Blogwagon

Welcome friends and family to the Mungo Park Experience presented by Josh Camire in association with BMW Motorcycles. As many of you know (and some of you do not) I (along with my friend Matteo) am departing Sunday morning June 4th to embark on a several month long exploration of Mexico and Central America by motorcycle. Before you ask the answer is "No, I have neither seen nor read the Motorcycle Diaries". I do plan to indulge once I return, however in the interest of thwarting any preconceived notions about the route, people, places or anything else I may encounter I have abstained from viewing the film prior to the trip.

In the interest of storing and displaying photographs (via Flickr) and hopefully delivering some interesting narratives over the next few months I have jumped on the wood-paneled, white-walled, pine-scented Blogwagon! I have included YOU in the list of people who can ride shotgun in the Blogwagon with the thought that you may be interested in hearing about the trip and also as a way of keeping in touch without having to compose dozens of emails. Please bear with me as I am certain that my punctuation is attrocious and where it not for spell-check my spelling would prove to be even worse. Copy editor's are a writer's best friend.

Currently there is no "plan" or route map to speak of... Departing Sunday morning we will likely stop off in Los Angeles for the night and cross into Baja California on Monday in the late morning/early afternoon. Eventually we will depart by ferry for the 16hr trip from La Paz to Mazatlan on mainland Mexico. From Mazatlan we head southeast eventually ending up in the village of Ranco San Vincente in Zactatecas. This is where Matteo's grandfather was born. Oaxaca is another stop where we will be visiting with Jon McKinley, a friend of mine from the Raw Hyde Adventure Motorcycle course, who runs a bed and breakfast (and reportedly brews some delicious small batch pure agave tequila). There are links to both Raw Hyde Advetures and the Oaxaca Hotel at the right. From there we head back West to the Oaxaca coast in search of a friend of a friend in Puerto Escondido and then southeast again to visit Shavda's place in Santa Cruz on the shores of Lake Atitlan. From there we head from Guatemala into El Salvador where we plan to visit friend's of Matteo's family on the coast.

All of these plans are tentative and subject to change for any reason whatsoever...Stay Tuned!

In case you are wondering the URL for the blog is a nickname given to the type of motorcycle I will be touring on (see pic) the BMW R1200 GS aka. Beastly1200.

Also if you have any curiousity about the title of this blog (what the hell is a Mungo Park?) you can read more here:

http://www.tcboyle.com/page2.html?2

and here:

http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_oxypoet_archive.html