So for this next blog entry to make sence, you need to understand that I am also posting this story on a different site.

www.advrider.com

It is a message board forum for adventure motorcycle travelers.  It is more lively over there and nothing is censored so there is a lot of garbage to dig though.  This site keeps it more simple if you are strickly interested in the story, but I like it over there on that site.  I get tons of comments and questions.  It is exciting to check what people have to say about my story.  Anyway, people over there are liking it so much, they started donating me money through PayPal to help me out on this trip.  The trip is expensive and of course there are unseen expensives popping up all the time.  I was so overwhelmed with the amount of money that was coming in from complete strangers.   Then I had a chance to give back and help someone out.  I only did it because of the generosity that was shown to me.

This is the direct link to the same ride report that I do over here.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=431849

Now that you have the full story, my update will make more sense.

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So I arrived into the boarder town of Chetumal Mexico with plans to stay at a cheap hostel I read about in my Lonely Planet. Well the cheap one was out of business so I had to continue the search on my own. During the search I walk into the hotel and ask a man how much it costs for the night. he asks if I can speak English and says he doesn’t work here. I always feel good when people ask me to speak in English. It boosts my spanish speaking ego which is currently stuck with the same few phrases that I use daily.
Anyway, he asks if I have a Lonely Planet so I pull it out and let him look something up. He is looking for information on foreign aid or American help or somthing.

He starts his story and it goes like this:

“I am a man of God on vacation with my family. Our bags didn’t get transfers when we switched buses in Mexico City. Now they are in Acapulco. We only had a debt card given to us by our church and that is in our luggage with our bags. We have no money and no way to get any. We need to get back to Mexico city to meet back up with our luggage that is beging held there by the US constitute. I need your help brotha!”

Ok, now I have heard all kinds of scams and have tons of people try to get money from me during this trip and in genernal throughout life, but this guy was different for some reason, so I didn’t blow him off right away. He passed stage one, in my scam detection. Now I start asking the questions.

Me: “Can’t you have your church wire you money?”
Him: “I am a man of God, we don’t have a bank account”

Me: “No bank account?”
Him: “I am a man of God, we don’t have a TV or a computer or even a radio. Can you get on the internet for me and see if you can find a way to help us?”

Me: “Why do you live like that?”
Him: “I am a man of God, We live as simple as possible to stay away from Evil.”

Me: “Why don’t you have the bus company mail the bags to you here?”
Him: “I am a man of God, since the bags were lost, they are now in controll of the US constitute. They have to be picked up in person in Mexico city.”

Hmm…

I go on to ask for details on everything.

“How many kids do you have? Where do you live? How long have you been in Mexico? When do you leave? When did you get here?”

I listen to the answers, but mostly I am reading the guy. I am seeing HOW he answers the questions and HOW his voice sounds. I am convienced. I belive the man. I really think his story is true. They say truth is stranger than fiction. This is a prime example. Basically a family of 6 with no email or connections to the outside world lost their only means of money, the debit card that their church gave them for vacation. They don’t know how to use computers or anything of the like. They are so helpless. He has the odds against him, I can read it in his face. He has no more hope. He needs $6,000 pesos to buy bus tickets to get his family back to Mexico city to pick up the bags and luggage, and most importantly, THE DEBIT CARD!

I struggle with what I should do. I tell him I need to think for a few minutes and he crosses the street and waits. I sit on the ground leaning against a building.
I think.
Thoughts are running through my head.
“Why should I help this man?” He was obviously not prepaired for this trip!
“Why didn’t he have the card on his person?” That is what you should do!
“Why doesn’t he have a bank account?” He could have money wired in hours!

Then I think about myself. I have planned for this trip, but I am not ready for everything. When my chain broke, there was a scralp truck to pick me up and take me to a shop. When my clutch cable broke, I only had a spare because BigDog gave me one. When I got lost on the dead end road and camped with the Coyotees, I was safe and no one bothered me.

Was his planning really any worse than mine? I don’t think so.
Even if it was what makes him deserve the trouble that it caused?

Why am I so lucky to have people I don’t even know send me $1,000 in PayPal donations?

I made my decision. I go to the ATM and pull out 6,000 pesos. ($400 USD). I give him the money. He starts to tear up. He askes me what my name is.

Luke I say. He gets even more emotional. He says it is a sign from God. He gives me a hug and asks for my address. He says when he gets back to his Church in Chicago he wants to have a collection offering for the “motorcycle man”

We part ways. I have never helped anyone out like that before, but you paypal guys gave me the inspiration. It wouldn’t have happened without first seeing your generosity.

