Author: Katherine Anderson (Page 3 of 4)

Our visit to Manzanillo, Mexico

February 25, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

All of us together on the pier.

Got to spend a night in Manzanillo with Carlos and Graciela, our wonderful hosts that opened up their home to us for three nights. It was so nice to relax as Carlos drove us around so no motorcycle mishaps to report for me. The city was beautiful and they drove us to the area with million dollar homes and the Old Town area. Both areas were beautiful but I loved the old town area as it was filled with so much more activity and living going on.

Just some random streets in El Centro district of Manzanillo.

Another random street in Manzanillo.

Saw these dogs by the beach in Manzanilla, they went crazy overtime Jackiedawg came by.

Huge SailFish statue in Manzanillo

Again everybody here has been friendly but one person, a local, did stop and ask us why we were taking photos of the ugliest area of Manzanillo. We both told her we thought it was beautiful. It was kinda of strange because her tone was rather accusatory and almost angry and when we questioned her further she said she was used to Americans taking photos then going home and making fun of how people life here. I found this extremely sad and disturbing. I don’t believe that truly happens, at least not in the world l live in, but it was sad that she has this view of Americans. Later in the day, we went snorkeling and then drove back to Colima, picked up Dennis’ new glasses (yes he got an eye exam while here) and we picked up some Motodawgs.com business cards and stickers (made by the company that Graciela’s sister owns) to pass out to people we meet along our journey and then back to spend our last night again with our wonderful hosts. Had a great visit with Dante and Adhara until probably later than we should have, huge apologies for keeping our hosts up, but it seemed like there was just so much to share about each others lives. In the morning, after breakfast, Carlos rode with us for the first part to make sure we got on the right road to Guadalajara. Oh, and by the way, ask us in private what the new word for “cheese” is when taking pictures.

Carlos explaining the new word for “cheese”

Carlos enunciating the new word for “cheese”so we understand him. Had some special body movements that went with it also.

Random pictures from Tenacatita, Jalisco

February 24, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

Beautiful sunrise in Tenacatita, Jalisco

Another beautiful sunrise in Tenacatita, Jalisco

Camping along the beach in Tenacatita.

Getting ready for early morning swim.

Just some random cute kids at the rodeo that kept watching us.

Announcing all of the bull riders at the start of the rodeo

Saying a prayer before riding the bull.

Waiting for the bull to be ready before climbing up into the chute.

Getting the bull ready in the chute.

Getting ready to ride the bull.

Riding the bull

My broken foot and medical care in Mexico

February 14, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

When we woke up that first morning in Santiago, I felt like my foot was healing but after wandering around the market area, my foot was starting to really hurt so we decided to go back to the hotel to get the bike and ride 2 up on Milton’s bike and tour more of the city. Most of the streets here are a combination of dirt and cobblestone, so I was grateful to be a passenger rather than a rider for awhile.

The neighborhoods here are so amazing. There is life and activity everywhere. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, bicyclists, all share the road. They weave in and out, tailgate all the time, and pass each other whenever presented with enough room to get by; there are no horns honking in frustration, no yelling or flipping off the other drivers or any other displays of road rage, just people living their lives. School children and teens walk by wearing their school uniforms. In the morning before school, I see them helping to sell things before school starts. People sell fruit out of roadside carts, others wander down the street selling bags of papaya and jicama or just sit on street corners with bags of limes for sale. Everybody works here; works hard, and usually with a smile. I love that the town is just bustling with energy from early in the morning to late at night. It is a living breathing city filled with intense and vibrant sounds, colors, and smells. Intense and vibrant, I think those are both accurate words to describe what I’ve seen her in Mexico, an intensity and vibrancy for life that I don’t see very often in the states.

We rode up one particular narrow cobblestone street and found ourselves on top of the city looking out over everything below us. At this point, my foot was hurting so bad that the thought crossed my mind that it was not getting better and I needed to get off of it soon. So back to the hotel we went where I elevated it while Milton took some time to visit a local gym. He said it was very bare bones but they had what was needed to get a good workout in and all for only 25 pesos, which is a little less that 1.50 USD.

By the time he got back, I had already began to search for a local hospital where I could get an X-ray of my foot but didn’t mention that to Milton until about 6pm. I knew that the both Milton and Dennis had it in their minds to be leaving the next day and I really didn’t want to slow us down anymore than I already had. But as they were making plans for where we would go the next day, I finally mentioned that I didn’t think I could go and that I needed to have someone check out my foot. Next thing I knew one of the employees for the hotel was getting us a taxi and we heading to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, I hobbled into a small waiting room full of people and behind the glass was an empty desk where the receptionist should have been. There seemed to be no order to any of it, so at this time my confidence in getting good treatment was not high but I figured I would just go along. I mean many people get medical treatment in Mexico so there must be adequate care here somewhere and besides, it was only my foot and as Milton would always say to the kids, “it’s a long ways from your heart”. Someone finally came to the window and our interpreter told her what my situation was and after some back and forth between them and some heads being shaken no, we were told that she recommended we be seen at one of the local clinics for treatment because it would be too expensive for us otherwise. According to our interpreter this other place was only a few blocks away. Luckily we caught a cab because his idea of a few blocks was entirely different from mine.

At the next place, which was down a dirt road, there was only one young man sitting in the waiting room and again no one at the reception desk. I was beginning to wonder if this was just how they did things here but it was a really short line this time so I was good with it and then I heard a blood curdling scream off to the right of us. Milton and I both looked at each other and kind of laughed but inside my head I was running through all types of scenarios that would elicit that type of scream, something imbedded in the body that had to be removed, abscess that had to be drained, limb that had to be amputated without anesthesia. I had no idea, but the only door that was open in the direction of that god awful scream, was slowly closed after someone realized that we were there. So we did all that we could do which was sit down to wait. After just a few minutes a woman came out from behind one of the doors with a slight smile on her face followed by a chunky little boy about 10 who was wiping tears from his face but looking well otherwise. He had no obvious signs of injury, no bandages on, and all his limbs were intact. He probably just got a shot. Whew, no anesthesia free amputation occurred there that night.

