Ground Zero

Simon and I are now in the small coastal village of Huatulco, ground zero for the 2nd version of the 6 day, 765 km TransMexicana mtb race. The gun is ready to go off in just over 12 hours and the Mexicans are looking scared.

Throughout the race I will be doing daily reports for Sleepmonsters which can be viewed at www.sleepmonsters.com

Time to roll.......

Guate Gongshow part 2

From ChiChicastagongshow Simon and I figured the excitement would wind down a little as we planned on putting the bikes away for the long bus trip back to Guatemala city and then onward to Mexico. Too leave ChiChi we found a mini bus, paid $5 each extra for our bikes and handed them to the driver who tied them ontop of the bus. We hopped in the bus and it took off and the driver drive our bikes straight into a cement overhang leading out of the bus station. A little concerned I jumped out the window and crawled up on the bus to access the damage. My $ 500 front wheel was mangled and bent beyond repair but luckily that was all the damage. The bus driver got out and tried explaining it wasnt his fault but rather the cement walls fault for being in the way. Not reallty caring too much about whos fault it was I tried getting some information so I could make an insurance claim but all the driver could tell me was that he worked for a guy named Juan. After a lenghty conversation it became apparant that Guatemala is a free system where liability doesn´t exist. Later on we caught another bus in which the driver tossed our $ 5000 bikes on top like a couple of rag dolls. Still a little rattled from the previous incident Simon and I climbed on top of the bus to rearrange the bikes so they wouldnt be smashing togethar for rough cobblestone ride out of Antigua. The bus driver lost it, pulled Simon of the bus then proceeded to shut the window which was used as a step so I couldnt get down. I continued to re arrange the bikes and tie them down while the bus driver started pulling his hair out and trying to get the tourist agency to take our tickets away. After I finished with the bikes I sat down on top of the bus and waited as I wasnt to crazy about trying to make the 14 ft jump down. After a few minutes Simon managed to get in the bus to re open the window so I could get back to solid ground. The proceeding trip to Guatemala city was rather fast as the bus driver let loose his rage on the gas pedal. The next day was spent driving to all 8 bikeshops around Guatemala city with our friend Oscar trying to find a new front wheel for my bike which proved rather difficult but in the end we found something we could work with. Too repair, Simons bike took 3 hrs and mine took a little over 9 as the mechanics were still finding La Ruta mud in my shox and bearings. $ 300 later I had new bushings for my shox, a new front wheel, tubless tires, clean bottom bracket and pretty much a brand spanking new looking bike. Later that afternoon Simon and I hopped on a bus for the 20 hr ride to Mexico. A day later we are still feeling hungover from the trip but we are where we want to be and our bikes are ready to roll.

ChiChicastaGongshow

For the past week my buddy Simon and I have been riding all over Guatemala training for next weeks race in Mexico. For the first 3 days were were joined by the Race Organizer of Guatemalas 3 day mtb SR El Reto del Quetzal. He toured us across the 300 km course on countless miles of singletrack and up thousands of meters of climbs. Having a Guatemalan guide was pretty sweet as we got an inside look into the country and taken to some places we never wouldve found ourselves. After our friend returned to his home in Guate city, Simon and I headed out with a change of clothes in are packs and headed up to the highlands for 3 days were we road across a 3000 m plateau from the town of Nebaj over to HueHuetenango. The dirt track we were on was freshly made and didnt mess around as it headed straight up for 4 hrs of riding. Up top the sceneray was amazing as the landscape was barren and full of small huts with people running around the hillsides. After touring around for the last 7 days, riding over 36 hrs, we are pretty worked over and now sitting in Chichicastenango on market day. After walking the markets for an hour we have optly renamed the town ChichicastaGongshow. Everywhere we look people are decending out of the mtns to the small town transforming the streets into a carnival setting as they try to sell everything from axe heads to chickens. We are accompanied by gringos all over the place as tour buses have acended into the town to join the chaos. Later today we will try to make our way over to Guatemala city to get our bikes repaired and pick up the rest of our luggage before we head out to Mexico for some restful days of surfing in Puerto Escondido before the TransMexicana race starts on the 22nd.

