Ruined Adventures
Brenton Cooper
How did I not find this thread sooner? Somehow I missed the fact that you're heading south...really enjoying your pictures. :lurk:
My Grand Vacation begins
- Thread starter Clark White
- Start date
Driver-Navigator
Explorer
Fun thread, thanks for all the pics and reports so far!
Clark White
Explorer
Just a quick update. It has been a long few days and no internet or time to edit pictures to post now. My bike was repaired on time, and for $1056, which is an AMAZING price coming from a dealership, probably would have cost me at least twice that in the US or Mexico, and the dealer was AMAZING to deal with. I can't say enough good things about Bavaria Motors! After leaving there we all got quite sick, though thankfully only for one day, Forrest's engine has given up the ghost, Forrest has wreaked (he is fine, just sore and scratched bike), been ripped off at the El Sal/Honduras border, and had the Gringo run around for hours at every other border crossing we've had in the last few days. But we are finally in Costa Rica, in one piece, and we have good internet!
Clark
Clark
Ray Hyland
Expedition Leader
Loving the thread Clark, and really fantastic shots.
Clark White
Explorer
Well I'm finally getting to another update! As I mentioned it had been a long few days getting to Costa Rica. We packed up and left the Hotel Spring in downtown Guatemala City to go pick up my bike. These were taken in the hotel court yard.
When we arrived at the dealer my bike was ready and waiting, having been cleaned, polished, new fork seals, new rear suspension, new rear break pads, and a full inspection completed. We would have been ready to go, but the luggage rack on Forrest's KTM had cracked welds on both sides and was bent from his falling down on a trail. I talked to the manager and he called the dealer body shop and arranged for us to go over there to get his rack welded up. I went to pay for the service on my bike ($1056USD, which is half or a third what that would cost in the US!!!) but my card was denied. With flames shooting out my eyes I talked to the manager again and called Wells Fargo. The guy who answered made a comment about how fraud services obviously didn't notice the note about my traveling, but we then found it was all Ustadza's fault. The previous week had been our anniversary so I sent her flowers. Turns out that charge, which I had put on the same card, showed as being in Prescott AZ, so I could see how it was a little suspicious that I had a charge in Mexico, then a charge in AZ, then a charge in Guatemala...While I was working that out the manager saw my GPS and threw all the Central America maps on it for free, which has been a great help! We got the rack repaired at the body shop, and reinforced with steel bar at all the joints, and they then refused to charge us for the work (Forrest gave them some money anyway). I really can't say enough about Bavaria Motors, they are a real class A operation, and the first dealer that I have really enjoyed dealing with. We headed out late, but didn't make it very far. Clay had gotten sick that morning, but now Forrest and I were starting to feel down, and then with almost no warning we both became violently sick as well. We took an early hotel with a toilet seat (seats are actually a rare commodity down here!) and called it a night. I got exceptionally lucky and was only sick for that night. Forrest and clay were over the violent stuff, but didn't feel well for a few days after. We came across a bridge on the PanAm that was out, and appeared to have been so for quite a while. Talking to my Dad he warned us that a friend of his had died in Guatemala driving at night when he came across a missing bridge that hadn't been marked!
We split ways with Alex, the Britt, at the El Sal border and made tracks as best we could. About half way through El Sal we were all starving and felt good enough to try food.
It was all amazing, but I unwittingly ordered fried calamari, which was a little too much and I wasn't able to finish it for risk of getting sick again. We stopped for the night just short of the Honduras border, planning on an early start the next day, hoping to get all the way to Costa Rica in one day. Well that plan went to **** right off the bat. We had gone about 30mi the next morning when Forrest's bike lost all power. We took the valve covers off and had a look, and it wasn't good.
You can see the bearing on the left isn't sitting centered like the one on the right.
