Don't lose your dreams to protect your days

Well it is not that I can report a lot of events accompanied by nice pictures. The one major event that is still dominating is our crash this last Tuesday.

Gorgeous sunset

We left our lovely surfers place at La Saladita on Monday morning, continued along the pacific coast and maneuvered our way through Acapulco, which from what we saw was pretty ugly. We ended up in playa La Ventura about 2 hours south of Acapulco and spent a night at another simple but decent hotel (with a/c thank god) right at the beach.

I finally got a girl!!

Tuesday we finally left the pacific coast highway to go north towards Oaxaca. It was a twisty, narrow road and of course nobody really cuts down any of the grass/brush at the roadside. Just past a right curve we were surprised by a bridge consisting of large iron pipes laid in direction of travel. We had no time to brake, the front wheels were at an angle, so we both fell, Heinz first then me sliding almost all the way across the bridge. Heinz got up pretty quick but I was apparently unresponsive for 1-2 minutes. I don’t remember that I got up by myself but Heinz led me off the bridge and I had no freaking idea what had just happened. Felt pretty freakish!! He asked me a bunch of questions but I couldn’t remember anything. Scary!

ripped open panier

My bike was banged up a fair bit. The windscreen was totally broken, my right pannier (sidebag) was bend and slit open on the side, blinker broken, but overall it was still in driving condition. Heinz’ side mirror was broken off, a few things bend on his bike, but otherwise still in driving condition. We were both pretty shaken up. There was a farmer nearby who was working in the field with his 2 kids, they came and asked if we needed help, but there was really nothing they could have done. The “Senor” sent his daughter to get us some water, which was a nice gesture.

Well we picked up our stuff and continued on. It was late afternoon, we wanted to get to Oaxaca, but we also needed an ATM machine since we didn’t have many Pesos left.

Missing pavement at the end of the bridge

The road we continued on became really twisty leading us higher and higher into the mountains. I had a hard time focusing, felt like I was part of a movie, I didn’t feel present in any way, really weird! So we finally called it a day in a small village in the mountains, found the one and only Hotel, but had to use our US dollars to pay since we didn’t have enough Pesos and of course there was no ATM machine to be seen.

After bending it back in somewhat square shape with my boots

I didn’t give a damn I just wanted to put my head on a pillow and close my eyes. I am pretty sure I had and still have a concussion. I was in my nurse mode and kept thinking what if I have a subdural haematoma and lose consciousness all of a sudden? I was even trying to teach Heinz to check my pupils reacting to light, but…he didn’t get it!!! Oh well!!

We finally agreed that we needed a bite to eat. So we went out to find a “rustic” restaurant, where we were the only ones. Mom, Dad and daughter were eagerly waiting for customers and were thrilled when we showed up. The funny thing was that I said to Heinz that now I could really use a stiff drink and wouldn’t you know 2 minutes later the “Senor” came with a glass of Tequila, salt and a lemon, as if he had heard me. He put it in front of me, gave me an encouraging nod and asked if Heinz wanted one as well, but we all know he likes his beer and only that. So that was “on the house” and I enjoyed it immensely!!

Casita at Overlander Oasis

It was a neat town, very traditional still, only thing was right beside the hotel they had Mariachi band practice, so Mexican music until after midnight. Thank God for ear plugs!!

Next day I felt a bit better with only a dull headache. We got on our bikes and headed to Oaxaca. We previously found a place over the internet called Overlander Oasis, run by a Canadian couple mostly for overlander trucks where they can park and have all amenities, but also a little “casita”(guestroom with shower and kitchenette) and space to camp.

Calvin doing his magic

Apart from this, Calvin, the owner is a mechanic has a tool shop and can fix pretty much anything. We only had a vague description of were their place is, so in this town Santa Maria del Tule we drove around for more than an hour to try to find them. Nobody knew them, we were desperately looking for WiFi to check for a more specific address on their website, but there was none. We finally went into a café in Oaxaca and there we found the exact address, went back to this town and finally found them. What a relief!! I was really fed up by then!

Living space for Calvin and Leanne

Anyway we now are at the Oasis for a couple of days and I am recovering well. Calvin has fixed my panier, straightened out lots of bent things on our bikes. He even knew an upholstery guy, who put a new zipper on my front side bag, course it was ripped off. Only thing that’s still missing is my windscreen. We have to think about that, but for now I can ride without it.

We haven’t even seen anything of Oaxaca City yet, so by staying another day, tomorrow we will do some sightseeing and go into town. We made some more copies of our papers to get ready for Guatemala.

Church in Santa Maria Del Tule

Calvin is a truly unique guy, his wife Leanne left for Winnipeg for 3 weeks on the day we showed up. He is always in a good mood, we had lots of laughs and he certainly knows the in’s and out’s around here.

He has a generous heart, has helped a lot of people in need around here and they all love him.

Feli

Biggest tree in the world, Santa Maria Del Tule

Got to add some comments here. I am truly thankful that the crash wasn’t worse. Feli being unconscious on the ground scared the crap out of me and make me realize how much I love her. We were discouraged and at one point Feli said she wanted to go home. But by now our spirits have lifted again. Special thankyou to Calvin, who is such a positive uplifting guy. His place is really unique. He lives together with his wife in an old 1957 aluminum Greyhound bus that used to run between Sarnia and Toronto/Montreal.

Biggest (diameter) tree in the world – Montezuma cypress

They used to travel with this bus and now it sits in a huge steel building within his workshop and a living/kitchen area. Love it. The engine of the bus is actually a two stroke supercharged Diesel.

It is so comfortable here it is tough to leave. By now Fel’s concussion is getting better, she still has a huge bruise on her hip. We are planning on leaving tomorrow and be back on the road for more adventure.

Nice Bruise on Feli’s hip

I really like Mexico. People are so friendly and helpful and at no point did we ever feel unsecure or threatened. Viva la Mexico!!

Cheers, Heinz