3800km. Crossing Mexico City was easy and straightforward. Did it in about 2h, but missed the indications given to me by the colegue of Annemie. So I do not know which crossing I really took, I just kept asking the cars next to me in the traffic. They were very helpfull and I feel absolutely no longer intimitated by the mexican traffic. Went through it like a hot knive through butter. The highway to Oaxaca was fun and beautifull. Arrived just at dark and found a nice small hotel where they kept the bike in a garaje. I will not stay in this marvellous city because we will come back here. When I am alone I prefer to ride instead of visiting churches (I must say they are impressive). I have more or less decided on my route : I will in 2 hours leave for the coast by the infamous 175 (very beautifull but dangerous). Tomorrow San Cristobal. Then Coban (Guatemala)- Copán (honduras)-Tegu..capital-granada. No more highways on this trip.
When I left yesterday the internet café I knew I had misspelled the word mariposa, but I thought what the heck. Let´s give some fun to the kids. Sofie will call me maripero for some years coming.
I have seen that people keep reading this blog, so I´m motivated to try to keep it updated.
Put some new pictures. But my pentax let me down again : the light cell reacts funny. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. The small nikon will have to take over.
3100 km - Very cold. Arrived in the dark. Thanks Gaspard for the lights on the bike. At 70km from Mexico City. I hope to be in Puebla in the afternoon. I did not stop in Guadalajara and I realize that I will not have any time for stopping in any place. As soon you go of the highway average speed drops to 30km/h. So I will concentrate on arriving on plan in Managua.
I slept 11h in one go. But I feel great. I'm still wondering how I did the 5000km 2 years ago in 4.5 days. Even by riding 8h a day I cannot get over the 700km's. It's true I take it easy in the morning and only start at +-9h30. Yesterday was perfect temperature untill I came close to Mexico City and the sun went down. I did not stop to put more layers on because I would have to dig in the luggage and I still hoped to arrive before full darkness. But the last hour was in the mountains, in complete darkness. I tried to stay with some cars in front of me but they went to fast. When I arrived in the city, it still took me half an hour to get to the Zocalo. I asked the first hotel if they had a place to park to bike. No sir. A man in front of his small hospedaje familiar viewed the scene and waved me over. Yes he could fixe a save place for the bike, and we went to a closeby gate where he asked the owners if the bike could be parked there. All very friendly. This morning I saw the city by daylight, and it's true that the Fodor guide calls it the best kept secret of Mexico. No tourists, but very beautifull, near a lake. Very Mexican. I take my time this morning because the friendly man from the hospedaje told me that on the route to Toluca I will run into the world famous landing of the Monarch mariposas (butterflies). They only appear these days, coming from Canada, and waiting when the rain season stops. But they only appear at about 11h. And it seems that the best hour to get through Mexico is about midday.
2500 km. Very beautifull ride today. Huge agriculture business ending in tropical scenery. It was hot again, but amazing how it cooled down when I left the coast in Tepic. Two years ago I rode the normal road between Mazatlan and Tepic, but now I went on the highway "quota". It has only 2 lanes, but that's more then enough because there are no cars : it is ridiculous expensive and there are no services, even no gas for 200km's. No warning neither. I was lucky I filled up in Mazatlán where I had my first Ceviche de jaiba. Delicious. I tried to get into Guadalajara but at 5h30 went off the highway because it was getting dark and cold. I saw a sign indicating a hotel in Jala. Surprise surpise.... a very beautifull monasterio. The price was also beautifull, and when I said it was to expensive for just passing the night, alone, he called his boss to get a permisso to give a discount. Meanwhile it was nearly dark and I did not want to go the next city to look for another hotel. So it will be luxurious tonight @ 80usd.They gave me a laptop, but I still had to go to an internet café on the corner because their internet went dead. I will use the laptop to copy my photos, and the music I bought yesterday. I hope to put the pictures tomorrow. To compensate for the expensive hotel I went to a "comedor economico". The lady was in her kitchen and said she only served at midday. I asked if there was another place and she said "but I have food for you". It was a delicious meal (porc ribs with beans). Together with a gentleman who she also served, we had a wonderfull conversation. The man worked as a bulldozer driver and was for 2 months in town. Very interesting. My Portignol did very well. That's all what travelling is about. Just a pity Annemie is not here, she would have loved the hotel and the restaurant. Today I decided to propose to Annemie some changed long term travelling plans. Mexico is a wonderfull country and there are still so many cities I would like to visit. But distances are so big while traffic can be horrible. Camping is not advisable and there are hotels all over the country. While the country side is beautiflull, the cities are the main attraction. Not to be done with an Unimog. Only with a GS 1200. I also knew when I left San Diego that it was not conceivable that I would not return to ride a bike in the US. It's the most beautifull biking country in the world, and you do not need an Unimog to camp in awsome sites. So I will ship this bike back to Europe at the end of the trip and in 2-3 years will buy an american GS. We could ship the Unimog to South Africa in November 2010 and much later do South America with the Unimog. I will have less regret to rush tomorrow through Guadalajara, Morelia etc. I already had a bad feeling when passing Alamos.