Someone followed them out of the room and our interpreter caught him and again relayed our situation to them and again there was more discussion and heads shaking no. The doctor had already left for the day but there was another clinic just down the street. Heard that once before but again we left and caught a cab. Down another road, this time a combination of dirt and cobblestone and when we arrived at the next clinic we were given the same story, the doctor had already left. This clinic did attempt to help me though, they gave me some pain relieving ointment to put on my foot and told us to return the next morning and the doctor would see us at 9am. We decided to come early to make sure we were the first ones in line.

View of street while waiting for clinic to open.

At 7:30 the next morning we were waiting out in the lobby of the hotel for our interpreter and by 8am we were on our way back to the clinic. We arrived there by 8:15 and still had to wait for them to open at 9am so I sat on the sidewalk and tried to elevate my foot on a tree.

Consultoria Medico in Santiago, Nayarit.

Patiently waiting outside the Consultoria Medico in Santiago, Nayarit.

A little before 9 someone arrived and opened up a door and then brought out some plastic chairs for us to sit in. While I was waiting I looked up the words written on the buildings to see what they meant and Milton talked with our interpreter and found out he had two kids 7 and 11 and that they played baseball. He also had spent a little time living in the states which is where he learned some English.

A little after 9am the doctor arrived. Her name was Dr. Joana Lizeth Guerrero Corderon and she brought me into the room, brushed a little dust off of the examination table and Indicated I get up on the table and swing my left leg up so she could examine my foot. She was very gentle as she examined my foot. She pointed to some areas and I assumed she was asking about pain so I shook my head yes or no as appropriate. When her exam was complete we thought she was saying there was no break and I was thinking great, I have to live with this, but she was really saying that she needed an X-ray. In the meantime, she prescribed some medication for pain, equivalent to naproxen, which we filled next door at the Farmacia and off we went for an X-ray.

My left Foot.

Again we had to take a cab to go back across town to get the X-ray. We were the first to arrive, and it looked like they also were just opening up. As we sat there waiting, the television was on and playing american pop videos, I could finally understand something. A receptionist/xray technician came in with her little son and as she worked, he ran around and played. After the X-ray was taken, she showed it to me and sure enough there was a break in my 4th metatarsal on my left foot. In a way I was relieved to have confirmation that the pain was more than just soft tissue damage but bummed as I didn’t know how this would affect our journey now. We took the X-ray and headed back to the to clinic and she looked at it and said I needed a splint and to see a specialist who was an hour away in Tepic. At first I thought she kept saying dermatologic but when I said orthopedic, she said yes and she gave us his card, called, and made the appointment for us that same afternoon at 4pm. The last time I was referred to an orthopedic specialist in Washington the wait time was over a month out.

Pre placement of splint.

The doctor preparing the splint.

Splint being applied.

Splint applied, new dancing shoe or starting early in my halloween costume.

After the splint was placed we took a cab back across town to our hotel and waited until time to leave for Tepic. Since our appointment was at 4pm we decided to give ourselves 2 hours to get there so at 2pm we went in search for a cab. The cab ride to Tepic was an event in itself. He drove fast, tailgated, and passed in situations that would never happen in the U.S but I sat back and trusted that since he did this all the time, it was no big deal. We found the orthopedic doctor’s office right on time and the cab driver made sure we got in to where we were going, The building his office was in was filled with other doctor’s offices and also had a Farmacia. It was all very professional looking and just like back home, we had to wait a little while for the doctor to see us.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, Dr. Alejandro Avalos Flores, an Orthopedic Traumatologia specialist, met us in the waiting area and escorted us to his office. He talked to me about my accident and how it happened, where did the bike hit me and other appropriate questions and after he looked at my X-ray, I got the good news that all I needed was either a cast or a walking boot for 6-8 weeks, no surgery needed at all. I was so relieved. He even said that he would okay me riding the bike when I felt up to it as long as I got the walking boot. According to him the boot was rather expensive but it would give me the most freedom. We quickly decided on the walking boot. Unfortunately, he did not carry the boot in his office but said the store where we could purchase it was close. When Milton asked how far away the store as he would have to walk or get a cab, the doctor said he would take him in his own car and help him pick the boot out and so they left me to rest in his office, luckily I had brought a book so I was content to wait right there.

Being examined by Dr. Alejandro Avalos Flores

After about 20 minutes or so and they were back, boot in hand. The doctor applied some topical gel to my foot called Artridol, which I am to use twice daily for three weeks, a light ace wrap, then the boot. He gave us some free tubes of the gel and then wrote me a prescription for Arcoxia to help with the swelling that I would take for 1 pill daily for 14 days. Come to find out, the medication is not approved in the U.S but it is approved and used in 80 other counties so I am okay with it. All total, minus the cab rides, for the doctor’s visits, the X-ray, medications, and the boot came to 327.92 USD. Pretty amazing!! Both doctors were wonderful and for the orthopedic doctor to take the time to drive Milton to pick up the boot, we are both so impressed with him going above and beyond. I can safely say that without hesitation, I would gladly seek medical care in Mexico if ever needed again. Fingers crossed that I won’t need it . But considering we often like to take the road less traveled, and that the condition of that road isn’t always the best, I can make no promises!!

Us with Dr. Alejandro Avalos Flores.

More Photos of Soyopa

February 9, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

Us with the Chief of Police of Soyopa (standing next to Milton) and another officer next to me.

Getting ready to cross the cattle guard leaving our campsite in Soyopa

Crossing it, can’t really see it too well here but the distance between the metal is wider than my tires.

Dennis and his new friends!

Dennis with another friend he made.

Us and Juan Pedro at their community dinner.

Us with the Mayor of Soyopa, Ing. Manuel Garcia Verdugo (on the left) and Juan Pedro Salazar (next to Milton)

Soya, Sonora at the community dinner.

Dennis and another friend.

And another one, he just makes friends wherever he goes.

The Journey Continues……

February 9, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

We spent the night in Santiago, Ixcuintla, Nayarit after a long day of riding. Sometimes the most expensive thing we do is actually travel. Had to fill up the bikes three times yesterday and for the last two days we have been riding on a toll road, less traffic and more scenic, but, unfortunately, they don’t just have one toll, they have many, and they can range anywhere from 10 pesos per bike to the most expensive at 102 pesos per bike. I have started budgeting our money so that Milton and I both have 500 pesos a day (about $60 USD) to spend. Many times we stay well within that budget and some days we have only spent $47 USD but yesterday with tolls and fuel, we went above that. Not sure how much yet but I have a notebook were I log all of our purchases so I can keep a running total.

