Well it’s been a while, I’ve got to post something now, my readers await, pffft!! Suppressed laughter… So the past two weeks have been so busy, but I somehow magically managed to slim down my to do list. Done with work, can you believe the amount of work I had to do prior to leaving the states? My loyal clients in Chile are coming back to Las Vegas for a convention, we have worked together for more than 20 years and they bring every 2 years about 250 people and they count on me to wine and dine them and to organize their transportation needs, excursions, shows and the like in Sin City. They’ll be in Las Vegas in March and I’ll be, where? Peru or is it Bolivia at that time ? Everything need to be in order and prepaid for this group, and I thought I had finished my work, I thought I was out, but they pulled me back in (obligatory Godfather reference here, I had to do it) !

So I had to find tickets to a hockey game and get new buses and new excursions for them in the precious little time I had before The Trip, damn it! My friends told me not to complain as this will help me pay for this extended vacation, so they think! So yes, I guess I’m semi-retired, in the sense that having my own business allows me to take or refuse any work coming my way. I could not pass on this one, as loyalty goes both ways… It’s done, I may have to spend a few more hours on my tablet using the hotels wifi down the road to finalize a few more details, but for now, I’m cool.

Got my shots, typhoid, yellow fever, got altitude sickness and malaria medications, I really prepared well for this journey! The packing was meticulously organized, tools, extra socks, gloves, towing cord, the works…

The last days before departure were semi sweet and tugging at my heart, leaving for 3 and a half, 4 months or so is hard for the loved one who stay put at home. My baby, my love, the one woman I’ve loved most in my life, showed such courage and mixed emotions, she’s letting me go on this avid search for new adventures, showing me such trust and love while I abandon her a bit for my thirst of discoveries on my own…

I had to do this, this Trip to Brazil, this pushing my limits, this exhausting quest, I had to do it on my own accord. I’m proving to myself that I can still do this kind of crazy things. Riding a motorcycle to South America may sound unusual and out of reach to most people, but thousands of others are doing it every year. Granted, I suppose that there are not too many sexagenarians on the road, but damn it, I’m on it and I will complete this task… I guess that’s the main reason, I reject wholeheartedly my advancing age, I don’t want to get old, this is my midlife crisis, at 65! Maybe that’s why I took on skydiving at the ripe age of 61…

I think that maybe that’s the whole reason behind all of this, I just can’t accept the fact that I now look like the senior citizen I became! What ? What an insult, but then I look in the mirror and this bald, wrinkled, grey bearded head of mine still smile at what life throws at me…
But that’s enough self-psycho babble for now, let’s talk about the past 2 days. Eleven hours of bad ass hard riding from San Diego brought me finally to Tombstone, that funky fake old western town where I used to bring busloads of tourists. It’s ok though, this was a fun stopover. The first night away from home, and where I met my two compadres. Over dinner in a saloon diner, I met the third guy who’s joining Steve and myself for the Mexican part of The Trip, he may accompany us into Guatemala, but that’s it he says! Adam is his name, he is only a few days older than me I learned, and in very good shape. Very active and fit, his wife a personal trainer, he brought his pickleball racquet along! To each his own! A very engaging and chatty man with great humor and lot of stories… He’ll do, at first I was weary to add another guy on this journey, I wanted to go solo originally you see, but Steve who found this experienced traveler online suggested he tagged along… It’s only going to be a couple of weeks, so we may enjoy another presence and we actually may learn a few things from this accomplished fellow.

So I gave my ok and now we are three. The real first day was today, we crossed the border at Naco, got our tourists visas and headed to Agua Prieta for the temporary vehicle import permit. This will be repeated at every border crossing, 14 countries in all, a necessary showing of paperwork, fees to pay and funny Spanish conversations with bored officials. The Mexican people we’ve interacted with today were all as they always are, friendly, extremely polite and well mannered, smiling with all their hearts, I love them. Not one problem whatsoever. It is still cold, on this Chihuahan plateau where we are now, it’s chilling. We’re spending the night in Nuevo Casa Grande, a non descriptive town in the Sierra Madre. It was a good ride, only about 170 miles from the border, but we were on our way only about noon, having spent so much time getting the necessary formalities. Well, we finished breakfast only about 10am so it’s not that bad. The road today was majestuous, most of the way, immense plains, going to infinity and beyond succeeded by steep mountain roads with glorious vistas, and trucks, millions of trucks, chugging along, sometimes for too long ahead of us, we impatients motorcyclists, waiting for the opportunity to pass them when we legally could! Fuck that ! At first Adam lead the way, and he is a very cautious and responsible driver, sticking to the impossibly slow speed limits so we were not making good time… Eventually Steve passed him to take the first position and that was a little better, a little faster but not fast enough for this speed demon that I am. We stopped after about 3 hours in a small coffee shop frequented by truck drivers and fed and relieved ourselves with forgettable food and unclean restrooms… There was about 45 minutes of daylight remaining and you know we can’t ride at night in Mexico, so said my accomplices… Looking for the lone hotel in this ugly village, at Adam’s insistance, I was horrified by this establishment and we were only 30 minutes away from a bigger town offering much better accommodations I protested. I took charge and forged ahead at a more reasonable pace, passing trucks with glee and watching the sun go down, racing it to the horizon, hoping for enough fuel in our tanks and to be arriving before night time. And mission accomplished! A very nice, clean hotel was found and there we are, some time to write and ponder the happenings of the last few days. Yes, tired, exhausted but with a smile on my lips, we’re really on our way to Brazil as I told an incredulous border patrol agent smiling ears to ears. Life is good. To be continued.