Cal & Al Mission on motorbikes... a journey from Jasper Canada to Costa Rica

How did we get to South America?

2009-01-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

Along the journey south, many people asked us, " How will you get across the Darien Gap?" Can you ride your bike? - NO!!!
Crossing the Darien Gap would be a death wish, or the craziest adventure you could ask for.
A Gap between the North & South Panamerican Hwy - a 57-mile (92 km) stretch of some of rugged, mountainous jungle terrain, guerrillas, drug smugglers, poachers, and jaguars rule this vast no-mand's land.

But it's been done!!! ...

The first motorcycle crossing was by Robert L. Webb in March 1975. Another four wheel drive crossing was in 1978-1979 by Mark A Smith and his team. Smith and his team drove the 400 km (250 mile) stretch of the gap in 30 days using five stock Jeep CJ-7s. They travelled many miles up the Atrato River via barges. Mark Smith has released his book Driven by a Dream, which documents the crossing.
The first all-land auto crossing was in 1985-1987 by Loren Upton in a CJ-5 Jeep, 741 days to travel 125 miles (201 km) all on land. This crossing is documented in the 1992 Guinness Book of Records. In addition Upton returned in 1995 and became the first to drive a motorcycle, a two-wheel drive Rokon motorcycle, all on land through the Darien Gap, 49 days.

We spend 2 days researching our best options to cross into Colombia. Choice # 1 was to ride to Colon and find out if a boat was going threw the San Blas Islands and eventually to Turbo Colombia or Cartagena. After calling a the *www.hostelwunderbar.com*
to find out if we could get on any boats. They told us that NO boats where going at this time cause of rough ocean in Jan and Feb.
Most captains take these 2 months off holiday. The chances of getting stuck on some islands were high or loosing our bikes and ourselves at sea wasn't inviting.
It was by far the cheapest way to get into Colombia, but not the safest so we started to research and call the *Cargo Flight* option... A way out of the budget way to go, but much faster and safer.

It was disappointing to miss the chance to sail the Caribbean sea and visit with the Kuna Indians in the San Blas - ( one of the last unknown and unspoilt paradises of this world. It consists of hundreds of small tropical islands which are only inhabited by the Kuna people, the local indigenous group - crystal clear waters & untouched beaches)

We called Girag, a shipping company which many bikers use to send their bikes to Colombia by plane. Fast, efficient, safe but also came with a high price of $900 for each bikes! ( cash!)- Angela found tickets for us with Aires.aero for $250 a total of $1150.
It was either bite the bullet or risk our bikes, lives and what could be the end of the trip on some deserted island eating coconuts for the rest of our lives.
So we pulled out the good old visa card and booked our tickets. We now needed to run to a bank machine and get out $1800 for the bike payment. Sometimes the machines don't give you that much. We needed to make 4 transactions of $500 each. Paranoid that someone could be watching us withdraw all this money (in a bad neighborhood of the city) we started walking at full speed back to our Hostel so we could safely put our money away.
Now relieved that we no longer needed to ride to Colon or spend hours finding a way to get to Colombia. I made a killer sheperd's Pie, filled our stomach, watched a movie and called it a night.
Tomorrow will be a long day since we need to ride to the airport without getting lost! - get our bikes to Girag cargo terminal by 9am and catch our flight at 11:30am.

Panama City...

2009-01-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

"What is Panama City like?" - That was one question I asked myself before even leaving Canada. The end of the road before going to South America. The major city of Cargo ships passing threw the Panama Canal.

As we were riding closer to Panama City, we were just anxious to see what it was all about. We knew that the closer we would get to it, the more traffic would become intense. Someone had told us to take "the new bridge" - *Puente Centenario*
So we did. As we rode over the bridge, we got our first view of the famous Panama Canal. Our first stop was to see the Miraflores locks. One of the most impressive locks of the 80 kms long canal and the most visited place in Panama!!

The lock gates at Miraflores are the tallest of the three (the others being Gatun and Pedro Miguel), which is due to the extreme tidal variation that takes place in the Pacific Ocean; the tidal variation on the Atlantic coast is by far less. Miraflores Locks are slightly over one mile long, from beginning to end. It is one of the largest and difficult engineering projects ever undertaken.

Tolls for the canal are decided by the Panama Canal Authority and are based on vessel type, size, and the type of cargo carried.
The most expensive regular toll for canal passage to date was charged on May 16, 2008 to the 964-foot (295 m) Disney Magic cruise liner, which paid just over US$331,200!!! The average toll is around US$54,000.

The site wasn't as impressive as we expected, we saw a few big ships at the entrance and end of the canal. We didn't visit the tourist information viewpoint. Leaving our bikes without view was out of the question, also a line up at the door and a out of the budget cost. We watched a couple ships getting ready to cross the gates while we were also trying to make our mind if we would ride to Colon - 70 kms or to Panama city only 12kms away.

We had heard many stories about Colon, being a nasty, filthy slum city. A place where getting robbed or mugged was high risk! Especially on motorbikes! The reason to *MAYBE go there was to find out about our voyage to Colombia. Potentially by cargo boat to Cartagena, Colombia via the San Blas Island in the Caribbean sea.

After seeing enough of the Canal, we decided to head for the closer and safer option... ride to Panama city.

With a population of just over 1 million people. It sure was a test in our ability of driving in crazy traffic - especially for Angela... she's only been riding her bike for several days!! and got her license 2 months ago!!! ( But she did awesome!!! - a fast learning experience I must say!)
It didn't take us long before we got lost. With only a couple of names of different hostels we found on the internet. We asked around to try to find them, but we still managed to get lost.
The city as few traffic lights, one way streets, too many cars and insane bus drivers.

We finally found one hostel that was recommended to us. While I stayed with the bikes at the gas station, Angela walked to the hostel with a military officer to see if we could get a room. She was then told that ALL hostels that they new were FULL!!! - great! just what we needed to know.
So we decided to make our way to Colon after all, but it didn't take long as we tried to get out of the city....we got lost again. Finally got out of the city to Miraflores (we knew that spot well) asked around if there was any hotels not far (to avoid going back to the city) the few that we checked out at 150$ a night!! was way out of budget!

Exhausted from the traffic and frustration of getting lost several times. We went for some food so we come up with a better plan.
"Lets go back in there", I said. Now we know how to get to the same spot downtown, lets find a hotel in downtown.
It was getting late, so Colon was out of the question.
Back in the nightmare downtown. Now pouring rain!!! we were tired, desperate to find a place.
I pulled in one of the first hotels we drove by. Soaked & tired, I asked the lady at the front desk for a room. She looked at me thinking this poor guy... I even had the guts to ask " any good price cause of the rain???"
she laughed, "Si Senior" The normal price is $140, but for you... $77.
Deal!! -* You don't get if you don't ask!!! *
We unpacked the bikes. Enjoyed the luxury of a warm shower, clean room with AC, cable TV, internet, a couple free drinks on the house.
Our miserable experience in the city was only past. We sat in front of the TV and just happy to not on the road to Colon!

A "fishy" camp spot

2009-01-17T05:48:00.000-08:00

We left Santiago around 7pm after taking care of some emails, buying a few groceries and researching for a good camping spot for the night. We normally avoid riding at night, but we had been on the roads in Costa Rica and Panama at night and it felt safer since there is less traffic with trucks.
On our map, we saw that the Panamericana had a section close to the Pacific coast only an hour drive south of Santiago. So instead of spending money for a place to stay in the city, we hit the road for a beach to camp.

One hundred or less KMS north of Panama city, we took a right turn down a dirt road to the beach. Passing threw massive hotels, we found a small access road leading us to the beach. " Perfect!" we found a spot - sorry to have disturbed some lovers making out on some fishing boat, they left us and we pitched our tent.

Angela told me when we arrived that the fishermans might come early to get their boats... I looked at the boats and said, " it doesn't look like those boats have moved in a long time!"

At around 3 AM, I hear Angela " wake up - Al ...wake up!!!" then I hear some guys outside our tent asking us to move our bikes.
All confused, I get out of the tent in my boxer shorts. " The fisherman want us to move the bikes" She was right, they did come to get their boats.
So there I am trying to move our bikes in my boxers in deep sand with 4 other guys. One of them screaming orders to the other fishermans, " Allez, Allez" Moving around at fast paste like if they were on a fishing race and there I am moving half asleep. Pushing their huge *Barco* to the ocean, finally they were off and we again had peace to sleep.

Our peaceful sleep wasn't long. At 5 am this time. The entire village was outside our tent waiting for the fisherman to come back and start selling their catch for the markets.
We got out of our tent. Needing to take our morning *PI* we didn't really have anywhere to go. Everyone watching us like they never seen a tent. Or 2 blond heads with motorbikes! We sat and watched the craziness of people screaming and running around with crates of fresh fish.
An hour later, everyone was gone. Angela could finally take her *pi* Packed our bags and hit the road to Panama City....

Keeping in touch with friends and family

2009-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

Computers are a wonderful tool to have while being on the road. With the new technology, being able to call our friends and
family or sending away photos to magazines, writing stories. We couldn't be without them.

Many people ask me " how do you keep all this gear from getting thrashed?" - simple.... do your best. But it doesn't always work.
As a photographer, I carry one camera body, and 3 lens, one laptop and one external hard drive.

Sometimes, they are not always so nice to have... especially on a motorbike! My macbook pro is now dead, one thing - computers
don't like humidity. Traveling along the coast for a long period of time, salt and humidity accumulated on the motherboard and killed my working tool. But over time, you learn to pack them well.

During the last year on the road, I lost....
1 lens (fell off a 150 foot ice wall while shooting Ice Climbing)
2 external hard drives, ( don't drop them!!!)
1 Nikon D200 camera ( don't like swimming pools!! - don't ask!)
1 macbook pro ( don't like humidity)

We now have a box on the back of Angela's bike where we keep our laptop and lens. Totally waterproof, packed well for vibration and we can lock the box.
So far it's the best way to keep it alive... keep our fingers X.

All the rest of our gear is in dry bags. It's the best, light & completely waterproof.

Panama... here we come!

2009-01-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

After several cups of coffee in Dominical, I wanted to catch a few waves, but the over crowed beach and high price of $25 for renting a surfboard wasn't in our budget. So we hit the road to Panama... 150 kms to the border.
It was a smooth quick crossing since we were rinding on Angela's bike with Panama plates. - ( long story short... back in November, we rode my bike to Panama to get my visa stamp and buy Angela's bike that we found on the internet, it was less paperwork to buy in Panama then Costa Rica, we had to leave my bike in Panama since my permit was expired and we also left most of our gear so we could travel both on her bike back to Costa Rica.)
We arrived in David in mid day, not too sure if we would push the next 180 kms stretch to Santiago - ( where we had left my bike) We decided to ride up to Boquete, a touristy village 39 kms east of David in the mountains. As we pulled into town, we looked at each other - black clouds were rolling over our heads - last thing we wanted was to ride in heavy rain... we had already seen in November what rain can be like in Panama, so we headed back down the hill to David and pushed on to Santiago where we could camp for free ( Thanks to Scott & Ariadne, Angela's previous bike owners.) I was also anxious to get back in the saddle of my DR and let Angela ride her bike with the freedom being alone in the saddle.
It felt good to sleep in our Yellow condo ( our tent) once again. The next morning, we headed back to the Pacific coast in search of more surf.
115 kms of country windy roads took us to a dead end in Santa Catalina. We found our base camp at *Surfer's Paradise*. A hostel with an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. We set up our condo with a million dollar view, relaxed from the last 500 + kms push from San Jose. This was the perfect spot.
We met Brad & Kelly who were traveling in their VW van with their 2 guard dogs from Mexico. We exchanged some travel stories over a few beers and made plans to meet the next morning. Brad had an extra surfboard I could use, so I didn't pass the opportunity to catch a few last waves before making our way to the Big Panama City.
Thanks to Brad, I had a couple hours of awesome surfing.

