August 12, 1997 Cancun, Mexico R80G/S 26797 R100GS 18440 I spent the morning and most of the afternoon working on my journal. Sharon went to one of English bookstores of which we've only seen in Cancun throughout Mexico, and picked up a novel. She hung out at the beach in the late afternoon, while I took a nap, and continued to get caught up on the journals. For dinner, we went to Rolandi's an Italian restaurant to satisfy Sharon's pasta craving. As an appetizer, we had sliced mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh basil, with olive oil and fresh ground black pepper. Their garlic bread was thin pizza crust cooked in their adobe oven that had puffed up into a ball and had a garlic oil drizzled over it. As entrees we split spinach pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese and parsley with a chunky tomato, garlic and rosemary sauce. Also we split a pepperoni pizza. We tried another domestic red wine called Don Angel Cabernet (non vintage). For future reference, we decided to refrain from ordering red wine in these hotter climates. Not only was the wine warm at ~85 degrees (room temperature), it tasted like it had been stored for a long time between mid 80s and mid 90s. August 13, 1997 Playa Del Carmen (Cozumel), Mexico I worked on my journals this morning while Sharon slept. Sharon has a hard time getting up in the morning. Her social skills are not at their peak the, so it's best to let her sleep in. This works out well, since it gives me some quiet time to just dump my brain... When she woke up, we began packing. I went out to add oil to the motorcycles since it started to rain and then got dark after I had drained all of the oils the other day. I had forgotten to bring down the manual with the listed motor oil capacities. Since I had been working so much on the bikes these past couple days, we started using the walkie talkies that we have for bike to bike communication to communicate from the parking lot to the room. This way, if I forgot something, I would call Sharon up who was on the third floor and she would just drop it off the balcony saving me the trip. She read off the oil capacities for the engine, transmission, final drive and drive shaft for both bikes By the time we were ready to go, it was already 2:30pm, We hadn't eaten, but since Playa del Carmen was only 42 miles away, we decided to wait until we got there. The road is a first class four lane with shoulder on the side, and grass median down the middle. Construction signs are in English. This is called the tourist corridor of the Yucatan. This is the only area in all of Mexico that I've seen foreigners in rental cars on the highway. We arrived in Playa Del Carmen and began looking for a hotel. Sharon parked her bike resting in the shade while I went off looking for accommodations. After finding the sixth fully booked hotel in a row, I started to get a little desperate, and settled for an overpriced but nice place. There were plenty more hotels to check, my problem was that the R80G/S battery seemed so low that it couldn't start the bike anymore. The last two stops I turned off the headlight to conserve power, and the final time I started it I had to push start it. The R80G/S has a kick start, however using a BMW kick start is a fine art that I haven't mastered, and which didn't work for me today. I attempted to push start the fully loaded bike by myself five times in the mid 90 degree heat. However, running along side without my weight on the bike, popping the clutch only resulted in skidding the rear tire to a halt. The heat, dehydration, lack of food, and physical exertion was really getting to me. A bleary eyed Mexican who was standing in the shade on the side of the street slurred something to me that I couldn't make out. He then came over and gave me a push. The bike started right up, I shuck his hand, thanked him, and was off. I drove over to Sharon, and told her the news that we're staying in an overpriced hotel that had plenty of room. After we checked in, my highest priority was getting some water. I can't remember ever being so thirsty. My throat was not cooperating, and I had to drink slow to save from choking. I remembered the old western movies where after crawling through a desert for days, rescuers would only give the dehydrated cowboy a trickle of water, regardless of how much he wanted, to save him from choking. By the end of the day I had consumed 5 quarts of liquid, of which nothing had come out the usual channel. I put the bike on the charger. We brought two small wall transformer type chargers. One is a Yasua 1 amp charger and the other is a 600ma battery monitoring trickle charger that won't over charge. Two years ago when I had a rotor failure, I wish I had one of these larger wall transformer types. A one amp charger could get me back on the road with just an over night charge. However, it can also over charge and destroy a battery since it doesn't monitor the battery. Getting a new Battery for the beemer in a third world country is not something I want to try, so I use the 600ma monitory charger when time isn't an issue. When stranded in the middle of nowhere like I was when I had the rotor failure, the difference between 600ma and 1amp is huge. I'm not sure, but I suspect that the battery is discharged because we've been driving for a while at slow speeds since leaving Campeche. Between Campeche and Uxmal we were taking small back roads that took us through little Mayan villages, Since Chichen Itza, the R100GS has had fuel problems cutting our maximum speed to around 45mph. I'm under the impression that with the headlight on, the bike needs to be running above 