The Restless Biker

Day 72 to Day 73 Wednesday, May 19th to Thursday, May 20th, 2010 San Miguel De Allende to Xilitla, San Luis Potosi Xilitla to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas This morning I was going to leave early. I didn't feel like riding in the afternoon heat and wanted to get to Xilitla earlier rather than later. When I awoke, the temperature in San Miguel De Allende was 11 degrees. So I went for some breakfast and a double serving of good coffee. While in Mexico one must savour the good coffee when it's available. Nescafe instant coffee is the norm in Mexico's non-tourist towns. Just last night I figured out why it's called Nescafe ...No ES CAFE! (It's not coffee). Then back to my room for some lazing on the bed with the laptop. At the crack of 11:00am I was ready to be on the road. The eldest son of the family that ran the hotel was keen on taking photos of me and my bike after I rolled it down the hotel hallway's ramp from its' storage space inside a little nook near t...

Day 69 to Day 71 Sunday May 16th to Tuesday May 18th, 2010 Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico to Taxco, Guerrero Taxco to San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico Taxco had been reccomended as a favourite by two friends who had done a similar trip to mine a month before me. In a coffee deprived state I headed out for the relatively short ride to Taxco. The road was flat and the highways were mostly four lane affairs, with the usual crazy drivers thrown in for good measure. Today I had my first experience with a road raging bully in his SVU. High beams were flashed in while he was riding within 10 feet of my rear tire. Never mind that I was passing another vehicle at the time. After getting out of harm's way he proceeded to bully the next driver in line who was also in the process of passing another vehicle. We were all already exceeding the speed limit but that didn't seem to faze this bully. Well, this is about 45 minutes from Mexico City and I had been fairly warned about the dri...

Day 66 to Day 68 Thursday May 13th to Saturday May 15th, 2010 Arriaga, Chiapas to Oaxaca, Oaxaca Oaxaca Day Oaxaca to Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico Mexcal Capital After the long days of flat, hot and dry high speed riding I was looking forward to heading back into the hills of Oaxaca. I was expecting something lush like the moutain roads through Chiapas. Much to my surprise and delight ...not that I don't like lush and green... It was typical desert scenery. The road twisted and turned relentlessly uphill while with every turn there were new vistas of cacti, reddish brown earth and barren hills. At one point there were even my favourite pine forests for a short stretch. The landscape was dotted with fields of agave and roadside vendors of "mexcal artisanal" were selling a whole variety of locally made mexcal. I caught whiffs of the distilling process as I rounded corner upon corner. For some reason I ended up not trying any mexcal at all ...I have tried it in the past. Maybe t...

Day 61 to Day 65 Saturday May 8th to Wednesday May 12th, 2010 Finca Paraiso, Guatemala to San Ignacio, Belize San Ignacia to Douglas D'Silva Douglas D'Silva to Caracol to Spanish Lookout to Orange Walk, Belize Orange Walk to Palenque (just stopping over, all ruined out by now) Palenque, Campeche to San Cristobal De Las Casas to Arriaga, Chiapas Rio On Pools, Pine Ridge Forest, Belize Crossing into Belize was one of the oddest experiences so far. Some of the Central American border crossings were downright farcical and one took two hours. Phillipe told me that he was at the Honduras border for a 1/2 day. So this 45 minute border crossing should rate amongst the better ones, right? ...not so! First when exiting Guatemala, everything went very smoothly ...for me. No unofficial charges and no "helpers" pestering me at all. I was wondering why Phillipe, who was one other person behind me, was taking so long. I looked over to the migracion counter and he was waving me over ...