The lady in Corpus Christi told me to “Pay it Forward”

So I left off packing up my bike from my night on the beach. The day before I drove down the coast because it looked more scenic and remote than the main highway. It was scenic and extremely remote as I found out that I am at a dead end. My Garmin showed a dotted line across a 1/2 mile or so wide bay that connected two roads. I assumed that meant bridge. I was wrong. The only way out for vehicles is back where I came from 50 miles north. I drove to the Marina and walked right down the dock untill I found a boat that looked suitable with a guy on it. I ask him if he will take a motorcycle across. He says yes. I ask him how much. He says $5 usd. Wow, in theory this is perfect. Let’s see how this works out.

AND I GOT IT ALL ON VIDEO!

http://vimeo.com/3723378

The Video pretty much shows it all happen. I removed all the luggage and the mirrors then crossed my fingers and went for it. We loaded the 305lbs dry bike into pretty much what I call a Canoe. Getting it in was of course easy. We had gravity on our side. Getting it out…? well, I’m glad it wasn’t a KLR or DR. The extra 50lbs may have been too much for us. Once again I think this is the perfect bike for me. I gave them each a $5 for helping me out. That put a smile on their faces as it was double what they quoted me for. I think the bike was heavier than they thought and doing this really helped me out. They are charter fisherman and the season is really bad this year due to the economy. Right now is the high season and they are just sitting at the dock doing nothing. I wish them the best of luck.

Luggage back on ready to go

Hmm…I see I didn’t take any photo of the next 30 miles. I was doing some helmet cam stuff and just forgot I guess. Anyway. There is nothing on the otherside. I mean nothing. Just a dock. Then flat gravel two tracks which lended them selves to a nice brisk pace of 40 mph. Most of it was shade and it was just really pleasant to be the only person around day dreaming about whatever.

But now I am hungry. As usual I found a great place to eat. (I don’t really think you can go wrong in Mexico)

I had good company for lunch

This guy is a charter fisherman. He is on leave right now because as you can tell his wife is about to burst. It doesn’t matter really though because there are no tourist to guide. There should be right now, but there are none. He was interested to hear that I am a fisherman too, so I pulled out my laptop and showed him photos of my boat, and told him all about the engine, hydrollics, nets, etc. Lunch was 50 pesos including the tip and it came with a clean bathroom to boot.

The tree across the road is 300 years old. 10 years ago a drunk guy lit it on fire, but it survived.

Then I found this ruin.

VIDEO TIME.
This shows what I have to do to sometimes to get the photos that I want.

http://vimeo.com/3722709

I don’t know what to think about this.

I arive in Chetumal to find a junk yard and more fire.

The house was ok. The fire was getting close at one point, but went behind it instead. I did see a guy hauling propane tanks to the side of the road just to be sure.

Then I saw these guys from the road. Of course I had to stop and see what they were doing.

The guys name was Lewis. I only remember that because my name is Luke. He was collecting flowers for his mother. Two miles further down the road I find a Office Max and buy a Camera with money from the paypal guys! Thanks again. It was 2,000 pesos which is $133 American

Yes, I know it’s pink but it was onsale. The same camera in green silver and black was $20 USD more.

On the way to find a hotel I hear music and look around. I have to stop for a photo of this.

These guys were rocking out hard on their roof, and when the light turned red they got an instant audience.

At the beach

I assume they are tring to stop eroision with these concrete bags.

This is pretty cool. You can rent a fourwheeler to drive around in circle on the beach. That would never pass in America.

Time to get that hotel for the night. Belize is in the morning.

My stay at Puerto Morales has come to an end. I ended up staying there for two weeks. I don’t know if I ever really explained the connections there, so I will clear that up.

This is Allen And Linda.

They are from Michigan and are renting a house in Puerto Morales for a few months. They are really good friends with the my friend Erics family. So Erics family flew down for a week, and I crashed the party. I crashed it so hard that I even stayed an extra week with Allan and Linda when the others left. Here are some photos of where I lived for two weeks. Rent was cheep!!!

This was my office where I could do my internet business.

This was my bedroom.

The first day I got there Linda washed my Jacket and Riding pants. They were filthy, and she said I had not choice in the matter. She was washing them. They are such good people.

This was a typical Dinner at the house. Only the best! Allen is quite the Chief.

Sadly that is the last photo that my Pentax Point and Shoot ever took. It finally died. That camera was a trooper. It survied many drops, water, and overall abuse over the last few years. Luckily, the paypal guys are hooking me up, so I’ll have a new one soon!!

But everything must at some point come to an end. It was time for me to leave. I had to keep moving south. So south I go.

All packed up to leave.

Time to stap on some feed bags!

8 peso tacos were very tasty!
7 peso apple coke was not!