The cam follower bearing had failed, causing the lifters to break and chewing up both the cam and the intake valves. We loaded the bike into the pickup of a guy who said he could help us across the border and arrange a truck on the other side. That sounded great, but turned out to be a horrible idea. He didn't expedite anything (it took us 4hrs to get into Honduras), and he tried to rip us off for a lot of money. We caught most of what he did, but it still ended up costing us $75USD/person (less then half what he was originally saying we owed him), which is still about twice what it should have, but we couldn't disprove anything else the guy was saying. Furious and ready to murder someone we refused the truck he had arranged to get the bike to Nicaragua, instead towing Forrest behind Clay so we could get out of there fast. Things were beginning to get ugly as the guy was saying we still owed him for his help and was starting to cause trouble, so we just took off and didn't look back. Forrest was having issues keeping the slack out of the tow line (I didn't want anything to do with towing long distance based on safety) and sure enough, about half way through Honduras Forrest got too much slack in the line. This wrapped around his front wheel, locked it up, and flipped him over the handle bars. Forrest walked away lucky, with his right hand and wrist torn up and sprained, and he tore a hole in the right shoulder of his jacket. He did some power sliding on his head, which didn't do his helmet any favors, but nothing was broken. They still refused to get a truck for his bike, so we continued with towing, making it to the Nicaragua border right at sunset. Hell bent on not having any helper this time, we asked everyone we talked to to make sure we only dealt with the officials. That failed as the guy with a badge who said he was the immigration official turned out to be a helper wanting to be payed for doing our paperwork. We made it pretty damn clear that he had lied to us saying he was not a helper, and that we had no spare cash (which was pretty much true!) and that we were NOT going to pay. He gave up and the Nicaragua side of the border went extremely well.
We stopped at the first hotel across the border, which turned out to be yet another mistake. The entire town was fowl, as were the people in it. The hotel cost $30USD, but the next one wasn't for a very long ways and towing at night was just too dangerous. We tried to get a beer, but one bar had a bartender of unknown genetics (we're not sure it was human, no less male or female) and smelled horrible. We went to the other bar in town and got beer, but then someone came in and warned us it was a drug house and not to drink anything that wasn't form a sealed container and to leave as soon as we were done...great. We tried to pay our C120 bill witha C200, but the guy vanished with our change. After about 10min we asked the pissy old lady who owned the place where our change was, and she went ballistic. She stormed out of the bar yelling and screaming something we couldn't understand, but within about 30sec we had our change in hand We went back to the hotel, which was a nasty dump of a place that hadn't been cleaned in god knows how long, fought off the cockroaches, and went to sleep.
The next morning we got a decent start and made good time across Nicaragua, which was a beautiful country.
We were following CA1, the PanAM highway, which over all was in really good condition, but it had some major issues as well. There was a 40km stretch where the pavement was gone and we had to work our way though the potholes (I do NOT envy Clay and Forrest towing through this!) We stopped for a lunch break, and had some amazing fish. The police were a little over bearing, stopping us 5 times, tried to give me a ticket for making a U turn ( I didn't, I turned into a business, stopped, bought something, then left) and then did give us a ticket for illegally passing (we have no idea where we had done this and are quite certain it was complete bull; but they had our licenses, so we had to pay up or we wouldn't get them back). Cost us $40 total, and we were now quite anxious to get the heck out of Nicaragua as well. The rest of the ride in the country was beautiful, and we stopped to take a break on lake Nicaragua.
We crossed into Costa Rica at sunset again, and ran into a Sweed? heading north after 17mo in S. America on a 1200GS. I don't remember his name, but it was something like MitkaMike on ADV rider, I haven't been able to find him. He told us about a resort that had $5/night camp sites with good internet, but we were unable to find it, so we spent the night at Cabinas Santa Rita in La Cruz. It was a nice little place, very clean, and the owners were quite friendly. My only complaint is that it was rather expensive for our budget, $30USD again.
