Travel Log Week 8

Monday 21.8.00 Guayaquil Our first move of the day was to the Consulate to confirm our passenger flights for Tuesday AM, but to Rocio's dismay, the Travel Agents had got mixed up and had cancelled the reservations for both days, not just Monday, so we now had no flight out at all for us! Frantic phonecalls eventually produced 3 economy class seats on the 00.50 Continental flight Wednesday AM, but at the horrendous price of US$880, $150 more than we had been booked in business class for tomorrow! We decided to go and pay for these before they got lost again and then went round to see Luis Arteaga before we went back up to check the bikes at Tropicsa, the freighters. There was not problem with the Customs clearance we were told by Luis, and all the papers were passed, but he had recieved a worrying call from the freighters. He drove us up to the airport cargo area where we re-visited the bikes, and were more than a little concerned by the look of the crates. Tropicsa had put some more battens on but they did not look very strong and while we were inspecting them, the 12 guys who'd made the crates arrived to load them; since there was no forklift about, they all grabbed the first crate and manhandled it onto the airfreight pallet waiting on the tug trolley. The bike was swaying around inside and we were afraid it was going to fall over, but they did make it safely up, then chucked the other two on as well. By this time the boss at Tropicsa, Walter Garay had arrived and gave us the news that the shipping price was now $5000 which was a bolt out of the blue. The reason seemed to be that they had given LanChile the weight but none of the dimensions we had told them, and now that the LanChile, loading coordinator Santiago Pages had seen the crates and realised what he was supposed to be loading, he had raised a query, and as is usual with freight when the volumetric weight is greater than the nominal weight, the higher of the two charges applied to our crates. Needless to say this was way over what were had been quoted, like, more than double, and we said it was just not on to change the price after accepting the job. Everyone was very apologetic and genuinely seemed to try to help. Santiago remeasured the crates, and suggested cutting about 1' off the top, which would save volumetric size; it meant the clocks stuck out of the top, so we had to re-open the crates to get the tools out and dismount the Digi readouts. The Tropicsa guys set to with their 2 blunt saws, they were certainly not carpenters, and sawed just enough until they could snap off the tops of the posts. They hammered the crates back together which now looked even more rickety than before and said that in any case the Interpol guy would need to have all the boxes and panniers opened to do the Security checks.

This was another new request, so John had to go back to the hotel to get his keys, but while he was there he phoned to thank Hans Dassau who had asked to be kept informed, "Are you still here?!" said Hans. He also called Rocio and let her know that the flights might need changing yet again, and Wilson who we had arranged to spend the afternoon with when we stupidly thought we'd just be waiting for check-in time. No chance of that now! Meanwhile Adam asked to see the head man at LanChile Cargo, as Tropicsa said it was not their fault and there was nothing they could do. So Paul watched the cardboard covers being made for the clocks while Adam talked with Joachin Aguirre, the Operations Cheif, who again was really helpful once he understood the problem and referred to his boss in Chile to see what they could do. After some while, he returned and said that although it was not LanChile's fault either, they could offer a 20% discount on the rate which got the price down to just under $4000, still way over the top and still nothing in writing from anyone! We said that we would have to consider our position as we had cancelled all our Seafreight options on Friday when we confirmed the "agreed" Airfreight price and since it now turned out that Interpol could not make it until 06.00 tomorrow, we thought it best to touch base with the Consulate, just to see if we were being given the runaround. Oh, by the way, it was also now necessary to let the tyres down too!

Chris Baileys' face said it all when we told him the position, he was flabbergasted but felt it was probably more down to miscommunication between the freighter and the airline and lack of attention to detail, than an attempt to hike the price. He very kindly put a call in to one of the directors of LanChile/Transocean at his home to see if he could help. Walter Franco said he'd try, but please phone him with the exact details at the office in the morning. So once again, just when we thought we had got something sorted out, every little thread had unravelled during the day and we were now left effectively with the choice of accepting the new price, or pulling the bikes off airfreight as we are pretty sure that there are no other carriers who would handle the bikes at all, which would then mean going back round all the seashipping agents. Luis Arteaga said he could get a seafreight charge nearer $1000, but of course we would be waiting for 2 weeks minimum to get the bikes back on the road, and it would proably still be Miami, or ride the whole of Central America from Panama, either of which would put us right out of time due to winter starting to close down Alaska. What a choice to have to make and we were hardly in the most constructive frame of mind to be looking at new options.

We filled Wilson in on the days problems, had another meal in the Hotel and a few beers to relax. Adam nipped round to the Internet shop again to email Natwest at home and ask for a further amount of cash to be Same Day transferred to a local bank in case we needed it tomorrow. We really could not decide clearly what to do for the best, as we could not afford to lose any more time and yet the extra cost of the airfreight would seriously hit the budget and may mean we would run out of cash to complete the run to Alaska. On a slightly brighter note, but again indicating how little things keep tripping us up, we recieved our mails fine, one of which was news that no-one could figure out the sending problem, so we just hit the button again and would you beleive it (yes!) it worked fine. Why, who knows, but at least you would all be up to date again, and one of the incoming mails was from our return shippers in Canada who say that the roads up to Anchorage are mostly paved now, and the weather forecast for September is not too bad, though some of the high passes may have snow and ice(!). So, far from relaxing from lunchtime onwards and looking foward to a nice daytime flight via Panama to Houston and being back on the road Thursday, everything was now back up in the air (not), and to cap it all we had to arrange alarm calls for 05.00 in order to be at Tropicsa for 06.00 when the Interpol man was due to inspect the bikes; so much for a relaxing break in the trip, we are completely stressed out with this, we've done nothing for the last week but try to organise things, with complete lack of success so far!