Lost in San Jose...

2009-01-11T16:17:00.000-08:00

We left San Jose thinking it would be easy to get on the Panamericana to Dominical ( a surf beach on the Pacific). It didn't take long before we got lost!
The road signs around San Jose are horrible and most roads have NO signs. After a few detours in traffic jams and frustration, we finally found our way out of the city on the Panamericana HWY 1.
San Jose isn't a very warm city since its elevation is over 1600 meters. It's a bit of a shock when your coming from the ocean, from shorts and flip flops to wearing jeans and long sleeve. We knew we had to wear warm clothes while riding but didn't know we would freeze our ass at * Cerro de la Muerte * - a 3400m mountain pass. Riding threw the misty high mountain hwy we needed to stop and put on our gore- tex. We were just happy that rain didn't come down since we were already frozen to the bones.
Finally the road took us down to lower elevation, we were once again boiling in the sun. 30 more kms of tropical winding roads we arrived in Dominical. - 6 hours later and only 250kms!
The celebration of the new year was still happening as the beach was completely packed. We sat and watched our last sunset in Costa Rica.
Tomorrow we would hit the road to Panama, our last destination before we try to figure out our way to South America.

A whole new Year coming up!

2009-01-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

We just got back from spending a wonderful Christmas in Fort Lauderdale with my mom and Jean- Luc.
It was a very special for us to be back in Florida together since Angela and I met there in feb last year. Also I haven't spent
Christmas Holidays with my mom in over 15 years!!! Living in a tourist town like Whistler has always been hard for
me to go home to my family for the holidays. But this time, Costa Rica was only a 2 hour flight away.

Now back in San Jose, we are ready to hit the road into a New Year on the journey. We will be making our way to the
Caribbean Coast into Panama. Our next challenge will be finding the cheapest and safest way to Colombia via the
San Blast Islands.

We hope you all had a wonderful New Year as we did and wish you all a wonderful new year with lots of love, smiles and sunshine.

A&A

Merry Xmas

2008-12-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone...
Thank you for all the wonderful support and comments we´ve had on our blog in last year.
Angela and I have finally left the paridise of Santa Teresa. Thank you once again to Tomas & kristina for making us feel at home.
We will be in Fort Lauderdale Florida visiting my mom for the Holidays. Coming back to San Jose on New Years day. The plan is to hit then road on the 1st of 2009 to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica into Panama. We look forward to a new year with many new adventures into the unknown.

We will soon have new photos and stories... stay tuned!
Merry Xmas and best of 2009 to All!!

Tomas Bellander & Jorgen Kard playing in their Kayaks, Santa Teresa

2008-12-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

Not only surfers are catching waves these days...

small waves but lots of sunshine

2008-12-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

Angela enjoys the beach while Tomas and I play in the waves.

Surf school

2008-12-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

I have now been in Santa Teresa for 3 months! Time goes by when you're having fun.
Calixte has gone home and my girlfriend Angela from Chile has join me for the South America's
journey.
Learning to surf was my main focus here... day after day of pounding waves on my head, getting scared,
drinking salt water, it all paid off at the end. After 2 months of hard work... I finally started to catch real waves...
no more white wash. Surfing has to be one of the hardest sports to learn... if not * The hardest!*
Like everything, you want to get better.... put in your time!
Thanks to Tomas Richie, I have learn from the best...

Here I am, on a sunset wave.

Focus

2008-10-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

NAMASTE

Another day in Paradise.....

2008-10-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

Life these days consists of... 5 am wake up call from Tomas - Surfing - Yoga - Eat - Sleep -

My alarm doesn't even get to go off before Tomas shows up to my shack. *WAKE UP!!!* Time for a power shake- the sound of the blender doesn't give me time for a secound snooze ... Surf looks good!
Lets go!...
I'm half asleep - trying to wake up while Tomas is playing a few notes on his *Bong* The day has started.
The question of the day.... * which board to use???* I'm living in Tom's board room - The Office -
a dozen of different boards fill's up the celling.
For me it's easy... one board is all I need, anything to keep me floating!! - my lifesaver.

Surf'n the morning while the ocean is shinning with the early sunlight rays. Few hours of trashing, washing machine rides,
water filling up my brain until it's time to come out...
have some food, nap in the hammock, check the waves, little yoga, more food, then off for the sunset washing machine ride....
ahhhhh
Life is Costa Rica,
Ya it's bed time again, and look forward to that alarm clock!

Santa Teresa ...

2008-09-24T12:41:00.001-07:00

Santa Teresa Costa Rica

2008-09-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a few weeks now in Costa Rica.
We spent a week in Tamarindo, Cal had to get some teeth worked on - cheap good dentisto!!
Bikes got new back wheel bearings, oil change - We have now traveled over 20 000 kms since Jasper Alberta.
Costa Rica was one of the mystery places I wanted to see. It's like they say, bad roads, green lush rain forest,
Perfect surf, beautiful beaches, friendly atmosphere, a good place to chill while the rainy season goes by. Usually the most rain comes in October. So the idea is to get as much surf in while relaxing under the palm trees.
Prepare for Panama then then to South America!!!

Calixte went home. It was time for him to visit his family. A long year went by, Long enough that days - time - dates - don't even matter anymore, it's just another beautiful day.
We drove from the Rocky Mountains in Canada, threw the beautiful valleys of Montana, Crazy red landscape of Utah, riding in snow storms to go Ice climbing in Colorado, Rock climbing in the desert of Utah, 2 months of rock climbing in Mexico, Summit on the highest peak of Mexico *Pico de Orizaba*
Going back in time with the Ruins of the Yucatan, threw Belize - More green lush dirts roads and amazing culture of Guatemala
to Surfing in El Salvador, crazy headache border crossings in Honduras - Muddy roads of Nicaragua - and Now, back to surfing in Costa Rica... yes, already a year went by! - NO flat tires - No bike problems!!! (keep fingers X !!!)

Unfortunately the Cal & Al mission will be no longer the Cal & Al....
Calixte is staying home in New Brunswick Canada, different plans for the future. His budget was running low so it is time for him to get back to work.
A year was enough for him. But it has been a good year! Many new friends, experience - memories.

I will be staying in Santa Teresa until end of November - the bikes have until dec to leave the country. A friend of mine from Chile
will be taking over the saddle and joining me to Tierra Del Fuego Chile.

The Blog will not change, ... new images and stories will be posted as we go.
So stay tuned for more adventures...

COSTA RICA!!!

2008-09-07T09:34:00.001-07:00

Two little boys see us from miles away, running down the dusty road along with millions of truckers.
"COSTA RICA????" one says to me, "you want to go to Costa Rica??" The boyz were ready for business.
Every time we cross borders, it's business, Little Antonio was going to be our paper boy.
Photocopies, more photocopies, $20 here, $20 there.... more copies more money... hours go by and you wonder when you will
actually cross and get it over with.
Running in one office, then to another office, It's always an adventure on its own. The bikes are the most paper work.
3 hours later and $85 US cost... we were on our way into Costa Rica.
As we drove down the road, lined up truckers for over 2 KMs waiting to cross made me feel better that 3 hours of waiting was better then 3 days!!! We had never seen a border with that many trucks. All coming from Panama, making their way into the Americas.

The windy paved road, music blasting in my headphones, already it felt good, GREEN, VERY GREEN, as I always imaging Costa Rica, but an hour later down the road, we realized why they call it " THE RAIN FOREST " as the rain started to come down just after sunset. Then heavier rain hard enough to hurt you threw you jacket! It was getting a little scary driving with all the giant trucks zooming by at 120 kms / hr so we quickly started to look for shelter.

We spotted a some kind of restaurant with a big open terrace. Seems like a good spot! Lets check it out.
We pulled in, soak to the bones, the owner was sitting in front looking at us confused. " Hay Comida aqui?" we asked the guy.
"si - si - claro " So we took our wet layers off and ordered a couple of cold beers and some warm food. Already the food was better then Nicaragua. It felt good to eat something tasty. We asked the guy if we could stay under his porch in our hammocks and told him we would be gone in the morning. The men accepted us with open arms, so we set up camp, had a few more beers and fell asleep under the roof listening to the sound of poring rain.

Adios Nicaragua...

2008-09-07T09:04:00.001-07:00

Leaving San Juan Del Sur at our usual *crack of noon* we decided to check out the lake site of Isla De Ometepe were 2 beautiful volcanoes- Maderas (1394 m) and Concepcion (1610 m) create this island of lush green pristine forest, culture, wildlife. Sitting in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
We had plan to go to the island and drive around for a few days then the possibility of crossing to the other side and make our way to Costa Rica threw very remote road and border crossing of San Carlos.
But since we are in the middle of rainy season and due to Hurricanes on the Caribbean side. Heavy rain made us think about it twice. Dengue fever is at high risk right now on the island, also chances of malaria.
The road on the other side is BAD as locals say...* mucho Lodo!! * puddles of mud. I was ready for an adventure, but with our visa expiring a week later, we could afford having any Epic and the border is also only open several days a week.
Plan B - drive straight to Costa Rica on the Panamerican highway.

Nicargua was nice, very remote places to discover, dirt roads all over the place, makes it adventurous in the rainy season!!! But after getting a little sick in San Juan ( got some kind of Parasite from food) I was ready to be in a new country.

We've been looking forward to Costa Rica since day one of this trip. I've travelled all over the world in the past decade but Costa Rica
was a place I always wanted to see. Travelers have told me about all these great surf spots, Rain forests, crazy wild life.
Costa Rica..... Here we come!

Sweet beach of Marsella

2008-09-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Angela and I went on a mission to find some quiet beaches. And found what we were looking for.....
Playa Marsella, a short dirt road north of San Juan Del Sur.

