Tikal to El Pino, Honduras

I got an early wake up call  in Tikal, they offer this early morning, 04:00 MY GOD tour start. No I did not go one it but my neighbor did and I heard his alarm clock go off for a while. When I finally got up it was foggy/cloudy, so I was glad I did not go on this trip to see the sunrise and hear the Fauna early in the morning. After breakfast I headed over and went walking around. They really had opened the gates now, there were people everywhere. I climbed to the top of temple Two, which they have nicely provided wooden stairs to climb up. Nice view and sure of the main square. Then it was off to temple 4 which is the only other one they will let you climb. Along the way I came across the Window temple and it is not very much marked or such but I went up anyway. All the doorways are blocked and I managed to find my way in one and took a picture inside and got a bit of a fright as something started to fly around. That was when the other sigh I saw came back to mind, Bat temple.
I then made my way to Temple 4 and again was happy for the wooden stairs. When I got to the top the view was magnificent, until this time I did not really think this was any better than Copan in Honduras. This made it better.
I met a fellow there that was riding a bike and when I spoke to him I found out he had the same bike but a 2013 model and has been on the road for 7 months. Road from Durango Mexico, where he is from to Ushuaia, Argentina. He then road up the eastern side and then north again. Looking forward to getting home by the sound of it.
Later I noticed another rider, I have only seen four people so far this whole trip and today I meet two in one day!! This guy is from Toronto and riding a 1150 BMW. He had come down from there, a bit cold as he was in Houston about the time I was and it was cold then.
That night I talked to two people who were back packing around down there and just enjoying themselves. So nice to see.
The next morning I was up early and pack and off I go. The lady from the hotel seems to figure I won't make it today but I was going to try, watch for the semi drivers she said. Interesting sign on the highway, animals you don't normally see signs for.
I start to look for bass as the GPS give a long way to the first station, well it was wrong again and I was able to fillup and off I go.
I made it to my final border crossing and almost blew through it. The Guatemala side was barely a shack on the side of the road. Then I found out the customs was back a bout 8 Km's and I did blow right through that one. No signage! I go back and clear out the bike and then off to the Honduran Border then. It is about 15 Km's from the Guatemala border office.
This looks like a border crossing. Immigration is easy then it is off to the Aduana office and it is lunch time so it is closed.
After the guy has finished his lunch he returns and then it is the hardest challenge to find enough paper to keep this guy happy. Three copies of everything, the most so far has been 1, The he was not happy that I had cancelled out of Guatemala. He took my Mexican forms and made that work. The title does not mention the model of the bike so that was problem, we over came. then when everything else was done he needed three copies of all of this stuff. The closest place is just about a block away at the Hotel in front of the police stop. Got that done and the moneys paid and off I go again.
The last challenges for me was coming into San Pedro Sula and the toll gate, I thought the guy was going to have a coronary trying to get me to go around and not through the toll gate. OK so you don't want me to pay, OK by me. The next one going out of San Pedro Sula I just followed the other moto's and all was great.
I was about 1 hour later than I had planned but for me that is right on time.
I am home!!
Hell Yeah.

Chetumal to Tikal

I was up early this morning as I wanted to make it across Belize and on to Tikal today. I stopped and filled the bike and both spare cans as I did not know where I was going to get gas in the near future and I did not really want to change money in Belize if I didn't have to.
Now I am off to the border and I stubble into a new crossing they are finishing in Mexico and I stop and get my visa canceled for the bike and the return deposit, then on to Belize.
When I finally get here as it is not just on the other side, I role up to the guard and fins out I have to stop and go into the Hall and do the clearing first. So I park the bike and off I go. Now this is real easy as they speak english. Immigration is a easy and the customs for the bike is almost funny. The guy wants to know how long I will be here and I say 6 hours, Ahh just in Transit then, Yes and he stamps my passport and tells me to make sure I have it cancelled at the other border and I must stop and buy insurance at the big white building you could see there. So the guard doesn't even look at me now and I stop at the insurance corporation of Belize and and they are open and it is not even 8:00.
I had a great conversation with the fellow there and paid my 12 Belizian dollars ( $6.00) for the 24 hour period, smallest they do, and off I go again.
The roads were interesting as they were not marked great and had some hellacious potholes too. I did get stopped by the police and they were only interested in seeing if I stopped for the insurance. Too easy to deal with for that.
I finally made my way to the next border crossing and into the hall I go. Immigration and customs then I was warned to avoid  the spray barns and to drive around them if I didn't want to be fumigated going into Guatemala. Yes I drove around.
After waiting for about 30 minutes I finally managed to get my papers for Guatemala and then through the guards and then the toll for the bridge and I was on the road again. GPS's are great but the extra maps you can get do tend to leave a little to be desired. I got to the gate to Tikal Park finally and I hadn't seen a gas station for quite some time.
I booked not the Tikal Inn and then promptly went for  walk to see what I could see. Yes I got to the central square and there were very few people around so the pictures were great.

