Oil and Water Project

Regarding the Douglas, Arizona Waste Vegetable Oil theft case:)

A special thanks to Paddler Magazine, and all of the other folks that called Denny´s on our behalf. Eddy Rivierra, the owner of the Douglas, AZ Denny´s has decided to drop charges on us. Since it has already been entered into the court system, is isn´t really that easy to erase it. We pleaded innocent by fax, and are currently trying to work it out with the local prosecutor so we won´t have to return to Arizona (ever).

We had a major epic on our 36 hour visit to Acapulco. We got completely shot down on our plan to make a quick stop to collect oil, getting trapped in a savage circle of police encounters and accidents.

It was “Full contact driving.” We made contact with other vehicles several times.

As you pull into town, you can either pay 20 bucks to go through the tunnel or take your chances with the summit. We did both.

We visited almost 50 restaurants, and were barely able to scrape together 25 gallons. It has been our first wake-up call on what a mission this trip is going to be, because we hear that if will only get harder further south. Luckily we found 8 gallons more in a small chicken frying restaurant on our way to Puerto Escondido.

All in all, we were pulled over 6 times during our short visit. With each encounter, we easily won them over with our humor and our cause.

Seth has worked as a taxi driver in the past. The locals take a look at the truck on the road, and think they can push us around. Wrong. This taxi driver got a little to pushy, and gave us a full-on broad side.

Lucky for us, our truck is such a beast….we hardly got a scratch.

The taxi didn´t fare quite as well.

We had a heated argument about whose fault it was, but when the police showed up the evidence showed that it obviously wasn´t our fault.

We ended in a 10 dollar pay off to the taxi driver so we wouldn´t have to stick around for a court date.

A special thanks to New Sun Solar! Our military issue solar panels are giving us 100% of all the power we are using. This Solar Panel charges two large battaries each day.

Our first presentation in Spanish was a raging sucess.  School down here just started, and the Esuela Del Mundo is a brand new alternative school.  In order to have your kids go there, the parents much chip in a certain amount of volunteer hours, and the whole community is involved.  They felt very priveledged to have us, and we were very inspired by the results.

They were 5-12 year old kids, so it was a little harder to keep their attention for very long.

We found the hands-on stuff was the most effective.

We can´t wait for the next one!

We have been driving a ton, and trying to make the most of our time here on the Pacific Coast. We have visited, Los Mochis, Mazatlan, Sayulita, Puerto Vallarta, Barra De Navidad, La Ticla, Playa Azul and we are now in Acapulco. We have been logging some serious kayak and surf days, and spreading the word about alternative energy everywhere we go.

Due to the nature of our schedule, we haven´t had much time to kayak any rivers.  The water has been really high, and in order to stay on track, we just haven´t had much time to wait around for rivers like this to subside.  This river was just a bit too high.

Marie and Jolie, the two French Canadian Girls that were camped next to us in Sayulita crammed into the rig with us to venture a bit south.

We found that there is plenty of room in the front of the truck for 6 people!

As we rallyed through Puerto Vallarta, they experienced first hand what it is like to collect free fuel.  It is always cool to see people´s reaction to what we are up to.  This is truly recycling at its very best!

Tomorrow is a big day for us.  At 8am we will have our first official school demonstration at one of the local alternative schools with 30 kids ranging from age 6-14.  The truck will be packed and we will head to Puerto Vallarta in the early afternoon to fill up with veg oil.  Tomorrow night we will travel to Borreo de Navidad, another small surf village, and set up for the weekend there.  Watch soon for an update and photos from our school visit.

SURFS UP!!

The surf has been very managable for a bunch of beginners.  We are totally lovin it.

Soup has been showing us all the moves.

Joe has been cooking up a storm with the locals.

The social setting has been great.  We have been meeting people from all over the world.

Daisy (we re-named her Charlie) has become our official beach Mascot, and hasnt left our side since we arrived.

Yesterday we had a massive demonstration on the beach, and invited everyone from the entire town to join.  We ended with a wonderful group of people, and we all barbequed until late last night.  Some of the locals brought their drums, and we sang songs about Vegetable Oil.

This is the view from our deck!!!

As we rolled through Mazatlan, we took advantage of both the tourist hub, and the small taqurias to find fuel.  We definitely felt like scavengers more then ever, but we easily filled the cone tank with over 50 gallons!  We are finding that the smaller restaurants just empty the oil in the back alley, but some of the bigger ones hold onto it in the 5 gallon jugs that they bought the oil in origionally.
The oil is mostly black and nasty.

Senor Frogs had the best oil we could find.  They even had a collection barrel in the back.

Hey Yall, watch for some photos and a new update this weekend.  We have made it to Sayulita now.  For the first time in Mexico, we are safe.  We have been hunckered down for the last few days in a hotel, hiding from hurricane John….which never actually made it to this lovely little town.  So we are now at the Camp De Camorones, and have the full spread layed out.  This is the first official OWP vacation, some well needed rest.  We have been surfin everyday, the waves are super chill, and perfect for learning.  Photos to come soon, so keep checkin in.  Drop us a note, deep thoughts, or an email with sassy photos.