Surf Mission to Papoyo

2008-09-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

It was more fun driving down the road to Papoyo, then the surf!!!
Our friend Benjamin and JB drove all the way down from El Zonte Salvador. They were psyked on some big surfing time.
cal and I were excited to shoot good footage and pics, we had plan this trip together when we were in El Zonte.
Papoyo was the Surf Spot to hit in Nicaragua.... Big Waves, barrels, OFFshore wind 360 days a year, low crowds.
But not this week! Winds were onshore, NO waves, rain. I guess we hit the 5 days of ONSHORE winds!
Driving there was a mission on its own. Ben had the little mini van, impressive!!! going threw puddles up to his door frame,
we were ready for an epic to happen all the way that 30 kms dirt track.
But the mini bus mad it, and Cal and I had more fun driving threw the puddles with the girls behind us than anything.
After all, thats what our bikes are for and we sure road them until we couldn't see color!

Papoyo is very secluded, just North of San Juan Del Sur, the most touristy destination in Nicaragua and also surf spot. Papoyo keeps the crowd away... we see why after seeing the road!
Not much to be found there, few places to stay, a beach that stretches for a KM long.
Rain was coming down everyday... (after all we are in rainy season! )
Ben started to get worried about the drive back. They say in October, when the REAL rain comes, you can't even get out!!! the rivers get so high, even Jeeps won't make it ( our DR's would ...hahaha .. I think!! )

So we left, ... another mission out, but the rivers were lower, so mini had no problems. Ben and JB went back to El Zonte... were the waves are always good. Cal and I went to San Juan Del Sur with the girls ( Yvonne and Angela ) the sun came out a bit
more.

It's now time for a new country, Cal and I are excited for Costa Rica, it's been a long time since I wanted to check it out, we are 40 minutes away, winds are blowing, rain comes down hard once in a while... it will be an adventure.
Lets just hope the sun will fallow us down the road.

Costa Rica... here we come!!!

Two Border Crossings in a day

2008-08-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

We finally left El Zonte, it was hard but we had too because of our bike permits, El Salvador only gave us two months of road travel with are bikes, although our tourist visas were still good, we were forced to leave because of the bike permit situation.
I have to say El Dorado is like Hotel California, " You can check in but you can never leave" hahah That place was a little paradise. We wanted to stay and work more but thats what traveling is all about, seeing new places and venturing off in to the unknown.

We left with hugs and kisses to all the staff, said our fare wells and off we went to the border. We wanted to try and exit El Salvador, cross the Honduras border as well as enter Nicaragua all in one day but we didn't even make it to the Salvador border.

30 minutes after we left, my bike started to act a little weird. We pulled over and Al the mechanic fixed her up real nice. It took a little tender love and care but he figured out the problem. Because we spent so much time on the coast, the humidity created a little water in my gas line and we had to drain all the water so the bike would run normally again. An hour later we're back on the road and riding through beautiful inland landscapes of El salvador. We never made it to the border that day but we did make it close. We found a nice sleezy motel and spent the night. Most likely the dirtiest place we've seen but hey " you can't always get 5 star service while traveling through different zones.

The next morning we left early and headed to the border. We knew it was gonna be a pain in the ass but my god was it ever worse than we expected. Three hours of paper work,$85 each!!! finally we crossed in to Honduras. There is only 125 km between the Honduras and Nicaragua border so we didn't waste any time and headed straight for the Nicaragua border. We arrived around 5 pm and started the paper work once again. This time it was a little easier but still no piece of cake. Finally around 7 pm we were ready to enter Nicaragua. The policeman told us to stay at a hotel right after the border because the road was dangerous at night so we took his advice and checked in to another dump for the night. It' s funny how this trip has been from one extreme to the other over the course of a day.........As Alain always says the more extreme the better..Hahaha..
Now we're in Leon Nicaragua, a beautiful little town north west of the Capital of Managua. We're staying in nice hostel which is cheaper than the last two #$%^ holes we stayed in. I'm sipping a nice local beer with a beautiful waitress serving me. Life is back the way it should be Haha.....Tomorrow we go to Managua as my Friend Yvonne from Ottawa is coming to visit for a week. Alain's friend from Chile, Angela is here and she has been traveling with us from El Salvador to here. It's time to relax with the ladies for a week......

light show at El Zonte

2008-08-15T17:22:00.001-07:00

After all, we are in the wet season. Almost every night, we get storms rolling in. Giving us incredible lightning shows.
A fun challenge with the camera to get - THE SHOT -
It's a matter of patience and not getting hit by rain!

Check out our New Video

2008-08-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

Visit our You tube site and look for Video clip " Hold Your Shot" the link is just to your right

www.youtube.com/calalmission

just a few new images .... still in El Zonte!

2008-08-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Eldorado at night...

2008-08-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

So what are we doing..... 6 weeks later

2008-08-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

We entered El Salvador with thoughts of driving right threw... it's been 6 weeks now and haven't been far in El Salvador.
As we pulled in a small coastal town with only few " chacks " found a restaurant, had a good huge fish for 5 bucks with a beer.
Doesn't get any better after the long 2 hours we spent at the border with paperwork.

Belly full, we left the restaurant and hit the road south... where do we go??? south - - - so off we go. We were happy to be by the ocean again.
Passing by the road sign - * El ZONTE * I remembered seeing the name in Lonely planet as a surf spot.
So we pulled over, told Cal," hey - lets check this out for fun, lets go back there and see the waves."
We turned around and drove down the small alley street to the end. No Place to camp here!!!
Lets see how much they want at at this place,.. so we talk to this guy, explaining our dirtbag situation with budget.
Basically, Ya " we dont want to pay" haha our Idea is never pay to sleep!
After a short talk, he says, " go see next door here, 2 doors over, these French Canadian friends of mine have a resort, a little
more pricy and fancy, but see with them..."
So we left, thinking, screw that, expensive doesn't sound good, better not RESORT! but something inside made me take a right
instead of a left out the driveway. Told Cal, " Lets check it out! after all, they can only say no??? and we go?!!"

We park the bikes, Cal lights a smoke and I walk in.... walking threw the living room, felt like a home away from home. down the
pathway Olivier - Ben - and Mao are sitting by the pool sipping on a cocktail....
MMMmmm. Resort alright! nice pool, sweet palm trees, surf 50 feet in front... doesn't get any better! A dream place really.
" A " - I say, I'm Al, ( thinking in my head... how can I say that, .. ya hi I'm a dirtbag traveler my buddy is outside and we need a place to crash).. maybe not.
" So, ya the guy next door told us to come for a visit, you're from Canada? we are too, drove down here on our bikes, going to south America."
Then the conversation went on about our trip, 15min goes by... shit forgot about Cal was still sitting in the sun out there waiting. I was ready to sip on my cocktail.
" So ya, you wouldn't happend to have a corner we could set up our tent? few days, you know...."
" I can just set up my hammock right there under the palapa, I dont need much room "
Meanwhile Olivier is thinking inside his head, thinking real hard - " Normally we don't do that here, its kind of a resort, but for you guys I feel like saying Yes, don't know why, I've been on the travel road too, and understand".

" So sure.... you guys can set up there... couple days and see "

Shit ya.... all excited I walk back to Cal, melting in the sun with his smoke, looking all depressed like if he he knew we had to hit the road in the full day heat... not looking happy.
"Dude!!!" we fuk'n scored this time!!! wait till you see this place.!!!

We pull in our bikes, Cal unpacks his gear, (first thing he always does right away) Oliver comes by with 2 rum&cokes... welcome to Eldorado... so I forget all about my bike. Straight to the pool with my cocktail. We make ourselves at home.

It's now August... our plan was to be in Panama around now... hahahaha - plans??? what are those now?
we are still in Eldorado, we moved up our base camp, Cal actually has a bed, on a floor, in a room, with open air and killer views, I sleep in my hammock, under the palapa 20 feet from the ocean, listen to waves crashing all night.
Wake up first light and get into my Yoga routine for an hour. Then I'm off in the office ( again listening to waves) and get
down with my photography organizing - emails - sipping on El Salvador strong frenchy style cafe - I give massages for few $$$ to guests if they like, set up a table under the palapa, so people only hear waves crashing while getting a treatment. Teach yoga to whoever is spyked.

We had planned to settle in Costa Rica to organize and maybe try to make money. I was going to see about teaching some yoga and massage, but hey... we didnt need to go that far, just here in El Salvador... we would of never thought!!!

Calixte is helping with the construction, fine tuning his skills in carpentry. Working overtime at night on his videos.
We blended in well as a team with the crew at Eldorado, each have our duties, Olivier takes care of all the business and making everyone feel at home at the same time, Ben is networking, getting ready for their first big Surf Comp even in Novemeber... Le Quebec Open, and Mao is being creative with her bamboo - making beautiful lamps and furniture ( check out... www.maobamboo.blogspot.com)
living life at the fullest under the stars and palm trees, dipping in the pool every once in a while... always feeling safe too !!!

Learning to surf here isn't the easiest place, El Zonte as strong current, big white wash so yes, big waves! So going out there gives you your daily dose of adrenaline and salt water detox plan.
Every week we have new guests, always a good crew of people come by, mostly french canadians since El dorado owners are from Quebec.
Time has past by fast here... after we realized it had been 6 weeks!! shit... will be hard to move on, again out into our world of unknown, ahhh... where do we sleep tonight??? ahhhhh not sure. - " Let's go eat more Tacos! Tacos! and Tacos!!

We sure are taking in every minute we have here at eldorado, living the dream, this is what the trip is about anyways right??
working, traveling, yoga, surfing, eating 5 star meals!
Ya , was all part of the plan!
Thanks to Olivier - Benjamin - and Mao, they have made our dream possible.

So we'll be here another 2 to 3 weeks,( hope not 2 - 3 years) we'll mission to Nicaragua with Ben on the 25th or so, on a surf adventure document.
Meanwhile, we just keep living under the palm trees, working away, organizing, drinking cafe, sipping on cocktails, getting beat up by big waves, drinking salt water, socializing, tanning, videoing, photoing, yoga - ing ... living the dream!

and ho ya.... Salut!!!! - Time for another Cocktail...

Keep checking the blog for more images coming up.
and also working real hard at having a movie clip soon!
visit us at...
www.surfeldorado.com
www.surfeldorado.blogspot.com

Yoga time!

2008-08-01T13:02:00.001-07:00

Cooooooooffffeeeeeeeee... mmmmm

2008-07-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Right Place at the Right Time...

2008-06-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Rochette takes it all in...

El Dorado Saint Jean Baptiste El Zonte

2008-06-25T15:45:00.001-07:00

If you happen to be with French Canadians at Saint Jean Baptiste, we'll nothing can go wrong!
we all put together some dinero and went off on $200 worth of fire crackers!
The night was clear... ( as we usualy get lightning storms) cocktails were passed around, waves crashing, good people laughing.
If you're looking for a surfing spot, excellent waves, the best hospitality I've ever come across my decade of traveling! this place rocks, going back to years back in Thailand, or Mexico... Like some say, " remember when???? " well this is remember now!
As sweet as it gets!

So Cal and I decided to hang for a while here at Eldorado
Cal will be helping with construction and other things around... working on some videos for all of you to see!...
And I'll be teaching yoga and giving massages to surfers. Not to forget on my photography portfolio, being a magical place
makes my job easy with great photo ops!

so enjoy a few of these images .....

