Not Long to Go Now

Firstly these are just a few pics of South Island New Zealand , beautiful for hiking and just the best for Motorbiking (scenery to die for down there )

As to my return to the trip , all is going well for me to arrive Guatemala October, I now have my ID number (thanks to Julio) so i can buy a bike there . I am looking at getting a 650KLR Kawasaki as I feel it will be about bang on as far as size goes for the trip down south . Hopefully i will be able to get a secondhand bike and then be able to sell it on in Buenos Aires or Rio which ever I get to .

Me knee is a shit load better now that I have had all the steal work removed . But it is still not 100% and never will be , but you have to live with what you got and get on with life .

We are still going to Spain first for a month and hire a car and have a look around , with Ruth going home from there and me going on down to Guatemala .

Time to Start Planning

Well its been a few months now since I have been home recuperating from the accident . Next month (21st March ) I will be having the Plate and Pins removed from my knee . My knee is really coming along now and gaining in strength every day . I have been going to the Gym 4 days a week working it out real hard and it is paying off in leaps and bounds

I have been a little worried (and still are ) that my knee will not regain enough strength to handle a bike this year , so i can return to finish the trip . But you have to make a decision and say Bugger it I'm going and make it happen , so the planning is on the way.

Ruth and I will be going to Spain on the 1st September for 1 month and then I will go on down to Guatemala , Ruth will carry on home back to NZ . We decided that it is not really a trip to be 2 up and Ruth is not a Bike Rider , which is a real bugger because it would just so great to have Ruth along with me , we are such good team .

Julio is going to start to look for a bike for me in Guatemala City and both him and i will make to trip down to Ushuaia . Just as to for how long and which way we go is still in the planning , but there is only one way and that is down .

As for a bike I'm thinking a KLR Kawasaki 650 , something light and easy to manoeuvre with a gummy leg . Even though my leg is better it will never be as good as before , because of the balls up the surgeon made on my knee in Guatemala it is now bent quite badly to the left and walking to far with out a stick is impossible (hey but I can walk ) .

The Cat is Basil he is a Maine Coon (a real neat cat )

Life at the beach NZ style what a bugger

Next post in a month

Guatemala and the New Adventure Starts at Home 20 11 2010

In was in hospital for 20 days in Guatemala after the operation and had some really good Physio on my knee and got it moving good before I left went back to NZ .

In the mean time Julio keep me busy by taking me out just about every day for lunch or dinner (and he is a great cook ) or to see the sites of Guatemala .

Guatemala city would have to be the most dangerous city in the world that I have been to ( and I have been to a lot ) . The guns and crime is just rife , the murder rate is Hugh and the with only around 1% solved it is not a nice place to live . Julio's son has been held up 3 times at gun point for this cell phone in the middle of the day , the day we arrived there was a big shoot out about 3 blocks from the hospital , there were 7 dead and 15 wounded . You know also when you are in a dangerous place when they have 3 armed guards in Mc Donald's . But the best or worst I saw was a Bus that was shoot up , we came across it up on the medim strip with bullet holes all down one side and the front windows blown out (this was 7 o'clock in the morning ). The bus driver was not hit but the 2 guards on board were seriously ill in hospital , they never said how many Indians were killed (there must have been some) . Anyway the driver had not paid his protection money to the gangs and so they just shoot them . It is quite common as they told me back at the hospital , and it was quite sad that they were just so blazie about it and were not that taken back by it . They just seemed so accustomed to it as if that is the way life is , and there I guess it is .

Unfortunately the surgeon has made a real mess of my knee and now it looks like there is not a lot that can be done other than a new knee at some time in the next couple of years or so . But time will tell and we will see how well i can walk on it . If you look at the Xray you can see that the pin is not even up against the bone and that it has been put in crocked , but the real problem is that half of my bottom knee joint is a lot lower that the other side . All that i hope is that i can walk good enough to be able to continue with the trip next year and then maybe a new knee .

Anyway that is life's journey and you just have to live with what ever goes your way , because that is the way it is .

I will post a new posting at least once a month as to how I am getting on with my leg and with plans for the return

Photos

1. Julio and Lisa , who helped me so much when I was in hospital

2. Me and some of the staff at the hospital in Guatemala , they were just so good to me .

3. Julio took me to some Mayan Ruins just out side Guatemala City , this was the day of the bus shootings

4. Xray of the f##kup of my leg

Guatemala and Disaster

Disaster

The Day started very good with a big breakfast in San Cristobal and then on to the Guatemalan border . We had wanted to be at the border by 9am , by the time we buggered around it was not until about 1pm that we arrived . Well it was like stepping back in time and entering a Medieval Village , it started about 1km before that border and went for about 2km after . There were people every where all just doing business on the side of the road and only leaving enough room for 1 vehicle to pass through at a time .

