Just so you all know……Your comments are what keeps us updating this blog. We know there are people out there following along with us all the time. We would like our blog to become more of a chat room for folks to get involved with our project and us on a personal level. You can probably imagine how much work it takes to keep this baby updated everyday. Let us know who you are out there and what you are up to as well. Hope to hear from you!
Bye Bye Joe and Soup!
So, we dropped the boys off and are currently waiting in Belize City for Anna, Andy and Jessica…..the next victims! They will be joining us down into Guatemala, maybe longer. Anna has been trying to get a job in Guatemala for the past few days in a hospital, and is taking public trasport up to meet us. Jessica is taking a 10 day stint off from her chemistry job at University of Utah, while Andy is the newest member of the Oil and Water Project support team and will be with us for the next 3 weeks.
The customs officials were about as laid back as they come at the Mexico-Beilize border. They joined us for some Mate (Argentinian Tea).
It is a crazy contrast between Mexico and the English speaking country of Belize indeed. We were just getting used to speaking Spanish.
In case you all were wondering, we get most of our photos with this little watch-like camera called the HERO. It is water proof, and quite concealed allowing us to get photos on the fly.
The classic Mornin´ Swarmin´
We set up in front of the Pelenque Ruins this weekend and talked to hundreds of people on the benefits of alternative energy. We took turns going into see the park.
There has been some nasty stuff growing in the back of the truck. This kid volunteered to help us clean it out.
We´ve been surfing so much lately, we almost forgot we were kayakers….. We will be getting back on the horse soon enough. It was good to get back in the boats for a wiked day of waterfalls on the agua azul!
Seth went deeeeep on this one.
Afterwards, we hired a guide to take us down for a look at some of the lower falls. Lets just say, we are keeping this set of falls in the back pocket. Total sickness, we need to save our backs for the rest of the trip.
Demonstrations
We have been selecting places to set up in each town we visit to conduct public demonstrations on the use of Biofuels and what we are up to. It has been a great way to get the word out on the product and talk to people one on one.
The further south we get, the culture just gets thicker.
And so does the viscosity of our oil for some reason????? Anyone have any ideas why our motor oil would have gelled up???
There has been a crazy transition leaving the coast (a lot of uphill!).
Crossing from Oaxacca into Chiapas, was like landing in another country all together.
Yesterday we hit a Turkey Vulture with the kayaks on top of the truck. The thing practically exploded with guts all over everything. We stopped so this little fella could cross the street.
We´ve landed in San Cristobal, MX. Crazy thing, minutes after we pulled into town we were lost and met this guy that is an alternative energy enthusiast.
He is setting us up with all the veg oil we need. As well, there will be no shortage of school visits and community demonstrations….Stay Tuned. We are going to be basing here for kayak trips the next couple of days, then headed to Pelenque for more action.
Diego and boys took us out for a well needed kayak trip on the Rio Alemana. It was good to get back into the whitewater after 3 weeks of surfing along the coast. The future is bright for kayaking.
The water was up and there was a ton of good playboating. This is a big Argentinan crew, so we were practicing our spanish the whole time. There were teaching a bunch of local 18 year old guys how to raft.
They were surfing the raft!
As always, we are loving it.
It has been a long long journey already. With a combination of frost heaves in Alaska to Topes (speed bumps) here in Mexico, our baby is starting to get a bit loose.
We found that our front bumper had just about worked itself free which would have been a complete disaster. It was really easy to tigten the bolts…. The boys are leaving soon, so we have been cracking the whip on them a bit.
Not 20 minutes later, the bolts on the drive shaft broke free and left us on the side of the road looking for bolts, nuts and washers.
As always Sechronicity kicked in full board. If not for each of these breakdowns, we would never have met up with Team Explor here in Tuaculpa, MX. They are helping us find oil, giving us a place to stay, and taking us to the best rivers in the area! They came driving by when we were broke down on the side of the road, and instantly became our best friends in the area!
Thanks BOYZ!
Our school visit in Puerto Escondido went really well. There is no better way to get on the spanish speaking fast track then to give public presentations. We had a great turn out from all of the parents of the kids, and it went really well.
This place is OK…..Just another West Coast Tourist Trap. We thought it would be a good place to hang out and try to collect some oil….WRONG. We had about 20 restaurants gather oil for us, and only came away with around 8 gallons. Just enough to get us down to the next beach in Huatulca. We have been getting in a bunch of Surf!