Surfing in El Zonte El Salvador

2008-06-22T16:31:00.003-07:00

Styling at Eldorado El Zonte
Doesn't get any better!!
sleeping in my hammock, best bacon and eggs, real coffee, good vibes, sweet waves, getting trashed by waves, drinking too much beer and... water!! sunshine, more sunshine, another good wave, dinner... lets not get started!!
This place rocks!! better then this??? good luck!
here we are...
mmm.. ya, life is good

Crazy Market in ChiChicastenango

2008-06-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

From Chickens to blankets, fruits and souvenir, ChiChi is one of the biggest markets in Guatemala. Also a great place to experience the true lifestyle of the Mayans. So it is! We got lost for several hours threw the dense alleys. The market takes over the entire town. We didn't even know how we would drive back out!
It offers great photo opportunity but in Guatemala, taking photographs isn't an easy task. Either the people want money to take their photos or you get beans thrown in your face like I got one time trying to take a shot!
With a little undercover work, you can sometimes manage to get the shot you want. But watch those beans coming at you!

After trying hard to bargain for a new hammock ( need a new one since I left mine to our friends in Belize ) I'm usually good at wheel and dealing but here was hard! They didn't like my offer. They usually run at 225 Quetzales aound $30 ~ way too much for us ~ we paid $15 in Mexico ~
My price was 100 Q ... 150 Q is the lowest they would go, but my trick is to only have the money you want to pay and show then you don't have more. It almost worked, lady thought about it.... but didn't go for it.
Tired of the madness it was time to hit the road. between El Salvador and Nicaragua... I'm sure I'll find my price.

Antigua

2008-06-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

When travelers arrive in Guatemala, Antigua is usually number one on their hit list. Nestled between three volcanoes, it offers a true colonial feel with cobbled streets, mustard and ochre colored houses. A popular destination for those wanting to perfect their spanish with many schools available.
Antigua was founded in 1543 and served as the colonial capital for 233 years. The capital was transferred to Guatemala City in 1776, after Antigua was put down by an earthquake in 1773. You can see some of the remains of the effect where the preserved some of the buildings.
Fancy restaurants with beautiful courtyards, gift shops, and bars, Everything to please a happy traveler.
We spent 3 nights here, one day fixing our bikes racks and frames and another doing the tourist thing ... found my hammock!
It's time to hit the road again, today we jump back in the saddle and make our way to El Salvador. We hope to cross today, but as we now know.... the roads always take twice the time expected, but we are heading back towards the ocean. I look forward to trying out my new hammock and the smell of the ocean again also a new country. Lets just hope that sunshine will fallow us, as in the afternoons these days, we get hit with pretty heavy storms, after all, we are in the wet season! But we have been lucky at staying dry...

Broken racks and frames

2008-06-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Riding threw Mexico can be hard on a bike. We must of went over 10 000 " topez " - speed bumps -
and that means the bikes get a beating, especially when your riding with climbing gear!
Once we got to Guatemala ( with no more climbing gear since I brought it down to Chile on my visit ), the roads turned to dirt, mud and crater size hole. But Fun!! Until we noticed this...
" Cal, your bike seems low" I tell him, "Ya", at first we didn't noticed, but a screw had broken off where it holds onto the frame of the bike.
The other day we looked at it more closely and saw the frame had cracked in 2 place, also on the rack.
~ Cal's luggage rack had been bent a little for a while and one day burnt a hole in his sleeping bag.~ smelled like burnt chicken so threw it out!
In Antigua, we brought it to a welder to spark it up. Spotted his shop while being lost riding around in the city. (very confusing with all the cobble streets and same looking buildings.) Pulled in and asked the guy, Cal gets to work, "possible' repapar la moto, agui broken! " -Si Si - the guy says. So we start taking our bikes apart for major work. We spent 3 hours
chatting away polishing our spanish. They had a blast. " donde va? " one guy asks ... Sur America! Patagonia!! "haaaaaaa ~ hooooo, mucho mucho lejos " (very very far)..." little ways ya"
We filled in their morning with entertainment. They did a great job on the bikes. Straighten the racks, fixed the frames, put it all back together on the bikes. All for a cost of 200 Quetzales ~ $27 us. We were happy, the bikes were happy, greasy hand shakes and off we go......
NOW ! lets see how long the last, ready for more dirt roads...

Little Rain

2008-06-18T23:08:00.001-07:00

We've been driving eight and half months now ( approx 17 ooo kms since Jasper Alberta) and some miraculous way we've been able to avoid the rain. In all that time we have faced five days of forgiving rain. Today was different. We left Panajachel at our usual crack of noon start after a bowl of chicken soup and rode our bikes south towards Antigua. The first hour were beautiful with lush green mountains overlooking a big blue/greenish lake with waterfalls running along the side of the road. That ended when we got on the main highway that leads you towards Guatemala city. We wanted to take a back road because those are always shorter and better scenery anyways but locals warned us of the few gangs and Bandidos in the area and taking that road might be risky.

Wanting to be safe we opted for the longer, less scenic, more busy highway than the dangerous but beautiful dirt road. Well after riding about an hour of roads under construction and millions of buses and trucks trying to drive as fast as they can, (not to miss I came inches of running over a lady and her baby when she decided to run across the street at the wrong time! Then my chain popped off my bike. I pulled over and tried to fix it. Alain was ahead of me and didn't see that I was pulling over so I figured he'd realize after a few minutes of not seeing me in his rearview mirror. And so they we were on the side of the highway lifting my bike up on one side trying to pope the chain back on and Al looks at the sky and says....You see that big black sky ....It's coming for us......I thought to myself we better get this fix, get back on the road and ride t'ill we see shelter cause it's gonna come down hard. And so it did. Luckily we were able to ride quite a long time before it did but we were shy an hour of Antigua and Alain had a feeling it was about to explode so he pulled over under a bridge and we sat there and experienced a full on tropical rainstorm in monsoon season in guatemala. We saw a mechanic type shop a few feet away so I rolled my bike under the roof and alain left his where it was and we both took cover in the Local mechanic's shop. It lasted about a good hour and a half. Not only rain but hail came down as well. We watched our bikes become part of a river that started to flow faster and faster beneath them. I was getting worried for a bit but then I realized we could be in far worse shape. We weren't the ones getting medical attention from the two ambulance trucks that went by. We're actually styling in the rain. Somehow we always seem to escape the heavy downpoors. Lets see how long it lasts....

Languin to Panajachel (Lago de Atitlan)

2008-06-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

El Estor to Languin on dirt roads

2008-06-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

One of the most beautiful drives yet on this trip was from El Estor to Lanquin via the back roads. It's as if we're back in time. Most of these little villages in the mountains are self sufficient and work very hard just to barely survive. The men gather fire wood up in the hills every day and carry it back to their village sometimes walking for several hours. Some of the wood is used to cook or sell. The women make beautiful Mayan dresses by hand called " Traje" - Maya Traje is village-specific or language-group related.
The smell of burning wood, children running around waving at us as we drive by, no cars makes this ride our highlight in Guatemala. Sometimes we have to ask if we are on the right track, as some of the roads can be confusing without any signs. At one point we got to a bridge that was under construction, we had to wait for an hour while they fill up a hole. So we enjoyed a cold beer and chatted with the locals, always curious to find out where we are from and where we are going. Languin we said... "ohhhh!" one says, "long way" on the map it always looks short in kms, but on these dusty windy dirt roads, it's long!
Finally the bridge was good to go, we needed to unpack our gear at the other end to pass the bikes under a bar that was supporting the structure, but the local kids were happy to help us. Pack up the bikes again and off we go threw the thick jungle and high mountain pass, it was only 120kms, 5 hours later we pulled into the deep valley village of Languin. It was time to get some food in our tired bodies and find camp. It got dark fast and rain started to come down ( lucky we never seem to get the rain while riding!) so we found a nice Posada (room) for less the $3.00. You can find cheap rooms in Guatemala, which sometimes its nice so we can lock our gear, not worry about it and walk around to check things out.

Melchor de Mencos to Rio Dulce

2008-06-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Our first day in Guatemala began with driving on what was supposed to be a bad muddy road. Locals told us this road was horrible because of all the rain fall but once we were on it it wasn't too bad. If a car can drive on it then a dirt bike is no problem at all. The dirt lasted about an hour and then it switched to nice pavement. Our goal was to get to Rio Dulce but we fell short a few kms. After a long days of driving we stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road, had some food , beer and a nice chit chat with a seventy five year old man who was a little drunk. We kindly asked the owners if we could camp in the back yard and they said no problem. It was getting a little dark so we didn't want to chance driving at night. The next morning we woke at 5 am to chickens walking around our tent barking their heads off to let everyone know what time it was. It's time to get up. So we got up and had some coffee and b - fast and hit the road to Rio Dulce. We heard there was a "Castillo" of some sort there and we thought we'd check it out. but that ment leaving the bikes all packed up in a parking lot with someone else looking after them which we weren't to fond of. But we took a chance and did it anyways, we took our cameras and passports along and hoped for the best for the rest of our things. We didn't stay too long but long enough to visit every room in the castle and take a few pics. We got back to the bikes and it was all good. Everything was still in place just as we left it.

A quick Tire change

2008-06-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Light rain started to come down as we got closer to the border of Guatemala, Benque Viejo is were we would cross. Then rain came down harder. As we passed by a Tire Shop, I said to Cal, "lets see how much to change your tire " - He'd been logging this new tire I bought in Santiago since Playa... wanting to get more miles out of the old one. We tough it would be good to change it in Guatemala since we knew the roads would get muddy.
So we stopped, an old lady came out of the house and welcomed us with open harms, ( as all the people in Belize did )
They told us it would be 6 belize dollars!!! - $3.00 US, we couldn't believe it. We empty our pockets scrapping all our change. All we had left in Belize dollars was $3.00 - $1.50 US... the lady says " No Problem " That's OK. We really couldn't believe it. They would change our tire for that price. I got to work, putting up the bike on what we could find and take off the wheel.
Now the man gets to work and starts pounding on the side of the rim with a hammer, trying to get the old tire off. The disc brake rubbing flat on ground just waiting to see it get bent, Cal and I look at each other, thinking..."maybe you get what you pay for... " He's going to wreck your wheel man" I then grab the tire while he was looking for some tool to wedge between the tire and rim. I noticed he hadn't taken the air out of the tire! Shit... good thing he didn't get that tool in there, it would of blown in his face! then turn the rim around to the other side before he bent the disc brake.
So I take the air out, the guy looks at me with a smile - thinking " Wise man" he simply had forgotten to take it out????
Now he's got his tools, pounding away with the sledge hammer, gets the tire off - puts the new one one. All went well.
The rim was straight, no bent disc. I put the wheel back on the bike. We were not ready for the border run. Rain had stopped - good timing, but it was getting late and we needed to cross over the border and find camp.

We never know what to expect with borders, time, dangers, annoying paperwork. But this one all went well. After an hour all was done. The officers told us not to drive the road coming up at night, and that the road was in bad conditions because of the Tropical storm that went threw the week before. ..." Mucho Lodo" - lots of mud! " Banditos "
So we drove into Melchor de Mencos (border town) and found a cheap hotel that was recommended to us, not the fancy Riu Tequila of Playa del Carmen but the price was right at $3.00 each so looking for a camp spot was out of question.

