“I’m Not Dead Yet!”
Posted in Motovideo, Road Trips on Jan 31st, 2011
Damn, it’s been awhile since I posted, hasn’t it? It’s almost like I’ve been so busy riding that I didn’t have time to post, right? Okay, we’ll go with that, it’s better than the actual truth, which is a tale rife with TV and cheetos and that kind of stuff.
So. Anyway. As I’m posting this here entry, I’m in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I’m down here for work. Again. It’s my third time down here this year — and it wasn’t until I typed those words that I realized that, “Damn! Three times? In a YEAR? I need a new job!” They send me to the Philippines a lot, too. It sounds cooler than it is, trust me.
But given a choice between the Philippines and Guatemala, I choose Guatemala every time. Why? CATours. They do “motorcycle bike adventure tours in Guatemala,” and it makes all this travel worth it. They rent you a little two-stroke dirtbike like a Yamaha 175, provide helmet and knee-guards, and then they show you around Guatemala. Really fucking cool. I can’t believe I haven’t talked about them here before, but it looks like I haven’t.
This is my third trip down here, like I said, and I’ve gone out for a ride with them each time. Last time I was here I did their “Dirt River Tour,” which was a mostly off-road asskicking day for a Harley guy like me, but a ton of fun. It was kind of like getting into S&M — you need a safe word in case the “hurts so good” starts to hurt a little too bad — and I almost said the safe word a couple of times. I have just about zero off-road experience and we rode through rougher terrain than I would have thought I could handle, but I survived and loved it.
This time around I did the same tour I did my first time down here — the “Village Tour,” which is a mostly paved road excursion through several local villages. There’s some dirt roads, but it’s really easy riding. It’s mostly a looky-loo tour, but it’s really cool to see a foreign country from the seat of a motorcycle.
This time around I had a little video camera with me, a Flip video kind of thing, and I jammed it into my helmet so I could film some of the riding. I’ve posted it to Youtube and I’ll link to it below.
And with that… I don’t have much else to say. Stay tuned, maybe I’ll check in again sometime.
From the Dirt River tour on my last trip down, this is me crossing a river and nearly dumping it:
And here’s two videos from this trip on the Village Tour:
I can relate to the business travel comments – it gets tired really fast. But getting out and doing something different can make it a lot more bearable, and these motorcycle tour people seem to have that figured out.
Great videos, showing a place few of us will ever get to visit. One question though – who or what was the moving shrubbery at 3:35 on the first Village Tour video? Was Monty Python in town?
Thanks for sharing.
Ha! I didn’t even notice that at the time! I have no idea what that was.
back in 1994, I rode down to Central America on my bike. I explored Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Belize for 3 months! I didn’t take any photos of the trip, and when I saw yours…I was taken back to those times soooo many years ago. What a great trip down memory lane…thanks to you! Excellent reading, photos were the kind my memories are made of…and I enjoyed the trip! Thank you!