Our language skills are still limited with Milton being the most proficient. When we lead, that is our day to attempt to communicate with people for directions and other things but Dennis and I are so limited that Milton usually takes over for us. Dennis is funny, he just attempts to make up his own Spanish words as he goes along. We have found a place in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala where we can take Spanish language classes for about 25 USD per day and I have been in communication with the school attempting to figure out approximately when we will be there. At this point though we are probably at least a month out as there is still a lot to still see in Mexico.

Our next designation is Sayulita. It is a small village about 25 miles north of downtown Puerto Vallarta in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, with a population of approximately 4,000.

Here are some photos from our last couple of days:

Fishing boat in village south west of Angostura, Sinaloa

Local Fishermen drying their shrimp.

Son of one of the people who made us a delicious lunch. Had pollo with tortillas.

Roadside somewhere, asking directions from local police. I had us going in a circle for about hour and a half.

Roadside somewhere, asking directions from local policia. I had us going in a circle for about hour and a half.

Playa Ceuta, the water was warm.

Caretaker at Playa Viva Turtle Sanctuary.

Locals at the fruit stand in La Cruz where we purchased breakfast.

Holy Sh*t, what did I sign up for?

February 4, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

So for those of you who have Facebook (FB), you’ve probably already read Milton’s last FB post. Here is my last couple days experiences. February 2 was my day to lead, (we have been alternating between the three of us of who leads, how we get to whatever destination we choose, and when we stop to eat). So on February 2, we all made the decision we wanted to head to the coast for some warmer weather We started in San Juanito and wanted to head towards Los Mochi, which is in northern Sinaloa, Mexico. When we headed out, we were headed in the direction of Urique. The ride was amazing through the Copper Canyon area, the cliffs overlooking the canyon allowed us to feel like we were on top of the world and the rock formations were so beautiful. Very little cars on the road with good pavement for a lot of the way until there wasn’t good pavement anymore. Eventually, without much warning, the pavement ended (we are finding that this is pretty common here in Mexico). We continued on unpaved road towards what I thought was Urique but we got turned around somehow. And in my defense, it is easy to do when you come upon a small village that isn’t on the map and it’s hard to know which dirt road to follow once we enter. At one little village (don’t know the name of it) we stopped for a snack and followed the road out that appeared to be the main one leading out of town. We usually ask directions before we leave, but with the language barrier it’s often difficult to get answers. Milton is our best interpreter but even his Spanish is limited and the locals talk to fast that he can often only go by pointing to map and asking aqui ? (here?) and then again pointing to map and saying there (ahi). He did ask a few local teenagers and although they enjoyed joking with Milton with his limited Spanish we obviously didn’t get very accurate directions before we left because we ended up in Temoris which was west of our destination.

The road from the little village was again all rocky dirt but it was a relatively easy go for us but slow. After about an hour of riding up this mountain with lots of switch backs, we came across a construction site where they were installing a pipeline pretty much straight up a mountain side. This was an amazing site to see so we stopped for a moment to watch and then watched at a slow roll as we went down this hill. At the bottom on the hill, we had to make a sharp right in an area with some loose dirt. Milton went through, of course, with no problem but as I went through, I think I had my feet out to give me a feeling of control (huge mistake) and I slipped in the dirt and went down with something hard crushing my left foot, (think it was my pannier).

Area where I crashed and hurt my foot.

Construction workers ran to help me get the bike off my foot, helped me up, and I hobbled over to sit down, removed my boot and didn’t note any visible injury but when I palpated my foot, I had pain along the top of my left foot. Another worker came over, (he appeared to be the foreman) and said something about 5 minutes. Dennis thought he meant we had to be out of there in 5 minutes so I put my boot back on as Milton came up, he helped me up and we told him we had to leave. He was not happy with that but I assured him I could move my foot and would be okay to leave. Come to find out that the foreman was trying to tell us that the ambulance would be there in 5 minutes.

Being checked out by the medics.

After getting checked out, the medic put some type of topical anesthetic on my foot and a light wrap on it so I could still get my boot on and off we rode. Shifting was hard but luckily I did not need to shift much due to the terrain but I did discover that I could shift with the heel of my boot. By the time we got to Temoris, it was dusk and we were anxious to find lodging for the night as we didn’t want to camp with my foot being hurt. I had ice, elevation, and ibuprofen on my mind. We found a small simple hotel with a nice room but they wanted to charge more than Dennis wanted to pay for his portion (he said it was the attitude of the innkeeper) so we left and ended up having to camp that night not far out of town as there were no other hotel in the little town. We did find a beautiful site and the sunset was amazing but I would have rather iced my foot rather than only elevate for only 11.00 USD more. We did get to sleep under the stars and besides the pain, it was one of the more restful nights that I have had while sleeping outside.

The next morning, I noted my foot was too swollen to get into my boot so I had a boot on my right foot and a tennis shoe on my left foot. We continued along what we thought was the right direction and after about 20-30 minutes of riding came upon a little town, which we discovered was Guazapares, where we got to eat a delicious breakfast and saw first hand where the meat that I was eating that morning came from.

Morning Menudo and tacos, I look exhausted.

And hungry!

The first thing I noticed was a young woman sweeping up the dirt courtyard, then I watched this cowboy walk by with an ax and some knives and then the cow was led out from behind the house.

Cow being brought out to be slaughtered.

It all clicked together then. It was really hard for me to watch the cow be tied up. First they tied up her front legs, then her rear legs, then pulled her to the ground where the rope around her neck was brought over her back and looped around her tail and then her neck was stretched back and she was tied tight They spun her around by her tail to get her in the right position and when the pails were brought out, I knew the knife was close to coming out. I did not see the actual knife being thrust into the cow’s throat but I finally decided that if I was making a conscious decision to eat meat then I needed to be willing to watch the process and stand in honor of this living being who was sacrificed for my food. After the cow was dead they propped her on her back with her legs in the air with pieces of wood placed on either side to keep her in that position. We left before the butchering was started.

Family of where we had breakfast of menudo and tacos.