I am going to Belize. I should probably get to the boarder in one day. I don’t want to slab it down there. The scenery on the highway is ugly, so I hug the coast.

I come across this bridge. People only fish off this one now. A new modern one was put in a year ago says this man.

Said man also hooked me up with 4 bottles of water just because I looked thirsty. He was right. Riding in full gear in the hot sun. I was very thirsty. He was really interested in what I was up to and quite pleased to get his photo taken and have it put on the internet. I told him I was going to camp on the beach tonight. He was going to do the same with his boy and a few other familys, and said I could join. I was hungry again and wanted to keep moving so I left. Thanks though.

This is a little video of the bridge I am talking about.

This old man doesn’t need no stinking boat!

I cruised the beach for a while and filmed some with my helmet camera.

Back on the road, I see a KTM fly by me going the other way. I wave and turn around. I catch a glimps of him as he flies around another corner. I guess he doesn’t want to stop to chat.

A few more miles down the road I see three adventure riders, I wave and stop as they do the same.

It’s been 2 days since I talked to them so of course I forgot their names. The guy on the KTM 640 said I had the perfect bike. I have to agree.

He loves Husqvarna’s but only bought the KTM because it had a 26 liter gas tank. He said his next bike will be the TE610. One of the guys saw my “Pancho Villa Moto-Tours” sticker on my bike. He used to work with them. He also has ridden down to Panama and offered to email me some boarder crossing suggestions. Group photo time then back on the road.

As they mount their bikes they ask if I had seen another rider. “Yes” I saw a guy hauling on a KTM. “Haha,” they laugh, that is their friend. He probably thinks he is behind everyone, but infact he is ahead of the group.

It’s getting darker now. I’ll get to the next town and scout a place to camp on the beach.

I see a place that rents tents so I stop in and see what the deal is. The guy or girl that I am talking to looked at me with one eye and told me that I can rent a tent for $20 US for one night. hmm. That sounds very steep. I ask for the price in pesos. 260. yeah, I try to do 200 or less for a motel. This is way to much. Who needs a tent anyway. The sky is clear it won’t rain tonight. On my way out another transvestite asks me if I am going to stay here for the night. I say I am hungry and am going to get somthing to eat and think about it.
He said we have food here. This is a restaurant too. I guess I should have just told him I didn’t want to stay, now I have to make another excuse. I feel really uncomfortable and say, no thanks. I am going to leave. adioas.

I really wish I had pictures from that place. It looked normal from the outside, but it full of weird people. Onward Luke, Onward!

I come to the last town on the pennunsila before the bridge to main land. I It is dark now and just for kicks I drive around to price hotels. I go to one farthest from the beach. 500 pesos. Wow! It is confirmed, I am going to sleep under the stars tonight. Next adjenda find some dinner.
I love to eat and since I am not paying for a hotel tonight, I decide to treat myself. I stop at one of the two open restaurants and order Shrimp for 100 pesos.

It obviously didn’t fill me up and now dark clouds are moving in. I order another dish. Tacos of course and start talking to an Canadian fly fisherman. It starts sprinkling and I ask him where the bridge is to the other side. When I was driving around I didn’t see it.
This is a short version of our conversation.

Me: “So where is the bridge?”
Him: “There is no bridge. This is a dead end.”
Me: “How far to the other side?”
Him: “5 minutes on anything with a 40hp”
Me: “I’m camping on the beach tonight”
Him: “The military patrols the beach everynight”
Him: “This is a major drug port of Cocain from Columbia”
Me: “So where is everyone?”
Him: “Inside, this town is run by a genorator that will shut off anytime now”

I pay my bill and ask the waiter if I can sleep under his payapa. He is fine with that so I secure the bike for the night and get out my bag and pad. I read a little and think about Belize. Then sure enough the generator quits and it’s dark, but the music doesn’t stop. A few houses next have some American music that I am enjoying that must be running off of batteries. A few hours later sure enough a Jeep rolls by me patrolling the beach. It doesn’t seem to mind that I am there and if it rains I have a thatched roof over my head. Life is good. Everything is working out. I fall asleep with the wind in my hair and a bright stary night. I wake up to a dog barking at me. He is fairly close by the time I sit up and he bolts away. This does not even phase me. The Coyotee story strengthened my nerves. I lay back down. Son of a gun, the dog starts barking and and is creeping for me again. This is mearly anoying. When I sit back up he runs away. He is gone for good now and I take a photo of the sunrise. It’s about 7:00 a.m.

Not a bad place to sleep for the night.

I find these tracks in the sand where I was sleeping. Do anyone know what kind of critter would make these?

Here is a closer view of the tracks.

I pack up my bike and leave my “motel”