Muttsta

I'm very curious to hear more, especially about that movement

Anyone?

The pearl always bugs me when it is significantly off. I'd also be interested in a ceramic black GMT Master II if anything if there is a better version of that available. Someone has to know something

I am looking for a quality movement, and I am looking for it in black. I've been reading around here and have heard several people mention that there are still several larger flaws with it, but that a revision is expected within the next few weeks. Does anyone know anything about this?

I feel it's time for an upgrade, so I'm looking for a black ceramic Submariner. Who currently has the best one out there? I've heard fairly good things about BK's. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks for the advice guys, sounds like it's better to wait

I've been out of the loop for a few years but am looking for a new ceramic Submariner. Who currently has the best one out there? Looking to avoid any kind of modifications afterward. Please post here of PM. Thanks!

Does anyone know someone or somewhere? I don't seem to having any luck

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Alas, the end is in sight! I finally fly out of Panama City on Tuesday It

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Day 94 -Mexican Finale - 102.08 km Today in the morning I once again wasn't feeling too hot. I suspect the culprit to be a Popsicle I consumed in the late hours of yesterday. This was one of those homemade Popsicles, but the thing that made it deadly was that it contained milk and not just water. I admit that it was absolutely delicious, but lurking under all that flavor was death. I eat ice cream made from milk here often, but always brand name stuff. Learn from your mistakes as I like to say. Even though my stomach was in pain and I had to visit the bathroom several times throughout the day, I pedaled onward. I don't have time for delays such as sickness! As the day progressed I fortunately began to feel better and better. After passing through many small towns I finally made it to the larger sized city of Tapachula. Mexico's southernmost city is home to roughly 150,000 people. For this city my untrusty Lonely Planet guidebook listed the cheapest place to stay as costing $18 per night. For this part of Mexico, that's fairly steep. I decided to try my luck and try to find something else. I must be very lucky, because I managed to find a decent hotel a mere half block from the main square for only $5! My room is even fairly clean and contains a working bathroom complete with sink and shower. To sweeten the deal I have an outdoor balcony and a view onto the city's main road. I would have been happy to have paid at least twice as much! As I made it into town fairly early I had ample time to explore the city. My first stop was the main town square, which proved to be very interesting. Trees and benches lined the entire square while vendors were located on the very outside perimeter. On the inside was a concert area of some sort as well as a water fountain. Facing the main square was a cathedral and a very beautiful museum of some sort. From the main square I dared to venture to the local market. The market at first seemed small, but it turned out to be huge. It's size is misleading as it is built atop a downhill. Thus what looked like it only had one floor turned out to have four! Every section of the market was dedicated to something different from fruits to shoes to meats. To get a sense of what this felt like, imagine a market back home; move the shelves to within a few feet of each other, age it fifty years, and throw in a bunch of people until you feel claustrophobic. Absolutely brilliant is what it is! For the past thirty five days I have eaten tortillas with every since meal; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have gotten so sick of them that the mere sight of one makes me, well, sick. I opted today to try something different and went to a Chinese restaurant. I must say that the food was fairly good and for $5 was a very good deal. My only complaint is that they didn't have chopsticks. No matter where your travels may take you in this world rest assured that there will be a Chinese restaurant near by! Today I also experienced my first dental issue of the trip. As I had braces in the past I now have a metal wire glued under my teeth to keep them from shifting. This wire unfortunately came loose on my today. Normally this would involve a visit to my dentist to get it re-glued. Since that isn't a possibility, and I'm not brave or stupid enough to visit a dentist down here, I decided to be my own dentist. With surgical precision I maneuvered nail clippers inside my mouth in order to cut this wire shorter. Fortunately I succeeded with no casualties; a permanent fix will follow back home. On this trip I have been both a surgeon and a dentist so far! I am currently looking down at the busy city of Tapachula which is still abuzz at this late hour. Tomorrow I venture into unknown territory, namely Guatemala. Thirty five days later I will finally leave the beautiful country that is Mexico. And so the plot thickens! Day 95