During this time, we discovered that we had been heading north and needed to go back past where we had camped for the night. Milton had always said that he had intended for us to get intentionally lost, don’t know about the intentional part, but we definitely were lost. We headed back and took the correct turnoff which put us going south. Today was Milton’s day to lead and again the mountain roads were rocky dirt but he did stop to ask if we wanted to go over the mountain or skirt around it. My vote was skirt around it as I only had thoughts of resting my foot somewhere as close to a beach as I could get. Looking at the map, he thought he saw a way to skirt around it. Not true, there was no way to skirt around it and yesterday’s day of riding was the hardest thing I have ever done.

We finally came to the town of Chinipas, where we were still under the impression we could skirt around the mountain, so we stopped to ask a local who seemed to tell us that we could follow the river to reach our destination. Hooray, I knew that the river couldn’t go uphill (that gravity thing would prevent that) so I felt relief that there would be no steep hills for me to climb today. We got lost a few more times, (headed uphill of course), asked for directions again, Milton was chased by a horse (it was beautiful), we rode through deep water crossings and I did not fall thanks to Milton telling me to stay on the throttle (we did get all wet and muddy tho). Before we knew it, we were going up again and after a particular area with deep ruts in the road, we stopped and told Milton we thought we had to be going the wrong way. He did not agree with us but talked us into going a little further to see what was around the next few bends. More uphill, that was what was around the next few bends, but by then, we didn’t want to ride down what we had just came up so we continued on, me with great reluctance and a lot of muttering under my breath.

The roads were so steep with switchbacks and they kept saying we were almost at the top but every time we’d get around a bend there would be another steep hill where I could see another switchback.

Up, up, and up!!

Wish I could say that I rode it with no problem but being able to only apply pressure to my right foot made it really challenging for me. I fell so many times, I lost count.

Another crash! Milton attempting to talk me through what I could have done different.

Luckily each fall was at a low speed as I couldn’t get out of first gear due to the steepness of the hills but none of it was a pretty site.

We finally came across a shrine on the side of the road with water coming out of plastic pipes in the side of the mountain. As we were resting, a truck pulled up and Milton asked if we were on the right path to Alamos. One person jumped out to fill up some water jugs while the others tried to help us, drew us a map, and assured us that the roads got better.

At the Shrine..

People we met at the shrine who gave us directions. The guy in red is named Daniel and is a kindergarten teacher. Again we’ve met the nicest people here in Mexico.

Come to find out they didn’t get better for a long, long time. But, as they left, I felt better with their assurance we were going the right way and road improvement.

Found out that the roads were not improving at all and that we still we not anywhere near the top of the mountain. At times, after I would wreck on a particularly challenging area, I just would start walking up the hill, exhausted and sure I could go no further.

About three or four times, Milton rode my bike over a few of the more technical areas but as soon as he got the bike past, he would have me get back on the “horse” and talk me through the next part. All the while, through my communicator, he’d remind me of what I learned in my off-road class; stay on the throttle when going uphill to keep my momentum up, clutch control, look where I want to go, not where I don’t want to go, soft hands, set myself up for the hairpin turn, take the outside line and power up the hill, let my bike do what it was designed to do and don’t fight it, and at times, most importantly, breathe. At times, I rode over some really technical stuff and was so amazed at my ability and then I’d crash and get discouraged. But since there was only one way off that fricking mountain, I had to keep going.

He would also be my lookout in the front and let me know when other vehicles were coming on the road. Sometimes we had enough room to pull over, sometimes we had to keep riding so we’d move as far over as we could. He’d ask me what I see up ahead to get me used to scanning the road to look for signs of dust which would mean another vehicle was either coming towards us or was in front of us. At one point, as it was getting closer to the time when we’d rather be off the road, we passed a pickup with about three men in the back, one was wearing a mask, and another with an automatic weapon. They did not look friendly but I waved anyways and was glad when they paid little attention to us and kept going in the opposite direction.

We finally reached the point where we were going down more than we were going up and I was riding well again and after a particularly long stretch of downhill, I noticed that I did not have any rear brakes. Now I wasn’t using much brake at all, mainly just keeping it in first and rolling through but I did need my brake occasionally so we stopped and noticed that in one of my crashes that my rear brake lever had gotten bent. We straightened it out and continued on our way.

It was beginning to turn dusk, we still were going uphill so I knew we were still far from Alamos so we began looking for a safe area to camp for the night. As we were on the side of a mountain there weren’t really any options but the one area that was a possibility was the place Milton found the mask so we decided that probably wasn’t a safe place to stop for the night. We finally came to some fence posts so I knew we were getting closer to homes and villages and we found an area with a couple farms where one family said we could camp for the night. Only downfall there was there was no ice for my foot and they had a number of large dogs and we all had an image of the dogs spraying out tents all night so we motored on. The next town looked almost deserted and we saw nothing like a hotel or even a restaurant to eat at, so we kept going. By now, the down hill was way more frequent than the uphill but the dusk was creating shadows that made all the rocks and ruts look larger than they were. Again Milton stayed on the communicator telling me which line to take, that the shadows made things appear larger than they were and that we picked the bikes we did cause of the nice big front tires and how it would just roll over stuff if I let it. It was easy going and I felt my confidence return, and then we hit some sand. In the dark, in the sand, I had a hard time finding the tire tracks to ride in and a couple of times I got into the deeper areas and wiped out. Again I was not hurt but frustrated.

One of my final crashes of the night.

We finally found a small town were we were able to get fuel. My odometer said we rode 97 miles that day. We had been on the road since about 8:30 in the morning and it now was about 9pm and had only covered 97 miles but they were really hard miles. I was so relieved when the gas station attendant said that Alamos was only another 10 minutes away and about 15 kilometers before Alamos we finally hit pavement. At the very beginning of this journey, I realized how much I have missed by living my life on the pavement but this time, I have never been so happy to hit pavement in my life.

Hot dogs, Mexican style, for dinner.

Exhausted and filthy but grateful to be done with the day’s ride.