Tuesday 22.8.00 Guayaquil We got our alarm calls at 0500 and were in a taxi up to the airport for 06.00, but no breakfast as the canteen does not open that early. Of course, as expected there was no-one at the warehouse and we sat about for 20 minutes till Santiago of LanChile found us, and told us that the Interpol guy would not now be here till 07.30, so we carried on waiting. We decided that we would do all the paperwork and checks for the airfreight, then put the call in to Walter Franco at 09.00 to see if he could help, and leave it to the last moment to commit or not when we were sure what the best price would be. We would then still have the option to pull the bikes out if we wanted. Santaigo turned up again and took us over to the LanChile quarantine area and finally we were taken airside to see the bikes checked. Security said No, only one person, so after a brief but forceful discussion, it was agreed we could go in one at a time. Inside the Interpol guys were opening all sorts of boxes, looking for drugs and contraband; there were flowers and big peices of fish all over the place being turned inside out and Santiago said they do in fact find quite a bit of stuff. The bikes were already queued on the rollers for loading, looking very out of place; it seemed fair enough that they were quite concerned about security on the bikes as of course there was no way to x-ray them, and the Interpol guy wanted everything opened instead. Naturally, to extract the bags and panniers from the crates was pretty much impossible, so it was dismantle time again, first up was Adam's bike, the guy wanted to look in the fuel tank, and before he could be stopped banged it all over with the back of his knife to see what sound it made, thanks for those nice chips and dents! The seat had to be lifted so he could check the toolkit, and he was getting round to opening the very expensive "sealed for life" battery until it was explained that it was impossible to take apart. Next up Paul, the guy wanted to see inside the topbox, and rather than wait till Paul got the lid back on the pannier he had just finished inspecting, he tried to open it the wrong way round and broke the lid off at the hinges. Paul, who had just about had enough by this time, went mad at the guy, who ran off, and someone else had to finish inspecting that bike. They got some clingfilm and put the box back together, those Newquay and Padstow stickers have taken a hell of a beating in the last 6000 miles! Finally John went in and had to open all his stuff, tent, sleeping bag, mosquito net (first time thats' been out!) and inner tubes, but eventually they were satisfied. Except that at the last minute, someone found the sniffer dog, and they made the poor old dog stick his nose down the Oil Filler hole on each bike, he looked really disgusted So, this meant that the bikes were cleared to fly, and all we had to do now was try and finalise the price.

We picked up Wilson who had just finished his shift and went back to the room to phone Sr Franco at 09.00 sharp, he took all the details and said he'd look into it. We waited till 10.30, when Luis Arteaga phoned to say we needed to go back to the LanChile Cargo office at the airport for ourselves to be checked by Security and they were beginning to panic as the flight leaves at 14.00. We met up there with Joachin Aguirre and his Security Chief, and explained once again to Joachin that we were really in an impossible position through no fault of our own and had he heard from Sr Franco. He had, but they had not been able to offer anything better in such a short timeframe, we asked about sponsorship, refunds, getting us on the flight as well to save our fares, getting a cheaper passenger flight with them, but it was all impossible to do. The Security guy has direct experience of Downs Syndrome issues and they really did try, quite apart from the normal pressure of getting a plane away on time. We had no doubt that they'd done all they could, but still no-one owned up to misleading us in the first instance, and we were now having to carry the can for someone elses' mistake. So we went outside for a conference and decided that if we had to start again looking for shipping, we were likely to spend almost as much in extra hotel and living costs, so to hell with it, we'd had enough messing about, we needed to get out and back on the road with enough time to do the rest of the trip sensibly, even though money would be a problem later. We told Joachim this, and he promised that the Pallets would definately get loaded on this flight, as the outstanding issue was now paying Tropicsa for the Airway Bill, which could not be done before the plane left as they do not have credit card facilities. LanChile were not bothered as they just bill Tropicsa, so it was straight on for the bikes.

We took a taxi 6 up (in this one the guy had to turn the steering constantly from lock to lock to keep it in a straight line, (we asked what a Lada estate in this condition was worth and they reckoned US$2000!) with Wilson and Walter of Tropicsa down to the bank to collect the cash; we had been advised by fax from the UK earlier this morning that it was cleared and ready to collect at Banco de Guayaquil. Paul & John went in to the travel agent as it was just before the 3pm cutoff time for confirmation on the seats, while the others went to the bank. It was kind of unreal when the girl came back and said that no, they had no record of funds arriving for us; just what else could go wrong with this "simple" matter of getting 3 bikes and 3 people over Columbia. The sense of unreality continued as after more questioning and looking, they eventually did find the funds, but Natwest had directed them to an account which had now been closed by the bank here, so it was impossible to draw on them. Well, plan B, there was a Mastercard main office just over the street, so we all trailed over there to get either a draft made out or cash, no problem. Except that now it turned out that they could not do drafts, just cash, and they could only issue a maximum of $1000 which would not help at all. We dropped in at the travel agents yet again to say that there was now another problem and could we delay till tomorrow. No, the next avaliable seats out were on Saturday! As we were walking back down the road, Walter asked Wilson why we were laughing and we had to explain the phrase, "if I didn't laugh I'd cry", which they both liked. Back at the Consulate, Chris Bailey phoned Banco de Guayaquil to establish exactly what the problem was, so that we could advise Natwest how they saw it from here. That done, Plan C and our last chance was the Consulate/Agripac themselves, to see if they could take Mastercard and invoice us then pay Tropicsa locally themselves, however despite their best endeavours to help, this ultimately proved impossible too. So, completely out of options, we were now stuck, without the Airway Bill we could not release our bikes from Customs in Houston and without payment we were certainly not going to be given the Bill. Plus if we left and there were further hiccups, we'd never sort it out from a distance if our experience so far here was anything to go by. Reluctantly we decided it was best for John and Paul to fly tonight as planned, while Adam would stay behind to sort the cash out in the morning, given that Natwest in the UK would be 6 hours ahead of us so by the time Banco de Guayaquil opened the funds should be in the right place, and it would then be a simple case of going around paying everyone, collecting the paperwork, and getting the next flight out on standby to catch up with the others.

