Gathering Up

Good morning ladies and gents

First off we are blown away by the offers of help, information, ideas and straight out brotherly support, we seriously appreciate this from our ADV family and it is helping us formulate Plan B.

At this stage we will be travelling lite on either an F800GS or 800XC, either would be fine, anything bigger would just be too much of a handful, for those of you unfortunate to have met me you know I am no a big guy .....well not everywhere 

Looking to either part out Ellens bike or reframe and repair it as it is well set up fo a RTW bike and has a massive amount of money in it, new Ti chains and sprockets, near new rubber etc.

Same with mine, sell it as a going machine (which it is) or maybe part it out as well, either option will work as we now just have to recover as much as we can financially to lesson the impact, things are looking forward and positive so we can do it and make it happen  (actually we have no choice)!!

The Human Part

OK back to an update, today is Wednesday 28th November, Ellen is starting to walk a bit better and the scorch on her bum is slowly starting to dry.

This is Ellens bum, ever wondered what a bruised asian bum looks like ... now you do 



The feet, hmmm slowly but surely getting better



Ready for a marathon



The Blokes Department

Looked at the bike and the headstcok is definitely out of whack, sitting on the bike the steering is out of whack North West.





We are test trialing this new wind efficient fender ... makes the KLR look good 





Barkbusters, what else is there to say as they took an epic beating, her hands, levers etc are all intact ..... GET THEM!!!



Tramping boot tin took a slight tar seal applied cosmetic enhancement as did our video camera mount



Hmmmm, straightened it as far as I could to ride it here



Hard case photo, the top of her top box took off leaving only the front section  



The captain and her stricken ship



At this point we will stay for a few days, we are in a quiet and secure place so perfect for rehab fo Ellen. We are lucky enough to have have great Wifi which is outstanding in a time of need to get things reorganised.

To finish it off we have a beach two minutes walk (ten for Ellen) so she can swim and do weightless exercise to get her body moving, she is still very saw deep inside the chest/back area, probably bruising to ribs as she was winded on impact.

So that is where we are at right now, Plan A get Ellen sorted, Plan B reorganise the wheels.

Again thanks to all for the support.

Love Andi & Ellen

Two Moto Kiwis- Trip On Hold

Yesterday Sunday November the 25th Ellen had a huge off on the open road.

I report that she is ok after and ambulance ride, hospital visit and Xrays etc.

She has suffered severe bruising and contusions to leg ankle, right bum cheek and down her back and around her neck, today she can hardly walk, all X rays came out ok.

We are going to lay low for the next few days and formulate a plan B, needless to say this is very much a trip changing event.

Couple of pics from yesterday.

Love to all.

Durango - 9th Most Dangerous City In The World

I think the article might have been from an American reporter.

Back to the trip.....

Dr650 ... left outside in the cold 



Breaky was some local burrito style of thing, we had run out of muesli and heading to the main centre we though we would eat out.



On leaving from Tepehuanes it was a nice ride through mounts with rock bluffs and interesting scenery. Exiting the hilly part we hit 20000 miles (32000km) on the speedo since leaving from Alaska.



A place of worship on a HUGE rock



Some spiral shaped building, quite cool really.



Straights greeted us for the rest of the ride into Durango so pretty uneventful except one driver who tried to bulldoze us off the road, the lady was yelling out in Spanish at us, we were only doing 90km/hr in a 40km/hr zone so we were obviously holding them up.

I reciprocated with the finger for their good effort, they continued to weave in and out of the traffic ahead without making much progress, thus far they are the only nasty Mexicans we have met. 

Arriving in Durango one of the ten most dangerous cities in the world (9th) we found our accommodation with a small round the block trip with streets not quite being where they were supposed to, we had to stop and ask directions from some locals and after arm waiving and directions in Spanish we were on our way eventually getting to where we were meant to be.

The previous night we had looked on Google Maps and Google Street View which was a great help as we then knew what we where looking for.



Ulises and William were running late so had a gutter lunch with a bunch of local boys who were fascinated by our bikes, with big smiles they all had turns at sitting on the bikes which was well cool.





They even had a geography lesson on our RTW sticker



Ulises the owner and William a couchsurfer from the UK greeted us, we tried to fit the bikes into Ulises courtyard for safe keeping but the luggage despite being not very wide managed to not fit in by 10 mm, rather then remove the luggage a neighbour from down the street kindly offered her courtyard with plenty of room, we duly accepted this offer.

It was decided that we would head into town for the later afternoon to the centro on the bus, that way we didn’t have to carry our riding gear which made it easier and didn’t have to ride in the traffic.

There was a cafe strip which we noted, Ulises took us for a walking tour of beautiful buildings, churches, shops and stalls, at one of the stalls we bought a bottle of liqueur that was nectarine based flavoured and very sweet bordering on a sticky dessert wine so a real treat.

Some shots of Durango centro











Our impromptu tour took us underground to a mining museum under the city centre, this was very well done, from there we headed to the cable car for a night view of Durango only to find it was out of order....bit of a bumma.









Heavily finished detail on some of the buildings



Rubbish and recycling



It was decided that Tea time was the next plan as it was about 8.00pm, on the way up to the cable car we spotted a burger cart with wood smoke pouring out of the roof and the beautiful smells of cooking meat torturing our hunger sensors so there really was no choice.



On collecting our burgers we walked back into the town square sat down and had a feast we were supposed to have chilly corn on the cob however our monster burgers filled us all up.



The town was lit up beautifully with the lighting looking very cool.







Returning home we cracked open the Liqueur and had a few rounds, Ulises decided not have too many as he had an exam the next morning, actually it turned out to be the next next morning so he dipped out a bit there.

With our day to be had in Durango Ellen and I headed back in centro for more of a look and to go back to the coffee shop we had spotted.

I had a cappuccino which was the best I’ve had since leaving New Zealand, Ellens Americano was the same so pretty cool to have such a treat here in Mexico.



I had a gut cramp and thought it was the coffee assisting things but it turned out to be more than that, thankfully Mc Donalds was only 50 metres away and after two brisk visits there I decided the best looking shop to me was the Farmacia (Pharmacy) to by some stop cramp and bum binder.... perfecto!!!

Ellen got an Icecream and I got some pills..... not fair.  

Heading toward home we stopped in the supermarkedo for supplies for the next day on the road to Mazhatlan, the next mission was finding our way back home, we picked a bus and asked the driver and he gave us the thumbs up.

Somewhere in the middle the translation was lost and he stopped outside and Ambulance station, I showed him our piece of paper with the name of where we wanted to go so he carried on, the lady behind him asked if she could have a look too, she discussed it with her mate and the guys behind and beside her so soon the whole bus was in on it.



The bus driver stopped and pointed down a street and everyone else on the bus concurred that we were in the correct place .... not bad for a bunch of dangerous people as it turned out they were all right so we found home base pretty easy.

Ellen did her ride report and we took some more pics.



The alley in Ulises house.



The view from th top



Last but not least Ulises doggy!



When Ulli and William came home we all headed out for tea trying local food combinations, again the food was superb and very cheap costing around $10 New Zealand Dollars to feed three blokes and a chic. 

Not once did we feel threatened or have any dodgy dealings, I guess you can always find trouble if you want it but here in the centro there are woman and children out walking so I guess that says something.

All in all Durango gets the big tick yet again from the people who make the place, thank you to Ulises for hosting us and William for being the translator.