First week in Mexico

February 2, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

Morning in the courtyard at the Hotel Los Arcos

Day 2 in Mexico: After waking up, we wandered a block away to get Dennis and we all had a wonderful breakfast at the Hotel Los Arcos. Our host Tom and his staff took great care of us and made sure we had everything we needed during our stay there. This is a place I would definitely want to return to and there are local hot springs that I want to hit when we come back. We got a late start due to some bike maintenance in the backyard area of the hotel and due to our time of departure, Tom recommended, that we head straight to Hermosillo where, at the time, our destination was the coast. Originally, we had mapped out a less direct route to the coast (Southeast then West) which would take us on secondary and “other” roads as they are referred to on the map but Tom didn’t feel comfortable with us going that direction with our later start time. Unfortunately he doesn’t know my husband and how when he gets a idea in his head it doesn’t change so easily. We headed out East and again the surroundings were beautiful. Milton kept saying over and over how it was January and we were on motorcycles in t-shirts in Mexico. What an amazing life!!

Church at town square where we stopped to get pesos

We found a wonderful little town with a bank so Dennis could get some pesos and we found a little place to eat lunch at, went to a market for some fruit, and then rode until dusk where we found a hotel in Mazatan. The room cost us about $19.00 US dollars and we probably overpaid since it did not come with hot water but it did come with plenty of spiders so we slept in our sleeping bags on top of the bed and Dennis pitched his tent outside. It did have a courtyard behind a wall where the bikes could be parked out of site so that was kind of a plus. From the front of the building it looked like it was abandoned so we drove by it a couple times thinking it couldn’t be the hotel that the woman told us about, lo and behold, it was exactly where she was talking about. Total miles for the day was less than 100. We are in no hurry and it’s nice.

Day 3 in Mexico: After a not so restful night, we packed our bikes and stopped down the road to cook muesli on one of the little turnoffs we found. After breakfast we continued east and the sun was so bright I had a hard time seeing which made riding a little challenging, especially when trucks were coming by at a speed much quicker than we were riding. Fortunately the trucks didn’t come that often. At about 11am we rode into this little town named Soyopa in Sonora. Every town we rode through people would wave at us and dogs would chase us, me especially, because I had Jackie on my bike. Most of the towns have a little town center that seems to be centered around a church and I love that so much color is used on the buildings. None of the blah neutral colors that we often use in the states for our buildings but colors like orange like a sunrise or red like a sunset. As we drove through the town we passed a group of people that consisted of a couple of police officers and some others who looked important, and as we were getting ready to leave the town we pulled over to ask directions from one of the men and soon after we had the police there and then a man who introduced himself as Juan Pedro asked me where we were headed. He was carrying a stack of something in his hand and at first I thought he might be trying to sell them, next thing I knew this important looking man came up to me and said Buena Tardes to me, shook my hand, and then went to talk with Juan Pedro and Milton. Come to find out the important looking man was the town mayor and Juan Pedro worked for him and after a fishing discussion with my husband they offered to show us how to get to the river just outside of town.

We followed them in their car, made one quick stop as the police had gone to get us water, and continued on toward the river. Along the way, I was directly behind the car with the mayor and they were going at quite a quick pace and before I knew it I came across a cattle guard with the metal grate slats running parallel to my tires with the distance between the slats wider than my tires and somehow I made it across without even my thought. Milton was behind me and later told me how much it scared him to watch me ride over it at 30+ MPH. Not sure how I made it, probably pure luck. The river was beautiful, it had an old school playground. It also had a large covered area for community events. Juan Pedro told us that the mayor wanted us to know that we were his guests and that we were invited to stay and camp at the river, he’d have the Chief of Police come by during the night if we wanted to stay but that if we wanted to leave if we had any trouble at all to tell people that we were his guests and even took pictures with us and said we could show the picture as proof of it. He kept emphasizing that we were safe there, that we would have no problems there or in the surrounding areas. Found out later that the mayor was also the mayor of six other towns, so we had connections all over the area. It was amazing how helpful and friendly they all were. So after only traveling about 50 miles that day we decided that we would stay the night in Soyopa. Later that day they had a little party under the gazebo area and fed us, there was music and some dancing. I had the cutest group of girls come us and attempt to talk with me but since my Spanish is so limited, they just laughed at me but they all did want to take pictures with me. The oldest was Paulina, then there was Sofia, Alex, and Angie. Paulina was the main spokesperson and she kept hitting herself on the forehead and laughing when she was trying to communicate with me. The music played until about 9pm and then I heard the police ride by once on a quad and both Milton and Dennis saw them go by later in the night with their lights on, probably just letting us know it was them.

Day 4: In the morning, the Chief of Police and one other officer came by again to check on us, made sure we slept well and offered to escort us to the next town even. We watched some men haul a truck across the river on a barge that they pulled across with a rubber type rope. I absolutely fell in love with the town of Soyopa. Such friendly and warm people and they want us to tell people to come visit and that it is safe. Another place that I will definitely return too.

Soyopa morning

When we left we headed towards San Antonia. This was a rocky dirt road all of the way with lots of turns and more cattle guard crossing. Got to use a lot of the techniques I learned in my off-roads course so huge thanks to Greg and Brett at Puget Sound Safety Off-Road, cause I didn’t crash once.

The day was hot we had little water so we stopped in San Antonio for water and more pictures then continued in a south easterly direction headed towards some waterfall in one of the national parks.

Water break on a dusty road

The roads were good with lots of twists and we climbed higher and higher. The foliage changed a few times with the elevation changes and views were spectacular. We finally came across a tiny village where a family invited us into their home for lunch and fed us deer tacos that he actually hunted himself and Dennis had me running down the street so a local cowboy could pretend to lasso me while he attempted to catch it on video. (Watch out Tacoma, because when Dennis returns he’ll really know how to operate that iPhone and none of you will be safe from his shenanigans either). For the night we, got a clean little room in a hotel called the El Dorado, and yes it has hot water, but unfortunately the handles are switched so Dennis didn’t know it and had to take a cold shower again. I was able to figure it out tho and the hot water was wonderful and a long day on the road. Total miles ridden today was ???

Whoo-Hoo, we made it!!