Yet another gruelling day, very stressful and still no final result, we went back to the Sol de Oriente for dinner. While Paul & John packed, Adam went round to the Internet shop to email and fax Natwest and Martins Rubber in the UK to tell them the problem as we understood it from this end, so that hopefully someone could get on it first thing in the morning. Despite the distraction of "American Werewolf in Paris" on Cinecanal, the boys got away on time to the airport and we joked about the flight tickets accidentally being cancelled or something, though by now we were half serious! Sure enough though, Continental had overbooked the flight by 25 people, and after a lot of haggling, the boys ended up back in Guayaquil just after midnight in a 5 star hotel booked onto the 06.30 flight via Panama and with a $300 credit for later use.

So all in all an organisational nightmare, you cannot seem to get any action or firm result when you need it and we have really come to appreciate just how smoothly the Import into Chile went. A mere 3 days to clear the paperwork and ride out, even more thanks retrospectively to Maria and the boys in Shed #4 in Punta Arena. In the 6 weeks after that we rode 5820 miles north with "only" the weather, traffic, dogs, llama's and extremely dangerous roads to worry about. Now we've spent 10 days running around in circles going flat out trying to sort a shipping route out, and that does not include hours of time from Wilson, plus Chris & Rocio from the Consulate pulling all the strings they can and we still have not moved on. Oh well, at least the bikes have left (we hope) and may get to Houston in one bit if the clingfilm holds the crates together long enough, all we have to do now is pay, and get ourselves there!

Giant Iguana, well, 3' long	Rocio Torres and the Crusaders outside The Consulate/Agripac Guayaqiul	The Agripac/Consulate building, our home from home in Guayaquil
Click on photo for larger image

Tuesday 22.8.00 pm & Wednesday 23.8.00 Guayaquil to Houston, Texas (John & Paul's Day) We said goodbye to Adam at the Sol de Oriente after hailing the nearest Taxi, which was a nail, of course. At the airport we went straight to the check in, and straight away the clerk said the flight was over booked, and immediately they offered us a 1st class Hotel for the night, an upgrade to 1st class for the trip and $300 vouchers each. We weren't surprised, as a lot of people had told us that Continental often runs late and is over booked. So, without even checking in, it was off to the Hotel for a cappuchino and hot chocolate each, and we asked for an early call at 3.30 as we had to be back at the airport at 4 am but we had a feeling in our bones it would not happen somehow. We phoned Adam from the room with a "guess what" call which we videoed at both ends; we were actually quite happy to be on the daytime flight with a chance to see the Panama Canal, and it was now much better value than the economy class flight we'd had to pay more for! No alarm call came so we rushed downstairs and just caught the bus, and at the airport there was a big queue and it looked like cattle being herded in pens, so as we were now 1st class, we walked past the "Donkeys" to the front of the queue and checked through, but still had to pay the $25 airport tax, which was a surprise, and the guy refused to take credit cards and we had to go back in the queue for the departure lounge. John went off shopping and came back with a Tshirt after 20 minutes, to go with his hat collection. When the flight was called there was a headlong rush for the doors, and when we eventually got to our seats there were people and bags all over the place. Paul asked them to hurry up and get rid of the Donkeys to the back seats and close the curtains so we could relax! Once in the air breakfast was served, fresh fruit and juicy strawberries to start, followed by omlette and sausages, and every time we clicked our fingers an Orange Juice and Gin & Tonic appeared as if by magic, wonderful.

We flew into Panama airport and saw the ships funneling in and along the Canal, really impressive. The Terminal building was quite big and we went into the Boarding Gate for the onward flight, but John decided he needed the loo and disappeared and still had not come back when they called us on. Paul decided he was not going to miss the flight, so he left Johns' bags with the Hostess, and took his carefully taped up carrier bag on board, lowering the tone in 1st class. John reappeared with more Tshirts and we set off for Houston. Lunch was 4 courses with silver service, and as much icecream as you could eat; they kindly made special arrangements to unload John at Houston as he'd eaten too much icecream and couldn't move. A lovely flight and we got out of the Terminal and took a taxi to LanChile Cargo, we were shocked to pay $7 for a 2 minute ride, and as LanChile said we had to go to Foward Air, we had to pay another $7 to get there. They needed the Airway Bill number to trace the bikes and said to call them next day when we knew it from Adam. We waited outside in the sweltering heat for a taxi which never came and decided to walk round to the main road and stopped for a thickshake each, and wondered about getting the bus downtown to the YMCA. Fortunately we noticed the Sleep Inn just down the road and did a deal with the guy as it was really handy for all the things we needed to do, and it had a pool! We phoned Adam on the mobile which now worked from beside the pool. Adam had just had another problem with the money and it looked like it would be another day to sort it. The phone rang again and it was Julie C phoning on the off-chance on her way home in England, which was a lovely surprise. We were too tired to watch TV and went to bed!