A visit in Crooked Tree village, Belize

2008-06-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

At last we're out of Mexico and moving on to a new country. Alain's friends from Squamish ( Todd and Christina ) told us if we were to go to Belize we had to stop in Crooked Tree Village and visit some friends of theirs. Since we didn't really plan to visit any place but Crooked Tree in the small country of Belize, we aimed to get there the first day. Nothing goes as planed when you travel and by the time we had crossed the border and made a long stretch south, it was getting dark and we were still about 15 miles outside Crooked Tree. We decided it would be easier to camp along the road and go find Claudette and Mitch the following day. We were lucky and fowned a nice spot to set up our tents for the night and not worry to much about any traffic coming near us.

The next morning we woke up pact our things and drove straight to Crooked Tree. Crooked Tree is a small village that inhabits 800 people and is the home of millions of birds. The popular thing to do there is bird watching. It's actually a bird sanctuary but our time spent there we didn't see many bird as it wasn't the best time of year. The recent storm in Honduras had made quite the impact in Belize and most of the South was flooded. Locals told us to be aware that a few bridges were none existent and that water was really high at some places. Luckily we didn't have any troubles with water or bridges the entire time we spent there.

After asking a few locals in town where Claudette lived, we pulled up to her property on the lake and told her Todd and Christina sent us over to say hello. Well I can't really describe in words how happy this lady was to here that her Canadian friends from three years ago were till thinking of her and sending more friends to see her. She invited us to stay with her for as long as we wanted so we pitched our tents and made ourselves at home. The kids were in school that morning and when they came home for lunch and saw the motor bikes they immediately got excited and asked us millions of questions. Their memory of Todd and Christina was like as if it was yesterday that they had visited them.

When lunch break was over Al and I gave them all a ride back to school and then spent all afternoon with Claudette and her friend driving around the village through every little short cut we could find.

Later that evening Claudette's husband came home from work and joined us for the best home cooked fried chicken I have tasted in my life. We spent the week end with the familly and enjoyed true hospitality at its best. These people were not rich with materialistic things but rich in love for each other and lived their every day life with a smile on their faces. Alain and I took some money out of our fundraiser to help out with food for the time we were there. We also left them one of our hammock since the kids loved it and was a great place for the afternoon nap while Claudette could have some quiet time. The kids didn't want us to leave but we made sure they knew that when monday came rolling around we were going to have to move on to the next destination. It's always a little hard to leave certain places after you've spent so many good moments and especially with kids but thats how traveling is. Mitch told them it was hard for the kids to see Todd and Christina leave after spending two weeks there so we tried to avoid the same situation happening twice. It also helped that the kids were three years older and had gone through this before so when the time came they were ready and we left with no tears out of anyone. Sometimes I wish I could of stayed longer but I'm glad we left when we did. Next stop Guatemala.......

Tulum Mexico

2008-06-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

June 1st till june 4th
After our 10 day Holiday from the holiday, Cal and I were anxious to get back on the road get out of the tourist trap and search for a little beach time by Tulum so we can enjoy a last couple days in the ocean before entering Belize and Guatemala.
Another shock....
After hearing from people this was the backpackers place to go... not so much anymore, Tulum is starting to boom like Playa.
The Beach fronts are all expensive little bungalows, the beaches are spectacular, turquoise blue water but again was no spot to camp around Tulum. When we arrived rain started to come down, so we need a place to camp soon. The only place we found was an 8 dollars a night (what they call campsite) under some trees. - A real rip off! - so where do the budget backpackers stay?? in town for $30 a night, Not so much budget Mexican style.
The next day was still grey, A tropical Storm was hitting Honduras and Belize at the time and we were getting the tail end of it. We decided to walk along the beach and see if we could sneak in the Ruins of Tulum... and we did, a trail led us along the rocks and into the Ruins, we popped over the rock wall, tourists looking at us thinking... where the hell are these guys coming from??
But hey... we saved 80 pesos!! so we didnt feel so bad about our $8 camp fee, as we were able to leave our bikes there while we visited the Ruins for free!!

As we were about to leave, we spotted an internet cafe so we decided to stop for a good coffee and email season. While Cal was working on the computer, he started to chat with a girl that was curious about our journey, so they talked for a while and next thing we knew, we had a free place to stay on the beach, she was from New York living in Tulum and teaching yoga. So we took her offer and extented our time in Tulum by an extra couple days and enjoy more beach time as the sun finally came out.
One morning, we woke up with the sound of a crying cat... the owner of the house was screaming, it was 6 am... wondering what had happen, the poor cat had been the pray of a Boa constructor of about 1 meter long! Poor thing, Jungle and cats don't mix well.
so it was time to leave and make our way to Belize...

Holiday from a Holiday

2008-06-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

May 16th till june 1st
We arrived in Playa Del Carmen with a culture shock, Americana's land... all inclusive resorts, bars, gift shops. We spent several hours looking a spot to camp, living at our dirtbag style, we couldn't think of a hotel room. Drove to what they call the local beach in hope to find a hidden spot to camp. Bunch of drunk men welcomed us, so we looked at each other... mmm... not a good spot. We even drove 15kms south of Playa, and no luck, as all the beach fronts are full of ALL Inclusive hotels.!
I picked up a brochure with cheap rooms, so we start looking at plan B, found a perfect little family run hotel close to the beach and downtown. But the little price came with it at 35$ a night! the cheapest in town... Budget... blown big time.

We had no choice to stay in Playa for several days as I was catching a flight to Santiago Chili to visit a good friend of mine and Cal was going to spend 14 days at an all inclusive ( thanks to his friend Yvonne) and attend a wedding. Another nice thing is we got Suzuki in Playa to tune up the bikes for the next leg of the journey, adjusting our valves... now our bikes run like new. I was also able to leave my bike secured with them while I went to Chili.

At last... back to the Beach... Cancun

2008-05-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

We finally reached the end of the 300kms stretch. Cancun, here we are, back in the tourist trap and busy city. So we drove north a little to find some quiet place to camp. A local told us to check out Isla Blanca, good place to camp and quiet, so we drove little north of Cancun to see what we could find. For a while nothing but hotels lined up along the coast. We then saw a sign for Isla Blanca so we drove down the dirt road and started to look for a place to camp. impossible to find since all the land next to the beach were privately owned by Mexicans or Americans with their weekend homes. Tired of looking I decided to stop at some little market store and ask if it was OK to hang our hammocks under their palapa. Lucky to find out the owner happened to be from New York and spoke english and told us we could camp by the Laguna in the back, so we drove our bikes on the dock. We never thought we would find this kind of pimp camp spot! this was a sweet one. One of the biggest challenge is to find a descent place to camp or hang our hammocks, but for some reason.... we always do end up finding what we need!

The long 300 KMs stretch from Merida to Cancun

2008-05-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

The road was fast ... perfect highway, not much traffic, we rode along at good speed. We knew we it would be harder to find a place to camp along the 300 kms stretch of no mans land, so we tough about doing the overnight marathon... drive from Merida to Cancun, we had already been driving most of the day, but we felt good, roads were good, we had a good night sleep the night before. We were now getting further away from the ocean since we had to cross the mainland to the other side of the Yucatan. But all can never be to good... 25kms from Merida, 11pm needing some food and drink, looking forward for a break in Merida. I see Cal pull over in my rear view mirror, so I stopped. Then I hear Cal - " My CLUTCH! " cable broke. Great! What to do... fix it here by the hwy while cars drive by us at 11pm at 100miles / hr... not a good Idea. " OK, I push you, and shift on 2nd gear and go...." so we drove the 25kms to Merida. Pulled in at a gas station to fix the clutch. All I wanted now was a cold beer and fix Cal's Bike. NO BEER, they don't sell beer after 5 on sundays.. great so no beers. Greasy hands and one hour later we were ready to hit the road again. We knew Merida wasn't an option place to sleep, as it's a pretty big city, so we were back on the road...( by now we got the hang of the night driving, felt safe on the road, - only on certain roads- there is less traffic and don't have the heat of the sun beating on us) - getting late now we were getting tired. We started to scope out for a camp spot. I pull over on a dirt road, ... sweet, this is good! so we hung our hammocks. Few minutes later Cal looks under is Hammock... look!!! shit!! About a million ants are all over the place, army ants! not a good idea. It reminded me of a couple friends on mine T&T on their journey to South America, they had set their tent in the wrong spot and woke up with a nice surprise... red ants eating away the bottom of their tent!
"lets get out of here!" back on the road. I pulled in at a school yard, "looks like a good spot, safe, away from the road, and it's a school. We hung our hammocks between the school fence and a tree, happy once again to find a good spot.
Cal pulls out his sleeping bag, "F&%K!!!" ... "What" I ask - his bag had a hole from the muffler, went threw the bag and burnt a big hole in his sleeping bag. Pulls out his sleeping bag, feathers flying everywhere, smelling like a dead duck.
Another rough night for Cal. "We needed to get rid of things to make our load lighter and smaller... so thats a good start, too hot anyways for the sleeping bag!!" trying to make him feel better." Ya"... he says, "good night,.. F*%K"!!!"

The Coconut Road

2008-05-22T12:45:00.001-07:00

After a days drive from Puebla. We were excited to get back to the coast, the smell of the ocean, beaches to sleep on and quiet roads was what we wanted after climbing Orizaba. Looking on our map, we decided on a road that followed the coast into the Yucatan. Passing threw small fishing villages, very quiet road that allowed us to drive with our FlipFlops, shorts and no helmet was paradise. The heat was intense, maybe up to 45'c degrees. We stopped at a deposito in hope to find Ice cold drinks, all other places had no electricity or Ice, so all drinks were warm. This one had cold coca cola, so we pounded cold drinks down while chatting with the owner. Looking at our bikes and gear, he seemed a little confused??? " Donde Va??" he asks... telling him we're making our way to the Paraiso were the main highway would take us into the Yucatan, then to Cancun...
My spanish is getting better everyday, but when you get in some of these villages, some locals have there own spanish - that what it seems like for us anyways... hard to understand what they say, and speaking 100 miles /hr makes it even harder.
We ask him if this way is the way, along the coast... "si si" he says, mumbling at 100miles/ hr then he makes hand signs like holding our bikes really hard. So I ask, " the road OK?" si si he says, again speaking at rocket speed.
OK, "Gracias" - off we go, all happy with drinks in our system, lets hit the road
Wasn't more then 500 meters were the road just stopped!!! the beach had washed out the entire road, it was from Hurrican Dean, had left it's mark. A foot deep in sand everywhere, so an alternative road had been built. So we drive along the coconuts that helped cars not to get stuck in deep sand, but with bikes, a total nightmare. Ok... back on the road, wow.. that was crazy, shit hope it's over. We continue on nice pavement road, but no more the 2 - 3 kms... we are back on deep sand and coconuts. Ho my god! shit how long will this be. Now we understood what the man was talking about, "hold on tight to your bars"
Cal looks at me at one point, around 15kms in... " should we turn around?" - "No Way - Not driving back this shit again... lets just hope it will get better soon " So we continued on. Blasted by the full heat of the day, we were getting drained, no water, no where to go but to keep going... Finally after over 20 kms, almost 2 hours later we reached the road, no more sand, just pavement, Smiles on our faces, but beat for the heat and drive, we were happy not to have turned around. Like we always say.. "south". Never North is the way. Unless the road is impassable, we will always go one way!
This was the hardest drive we had done, a good test, I'm sure there will be more down the unknown road.
Lucky once again to find a place to hang our hammocks, we decided we had enough for a day. I rested in my hammock while Cal was fighting all night with the mosquitos so he set up his tent to avoid the moziz, but instead, the ants found him in his tent. That night, Cal wasn't a happy camper...
Just another day on the journey!

