I am staying here in Don Udo’s Hotel and no Udo is around! I knew you have a second career besides managing me :-;
Where are you hiding, boss?
Where is Udo?
Reply
Daily Archives: December 5, 2012
Half Time Résumé
Now that we have finished more than half of the
cycling days it is about time to give a big Thank You to the whole Tour d’Afrique and local support team staff team that does everything to make our days harder and harder, but keep our mood at 110%, make sure we are back on the bikes every morning and have a place to eat and sleep in the evening …
You are doing a fantastic job!!
Running into you, always with a more than encouraging smile, is a treat that carries me on through the whole day, no matter how steep, rocky, dirty, windy, hot, wet or whatsoever he had arranged for us.
I am looking forward to the second part of the trip and the arrival in Belize!
Cristiano – Tour Director
Macaws in Copan Ruins
Associated with the Copan Ruins National Park is a feeding station and release aviary to reintroduce the scarlet macaw (Ara macao) into the Copan Valley.
Rest Day in Copan Ruinas
Copan, once called “the Athens of the New World” for its 400-year reign as the Maya world’s undisrupted cultural, artistic and architectural center, was the starting point to explore more of the new city and the nearby ruins.
After a walk through the village and a stop by the post office to mail the key of my hotel in Gracias, which I accidentally carried through the last stage I walked the few kilometers to the ruins.
A Cyclist Treat
As a Tour d’Afrique cyclist you can be sure you always feel in heaven when you are at a rest day location.
However you need to qualify for the best treat and the rules are unknown 
Here is how Jessica sleeps the 2 nights in Copan Ruinas (incl. a complementary bottle of red wine)!
Staff ‘Entertainment’
Every day the riders are being sent out for long cycling hours and the staff team is left on their own. One can usually expect a few events or incidents during the day, like mechanical problems or minor injuries, which causes the staff and support team to come into action. However, there are days, when the riders do not ‘play’ after the tour ‘rules’.
This is when the staff team starts getting bored and invent ‘self entertainment’ games. One form of the games ‘invented’ is known as “Sarah is not working Hard enough, Let us Call the Doctor”, a useful thing to keep Sarah alerted and in training. On one day it was Cristiano, who ‘volunteered’ to be the victim and cut his toe, when he was trying the attach a flagging tape to a bush.
Yesterday, Astrid was ‘selected’ to give Sarah a more challenging task. As a brave South African she decided to top Cristiano’s courage and somersaulted over a speed bump, to land flat on the tarmac, conscienceless. However she did not time her action properly, so it wasn’t Sarah who was first in side, but me to give first aid and leave the ‘paper work’ for Sarah.
All staff members and riders are healthy and in good condition. Besides the normal cuts and bruises, which are hardly to avoid on such a tour, everyone is recovering from her or his accident.
X-fingers that this remains for the rest of the tour.