Wednesday 23.8.00 Still in Guayaquil (Adam's Day) Not having slept too comfortably, I'd just got showered when the phone rang at 07.30, it was brother Paul calling fron the factory in UK to let me know that he and Mark at Natwest had been in conference, and Natwests' International division had rerouted the funds via Bank of New York to the Banco de Guayaquil, and I would be able to collect the funds as soon as the doors opened, as they were that 6 hours ahead of me here. We had a good chat about other bits & pieces which was nice and then it was 08.30 and Wilson called from reception having just finished his shift. He'd been even more concerned to look after me now the others were gone, assuming they had actually got on the next plane as promised, but no news was good news! So we had breakfast, Hiro was pleased to see me and all the other guys said hello; Wilson gave them the latest state of play and we took a taxi over to the Bank. We checked in with Karina Pincay who had dealt with us yesterday, she was about to go out but I insisted she went off to check for me first to see if the funds had come in. She came back to say there was nothing yet, but could we come back at 11.00 as it may not have cleared yet. So much for "when the doors open" and I was now worried that by that time Natwest in England would have gone home so it would be impossible to sort any problems for another 24 hours. It was not far round to the Consulate, so we went round to see if there was any news via email, sure enough a confirmation had come in to say they'd done their bit, which only increased my concerns! I really felt I had to chase it now, and Rocio suggested I made a reverse charge call to Natwest, since it was now nearly 5pm at home, and a somewhat surprised Mark reassured me that everything had been done and he was just waiting confirmation from the IBC unit in Bristol. He said he'd fax me the details and sure enough about 20 minutes later it came through, complete with transaction references. Suitably armed, we went back round to Banco de Guayaquil, Karina had returned too, and immediately went to check out the references from Natwests' fax. After about 10 minutes she came back to say that there was still no sign of the money, at which news I got severely pissed off, and demanded to see her boss. Elsa Ramos, the Chief Cashier was polite but firm, there was definately no trace of the cash, but after Wilson and I had explained the background and shown her the Downs letter, she rechecked it herself, still no joy, and then suggested that between us we phone the Bank of New York. We ended up speaking to a guy called Albert Ramirez, who turned out to be the manager of International Funds Transfer, Latin America, he searched the entire system for the codes I had given him with no joy, he looked for any transaction of that amount +/-$99, looked for any 4th party banks that might have it, also with no joy. He said he'd fabricate it if he could, but there was no sign of it anywhere, so I had to believe him. Well, now I was completely stuffed again, it did not seem to be a local problem today and I still had no other alternatives, so it was time to apologise yet again to the people we owed, and yet another flight to be rebooked. Back at the Consulate Chris could not belive it, and made the excellent suggestion of using Western Union to mail some cash, so at least I'd have two options tomorrow, even if the bank got it right this time. Wilson & I went back via the Western Union shop, and they said yes, no problem, it was possible to transfer upto $10,000, and their slogan is "Money in Minutes", apparently true. The bad news was Technovajes the Travel Agent, no firm seat until Saturday, so we booked that, and hoped I could get a standby quicker, though based on the lads experince last night, I didn't hold out much hope for this.

Wilson was hanging by this time, he'd done a full day with us Monday, worked all night, all day with us Tuesday, worked all night, picked me up this morning, and now he had what seemed to be a disciplinary interview coming up at 3pm with his boss. He went off to do that while I went back to the room to phone Luis Arteaga to apologise for not coming up with the cash again today, as Chris told me that Tropicsa had made him issue a personal cheque to guarantee the payment! Luis was fine, and I said I could guarantee it would be sorted tomorrow one way or another. I then phoned Paul H at home in England who called me back, and we arranged the Western Union option, as I had got the Southampton office addresses from the shop here. He said Natwest were due to visit him in the morning anyway for the annual chat, so I suggested maybe they should put that off till I was sorted! I went round to the Internet Shop "Bill Gato" (!!!!) and emailed Paul H & Mark with the copies of the news, contact numbers in New York, and the Western Union option, plus a suggestion to up the Mastercard as well, hopefully at least one of which would work! Just then Paul C phoned from Houston, They'd got there fine and the mobile now worked, at last, so while John went for a swim, he got me up to date. They'd found the freight fowarders, though no sign of the bikes yet and had booked into the hotel Sleep Inn, just handy for them and the airport. He was horrified to hear that I was still stuck and I said I'd update him as soon as I could. So, after a solo dinner in the Hotel, I wandered round to catch up with Wilson for a chat, he was a bit down as he'd been done for getting off early last week to help us out, and someone had seen him not at work, oops! Apparently this was his third time as well, so he'd been docked pay too, bad news! I got back to write up the days developments, feeling very much like a Hostage, OK, maybe not in a jungle in the middle of Columbia, but much the same thing if somewhat more comfortable, I still could not go anywhere until someone sorted something! The way it was going, I'd be lucky to get this wrapped up and away by Saturday, which would mean another week gone.

