are all having to head south on.
John went down today and made reservations for all of us to take our bikes out to a big island in the nearby lake and we will ride around it. It has one or two big volcanoes on it.
I’m not too much on these sightseeing projects but it might be fun with these bikers.
12-3-05
I went up early for breakfast this morning and when I came back I met up with John who took me up to the shell station where I could buy oil and I just changed it there as there was a guy who had a oil pan and would take care of the used oil.
I found out that there is an Internet shop that also has phone service and I went up and gave my buddy Charlie a call. It was really nice to talk with Charlie and it really was unreal to hear him say that it was zero this morning up there and up to ten above when I talked with him. I told him I was sweating while talking with him. It isn’t really that hot but I guess inside and without a fan it was hotter. I took my camera with me finally and got a nice shot of one of the old keyholes in a door. The key must have been really beautiful to fit this hole. I have seen several like this but I don’t think any have been used in a long time.
Lock X
One of the main streets in town is being dug up by hand. You would think in a town this size they would have a backhoe but I guess it is cheaper to hire fifty men with bars, picks and shovels to dig in new water lines and maybe sewer lines.
Dirt work X
One of the old churches
Church X
I was telling this guy how cold it was in Montana and he shuddered.
Cold X