Back to the Gulf Coast

2008-05-22T11:06:00.001-07:00

Thank you to the Guevara Family.

2008-05-11T11:15:00.003-07:00

We're gone now from Puebla and we already miss our new friends and family we made there. We spent a week with the Guevara family, and they made things easy for us. Victor arranged all the things we needed to make our day on Orizaba a success. We needed crampons and Victor found some for us so we didn't need to rent them. They were 200 Pesos a day which is 20 US $ and that was out of the budget for sure. As far as for the rest of our time in Puebla we relaxed and got things we needed for the road ahead of us. Vicky, Victor's Mom cooked for us every day delicious food that I already miss very much. Victor's sister's kept us busy with movies and entertainment. It was nice to stop somewhere and live with a family. Being on the road for 8 months now, makes us think more on our friends and family back home in Canada, well for me anyway. Alain is used to traveling this long so he knows how it is. I think there's a reason why things happen and this was a good example. They showed the outmost hospitality and treated us like if we were part of their family. We will be thinking of them every day we spend on this trip.

A day in High altitude, Orizaba 5747 meters Highest Volcano in North America

2008-05-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

Ok this was honestly the hardest mountain I had ever been on in my life. It's not technical but it's at high altitude and I had never been higher than 13000 feet. Orizaba is over 18 000 feet, so a little harder for sure. Alain had been high like that before so he new what to expect. Victor's cousin Juan Pablo came with us to put some crosses on the summit he made for his mother that passed away a few years ago. It being mother's day this week end, it was good timing for him to have friends to go up with him. He was very strong on the climb and made to the summit first. Alain arrived shortly after him and I thought I was gonna die on the way up but 45 minutes later I joined them for the victory pic. I was suffering from head aches and I had a hard time breathing. I also thought I was gonna vomit at least 50 times but luckily I didn't. We had a hour break on the summit and tried to sleep a little to regain our strength for the way down. The way down was harder than I thought. It felt like it was never going to end. Around 4 pm all of us were at the hut looking back at what we had just accomplished. CAL & AL MISSION ORIZABA COMPLETE. I couldn't of been happier than that moment sitting down beside the truck. Now it's time to head back to civilization and drink some cerveza's. Corona's were on my mind. One hour later Al and I had our Victory cheers over a can of Corona. It doesn't tast the same as in a bottle but I couldn't care less.

Visiting the sites of Cholula and Puebla

2008-05-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

After eating dinner and meeting Victor's family they invited us to stay with them for the night and also with them in Puebla. The next morning we followed them to the city and established our base camp at their home. They showed the outmost hospitality towards us and made us feel like family. We took a few days to settle in and Victor gave us a tour of the town and helped us find certain things we needed for the bike. He also brought us to Cholula which is a neighboring city. Cholula is a place where in pre Hispanic times priests gathered from all the city's around and performed all kinds of rituals. A lot of Pyramids were built and human sacrifices were held there. Every 52 years the people would cover the Pyramids with dirt to hide them and prepare for what they thought was the new age coming. After the Spanish came to establish them selves, since the early 1500 's they built over 360 different churches to change the old ways of thinking. To symbolize the era changing they built a beautiful church on top of the biggest Pyramid. It's a beautiful place to visit and a must see if being in the area. While we were there we saw some local kids doing some break dancing. They were the best break dancer's we had ever seen.

Right place at the Right Time...

2008-05-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

After spending a nice relaxing day at the restaurant, we decided to hit the road the next morning and make our way further down the coast. It wasn't too long after leaving we saw a coffee shop that said Real Italian Coffee shop, with internet. Al looks at me " want to stop and check a few emails before we go any further? " I looked at him and said sure why not, internet with a real cappucino sounds good to me. It had been a while since we had a good coffee with internet. We spent over 2 hours in the nice cooled air condition coffee shop before I started to crave a smoke so bad I had to go buy one at the Pemex. When I was walking back to the coffee shop, I noticed someone was checking out our bikes. I stopped and made conversation with the guy. Told him about our vision to travel the world on these bikes and climb along the way. He asked me what our next goal was and I told him we were headed to Puebla to climb Pico de Orizaba. He looked at me and said" well you know I'm actually a guide for Orizaba so if you need any information I would be glad to sit down over a coffee and answer any questions for you. I thought to myself this is too good to be true because we had more than a few questions and now we had someone to answer them all. We headed inside and sat down with Alain who was on google Earth at the time and started chatting. After about half an hour Victor, the gentlemen we just met invited us to have dinner with him and his family at their cottage down the road on the beach.

Costa Esmeralda (Gulf Coast)

2008-05-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

The smell of the ocean, palm trees, haaaaaa... didn't take long for Cal to park his bike and jump in! what an amazing feeling the ocean can be after a long hot mountain drive. Driving along the coast was a good feeling, passing by a sign, HAMBURGUESA, english spoken, mmm I stopped, "hey Cal... hungry!" What a question... Cal is always hungry, so we turned around and went for the burgers, chatted with the restaurant owner that came from new York, telling him what we were up too. He invited us to camp next to his restaurant if we wanted too. But instead we decided on driving a little more to find a spot on the beach, so off we go...
20kms later, stuck in traffic at a toll bridge, Cal says, " screw this traffic, lets go back and camp there, rest " ya sounds good so we turned around and basecamp at the restaurant and had our first real Italian pizza, relaxed in hammocks with a cold beer and listen to some of his life stories.

Xilitla to Gulf Coast

2008-05-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

It must of been up there in the 40's as we left Xilitla, the waterfall swim was refreshing before hitting the road, excited to continue on south, we decided on a new route, first plan was to drive straight south, but after the intense heat of the inland from the last week, Cal said...." we should go to coast, let's hit the beach!" mmmm, good Idea, lets drive East then fallow the coast south and make our way to Orizaba (we plan to climb the highest point in Mexico) So off we go, back down the same 15 km road we drove up the night before, beautiful lush green mountains, windy roads, bikers dream....
8 hours later, bikers dream became bikers nightmare, 200 + km's later, and over 500 Topez (speed bumps) threw narrow high mountain passes, sometimes heat up to 45 c!!! we were really looking forward to the beach. Passing small towns, Pemex gas stations didn't come to often, at on point pushing our distance to where to tough we would for sure run out of gas... we've been going for 100 kms... next Pemex 70 kms!! shit.. passing threw a small town, next thing you know, see a sign on a tree.... GASOLINE VENTA !!! ouff, saved! Filled up the bikes. 70 kms, not bad... should take us maybe 1 1/2hrs but no... more like 3hours with the last 20kms of dirts road, pot holes and Topez every 1 km, it was the longest 20kms ever. Beers were good after this one!

Xilitla - Posa Edward James

2008-05-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

It was a long drive to get to Xilitla, leave Guadalcazar on back roads, many speed bumps ( Topez) dirt roads, small towns.
we finally made it to Cuidad Valle. The sun was setting, so we were getting nervous on where to sleep. Being a big city, sleeping somewhere Cuidad Valle was out of the question, we stopped for some Tacos and decided to push it to Xilitla ( 80kms) Breaking our rule of no night driving for the second time... but all went well, traffic wasn't too crazy. Finally ... Xilital.. 15kms! Yes we'll make it. Up we go on a windy mountain road. Got to Xilitla, with luck a man told us... up up!! pointing at the road ???? Castillo??? I ask, "si - si" he says, "acampar alla"?? I ask ( can we camp there) "si - si" he says, Ok Yes for everything... must be good, lets go...
We are tired, needing a place to sleep, been driving for 10 hours. We finally see the Castillo, ( this is what we came to see) a famous castle that was built by Edward James, he also founded Xilitla, and started to crated his own " Garden of Eden " between 1949 and 1984.
Once we saw where the castle was... the question was .. where do we sleep? here we are driving up and down the road, thinking of options like sleeping on the side of the road... also out of the question, especially when a bunch of guys are drinking beers outside the castle .... ,mmmm bad Idea, but the guys offered us a beer, so hey, why not? starting talking, then ask where we could camp? turn out a campground was right in front of us, across the road! Haaa... you don't ask you don't get.
Stress over, we set up camp, loud drums playing all night, it was a mexican long weekend, great! But we had a safe place for our tents and happy not to be on the side of the road. next day... we visited, La Posa Edward James, and enjoyed a soak in some wonderful waterfalls to cool off before the next push to the coast...

Voladores de Papantla - El Tajin

2008-05-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

Passing threw Papantla, we were told to visit El Tajin not far off the road, 15 kms... so we made a little detour.
El Tajin meaning " Thunder or Hurricane "some beautiful Pyramids are located here, but unfortunately we didn't visit, too
much gear on the bikes and a high fee to visit, we decided to pass, since we are going to see more Ruins in the Yucatan soon.
But we did show up in time to see the traditional dance. One guy stands on top of the 100 foot pole and plays a traditional instrument while 4 other guys spin around and get lower to the ground tied by a rope around their waist. Talk about a head rush!!

Along the road...

2008-05-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

This cave was pretty cool to find, in the middle of nowhere, climbers told us about this place, some climbs are found from 5.12's to 13's... but we didn't climb, camped here for the night, did some yoga the next morning, and hit the road to Xilitla...

The Journey to Real de Catorce

2008-04-30T11:22:00.001-07:00

Driving through the canyon of El Salto to Galeana

2008-04-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

This was an amazing ride from El Salto to Galeana. We had to go over a 10 000 foot mountain pass that had some rough terrain. It took us 7 hours to drive 115 kms....We camped at Puente de Dios which is just before Galeana. We slept under the stars and woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

Climbing in El Salto

2008-04-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

We had a last week end of climbing in El Salto with all our friends we made in Potrero and Monterrey. We climbed a bit and mostly drank beer at Kika's because it rained most of the time. Everyone left on Sunday night except Alain and I. We left early Monday morning and made our way towards Galeana. El Salto is one of the most spectacular places we've been yet......It has the most beautiful Limestone walls we've seen here in Mexico.....We'll never forget the good times we had there....