January 28, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

Yesterday, Wednesday January 27, we crossed the border at Douglas. During the day we stopped in Tombstone, Bisbee, and then stayed at Motel 6 in Douglas so we didn’t have to get up in the morning and pack our bikes. Our final night in the states in a WalMart parking lot we met a gentleman on another KLR and when we told him where we were headed he once again had to give us the Mexico is dangerous and “I won’t even go there anymore” story. Have heard so many of them so far, that it’s not even funny. What I can say is the crossing was simple, people were friendly, helpful, and our ride down to Banamichi, Mexico where we stayed at the Hotel Los Arcos was beautiful. We headed out Highway 2, then went south on 89 which then connected us to 118. Very little traffic, small towns, farms, people on horseback, a few water crossings, and amazing views. The country side was gorgeous and the most dangerous thing we encountered were potholes in the road. The hotel itself is owned by Tom and Lynn Matthews and Tom has been very helpful with sharing his knowledge with us and the hotel is so beautiful. It is a great launching pad to our time here. It’s a quiet little town and after parking last night in their secure backyard area, we walked to a little taco bar where they served one type of taco only and it was delicious. Have had a huge smile on my face ever since crossing over.

Pictures to come soon.

January 26, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

It’s easy to stay home is something our friend Byron said to us when we began talking about this journey and after only one week of being on the road I am finding out how true that is. So after months of planning, Milton and I, our friend Dennis who is taking this adventure with us, and another friend Eric, who ride down from Tacoma to ride to the border with us, finally pulled out of Redway, CA, a little past noon. We just had one final stop to make to pick up a handmade knitted cap for my husband that our friend Sarah made (he loves the hat, thank you Sarah).

Redway, CA

So here is a recap of our first week on the road:

Day 1-Tuesday, January 19, a little after noon. We jumped over to highway 1 at the Leggett cutoff right around the time it started raining. The ride over to the coast was beautiful with lots of twists and turns on the road and some mud from recent slides. Due to the road conditions, the gear on the bikes and the fact that it felt like forever since I road last the going was slow but we arrived safely and spent our first night in a motel right on the ocean in this little town called Gualala. We went to sleep and woke up with the sound of the waves crashing and a beautiful sunrise.

Day 2- Wednesday January 20, we continued down highway 1 with a stop for breakfast in a cute little town that I can’t remember the name of but while cooking breakfast at a local park, we met a woman from Tela, Honduras who brought her little girl over to see Jackie and we talked with her about the town she grew up in. We had some business to take care of at their local Wells Fargo and Dennis and Eric waited outside and found that Jackie and the bikes drew lots of attention and people wanted to know where we were headed.

Dennis and his new friend

Our next major stop of the day was in San Francisco where Milton wanted to pick up some new riding pants. After 8+ years of use he found his Aerostich pants had begun to leak. I recently went with a set of Klim riding gear for this trip and have been very happy with the gear so he decided to try to find some Klim riding pants in the city. After a long stop at Scuderia West on Duboce Ave, he found the pair he wanted but not in his size, so a quick phone call to the dealers along the way allowed him to order a pair that would be waiting for us at the BMW Motorcycle dealer in San Diego. I did pick up some new winter gloves and Eric got new tires so the trip was not spent in vain but it did put us leaving the city in more traffic than we wanted, oh well, I just kept looking at it as practice for when we ride in busy city traffic South of the border. Our next stop was a campground right around Half Moon Bay where were spent the night. Met a friendly camper next to us curious about our journey.

First Night camping

Day 3 -Thursday January 21, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and continued down the coast until we stopped for coffee at a Starbucks for the WiFi in Santa Cruz. Discovered when crossing over the Golden Gate bridge that we no longer have to stop to pay but they snapped a picture as we went through which gave us 48 hours to pay the toll so first order of business after I got my coffee, pay the tolls. We were able to take care of some other business while stopped also so it was a productive for us. One of the pieces of business involved our Sena headsets and after a call to the company they offered to exchange the set we had but this required us to find a shop along the way that would give us a brand new set and do the actual exchange with the company themselves. After a few more phone calls, the only BMW dealer along the way that had two in their stock was in Long Beach, so a stop in Long Beach was added to our itinerary. We probably could have tried other places besides BMW dealers but we have always found that BMW dealers go out of there way to help so we try to stick to them when possible. That night we camped just a little above San Luis Obispo, CA.

Long Beach BMW, good donuts and coffee too

Day 4-Friday, January 22, was a day filled with riding as our main objective was to get to Long Beach by days end. This day was a blur to me but the highlight of the day was lane splitting, which is legal in California. At first I was scared to do it, convinced that my panniers were too wide for that little space but eventually I just followed the leader and did it. What a rush that was!! Our visit to Long Beach BMW met and exceeded our expectations with customer service and Dewey, who helped us specifically, was wonderful and got us all set up with the communicators.

Dennis with neighboring camper

That night we camped by Newport Beach in Crystal Cove campground. We found it amusing that when we were pulling in the park attendant was concerned about the noise of our bikes as we went through the campground and then got to our site we discovered that we were right in the midst of kid central with laughter and yelling all around us making as much noise as our bikes. It was good to hear little kids having fun even though it made me miss my grandson, Niko and we got a great night sleep. Right next to us was a group of families that had the cutest kids and in the morning they fed us a wonderful breakfast even and the kids all waved as we rode away, it warmed my heart.

Our gracious morning cooks

Day 5-Saturday January 23, onward to San Diego, where we picked up the new Klim pants but the trip into San Diego was not as fun for me today as I let my head tell me I didn’t have enough room to split lanes so I didn’t set myself up to make the transition smoothly and the bikes behind who were set to follow me had to slow suddenly. All I could see when I looked in my mirror was my water bottle that I had moved and to me it looked like it was hanging wider than my panniers were so I was afraid of it hitting cars as I passed. I did eventually split lanes for a little while but I was extremely frustrated with myself and the others, myself for letting my head stop me and frustrated with the others as I felt that if I didn’t feel comfortable I shouldn’t be pushed to do it or at least not be chastised for not doing it. Got to the point that for a day or so I only rode in the back, I was so frustrated with them. Later I realized that my water bottle was nowhere near where I thought it was.

After we finished with our business at the BMW shop and a quick trip to the REI store we headed out to Imperial Beach where Milton spent part of the high school years and he gave us a quick tour and we ate a late lunch. We were going to stay at the KOA in Chula Vista but decided to head further east before stopping for the night so we rode out Highway 8 and stayed in the Cleveland National Forest area. GPS led us astray for a little but we found our way to the last open campground somewhere out Highway 79.

Day 6-Sunday January 24, woke up to frost over everything and found that the mountain that we thought we could see in the light of the moon during the night was really just a big rock pile. Also found that my bike wouldn’t start so off the guys went to push start it and as we were just getting ready to pull out somehow Milton’s bike ended up on the ground.

