Happy birthday to me. Well, not exactly. I woke up in the middle of the night in a lot of pain. I sprained my knee when I went in the ocean the night before. I got hit by wave while standing in the sand and it just twisted me the wrong way. What a bummer. Kris has a sore throat too. We spent the morning icing and medicating and Kris made us both breakfast.

I wanted to call my family and loved ones, since I knew that they couldn’t contact me. I left a message for my family, and reached Marlene on her cell phone. It was great to hear her voice, but also made me very sad. She seems so far away, and despite knowing that she loves me, I felt so emotional because of the hurt knee, and my birthday and being on the road and having so little money... I just felt like going home. So I had a good cry. And then I took a deep breath and took the next step. What else is there to do? I have to feel what I am feeling, I can’t deny it. But all that there is is to do is to let it be, feel it, and then take the next step. Life goes on. Even if I decided to turn around right now, I’d still have to drive back, or sell the truck and fly, or at least drive to an airport and abandon the truck which I'm not ready to do!

However I am facing the fact that driving across Mexico and Central America is a lot more that I thought it would be! And there are a lot of issues related to my life right now that leep coming up. For Kris too. Everyday we wiegh ourselves nd the trip in the balance. Although I’m sure people have done this kind of thing with less money and resources than I have, I’m not them. I have to know my limits and know when it’s time to turn around. But I don’t really know. Perhaps it is all about moving beyond my mental limits... Finding solutions when we are forced to. I mean it’s not about logic and comfort. Otherwise I would never have gone on this trip in the first place. This trip is totally illogical! Driving to Costa Rica in an experiemental vehicle that we just put together a week before leaving that uses a fuel source that we don’t know exactly where or even if we will find! And then the fear! Fear of the unknown, of foreign people, of authorites. Fear of injury or mechanical breakdown, fear of fear!

We haven’t even had to search for veggie-oil here yet! I don’t know what we will do once we get to Belize or Honduras or Costa Rica.

This time we really did leave Mazatlan, and Kris drove fearlessly down the two lane road to Tepic. it felt good to keep moving... which I recognize as a pattern in my life... just keep moving forward. At first the road was four lanes; two in each direction, which was quick and easy. But most of the way was only two lanes, with lots of double semi-trailer trucks and busses and everyone is trying to pass everyone at all times. Fortunately we didn’t have any mechanical problems at all, and despite a little less power on veggie-oil for passing, Kris still manged to maneuver us into Tepic through the heat of the day on that crazy road.

One again we tried to use our “Guidebook to Central America” and proceded to get totally lost; the map is all wrong and the streets are not well marked. Here's some advice; When you have a friend traveling anywhere and you want to make a great gift... Go out and get them one of the Lonely Planet travel guides. I’ve always used them with success and I wish I had one now!

So we kept circling around this town, which was founded at the base of an extinct volcano. So far this has been the cutest town I’ve seen; Mazatlan being confusing and touristy and the rest of the towns we’ve seen being more peasant towns with trash and car carcasses here and there. I’m still shocked at how trashed a lot of the countryside and even the towns and the yards are. If I was from Mexico I’d start a "clean up the country" campaign and employ millions of people to clean up trash and recycle etc etc.

Anyway enough campaigning, we need to eat. And despite being lost, or because of it, we noticed a vegetarian restaurant named Quezecotyl that looked nice. It was very sweet inside – families eating at alovely buffet. The interior was an open sky courtyard with covered seating around the edges and it was so cute and so nice that I think it was a birthday gift from the gods. It was very relaxing after the pounding drive from Mazatlan.

OK but back on the road if we will make it to Guadalajara, which is still another 3 3/4 hours drive! Despite my aching knee, I offer to drive the next leg. It’s not that bad as long as I’m not trying to move it and fortunately it is my left knee so it is easy to drive. Now we are on the Couata or toll road to Gadalajara. We stop to call my friend Adriana in Mexico City, because she had mentioned in an email that her cousin lives in Gadalajara and we might be able to stay there. After a few phone calls we get through and confirm the possibility, but I still need to call again later.

The drive to Gadalajara is twisty and mountainous, but it is a four-lane toll road, so we were able to move really fast, well, at least on the downhills.

I really enjoyed this section of the driving, perhaps the most. The views were beautiful and the changing colors of the sky and clouds were magnificant. We passed by a really cute-looking town and almost took the turnoff for Tequila.

We pulled into Gudalajara, but didn't have directions yet so we just headed for the city center and sound found ourselves parked outside a modern mall. Kris wasn't feeling well, so I ventured into the jungle of the Neon lights and wild shoppers to try to find: a map, a phone, and phonecard, not knowing if this unexplored mexican territory would yield positive results.

I found my steely travler's nerve tested by the temptations of modern living and it took every ounce of strength to steer past the windows of capitalist decadence and find the bookstore. Eventually my persistance was rewarded, and soon I emerged with a map, directions, and even two cups of hot yerbabuena tea (mint). Our future hosts Rosanna and Mauricio were going to be out until after 9:30pm so we had an hour, so Kris and I did a little more processing about the trip and our goals. but when we tried to start the truck we had no luck!

It was sitting too long on veggie-oil and wouldn't turn over. In addition, the cable to the starter was getting really hot in the process of trying to crank the engine and circulate the fuel. So I used the little 12volt inline pump to prime the lines with diesel, but still wasn't able to get the engine going. So we disconnect the "fuel shut-off soleniod" and crank the engine to try to push diesel through the lines. Still no love. So I opened up the laptop and looked up the troubleshooting guide from thedieselpages.com. In the chapter on glowplugs I learned to bypass the temperature inhibit switch to turn on the glow plug relay. This supplied enough heat to allow the engine to start! Yeah!

Now we tried to get to Rosanna and Maurico's. Guadalajara is a crazy maze of streets, there is no grid, just a few large avenues that the locals use to get across the city and lots of craziness in-between, plus there are a few round-abouts that really get your head spinning. Needless to say it took us about 3 minutes to get lost. Even with a map and directions. We asked for help, which mostly just told us where we were at the moment. We went off to the next roundabout and got lost again. But only because we were not were we thought we were. So somehow we figured out where we really were on the map and after a good 45 minutes or so we made it to their house.

The house was super lovely and sweet and Rosanna and Maurico were very friendly and hospitable. We had a few shots of tequila and chatted about our trip and possible plans for tomorrow. They convinced us to stay another night and Rodanna would take us out to her paren't restaurante for breakfast and some touring of the city.