left for dead

Understandable why people go to the desert for spiritual journeys or to do halucigen drugs…….. the vast amount of nothingness leaves nowhere to do/go but inward. for the last couple days I’ve been riding across northern peru desert. At first a welcome change, easy flat riding at high speeds staring off into nothing thinking about everything from needing to cut my toenails, people I know, my childhood/adulthood to the harsh realities of the 2 and 3rd world countries I have been riding in that are impossible to harden up to. After awhile boring and depressing really. fun riding in the sand but not easy on this big of bike
vulchers munching dead roadside dog, jumped off when heard motor

try to keep the negative stuff off the blog but one harsh reality that gets me most is the amount of street kids everywhere. No mom, no dad living on the street to fend for themselves…. these societies just accept it…. not really, most locals shoo them off like rats…its painstaking to watch time and time again. you want to go up and crack em upside the head…what the fuck is wrong with someone that would a shooo a 4 yr old off like a pest!
since entering mexico and thru every country so far….. ive seen from as young 3 4,5 yr olds dirty, shoeless working streets begging, or selling chicklet pieces of gum and the like for a penny or 2 to survive the day and sleep on the streets near ??? Because the concrete is warmer from the plumbing. unlike many other unfortunate things that now sadly don’t even phase me this one always will.
Ok some others not so sadly like the insane driving and directions. if you ask a person literally standing in front of a bank, where a bank is they will tell you its quatro cadres y de la recha y dos mas calles de la racha…always finishing with todo delarecha todo! which if you listen to you will end up at shoestore. occasionally would come accross left for dead villages or homes

There are tons more annoyances, most are easy to harden up to, accept and deal plus i dont want to dwell on negative. but Kids on the street is impossible to ignore(if its not for anyone that reads this please get off this blog and don’t come back). Whats gonna happen to them, where are they gonna go. You can see in their eyes they turn 40 before reaching puberty and are probably unlikely to reach the age of 18. If they do with no education and a street only life you can guess their adulthood will be crime. Most governments dont help at all because some people have used “orphanges” just to get the money for themselves. So its private orphanages or left on the street curb. In Cartagena, Colombia there were thousands of kids living in the street doing whatever to survive including pick-pocket etc.…once tourism started picking up in the last few years they just disappeared….where?….all of them!
Ok enough rambling about it, there is an opportunity to at least DO a little something. (next post)

occassionally there were trash dumps in the desert with a few people living in them

If haven’t rode motorcycle in dessert and want to know what its like I’d suggest finding a big sand colored wall… put a high back kitchen type chair in front of it…. sit on it backward facing wall with arms holding onto back corners like handlebars….grab a 5 gallon bucket and cut out a 3x5 inch face space…cover it with saranwrap to act as a visor, put it over your head and shove a vacuum hose or hairdryer in there to create the loud wind tunnel sound….tilt chair over on two legs but keep your feet on ground to create the lean from constant 30mph wind, occasionally have friend or family member surprise come up and push you from any direction to represent random wind gusts. Sit there for 8 hours letting your thoughts go whereever they will…..youre ridin in the desert.

quite a few crashes on the ride but luckily no deaths. this truck rolled swerving from a blown tire just in front me. a few more feet and it would have been over the bridgelots of fishing towns just past the border, love the old wooden boats riding can be a family affair too.....look close... 4 of themmost suprising was coming across this very healthy corn field in the middle of the desert growing right out of the sand who ever idea it was to put this billboard in the middle of the desert is either a simple marketing genius or an asshole (probably both.) constantly thirsty and not a soda available for hundreds of miles