Turtles and bikers

Posted on September 20, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

I’m in Panama, preparing to cross the Darien Gap into South America. This involves getting a Brazilian visa, doing some work on the bike and sorting out a few details that have been left undone on the road. I expect to set sail, with the bike, on the 27th, spend about 5 days on the boat, and then land in Colombia from where I restart my ride.

The last few weeks have been pretty relaxing, but I’m itching to get going and ride a little harder again. I spent a few days on the beach in Costa Rica, watching the greenback turtles come in and lay their eggs. A pretty amazing sight. Then we rode into Panama and met up with 250 bikers from across the region for a few days of biker glory. Photos of both below.

One of the greenback turtles struggling her way up the beach in Costa Rica.

The vultures were eating the turtle eggs...as were the locals, and their dogs. And me.

Roadside waterfall in Costa Rica.

The crazy crowd of bikers camping out in David.

Biker bandito.

A whole lot of bikes. 250, I was told.

Costa Rica

Posted on September 10, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

A quick update from Costa Rica…

We crossed the border from Nicaragua on Thursday, hoping to find a beach with Greenback Turtles arriving to lay their eggs. We drove down the coast, on the Nicoya Peninusula. We were told we’d find them at Playa de Ostional…however, the person didn’t tell us that it was down a 40km dirt track, nor that it would get dark and start raining cats and dogs before we got there. It was an exciting ride, off road riding in the rain in the dark with a heavily loaded bike, but all turned out well. And the next morning we got to see our turtles. Pretty amazing stuff. Spent several hours watching them come up the beach, dig their holes, lay eggs, and then crawl back into the sea. Lots of vultures, dogs and humans digging the eggs up to eat them…all part of nature I guess. I joined in when one of the Costa Rican Nico natives offered me a freshly laid egg, right there on the beach. They have permits to dig them. So I had to eat it…tasted like egg. Later, back at the guesthouse, the owner was cooking up eggs in his special broth, so I got to try cooked turtle eggs as well.

Yesterday I rode about 300km, nearly crossing the entire country. Thanks to the bikers I met at the petrol station on the Pan-American, it was fun to meet some local bikers, and get some local riding advice.

I’m now staying with the Mennonites in the San Carlos area of Costa Rica (thanks to those who sent me names, tips). I’m staying with the Clarence Dueck’s, and have already met their family here. It’s an interesting place, as it’s one of the rare cases when Swiss and Russian Mennonites have combined to create a community. The Russian Mennonites came here from Spanish Lookout about 35 years ago and got together with the Beachey Amish. It’s not an official colony, but there is a fairly large (15-20 families) community of Mennonites.

I’ll be here for a few days, and then off to Panama, where we’re hoping to join a weekend biker party. I’ll be spending at least a week in Panama to get visas, work on the bike, etc.

Leon, Nicaragua

Posted on September 4, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

Volcano Violence

Posted on September 4, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

Vic and I went tobogganing in Leon, Nicaragua. Basically, you hike up an active volcano, put on an orange boiler suit, sit down on a makeshift toboggan, and let her rip. I hit 62km/h, the fastest in our group by 20km/h but still 25km/h short of the record. Then I wiped out…and it hurt. And the board broke in two. But it was fun, and well worth it.

Central American Blur

Posted on September 1, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

I’m tired, so a bit short on words. Arrived in Leon, Nicaragua today, after blowing through El Salvador and Honduras in three days of rain, border delays, coffin shops （no, not coffee） mountain roads, hail storms and hotels chosen out of exhaustion and need rather than preference. We slept beside the Pacific, and that means I’ve crossed the continent, sort of, which was a cool realization. Central American borders are nuts and the relentlessly ” helpful” “border agents” drove me to words not suitable for children. Saw a dead body on the road in Honduras, but it was no one I knew. Got pulled over by cops for passing on the shoulder, but my dumb white-guy routine worked. Smell of boots and riding gear suggests there may be a dead rat hidden in them, will inspect. But all is well, we’re making miles, having fun. Plan to spend some time here and in Granada. I want to climb a volcanoe with real lava, so I will, on Sunday. Ate an awesome hamburger for dinner today, and that was all I needed. For now.

Here are a few pix, I’ll write more in a day or so.

Leon Lady

Leon Lady #2

Leon Lady #3

My plan for saving on hotel costs isn’t working out well…

lLeon

More Leon Ladies

Smoking volcanoes all around…this is just after crossing the border into Nicaragua

First glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, El Salvador

Breakfast stop in Honduras, just before crossing the border into Nicaragua

Bike is still upgright…

EEl Hato, Guatemala

Guatemala

Posted on August 27, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

We’ve been in Guatemala for about three days..maybe four. It’s like that on the road. Feels like we’ve been here three weeks. We started by exploring Tikal, the ruins of a 2000+year old Mayan city right on the border with Belize. Stunning stuff, and even better that we got to camp, right in the midst of dozens of coatis, sort of like a pointy nosed monkey. For once I was not the only one scratching myself in public.

