As we head on down the road it was a beautiful day for a ride on nice Chiapan mountian roads.

Ah yes, it just dont get no better than this I tell ya……

Humm, what is this random dude doing running down the road with a torch?  Is he going to set something on fire?

Yup, more random people running down the road with torches, interesting…..

Then we come flying around a corner to see this stopped in the middle of the road….  Yes, these trucks were everywhere, every half mile almost.  What the heck are all these people doing?

Some runners would jump in the truck, others would get out.  It got to be a chore passing all of these vehicles and the folks running, but they would help us out a bit with the passing.

As we got into San Cristobal the runners and vehicles were everywhere in town, headed to the west end of town to the Church of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  Ah, OK, I get it now.  I had forgotten what a huge deal the virgin was in Mexico.  People come from miles around to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe.  They run and walk the whole way carrying a torch.  I’m not sure of the significance of the torch, but it was pretty cool to see all these folks.  Some of them dont wear shoes.  Probably something about suffering for your sins or some such thing.

Naturally that night in San Cristobal was a big fiesta.

The thing to do was take a walk up to the church with everyone else.  That’s not fog in the picture, its smoke from all the cooking going on.

And of course we had to stop along the way and get a little something warm to drink to take the chill off of the night.  I forgot what these things were called, but it was similar to warm pineapple juice with a kick, and they put something in the drink resembling pieces of pound cake that you spoon out and eat.  It was really tasty and a perfect drink for a chilly night in the mountains.

And then of course we need to eat some street tacos.  You cant join a proper Mexican Fiesta unless you have some street tacos.

Good tacos!

And so ends my stay in San Cristobal, and in Mexico.  Then next day I took Wendy to the airport in Tuxtla Gutierrez as she was headed back to Costa Rica.  It had been great traveling with her and I was very sad to see her off.

Then with a little bit of a heavy heart, I headed out of Mexico and pointed the orange beast toward the Guatemala border in search of new experiences and hopefully a little adventure as well…………

Adios Mexico, its been a fun ride.  I look forward to returning.  Hasta luego……..

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

While Tonina was impressive with regard to the sheers the size of the main structure and the labyrinth below, Palenque is unreal in the architecture and sheer number of stuctures, most of which have not been excavated.

Here is a little overview of the main area which has been excavated.

Wendy wanted to get a guide.  So we did.  It cost us about 30 bucks for 3 hours, but it was well worth it I think.  This dude’s name is Gilberto.  Everyone we passed called him “professor.”  He knew a lot of stuff.  Whether it was true or not, I have no idea, but he was a wealth of information, and he spoke pretty good English.

The very first thing you notice walking into the park is the Temple of Inscriptions.  Its impressive.  In the labyrinth below is where the tomb of King Pacal was found in 1952 by Mexican archeologist Alberto Ruz.

Pacal ruled Palenque for 68 years and died at the ripe old age of 80.  I had no idea that people lived that long over a thousand years ago….

Some other views of the Temple of Inscriptions………

The sarcophogus of Pacal. Seeing it up close its surprising how massive it is.  The pics dont quite convey this though.

Across from the Temple of Inscriptions is the Palace.

Of course the Palace is huge.  But what I found so fascinating were a couple of things.  Now bear in mind that this was built around 650 to 700 AD.  Take a look at this tower.  Now I’m not a student of Mayan architecture, but to me this looks like it might have a little Chinese influence….

I’m sure the experts would be quick to tell me how wrong I am, but then not far away I saw this…..

I kind of thought that dragons were pretty unique to Chinese culture, but of course I’m probably wrong.  This looks quite like a dragon to me though.  It is interesting to ponder.  After all, the Chinese were known to be a sea faring people with the capability to travel some long distances by boat.  If you ascribe to the theory that the Americas were populated by Asians who walked across the frozen Bearing Straights, Chinese influence in Mayan structures and art would’nt be all that much of a stretch right?

A typical Mayan bed in one of the structures.  I’m sure it had some padding at one time though.  Notice how stalagtites have formed along the wall from all the moisture.  While this was inhabited the stone walls were coated with a plaster to keep things dry inside but of course the plaster had eroded centuries ago.

They even had toilets with running water, once again, Chinese style.  Any of you folks ever see a modern Chinese toilet?  You dont sit on it, you squat over it and go in the hole.  In this toilet, there is a trough underneath that water is constantly flowing through to take the waste away.  Very interesting in my opinion.

Here is the modern Chinese version………

There were also steam rooms in the palace as well.  Here is one of the seats where you could steam yourself.  I’m not sure why the hell they needed steam rooms though.  Just sitting outside in a chair is steamy enough in this jungle.

Another temple in the main area.  I beleive that this is called the Temple of the Sun.  I really wanted to see a Mayan observatory, but the observatory at Palenque has not yet been found.  Some of the experts think that it is on the very high hill not far behind the Temple of Inscriptions as that place would have very nice views of the horzion in all directions.

Now this wouldnt be a complete Mayan ruins post without a ball court…………

This was a pretty cool carving on the top of one of the temples.  Supposedly it signifies the circle of life and death.

I’ll shut my trap now and leave you with some pics of some artifacts found on the site.

Palenque is a fantastic site.  I would recommend staying at a hotel that is close to the park entrance or actually inside the park, getting up early and going in right when the site opens in the morning so you can avoid the crowds and have a more tranquilo experience.

Hasta luego amigos.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

We opted to stay 10 miles out of town next to the park entrance.  At a little roadside chicken and beer stand, Wendy decided that a Michelada was just what she needed after shivering on the back of the bike all day!  A Michelada is basically beer with some spices, chili and lime added for flavor.  Its a woman’s drink.    However when she got her drink, it was a huge cup containing over 3 beers!  Woman’s drink?  Yeah right!  We then dubbed the place “Micheladas as big as your head.”

The road to the park entrance has some great long distance views of the ruins.

Toniná was an aggressive Mayan state, sporadically at war with Palenque for many years.  You can see that it sits on a easily defensible position.  Toniná was founded in the early classic Mayan period, but really came into power in the late classic period from about 600 to 900 AD.  Much more detailed information about Toniná can be found here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonin%C3%A1

There were some rustic cabins that we stayed at right outside the park entrance.  The boards making up the outer walls had half inch gaps in them.  The beds were thin foam pads over wooden slats.  In addition, the place was slam full of some very interesting looking BIG spiders, and much to Wendy’s chagrin there was neither hot water, nor a toilet seat.  Nevertheless, she loved the place.  She is used to snakes, spiders and scorpions in her open air place in Costa Rica, so the spiders didn’t really phase her, just the lack of a toilet seat.  It was a very peaceful place to stay after being in Tuxtla and San Cristobal for a while.  Just the type of place I needed after being suffocated in cities for the last couple of weeks.  I thought it was perfect.

The Toniná ruins have very few visitors compared to a place like Palenque.  Although not nearly as impressive as Palenque, the fact that there are minimal visitors is what makes Toniná special in my opinion.

You can get up when the park opens, walk in, and have the place to yourself for at least a couple of hours.  You can climb around the temples, walk in the dark labyrinths of the main structure (bring some good lights), sit on the highest stone and survey the surroundings, imagining what it would have been like to live in this city over a thousand  years ago.  With the lack of visitors early in the morning, you can sit alone, in silence, and actually feel the presence of the ghosts of the old civilization.  Very, very cool if you ask me.  This is exactly what I like about visiting old ruins.

The main ball court sits just below and in the shadows of the great temples.  The losing team would wind up beheaded.  Hummm.  I dont think I want to play………

Next as you head to the main structure is the Temple of the Underworld, an important aspect of the Mayan after life.

I’ll shut up now and leave you with the pictures of this fantastic site.  If you go to Chiapas you will want to go to Palenque, but do yourself a favor and make plans to visit Toniná.  Its a great little place to stay and they are wonderful ruins to explore without the crowds, rules and regulations of Palenque.  Highly recommended.

The forest reclaims things quickly.  After only 100 years, the old stones would be completely covered with dirt and vegetation, including trees.  This side is only partially excavated and a good example of what the archeologists and anthropologists had to deal with.