Chilling at Carlos' Sweet Casa

2008-04-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

We finally made it out of the Potrero, but not far down the road. Here in Monterrey, chilling at our friend Carlos'
casa. It's a nice place to relax our fingers from the Potrero Limestone.
Carlos Ramos is a strong climber from Monterrey. He's got a sweet setup at the entrance of the Huasteca Canyon with a big bouldering cave, ping pong table, badminton, turtles cruising in the backyard, the only thing missing is a pool to escape the heat. Thanks for his hospitality, he let us basecamp at his home for several days before heading south into the unknown Mexican world.

On the summit of Pico Independencia

2008-04-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

Climbing Via Ferrata of the Pico Independecia

2008-04-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

We heard about this Via Ferrata that is in La Huasteca Canyon so we decided to get a big group together and check it out. It's about a half an hour hike to the base and then the bolted ladder begins. Its around 500 feet of these ladder systems going from one side of the mountain to the other and eventually to the summit. There's a few obstacles to make it more interesting when you get close to the top. I thought those were pretty cool, one of them is three aluminum ladders connected together by wire and as soon as you get on it you can feel the exposure right away. The other obstacle is this walking on ropes going from one peak to the next.

The Potrero Marathon

2008-04-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

So we were attempting to link up a few multi pitches to climb 50 pitches in a day but we fell 14 pitches short........We started off with Time Wave Zero 5.12 which is the longuest multi pitch sport climb in North america. Here I am on the 23 rd pitch, topping out at around 1;30 pm.......We left at 8 am from the bikes.......We were supposed to leave at 6 am but the Alarm didn't go off as planned so we started a little later than we wanted too. It took us 2 hours too rap 23 pitches from the summit of TWZ. It was 3;30 pm at that point and we were thirsty for beer so we hit Chon's up for an Indio and a big bottle of water. After rehydrating ourselves we headed back to the canyon and started climbing Yankee Cliper which is a 13 pitch 5.10 route....Alain was leading the first 3 pitches in one when Edgardo arrived at the bottom and told me he wanted to join us. So him and I did the first 3 pitches close together to reach Alain which was belaying us from the top of the 3 rd pitch. After that we decided to simul climb the rest of the climb.......Edgardo was all fired up and fresh so he started leading with about 30 draws hanging off his harness. He was able to link up the next 5 pitches in one go.......I have to say it was a little scary at some times cause Edgardo was skipping a lot of bolts and the three of us were all climbing at the same time. There was a rope but it felt more like soloing cause if any one of us had fallen it wouldn't of been good.........Luckily all went well and we reached the top of the 13 pitch in 2 hours and headed down emmidiatly. The winds were strong and it was getting dark so we didn't want to waist any time. We reached the bottom and Dane was waiting for us with a little safety treat. It was 9 0clock at that point and we had been climbin and rapping for 13 hours. The goal was 50 pitches but we were exausted and to find motivation to go back up another route was extremely hard so we stopped there. We still managed to climb over 3000 feet in 13 hours which we're happy with. I'll never forget how much pain the feet can actually take.

El Potrero Chico Mexico

2008-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

After a long 15 hour drive from Austin, we finally pulled in to Homero's campground at 3:30 am. The boarder crossing was interesting, we finally got out of Laredo and reached our first check stop and realized we had forgotten to get our bike permits. We had to turn around and head back to the vehical registration place. That put us back almost 4 hours. I was happy to pull in at Homero's and set my tent close my eyes and go to sleep.

Life in the Potrero

2008-04-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Life is good here in the Potrero. The climbing season is from October all the way through March. From what we can see it's mostly Canadians and Americans that come here to escape the cold winters of North America. Alot of locals from Monterrey come here on the week end to get away from the city. It's a pretty sweet set up here. There's about 6 campgrounds and three restaurants to choose from. It's about 3 - 5 $ a night for camping depending on which campground you choose and how long you stay. 1 $ for a beer and 2 $ for a big caguama which is 2.5 beers. A meal runs you about 3 - 7 dollars and if you decide to cook your own food it even gets a lot cheaper. You can survive on 10 - 15 $ a day here with no problems.

Fitness Semana Wall

2008-04-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

Excellent Climbing if your willing to crimp down on 13's. It's for sure one of the best walls here but it's hard climbing. Very thin and technical with a little overhang. Most people leave their draws for a couple of days and project routes here.

Morning Yoga @ Homero's

2008-04-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

Alain's been motivating people to do morning yoga by the pool.

Bouldering in Plutonia cave

2008-04-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

After climbing lots of small crimps we decided to go check out the cave. Lots of good boulder problems with big holds. It's always good to switch it up and climb different stuff.

Coulo De Gato

2008-04-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

Edgardo Baca working his project............5.14 a/b

Estrellita...12 pitches 5.10 a

2008-03-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Potrero Chico Mexico

2008-03-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

Edwardo on Mother Ship connection, 5.13a.....
John Garcia climbing on Nemo, 5.13b

Moab Power Sports

2008-02-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

We'd liked to thank Kelly Chamberland ( owner of Moab Power Sports ) for getting our bikes all nicely tuned up and ready for the journey ahead of us. Him and his crew did a great job working on our bikes. We drove 1200 miles since the tune up and the bikes are running better than ever. If ever your traveling through Moab and you need any mechanical help with your bike, Moab Power Sports is the place to go. They're as good as it gets.

www.moabpowersports.com

Award winning Images for the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival

2008-02-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

1 st Prize Mountain Sports
Calixte LeBlanc on Gravity's Test's First Ascent, Ouray Colorado, US
2 cd Prize Mountain Culture
A local driving by in Cambodia

Images by Alain Denis
This is Alain's 5 th time entering this contest and 8 images have won since then.

www.vimff.org

Editor/ Founder of SummitJournal.com

2008-01-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

Holly Edelson

Editor and Gear Reviewer Holly Edelson was awarded the Shipton - Tilman Grant for a solo winter unsupported sea kayak expedition through 1600 km of the Inside Passage. She is an elected Fellow of The Explorer's Club for her graduate research on arctic wolves, caribou, moose and bear at the institute of Arctic Biology. Holly's solo kayak expedition along some of the roughest areas of the Alaskan coast were firsts or rarely done solo, at a pace of 65 - 100 km per day. She is an ice and alpine climber having climbed around the Antarctic peninsula, the Alaska and Hayes Ranges (including Denali), the Alps, Himalayas, and soloed mountains in eastern Alaska. She began exploring on many 800 - 1600 km solo bike expeditions across Alaska and the Yukon , summer and winter, covering 130 - 290 km a day, camping in her bivy sack in the snow. She has biked through the tundra in winter (-45 F ) and raced canoes 1000km in 4 days in the Yukon. Holly has given lectures and workshops in New York City on winter kayaking, winter survival strategies, solo expeditions, navigation, tides and currents, and expedition planning.

2008-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

All you need is Red Bull

Moonlight Mission

We decided to go on a Moonlight Marathon. We climbed 800 meters from 8 pm to 9 am. It was a lot of fun climbing under full moon. We did a photo shoot as well. Al got really creative and pulled out some really wicked shots. most of them are long exposures.

Calixte Looking at his testpiece

Gravity's Test was the third climb we did and was by far the wildest night climb we'd done. It took me a while to motivate myself to get on this icicle. I'm glad I did though.

At this moment in time I'm about to place my last screw and head for the finish. The only problem was that I accidently dropped my screw and was left with no other screw about 2 meters from my last placement and about 8 meters from the top. I had no choice but to keep going and run it out. I remember getting in a certain zone that I don't see to often. If I were to fall from the top it wouldn't of been good. Luckily I held it together and made it safely. I'll always remember that 10 minutes of my life.

Jay Smith and Kitty Calhoun

2008-01-16T22:38:00.000-08:00

Jay Filming the Ice Comp , Ouray Colorado

Kitty showing us her beautiful smile

Kitty climbing Le Pissoir WI5

We've been climbing quite a bit with Jay and Kitty. Here we're in the Ice Park getting a little training done for future big routes. Kitty's climbing a nice long route right of the upper bridge.

Jay Smith on Mixed Emotions M6 WI6 5.9

Here's Jay on the second pitch of mixed emotions. A very thin rock and ice start. We were happy Jay was there to lead the whole thing cause it definitly took experience and balls to pull off what he did. He placed nuts, cams and pitons before even touching the ice. Once he got on the ice it wasn't over. Very technical thin ice all the way up to the first anchor, which was a combination of a piton, wire nut and a screw. I'm glad it was him and not me. But watching him in the zone was very inspiring and motivating to learn more about mix climbing and the techniques used to do so. Alain and I felt like we were on a Alpine route. Very cool route.

Ice Climbing under the stars

2008-01-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

Gravitational Pull WI6

We climbed this route in the middle of the night which was a blast. I got to climb my first really hard pitch in the dark and Alain took some wicked photos as you can see. The funny thing was that i got about 25 meters up there and my head lamp fell off my helmet and I was about 2 meters above my last screw. I was left in the dark in an awkward but yet reasonably good position. I kept calm and place a screw in what I thought was good ice. It turned out it was cause I sat on it lit up a smoke and untied my rope , lowered it to Alain and then he tied my head lamp to the rope and sent it off to me .....I finished my smoke of course and took of for the summit.........

2008 Ouray ice Festival

2008-01-16T22:28:00.001-08:00

Ines Papert of Germany came in 2nd overall and First female.

Winner of the comp - mens division - Jeff Mercier, Chamonix France

First Ascent of Gravity's Test WI6+, Calixte LeBlanc and Alain Denis

2008-01-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

A 35 meter free hanging pillar. Over Hang to vertical climbing . As I looked at this wild piece of ice i thought to myself why do I climb?????????? I didn't really know what to tell myself so I just got my shit ready and climbed up. When I got to the top the feeling inside was more than clear. Nothing beets the feeling of success when it comes down to climbing.......
Here comes the pump fest.......
Here they are : Gravitational Pull WI6 on the left and Gravity's Test WI6+ on the right.
Cal having a sip of hot chocolate, before heading out to Gravity's Rainbow WI5 on the left.

Ice Climbing In Colorado

2007-12-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

Ouray Ice Park

The Park in Ouray is perfect for early season training. The avalanche conditions are high at the moment so hanging out at the park is what we've been doing mostly. We hope to get an open window of good weather to do a few classic routes in the following week or so.

The first few steps of " Get it while you can" a new ice route in Ouray. It's one long pitch , a few technical spots but nothing to crazy. WI4 and a few moves on rock .

Driving dirt bikes in snow... what a trip! Getting them started is the main thing . They seem to dislike the cold lately, at least this time they did. We had to boost them with Jay's truck.

Chasing the light in Arches Nat Park

2007-12-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

Calixte LeBlanc
We had a slow start that day but eventually we made it out of the house and went for a drive in Arches National Park. It' s been snowing non stop for the past 24 hours so it's very different looking landscapes. The snow makes it all the more interesting....

Driving through Arches was a little chill, but being Canadian we can handle it. The big challenge with driving in cold is how long you can with stand the cold air with out stopping. Stopping is good to warm up and it's an opportunity to take pictures. We stop a lot, we're in no rush but this day in particular we were chasing the light. It seem to be running away from us.

