PERSONALITY , ENCOUNTERS
Daniel Byers
The most valuable gift from your travels is often the people you meet along the way . Every long-term motorcycle journey has them . Those moments of self-doubt and second-guessing , indecision , and lack of confidence .
We spend countless hours planning for our own chance at freedom , choosing a motorcycle and gear , years ( sometime a lifetime ) spent riding , prepping , and dreaming . And yet , once the egg has been cracked , once you ’ re out on your own , on the road they appear . We try to tamp them out , like a small fire , to keep them from spreading .
For me , the first taste of this was in Southern Mexico in Oaxaca state at the port city of Salina Cruz . The incident involved a multi-week hospital stay there due to a ruptured colon , and I was daily surrounded by doctors who chattered endlessly about me needing colon surgery . Suddenly my trip of a lifetime was in jeopardy and I was filled with dread and panic . Knowing little Spanish at the time exacerbated the situation . I couldn ’ t have planned for this !
I was lucky . The infection was caught , and antibiotics saved me . I dodged a bullet .
And what was the one thing that helped me the greatest to overcome that obstacle ? It was the relationships I had developed with the locals in Salina
Cruz .
From Teresa , the Airbnb hostess whose son found me unconscious and took me to the hospital , to Lidia , the nurse who spoke English and volunteered her time to help me cope with my problems , they were instrumental in me being able to recover and get back on the road again . Even friends I had made in San Miguel de Allende Mexico were critical in the process as they allowed me a place to recover in a city that had a specialist for follow up treatment .
Further South in Honduras , after having my motorcycle pounded to death on the rough cobblestone streets of Antigua Guatemala , I discovered that I needed emergency welding repair to fix cracks found from the pounding she had been taking . Well over 38 degrees Celsius and with little shade , a pickup stopped and asked if I needed help . It ended up being the owner of the Airbnb room in that town I was looking for ! He immediately found me a welder . And while he was at work I sat in the heat and humidity trying to assist with the repairs . The workshop didn ’ t even have basic tools , so we used my tool kit to disassemble the bike for welding . While doing this I became ill from heatstroke !
The young men picked me up , took me to shade , and their mother came out and gave me several baggies of cold water ( water and milk is sold there in sealed
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