Thursday 24.8.00 Cant believe I'm still in Guayaquil (Adam's Day) Not surprisingly I did not sleep well again and just as I had finished showering, the phone rang and it was Mark from Natwest to personally assure me that he'd spoken to Albert Ramirez in New York who'd checked it all and the money was DEFINATELY in place. Paul H and he had discussed the Western Union option and Paul had gone to do that, I thanked him for his update and this time had confidence it would be OK. Wilson came up for breakfast in the Cafe, and just as we sat down, the phone there rang and it was Paul H, to tell me the Western Union reference and the news that they'd charged £125 commission, so we agreed that meant it was worth picking it up regardless of whether Natwest came through. Oh well, worry about the £125 later! So, straight round to Western Union, which was about 1/2 hour after it had gone through in UK, and sure enough they had it. Bad news was they did not have that much cash there, so we had to go to the Banco de Malacha who also have Western Union, not quite money in minutes then. The Bank had enough cash, buy they normally only pay out $100-$500, so I caused a bit of a commotion with my request. After about 20 minutes they'd got all the money together, we double checked it with me a little embarrased knowing just how much that cash must be to people who earn maybe $80-100 a month. We walked out past the machine guns to the foyer, Wilson stood in the road to hail a taxi while I waited in the Bank, when it stopped we both jumped in for the 2 blocks back to the Consulate. At last, my Passport to freedom! I left the cash with Chris Bailey then went round to Banco de Guayaquil, where Elsa Ramos had already completed the tracking and had all the paperwork ready to go. We explained that we'd also got alternative funds now, and she kindly agreed to return part of this cash back to England while I got out the balance, as we would then have enough for doing the US (Paul & John had been horrified to get charged $7 from the airport, but at least the taxi had aircon and the doorhandles did not come off in your hand!). So, another big wad of cash in the pocket, and we went straight to the Travel Agent to see if it was possible to get a flight any sooner. They tried, but the first confirmed flight was 00.50 Saturday morning, but they also put me on Standby for 00.50 Friday am, which would get me to Houston at 06.30, perfect if it happened. So then it was back to the Consulate and I asked Rocio if it was OK to get the Tropicsa guys to come down with the paperwork, rather than me go there, in case of any hiccups. No problem and I insisted that Wilson go get some sleep now, as he'd been dropping off every time we sat down. He had to see his boss again at 15.00, so we agreed to meet up after that as he wanted to take me shopping in the Artesanal market, safe to do now that Paul C was in Houston! The Tropicsa guys turned up and I collected the packet of cash from Chris ("what packet?" he said!) and paid them as all the paperwork seemed to be in order. Just to be sure before they took it we phoned LanChile, who said yes, the bikes were in Miami, not that I didn't trust Tropicsa, but the way we'd been going it would have been no surprise if they'd sent them to Venezuela or something by accident! So after saying goodbye (we hoped) to Chris & Rocio at the Consulate and thanking them for the brilliant assistance they'd given us, all that remained now was to pay Luis Arteaga for the Customs Clearance which I did; he went off to recover his cheque from Tropicsa, and I was free to leave Ecuador.

I emailed the UK with the latest update and thanks for the backup, and went to the Sol de Oriente to settle up. I was not confident of getting away on that flight, so paid the extra day just in case, and started packing. Wilson came round as promised, he'd been reprimanded in front of the other guys as they'd covered for him, so his boss is really putting the heat on this time! We went over to the market and bought some nice things, there was loads there I'd have liked but nothing much I could carry on a bike safely, so limited myself to a couple of small bits but I would have bought some of the cased butterflies, plus maybe a Tarantula for Paul C. Wilson wanted to show me the Malecon 2000 which is a millenium redevelopment of the old waterfront, it's really nicely done by an Italian architect, lovely promenades and shops, cafes and places to look over the river at the Jungle opposite. We had a Pinguino icecream and one of the girls behind the counter was extremely flirty, typical, last day too! On the way back, we passed by the amphitheatre section and were very impressed to see the Ecuadorian Navy 50 piece band doing a public recital, however it was not "Tunes from the Military" but all Salsa dance music, complete with 8 Officers doing harmonised vocals, and including all the dance steps! Very impressive, they had a full PA running with a guy in military battledress flying the mixing desk, I wished I'd had the video camera on me, they were excellent and had the crowd really going. So, while Wilson went home to change for work, I finished packing and got organised, as Wilson wanted to take me up to the airport to make sure I got on the flight. When he arrived back, he was buzzing with the news that he'd phoned a freind on the Continental Desk and my seat was now confirmed. I still had a horrible feeling it would not happen, probably a result of everything else that had happened over the last few days! We arrived early for checkin and surprisingly enough the girl booked me on the plane although she did say that she could not yet give me a seat number as they had not finished loading in Quito, the previous stop for the plane. No problem and I said farewell to Wilson, which was a sad moment, it's again a great thing about this trip to have made so many really good freinds, we will certainly be keeping in touch with him and the family here, and would love to come back again sometime.

I decided to go through and sit in the Departure lounge, and had my Pannier completely emptied by the security check, fair enough, it does look unusual, and shortly after they asked me to come out to the baggage handing dock and open the other one, I had to empty that too, while the bored sniffer dog looked at my underwear. So, job done and it was all down to waiting, Paul & John had faxed from Houston again to say that the bikes had been to Atlanta as well(!) but that they should be in Friday afternoon, and if I arrived on time we'd have the Customs paperwork done by the time they got there, perfect. Just then and I'd half been expecting it, Andres Ycaza from Continental came up to me, and asked me to volunteer my seat to another person, as strangely enough they were overbooked on this flight and it would be worth my while as they'd upgrade me to 1st class and give me $400 credit for another flight! I explained to him that I was more interested in getting to Houston as soon as possible, and told him about the trip and what we'd had to do to get our trip over Columbia organised. I suggested I may be interested if he could guarantee me assistance in Houston to speed me through Cusoms and take me to the US Customs department who were dealing with the bikes to get the paperwork cleared before they closed for the weekend, since the flight he was suggesting did not touch down till 14.30 which would all be a bit tight. He called his security boss and they said they'd have a look into it and come back to me. When nothing else happened for the next 1/2 hour, I made up my mind it was definately not worth taking a risk on missing US Customs and I would fly now. So, when the plane eventually turned up, I patiently waited to go on, then as the queue go shorter and shorter, it became obvious they'd bounced me off anyway! I complained to the girl on the boarding pass check, who got Andres back, he was apologetic but there was just no more space. I really felt I'd been done and was quite politely angry as I'd made it plain how important it was; he gave all the relevant names of their security cheif in Houston and promised I'd be met and helped through, but that was that. I also asked if my other Pannier was still here, "Yes" he said. Funny, I'd seen it going onto the plane! After collecting my tickets (sure enough no Pannier in sight, sorry it must have gone) and credit it was the hotel bus back to the 5 star Oro de Verde, where my mood was not improved by the news that I had to now pay for a phone call/fax to the boys in Houston to let them know my delay, "even a prisoner gets one free call" I said, apparently not from Continental, it seems they forgot to tell me I could only phone free from the airport. I also felt like a 3rd class citizen when the Night Manager grudgingly gave me a $9 voucher for dinner to go with my free breakfast and somehow I did not belive I was going to get my alarm call! I ate dinner on principle, making sure I spent less than $9, it was good and the staff were nice; I went up for a shower completely knackered, it was now 02.30 and I had to be back at the airport 04.30 latest, so I'd asked for a call at 03.30. I dared not go to sleep just in case so I laid down for a while, knowing I was too on edge to drop off. What a surprise, still in Ecuador after yet another hectic day running around, and now likely to miss Customs this side of the weekend so at best we'd not be back on the road till Tuesday, great!