From there we rode up into the mountains and to Semuc Champey, an area with limestone caves and waterfalls. The ride down was epic, a rough rocky mountain road so steep that when we stopped I had to use both front and back brake to keep from sliding downhill. By the time we reached our camping spot the sweat was literally dripping out of my jacket sleeves. We stumbled down the dark jungle path and found the falls and pools to be just the cooling solution we needed. However, the next day’s ride out of the site was…a disaster. Both of our bikes have electrical problems, meaning that if we stalled riding up that hellish road we had to turn the loaded bikes around and push start them downhill…not easy. So not easy that I got pretty bad heat exhaustion, and long story short we gave up and hauled the bikes out on a truck. Lesson: riding a bike on a mountain path while dizzy and having tunnel vision is not a good idea.

We then met up with Richard and Suzanne (picture by Victoria below), fellow riders Victoria met online. The riding community is pretty awesome…they met up with us, we had lunch, and they drove us to the fabulous Earth Lodge overlooking the colonial town of Antigua.

I thought I’d take a few week break from the Menno part of Menno Moto…but when we arrived at the lodge we were served Mennonite farmer sausage for lunch. Turns out there are a few Swiss Mennonite villages nearby…so I’ll go see if I can find more cousins, though it’s unlikely given it sounds like they are all of Swiss origin.

Victoria shows the road who is boss

Semuc Champey waterfalls

Camping in Tikal. Works well when you have a cheap tent.

Tikal Mayan ruins.

Semuc Champey waterfalls

Tikal

Semuc Champey waterfalls

Richard and Suzanne

We are taking a writing day, and this is the view from our desks (photo by Victoria)

Bye bye Belize

Posted on August 22, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

It’s time to cross another border…Belize to Guatemala. It’s raining out…touring the Mayan ruins of Tikal, in the middle of the jungle, will be very …. wet.

Belize is an interesting, odd little place. I spent the last few days in Blue Creek, with Ed Reimers, who did a splendid job of hosting me. I didn’t see much of Belize’s tourist features, but I’m in full sightseeing mode for the next few weeks, and countries. Vic has patiently been waiting in Belize for nearly 3 weeks…I think we’re done here.

And I have a camera lens once again, so expect more snaps.

Belize

Posted on August 14, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

I arrived in Belize on Sat afternoon and went straight to Caprice and Joe’s home. They’re friends of my sister Connie’s, and moved from Vancouver late last year to homestead in N Belize, near the border. They,re carving a very nice little farm out for themselves…they’re almost as good at homesteading as the Mennos. Totally off-grid living, and doing most of the set-up work themselves. My contribution was to hold down a chair on the front porch all weekend, just in case the wind might blow it away. I spent the weekend with them, did some maintenance on my bike and finally arranged to have one of my other lenses shipped out from HK.

I set off this morning and drove to Spanish Lookout, near the Guatemala border. Stunning town, huge visual difference from the rest of the area. And now my food has just arrived at the Golden Corral…so time to eat. They were out of perogies, sadly. After lunch it’s time to go looking for relatives, and a place to sleep tonite.

Yucatan Mayan ruins

Posted on August 10, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

I’ve spent the last few days visiting a few of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan. Namely Sayil, Xlapak, Labna, Kabah and Uxmal. Pretty impressive stuff considering they built it all without using the wheel or beasts of burden. Good work ethic…like the Mennonites who are now farming all around these ruins. Oh…but didn’t the Mayan culture get destroyed by drought and internal fighting? Hmm…

This isn’t Mayan…it’s the Catholic church in Hopelchen

Hopelchen Old Colony Mennos

Posted on August 10, 2012 by CAMERONDUECK

I spent a few interesting days with the Sommerfeld and Old Colony Mennonites that live in the colonies around Hopelchen. They were friendly, if a bit shy and guarded. It’s a relatively new area for the Mennonites, the first colonies were started about 28 years ago, and there are still new colonies being started today. They are not nearly as rich as the Mennonites in the north, and in general are far more conservative. The Mennonites here don’t have as many confrontations with the Mexicans as is the case in the north, but there’s still some tension caused by the rather destructive and land-depleting farming practices of the Mennonites, as well as their racism and ignorance.

There’s a very clear racism towards the Mexicans (both Spanish and Mayan) from the Mennonite side. I was told that the two can’t mix because they eat different food, they worship in different churches, and, if that’s not gonna stop you, Mennonite men with Mexican wives have reported that they even smell different.

The Mennonites here would say faith and culture hold the community together. I’d say ignorance plays a pretty big role as well. These communities actively promote ignorance as a virtuous trait, and are afraid that if their children receive more the 6-7 years of education that they now receive that they’ll run away from the colony. I ran into a lot of people who had no knowledge of basic natural science, such as how ocean tides work, why there are clouds in the sky, etc. They are deeply ignorant of anything beyond their tiny world. The Beachy Amish have come to proselytize the Old Colony (as have other more evangelical Mennonites as well as the Jehovah Witnesses) but even they warned me that education beyond Grade 12 could put the soul in danger. I think this ignorance plays a pretty big role in the tension between the Mennonites and the much better educated Mexicans.

Cameron Dueck

– Writer –

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Turtles and bikers

Costa Rica

Leon, Nicaragua

Volcano Violence

Central American Blur

Guatemala

Bye bye Belize

Belize

Yucatan Mayan ruins

Hopelchen Old Colony Mennos