The Vatican

Such a short trip, did make it to Vatican City and to St. Peter's square and basilica, but did not make it to the Sistine Chapel.  But this is okay, I'm certain after a few days here I will be back to Italy some day, and to Rome most likely again also.  I love the Italian demeanor, food, fashion, and people.  Still, from the outside, St. Peter's square was fun to see and lit up at night very beautiful.  It's been in so many movies that I've seen it was a treat to actually walk around the square and have my five senses to explore the air, the sounds, see the Swiss Guard walking by, eat dinner at a table next to some clergy, and take a couple quick photos.  Back to California tomorrow, what a great weekend trip!

Scooter Mania - Rome

Did find a place to rent a scooter in Rome today.  A cute red 50cc Vespa (with matching helmet of course).  It is funny riding around on a bike with so little power, starts from traffic lights were like a nightmare AFM start - getting left in the dust by every single other scooter and motorcycle on the grid... er, at the light.  Ha, ha.  100% this thing was incapable of wheelie (evidence below).

Weekend In Italy

The downside of traveling for work all the time is, well, traveling for work all the time.  One of the big upsides though is having the miles and hotel points to be spontaneous and do spur of the moment things.  Taking a brief trip to Italy for the weekend, below are a couple quick pictures from this afternoon.  My camera is out on loan, so borrowed from a friend (thanks Tom!)  Tomorrow's project:  rent a scooter and go crazy in Rome!  Happy 4th of July!

AFM Round 4 - Picture

Cool picture from last weekend that shows both the scenic backdrop of the foothills around the racetrack, and what is looks like when you're racing for dear life with a pack of angry apes hot on your tail trying to get around you (Quick! God please help me make my bike eight miles wide and impossible to pass and give me the swiftness of a ninja!  Ha, ha.)

picture by Joe at 4theriders.

AFM Round 4 - Thunderhill Raceway Park

Great weekend racing at Thunderhill Raceway Park.  This was the fourth round of seven in the AFM 2010 series.  A couple personal victories this weekend, I improved my best laptime at this track by three seconds, and my best this year and with this bike setup by five seconds.  I got consistent 2:01's in during the Open Production race, and a few 2:00's in a couple of the races....  it's starting to come together.

For the first race weekend since I started racing two years ago, I felt like a real Varsity level racer.  They have a special class of race for new racers, simply because it's very difficult to substitute for experience.  Guys who've been doing this for years are plainly faster.  Being fast in the novice races is still miles away from being competitive in the Sunday varsity level races.  In fact this is a big jumping off point for new racers.  Many guys will come out and do the novice races for a year or two, and never really get to the point they can race with the faster crew.  For the last two years I've been wondering if I'm doing to be able to put together the kind of laptimes it takes to compete with the premier race classes, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I still race in the faster races, but typically there are a few guys like me WAY toward the back of the pack - so much toward the back it's almost like we're having our own race back there.  The laptimes if you look down the list of finishers are all a few seconds apart, then you'll see a jump of several seconds to the backmarkers.  For the first time, this weekend I was right there with the back of the pack.  The guys who were a few positions in front of me were doing very similar laptimes, and for the most part, I can see my way through to the next few seconds I need to produce to get up there a little further. 

Many people who start racing will get going on a bike that's friendlier to new racers.  Race groups are divided by bike size and by rider experience.  At the last round before the novice race for big bikes, the announcer said, "Ladies and Gentlemen... here come a group of VERY inexperienced riders on VERY powerful bikes"  Ha, ha.  I wonder sometimes if I need to get a smaller bike to learn and compete then jump back up to bigger bikes when I'm already toward the top of the smaller-bike-classes.  I finally have faith now that I can both wrangle with this big bike and also wrangle with the experience of getting competitive racing at the same time.

Still have miles to go, but at least it's a start.  I can see the back of the pack now, and with a few tweaks to my riding I can probably squeak out a few more seconds and have some battles with guys in the mid-pack of the bigger races.  Open Production is the smallest class I race in shown above.  The other races have 45 guys in them and I'm now starting to get up toward finishing in the range of 25th.  A few Novice racers are finishing in front of me still, but only a few, and I'm starting to get past some of the experienced racers at the back also.

All in all it was great fun racing.  July 10th is the next race weekend, and August 1st is the next race in the Bay Area back at Infineon Raceway Park if anyone wants to come watch!

The Shining Path and Peruvian Art

While in Cusco, Peru lately we found a super cool boutique hotel/ art bar/ restaurant called Fallen Angel.  One of the highlights of the Peru trip, the experience there really captured my imagination.  If you dropped this place 100% as it is into San Francisco it would thrive.  The tables you eat off were made of a glass top over an old iron bathtub which was a live goldfish tank.  The menu had other things, but the flagship series of items was all steak with different seasoning or sauce.  I hope to go back someday. 

It was equal parts art gallery, hotel and restaurant/ bar.  The art featured modern Peruvian artists, one of the major installments was from Richard Peralta.  He has a series of mixed media paintings called Inmaculada Deception you can check out on his website here.  This series was inspired by the atrocities of the Shining Path.

