November 10 - 17, 2002: Out of School With an Excuse! - Antigua

Odometer: 14,395

School is just like I remember it. Wake up early, walk many blocks, sit on a hard chair and rack my brains. The nice thing about the schooling I participated in Antigua Guatemala was that I learned a valuable skill. Well, ok, most schooling is about values but I need to understand and speak spanish...now!

School days have been punctuated with touring the streets and outlying areas of old Guatemala. Hugh and I got a good taste of the third world markets. In summation there was a lot of pitching for all the junk nobody needs and a lot of good deals on everyday things everybody needs. A bazaar in the true sense of the word. We decided to stop over in Antigua for a single week to both take a break from the road and to learn some spanish. All along we figured to check out some of the close by attractions. When we arrived in Antigua we found a hotel for a couple of nights and met our prospective families for the week. On my first day at my new home for a week I took time for some very much needed maintenance to my motorcycle.

Later that week I decided to go for a ride out of Antigua to both test out the work (valve adjust and other routine stuff) so I rode into school. I took the road out of the city we rode in on and was very pleased with the way the bike was running. All the way from mid-Mexico to Guatemala my bike had been running very rough as it needed a single exhaust valve adjustment. However, within a couple miles up the mountains outside of town it died!

I had no idea what was going on but it felt like the engine was suffering from fuel starvation. I pressed the starter button numerous times but nothing happened. So, here I am alone on the main highway out of Antigua with cars, trucks and chicken buses just whizzing by and I'm thinking, "great, I'm fucked". I had no idea what was going on but my second suspicion was an aftermarket item I had installed to give my electrical system more wattage to run some electrically heated clothing I use.

After a cigarette and checking that the sparkplug cap was correctly seated I tried the starter again and, voila! it started! So I got back on and rode some more but I could feel that there was a still a problem, like what's wrong with this Guate Gasoline man! Dead. It died again about 200 yards from the nearest pueblo.

Now I'm convinced I have an electrical problem so I decided to replace the sparkplug I just recently replaced as it was rather smudged with some of the graphite anti-seize paste I use with my plugs. New plug in and voila! Again the bike started and I strapped all my tools and plastic bits down and rode towards the pueblo knowing that if I could get through it I could get to the highway back into Antigua, get the bike home and figure out just what the hell is going on.

Unfortunately, the bike died again and this time for good. Now it's time to push. The road that connects the two one-way highways through the pueblo was a steep downhill and then uphill. Thanks to Newtonian physics I got about halfway up the other side of the hill but those same physics worked against my old cuerpo. After exhausting it I finally got to the other side and coasted all the way back into old Guate, but I did have to push the next 1.2miles home over cobbled stones. PITA!

So, here I was (am) in a third world world and I don't have the first clue who to call. To their credit, I got a lot of excellent feedback from friends of mine on the internet and good clues as to the possible problem. My family host mother suggested the best 'taller' (mechanic) in Antigua but as you might imagine, I was skeptical. So I spent a good day just checking every possible and idiot thing you can for electrical problems finding nothing out of place. So I finally agreed to meet my new taller friend, Edgar.

Edgar came over to the house and pretty much did everything I did and decided that the computer (CDI) was the culprit so, he took it away to a local electrician (I soon found out was as fitting as could be expected) who informed that the CDI was A-OK. So. So, I pushed the bitch another .5 miles to the Taller and we began to tear into the electrical backbone of it. We only got so far.

For the next week, aside from the spanish education I got an education in electricity and dodging the crazy drivers in Guatemala city central. In all I travelled three times into Guate on Hughs bike (thanks again Hugh) to finally narrow the problem down to.......That f-ing aftermarket junk I put on the bike so many months ago!

$440 dollars for a 2002 model stator (butchered from a bike available at the Guate parts palace) and a new Regulator rectifier and, voila! My bike is running again!

All of this experience took over a week with many depressing thoughts of having to quit and go home. But as far as breaking down goes, Antigua is the place to do it (would've been nice if there was a Kawa-Repuestos in town though). I was very impressed by Edgars willingness to help and how he pretty much stuck with me for an entire day trying to figure out the problem. For his efforts, he only wanted Q150, or $13.75! I gave him Q300 and I think he was happy for it.

Also, in Guate, the tallers and parts people were great! The parts cost too much in my opinion, but the fact of the matter is that Julio Munoz and his people found a way to discount the original costs (around $600) AND they tested them on a working motorcycle at no charge before selling them to me. Pretty cool if you ask me.

A big thanks to Hugh Caldwell too as he gave up his motorcycle for three full days to let me shuttle back and forth to Guate for testing and parts.

Hugh didn't even know until Friday morning that my bike was fixed. When he stopped by the house he and I were both elated and decided to spend the weekend on the dark sands of the beaches in Monte Rico.

Monte Rico has been described by natives as GringoLandia with some good justification. It is an awsome beach situated only 30 miles from El Salvador. The only way (or quickest) into town(?) is by ferry boat. Ha! I know what you are thinking. Park the car/bike and stroll around, maybe get a coke and watch the gulls. No. The ferry is a single track barge that is capable of carrying two cars and as many motorcycles as possible. And there are no gulls or cokes. The waterway is a protected marshland. Pretty, jungle. Problem is, there aren't that many motos using barges to go to beaches in this area. Can you say, "Freakshow"? I was sure I would be dredging my bike out of the water at any moment.

But we made it! And we made it back. Monday we leave for Honduras.

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