The skies were so nice and dark here that I couldnt resist getting a couple hours of star trails from the cabin.  Its cool to see how low on the horizon the north star is now.  We are getting close to the southern hemisphere and constellations are appearing on the southern horizon that I am not familiar with.  Very cool!!!!!

Hasta luego.  Saludos, Vicente

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

I pulled into Tuxtla Gutierrez, capital of Chiapas, to find a hot and humid big city of half a million people, as well as Wal Mart, Applebees, HoJo’s, Autozone, Office Max, and every US chain franchise joint you can imagine. Excellent. Just what I need to get some stuff done on the bike and resupply my kit.

With so many amenities, I was set up in no time to do an oil change on the big KTM. Oil pan- 2 bucks, Rags- 2 bucks, foil – 2 bucks, 3 liters of Maxima 20W-50 – 20 bucks, 6 pack of Tecate – 3 bucks.  Everything I need for a hotel parking lot oil change.

I do a little trick with the tin foil so I dont have to take the left fairing and gas tank off the bike. It makes an oil change on the 990 a 1 beer job where usually its about a 4 beer job. There is one screen in the oil tank that you cant get to using this method, but I never find anything in that screen anyway, and there is another screen that’s easy to get to and will give you an idea if you should check the screen in the oil tank.

All done, and it only took one beer.  I’m getting pretty quick at the 990 oil changes now, 45 minutes, complete with clean up.

In addition, I also found something, or rather someone else in Tuxtla. My amiga Wendy! Hi Wendy! She lives in Costa Rica and came to Mexico to travel around a bit on the bike with me.  She was here in 1994 when the Zapatista uprising occurred and was denied entry into the state, so she has always wanted to return. It was the perfect opportunity for her as I was here and she could travel with me on the bike.  However now this bike is loaded up like a Gold Wing.  This is definitely a time when I am very happy that I have the big bike.

It feels great to have a good friend with me after being on the road for so long. Its like being with family because she is pretty much is my adopted sister whether she likes it or not.

There’s not a whole lot right in Tuxtla of interest to  tourists, but right out of town is the Canyon del Sumidero, an impressive fissure about 3000 feet deep. You can take a boat up the river, or you can drive up to the viewpoints.  The entrance to the canyon is on this river at the town of Chiapa de Corzo.  When we drove through Chiapa de Corzo hawkers were literally jumping out in front of the bike yelling “lancha, lancha” trying to sell a ticket on one of the boat trips.   Apparently the boat trip is well worth it. Maybe next time.

As you pay your park entrance fee of 20 pesos (about $1.75) you can drive up to 5 different “miradores” or viewpoints.  And the views are really impressive.  Sadly the pics dont do it justice, but if you are ever in this area, you need to go check out the canyon, its well worth it.

Riding up to the miradores above Tuxtla………..

Its a fun little twisty road that takes you up to around 4500 feet at the rim of the canyon.

The views are well worth it………

Another view………..

We met this really pleasant and talkative guy named Alejandro while we were at one of the viewpoints. He told us that when the Spaniards came to conquer the area, the indigenous people were not too keen on being conquered. The locals figured that there was no way they could defend themselves against the Spanish military might, so thousands of them lined up at the top of the canyon walls and jumped 3000 feet to their deaths. Men, women, children, elderly, everyone.  Whoa…..

Yup, it is a long way down there.  I dont know how many BASE jumpers live around here, but if you want to risk landing in the river it would be surely be a great spot for BASE jumping.

After leaving Tuxtla, we headed to the old colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas.  Its a beautiful town of about 80,000 people that sits in the mountains at 7000 feet.  It has nice warm days and cool, crisp mornings and evenings, a very nice climate.  Here you tend to forget that you actually are in the tropics because of the alpine climate and topography.

San Cristobal is fairly upscale, but done very tastefully.  There are many tourists here from all over the world:  Europeans, North Americans from Canada the US and Mexico, South Americans, Japanese, etc.  In a simple stroll through town you will see just about every nationality in the world represented and its not surprising because this is a very cool place to hang out for a few days, take it easy, eat good food and get out of the tropical heat.

There are plenty of hotels to choose from, budget to swanky, and many choices for a wide variety of good food.  Tourism is the business in this town.

We met up with some other riders here as well.

Jeff from Spokane…..

Arno from Portland, OR………….

and Kevin from Toronto………

They were all riding solo, but had the same destination as me, Ushuaia, Argentina.  However thier timetable is a bit more hectic than mine to say the least.  Jeff has 3 more months before his wife threatens divorce, Arno donesnt really know how much time he has, and Kevin has about 3 months of money left.  It was just a fluke that we all met up in  San Cristobal. It was fun hanging out with these guys for a few days.  They left for Guatemala while we planned our trips to the Mayan ruins of Tonina and Palenque in northern Chiapas…….

Saludos, Vince

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Oaxaca sits at a very comfortable 5000 ft elevation, which in the tropics makes for a nearly perfect climate of warm, dry days and cool, but not cold nights and mornings.  I immediately like the place.  The city sits in a valley surrounded by mountains in an arid climate.  The climate, topography and scenery remind me of Reno, NV.  I know that sounds funny but if you were to visit both cities the similarity in the surrounding terrain and environment would be quite noticeable.

Its yet another interesting colonial city, famous for its Mezcal and Moles.  Unfortunately I didnt do anything touristy here except wander around and take a few photos.  Being a tourist is hard work, and after doing it for a couple of months straight I got tired of it.  I was happy to sit in my hotel courtyard and relax.

I was on a mission to find a fresh front tire for the bike, and it didnt take long as a shop was just a few blocks from the hotel.  So I went in and ordered a tire, which I was informed would take a few days to arrive from Guadalajara.

So there was nothing to do except relax, catch up on some internet stuff and take a few photos.  This was some kind of flag ceremony in the main square, but I never did figure out exactly what was going on.

And of course, more churches………..

I saw this interesting Yamaha while walking around town.  I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I have not seen one in the States, and it looks like it would make a really nice adventure touring bike.

Then of course there are the usual Mexican roof dogs around town……………

Mission accomplished:  80 dollars and 4 days later, fresh rubber for the front.  I’m a happy camper.

Time to say goodbye to the folks at the hotel and make some tracks toward Chiapas.

I didnt visit any of the tourist sites around Oaxaca.  Yeah I know, pretty lame huh?  I was just not in tourist mode and was content to walk around town and not really do much of anything.  It was some nice down time in a pleasant hotel.

Once my tire arrived I decided to head out of town and make tracks toward the state of Chiapas.  When I stopped at a Pemex to fuel up, a  group of Harleys came riding by and one of them peeled off from the group and rode up next to me while the rest of them parked nearby in the parking lot.  The guy tells me that their “leader” wanted to talk to me and then pointed me in his direction.  I met the leader, and he asked me where I was going and where I had come from.  He then introduced everyone as the Legionarios motorcycle club and told me that they were headed the same direction as I was, and they would like it very much if I rode with them.  Cool.

I was given a place in the formation and off we went.  Being good Harley riders, they of course had to stop for food and beer about 30 minutes after we started.

Over food and beer, I learn that these guys are from Oaxaca and they are headed to Cozumel for a big annual club party where there will be hundreds of riders in attendance.  None of them spoke any English, but they were very patient with my horrible Spanish, and asked me numerous questions about my travels.  Although my brain began to hurt after conjuring up answers in Spanish to the multiple questions, we did have a lot of laughs about my Spanish.  However they assured me that I was doing well and they could understand me quite easily.  One guy that had a constant grin on his face started laughing about my pronunciation of something.  (I’m sure what I said was probably hilarious to a native speaker) But another guy chimed in and replied, dont laugh too hard because his Spanish is a hell of a lot better than your English.  These guys were obviously a total crack up and really fun to hang with.

Then the leader, Jose, said that they would be honored if I would come with them to their club fiesta in Cozumel.  Wow, that sounds cool.  I thought about it and really wanted to go with them, but I was feeling the need to get to Chiapas, get an oil change done and take off for the cooler temps of the higher mountain elevations.  In retrospect, I should have gone with them as it would have been great for my Spanish and I’m sure I would have had an awesome time.