We looked up some people that Clay's Dad had grown up with in Minnesota and had an invite to their place in Brasilito, which is where we are now. They have a place right on the beach, and are being very helpful with getting Forrest the parts for his bike. The dealer in Costa Rica has them in stock, and they should be here tomorrow morning. In the mean time we have been wandering the beach, napping in the hammock, and watching the Super Bowl while eating amazing whole lobster and drinking the best Pina Colada's around.
Their swimming pool!
My view as I write this...
And the view while test driving one of their 1968 diesel Land Rover Safari with a Defender front end Range Rover drive line.
Last night we sat on the beach for sunset and drank a beer.
Clark
When we arrived at the dealer my bike was ready and waiting, having been cleaned, polished, new fork seals, new rear suspension, new rear break pads, and a full inspection completed. We would have been ready to go, but the luggage rack on Forrest's KTM had cracked welds on both sides and was bent from his falling down on a trail. I talked to the manager and he called the dealer body shop and arranged for us to go over there to get his rack welded up. I went to pay for the service on my bike ($1056USD, which is half or a third what that would cost in the US!!!) but my card was denied. With flames shooting out my eyes I talked to the manager again and called Wells Fargo. The guy who answered made a comment about how fraud services obviously didn't notice the note about my traveling, but we then found it was all Ustadza's fault. The previous week had been our anniversary so I sent her flowers. Turns out that charge, which I had put on the same card, showed as being in Prescott AZ, so I could see how it was a little suspicious that I had a charge in Mexico, then a charge in AZ, then a charge in Guatemala...While I was working that out the manager saw my GPS and threw all the Central America maps on it for free, which has been a great help! We got the rack repaired at the body shop, and reinforced with steel bar at all the joints, and they then refused to charge us for the work (Forrest gave them some money anyway). I really can't say enough about Bavaria Motors, they are a real class A operation, and the first dealer that I have really enjoyed dealing with. We headed out late, but didn't make it very far. Clay had gotten sick that morning, but now Forrest and I were starting to feel down, and then with almost no warning we both became violently sick as well. We took an early hotel with a toilet seat (seats are actually a rare commodity down here!) and called it a night. I got exceptionally lucky and was only sick for that night. Forrest and clay were over the violent stuff, but didn't feel well for a few days after. We came across a bridge on the PanAm that was out, and appeared to have been so for quite a while. Talking to my Dad he warned us that a friend of his had died in Guatemala driving at night when he came across a missing bridge that hadn't been marked!
We split ways with Alex, the Britt, at the El Sal border and made tracks as best we could. About half way through El Sal we were all starving and felt good enough to try food.
It was all amazing, but I unwittingly ordered fried calamari, which was a little too much and I wasn't able to finish it for risk of getting sick again. We stopped for the night just short of the Honduras border, planning on an early start the next day, hoping to get all the way to Costa Rica in one day. Well that plan went to **** right off the bat. We had gone about 30mi the next morning when Forrest's bike lost all power. We took the valve covers off and had a look, and it wasn't good.
You can see the bearing on the left isn't sitting centered like the one on the right.
The cam follower bearing had failed, causing the lifters to break and chewing up both the cam and the intake valves. We loaded the bike into the pickup of a guy who said he could help us across the border and arrange a truck on the other side. That sounded great, but turned out to be a horrible idea. He didn't expedite anything (it took us 4hrs to get into Honduras), and he tried to rip us off for a lot of money. We caught most of what he did, but it still ended up costing us $75USD/person (less then half what he was originally saying we owed him), which is still about twice what it should have, but we couldn't disprove anything else the guy was saying. Furious and ready to murder someone we refused the truck he had arranged to get the bike to Nicaragua, instead towing Forrest behind Clay so we could get out of there fast. Things were beginning to get ugly as the guy was saying we still owed him for his help and was starting to cause trouble, so we just took off and didn't look back. Forrest was having issues keeping the slack out of the tow line (I didn't want anything to do with towing long distance based on safety) and sure enough, about half way through Honduras Forrest got too much slack in the line. This wrapped around his front wheel, locked it up, and flipped him over the handle bars. Forrest walked away lucky, with his right hand and wrist torn up and sprained, and he tore a hole in the right shoulder of his jacket. He did some power sliding on his head, which didn't do his helmet any favors, but nothing was broken. They still refused to get a truck for his bike, so we continued with towing, making it to the Nicaragua border right at sunset. Hell bent on not having any helper this time, we asked everyone we talked to to make sure we only dealt with the officials. That failed as the guy with a badge who said he was the immigration official turned out to be a helper wanting to be payed for doing our paperwork. We made it pretty damn clear that he had lied to us saying he was not a helper, and that we had no spare cash (which was pretty much true!) and that we were NOT going to pay. He gave up and the Nicaragua side of the border went extremely well.