3200 RPMs in order for it to be charging. I brought a high output voltage regulator for the R80G/S to compensate for continuous slow speed driving, however haven't wanted to install it until I saw a need, which I guess may be now. [Later Note: I'm still having starter problems even after fully charging the battery. I probably should have put the voltmeter up to the battery first. Fortunately, I used the low output battery monitoring charger. I suspect I may have a weak starter and may have to consider replacing the brushes. While I had planned to carry a spare set, this is one of those forgotten things that didn't make it into the spare parts kit. I have a vague recollection of reading something on one of the BMW mailing lists about the similarity between Volkswagon Bosch starter motors and the one in my bike, but have forgotten the details. Volkswagons are everywhere in Mexico. Another point worth noting, which I don't know if it is coincidence is that this started happening the day after changing the oil. It seems to only occur after the engine is warmed up. Turning off the headlight when pushing the starter button seems to help.] We walked down to the main restaurant strip which is one block up from the beach. It's a very alive area, and a very different feel from Cancun. There are lots of wonderful looking restaurants with people out front trying to get you to stop and sit down. It's impossible to buy a single beer in Playa Del Carmen, which makes sense since it's impossible to drink only one beer. Everybody has a two for one deal such that if you order one beer, they bring you two. It's certainly cheaper than anywhere in Cancun at this rate. We sat down at a nice outdoor cafe and we ordered some food and beers. They had Ice Caribbean Beer on draft from Cuba. By the fifth Cuban beer we were toasting senator Jesse Helms. After a nice dinner of fish and Pastor, we continued walking along the strip. I stopped in a cigar shop that advertised Havana Cigars, and picked up a #1 Montecristo which sold for $13.50... I got it in a test tube to go, since I was planning to go scuba diving in the morning, and didn't want to still be tasting it then. They had quite a few (~9?) different size Montecristos ranging in price from $9 on up. We walked along the beach in bare feet which has the same non-silica disco-astor ("air-con") sand that Cancun has. very nice... August 14th, 1997 Playa del Carmen (Cozumel), Mexico While Sharon slept, I rendezvous'd with my SCUBA diving tour which was to leave at 8:30am. I was the only paying diver on this trip, so it was just me, two dive masters and a boat captain who took off. We did two tank dives, the first was multilevel down to a max depth of 95 feet for 20 minutes, and the second one at barracuda reef down to 35 feet for about 40 minutes. The first deep dive was not all that impressive. The actual bottom started around 120 feet, and sloped upward probably to about 60 feet. It was a field of various type sponges of different sizes. One thing of note on this dive was the spotting of a sea turtle. The second dive was wonderful. I hovered close to the bottom and along the reefs, and saw lots of colorful fish. It's been a while since I've looked at my fish ID books, so I don't remember the names. I'm always amazed at the colors among these salt water fish. I must have seen about six moray eels (sp?) of various colors and textures usually blending in with the surroundings. One of the the dive master carefully caressed it's tail as both it's head and tail were visible from separate holes. There was a spider shrimp (?) similar to the kind found on anemones, hanging out around the eel. Haven't seen any anemones or clown fish in either here of Cancun. Good dive... My diving was over by 12:00, and I walked along the shore to see if Sharon might be swimming. I had just given up when I found her finishing breakfast under a palapa on the beach. We went for a swim. Then I had some lunch, and then we went for another swim. The water here is really beautiful. The white sand makes for clear turquoise water with occasional blue patches where the reef protrudes under water through the sand. The light weight cool white sand makes for the nicest beaches I've been on. I really like the atmosphere here at Playa del Carmen as opposed to Cancun in that it's much more laid back with out the huge resorts. Since it's a much cheaper area, the crowd here is younger. It's more of a traveller beach while Cancun is a resort tourist beach. There are more European travellers who bring their beach customs to this area while Cancun beaches follow American and/or Mexican customs. The strip (Avenida Quinta) is alive with music, many good Mexican seafood restaurants, dive shops, souvenir shops, etc.... fun place. Since the gas fill up at Chichen Itza, the R100GS has been often sporadically acting like it is gas starved when Sharon travels over 50mph. We're then restricted to speeds of around 45mph. If she slows down for example when going through construction, soon after she'll have a burst where she can drive with traffic around 60+mph. My guess is that there is a bunch of crap in the R100GS gas tank that is reducing flow through the screen that surrounds the petcocks. If I was at home, I would just dump this gas through a filter into a gas can and pour it back into the tank. A funnel and a Braun (triangular) coffee filter would work great, however these things aren't so easy to find in Mexico. Not wanting to dump our whole load of expensive gas, we held off until today. I went to the gas station, and said "I have bad gasoline, do you have a garbage for my gasoline?". Four gas attendants