Departure from Cozumel

Well after 5 day sin Cozumel and drinking a a share of beer and Rum i tis time to continue on again. After Breakfest with the guests at the Guest house my friends own and run "Baldwin's Guest House" if you want a great place to relax and go diving from. Dale and Kathy are great.
I had a hard time to say goodbye to Dale and Kathy and Pete and Norma, my friends from Canada that were down to get out of the cold and do some diving, Almost broke out in a tear. I made my way to the ferry loading area and paid my 305 Pesos and off I went again.
Once on the other side I made my way down to Chetamal and found a place to stay for the night so I could get an early start the next day.
I had a place in mind and when I went and looked at it I decided to return to this one I saw on the sign on the highway. Looked good and when I got there I saw they were doing some renovating, not thinking much of this I booked in and got a great rate and wet to my cabin. Well no internet but it was cosy and good for the night.
I noticed when I left the next day that I was the only one there.

Cabins I stayed in, and wagon wheel, needs some work.

Road trip days

Well after a couple of days of racing across part of Mexico to get to Playa del Carmen to catch the ferry I made it on time. When I came by Vera Cruz I was surprised to see a couple of nuclear  reactors. This brought back  time when Pete Furgeson and I came to Cozumel to dive and stay at our friends place in Cozumel.
We asked at the Cancun airport what time the ferries stopped running, why did we go to Cancun when were were staying in Cozumel? Well the short story is the flight was half price so it made sense. We found out that we might not make the ferry if we took the bus so we hired a taxi to get us there.
Needless to say the info we got was wrong and we had lots of time to kill until the next ferry. Well with our bags we were not going to walk too far and Señor Frogs was right there so we sat down and ordered us one beers. As time went on this guy come sup to us and starts talking. Seems he is a timeshare sales guy from Texas and had been there for a while. He bragged he could read people well and went on to tell us where we were from. He picked Peter to be a cowboy area type and thought he was from Texas also, then he could not quite place me from my accent, I tried to egg him on by adding that I had done time on both coasts but he never picked up one it.
Then he started to a she what we were doing and Peter told him we were going to Cozumel to feel then a nueclar reactor, well have asks why and we said that they were looking at expansion and wanted their own source of power. He didn't see that so then we told him that the island was run by a couple of families and they were the power there ( not too far from the truth).
Then he asked where  we did our university at and we said we did it in the internet and you get a diploma in anything if  you wanted to.
We had him from the start until we left and he never did figure it out.
Well it is all history now.

 So I tried to talk the SOL guy out of a beer but it didn't work.

This is the ferry on day I left Cozumel heading to Chetumal. I watched Pirates of the caribbean in  Spanish, on the trip oever.

A couple of days later

Here we are in a hotel in Villahermosa, and what a couple of days it has been. I am not sure if the back dirt roads are any worse than the so called paved roads. They like big speed humps here, like really big. Knock yu off your bike if you miss them. On eh secondary roads you get from two to ten of these type bumps to control the speed or is it a way for the bus cars to make money selling thins at each one since you have to almost stop before climbing over them. If you get unlucky enough to get behind a big rig, almost every second one, then you will stop.
I say the wrecks of three rigs over the last two days and I have to say they would have been great to see happen from the side lines. I hope all the drivers were Ok but I don't know. The last one was a cattle hauler and it was upside down. People were butchering the dead and injured animals right there and walking away with a slab of beef. Weird.
The truck drivers are very courteous though, they signal with the signal light when it is safe to pass them. They will even pullover on the shoulder on two lanes and then signal you to go by even on double solid. Cool!!.
Well that's all for now and no new pics.

Ceballos, Durango, Mexico

Well I woke up this morning and did not expect this.

It was a balmy 2 C here and yes that is Frost on my seat. NOT COOL, well really cold actually.

The hotel I stayed at is call the Inn at Creel and it is a Best Western Hotel. Beautiful place that would be at home on any ski slope. This area is developing eco tourism and it seems to be working a bit at least.

I saw signs as I drove down the road in Blue tha mentioned different sights along the way. I saw one that said Cascadas which is Waterfalls but when I turned off to see them I stopped before I had to pay to see this one.

I figures if the stream bed beside me is dry then the water fall might just be dust also. Oh well. The drive after that was great and for my friends that like the twists and turns you would love this area. You drive along and on the side of some beautiful mountain valleys and gorges.

I guess I need to clean the lens too.

The lay of the land changed and I thought I was looking out over Saskatchewan. well no really more like Montana.Then the canyons opened up again.

The canyons here remind me of coming into monument valley from the north.

A bit farther South but no warmer.

I am in Creel tonight writing about the last couple of days. When I left Sahuapira I went down the road a bit and found a "unpaved road". Well it was unpaved alright, Down to 1st gear for a lot of it and did some climbing. Got up to an elevation of 2375 meters. Yes it cooled down a bit. I passed through some small towns and finally stopped for lunch on the side of the road at a little place that said restaurant. It turns out to be someones house that does food when people stop. Good food. I talked with the husband and he was deported back to Mexico but had lived most of his life in the States. Turns out the area I was in was a big mining area for gold. I did notice one town looked like they had a mine there but not three of them.
He also informed me that the road I was one was a major drug transportation route. I guess I am glad to finished there.
Back on the payment and down some great twisting roads to San Juanito for the nigh. Found a hotel and it was cheep but the hardest bed I have ever tried to sleep on.
This morning it was cool and got to cold, dropped to 0 C as I was traveling to Creel. Funny enough as I came into Creel the temp climbed to 10 C. I traveled into the canyons and saw some great sights. The road turned into shit again and after about 20 more Ks of this I thought that I might just have to take a pass on this for the day. My back was not too excited about it.