I had a wonderfull stroll through the city centre tonight. I did not have my camara with me, but this must have been my provincial town in Belgium, 70 years ago. But also very mexican, colours and kitch. It's a small city, but the business centre still counts several tens of blocs. I bought some cookies in a bakery store and went on a hunt for music by Anna-Gabriela. A local supermercado didn't have it, even is she is a superstar here in the north: We heard her music the first time in a road café near Chichuahua 2 years ago. I ran into a shop that only sells pirated music and videos. It's not even hidden. Half a dollar, 35 eurocents a 700mb CD. A man who heard what I was looking for was very proud I like mexican music and insisted to give me a CD of his choice: I bought several other ones, included "Nortnñas, quiero que duermas conmigo", just for the title of it. I felt very at home in the street, but this is still the state that hit world news last year when the heads of seven guys were tossed into a bar somewhere in a town of Sinaloa. When I saw a pickup full of masked military and later on, 5 policemen handcuffing a man to the irongate of a bar, I walked back to the hotel. This time not a "maison de passage" but a casino, full of slot machines.
1800 km - very hot today, about 35C. Highway all the time, at the end boring. Tomorrow I will try to get into Guadalajara.
I decided not to stop in Alamosa (nice colonial town) because it was only 3 in the afternoon and I realize I will have to ride without losing to much time in order to be in Managua by the 20th. If I have the bad luck to have rain, I will need all the resting days to get there in time. The more that the situation after the mudslides in El Salvador is not very clear. Apparently I will have to through Honduras.
Gaspard asked me if I already arranged a partner to ride down, but the more I think about it, the less I will try to find one. There is one who will be on the 16th in San Cristobal (contact made through horizonsunlimited.com), but I'm afraid it will be to difficult to adjust our plans. Overlanders and Adv riders in particular tend to have a ego bigger then themselves, and I include myself. It goes very quick out of control when it comes to adjusting plans. You need to be very good friends to hold out a ride like this. I have some friends with whom I could make this journey, but then timing and availability is the issue. It took us 40 years to come to some harmony with Annemie when travelling ( and of course when not travelling ) and I must admit she did most of the adjusting. So, a young american macho riding down to Tierra del Fuego adjust his plans????? And an old belgian macho adjusting his plans????
1200km - 2 days of beautifull riding through the desert of Arizona and the greener landscape of Sonora. I slept in Gilda Bend at 150km from Tucson. Hot when I arrived, but cool in the morning. I got a similar feeling as when driving through the Sahara in southern Algeria, the black mountains against the blue sky, but highway 8 changes everything. It's definitely America and if you want to experience the real desert, you still have to go to the Sahara. Border crossing was fast, the Americans even didn't look to me, and I had to beg the Mexicans to put a stamp in my passport. It's incredible how the street and the traffic changes over a distance of 500m; I felt immediately at home, being able to drive cowboyway a la portuguesa and park the bike on the footpath in front of the ATM. But getting the permisso for the vehicle was a 1 hour affair, some 20km further when the "free hasstle zone" ends, and every foreign vehicle has to be temporary imported. I had to take a nice hotel in Hermosillo, because I need to tell home I'm fine and my phones do not work in Mexico. The only communication is the internet and since this town is not touristic, there are no internet cafes. But on the other hand there is a marvellous taco restaurant : Jaas, in front of the Santa Fe supermercado, when coming in from Nogales. I'm happy I did not fly the bike south, because it feels good to be back in Mexico. And the riding will be cheap : 70usd cents or 1/2 euro per liter. Tomorrow a shorter ride to Alamosa, the most colonial town of Sonora.
For uploading pictures, I will have to find a way to reduce the pictures in size while being on these kind of "hotel"computers. I do not know if picasa works online, facebook does reduce being online. I will test it tonight or tomorrow.
