Monday – Guachochi, Mexico

I was up pretty early and working on more blog stuff, just after 8 we went up for brekky but Carolina’s was busy and looked like a major wait, so we gave that a miss, we only wanted tea and bread anyway. So, a muesli bar had to do and then we started to sort out the bikes. The truck that was brought in is not a truck, it is just an F250 and there was no way two bikes were going to fit in there. After a bit of chat about getting a 2nd larger truck at twice the price, Vincent said he felt OK to ride up and just put all his gear in the back of the truck, so in the end that is what we did. We loaded the strom and after getting fuel for V we headed off.

On the way we could see the havoc the ‘unseasonable’ rain had caused.

The track had a lot of water holes, but these seemed OK for a bike with just maybe a few slippery sections where the graders had been the other day but there were a lot of rock falls as well.

The normal animals were on the road as well as quite a bit of other traffic, we waited for this truck at a layby.

We met some other riders and had a quick chat before heading off again.

Near the top we saw a log truck being loaded manually, hard yacka!

Then finally after 2.5 hours we were at the shop on the main road, well, a paved road anyway 🙂 Vincent reckoned with a light bike it was not that bad coming up, with only a few slippery moments in the mud, so that was all good. We found a spot to unload with the help of a few locals and soon the bike was back together and ready to roll. 🙂 I bought the locals and driver a drink and we had some instant noodles sold there for lunch before we headed off south to Guachochi.

We only went about 5kms before we pulled over and pumped up the tyres 😳

Then we headed off, it was good to be back riding again after so long off the bike 🙂 The weather was a bit cool up top compared down below, but there was only an hour or so of riding before we arrived in Guachochi (gwa cho chi) where we looked around for a motel and eventually found one just on the outskirts of town the way we came in.

After settling in and doing the mandatory things like answer a gazillion emails, update my Blogloc(the small map on the left that shows where I am, or was as the case may be), also post the ride down blog etc etc etc, we headed into town to find a restaurant that had been advised by Ivan which served Rainbow Trout. This was a drama in itself and myself and V were at cross purposes with navigation until we worked out what each was doing 😕 But, we eventually found it pretty much where it was supposed to be!

The meal was nice, but nothing to write home about, the fish had never been bled, so there was a slight taint to the flesh, but it was food, we were on the surface and although we had lost 3 days, we should be able to make that up somehow, maybe!

It was a quiet night for me after we went back, doing the rounds of the forums and answering all the “Has anyone seen TS” threads. It seems there has been some confusion as to where I am. I have since sorted it out, but basically, for those who missed the comments I replied to, this is how it works when I am travelling.

Every morning and evening, whether I ride or not, I send an OK signal and a certain group of trusted people receive them and know I am OK, or should anyway as it is a manual button press. If I ride that day, I then initiate the tracking mode, so the map will only show locations if I ride. I have hidden the OK marks on the map as it may show people’s houses which I do not want to do if I am staying with them. This is the basic concept, it allows me to ride without looking for a phone to call ‘home’ or whatever every so often. In this particular place, the phone system was crap, the internet was bad or nonexistent due to conditions so there was no tracks, no posting and no email replies. A bit of confusion reigned, but this should not reoccur.

If the same situation does happen, then the OK messages should indicate I am OK, problem solved, but I have passed on my login and passwords to VSRI and Stromtroopers to contacts back home, and if there is any need a quick help on there can initiate something more if need be, although I do not anticipate it at all as the OK should suffice 🙂

Day – 59 miles and 95 km
Trip – 38,760 miles and 62,378 km

Salud
TravellingStrom

USACanadaMexico

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