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Day 79 - The Day The Rain Slept In - 142 km Being as I had gotten rained on for the last five days I figured I would be in store for the same today. Hence, in the morning I chose to not put on sunscreen for the first time as long as I could remember. I figured since when it rains I'm wearing a rain jacket and it's cloudy anyway, that I should be safe. Unfortunatley my predictions are not always accurate, and this was one of those times where it failed. In the morning the skies were blue, but I figured that would soon turn around and the dark clouds would roll in. Hour after hour passed by and the weather remained clear. Before I knew it I was red as a raddish! Fortunatley I did not burn, just turned a little red! The road to Manzanillo proved to be more difficult than anticipated, which seems to be happening quite a lot lately. I never realized that the coast of Mexico was so mountainous; and here I thought it would all be smooth sailing! Although it did not rain today, which was a nice change, it was still terribly humid. At times the humidity and heat here combined make it seem much worse than bicycling through the desert! Fortunatley the road conditions were fairly good. For part of the road I was directed onto a section of the toll highway, which is always nice since they have very broad shoulders. Just like with Puerto Vallarta and the other touristy beach cities, the large luxury resorts started to appear about 20 kilometers before the city of Manzanillo. Sure, these hotels may be nice, but I really wouldn't want to stay in one of them. I prefer my half run down hotel in the heart of the city any day! Tonight I actually managed to find a hostel of sorts. Although rooms are priviate the bathroom facilities are shared; but hey, what do I care? For $8 a night I'm not complaining! While walking around the town of Manzanillo I stopped into every computer shop I could find. My hard drive in my laptop is on the brink of death, and thus I need to buy a new one. I have to backup my data daily to avoid catastrophe. It's quite an inconvenience when I want to update my website and my computer dies on me. I have actually been looking for a new hard drive for the last few days or so without any luck. This particular shop had a laptop hard drive for sale; and 80 gigabyte hard drive for a mere $110. Although this isn't terribly cheap it's still a great deal for Mexico! I continued to visit the city and then finally made my way back to my hostel, which according to my guidebook is in a shady part of town. Whoops! When I opened up my laptop in order to change my hard drive I first experienced a sense of shock, and then began to curse out loud. It turns out that since my laptop is an 'ultraportable' model it does not have a regular sized laptop hard drive, but rather a special smaller one. I have had several laptops in the past and none of them had ever had this, so I was totally oblivious to it! This however turns out to be a real problem, since these little guys are next to impossible to find, especially here in Mexico. I had trouble finding a normal laptop hard drive, so something like this would have to be special ordered. Technically I could special order something like this a few cities ahead, but my Spanish isn't that good and it will cost me an arm and a leg. I have managed to get my laptop back to somewhat working condition, that is to say sometimes it works and sometimes it gives me the dreaded blue screen of death, afterwhich I have to run anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour of diagnostics to get it to work again. I will try to make this drive last somehow to Panama, but if worst comes to worst I will buy an iPod and salvage the drive from it, which is the same kind as in my laptop. iPod's are much easier to find, but this solution would also cost me an arm and a leg. Day 80 - Toll Roads: Forbidden Yet Not - 106 km Today in the morning I got a very late start for several reasons. I had not gotten much sleep due to several reasons. Primarily, I had to stay up late while fixing my laptop. In my room there was only one power plug, so it was a choice between the fan and my laptop, I chose the laptop. This unfortunatley increased the temperature of my room to near super-nova. When I finally did finish up and go to bed, I was awoken by a very loud grasshopper who found himself into my room. I warned him to be quiet, but unfortunatley he would not comply and I had to hunt him down. Add this to the fact that my bed was as comfortable as sleeping on a bag on sand and it's a wonder I got any sleep at all! Finally in the morning I had to return this laptop hard drive that I just bought since I have no use for it and also go on the internet to try to solve my computer dilema. Fortunatley the shop accepted it without too much trouble, because they like myself were not aware of these smaller hard drives being used in laptops. The only thing they charged me is $5 as that is the fee they pay for a chargeback when using a credit card. To make matter worse today is the first day of my trip where I even't felt too well. Although I did not throw up, I had to frequent the bathroom several times a day and rendevous with my dear friend Immodium. Yesterday at a small store I