As we parted ways quite a few miles later at a road junction as we stopped for a pic, exchanged phone numbers and emails, they wished me safe travels.  In addition they told me that if I had any problems the rest of the way through Mexico and Guatemala I should contact them and they would help me with whatever I needed.  Very cool.  Gracias amigos.

Adios Legionarios, it was great riding with you.

As they headed north towards Villahermosa, I headed east to Tuxtla Gutierrez.  Next stop is Tuxtla, then San Cristobal de las Casas where I would meet a bunch of adventure rider and wind up with a passenger for a few days.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

OK, so where were we? Ah yes, a flip flop blow out of the worst kind. Fixed easily enough though…….

Feeling the need to press further south, I left Nexpa after one last good surf session. I spent the night at Zihuatanejo, a small tourist town but nothing special, so I didnt take any pics. I was only there for a beer, dinner and a good night sleep.  The plan was to get an early start for a 400 mile day to Puerto Escondido.

Low and behold, as I was leaving Nexpa, I came up on a one lane bridge and ran into a dude on a GS.  He looked at me and said, “dude, I know you!”  Hey Jim.  Gotta love the internet.  One minute I’m crossing a one lane bridge in the middle of Michoacan and guy pulls up and says he knows me.  funny stuff.

I didnt know him, but he knew me from my blog being a motorcycle guy.  And since I dont have many shots of myself, of course I had him take one.  We shot the bull for a while cooking in the sun then Jim headed north toward Mazatlan to his winter home, and I headed further south.

Anyway, as I said, uneventful ride to Zihua, uneventful stay.  I got on the road at 7 am and decided to try and eat up the 400 plus miles to Puerto Escondido.  After 11 hours of wheelying over topes, passing and dodging traffic for a solid 11 hours, I pull into Escondido to find this.

Ugggg.  Another tourist trap beach town complete with people trying to sell you stuff every step down the beach.  Great.  Fortunately its not too crowded yet, but its on the high end of my budget so I only stayed long a enough to eat, sleep, and get some shots of the surf.

Puerto Escondido is known as the “Mexican Pipeline.”  Its every bit as hairy as the Hawaiian Pipeline except its a beach break rather than a reef break.

In these pics the locals say, its flat.   In other words, there are no waves.  In the summer, this place cranks out consistently intimidating double to triple overhead+ waves with board snapping, and neck snapping juice.  When it gets some size on it, this place is every bit as serious as anything on the North Shore.  Fun to watch, but not so fun to be out there and getting worked.

Looks pretty fun on this day though.  Remember that for this place, there are no waves.  Well it sure looks fun riding what ever those things are in the water.

A boogie boarder getting set up for the beating…….

There are no waves, but here is a guy setting up for a very nice barrel, riding one of those “whatever you call em’s” because there are no waves here.

Anyway, time to get out of here to about 45 miles further down the coast to the towns of Mazunte, San Augustillo, and Zipolite.  About 15 years ago these places were off the radar of most folks and pretty much only had some basic rooms and places to hang your hammock.  I opted to stay in Zipolite.

It quite a bit different now with numerous places to stay, restaurants to choose from and people trying to sell you stuff on the beach.   However, Zipolite has two things going for it.  Number one, its on a very pretty beach, and number two:  Its cheap.  Perfect place to chill out while spending about 15 bucks a day for everything you need.  Also, as I found out, its a clothing optional beach.   However you will see  a few people that should probably keep their clothes on.

You can tell its popular from the bus traffic……

Here’s the view out my private, 100 pesos per night room.  Not bad for about 8 bucks.

Of course there are more expensive places to choose from complete with catchy names.

Hasta luego amigos, saludos…………

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

I’m kind of burned out on big cities and was wanting a little time by the ocean and some surf, but in a small town.  I figured that I would head south from Morelia to the Michoacan coast to a very little town called Rio Nexpa.  Population, less than a hundred really nice people, a few old mangy dogs, a couple of jerks, and a world class left point break.

It was an uneventful ride down to the coast and to the little cobble turn off to the town of Nexpa.  There are plenty of places to stay here to fit all budgets as its a fairly popular surf destination, yet small enough to be off the radar of most people.  A perfect place to relax and catch some waves.

Not a bad little town huh?  Wow, and look at that point break!  Heaven.

Warm water, perfect head high point surf, offshore breeze, like I said, heaven.

There’s not much in the way of amenities, but there’s a little store, a couple of restaurants and some good scenery.  I dont really need anything else.

Nice accommodations with secure parking of course.  If anyone can steal my 500 pound pig right in front of my door,  out of deep sand, they probably deserve it. :-)

There are some great sunsets of course……..

As well as some pretty night skies…………

Its a dogs life, but someone has to do it.

Actually, it was a really dangerous place.   Just look at what happened here. :-)

Very dangerous, but nothing a little Baja ingenuity and a zip tie wont be able to fix…………..

Saludos.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Well I’m not really sure how I did it, but I busted the sidewall on the rear MT-90 Scorpion.  I discovered this about 5 minutes before I was going to leave S. M. de Allende.  I must have run over one of those numerous metal things, which resemble a piece railroad track  embedded in the cobble street, but sticking straight up a good four inches above everything else.  Really strange.

Anyway, I had the tire guy down the street put a patch on the sidewall but I had my doubts it was going to work (I’m running a tubeless rear and didnt want to put in a tube just yet).  It worked well enough to get me to Morelia via the pavement as it only lost about 7 pounds of air over 4 hours.  So, time for a new rear tire.

I pull into Moto Altavista – Morelia, a Suzuki and KTM dealer, and low and behold they have a rear Scorpion that fits.  Bingo.  I’m lucky, its the last one they have.  How much?  M$1680 pesos, installed.  Its OK, I can spoon the new tire on myself, I planned on doing that anyway.   If I want to do the install myself, how much would it cost?  M$1680 pesos.  Hummm, thats a dilemma.

These folks literally dropped everything they were doing at the time and started on my bike.  How cool is that?

The boys in the shop looked pretty competent as I was watching them work on all types of bikes, mostly EXC’s and XC-W’s but a few 640 adventures, RMZ’s and Honda CRF’s.  What the heck, have at it boys.  They had the new Scorpion mounted up in no time.  Cool, this is going to take all of 20 minutes out of my day.

Then, they started cleaning my chain and sprockets.    After that they brought out the Simple Green and the power sprayer.  I told them that they didnt have to clean anything, but the quite stern reply came back in Spanish of course, “dude, relax.  This is what we do for you long riding gringos coming through.”

Wow, cool!  One guy scrubbed on my bike for almost a hour!  Wait, how much is this going to cost?

Well, I have a new rear tire mounted, my bike was all shiny clean, my oil checked, my chain adjusted, cleaned, and lubed.  Besides that, the owner of the store sat down with me on the computer and worked  out a route to the Michoacan coast.  Still only cost me $1680 pesos.  Just that tire costs about $145 bucks in the states.  In retrospect I should have had them change the oil as well!  Wow, you guys rock!!!  Moto Altavista, Morelia  – Highly Recommended.

I wasnt quite sure about this place when I got here the other day.  It seems that I couldnt find any of the budget hostels listed in the Lonely Planet book.  So, figuring that I was just an idiot, I stopped and asked directions.  However it was really strange.  Every time I would say “buenas tardes” people would shake their head and shake their finger at me.  Whats up with that?  I know I dont smell that bad.  I said the right words with a smile even.   Interesting, this place is about a friendly as the anger management convention.

Oh well.  I did eventually meet some nice folks that would talk to me, but its a way different vibe than Zacatecas and Guanajuato.  More of a big city vibe, but this really isn’t that big of a city.  I guess I just got used to the friendly people in Zac and Gto.

OK, well now is when I walk around the city and take more boring pictures of…………………….you guessed it, churches.  I know you’re all bored with this, but indulge me one more time.  The main cathedral in the city centro.

more old buildings……..

some people………

some people and birds……..

