December 21, 2006

San Carlos, Mexico

Well, Doug got a hold of the shock importer and service guy. It seems the shock is rideable for the moment, but he said if it goes dry, and it will, then we will be dead in the water. So it seems we have several options: 1) Take the shock off and send it in, have it rebuilt, sent back, and be on our way. This could take several weeks. 2) Head into Mexico City, and find a shock guy to rebuild it. Not a great option because we would have to back track and spend time in Mexico City. 3) Take our chances, and ride on the thing until it is dry and hopefully by then, we'll be home. The last option seems to be the most viable and logical at this point. And after a bit of discussion that is what we decide on. It does mean we will get back a little early and we will not be able to ferry across and go up Baja. That is a bummer, but better safe than being stuck in the middle of nowhere Mexico.

We head towards Mazatlan and arrive in the rain and somewhat heavy traffic. Oddly, we both go unphased by the traffic and the rain. We have become quite immune to such conditions. Early on, this sort of driving seemed difficult. Now, we hardly notice.

Doug and I spend the night along the beach in a nice hotel right on the Malecon... the street that parallels the beach. Doug was here in college, so it is fun for him to revisit some spots he was back then, and fun for me to hear about his wilder days.

In the days that we travel north towards the border, leading up to our return to San Carlos, we are stopped at several military checkpoints. And twice they pulled us in to be searched. It turned out to be no big deal, as they slightly looked in our cases and sent us on our way. At one checkpoint, the military guy was trying to set me up with his sister. Not sure why? We drove off before I had time to really figure out what the deal was, thankfully. At another, Doug is asked if we have "reefer" on board. And again, we didn't wait around long enough to see if they were trying to bust us, or looking for some for themselves.

The other wild thing that happened while we were traveling through farm country, is we got buzzed by a crop duster airplane. It was coming across a field and turned right onto the road and flew right over us. I mean RIGHT over us. Maybe about 15 or 20 feet above our heads. It was so close I thought the guy was coming in for an emergency landing and I began to pull onto the shoulder. Turns out he saw us and was just having fun. It was pretty darn close though.

We did arrive in San Carlos after putting down nearly 500 miles on mostly good toll roads. It was cold and windy most of the day, and Doug and I were both surprised by the weather, as several months ago when we were here it was hot and sunny. We learned from some local folks that a cold front had come through, and it had been chilly and windy for several days. We decided to hole up here for a few days, and rest and relax and hopefully get some sun so we can hang out on the beach. With all the wind, no doubt there will be kiters on the water, and it will be good to watch them.

I haven't been feeling all that great lately... the last few weeks. Whatever I eat seems to go through me quite quickly, that is after rumbling around in my stomach for a few hours. Seems to have gotten particularly bad the last two weeks or so, but every few days I can eat and hopefully this is just a passing bug.

We should have news in the next update on when we'll be back in the States.
Troy