We stopped at the first hotel across the border, which turned out to be yet another mistake. The entire town was fowl, as were the people in it. The hotel cost $30USD, but the next one wasn't for a very long ways and towing at night was just too dangerous. We tried to get a beer, but one bar had a bartender of unknown genetics (we're not sure it was human, no less male or female) and smelled horrible. We went to the other bar in town and got beer, but then someone came in and warned us it was a drug house and not to drink anything that wasn't form a sealed container and to leave as soon as we were done...great. We tried to pay our C120 bill witha C200, but the guy vanished with our change. After about 10min we asked the pissy old lady who owned the place where our change was, and she went ballistic. She stormed out of the bar yelling and screaming something we couldn't understand, but within about 30sec we had our change in hand We went back to the hotel, which was a nasty dump of a place that hadn't been cleaned in god knows how long, fought off the cockroaches, and went to sleep.
The next morning we got a decent start and made good time across Nicaragua, which was a beautiful country.
We were following CA1, the PanAM highway, which over all was in really good condition, but it had some major issues as well. There was a 40km stretch where the pavement was gone and we had to work our way though the potholes (I do NOT envy Clay and Forrest towing through this!) We stopped for a lunch break, and had some amazing fish. The police were a little over bearing, stopping us 5 times, tried to give me a ticket for making a U turn ( I didn't, I turned into a business, stopped, bought something, then left) and then did give us a ticket for illegally passing (we have no idea where we had done this and are quite certain it was complete bull; but they had our licenses, so we had to pay up or we wouldn't get them back). Cost us $40 total, and we were now quite anxious to get the heck out of Nicaragua as well. The rest of the ride in the country was beautiful, and we stopped to take a break on lake Nicaragua.
We crossed into Costa Rica at sunset again, and ran into a Sweed? heading north after 17mo in S. America on a 1200GS. I don't remember his name, but it was something like MitkaMike on ADV rider, I haven't been able to find him. He told us about a resort that had $5/night camp sites with good internet, but we were unable to find it, so we spent the night at Cabinas Santa Rita in La Cruz. It was a nice little place, very clean, and the owners were quite friendly. My only complaint is that it was rather expensive for our budget, $30USD again.
We looked up some people that Clay's Dad had grown up with in Minnesota and had an invite to their place in Brasilito, which is where we are now. They have a place right on the beach, and are being very helpful with getting Forrest the parts for his bike. The dealer in Costa Rica has them in stock, and they should be here tomorrow morning. In the mean time we have been wandering the beach, napping in the hammock, and watching the Super Bowl while eating amazing whole lobster and drinking the best Pina Colada's around.
Their swimming pool!
My view as I write this...
And the view while test driving one of their 1968 diesel Land Rover Safari with a Defender front end Range Rover drive line.
Last night we sat on the beach for sunset and drank a beer.
Clark
Clark White
Explorer
I spent the other morning taking pictures of the humming birds as they came and went from the feeder on the patio;
Clark
Clark
Streakerfreak
Jan-Kee
Damn man, your trip is getting pretty exciting.