Thursday 24.8.00 Houston (John & Paul's Day) Got up in time to catch breakfast, muffins and pastries and the lady who said very strictly "breakfast is now over" at 9 sharp. Sleep Inn run a courtesy van up to the airport so we went up to the American Airlines deck to re-arrange Pauls return ticket times. What a contrast to Guayaquil, no queues, an automatic underground railway between the terminals and everything fast and efficient. We went back to the Sleep Inn in the courtesy bus, blistering heat meant another excuse to use the pool but no sooner had we jumped in than there was a huge downpour, the first rain they've had for 2 months, what a surprise! We wanted to keep swimming but a woman told us to come out as we might get struck by lightning so we did - as with our luck on the weather........ After a burger up the road, we wrote a fax to Adam to fill him in with the details of where the bikes would come to and the news that we'd found some Guinness to cheer him up, then watched Mission Impossible 2 on cable, great movie!

Friday 25.8.00 Guayaquil to Houston Texax (Adams' Day) I rested on the 5 star bed until it looked like they'd definately forgotten to give me the alarm call and got up again to go to breakfast. Timing was perfect and I had a relaxed meal then went through reception to pick up the lift back to the airport. The Night Manager insisted they'd done the call, but no way! Back in the Check In hall there was an enormous queue, but as instructed I went to the front and bumped into the same marine engineer I'd been chatting to last time I queued. He'd been offered the same deal but was amazed to see me here still. The Check-In girl confirmed the reservation, and once again I had a boarding pass; the same security staff were still on and after exchanging pleasantries they let me through, to carry on waiting. When boarding was called it was total chaos, a headlong rush to the door, regardless of what your seat number was. I could not be bothered to fight my way through and waited till the crush cleared to board the bus for the 20 minute trip to the plane steps, it would have been quicker walking. I was still expecting at any moment someone to say "Excuse me, Sir, but it would really help us out if you'd volunteer to take the next......." but thank goodness nothing happened. Once on board, the 1st class section was good in as much as the seats were lovely and big, but I was glad I'd not paid the difference. So, on board at last and barring any other last minute problems, on the way. Slightly to my surprise it was a smooth take-off and away we went, looking down at Ecuador and South America dissapearing below. We'd had a great time on the continent, it had far exceeded all my expectations in terms of landscape and people, things that will live with me for a long time.

The flight up to Panama was only 2 hours which passed quickly, though there was no choice of breakfast as they only had omlette left by the time they got to me, but never mind, I was past caring by this time and just happy to be in the air. I could not help laughing as I read the Continental In Flight magazine which says they are voted No1 by most travellers on service and quality, certainly not by our experiences! As we came in to Panama City you could see the ships lining up to enter the Canal but unfortunately cloud was covering the Canal itself, so I missed that sight. The airport was fairly standard and a bit boring, after having a look round there was not much to do but wait for the connecting flight to leave, but it was a good view over the runway and for a while there was a Continental or Colas flight arriving every minute. After some light releif watching the security guys go through a couple of travellers gear with a fine toothcomb (even opening the camping stove fuel cans) it was time to board This leg it turned out was not 1st class due to overbooking, but I did have a good window seat, right next to the marine engineer again, so we were able to compare notes. After another panic when they called my name out to make myself known to the cabin staff (they had not got my ticket, which I'd handed over on the gate coming in!) I was finally able to relax as we taxied out and took off on time, all I had to worry about now was if I would have enough time to get to US Customs today and clear the bikes, otherwise we'd have to do that on Monday.

The flight over Panama took about 5 minutes, then we were heading out over the Gulf of Mexico, around massive thunderclouds, and a beautiful view down at the sea. I have to say the cabin crew on this flight were excellent, keeping us well informed and going some way to restoring my faith in air travel, the meal was OK too! It did not seem long until you could see Oilrigs dotted around and soon we were over the coast at Galveston and the transformation was absolutely remarkable. Where for weeks we had not seen more than one paved road at a time, here there were concrete roads as far as the eye could see, and we were still at 20,000 feet, the contrast in development could not have been more stark. This impression continued as we touched down at George W Bush International, I have never seen so much concrete in one place, the planes have their own road bridges crossing the freeways, Jumbos and everything going over the cars below. There are 3 different runways in a triangle, and so many planes moving around its ridiculous! This meant that once in the terminal building it was a long queue to the Immigration check and of course, no-one in sight to pick me up and speed me through, what a surprise! So, join the shortest looking queue, and get entry to the US, which went slowly but smoothly. I decided I was not going to risk losing even more time by trying to find the Continental Lost Baggage Reclaim and my other Touratech Pannier, we could always do that later. I was hoping to get cleanly through Customs, but sure enough they wanted to look inside the Touratech ally box I was carrying as hand luggage, which was not a problem except that this took another 15 minutes, time which I could ill afford. Still, keep smiling while the guys do their job and fortunately no problems; you always have that little worry that someone has planted something in your stuff and when they open your washbag a pack of something not yours drops out! Still, no problems and bless him, Paul had been filming me from the Arrivals area to see me going through the hoops with Customs (until a big security guard spotted him!).