Entering AZ

Decided to stop in Yuma, AZ to see friends of Dennis who used to live in Tacoma. The ride to Yuma was beautiful and the morning got warmer as we rode into the sun. Had a wonderful visit with Ruth and her husband Rich, a huge thank you to welcoming us and feeding us apple pie. Rich called ahead and found us a place to camp for the night in Gila Bend AZ where we could do laundry.

Dennis and Rich

Thank you Rich for steering us in that direction, it was a great choice as we got there early enough to set up camp in the sun and dry our tents out.

Milton enjoying the sun in Gila Bend, AZ drying the gear out.

Day 7-Monday January 25, Eric left today to head back to the rainy Pacific Northwest. We were all sad to see him go but glad he got to come and spend some time with us on this journey. Milton and Eric often bump heads (as they are both STUBBORN) but they are good friends and I know that Milton misses his friend. We have one final great picture of all of us together before he rode off in the opposite direction but not sure whose phone it is on so I’ll download it later.

Stopped in Tucson to take care of more business and decided to change the oil in the bikes at the local Walmart. While the oil was being changed I took care of some other business which needed to be done before we cross the border. One thing we did was shut off the cell phones, we’ll buy sim cards to put in our phone when we get to Mexico but until then it feels strange to be disconnected except for when we find a place with free WiFi.

It was dark by the time we left Tucson, the moon was just hanging over the horizon off to our left and it was an amazing beautiful yellow color. With no cell phone GPS to follow, after awhile, I became convinced Milton had missed our exit so I pulled in front to signal him to stop at the next exit and then the fun really began. The battery died on Milton’s bike on the side of the road and as he and Dennis were attempting to jump the bike, in the dark, I hadn’t noticed that I had parked on uneven surface and while attempting to get off the bike me, Jackie, and the bike went over. Poor Jackie is hanging by her collar legs flailing as I try to hold her still to unhook her, and the guys pick my bike up. No damage done except the slight dent to my ego. For a minute, I wondered if this was a sign to cancel the trip but then I figured that this is just the universe’s way of giving us more opportunity for experience before we cross the border. As we continued on for the last 30 miles or so the moon was now higher in the sky and if it wasn’t full, it was close to full, and it felt like we were chasing it into the night. As we rode, with our final destination for the night being a Motel 6 in St. David the phrase “it’s easy to stay home” kept running through my head but then again, where is the adventure in that!!!

Stepping Off the Pavement (it’s a long one)

January 5, 2016 / Katherine Anderson

I am sure that many people think that I am crazy for quitting my job to join my husband on this adventure of riding our motorcycles to South America. To be honest, that thought has crossed my mind many times also. I had finally reached a place in my life where in many ways I was content. I had great friends around me, financially we were doing better than we had ever done before and the area that I struggled with the most revolved around work and I had finally reached a place where I felt like I had found my perfect job.

Since 2003, I have been nursing in the hospital setting and ever since I was a nursing student I knew I wanted to become a wound care nurse. After much hard work, I became a Certified Wound and Ostomy Care Nurse and had a job that allowed me the opportunity to advance, with a great team to help support me, and a wonderful nurse manager. Like I said, I had found my perfect job. But even with the perfect job, I was still physically and emotionally exhausted much of the time and often left work frustrated from trying to do a good job in an environment where we were often short staffed. I had always told myself that when I got hospital experience under my belt I’d branch out into the community based setting where I hoped I could slow down a little and not only provide physical care but provide more emotional care also. But, I have to be honest here and admit that community nursing does not pay as well as hospital based nursing and I got to a place in my life where I was chasing the money.

At first I was chasing the money so we could get caught up with bills. Then I was chasing the money so we could pay off all of our debt. Then I was chasing the money so we could live on one income as my husband changed careers and pursued a dream to get his real estate license. Then I was chasing the money so he could build his real estate business. After a while we found ourselves almost completely debt free, minus a really small mortgage, and a few paid for properties, and still chasing the money. We found ourselves working long hours, exhausted; and me, still with this vague feeling of discontent. Our original “why” for the hours and way we worked no longer applied to us. Our original why, simply put, was to be debt free and we were so close to that goal that instead of pushing harder to get to the finish line, I found myself making choices that were slowing the process down rather than speeding it up.

Our “why” was to be debt free so we could live a life where we could consciously choose where and how to spend our time and money rather than have some debt owed to the bank or credit card company be the decider of how many hours we worked, whether I picked up an extra shift at the hospital, or how the money was spent after we got paid. We had lived like that for years and it caused a significant amount of stress in our lives, me especially. So together, we decided we’d do whatever was necessary to make sure we didn’t ever have to live that way again and that became our focus. Pay things off, buy with cash only, and save, save, save. In the meantime, life was passing by and we watched our friends take cruises, go on vacations to warm sunny places every winter, buy bigger houses, brand new cars, or just give in and file bankruptcy. All the while we saved our money, kept downsizing in house, and drove what we had until it broke down enough times that it wasn’t worth fixing anymore and then replaced it with another used vehicle. The Dave Ramsey mantra “Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else” became our mantra.

After some reevaluation of what we both wanted, we realized that our “why” really had not changed entirely and that we were much closer to our goal than we realized. Our ”why”, we discovered was even simpler than just being debt free; it was freedom, not just with our money but with our time. The vehicle we had been using to get there was money and now the only thing that needed to change, or add to the equation, was another vehicle, and that vehicle just happened to be sitting in our garage, in the form of motorcycles.

Ever since I started to ride my own bike, I’ve experienced pure freedom when riding. For the girl who grew up lot of “shouldn’t messages”, the feelings I experience when riding eventually began to drown out those messages until I could no longer hear them, or they at least become reduced to a dull roar. Within a month after I got my first motorcycle (a BMW R1150R), I rode from the Tacoma Washington area to Hot Springs Montana for a weekend recovery based event. On the way over, I rode with a group that primarily consisted of Harley riders because I knew they’d go slow enough for me to feel comfortable. My husband, riding a BMW K1200 RS, stayed back to wait for a straggler who rode a FJR and I knew how they liked to ride, especially on the twisties, which I definitely didn’t feel ready to take at a high rate of speed but I also didn’t trust my sense of competitiveness to not attempt it anyways.