Clark White
Explorer
Yeah, it's having it's moments! I'm really hoping things go more smoothly from here, and that I will be in Equador this time next week. I'm probably going to skip Columbia for time reasons, since I need to meet Ustadza, James, and another girl in Peru in exactly a month from now. Can't afford any more major delays since we are already a couple weeks behind.
Clark
Clark
Clark White
Explorer
Forrest's parts came in no problem Wed mid afternoon, and despite it taking a few hours longer then they had thought the bike is up and running great. We left Brasalito Thursday morning at 7am, which was an hour later then we had wanted, but no big deal. We didn't make it far before Forrest found a place he thought he could get his front tire changed, as it was beyond bald (and he couldn't have done this the 4 days we sat there with no parts?) so Clay and I had breakfast while waiting for him to mount his tire backwards. The little town where I spent a pair of summers was only 6km off the highway, so we made a detour up to Las Juntas to have a look. I only vaguely remember things, and we didn't have time to explore and look for details I do remember, but it was still cool to see it after 23yrs!
Town park
One of the local girls thought the sun was just amazing for sunning her self...
Turn of the century steam engine from one of the old mines near by.
I don't remember anything like this in 1989!
I think we lived in the house on the left? I'm sure my Dad will correct me when he sees these, but I'm pretty sure there used to be a barbed wire fence on the right where the rot iron fence is now. I lost control of my bicycle and went into it, tearing my side wide open...
Maybe this is where we lived? It is across the street, behind me when I took the above photo. Pretty typical house there, with flower and bright paint (not shown is the huge fence that was also pretty common). The lady living there came out as soon as she saw me put the camera through the fence, so I explained I thought her flowers were very beautiful and she got a big smile, telling me to take as many pictures as I wanted!
Flowers in the church/hospital garden
Church bell tower
We made good time and crossed into Panama right at sunset, and then another 65km. The border crossing was amazing, being the simplest, most straightforward crossing we have had. We had been told there was a nice camp ground that was well signed at 60km, but that was no to be. While asking around for the campground a local guy came up and talked to Forrest, mentioning that we could camp in his back yard...$10 later we had a great place to spend the night with no more riding! Actually got a proper start this morning, leaving at 6am. We stopped for a late breakfast, but the lady running the place pretty much ignored us, so we took off. I'll leave out the details, but Forrest and I have had our differences, so I left the two of them behind at that point and continued on my own. Made great time riding solo after that, with an amazing chicken breakfast from a guy who learned english through the mail; and by mail he meant snail mail sent from Panama City, not e-mail and downloadable lessons...he spoke English impeccably! I made it all the way to Portobelo by about 1230 and was able to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and exploring the town, taking lots of pictures. For those who may not know, Portobelo is full of amazing history. From the history signs in town: For nearly a century a majority of the worlds wealth came through this city from S. America, where it was loaded onto Spanish Galions. The customs office that handled this great wealth still stands today;
The old hospital, which was staffed with no more then 4 munks at a time to service the entire port
Bastion turret
Clark White
Town park
One of the local girls thought the sun was just amazing for sunning her self...
Turn of the century steam engine from one of the old mines near by.
I don't remember anything like this in 1989!
I think we lived in the house on the left? I'm sure my Dad will correct me when he sees these, but I'm pretty sure there used to be a barbed wire fence on the right where the rot iron fence is now. I lost control of my bicycle and went into it, tearing my side wide open...
Maybe this is where we lived? It is across the street, behind me when I took the above photo. Pretty typical house there, with flower and bright paint (not shown is the huge fence that was also pretty common). The lady living there came out as soon as she saw me put the camera through the fence, so I explained I thought her flowers were very beautiful and she got a big smile, telling me to take as many pictures as I wanted!