Wild Ride

After a 7 day bought with stomach bug 2 I headed out into the Honduran mtns for the best bike touring ever. 5 days on rough dirt roads through Indeginous villages in the highland country with more stares then Pamela Anderson gets when her shirt falls off. One drunk nearly ran me off the road but my lucky penny from Canada is still holding its charm. In between the rides I hoofed it 8 hrs up into the cloudforests of Mtn Celaque and almost ended up staying. The forests were surreal as I saw dwarfs, peter pan and tinkerbell. I may have been hallucinating from lack of water and food but Im sure they were there as the place had a mystical aura. Monkeys, crazy raccoons and all sorts of birds were all over the place. Returning to basecamp in the colonial town of Gracias in the evening I prepared for a 7 hr 145 km ride to Copan Ruins the next day. The ride started out at 6:30 am with my panniers falling into my rear wheel as I hit a hard spot on the cobblestone streets leading out of town. Slightly dissapointed but I new this was coming as I had the pannier rack duck taped for the past 2 weeks as the metal kept breaking in different places. Finally the last piece broke and nearly took my rear wheel with it. Luckily I was close to my hotel so I went back and spent the next 1.5 hrs rearanging my luggage and finding a new system of carrying my supplies which involved wearing my backpack and tying my two pannier bags on top of the rack which no longer had its pannier supporting sides. Heading out for the second time I soon flatted 5 minutes down the road, fixed it, continued on for an hr then hit some glass and flatted again. Using my last tube and using my last two patches to fix the tire I fixed the problem but a new problem was arising as I had only gone 20 km and it was nearly 11 am. Knowing there was a dirt road shortcut across the mtns which would save 45 km I nervously opted for this option knowing if I flatted again I was walking. The shortcut started out smoothly as I road through forests and coffee plantations but soon it started to downpour and the road went to mud. Passing over the first mtn range I decended into the village of San Augustin and was soon getting an uneasy feeling as everyone and there chickens came out to look at me. I asked a man in government clothes where a place to eat was in town and pretty soon I was eating with 20 or so spectators watching my everybite and looking at my bike trying to figure out what planet it was from. When I finished eating one man came up to me and started yelling and waving his finger in my face. For the first time in the trip I was getting pretty sketched out as this guy was getting pretty worked up. Thankfully another local pulled the guy away and I was soon informed that I had been dealing with the towns character who was short a few sandwiches in his picnic basket. Riding away in the rain with the friendly locals waving there hats I headed up a 1 hr climb over the second mtn range. On top the problems started again as I was now cold for the first time in the trip, the fog and rain limited my visibility to 30ft and I came to a junction in the small dirt road. Both junctons looked equally used. I didn't hesitate to take the left fork as I use to play left wing in hockey and had always been treated well with the left side. Soon decending down the steep mtn side into another valley I began to get worried as the road I had chosen was becoming more and more faint. After a long decent I came to the valley bottom and began criscrossing a creek multiple times which kept getting bigger and bigger as I went downvalley. It was getting late int he day and I was now up to my waste in rushing muddy water whenever I crossed the now river. I knew if I had to cross the raging muddy water again that I would probably have to turn around as it was getting dangerously high and I am sure I would never see my bike again if I lost my footing and went for a swim. Not to excited about the prospect of turning around and climbing back up over the mtn to see the crazy guy in San Augustin again I continued on. Thankfully I came to a small village another 5 km down the valley and after that the road was maintaned and had bridges. Riding another 20 km on mud roads I finally rolled out onto the highway and cruised in the touristy village of Copan Ruins about 20 minutes after dark and nearly 12 hrs after I had left my hotel early that morning. In hindsight the right junction was probably the better choice up on the mtn but this way I got a couple extra hours of training in. The last two days have been spent checking out old mayan ruins and preparing for the next part of the journey which will lead me into Guatemala. I will meet up with my friend Simon who is flying into Guatemala city on saturday for a couple weeks of training before we head out to Mexico for the TransMexicana race starting near the end of Feburary. As for now I am hobbling around as my legs are still trying to recover from the hike up Celaque. Apparantly being an alright biker doesn't make you much of a hiker.