Landscapes of Utah

2007-12-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

As a Photographer, the desert offers many photographic opportunity.

"The sun always seems to be in the way" someone once told me... I just always

include it in my shots.
This photo was taken at Gemini Bridges, few minutes before sunset.

One of the most beautiful views of Canyonlands, Mesa Arch

Sunset on Fisher Towers, some of the most impressive climbing lines in Utah.

Castleton Tower, one of the most climbed tower in the desert.

Photos by Alain Denis

Bouldering Big Bend Moab / Utah USA Dec 7th

2007-12-09T00:49:00.000-08:00

Calixte LeBlanc
Traversing the Mushroom Boulder. Always a good warm up, before hitting the crimps. Big Bend's got it all. World class bouldering in Moab's back yard.

Renee

Renee is our new roommate. We met her three weeks ago and she's invited us to stay with her for the Xmas holidays. We couldn't resist an offer like that so we set base camp # 2 in Moab. We've already spent two weeks with her and she's been an enormous help to us. Not only as she welcomed us in to her home but she's been a great friend to us as well.

Lauren
Lately we've been bouldering a lot. The weather has been a little on the rainy side, but in the late afternoons we hit the boulders for a good work out. Lauren and Zeke are locals we spend our afternoons with at Big Bend. Zeke's three years old and he's already scaling the boulders.
Lauren and her son Zeke

Photos by Alain Denis

Cracks at Indian Creek Nov 20th 2007

2007-12-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

Cat Wall, climber gets last call on Wild Cat.

Fiona Abraham on another 10+ Super Crack Butress

   Hanging out at Meat wall.... the view is OK??? Actually, as you can see it's more than "OK" . We had friends from all over Canada and the USA reunite here for Thanks Giving, 2007. There was about 10 of us from Canada and 10 from the US . We had excellent climbing days followed by good friends eating dinner together around a nice fire.
   Lots of Gear... Preparing before a climb is necessary , It always helps when you know exactly what you need to bring for each individual climb. They all require lots of gear. Alain and I only brought 6 cams total. Most people here with a standard rack consist of 50 - 70 cams. Never would we be able to travel on our bikes with that amount of gear, luckily we had a lot of friends sharing their gear with us so we could climb these amazing cracks.
   Darrel on Dos Hermanos 5 11+

This is my second time spending thanks Giving with Darrel and it woudn't be the same with out him. He's a great story teller around a fire, and he always makes sure that everyone has what they need to relax after a hard day of climbing. He's also a great rope gun. He's been climbing there for a few years now and has climbed a number of routes. He's great to have around cause he seems to be able to jump on anything and be successful.

Sore feet sore Hands... that's what the creek is all about!

Photos by Alain Denis

2007-12-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL THANKS

- PATAGONIA

Sterling Climbing Ropes

- Black Diamond Equipment

- MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT CO-OP

- Turbo City

- INTEGRAL DESIGNS

Jasper Motor Cycle Tours

- GRAVITY GEAR &

- The Fitzhugh Newspaper

JASPER, ALBERTA

Base Jumping Moab Nov 28 2007

2007-12-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

One day we were climbing at Wall Street along Potash road and we looked up and saw something fall from the sky. As it got closer we realized it was a base jumper. By the time Alain and I got our camera gear ready a second one had already came down. We were ready for the third one though. This video is from that day.

Some love the adrenaline!!!

Video by Calixte LeBlanc

White Rim trail, Moab Utah

2007-12-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Cal ripping around the desert

We spent a couple of days camping on the edge of the canyon lands. It's amazing the places you can access on a dirt bike. This campground here is on BLM land. You can sleep where ever you want. It's awesome it's exactly what Alain and I look for when we travel FREE CAMPING

Here's a shot of Cal drinking his morning coffee. It doesn't get much better than this. This is by far our nicest camping spot yet. A friend of ours from Alpine, Wyoming Steve Dicenso, invited us to camp with them at their usual spot. We saw them in down town Moab and they drew us a map on how to get there. We almost didn't find it but luckily we did. We stayed here for three nights. Had a great time.

Photos by Alain Denis

Indian Creek, Thanks Giving Reunion 2007

2007-12-06T17:06:00.000-08:00

Darrel and Calixte taping up.

Darrell teaching me how to tape my hands, properly, I've never really crack climbed so I needed a little help with my taping technique. Tape helps the pain the Creek enforces on everyone. The sun was beating when we arrived at the Creek. Beautiful sunshine for a week, but day by day getting a little colder as december rolls in...

We woke up the morning after Thanks Giving in a foot of fresh snow.

It was time to come back to Moab.

Photos by Alain Denis

Fisher Towers, Moab Utah

2007-12-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

Hiking around the Fisher Towers

is like walking in a giant sand castle land. A magical landscape.

Climbing is good here... if you're up to dirt climbs!

Photos by Alain Denis

Onion Creek

2007-12-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

Cal having a little fun cleaning his bike, and the chaps! There must of been twenty of theses title river crossings. We had a blast ripping through them all day.

Our first night in Moab

2007-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

It's two in the morning, we'd been driving since sunset, we were tired and wanting to arrive in Moab. I told Alain; lets pull over and find a flat spot to sleep and we'll go to Moab in the morning. He didn't seem to have a problem with that, so we agreed to pull over at the next road we see. So we turn right on to the road. To my surprise we hit a sand pit and I went down three times. I wasn't even in Moab 5 minutes and already I dipped my bike..............
We arrived at David Schipper's compound as we call it on Sept.28 2007. We heard he was showing a slide show on his recent expedition on K2. Alain and I though it would be a good place to meet some locals and get some info on Moab and the climbing area's around. As it ends up we stayed there for about a month. David or should I say "Schipper" showed the utmost hospitality towards us and made us feel at home in his home. As our stay progressed at David's we helped him with a few things he had to do around the compound. It was a beautiful place to wake up everyday and start the morning with a nice fresh cup of coffee and beautiful sun shining in our faces.

Yellowstone National Park

2007-12-06T16:36:00.001-08:00

Yellowstone is an interesting place.

Lots of tour bus, the park sees lots of traffic.

But we were lucky to be in off season with not so many tourists.

Climbing American Fort , Salt Lake city, Utah

2007-12-06T16:07:00.001-08:00

Alex Terrance

Alex and Calixte climbing at American Forks, Great Sport climbing, only 45min drive from Salt Lake City.

Photos by Alain Denis

Climbing the Grand Teton 13 770 feet Oct 14 / 2007

2007-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

We stoped here at 4 am in the dark surrounded by boulders and snow. It was time to pick a flat spot and establish base camp # 1 . We woke up the next morning at 9:30 am, packed our gear and headed up the boulder field. We didn't take the right trail and ended up by crossing 3 separate boulder fields. We arrived at the base of the route and it was already 4 pm. We were moving extremely slow. We decided to head back and try another way the next day. We found the trail on our way down. It was a lot faster going down in the trail. It'll a be a lot faster for next time we go up and attempt the route

Our first climbing destination was the Grand Tetons. We left at midnight with a 60 pound pack on shoulders made our up the valley guided by our little head lamps. We had enough food to feed a small country. We spent the following 4 days in this magnificent valley. Our 3 rd day we climbed the Owen Spalding route.
As you can see by the picture it was full on mountaineering conditions. We got about 100 feet from the summit and decided to turn around because of the ice on the route. None the less we had a great time.

Photos by Alain Denis

Entering Montana Oct 5 / 2007

2007-12-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

Entering Montana was our first big challenge. They wanted to know everything about us and our bikes.

Alain did most of the talking or should I say flirting. He said all the right things cause here we are driving in Big Sky country. Photo by Alain Denis

Day 1 Sept 28/2007 Leaving the Canadian Rockies

2007-12-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

Our only problem was saying good bye to Ice Climbing Paradise for the next 3 - 4 years...............

September 11th 2007, Alain and I organized and evening of live music and Photography.

We raised $1000 to donate to people in need all over the world. Some of the funds will go towards helping rebuild homes and schools that where lost in Hurricane Dean that hit Mexico and Central America in late august this year.

We would like to thank all our friends and family, and the locals of Jasper for supporting our cause.

Cal & Al

Our first day on the road was a little cold, but the feeling of freedom kept us warm. Never will we ever forget that day....The beginning of a long journey.

Photos by Alain Denis

Cal & Al Mission on motorbikes... a journey from Jasper Canada to Costa Rica

How did we get to South America?

Panama City...

A "fishy" camp spot

Keeping in touch with friends and family

Panama... here we come!

Lost in San Jose...

A whole new Year coming up!

Merry Xmas

Tomas Bellander & Jorgen Kard playing in their Kayaks, Santa Teresa

small waves but lots of sunshine

Surf school

*Focus*

Another day in Paradise.....

Santa Teresa ...

Santa Teresa Costa Rica

COSTA RICA!!!

Adios Nicaragua...

Sweet beach of Marsella

Surf Mission to Papoyo

Two Border Crossings in a day

light show at El Zonte

Check out our New Video

just a few new images .... still in El Zonte!

Eldorado at night...

So what are we doing..... 6 weeks later

Yoga time!

Cooooooooffffeeeeeeeee... mmmmm

Right Place at the Right Time...

El Dorado Saint Jean Baptiste El Zonte

Surfing in El Zonte El Salvador

Crazy Market in ChiChicastenango

Antigua

Broken racks and frames

Little Rain

Languin to Panajachel (Lago de Atitlan)

El Estor to Languin on dirt roads

Melchor de Mencos to Rio Dulce

A quick Tire change

A visit in Crooked Tree village, Belize

Tulum Mexico

Holiday from a Holiday

At last... back to the Beach... Cancun

The long 300 KMs stretch from Merida to Cancun

The Coconut Road

Back to the Gulf Coast

Thank you to the Guevara Family.

A day in High altitude, Orizaba 5747 meters Highest Volcano in North America

Visiting the sites of Cholula and Puebla

Right place at the Right Time...

Costa Esmeralda (Gulf Coast)

Xilitla to Gulf Coast

Xilitla - Posa Edward James

Voladores de Papantla - El Tajin

Along the road...

The Journey to Real de Catorce

Driving through the canyon of El Salto to Galeana

Climbing in El Salto

Chilling at Carlos' Sweet Casa

On the summit of Pico Independencia

Climbing Via Ferrata of the Pico Independecia

The Potrero Marathon

El Potrero Chico Mexico

Life in the Potrero

Fitness Semana Wall

Morning Yoga @ Homero's

Bouldering in Plutonia cave

Coulo De Gato

Estrellita...12 pitches 5.10 a

Potrero Chico Mexico

Moab Power Sports

Award winning Images for the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival

Editor/ Founder of SummitJournal.com

Jay Smith and Kitty Calhoun

Ice Climbing under the stars

2008 Ouray ice Festival

First Ascent of Gravity's Test WI6+, Calixte LeBlanc and Alain Denis

Ice Climbing In Colorado

Chasing the light in Arches Nat Park

Landscapes of Utah

Focus