A door.  I love these old ornate doors.  Too bad I cant take a decent pic of them.

An old aqueduct…….

Some Communist dude that I think is pretty famous down here……

And finally, dinner!  That was the coldest Negra Modelo that I have ever had, and man, was it ever good.

And some ugly looking dude eating the dinner.  Jeez, I need a shave and haircut, badly……..

It was a short stay in Morelia.  Its really a pretty cool city and worthy of at least 3 or 4 days minimum.  However, I came here to get a tire.  I’m kind of burned out on big cities, old beautiful churches and constantly ringing bells right now. so I felt the need to move on.  If you take the time to look around this place a little more than I did, I’m sure you will find that its a fantastic place, and most likely one of the coolest larger cities in Mexico.  So if you come here, plan to spend a little time.  I think it will grow on you.  Sadly, I didnt even scratch the surface of the place.  Maybe next time.

Saludos.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

It was a bit of a sad day leaving Zacatecas because I really enjoyed my time there, learned to speak a little  Espanol, met lots of people, and made some friends.  However, it was time to leave.  I decided to make tracks to Guanajuato, roughly 200 miles away.  I planned out a 50/50 pavement-dirt route.  I got a little dirty, it was good for the soul after being in a city for a month..

Its refreshing to be back on the dirt, and out in the sticks.  However there were a couple left over mud pits from the rain last week, and of course, my route took me right through them.  They didn’t want me to park the bike in the lobby of the hotel looking like this.  But I convinced them anyway.

Had a really nice dirt ride for about the last 100 miles into Guanajuato…………

Approaching Guanajuato after the dirt portion of my ride.

So I get into Guanajuato and the place was a complete zoo.  Because of the insane amount traffic, it took me 2 hours just to get through the city!  I wanted to stay, but every time I stopped at a place, they said, “Sorry, we are full.”  I did find one place near the city centro that had a room.  It was a dorm room that I would have to share with 5 other people.  How much?  450 pesos (40 bucks) a night, no parking – No thanks.   It was the end of the Festival Cervantino and the whole town was a mad house.  Stop and go traffic through the entire city, even in the underground roads, masses of people everywhere on the streets. I decided to save it for another time.

Its too bad, because it really looks like a very beautiful city in which to spend some time, but it was a complete zoo and I wanted none of it.  I got out of the city as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast because of all the traffic.

So I decide to head for San Miguel de Allende about 45 miles to the east of Guanajuato, and I ran across these dudes.  Actually, I didnt run across them, they ran across me when they passed me on the highway doing at least triple digit speeds.

Sergio and Rafael.  Good guys.  They had actually just come back from a motorcycle trip to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego about 6 months ago.  We sat on the side of the road and talked bikes and trips for a good couple of hours.  It was a nice break and my Spanish came in handy although Sergio spoke some English.  Between my terrible Spanish, and his passable English we were able to have a decent conversation.

Anyway, these guys live in Queretaro, close to San Miguel, and they told me that I have to come in town and look them up.  They said they will hook me up with tires, a place to change oil, whatever I need.  Very cool, I might have to take them up on it.

Well, back to San Miguel de Allende.  Not what I expected.   Its a very popular tourist town, and the prices are about the same as in the states, but I can immediately appreciate why this place is so popular with tourists.

There are art galleries and swanky little cafe’s and hotels on every street corner, lots of wintering gringos too.  I’m not a big fan of touristy places but this is a cute town and has enough to keep you occupied for a day or so.

The main cathedral:

I walked around and took some shots of the streets:

You can get some nice views down the steep streets from the hillsides.

Be careful pooch!

Resistance is futile, you just cant get away from it.  And no, I didnt go in.

All in all, its pretty nice little town if you don’t mind all the touristy stuff.  One downside was the price of the hotels.  Every place I stopped at was 1200 to 2000 pesos a night, roughly $100 to $180 bucks.  I shopped around for a good 2 hours, but I still had to spend 500 pesos, or about 40 bucks for my room.  However, I did get some pretty nice digs.  I was told the normal price was 1200 pesos but as I was walking out the door, it came down to 500.  Actually the guy that owned the place was very cool.  He is an old ex-hippy artist type and he asked me what I could afford.  I told him that I could spend 40 bucks a night for two nights.  He said, “deal, pull your bike right in the door.”  Pretty cool guy because he had other guests and really didnt need the cash.  He was helping me out.  He said that when long riders come through, he does his best to give them a good price, because in addition to an ex-hippy, he is an ex-biker as well.  That bed was fantastic, super comfy, so I suppose it was worth it.  Gotta splurge once in a while I guess.  Thanks for styling me out Keith, I appreciate it amigo.

It was a good place to visit with very swanky accommodations and I enjoyed myself, but its time to get back on the budget.

Next stop?  Who knows, maybe Queretaro or possibly Morelia as I work my way toward the pacific coast.  Sorry the updates have been a little slow, but the Spanish school kind of slowed me down.  I’ll be moving fairly regularly over the next month or so before I park my butt for some more school.

Thanks for tuning in everyone……

Hasta luego………

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Zacatecas is an old Spanish colonial city founded in 1546 upon a rich silver mining region and now has a population of roughly 124,000 people.  Its sits in a semi desert region at about 8000 feet in elevation, which makes for a pleasant climate with warm days and chilly evenings.  Its a little gem of the north central highlands of Mexico and a must see destination if you are ever in the area. Although the city is a popular destination with Mexicans, surprisingly I have seen very few tourists from other countries.   The people are friendly and the city is a beautiful, safe and relaxed place to spend some time.

It was a pretty uneventful and unremarkable pavement ride from Durango, but once I got into the city itself it was a bit crazy with one way streets branching off in every imaginable direction, complete with loco drivers who would just as soon run over a motorcycle as look at one.  Unlike in California where drivers ahead will make room for a moto to pass, in some Mexican cities It seems as though drivers will intentionally try to block your way when you want to split lanes to get through stopped traffic.  This is curious because out on the highways Mexican drivers are very courteous drivers.

It took me almost a hour of driving around the city Centro (downtown) to find the hostel.  I knew where the hostel was located, but I just could’nt get to it because of all the crazy one way streets.  After about the 10th loop around downtown I finally hit the correct street, going the correct direction that put me at the front steps of the hostel.  Wow, that was a little difficult.  I dont want to have to do that again!

This is a view of the downtown area and the arrow points to my hotel.  Almost all of the streets are one way, a navigation nightmare.   I guess the Spanish didnt have much in the way of planning and zoning back in the 1500′s. :-)

Finally, I find the place……..

The Villa Colonial is quite a nice place for a hostel, and has the standard budget dorm type rooms, but also has private rooms and a couple of studio apartments for rent.  Since I will be staying a while and I have a bunch of gear, I opted for the studio complete with kitchenette and balcony.  How much?  About 16 bucks a night.

Pretty nice set up.

The view of the main cathedral from my balcony.

Looks like I will have to stay a while in light of the digs.  No problem finding a Spanish school as well.  The Fenix Lauguage Institute.

This is Carla, my ex-teacher.  They have since given me a new teacher.  I guess Carla figured that I was a lost cause. :-)  The Spanish school is relatively inexpensive at 100 bucks a week for 5 days of one on one instruction.  After everyday my head hurts and by the end of the week it feels like its going to explode, but I am learning (poco a poco) little by little.

A walk around the city Centro is quite interesting as many of the churches and other structures are hundreds of years old.  The old stone streets are narrow enough that they have room for only one car,  hence all the one way streets.

The main cathedral was built in the early 1700′s.

In addition there are many interesting looking smaller churches as well.  I think this one is only about 200 years old.

An old convent that started construction in the early 1600′s.

Then low and behold, a Canadian rides into town and parks right next to me. :-)  Hey Randall!