The Shining Path was/is an extreme Maoist/ Leftist group in Peru.  They killed and terrorized particularly around the year 2000, but as recently as one year ago they have been re-organizing around illegal cocaine trade to fund their guerrilla activities.  They had a practice of abducting children and turning them into warriors.  Really terrorizing poor villagers and heinous stuff.  This is much of the content in Richard Peralta's series I very much found equal parts intriguing, atrocious, beautiful and stimulating.

The image above is a piece I bought from the gallery, below are a few others I found interesting also.  A theme was children with gas masks, spears, automatic weapons, angel wings, and Shining Path warriors.  A link to his website is above if you want to see more.

AFM 2010 Round Three - Infineon Raceway

Well, race season is off to a frustrating start.  Lack of practice time (too much work travel), many bike upgrades and it feels like a completely new bike I'm not "settled" where it's predictable.  Also, some bike downgrades to make myself legal for the "production" class I race in.  Production is a category for not-modified bikes, or in truth highly modified bikes but only modified in ways explicitly allowed.  For example can't change forks but can change fork internal parts.

So I'm doing roughly the same lap times I was at the end of last season.  But somehow the Clubman races have gotten extremely fast!  The same times that earned me 2nd place last year are good for only tenth place this year.  Ha, ha.  In part due to the economy, race grids are smaller this year.  Most of the very serious riders still race though - it's just the bottom of the stacked ranking group who's bailed.  So the average speed has increased despite the lower volume of riders.  Also, some of the sponsorship money has opened up for Clubman races.  I run Pirelli tires who will give cash prize for placing 1st - 3rd.  This also brings additional talent into the Clubman race.

I finally acquiesced to the incessant lament of fellow racer #630 and got a full leather suit, rather than using a two-piece zip together suit.  I'm not convinced this is a safety upgrade really, but it does make me look more professional anyway.  Friends have been coming out to the races this year in spades to watch - which has been outstanding fun.  Great fun to have a pit crew cheering us on!  Next race that's near-ish to San Francisco is August 1st... mark your calendars!  Even if I take absolutely last place, I'm 100% going to be fun to watch and having a blast!

AFM Round Two - Infineon Raceway

I still need to post more about Peru, but the adventures keep rolling in and I wanted to update you on AFM round two last weekend at Infineon Raceway.  I've apparently been traveling and working too much and not had time to practice my racing.  I'm three seconds off the pace at this track I got to last year.  I have some significant bike upgrades (exhaust, suspension) but also one major downgrade (wheels) to become legal with the production class.  In short, it's much a new bike and I simply need more time in the saddle to get used to what I'm riding.

Had a wonderful birthday weekend at the track (now 34).  Friends new and old came out to watch the races, so much fun to have a team of fans cheering us on.  Big thanks to Trey for taking these photos.  I had hoped for better race results, but in the end I was consistent, safe and had a blast so hard to be very upset.  I placed 12 of 26 in Clubman Heavyweight (dropping me to 6th overall for the year so far); 16th of 18 in Open Production; 38th of 40 in Open Superbike and 34 of 42 in Open Grand Prix.

I didn't hear it, but apparently the quote of the weekend was when the announcer made commentary as me and the other Clubman Heavyweight racers took the grid for our race, "We're in for some excitement folks; coming up we've got a collection of inexperienced riders on VERY POWERFUL BIKES!"  Ha, ha.  This is a picture of me riding Brad's pocket bike around the pits, this would NOT be a "very powerful bike." 
  

Two of the remaining five rounds this season are fairly accessible to Bay Area spectators - also at Sears Point in Sonoma, California:  May 23rd and August 1st.

Inca Trail - Hiking In The Andes

Tons of great stories and thoughts on a week spent in Peru hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu, I'll have to find time to collect my thoughts and write them out soon before the experience fades in memory.  There are probably interesting posts on: the economics of a Cusco, Peru trip; the experience of hostel culture; and the locals who gain employ as porters for tourists on the hike.  For now here are a couple pictures as I'm still editing and organizing photos.  This one above was taken at 14,000 feet at a spot called Dead Woman's Pass. 

Executive summary:  the Inca empire was prominent for some 150 years in the vicinity of 1500 AD.  Despite a lack of wheel technology, the instrument of currency, particularly effective war capability (ultimately Spanish invasion coupled with small pox was the end of the Inca-rule), the Inca Empire stretched over much of South America.  They were very effective builders with stone, and are probably most well known today for the ruins at Machu Picchu.  Cusco, Peru was the epicenter of Inca activity, and the nearby Sacred Valley.  The Incas built over 1000 km of stone inlaid trails, hiking along one of these paths for four days is the popular tourist alpine hike that ends at the Machu Picchu ruins.

Boarding my flight from Miami on the way home, more later...

Zip Lines In Cusco

Found a fun zip line course over the river which cost 25 sol (S/.25).  Sol to USD conversion rate is roughly 3 Sol/ 1 USD - so the zip line cost about $8 USD.  Things here are generally quite cheap.  Taxi from the airport is 20 minutes and 10 sol (three dollars).  Found a couple pictures that turned out well and were interesting.