I originally booked my flight to Los Angeles 9 months ago when it was sort of cheap ($1200aud) and thought a couple of days in the USA would be fine, but due to the flight costs of my outgoing trip from LA to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico being ridiculously expensive I ended up staying there six days. 200 bucks instead of 600 bucks!  And turns out that was just perfect amount of time. I opted to go to Mexico via the CBX in San Diego, following in the footsteps of my daughter who’d gone that way a couple of years earlier. I had to make that decision in advance because to be able to even board a plane in Australia to the USA you need a return ticket or a plane ticket to another country.

Having a friend in LA is very valuable. It’s not a walking city. I had a couple of places I wanted to go to so I could buy all my gear for the trip and despite my mate saying they were nearby, it was 25 mins on multiple freeways to get there. My first stop was Berts Mega Mall. One of LA’s biggest motorbike shops. Turns out they also sell SBS’s, quad bikes, jet skis, boats and strangely enough, electric Mini Mokes.

I’d had a practice shop at a couple of motorbike shops in Melbourne with a mate before I left which was a great idea. I actually think the Melbourne shops had a bigger range of riding gear and my mate over here suggested it may be because of Amazon. Its huge over here as you can imagine. He said a lot of big stores now only stock minimal lines and order stuff in overnight (probably with Amazon) because people come in and try stuff on and then get the sizing and then buy it online. He said some stores now are requesting a “try on deposit” which is taken off the price if you purchase it in the store. Fortunately for me the limited stuff they had in store fitted me perfectly and I managed to leave the store with a helmet (LS2), jacket &pants (Alpine Stars, Bogota), boots (Alpine Stars, Belize), long merino socks and two pairs of gloves. I walked out of there 5 hours later with a $2300 hit on my credit card, and then, the bank shut it down.

At first I thought it was because it was being used overseas but I had informed them of my travel plans. After a few calls I was none the wiser. I did still have two other credit/debit cards that I had as backup. Luck or good planning.

My second big shop was a couple of days later when we went to REI. Also, just nearby. Ha. It was a big camping and outdoors store and like Berts Mega Mall, it had limited stuff on show but again had all the things I needed and they had a 30% off sale. I left with a tent (Alto TR2), sleeping mat (Nemo Tensor), sleeping bag (Magna 30) and a few little knick knacks that I’ll probably regret purchasing later. But hey. You know how those shops work. I’m think the lightweight camping chair might not make the final cut. I don’t plan to camp very often but if I get stuck somewhere or I find an amazing spot to camp then I’ll be glad I have them. Another thousand dollars into the American economy and a successful trial for my second credit card.

And then they shut down that credit card. Same bank but a totally online account with no connection to the other one. Or so they said. It also had all my trip funds. This was a bit more serious.

Between store visits I had also been buying stuff online and withdrawing my maximum daily limit in US dollars at the local ATM. I need this cash for later in the trip when I go into Argentina and use the Blue Dollar (in my day it was called the blackmarket). More about that in a few months hopefully. My third and final card was working well but had reached its limit. It’s and UP Card from the Bendigo and Queensland banks, I think. Not only was it still working it also gave the best exchange rate. Each time I took out $500us at the ATM it was $32 cheaper than my other cards. The US dollar is pretty strong at the moment which is sad.  Maybe the US treasury should hire me, as their dollar always increases in value when I go there!

My main online purchase was a set of Mosko Moto 80L Reckless panniers. They are top of the range, and I had ummed and erred about them for ages but they are really good. And the best part was that they were $600 cheaper over here. Winning. A mate had given me a set of Giant Loop panniers in Australia but in the end, for various reasons I decided not to bring them with me. I also bought a lambswool seat cover, a new phone cover and a big bag to stuff it all into. Things are delivered so quickly. No wonder online shopping is so big. And I was grateful to have a local address to collect it at.

I spent a lot of time on the phone in LA because not only had they shut down my credit cards they also closed all my accounts and deleted them from my app. At first I thought it was a scam but I’d tried to do everything safely. My daughter (POE) was also busy making calls and visiting the bank to try and sort it out. So far it seems like it was because of something I did just before I left home.

When you work in Antarctica they suggest you set up a Power of Attorney (POE) in case something happens to you down there. Gulp. I did this several years ago and thought no more of it. When I notified the bank that I was going overseas for a year the topic of POE came up and they said they had no record of it at the bank. So, we set up an appointment and lodged all the paperwork.

Well it seems like this started a chain of events which said I was no longer mentally or physically capable of handling my own banking affairs. And once they saw what I was doing they shut me down. Funny. If it wasn’t so serious.

The second card from the online bank, which had my travel funds in it had said when I signed up that they had nothing to do with the physical bank were much more helpful and concerned. They were also more forth coming with the information about why my account was shut down. After dozens of texts and calls in Australia and to me they were able to reinstate that card and account. They were even doing it out of hours and communicating with both me and my daughter at the same time. They apologised for the mix up and had it sorted within 24 hours which was great. And also they gave a $100 as a goodwill gesture. Which sounds dodgy but I’ll take it. They were a couple of aussie guys and kept the communication channels open for a couple of days until we were all happy it was all back to normal.

My other card and accounts are still locked up and are the ones which have direct debits linked to them which will cause more problems if they don’t sort it soon. The Saga continues.

I set my tent up on the lawn to make sure it was all there and we also went to a chinese restaurant one day and my fortune cookie said “A new voyage will fill your life with untold memories”.

Back to travel. After 6 days in LA we loaded up all my gear and headed to San Diego to our prebooked hotel near the CBX for the night. My mate likes to print itineraries of every day. Which was probably a good idea for my jet lagged brain. The CBX is basically a building on the border with Mexico which has a bridge over the dividing wall and allows you to walk from the States across to Mexico. The other side of the bridge is actually the Tijuana Airport. So you do all the immigration stuff there and then it was a domestic flight from there to Puerto Vallarta to my mates place, It was smooth and easy. Except. Except for my motorbike helmet which I had in my hand luggage. 

I didn’t know I couldn’t do that and apparently I could have pushed the issue but I preferred not to. They were very helpful and a nice young Mexican girl escorted me with my helmet and her swipe pass backwards through the system to the check-in desk where they happily took my helmet as checked luggage and didn’t charge me any extra.

So goodbye English. Hola Espanol.