Two 2007 KTM 990′s parked next to each other in Mexico?  Looks like trouble to me.  Randall is riding from Prince George B.C.   His family is on vacation in Puerto Vallarta and he is going to meet them there.  I think the story he told his wife was that they couldnt afford airline tickets for everyone this year, so he would “take one for the team”  and save money by riding his motorcycle to Mexico.   Pretty slick story dude. :-)

I think he is happy to be here.  Not sure what’s up with the stink eye.  Maybe he is thinking about having to leave the real Mexico and go to Vallarta to spend the rest of the week with his family in one of those all inclusive tourist trap hotels full of lobster red gringos drinking bad margaritas, and getting sick from eating the all inclusive buffet that sits out in the sun for days on end before it gets changed out.  :-)  I’ll take street tacos and tamales any day over that resort stuff………..  Funny how the only time I’ve ever gotten sick in Mexico was from eating at one of the resorts.

Since I’m a big fan of NASA’s Apollo program and somewhat of a space junkie, I had to take a picture of this little store.  The old guy that owns the joint is a huge fan of the Apollo missions.

Here’s a view down my street……..

But at night it can turn into a roaming street party being led by a band.  These little parties are quite popular on the weekends and they are called Callejoneadas.  Its illegal to drink in public, so groups of people get together and get a permit from the city, hire a band, and sometimes get a mule to carry the Mezcal, and have a little roaming street party that lasts for a couple of hours.  Most times, folks are happy to have you walk along with their party, its pretty fun actually.

There are quite a few motos of all types in Zacatecas as well.  Here are some random local bikers out for a Saturday ride.

Also in town is an old bullfighting arena that has been transformed into a swanky hotel and restaurant.  The Quinta Real.  About $400 US per night, a little rich for my blood, but nonetheless a pretty cool joint………..

On a high ridge line above the city sits the rock formation of La Bufa.  To get there, you can drive, take the tram, or walk.  Its actually quite a nice walk, although a bit steep, from the city Centro.

It would probably have been more fun to take the tram, but I needed the exercise  since I have been sitting in a classroom for the last few weeks.

At the top is a monument to Pancho Villa and the Battle of Zacatecas during the 1913 Mexican Revolution.

There are some great views of the city Centro from La Bufa.

Thats all for now folks.  I have one more week of Spanish school then I am going to head further south to take in some more colonial cities before it gets too cold up here in the high elevations.

Hasta luego…………..

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

I got an early start out of Mazatlan with the intention of beating the heat, and hopefully the rain as the sky was full of building cumulus even in the early morning. The Bicimaps GPS map did a great job of routing me out of the city and onto Mex 40 libre (free road.)

Before I picked up Mex 40 I saw a couple, 2 up on a  BMW GS with BC Canada plates and figured that when they stopped I would say hello. However, they took the turnoff to the Mex 40 cuota (toll road) while I took the libre (free road). The quota will not be finished for a couple of years though, correct? Along the way you could see that the bridge and tunnel building was in full swing though.

Mex 40 is a very narrow and twisty road that starts at sea level near Mazatlan and winds its way up into the mountains to elevations of over 8000 feet.  Its a very dangerous road that has curves so narrow that big trucks will take up both lanes when coming around a corner.  You have to go very slow on the road, about 25 mph max, because you never know what dangers are lurking around the next corner.  However, I was looking forward to getting into some cool weather for a change and heck, curvy roads are a lot of fun on a motorcycle.  Those of us that ride motos in Mexico like to joke that “curvas peligrosas” actually means “really fun road” :-)

Anyway, I saw some bikes pulled off on the side of the road so I stopped. It turned out it was a group from Mazatlan out for a Sunday ride, waiting for another of their group to catch up.  We chatted a bit and Alberto said, “Vicente, vamos. We are going to get some breakfast. So I took off following them for about 20 miles or so. They were passing cars and trucks in the twisties like it was no big deal.  Needless to say, I didn’t have the guts, or maybe the stupidity to follow them in some of the passes that they made.

We had breakfast and some good conversation about riding, Baja racing, and they took off back to Mazatlan. Very nice folks.

Adios amigos……..

As I climbed further up Mex 40, it got really fun and twisty, but as you will see in some of the pics, became very crowded with trucks.

Hummm……… this could get interesting………..

Ya think?

Glad I didnt see this as I was coming around the rock, but there was an emergency dirt pull out right where my bike was parked.

As I mentioned, there were a couple of trucks on the road today. I dont know how many accidents are on this road everyday, but if I were a bettin man, I would say they are not uncommon.

At one point I came around a curve to find the ass end of the truck in my lane backing up to make room for another oncoming truck that was occupying both lanes to get his rig through the tight curve. Sorry no pic, I was on the binders hard. Good thing I was only going about 25 mph when I saw it because if I was going any faster I would have hit him.  Like I said, curvas peligrosas.

Then of course the clouds socked in everything and it started to rain. At one point the fog was so thick I pulled over since between the fog in the sky and the fogging of my helmet face shield I couldn’t see 20 feet in front of me. I figured that I would wait for a truck to come by, then follow him so he would essentially be running point for me.  I do this if I ride Mexican highways at night.  You wait for a truck to come by, then you tuck up right behind him and use him as a “cow catcher” :-)  But this time I was using the truck so I wouldn’t get hit by an oncoming truck taking up both lanes around a tight curve.   Turned out to be a good idea. I felt much safer following that big truck in pea soup like fog.

As I crossed to the other side of the mountains the twisties let up and the skies started to clear. I stopped at a tienda (little store) to take a breather and these folks pulled up and started buying beers. They called themselves the Aguilas Negras MC club, or the Black Eagles.

They were pretty rowdy and about half in the bag, but we shot the bull for a good hour or so before they took off.  They offered me a beer which I declined, but they would not let me go without drinking a beer with them.

I figured that I might be able to make Zacatecas just a little after dark, but they told me that I should stay in Durango because there were bad people on the road after dark as there is a lot of narco trafficking in the area after dark.   They said, “if you go, dont stop for anything but the military and the federales, and even then be very careful. That’s basic common sense when riding at night in Mexico but I appreciated the advice anyway.  Actually, they tried to talk me out of riding at night in this area and the guy and his wife on the far left of the pic offered me a room in their house for the night.  I declined the offer, but I did heed the warnings not to ride at night in the area and decided to stay in Durango.

I wound up parking my butt in Durango right around dark.  Next update will be from  Zacatecas, an old Spanish colonial city at 8000 feet in the high desert, where I will park for a while and take some much needed Spanish lessons.

Saludos.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Along the way to the the ferry teminal I spied 3 motos parked at some palapas on the beach. I figured that I would stop by and say hello, since it was still about 2 hours to departure.

It was some guys from Colorado who had just come down Baja over the last week and were headed over to Mazatlan, then north back to the States.

Anyway, its a good thing I stopped by, because these boys were still on pacific time and would have missed the boat, so to speak. I got a good chuckle out of that, we all did actually. Uh yeah guys, in southern Baja we are on Mountain Time.

So after that little revelation, we get to the ferry.

We load up and tie down the bikes……..

Then hit the cabinas……………………..VERY NICE!

The girls at Reception were also very nice. :-)

Then of course we hit the bar complete with loud  music, Mexican style, where I talked some more, but the boys were probably thankful that they could’nt hear me over the music.

Anyway, the boys from Colorado, AKA the Tres Locos, are planning a trans-Asia trip for next May and wanted to do a Mexico trip together to make sure that they would’nt kill each other on a long journey. Good dudes, all of them. I was talking up a storm since I had not been able to speak English for a while, so it was fun to actually have a real conversation with someone, instead of a point a grunt session punctuated by a few Spanish words. I’m sure they think, man, that Vinny dude sure talks a lot.

Upon arrival they immediately took off for Durango. Great meeting you guys, buen viaje mis amigos nuevos………

At first I wasnt thrilled about staying in Mazatlan since I felt I wanted to be out of the tourist areas. But low and behold, I ride no more than a mile from the ferry terminal and stumble upon this joint in Old Mazatlan. Sorry the pic is a bit foggy, as I just stepped out of the AC with my camera.

What do think this room would cost in San Diego? $300, maybe $400 a night?

Well in Old Mazatlan it costs 35 bucks!!  Sign me up baby.    I’ll stay the whole weekend, maybe more.

