THE HEART OF MEXICO

Thursday

The plan today was to get up and out early and put down some miles but by the time Max loaded up his bike and Gina and Lalo fixed us yet another wonderful breakfast it was after ten when we bid them a fond fair well and hit the slab. It took over and hour just to get through Guadalajara. Have I praised Dufas my GPS lately? If not consider this my praise. Getting around the big cities would be close to impossible with out his help. Sure even Dufas gets confused now and again but between reading the road signs and listening to that wonderful female voice in my ears I managed to lead my boyz out of the city and into the countryside. We headed Southeast toward Lake Chapala and continued on Through Zamora, Zacapu and finally into Morelia where we are spending the night. We managed 200 miles today, which may not seem a bunch but driving the secondary roads takes you through the middle of lots of small villages that are brimming with Topes (speed bumps). Some are there to slow you down for safety and others to slow you down so they can sell their fruits and vegetables. The 1^st third of the drive was ho hum, flat farmland and some traffic. After that the road began climbing and the air turned cooler. We climbed up to 7500 feet on a clean and twisty road with little traffic. Lots of fun and great scenery. Once you pass 5000 feet the trees turn to pines and the air smells fresh. Max’s bike is running much better but we still need to lean it out more for these altitudes.

It’s good to be riding again. We are hoping to make Oaxaca on Saturday where we plan to spend 2 nights before heading to the coast.

Max and me repairing stator case

Friday

Oh yes the beginning of another day of adventure. The Plan…. Get up early and be on the road by 8. We are all up at 6:30 and done with breakfast by 8, bike loaded and ready to make tracks! Max fires up the KTM while I’m getting directions how to get out of this town without going through the middle. “Hey Dad check this out!” “I’m busy Max wait a minute”. “I think you need to see this,” he says. Ok WTF! The sight gauge on the stator side of his engine is sucking in and out of the case. Shit! Out comes the tools and off comes the cover. We clean the works, apply some Hondabond and close it all up again.

The bike still has Carb issues. Idles fine but quits when hot. 10:00 we hit the pavement! Taking the route the guy gave me takes us 45 minutes to get out of town (have I mentioned how I hate cities, in the last few posts I mean) anyway we did miss most of the central city. We are riding at around 6000 feet, mostly in a broad valley heading towards Mexico City. The usual small towns and topas (speed bumps). The road begins to wind up into the mountains and becomes a twisty, up, down, clean, light traffic, awesome road for 60 miles. One of the valleys reminded me of the Scott Valley in Northern California with all the pines and fields. The small villages we pass through all have their fruit and taco stands and make for a good break from riding. We decided since we got such a late start (Again!) that we would make up time and do some toll roads. I programmed Dufas to allow toll roads and avoid traffic and set the destination for Oaxaca. Looking at the map there is no direct route to Oaxaca, either you turn south then east then north of you can head east through Mexico City (I hate to ride in cities). We have no maps of the city but since I had programmed Dufas to keep us on toll roads and avoid traffic I assumed we would have no trouble getting through. Wrong! It all began with the high altitude and the POS KTM crapping out. I assumed wrong that the toll roads went through the city. As soon as we got into the city the toll road stopped! It just ended and put us on surface streets in one of the largest cities in the world during rush hour! Picture if you will (this is for the bay area folks) the 880 at rush hour extending 40 miles and 90% of the drivers are Asian! It was surreal. Six lanes of traffic barely moving with people walking around between the lanes selling shit.

No tell Motel Mexico City

At one point there was a man sitting on the wall with a fake monkey playing the organ and another man walking car to car looking for “donations”. Of course the POS KTM kept crapping out (we are at 9500’ elevation) and we have no hope of making it out of the city by dark. After being guided through the streets of Mexico City we eventually got back on a multi lane highway packed with commuters. This portion had no shoulders, just high walls on either side and that’s when Max’s bike quits! Shit! He was immediately gobbled up and out of sight. Lucky for us there was an off ramp ahead and John and I got over. Max got his bike running and we all got off the highway and back on the surface streets. I had had enough! We found a cab driver to guide us to a hotel. I didn’t care where he took us as long as it had secure parking. We finally get to the Hotel Principal and off the bikes just as it’s getting dark. Turns out this is a “no tell Hotel” where men bring their secretaries or hookers for a roll in the hay. It had under ground parking so their cars could be kept out of sight. It wasn’t a bad place. Had a very clean room with a large mirror facing the bed and 3 channels of porn on the TV. Damn it was good to get off the bikes! We all cleaned up, found a cool taco place, sucked down a couple of beers and sacked out for the night.

Road from Mexico City to Oaxaca

Saturday

We are on the road by 6! This beats our previous record by 2.5 hours! We are motivated to get out of there before the traffic begins. John calls and wakes up Knikki who tells him the president of Mexico has been killed in a helicopter crash. We think, “This explains all the Military we saw moving into Mexico City yesterday”. I’m wondering if this might slowed our departure out of the city but it turns out it was some other official not the President. We made it out just as the sun was poking its head through the thick smog. We need to make 300 miles today to get to Oaxaca. It’s decided we’ll take the toll road east then south. After spending 35 bucks for the bikes and traveling 100 miles (freezing our asses off, none of us expected 40 degree temperatures), we decide this is cutting into our budget to deep. At Tehuacan we get off and get back to the world of small villages and topas. It’s way more interesting on these back roads than the toll roads, just a lot slower. Turns out this was best decision of the last 2 days. We took 125 south along a broad and fertile valley. It eventually began climbing and gave us one of the best riding experiences of the trip. Except for the occasional wash out, burro in the road and truck it was an exceptional road with incredible views. It’s fun watching Max’s road skills improve. He is riding smooth, fast but safe. I can’t believe how quickly John as adapted his ski skills to moto skills. We arrive in Oaxaca around 5 and after the usual Max and Dad shenanigans looking for a hotel we find a place near the Zocala with secure parking for a reasonable price (still the price is exceeding the budget) it’s dark again. We unpack, shower and head over to the Zocala for a couple of margs and dinner. The revenge struck last night and I spent part of it at the alter of Montezuma.