took interest in my bad gas. I was shown a Rubber Made plastic garbage can that was half full with bad gas. They told me to dump it in there. As I was dumping it they identified the color as magna sin (unleaded 90 octane), and certainly not premium, the flagship product of Pemex. They asked where I bought it, and were relieved that it wasn't there. I pulled out the petcocks and cleaned the screens. I reinstalled them with the teflon tape I picked up in Cancun, and tightened them with the 12" adjustable wrench I bought in Campeche. I refilled the tank, and tested the bike... no more problems. [Later note: as of two weeks later, still no more problems with this] August 15th R100GS 18492 R80G/S 26839 Chetumal, Mexico We had bought some hot cross buns, and other bakery items last night for a quick breakfast this morning. As usual, we could only manage a few bites before the off flavors got to us. We left the rest behind, and when Sharon felt her immodium kicking in and it was safe to leave, we took off. We got the bikes packed up and I handed in the key to our hotel room. Sharon realized that she needs to go again, and so walked up to our room which we left unlocked. When she walked in, she found the hotel clerk and a maid in our room eating our half eaten bakery goods that we left by the sink. I would guess they don't pay these guys well, except the hotel clerk I assumed was the son of the owner of this relatively nice but overpriced $40 per night hotel. strange... We drove to Tulum which is a popular ruins an hour South of Playa del Carmen. Advertisements for trips to Tulum are all over Cancun. If I could choose where to live in a Mayan city 500 years ago, Tulum would be the place. It's beautifully set above cliffs that over look white sand beaches and aquamarine/turquoise Caribbean. While the structures aren't nearly as impressive as Palenque, Uxmal, or Chichen Itza, Tulum beats them all hands down for beautiful settings with a nice cool breeze. Unfortunately after walking the half mile to the entrance we realized that our camera was out of film, and so only have the pictures in our head. The tourist corridor of Mexico ends after Tulum. The road continues for about a hundred miles along the Sian Ka'an biosphere which is a nature preserve. The road along here is straight and flat with trees along both sides the entire way without a sign of a village for most of the way. Along this stretch we spotted a BMW GS North bound with the driver in a red cordura jacket. This was the first BMW I had seen in two months. The oncoming driver looked as surprised as we were. I turned around, and so did he. It wasn't Doug Ruth who had planned to be around here at this time riding his GS North bound in his red aerostitch outfit. We stopped and briefly said Hello. He had a German accent, but said he was from Houston. His '91 R100GS had ?German? plates, and had been somewhat customized. He had the front forks I wanted to put on the bikes, but never got around to it. However, I had the gas tank he wish he had now. He asked if there was a gas station at Tulum, to which I said I didn't think so, but 84km up the road at Playa Del Carmen there were several. Everywhere in Mexico, there have been plenty of gas stations until we got to the Yucatan. The problem is that some of the ones on the map are closed down, and others don't have gas. The stock gas tank he had only gave him a 200 mile range. and at Felipe Carrillo Puerto which he had passed, they were out of gas. I think he was getting hot wearing a full outfit stopped here where there wasn't a breeze, and so said a quick goodbye. We stopped wearing our protective pants when we came out of the mountains after Ocosingo, however we still wear everything else, black leather jacket, gloves, helmet, boots. Removing the pants changes this climate form unbearable to very uncomfortable. So long as we're moving at a 45mph+ pace and we stay hydrated, it's ok. While the heat is only in the 90's, the sun is extremely harsh. It's quite a relief when the sun becomes obscured by a cloud. When we arrived in Felipe Carrillo, the only gas station we encountered between Playa del Carmen and Chetumal (200 miles), had a large line of cars at the gas pump. So we decided to take a chance and go for Chetumal. I had already gone 300 miles on the the R80G/S since our last fill up at Chichen Itza, and still had 100 miles to go to Chetumal. At best conditions, the R80G/S can go about 500 miles on a tank, at worst around 420 miles. However, I prefer not to push the limit. As it turned out, we made it without even having to go on to reserve. I had last filled up the R80G/S at Chichen Itza, which was 400 miles before Chetumal. We stopped to get something to drink. While sitting in the shade, two boys came up to us and asked if we had pizza to eat. The aluminum top boxes on the bikes resemble the huge steel or fiberglass top boxes used on motorcycles through out mexico for delivering pizzas. We arrived in Chetumal and found Hotel Cristal which had clean spartan rooms with air conditioning. It's the oddest hotel I've seen. The inner corridor looks identical to the inside of Alcatraz with the exception that the multi level jail cells have been replaced with wooden doors. They rolled up the barred garage door, and we parked our bikes in front of our cell. The front window of our room looks into the corridor, while the rear opens into a cement bricked air shaft. Needless to say, there is no sun light in our cell. It's nice to be back in real Mexico, Prices of food and hotel are back to pre Cancun rates. Around Chetumal, I spotted billboards raising the awareness of Cholera. On the back of