Complete with dee-luxe bike parking………….

Nice sunset right from the balcony of the room………..

Thats all for now.  I’ll be leaving in a couple of days as its so hot here all you want to do is stay in the air conditioning.  Up next will be much cooler temps in the higher elevations of the central mountains of Mainland Mexico.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

I was bummed. So I figured the hell with it. I will just do a mellow 200 miles of pavement and get to the ferry terminal in time for the 4 o’clock to Mazatlan. Wrong. I saw these folks on the side of the road headed north to Loreto. Paco and Margarita.

They had a rear flat and the patches they had wouldnt stick. So I broke out my patches and glue. Well you know how that goes. After 5 patch attempts and 3 hours later, we got it to hold air. I hope they made it to Loreto and I hope I get some good Karma out of it, because the rest of my day was messed up.

Lets see, It was hotter than hell. The bike started running like crap, stalling, backfiring, and would hardly get up to 60 mph.  Hopefully its just some bad gasoline. I missed the ferry to Mazatlan, but I went to the terminal and bought a ticket. For myself and bike, no room, 279 bucks!  To top it all off, I go back into town to find a cheap hotel with parking for the bike. Wrong again. I’m now at a place that dinged me 80 bucks for a room.  Killer parking though.   However at this rate, I’ll be broke by next month.

I’m not a fan of pavement, I’m not a fan of big tourist cities. La Paz kinda sucks in that respect. Its been a long time since I have been here and the place has grown into a tourist trap. I’m ready to get the heck out of here to some place less touristy, but more importantly, cooler, and where I can take some much needed Spanish lessons.

I head for Mazatlan on the ferry tomorrow night and will leave there in search of cooler temps after I find a place to drain the gas in the tanks, and check the pump and fuel filters.

I took only one picture for the day. It was one of those days.  I probably should have stayed in Loreto another night.

Enough whining from me. Just one of those days where I burned through way more money than I expected, and things just didnt work out. Not a big deal though. I’m still in Mexico, on a moto, and that doesnt suck, at all.

I´ll update again from Mazatlan.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

OK, so lets try this again shall we…………….

I also opted to change my luggage system as the soft bags were a pain to deal with every day, and they were not holding up so well.  The soft bags are great for a little 2 week Baja trip, but it because quite apparent that they were not going to hold up for the long haul.

These are Hardigg storm cases, much better…..

Today was a day to make some miles south. I got up at O’dark Thirty and rode out around 6 am. Left home in the midst of at thick marine fog layer and headed over to Tecate, took the compadre trail to Ojos, then picked up the dirt from Valle de Trinidad to Mex 1 south of San Vicente. After that, I slabbed it the rest of the day.

Lunch stop at Mama Espinosa’s in El Rosario.

Mama Espinosas is a Baja landmark popular with off road riders and racers, and celebrated for the incredible lobster burritos, good stuff

I made it all the way to Guererro Negro about half way down Baja, and set up camp at the Malarrimo Hotel.

Of course I had to have the specialty of the house, scallops with garlic, tasty.

Today´s totals: about 500 miles.  100 dirt and 400 pavement.

Well, I got a crack ‘o 10 am start this morning. Typical for me really. Thats why Miguel and I are good riding partners, neither one of us can get ready to leave before 10 am, and we dont really care where we end up. Unfortunately, Miguel is back at home in Arizona.  Too bad Mikey, youre missing out on some fun.

I headed off down Mex 1 and stopped in at San Ignacio to check on Gary and Terry and their Canadien Yurts on the river. They got hit pretty bad in 2006 when I was there, but this hurricane Jimena a few weeks ago was way worse.

All of the yurts had water in them, and some of them were just plain destroyed, including the very nice yurt that they used to live in.

They had a crew of workers in from Canada (must be that cheap Canadien labor ) and are rebuilding the place. They do have a few yurts that are finished up already, so if you’re in the hood, stop by and stay with them. Its called San Ignacio Springs B&B. Its a bit after you turn off Mex 1 headed to the town square. Its one of my favorite places to stay in all of Baja.

I wanted to stay, but it was still mid morning when I passed through so I figured that I better make a little more distance south.

I wanted to head to San Juanico via El Datil and the Laguna San Ignacio mud flats, but after talking to Gary and Terry, they said that there was no way my loaded down bike was going to get though the mud. So I asked about the rocky and nasty inland route and they told me that it was worse than before the hurricane. I didnt like the prospect of taking the overloaded 990 through there solo in light of things so I whimped out. I was bummed about it though because I absolutely love that dirt and deep sand ride from Ignacio to Juanico.

So plan B was to stay on the slab and head for Loreto. Santa Rosalia and Mulege were mostly cleaned up. I wanted to stop and take some pics but the road was busy and there was no place to pull over and shoot. Not a big deal though because now you would hardly notice that just a few short weeks ago the place was under water. Hotels are open and fuel and food is readily availible. All the washouts along Mex 1 have been repaired. The Mexican government seems to really have their stuff together in cleaning up the aftermath of the storm. I guess they have had a little practice over the years.

So I headed down Mex 1. The Tres Virgines Volcano just south of San Ignacio.

So I headed further down Mex 1 along Conception Bay. Yeah, its pavement, but wow what a scenic slab ride. I’m impressed with the views each time I do this pavement stretch.

I then pulled into Loreto at about 4 pm and parked my butt at a little place on the Malecon. 34 bucks, but secure parking and AC!  AC! I’m stoked about it, can you tell?

more later……………….

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Nevertheless it was a beautiful morning riding out to Mex 3 were I picked up some old SCORE course to Diablo dry lake, then Zoo Road into San Felipe.  As you may or may not know, the new paved road from Puertecitos to Gonzaga is progressing rapidly.  The pavement ends about 12 miles past Cow Patty cantina, but the road bulding is well underway for another 15 miles past that and everything is a complete mess with diversion roads all over the place, big trucks, big graders, lots of dust and deep churned up earth.  If you dont ride this road sometime this winter, chances are that when you do, it will be mostly pavement.  Make no mistake, the government is serious about getting this road done, pronto.  The number of construction crews and heavy equipment I passed along the way was staggering and now rivals any highway construction project in the US.  Once the road is completed it will be the major trucking route from Mexicali to Mex 1 near Chapala dry lake, forever changing the flavor of Puertecitos and Gonzaga Bay.  Its progress I guess, but that doesnt mean I have to like it.  Like Mama Espinosa says, “Bad roads bring good people, and good roads bring all kinds of people.”

The road grading and bridge building ends about right here for now: Bird Shit Rock.

By this time its about 3 in the afternoon and the heat is downright oppressive.

I just love this place.  Too bad its soon going to be changed forever.

It was hot.  Did I mention that?  Early September is the hottest time of year on this part of the Cortez coast.  Well into the 100′s, no breeze and as humid as a steam bath.

Even at 10 pm it was so hot in my room that I couldnt sleep, so I brought the camera outside and got a couple shots of the Sagittarius and Scorpio reagion of the Milky Way in stunningly dark skies.  It was very slightly out of focus, but the 30 second exposures turned out well enough to display at web resolution.

I finally dozed off into some fitful sleep around 2 am. It was still hotter than hell (mid 90′s or so), but to make things worse the west breeze had started to pick up and felt as if you were standing in front of a 1 million watt hair dryer.  Brutal.

Around 3 am I’m still lying in bed, half asleep, half awake, and miserably drenched in my own sweat, I see a silouette of a person poking their head through the window next to my bed, What the hell ? I hear, “pssssst, Vicente?”  It was Pedro, the dude the guards the gate.  I jump out of bed, open the door and Pedro is standing there with my buddy Mike.

I say, “Jeez Mike, are you doing here?  I thought you would get a room in San Felipe and spend the night in some air conditioning before coming here?”  Well, he got to San Felipe around 6 pm and decided what the hell, its only another couple of hours to Gonzaga and its cooling off a bit so why not press on.   However with all the new construction there are so many diviersion roads around the new road bed that in the dark he go totally confused about where he was.  I could understand that because even in the daylight I had take the wrong diversion road several times and it took me a while to get back on track.