We met up outside and Paul grabbed the Hotel collection driver to run us back to the Sleep Inn to drop the gear off, by which time it was just about 15.30 and Paul had already found out US Customs closed at 16.30. We decided it was worth a go and with no sign of John, walked round the road to Foward Air, armed with the Airway Bill, to see what they needed us to do. The bikes were there in the warehouse now and all we needed apparently was a $10 money order and the US Customs stamp on the paperwork. So, with 1/2 hour before Customs closed for the weekend, we decided to give it a try and got a taxi round to the Customs building - what a difference! This taxi had cost $23,000, a fully equipped Galaxy with all the trimmings, not a rattle or squeak in sight. Mind you it was $7 for a 5 minute ride! The Customs office was on the top floor and with 20 minutes to go, we were not optimistic, however they were really helpful and the guys there stayed on to make sure we got cleared. We needed some of the V5 forms and evidence of re-export from Canada at the end of the trip, and as luck would have it the mobile phone worked for once and we were able to tell John (now back in from the pool!) where to find the papers and within moments he'd faxed them through, great teamwork! So, with help from another guy waiting who knew the ropes, we filled in all the forms, quite simple actually, and got the Airway Bill stamped up, it was now 16.45 and all done, what a relief! I could not beleive it, after all the hassle of the last few days, we'd actually got the bikes here, and all the paperwork to release them and at last we could actually think about travelling again. We ordered a taxi back to the Hotel, but after 3 attemps it still had not shown and the guy who'd helped us upstairs kindly offered us a lift back. We stopped at the Texaco just next to the Inn and there it was, Guinness on Ice in the fridge, the US certainly is the Promised Land it seems! I just had to buy a couple, the proper brewed in Dublin ones to boot, and we retired to the Hotel for a winding down session.

John had taken a bus into Downtown and had an interesting day there and I filled them in on my grief, strangely enough our experiences of the 5 star hotel were almost identical, no alarm call for them either and sniffy Reception staff too! So while Paul took a swim, John & I went back to the airport to get my other pannier, the lady driver dropped us up and we took the subway around inside to get to the Continental Reclaim. They had the box no problem, but I was less than pleased to find that since I had not travelled with the box, Customs had had to cut the padlocks off to inspect it, so I now need to buy another set of locks, great. Especially since I'd got matching keys for all my locks to make life simpler, oh well, another one for my letter to Continental! We went back round the subway, quite a thing with fully automatic trains running round a linear motor driven track, and free too. We got back to the Sleep Inn for 9pm, after a VERY long day. The Guinness helped greatly and we decided to order in food, as I was knackered by now. Jumbo shrimps and the beer went down very well, and John volunteered me his bed and said he'd sleep on the floor, well done that man!

Friday 25.8.00 Houston, (John & Paul) Recieved a fax from Adam first thing saying his luggage had gone but not him! So, now knowing that Adam would be arriving later that afternoon, John decided he'd catch the 102 citybus to Downtown Houston while Paul stayed by the pool. On the way down the bus driver gave John some places of interest to visit. He said get an aerial view first, by just walking into any of the office buildings and taking the elevator to the top floor. Sure enough, straight up to the 60th floor, where there was a viewing lounge almost the size of the whole floor and you could walk right to the edge - fantastic view of the city as long as you did not look down too much! You could see the new Enrow Field baseball stadium, brand new with 41,000 seats and an opening roof over it. They've incorporated the old Houston railway station into the frontage and made a feature of an oversized replica train which runs along one side of the stadium roof every time someone hits a home run, complete with artificial smoke! John managed to stop himself buying one of the 64 reserved suites for a season, at a mere $100,000 each! One way of making back the $250 million it cost to redevelop the stadium. Another fundraiser was a brand new BMW Z3 in the foyer, which was being autographed by all the teams playing here this season, which they hoped to laquer and auction for $500,000. A man next to John asked why they couldn't put up a decent prize like a motorcycle; it turned out he was a keen biker in his youth, and his grandson runs the Twisted MX clothing business, small world again! John then jumped on the free Trolleybus service for a ride round the downtown area and then caught the 102 bus back to Sleep Inn. There was no-one there as Paul had gone up to the airport to meet Adam, so he jumped in the pool to cool off and got back to the room just in time to find the documents the others needed faxed through for the Customs guys to clear the Bikes, at last good news to hear that we'd finally got all the loose ends tied up.

Saturday 26.8.00 Houston We were up before breakfast finished at 09.00, John & Paul took some food back to the room for Adam who slept in and then we got our plan sorted. First move was to walk round to Foward Air the freight people and clear the paperwork, then hopefully uncrate the bikes and get them ready to roll again. The staff at Foward Air were great, Anette offered John a lift to get the money order and also pick up some fuel for the bikes and once they got back it was simple to clear the paperwork. Shane, one of the guys in the warehouse found us a hammer and crowbar and some space to uncrate the bikes, so it was all systems go.Paul's bike was again the unlucky one, as the centre stand had punched though the pallet on one side, leaving it resting against the wooden framework, fortunately on the side which got the damage on our first day crash all those weeks ago in Punta Arenas! The crates did not take much effort to dismantle. Also, they had not shrink wrapped them and a pair of Sinisalo MX gloves had disappeared, but that was the only problem, which we thought was probably a good result. Putting the batteries back in, reconnecting the Scottoilers and refitting the screens did not take long and we used some nails from the crates with suitable modifications to the Rickman topbox to repair the damage done by the Interpol man in Guayaquil, so all we needed now was air in the tyres. As luck would have it, right next door to the industrial estate was a car parking operation and the manager of ServicePark their repair facility, Roger Omberg, kindly allowed us to use their airlines once we'd walked the bikes round on tickover, what bliss! We'd really not been looking foward to pumping them up by hand in this heat, and Roger even lent us some WD40 to help get the beads popped back out properly. We were then able to ride again at last, back round to Foward Air to load up the rest of the gear, then finally back to the Hotel to unload everything and marshal it all together.