With the slower group, the ride over was relatively uneventful minus one of the bikes breaking down, but the ride back tested my abilities, courage and had a lot of twisties. I rode through torrential rains, snow, limited visibility, and went over passes that I definitely did not want to be riding on. And, as if the weather conditions weren’t bad enough, there were animals crossing the road at the most inopportune times. Also, along that route home (highway 20) there were moments and stretches of road that took me to places that I had never been before, experiencing it in a way that I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined. When I was home safe, I felt a sense of empowerment and freedom that I had never experienced before. It was the first of many cracks in the pavement of the nice safe road of life that I found myself.

For a while after that trip, I tried to avoid riding alone but when I did find myself alone, I carefully planned my route to include only back and side roads and only in areas that I was familiar with. Things I’d take into consideration consisted of time of day, was it close to rush hour or close to getting dark, were there any hills to climb and if so, was there a possibility I’d have to stop on the hill, what was the parking upon arrival, would there be other bikes that I would have to park around or near, or would there be enough room for me to park away from the other bikes, could I pull in to park or would I have to back my bike in. I know it sounds crazy now, but, as a new rider, these thoughts went through my head every time I considered pulling my bike out of the garage.

Fast forward to the next summer, we did our Montana trip again and I found my confidence had increased significantly during the past year and even more during the trip itself. I don’t remember what the riding conditions were for that trip but not long after arriving home, I decided that I was going to spend the weekend with some friends at a women’s only recovery camping event. I rarely attended women’s only events but a couple of my girlfriends rode and were going to ride there and I wanted so much to be part of. Unfortunately, I had to work and wouldn’t get off in time to ride with them, but with the knowledge that I’d get to return back to Tacoma with them, I decided to go.

That was the first time that I rode to an event where I had to take enough stuff for a weekend trip by myself. I packed up my bike and carried everything with me that I needed. No one threw my bag in their car and took it for me and there was no chase car to make sure I didn’t have any trouble along the way. I left in the evening after I got off work, found my way there following written directions, didn’t arrive until after dark, and found a place to park my bike. I felt self-sufficient, independent, and extremely proud of myself. It was at this event, during the Saturday night main speaker meeting, that I heard this woman Jesse talk about finding that “thing” that makes your hair blow back and then doing it. I don’t remember anything else she said but that phrase stuck with me and in that moment I knew for me that “thing” is riding. The message came at just the right time for me and a seed was planted that over the next eight years would continue to grow.

Now any kind of bike grabs my attention but what makes me sit up and take notice and ignites that spark inside for adventure is not those leather clad Harley riders who look like they’re exhausted riding across town, but those riders on the dual sport fully loaded bikes wearing the Aerostich suit that make me wonder where they’ve been and what they’ve seen. Over the past few years, I’ve felt drawn further and further down this path of adventure and wanting to ride longer and farther so in 2013, I upgraded to a bike made more for long distance touring, a BMW R1200RT. Although I loved my R1150R, it had no faring, only a sport windshield (which I was unwilling to change because I loved the look) and I was windbeat and exhausted halfway through the day. After my first short weekend trip on the RT, I thought I had the bike of my dreams. No longer was I windbeat, cold, or as exhausted at the end of the day, I was in heaven.

Our vacations stretched out longer and were usually spent traveling on our bikes for as long as we could comfortable leave work for. With no kids at home any longer we began talking about goals and dreams and how we wanted to spend our time and money. It was then that my husband brought up the promise that he made his mom to spread her ashes in Mexico and how he had always wanted to ride to Tierra del Fuego and so began the plan.

As we began to make plans to take this journey to Tierra del Fuego, we began to become even more self-contained on our bikes and to ride fully loaded from sunrise to long after sunset before we finally would stop to pitch our tent. During the day, our rest stops would consist of a quick pit-stop for refueling of both bike and body and then we’d be riding again. Sometimes I wouldn’t even bother to take my helmet off because each stop would just mean less time riding and less distance covered. Always during this time those thoughts of work and home responsibilities remained attempting to drown out that the feeling of freedom and being in the moment.

When we finally made the commitment that we were going to turn this dream of ours into a reality, we picked the date March 1, 2017 and posted it on a huge poster board sized paper stuck on our living room wall and started making notes on it of what we thought we’d need. We also began to search out and put people in our lives that would help build our belief system. Our first stop was at the local BMW shop, South Sound Motorcycles based in the Tacoma Washington area where we were told about Horizons Unlimited (HU). After a quick internet search, we knew that we needed to meet some of those people involved with HU so we registered for the closest travelers meeting we could find, which was August, 2015 in Nakusp, Canada. In the meantime, I searched for a local off-road riding class I could take, we continued gathering up supplies and took short motorcycle camping trips to test out our gear.

Poster that hung in our living room

Break time at the PSSOR class, exhausted but happy

Break time at the Puget Sound Safety Off-Road (PSSOR) class, exhausted but happy

Had so much fun at the first class, I took the PSSOR class again.

Nakusp, Canada Horizon’s Unlimited Traveler’s Meeting

We originally had planned to pay off our mortgage completely, rent the house out and use that income along with money from other rentals to fund our trip. In less than a week of being home, we realized that we didn’t have to wait; we just had to make one final tweak in our plan and that final tweak was to sell our Tacoma home and with that one move we could fully fund our trip, make improvements to our property in California, and still have a little nest egg waiting for us when we got back.

It took that weekend at the HU travelers meeting for us to come to the realization that we had worked this hard and long so we could be exactly where we are today; the ability to be debt free, living in a paid for piece of property with some rental income to support us. So we took the plunge and put our house on the market. In two weeks we had a full-price offer and in a little over a month, we were packed up and headed to California.

Couldn’t we both have worked a little longer to save up more money? Of course we could have. Shouldn’t we both have worked a little longer to save up more money? Maybe, but then again, maybe those shouldn’t messages (you know the ones I am talking about that say you shouldn’t do that, it’s not practical; you shouldn’t do that, it’s not responsible; and the one that stops more people in their tracks, you shouldn’t do that cause it’s not safe) would have continued to win out and we never would have stepped off the ledge and just done it.

So as a final word of warning, be very careful if you ever decide to attend a Horizon’s Unlimited Traveler’s Meeting, because you just might find yourself with a for sale sign on your front lawn.