In the darkness, at one time he found himself on the new road bed cruising along when the road disappeared from his headlight beam as it illuminated nothing but blackness.  Oh shit!  He did a panic stop only to discover that 3 feet in front of him was a 60 ft drop off where they were going to build a bridge.  Damn, that was close.  To top it all off, upon tryig to start the bike again he discovered that his battery was dead.  It was well dark by that time.  After some time had passed and a huge amount of effort, he managed to get that HP2 bump started.  Later, while lost on one of the diversion roads again, he killed the bike.  Shit.  After hours of messing with the bike trying to get it started he figured he was going to spend the night lying in the rocks and wait until morning when a vehicle may come by and he could get a jump start.

As he was sitting in the dark he saw a vehicle driving around in the distance, stopping at one house, then another, then another.  Seems like some folks were out doing a little late night shopping in the vacant houses.. The truck finally comes up to him and its a husband and wife team.  The wife drives, while the husband goes in each house to do a little shopping.  The back of their truck is filled with crap, food, furniture, houshold appliances, anything you could imagine.  They gave him a jump start and got him on his way.  They may have been thieves, but at least they were nice enough to help him out.

He killed the bike once again in the deep sand next to the new gate at the side of the runway where the road goes by the Gonzaga houses.  Thats when Pedro found him and walked him down to Alphonsinas.

Miguel, at 3 am, just happy to be out of the desert and off the bike…………

Sorry this is so text heavy, but due to the heat and my state of exhaustion during the following events, I took absolutely no pictures.  I wish I had, but I didnt even think about it at the time.  It was just another task that I didnt have the strength to do.

Mike had rough night.  He was supposed to ride to La Paz with me, then hop the ferry to Mazatlan, and take off for his casa in Arizona.  However, when he was bumping down the Gonzaga road at 3 am, about half the shit fell out of a side bag that he forgot to zip up.  He lost his perscription meds, his SPOT, a huge wad of Pesos, his Mexican Passport, his vehicle registration, and a bunch of other crap.  Since he lost the bike registration, he would be unable to get a temporary vehicle import permit (required for mainland Mexico) at La Paz, so his only option was to turn around from Gonzaga and ride back home.  He actually seemed kind of relieved about not having to go with me all the way to Mazatlan.

I asked him, “where do you think you lost your stuff?”  The answer was not encouraging as his crap was somewhere between Alphonsinas and 25 miles north towards Puertecitios.  I figured what the heck, I’ll suit up and go look for his stuff as I’ve got nothing else to do except hang out in the shade and go for a swim in the bay.  The temp was already easily over 100, and even warmer in the inland desert canyons.  So depsite all that, I suited up, put a gallon of water in my pack and took off to go look for his stuff.

I was riding very slow scanning the road and road side looking for anything.   My bike was on the verge of overheating the whole time, with the cooling fan running constantly..  After about 10 miles I found his SPOT tracker laying right in the middle of the road.  Then I started to see things on the side of road, so every little thing I saw I would stop, get off the bike, walk around scanning the ground on the side of the road, get back on the bike, then ride another small bit until I saw more things, get off the bike again, walk, repeat, over and over again just to find pieces of trash.

About 15 to 20 miles up the road I found some more of his stuff, a book, a baseball hat, some hand scribbled notes, etc.  Then I found his meds.  I knew he would be very happy about that since his bad back was killing him.

It was around this time that I ran out of water. With all the getting off and on the bike, walking around in heavy boots, and heavy riding ger in the scortching desert heat, I had downed almost a gallon of water.  By this time I had pretty much given up looking for the rest of his stuff.  My only concern now was to get water, and fast.  The temp had to be well into the hundred and teens by this time.  I knew the construction crews would be closer than going back to Alphonsinas, and I could get some water from them, so I continued north, now only in search of water.

At about 24 miles north of Gonzaga, a Hummer sporting a 50 cal on the roof, launched out of the desert bush and blocked the road immdiately in front of me.  I had to lock up the rear brake to avoid hitting the vehicle, as it came onto the road so quickly, and right in front of me.  Three guys brandishing M16 A2′s jumped onto the road and took up positions next to the Hummer while the guy on the 50 cal had me in his sights.  Whoa.  I have never encountered such an agressive military checkpoint before so it kind of freaked me out.  Naturally they wanted to check my bags, which I had stripped down to only water, tools and essential parts.  I was getting dizzy from the heat and as I dismounted the bike I stumbled back and fell on the ground.  As the soldiers were standing over me, all I could muster was one phrase, agua, por favor.  They sat me down in the shade of the vehicle and started handing me jugs of water.  After I got my strength back, they filled up my camelbak and told me to go to Puertecitos and find some more water, ice, and shade.  But I was now feeling good enough to go back south to Gonzaga, so south I went, not looking for any of Miguels lost stuff.  I just wanted to get back to shade, ice cold water and a cererza.  However after a few miles a glint of light caught my eye about 50 feet off the road.  Well, shit, I’ll just go check it out one last time.. It turned out that they were ziplock bags with Mike’s Mexican passport, bike registration, and another bag with a wad of 200 peso notes.  Bingo.  We are back in business.  I got back to Alphonsina’s totally spent and just sat there on the porch in the shade while Antonio brought me out an ice cold water, and an even colder cerveza.

We left Gonzaga and headed to Coco’s Corner.  Coco is a an interesting dude that part of Baja off road racing legend.  His place is nothing special.  Its a little patch of dirt in the middle of the desert, but its a welcome site for weary off road travelers.  I have met Coco a number of times.  Years ago after an accident he had a leg amputated and recently, I think partially due to diabetes, he had his other leg amputated.  Coco seems to be getting along well and putting the place back together after it had been ransacked while he was recovering in the hospital.  After his last amputation, he doesnt use a prosthesis, but simply puts on knee pads and walks around on his knees.

Miguel is happy to be here………………….

Coco is happy we are here, and the obligatory book signing………

The dee-lux accommodations are still here………..

The deluxe banos……….

But I think Coco might need a new TV

After some discussion we found out that the Calamajue wash
(pronounced Cala-ma-way) was full of water from the recent hurricane and was probably only passable by a lifted Jeep with a snorkel.  So we opted to hit Mex 1 at chapala dry lake.

On the way south down the highway to Guererro Negro my bike started acting up.  Weird electrical problems started to pop up and the bike was running like crap.  Uh oh.  Not good.  We got a hotel and started to trouble shoot the bike.  It became apparant that I would need some KTM parts.  The nearest Mexican KTM dealer was at least a week away in Guadalajara, but the other option was to hit the pavement back to San Diego and get things fixed at home, as its only a long days ride to the border via the pavement.

So, we opted to head back north to San Diego.  After a week and half at home I got the bike all fixed up.  In addition, my soft luggage wasnt holding up very well, so I also replaced the soft bags with some hard cases.

I got back on the road and crossed the border again on Sunday, Sept 27th.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Here is the obligatory shot of the ODO before departure.

I stopped at Tecate, and got the tourist visa, which I never get when I ride Baja, but this trip is going a bit further. The Migracion officer asked where I was going. I told him I was going to Tierra del Fuego. With raised eyebrows he looked at me and said, “Tierra del Fuego, as in South America, Argentina? On that moto?” “Si” I replied. He mumbled something like, “good luck with that” and went back to filling out the visa. Maybe he knows something I dont.

Headed down the Compadre Trail toward Ojos Negros…………

Then onto Mike’s Sky Rancho.

Its been a while since I have ridden the 990 loaded up. Although the bike performs well with a load, it really is a different machine in “burro” mode. It took a little getting used to all the weight as it almost got away from me when I was going through some small whoops bottoming the rear suspension. In the coming weeks I’m going to try and figure out what I can get rid of to lighten the load. I’m thinking that I should have gone with hard bags and ditched the duffle on the tail. All my stuff would have fit in the 2 Gobis hard bags i have, but  I hate those bags. Well, I’m committed with soft bags for now so we will have to see how they hold up.