We stopped at the Texaco on the way by and had a very funny exchange with two Hotel Chauffeurs, who just could not beleive we'd actually ridden the bikes up South America "Hey man, No way, You've got a trailer parked around the back somewhere!". They were great fun, hope the video comes out OK! After a busy day it was a great pleasure to park the bikes outside the window of our room and then go for a swim. It seems our jinx on weather is still in force, temperatures here are now just tipping over the 100 farenheight mark and when the boys got here on Wednesday they were greeted by the first rain in 2 months, a thunderstorm! We'd picked up some more beers on the way back and it was great to find that the mobile phone was able to connect from beside our pool in Houston with Stewart Penny's phone in a field near Portsmouth, UK, where the motocross gang were camping with our French guests prior to the Fourstroke Motocross International MR Thumpercross event this weekend. Adam had a chat with his usual sparring partner Graham Lovell who was also midway through a Guinness - Best wishes both ways for successful riding to come!

We now had several options available to us, given that we had the bikes and kit cleared and ready and could not decide whether to hit the road tomorrow or take a day trip out to see the Space Centre at Houston, then start riding Monday. Either way we were in charge of our own destiny again for the first time in 2 weeks, which felt really good!

Sunday 27.8.00 Houston and Pasadena, Texas Once again the breakfast call was on time, though no breakfast in bed today for Adam. We decided that it would be best to have a lightly loaded run to start with, plus we all wanted to see the Space Centre, so the vote went to the Pasadena option and we headed off in that direction. The unloaded bikes were a joy to ride, even with helmets on in this heat, but once again the culture shock hit us; There is just such a huge gulf between here and South America, even big places in Argentina like Cordoba are just not in the same league as the US. There are virtually no old vehicles, the roads are brilliant and we have seen more "large" people in one day than in the whole of the previous six weeks, it literally could be a different planet. The advertising signs are enormous too, and the downtown centre of Houston is all tower blocks which look fantastic, made out of glass, stuck straight up out of the plain like the old "Dallas" soap opening sequence. Best advert we saw was "Having a bad day? Talk to me - God". We found Pasadena OK, having to adjust to traffic lights which people stop for, unlike Guayaquil and the suburban neatness without armed guards everywhere. One slight shock was to smell a freshly cut lawn again after weeks of mountain and desert smells, funny what you notice from a bike.

The most obvious bit of the Space Centre is the outside display of rockets, from the "small" ones which launched John Glenn in Mercury, right up to the immense Saturn V laid on its side which launched the Moon landings (if they really happened?). The sheer size of this Saturn rocket is unbeleiveable, we read that the motors have an equivalent power to 84 Hoover Dams, that's a lot! We went inside the Space Centre itself to cool down and give Paul a break as he was suffering with bad guts, but this was in some ways a slight disappointment. There was a fascinating display of spacesuits, a good mockup of the Shuttle cabin and a good lecture on the Ground Control side, but the rest of it was like an amusement park, with rock climbing games, parachute virtual reality games (John had a go), a space ride simulator (John had a go) and a Shuttle simulator (Paul landed well, Adam crashed!). We liked the hats in the Gift Shop, the best yet was a full-on kids space helmet made of white felt, complete with microphone. The worrying thing is you could ride a bike wearing it in Texas, no problem! We passed up on these though they were great fun, but they should feature in the video with a bit of luck. We had hoped to see more of the engineering stuff like the Moon Lander and Rover but these seem to be over in Florida at Cape Canavral, maybe next time. All in all, definately worth a visit though, and the hardware was very impressive.

We found our way back thought the intersections of midtown and got back to the Sleep Inn in good time for another swim, it is so hot during the day you just can't think straight sometimes, even on the bikes it is hard, so we will see how it is fully loaded again tomorrow. We went up the road to Jack in the Box for a fast food supper American style, the portions were better than in UK, but not by that much. We did like the "drink as much soda as you want" idea though. The guy behind the counter had spent 4 years in England playing for the Pakistan U19 cricket team, and knew Worcester & Bath very well, small world again! We watched the new Gladiator film on the box which was excellent and looked foward to hitting Interstate 10 tomorrow to start our run over towards Las Vegas and rejoin our original route.

The interlude in Guayaquil and Houston has been great in many ways and we've seen and done a lot of stuff we never would have thought possible, but we are all looking foward to riding some distance again and we will be interested to see how the road conditions vary to what we have been used to so far! We have been really frustrated at times in the last fortnight, it seems ridiculous that we were able to travel 6000 miles with little restriction, then just because of Columbia, we have lost a fortnight of riding, the chance to see much of Central America and also spent a lot of extra cash as well to get over it. Never mind, at least we are now back in control ourselves, and can look foward to planning a distance to ride each day.

The Cape Crusaders at Mission Control Houston	Look at the pipes on that! Saturn V rocket and us
Click on photo for larger image

Link to next update: Week 9