the door in our hotel, it says (in Spanish) "Before eating and after going to the bathroom, wash the hands. PROJECT CHOLERA. The health is life". In Cancun, we could smell the chlorine in the tap water. Cancun law requires that all restaurants meet US FDA safety standards. Some shops in Cancun even have signs proclaiming that they exceed US FDA standards. So we took it easy while there. We're not immunized for Cholera. The vaccines often isn't effective and not usually recommended unless one knows exactly where they're going ahead of time. Cholera is one those fecal/water borne diseases that have 1000s of different strains, and unless you get the right vaccine, it's useless. The wide streets of Chetumal are lined with stores full of products for sale. The density of merchandise here seems higher that any other city in Mexico we've seen. A lot of Belizeans come over the border to shop for the day, so I assume this is the reason. For dinner, we had Pok Chuc which is a Yucatan specialty. It's a skinny pork chop that has been marinated in a spicy orange sauce and then fried until the outside is slightly crispy. This is then cut up and served with some fried onions on a corn tortilla. Delicious.... August 16, 1997 I found a TelMex public phone with an electrical outlet nearby within a couple blocks of our hotel, and so was able to send out some e-mail this morning. Worked great on the second try. Sometimes after having a failed DNS look up, the connection just hangs while talking to the POP server. I suspect problems with the ISP, however I haven't ruled out line noise. We had hotcakes and coffee for breakfast, and then went to check out the Mayan museum we had heard so much about. It's a very nice museum with multi media touch screen computer displays, The inside is made to look like a jungle with surround trees and jungle sounds played inside. The museum does an excellent job of describing aspects of Mayan culture, and talked about many of the sights we visited, and a couple that we plan to visit such as Tikal and Copan (in Guatemala and Honduras). Very cool, and definitely a must see if one is in the area. The streets around here are full of Belizeans here for the weekend to shop. Busses drive from Belize city (3 hours away) for weekend shopping trips. About every fifth car on the main strip here in Chetumal has Belize plates. My hotel which was near empty on Friday and Sunday was packed with Belizeans on Saturday night. It's no wonder why the stores in Chetumal are better stocked than almost every where else in Mexico. They supply the whole country of Belize. Sunday afternoon when the the Belizean go home, all the shops close, and it looks like a ghost town. August 17, 1997 We didn't want to cross the border on a Sunday since the places to buy the mandatory Belizean insurance are closed on Sunday. So we just hung out in our hotel room, researching Belize from our maps and guide books. The entire population of Belize is less than 200,000 people. There are eight towns with Belize city being the largest at 44,000. Even the capital of Belmopan has only 4,000 inhabitants. Since this was a former British colony, called British Honduras, the official language is English. Looking at the map there are a lot of wacky named villages like "Double Head Cabbage", "More Tomorrow", "Never Delay" and "Go-To-Hell Camp". It looks like the things to do in Belize are go the Cayes (pronounced "keys") and do water sports, check out the wild life sanctuaries, and explore Mayan ruins. The guide books have strong warnings regarding theft. Apparently it got so bad that the Belize government established a tourist police force which so far has cut crime by 40%. They recommend not wearing watches. In addition to my whiz bang gadget Casio watch that I got as a going away/birthday present that comes with altimeter, barometer, compass, thermometer, seven different kinds of alarms, four kinds of data recorders and a stop watch, I also brought a low profile small black plastic encased fabric strapped watch which I use for scuba diving. At every watch stand in Hong Kong and Malaysia they sell a duplicate of this cheap looking watch for about $10. I prefer to wear this profile watch in seedy areas. [Later notes: the crime description seems to apply primarily only to Belize city] There are no ATM's in Belize which so far this trip has been our main source of cash. We're carrying enough American cash and traveller check to get us by should we get to some behind the times countries, however we're depending primarily on ATM's elsewhere for cash. They almost always provide the best exchange rates, and it cuts down the need to carry very much money. ATM's, both Plus and Cirrus systems, are all over Mexico. We went to the ATM to get some more pesos today which we'll exchange at the border for Belizean dollars which are pegged to the US dollar at B$2 for US$1. We're saving our dollars for when we really need them. I don't expect we'll be able to get any more until Panama which uses US dollars (called 'balboas') for currency. For dinner, we again went to Sergio's for dinner which had a nice atmosphere, excellent food, but a slow wait staff. They make an excellent bread which they serve with real salted pasteurized butter. This is the only restaurant in all of Mexico where we got real *pasteurized* butter. I've really developed a distaste for Mexican butter and margarine. The butter has an odd taste and is sweet. The margarine tastes like it's made from hydrolyzed motor oil. [Later note: the butter probably comes through Belize where it is again the norm] ---- Dave Thompson thompson@pdnt.com Net-Tamer V 1.09 Palm Top - Registered