Flowers in the church/hospital garden
Church bell tower
We made good time and crossed into Panama right at sunset, and then another 65km. The border crossing was amazing, being the simplest, most straightforward crossing we have had. We had been told there was a nice camp ground that was well signed at 60km, but that was no to be. While asking around for the campground a local guy came up and talked to Forrest, mentioning that we could camp in his back yard...$10 later we had a great place to spend the night with no more riding! Actually got a proper start this morning, leaving at 6am. We stopped for a late breakfast, but the lady running the place pretty much ignored us, so we took off. I'll leave out the details, but Forrest and I have had our differences, so I left the two of them behind at that point and continued on my own. Made great time riding solo after that, with an amazing chicken breakfast from a guy who learned english through the mail; and by mail he meant snail mail sent from Panama City, not e-mail and downloadable lessons...he spoke English impeccably! I made it all the way to Portobelo by about 1230 and was able to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and exploring the town, taking lots of pictures. For those who may not know, Portobelo is full of amazing history. From the history signs in town: For nearly a century a majority of the worlds wealth came through this city from S. America, where it was loaded onto Spanish Galions. The customs office that handled this great wealth still stands today;
The old hospital, which was staffed with no more then 4 munks at a time to service the entire port
Bastion turret
Clark White
Clark White
Explorer
Continuing...
The remains of one of the castles that was blown up by an English Privateer who's name I can not remember or find on google
Part of the castle wall
I hadn't really thought about this as I was taking the picture, but this is a perfect example of all of Latin America...amazing beauty, with amazing filth
This entire town is a perfect example of just that. It is a beautiful town, with amazing history and decent tourist trade, yet the turrets of the fortifications all wreak of urin and every corner that doesn't have someone actively living in it looks like this;
Obviously that doesn't apply to the vast areas of Latin America that have very few people living in them, but anywhere there are people, this is what I see.
This awesome Rover is parked in town, but I couldn't find the owners; it has an Aussi plate from Victoria
I saw on Face Book that Clay's engine has gone out again (second time this trip) and they are somewhere short of Panama City, not sure what the actual problem is. I am off to Panama City to arrange shipping of the bike and I to either Columbia or Equador tomorrow morning. I would really like to see Columbia, but since I need to make time to Lima anyway, I don't think I will have time to see and enjoy Columbia and it's people, in which case going straight to Equador and having fewer miles to ride in a limited time to Lima might make more sense. I can't wait to see Ustadza, James, and Heidi!
Clark White
The remains of one of the castles that was blown up by an English Privateer who's name I can not remember or find on google
Part of the castle wall
I hadn't really thought about this as I was taking the picture, but this is a perfect example of all of Latin America...amazing beauty, with amazing filth
This entire town is a perfect example of just that. It is a beautiful town, with amazing history and decent tourist trade, yet the turrets of the fortifications all wreak of urin and every corner that doesn't have someone actively living in it looks like this;
Obviously that doesn't apply to the vast areas of Latin America that have very few people living in them, but anywhere there are people, this is what I see.
This awesome Rover is parked in town, but I couldn't find the owners; it has an Aussi plate from Victoria
I saw on Face Book that Clay's engine has gone out again (second time this trip) and they are somewhere short of Panama City, not sure what the actual problem is. I am off to Panama City to arrange shipping of the bike and I to either Columbia or Equador tomorrow morning. I would really like to see Columbia, but since I need to make time to Lima anyway, I don't think I will have time to see and enjoy Columbia and it's people, in which case going straight to Equador and having fewer miles to ride in a limited time to Lima might make more sense. I can't wait to see Ustadza, James, and Heidi!
Clark White
Streakerfreak
Jan-Kee
The remains of one of the castles that was blown up by an English Privateer who's name I can not remember or find on google
Captain Morgan man!
So you're not sailing now? Hope everything works out with you and Forrest.
Last edited:
Clark White
Explorer
Thats what I thought to, but I read up on his taking of the town and it says he left the town and it's fortifications completely intact, nothing about blowing up the whole bloody castle?
No boat for me. It sucks, I would much rather sail then fly, but the timing isn't going to work out since the Independence canceled on us and we had missed the other sailings that would have still put me in Peru on time since we thought we would be sailing on the Independence.
Clark