Mike’s Sky Rancho is a Baja off road institution.  Every weekend many folks on dirt bikes come though and fill the place up as its a nice day ride in the dirt from the border.  I pulled up in the late afternoon to find the place deserted except for the staff.  I’ve been to Mike’s at least a dozen times yet it feels strange to be here with no one else around but the folks that run the place. No wonder, it was over 100 degrees in the valley as I climbed up into the mountains. Its also weird to see my 990 parked here as I usually come through here on my 450. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first time I’ve brought the 990 to Mikes.

I did about 215 miles of dirt this day over 8 hours with stops for the visa and a lunch break at Valle de Trinidad.  I intend to be up early to avoid the heat as much as possible and make my way toward Gonzaga Bay where I will eventually meet up with Mike from Tucson.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

So I will leave when preparations are finished and I’m ready to go.

Long distance travel on a motorcycle obviously involves some preparation, from taking care of business at home to getting the bike in tip top shape.  Bike prep is especially important because when you have technical problems south of the border, (and I will) parts are neither readily available, nor easy to find.  I will have some access to KTM dealerships but they will be found only in the largest cities, and typically there will be only one dealer in a city.

Given that, the bike is going through extensive preventative maintenance and modifications to prepare it for such a journey.  Although it’s relatively new, I am going through each system, making sure that it’s fully checked out and has the latest upgrades and parts.  I will need to refresh certain items along the way like oil, tires, tubes, brakes, wheel bearings, swing arm and steering stem bearings, chains, sprockets, various filters, etc.  In addition I will have to do valve clearance checks and adjustments, water pump replacements and other labor intensive items.  Some of these parts I can have shipped from home, some I will need to find wherever I’m at.  I will need to perform most of the maintenance myself, so I must carry an extensive tool kit as well.  You must be prepared for almost anything on a trip such as this.

My tools and parts kit that I will carry with me:

The biggest challenge in preparing for this adventure is not prepping the bike, nor deciding what gear to take.  The trick is deciding what gear to leave at home.  On this trip, I will need to go as light as I possibly can, as its no fun trying to wrestle with an overladen motorcycle in a nasty rock garden, mud pit, or remote sand wash.  Most of the kit will consist of tools and spare parts, therefore a minimum of creature comforts will be packed.  However the proper riding gear is essential as I need to be well protected when I crash, and well protected from the elements.  On this journey I will encounter sweltering temperatures in the low tropics, and bitter cold in the 16,000 ft. elevations of the Andes and South American Altiplano.  I must have clothing for every environment.  But, keeping the bike as light as possible is essential for riding in off road conditions.  The lighter the bike, the easier it will be to handle, so  I must carefully choose what I strap on the bike.  I want to be comfortable, but not overburdened with crap.  There is a happy medium somewhere in there.

Since I’m pretty much ready to go, I will be crossing the border at Tecate in a day or so, stay tuned for updates from Baja.

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.

Over the last few years I have become quite involved with riding motorcycles, mainly in Baja California, Mexico, and riding mostly off road.  So I was thinking, how cool would it be to get on a motorcycle, cross the border near my home in San Diego, and ride all the way to the tip of South America and back?  I decided that it would be pretty cool, and one heck of an adventure.  An adventure like this has been in the back of my mind for a couple of years now.  Sadly, I realized that I would probably never have the opportunity to actually do it.  My career would not allow me enough time off at present, and in the future I may have obligations that would preclude me from doing any long riding travel.  However, little did I realize that I was going to get my chance to embark on such a journey, and quite soon at that.

As my luck would have it, due to the current economic climate of corporate downsizing, I recently found myself in a unique position to take a little time away from work in the form of a leave of absence.  My employer was offering leaves for up to two years, so having a little bit of cash saved up, I jumped at the chance and signed up for a two year deal.  The deal is, I don’t show up to work for two years, and they don’t pay me for two years.  I’m going to have to live on the cheap, and that’s just fine by me since I have had plenty of practice doing that earlier in my career.

Up until last week, this was my day job, and more often than not, my night job as well.  I love the Boeing 767, finest piece of machinery that I have ever flown.  As they say in the pilot circles, “if it’s not Boeing, I’m not going.”  I think that I have the best job in the world.  I get to strap on a 400,000 lb. airplane and fly it around the planet, drinking beer with my buddies in exotic locations, and get paid for it.

It does become work though.  It can be a seemingly never ending blur of airports, grumpy customs officials and stark, generic hotel rooms complete with the overpriced $20 breakfast buffet.   Taipei, Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, Tsing Dao,  Anchorage, Hong Kong, Cologne,  Paris, Dubai, Bombay, Philly, etc.    Crossing multiple time zones, and not ever knowing what day it is can wear on your body and get to be a grind.  Its not particularly glamorous, despite what you may think.

Nevertheless, I love my chosen career, but I am ready for a little break from the routine.  You can burn out doing anything, no matter how much you love it.  I’m not burned out on it, but its time for a little break to get my head straight and expand my horizons…..

I have been a professional pilot for over 20 years, and much of that stint has been flying big jets on both domestic and long haul international routes.  I’m sure that eventually I’m going to miss flying jets around the planet, but for now I am welcoming the change of pace doing some world travel with a much smaller and slower means of transport:

Coco’s Corner, Baja Califonia Norte, Mexico

A remote desert dry lake bed in southern Nevada.

The bike is a KTM 990 Adventure, made in Austria.  It was originally designed as a Dakar Rally race platform, but has found its way into production and marketed as an “adventure” bike.  Its a 1 liter, liquid cooled, fuel injected V-twin, weighing in at about 450 lbs.  I have about 9,000 miles on this bike, having taken it many places in the desert southwest of the U.S., down the length of the Baja peninsula and into the Copper Canyon area of Mainland Mexico.  Adventure bikes are generally large displacement, off road capable bikes.  Not as off road capable as a small dirt bike, but capable nonetheless. The trade off in capability is exceeded by the level of comfort and long service intervals that are so important for long distance travel in other countries.  I would sometimes prefer to take a small, proper dirt bike, but I’m confident on the big bike in some fairly burly off road conditions so I’m taking it.  Just to the tip of South America will be at least 15,000 miles.  I don’t yet know how I will return, possibly through Africa and Europe, or simply back north.

Reactions to my plan have been mixed.  My family and friends enthusiastically support me in this endeavor, which I fully expected.  However it’s curious when telling many people of my upcoming trip, the response more often than not is, “why the hell do you want to do that?”  or, “man, you’re totally crazy!”  Or my favorite, “Its so dangerous down there, you’ll be kidnapped or killed for sure!”  Well of course things like that can happen.  They can happen anywhere on the planet, even right here at home.

The vistas of the lonely deserts of southern California…….

The stunningly beautiful barren wastes of Death Valley……….

The scenic, remote two-tracks of Mojave…………..

The jaw dropping star studded dark skies of the middle of nowhere Mexico……..

And the wilds of south of the border dirt roads leading to nowhere in particular, but always an adventure…….

Despite the naysayers and doomsday peddlers, I’m going on this trip, and I’m going to have one hell of an adventure!

The plan for this journey is quite simple.  Get on my motorcycle and ride in roughly southerly direction staying off pavement whenever possible until I either get tired of it, or cant possibly go any further south, however long that takes.  At that point, I’ll make some more rough plans.  This ride is not about keeping a schedule or having any set destination, its about travel on a motorcycle.  I will ride pavement or dirt when I see fit, stop when I feel like it, and if I happen to like a place I may stick around a while and enjoy it.  Since I have the luxury of time, the best plan is to have no plan.  Its always more fun that way because you never know where you’ll wind up.

As things stand right now, my departure date will be on or about the first week of September.  There is plenty of preparation left to do, so in the next couple of weeks I will update with my progress.

I invite you to come along on my little journey.  So let’s head south through the narco wars, the bandidos, guerillas, corrupt cops, the swine flu, coups and revolutions, to the bottom of the Earth.   If we are not too careful, we will have some interesting adventures along the way!  Vamos!

©2012 South on Two Wheels. All Rights Reserved.