The border was very easy and we had no trouble at all (after all the stories you tend to hear , it some times makes you wonder if they are just that stories ).

With the bikes all cleared, off we go heading to Quetzaltenango , it would be very hard to get lost as there is only one road out of town and the border . All was good and them it all turned to shit and a new unexpected adventure .

About 20kms from the border I got side swiped by a pickup and went down , not that hard but somehow I landed wrong on my Left Leg so the new Adventure begins

After about 5 mins on the ground and about 30 people all looking at me and wondering what planet I came from, Damon and Jaime got me into a taxi and off to the local clinic for an X Ray .

Well I think that the Xray machine was the first one ever built and took ages to do its job . With that done and about 20 Mosquito Bits (as the clinic was full of Mosies) the doctor arrives and says that my knee is only dislocated and that I should get to the next Town( Huehueitenango) 1 hr away to have it put back in . When the taxi driver heard that my knee was only dislocated he says his brother can put that back in , we quietly refuse .

An ambulance is called and it was not quite what you would expect , it was a Toyota Station Wagon (I would say about 20yrs old ) and they put me in the back with all my gear and strapped me down with car tiedowns onto a mattress , then off we go flatout on a very windie road Huehueitenango .

On the way my thoughts are of a nice hospital and no Mossies (wrong) . We arrive and they backed me in and get me into bed in my cell with a steel door with a string to open it . Then it is to the Xray Room (cockroach's and mosies everywhere) well this is no2 Xray machine that was ever built, with this done the doctor comes and tells us it is badly broken. Also that I need surgery and that no worry he can do it tonight , because it needs to be done within 24hrs to stop any complications . Again we quietly refuse without trying to offend the guy because the last thing we want was for him to through us out in the nite . We had no cell phone coverage or Enet and me with a broke leg that needs to operated on within the next 24hrs . Lucky for me Jaime was on the job and found a girl with a Cell Phone that worked and borrowed it from her .

He then arranged a plane for the morning to fly me to Guatemala and Hospital , we all spent the night in the cell block (lucky I had a can of fly spray) and were up early to go . Jaime checked the plane in the morning and with that arranged another one to come earlier and a $1000us cheaper to pick me up a 7am ( it cost $1500us to fly me out .

We had by now been in touch with the Travel Insurance Company and they were doing all they could to help .

Jaime and Damon had to leave early because it was an 8 hrs ride to Guatemala City , so I was left in my cell to wait for the plane and it was pretty scary . The plane was 3 hrs late due to weather , I was in a panic thinking shit the plane is not coming , Jaime and Damon are going to be 8 hrs away and to top that, I have a Doctor who wants to have a go at my leg in his garden shed and shit nobody speaks English . But all was good and the plane arrived and I was airlifted out ,and arrived in Guatemala about 1hr later , into a beautiful Hospital (what a relief ) . I had the operation that night (it took 4hrs, including a bone graft to my knee).

The guys stayed and helped for a week and arranged to get the bike shipped to the Hospital, then they were on there way , Damon and Jaime were fantastic and I wonder where I would be without them. They fussed around me like a couple of old women (and I loved it )

In the mean time through Horizons Unlimited (a biker web site) I got in touch with Julio Hartmann , he has been fantastic and has arranged every thing about the bike . He has arranged for it to be sold rather then sending it home (it was just to expensive to send home ) . He has been in touch every day and has taken me out to his house for dinner with his family and a day trip to Antigua and tomorrow we are off for breakfast somewhere .How is that for hospitality !!

I am so very lucky to have meet so many nice people on this trip . Especially people like Julio ,Damon, Jaime who even though I have only known them for such a short time , they really put in the time to help me and it very much appreciated . I really feel that I have made alot of new friends for life on this trip .

I have been in Hospital now for about 2 1/2 weeks and have been treated like a king and have been lapping it up .

Wednesday the 3rd I fly back to NZ and to Ruth and the family and I can't wait it will fantastic.

THE NEW ADVENTURE

This is not the end only an interlude , I often think that maybe in am luck to have broken my leg , because if I had not, I would not have meet all the fantastic people in Guatemala.

I will be back next year to finish the trip , if I didn't it would leave a big whole in my life . To have planned the trip for so long and not to finish it, would just not be right .

So thank you very much to all those people who I have meet on the way and all those people that have followed my blog and to all those that have helped along the way with there kindness .

I will be in touch

I THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH

I will update the blog as to my progress with my new adventure, every month or so .

Photos

1. 2 .3 Me a village and Damon and Jaime on the way back from Palneque

4 . 5 The Border Mexico / Guatemala

6. Me being air lifted to Guatemala City and Hospital