Tidbits

-- 3600 miles on the bike so far

-- over 160, yes 160+ (i stopped counting) mosquito, sand flies, bed bug bites on my arms, legs and feet

-- 1 (caught on the dock) baby boa constrictor

Tranquility Bay Beach Resort

…and rightfully named. I spent the weekend in a Corona commercial!

Getting there was another story. I was gonna hop on a bannana boat in corazal, belize to the island because I wanted to avoid belize city….it was the only boat available as the two ferry boats were shut down for a week (off season and repainting). these guys haul produce out to the island at night when its cooler. The plan to strap the bike down but it turned out to be too heavy to load, which I found out after the hotel was closed and not answering the bell, because we loaded up the produce first and got caught in the middle by a big storm that came in. I spent most the night under a tin shed in pooring rain with two deckhands (that slept like they were at home) Sucked, but turned out to be a a small price to pay though for the weekend to come.

forward view all night
right view all night
and around the corner the deckhands slept all night

No choice I drove to bc the next day to get a boat and met up with two other riders dan and Shannon from Ashville, NC. We locked the bikes up at a little hotel and jumped on a ferry to paradise. Ambergies caye is an island off the coast of belize and is home to the 2nd largest coral reef next to Australias and its only a few hundred yards off the beach! You can swim to it no problem and get lost for hours only exploring a tiny part. Aqua marine water so clear you can see everything. (In the pics the reef is located where you see the light waves in the background). Tarpon , Barracuda, sting rays, huge assortment of small tropical fish, and plenty of huge schools of various types and sizes of fish. It is a snorkeling wonderland! Tranquility Bay Beach Resort is a place my dads friend is part owner and set us up with a couple nice a- frame beachside villas. Thanks dad, thanks denny! it’s the furthest resort 20 mile north of the town. Away from everything this place truly is tranquil and I highly recommend it! www.tranquilitybayresort.com

No stores, no tv no phone and no people because …again its off season and they are shut down except for a few guys who maintain it. But they opened if up to us, the whole place to ourselves pretty much.
The weekend was full of more first, hopefully not last, lifetime experiences. Snorkeling a coral reef, trying to catch a spine lobster, not exaggerating the size of a medium-big dog., HUGE. Catching a sting ray in 4 feet of water of a dock (20 min hard fight) And the prize winning experience………. swimming with a shark! Nurse shark in the reef about 6ft long, brownish color.. No words…….

It was the perfect chill, regroup off the bike time.

sic clouds on the way out

Hello Day

hammock footfour hours later

dive for fresh conchs meant

fresh ceviche!

welcome to the jungle

Ive spent the last to nights in Palenque, home of some serious ancient ruins in the jungle.
I looked up ‘jungle’ in the dictionary and it says……… 'a wilderness of dense overgrowth; a piece of swampy, thickset forestland'... hmmm, they forgot to put in the part about being constantly soaking wet. Either from torrential rain or pure sweat from any sort of excertion I.E. standing up from a chair…..totally soaked and my wet noodle of a body worming its way back to sit. Air-con?.....yeah, no. not in this hut. But not to worry the half dead 1950 fan blows the heavy dense piss warm air right at me. Ahhh! 3 cold showers a day is a must and you learn to ignore the scent of B O.
M0m, Dad they've recruited me....... Zapatistas for life!

I know the gun is bigger than my arm, but isnt that the point? Jungle chicks

one world connected

this place is absolutely amazing! The history of the ruins and the Palenque people.... fascinating. dating back to 100bc but thrived in 300-700ad time. The ruins themselves are magical, nestled into the hills of the jungle with grand structures out in clearings sprawled across 500 acres (guessing). Can you imagine (though they knew about it) they built all of this without using the wheel.

The coolest part is that you can walk around-in-up all of it.

the pictures say more than i can.......

Whats that they say about pitch black deep cave like rooms in ancient buildings in the jungle?.....'dont go in them idiot they are full of bats.' but curiousity makes some of us learn the hard way....... so i went in and its jet black, flicked my bic to see.... instantly! about 30 of them darting at my head smakcking into me. ive never ran so crocs-slipping flaylling arms fast in my life! heart pounding while a couple outside waiting, watching, laughing from a wise distance.

Two thoughts for those who want to visit this area.
1. if you live in Minnesota, spend 23 hours a day for at least 2 weeks in a sauna to prep for the climate
2. don’t wear crocs when walking on-in-around the jungle or ruins. the limestone rock is slippery smooth covered with moss mostly and it doesn’t feel good falling down 2 foot tall steps landing on more 2ft tall steps nor can you out run bats in them, nor will they protect you from thousands of tiny red fire ants biting the sh#$&% out of your feet.

moutain clouds

the ride from puebla to cordoba was possilbly the best ride of my life, thus far. thru mountains that were lush with vegitation steep sides and as i went along i was riding in and out of clouds. it was so much fun i was smiling ear to ear for about two hours! the road was nicely paved and cut thru about 8 mountains. some long tunnels and some short ones. check it out....

ive seen hundreds of these sphere loaded semis...finally found out they are bases for wind energy windmills. kind of cool.

i arrived in in cordoba and met up with juan and family who run an orphanage there. my sisters good friend stef gatica set me up with them. there story is nothing short of amazing and i will share it soon as i would like to help them get donations and volunteers to come and help in the orphanage. hopefully some of the people who read this will also want to help out....please look for more to come on this subject.....