decided to buy myself buns, cold cuts and cheese in order to make sandwiches; I suspect they are the cause of my sickness as I did not really eat anything else that could make me sick. Although I drank plenty of fluids today I ate barely anything because I both did not feel hungry and I really didn't have an appetite for food. Fortunatley it was only a discomfort and not any major pain that would put me out of comission for a day or two. The road from Manzanillo to where I am today was the absolute most confusing thing ever. There were two roads; a toll road and a free road. I of course opted to take the free road, but the signage was so confusing that I somehow ended up on the toll road. To make matters worse, the signs were all directing to smaller towns which were not on my map, thus I had no idea if I was even going the right way! On a positive note, these toll roads the roads are actually very good. They are much flatter and have a very wide shoulder. There are not many restaurants, stores, or cities along these roads, so they are unfortunatley quite dull. However, I think I'll take boredom any day over fear of death around every corner! The reason I have never taken these toll roads is that technically bicyclists are not allowed on them. About 10 kilometers onto the highway I saw one of these signs, and literally ten seconds later a police officer drives by in his patrol car. I thought for sure that he was going to pull over and yell at me or worse. To my surprise, he just drove past. Technically bicycles aren't allowed since the signs say so, but the toll operators and police officers are aware that it's much safer to ride on this road with a wide shoulder than the free roads. I met some locals who were riding bicycles and they showed me how it's necessary to sneak past the toll booths. You are not allowed to pass through where the cars pass. Therefore you must get off your bike, carry it up a sidewalk and walk around the toll booth. Once again this is perfectly acceptable; we even walked right by a police officer standing guard and said hello to him! Unfortunatley today I was not spared of rain. Fortunatley it was not very heavy rain and did not last terribly long, but it's always an inconvenience. Even if your rain jacket is waterproof you still end up dreched on the inside from sweating due to the heat. The problem lies in that you have to keep your rain jacket on even after it stops raining in order to prevent getting sick. Although it is hot, there is usually a cold wind. Wearing a wet shirt in this kind of weather probably isn't the smartest idea in the world. I am currently staying in a small town on the main road whose name I do not even know. Here I have managed to find a pleasant hotel for a mere $9.50. They were originally asking $16, but since the owner is also an avid cyclist and I am an excellent negociator, the price went down. He was very excited when he found out I was Canadian and showed me his Gary Fischer bicycle, which is of course made in Canada. At least today I have my own bathroom and the beds are comfortable! Day 81 - The Mexican Rollercoaster - 142 km Today proved to be one of the toughest cycling days that I have encountered thus far. The road was simply horrendous. The road basically went from a small village located either on the coast or in a valley into a ten kilometer climb up a hill and back down again. Repeat this many times and that my day. There were not many restaurants or shops along the way; I nearly starved trying to find a place to eat lunch since I had barely eaten anything these last two days. At one point I even ran out of water while climbing a hill. Should it have been cool it would not have been a problem. But seeing as it was boiling hot and humid it did not prove to be a very enjoyable experience. The views were beautiful, but otherwise the road was dull and real struggle. Not far from the town of Nexpa, where I would be staying tonight, I began to see black clouds overhead. I knew it would rain soon, but I hoped that it would be able to hold out until I made it to Nexpa. I was fifteen kilometers from the town when it started to literally pour instantly. There was no warning sprinkles or anything; one second it was dry and the next it was a heavy downpour. It was the strangest thing ever because this has never happened before on my trip. There were always warning sprinkles, even if not for long. On a rain scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is light sprinkles and 10 is a monsoon I must say that this rainstorm rated at about an 8 on the scale. The rain came down fast and it came down hard. The roads became flooded and I had to struggle through several inches of water. Things became even more interesting when the strong winds kicked in, making the rain essentially come at me horizontally as opposed to vertically. It was so bad that it was practically blinding me. But did I stop? Nope! I am currently in the small town of Nexpa, population 55, which is located right on the ocean. I am actually writing this down in pen as my laptop is currently non-functional. There was a one kilometer cobblestone access road that one had to take in order to get here. Let's just say that it was so bad that I had to walk parts of it for fear of either ruining my rims or simply sinking somewhere. I am staying in what is thus far the coolest lodging of my trip. I have a private beach cabana complete with two floors, three beds, bathroom, fridge, kitchen, balcony, and hammock. Sure, I won't use half this stuff, but this place is simply awesome! Not the cheapest thing in the world at $14 but definatley worth it. Being so close to the ocean I felt it would be a shame in order not to go for a dip. I quickly changed into my speedo swimming attire and headed off. Sure my swimming attire may be shocking revealing, but it's very lightweight and packs down small! Upon closer inspection of the water it occured to me how stupid of an idea it would be to go in there. Dark clouds and strong winds still prevailed, thus the waves ranged in at anywhere between four and ten feet. This could produce a potentially very dangerous undertoe in which I wouldn't stand a chance. I decided to simply lounge on the sand in the shallow water, where I was nearly swept away several times! Day 82 - Roadside Surgery - 183 km It rained heavily all night, however fortunatley this subsided in the morning. There were still light sprinkles; nothing to complain about. I did however have to walk part of the way out of Nexpa because the road, if you can even call it that, was terrible. The last thing I wanted to do was bend my rim and be stranded here. Sure, it may be nice, but I'd be in big trouble. Roughly 15 kilometers from Nexpa I had a fairly scary near death encounter. Often there is mud and rocks which has been washed onto the road after a rainfall. I was following closely behind a slow moving bus within a town and was not able to see far ahead of myself. I unfortunatley hit one of these patches and nearly lost control. I managed to unclip one of my feet and place it down on the road. Herein is where the problem starts. Next to this particular section of shoulderless road there was no fluffy grass or even dirt, but rather a eight foot drop which had been eroded away by water. By placing my foot here I essentially went straight into that hole, with my bicycle right behind me. My instincts kicked in and the next few seconds were a blur. I managed to dislodge my other foot, ditch my bike, and make a leap to the side. Here a thorny bush of some sort broke my fall, and I went sliding down into the hole. The pedal of my bicycle fortunatley became stuck on something and prevent my bicycle from plumetting in after me. It would have made a great picture to see my bicycle hanging by a thread, but I was afraid to try and get my camera in order to do so. Fortunatley I nor my bicycle did not suffer any major injuries, as this could have turned out to be a really, really ugly accident. I was unfortunatley scratched up pretty bad due to jumping into a thorny bush and had suffered a very painful bruise on the back of my leg. I brushed myself off, was very greatful for my luck, pulled out my bicycle, and pushed on. For the next while I had a constant pain in my upper leg. I mistook it as simply an aftermath from the fall, but scratches shouldn't hurt this much! Upon closer inspection it seems that something had lodged itself into my leg and was located pretty deep within my skin. I decided to remove this in my hotel room in the evening, but that plan did not go through. The pain became so bad that I simply could not bicycle anymore without pain shotting up from my leg. I had to remove whatever was in there now. I stopped at a gas station in order to puchase the necessary supplies and took a seat on the curb. Armed with only a safety pin, tweesers, tissue paper, a lighter, and a bottle of tequila I went to work. I disinfected my tweesers and safety pin with both the tequila and lighter for obvious reasons. Fortunatley being a future medical student I have been exposed to blood and gore and was thus am not affected too much by it, but when its yourself your working on it makes it a little more difficult; luckily my dear friend tequila also helped with that! I had to rip apart quite a bit of skin as the impregnated object was not only deep but large. A lot of bleeding and sweating later I managed to finally pull out the foreign object. It turned out to be a large thorn, almost a centimeter in length. No wonder I was in pain! I think that for the packing list of my next trip I will definatley have to add a plastic flask of hard liquor for practical reasons! In the event of a crash where you injure yourself it can act as a painkiller; and in case you need to perform roadside surgery it can act as a anaestetic of sorts as well as a disinfectant for both your tools and your wound. A very bumpy but fortunatley not too hilly road later I made it to the city of Zhuatanejo. This should ring a bell for you Shawshank Redemption fans out there; if you haven't seen this movie drop whatever you are doing and proceed to a video rental store immediatley to rent it. I am currently in the most pain that I have been in thus far on my trip. The scratches I can live with, but my leg is very sore and I anticipate I will have a very large bruise tommorow. I intend on taking a day off tommorow not due to my injuries, but rather because I had planned on doing so previously. Fortunatley these two managed to coincide!

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