T - So we had no real plans for today. Just that it might be nice to check out Zacatecas before we continued on our journey. We have been told just how amazing Zacatecas was and so our expectations were quite high!

We said goodbye to our Airbnb hosts who were just lovely. We were even given a little gift of a day of the dead skull printed on their 3D printer. We rode the total distance of about 6 kms into Zactecas’ main historic center. By the time we had made it part way in we both had decided we needed to spend the whole day and a night here. The place was incredible. So many narrow cobbled little alleyways running off in all directions. Some of the narrow streets climbed quite steeply and I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to ride on them in the wet!







We decided to check out a few hostels and hotels near to the centro part of the city. But all of the ones in our budget didn’t have off street parking. Every single hotel was absolutely adamant though that our bikes would be safe on the street over night. In the end we found a little hotel tucked away down an alley that dated back from 1500’s.







C – I certainly got some Espanol practice in, asking quite a few hotels for prices and the parking options. We were both uncertain about the parking situation, but with such a large police presence, decided to chance it and leave the girls parked on the street. They were parked in front of the 24hr reception, so that gave us some comfort.

I knew which hotel I wanted to stay in the minute I walked into the Casa Santo Domingo.. it was absolutely beautiful and I was amazed that it was in our price range!

T - What a hotel! It was right at the top end of our budget but it was worth every cent.





We chucked our stuff into the room and headed into town where we walked for a few hours up and down the streets. We poked our noses into the various shops and markets and ooh and ahhed over some beautiful leather boots.









After a filling lunch of gorditas and icecream we returned to our room for a rest. The amazing guy we had been catching up with, Rick, was due to arrive into Zacatecas today as well so we told him all about our hotel and that he should think about joining us there. Which he did!









The three of us had a great evening out in the city together looking at the sights and then wandered off to find dinner. Which again was tasty and cheap and plentiful. Plus I got to have another helping or three of icecream on the way back to the room.









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C – It was such a wonderful day, just meandering through the old streets and checking out all the old buildings. Zacatecas was settled around 1546 so the architecture and street layouts are just beautiful.





T - Another great day! I am really enjoying hanging out with Rick and hope he doesn’t get too sick of us!

Tomorrow the three of us are heading towards Guadalajara. Its a fair hike so we may not go all the way.

T - Rick was our guide out of the city this morning. It looks to be an easy place to end up lost in if you are not careful. So many tiny one way streets that meander in all directions. Rick did a sterling job though and soon had us heading away from the city and into the country. He decided to try to ride at our speed today and happily sat behind us on the road at 65 km/hr.

C – It was fun to have Rick riding along at postie pace, but we did think at some point the Guzzi would ache to take flight. But he stuck with us and definitely seemed to enjoy the slow motion travel!

The morning passed in a blissful blear, with the girls just purring along, the air somewhat fresh and the sky beautiful and clear. The only disruption to this bliss was Todds singing... he made up several new songs along the way... none of them too pleasant on the ears I might add!!!



T - We passed through much farming land and the highway dwindled from dual lane divided to one lane each way. The road was so pretty and fairly quiet. We passed through some gorgeous little villages. Each one seeming to have a massive cathedral or two at its centre and the massive spires towered over them.



Rick had been told of a great little food stop in one of the towns along the way and we pulled in there to eat a heap of gorditas. The lady who was cooking them was so sweet and seemed genuinely happy that we were enjoying her cooking. The gorditas were freaking amazing! We had 8 of them between us and the cost was only 70 pesos. Just around $5.









We continued along the highway which soon became snakey and curvey as we got closer to Guadalajara. Mabel was on song, well downhill anyway, and she went screaming through the corners like a rocket. It was a lovely stretch of road and the air was filled with butterflies and the smells of a million blooming flowers. So good!







C – The twisties were indeed a lot of fun, made even more challenging by the game of find of the pothole, miss the topes and navigate the rough undulating surface.



T - When we got close to the city Rick again took over as navigator and into the mess of Mexican city traffic we went. It was a hell of an adrenaline rush! Cars pressing all around, seeming no lanes marked out, broken cars and trucks parked on the shoulders. We cut and dived and weaved into the traffic, our little posties working hard to keep up with the might Guzzi. So much fun and we were soon at our hotel and the bikes ticking and cooling in a secure parking compound for the night. They even have their own shotgun toting guard to watch over them.

C – Wowsers... boy I am glad that Rick navigated us into here!! It was all just a little bit chaotic and insane! It was so much less stressful to just play follow the leader rather than have to try to watch the traffic, the road and the GPS!

T - We wandered a few blocks after having showered and changed where we found some more tasty food. I had some amazing chicken mole, which is my favourite Mexican dish, followed by a egg custard desert.







Then it was a hike back to the hotel and ready for bed.

Tomorrow we are heading for Tequila but as yet haven’t planned on staying the night or not. We want to do a tequila distillery tour, obviously, so we may not be in a fit state to drive anyways!

T - Today we were heading to the town of Tequila. To drink tequila. It wasn’t far and looked to be an easy ride. And it was! We followed the Moto Guzzi out of the city and soon we were on the right road to Tequila.



We had picked a hotel in the town centre and soon we were pulling up into the courtyard and parking our bikes for the day. Our ride today hit a grand total of 56 km’s! These long days are tough I tell ya.

C – The ride was uneventful, even the ride out of Guadalajara! The route we took was the Ruta de Tequila and soon we were passing tequila distilleries and some pueblos with lots of tourist stalls – selling all things tequila and some lovely pottery.



T - We unpacked and changed before wandering into town. There was a distillery nearby and we were keen to take a tour. Tequila has some neat little alleyways and colourful homes and shops lining them. So beautiful! The town square was really neat with a ring of shops surrounding it and park benches running up and down the centre.







We decided that it might be a good idea to eat some food before we tackled the distillery. So the three of us sat on a bench in the square and did some people watching while we lined our tummys with chips, biscuits, sodas and chocolate cake!





The tour was Jose Cuervos’ and is one of the oldest distillery’s of tequila. It wasn’t long into the tour before we were offered our first taste. Uncut tequila at 55% was just mean! Then the tastings continued. Always we were told to have more if we wanted it!







C – Whilst I am not really a tequila fan (one night of drinking cheap tequila, many years ago, has equalled a life of no more tequila drinking!!), the tour was really great. We saw the whole process and even tasted some of the oven baked agave.







After the first taste of the initial tequila, we got to taste a 6mth and 18mth aged tequila and finally, their finest white or silver tequila. The guide kept offering more and more! By this stage, I was already starting to feel ‘happy’.









T - Finally our tour ended with a proper tasting. It was just the three of us in the room with our guide which was pretty special! We really like hanging out with Rick and being able to share these moments with him! We were shown how to swirl the tequila, smell it and how to reset our nose and our palette. Very cool! We also drank alot. Nearly too much.













C – The final tasting consisted of the full four different times of tequila – and I can assure you, they were little sips in the bottom of a glass, but what you would expect on to be given on a paid wine tasting... thats a lot of tequila folks!!!! The guide also showed us the proper way to sip tequila – breathing in first, then breathing out after you swallow.

The final one of the four, the extra aged, was simply devine and I was surprised by how easy it was to drink! Apparently, when you drink ‘proper’ tequila, it is actually a sipping drink and quite lovely – like a fine whiskey!



T - We all left the distillery with a slight buzz on and re-entered the oddly tilted world. The tour was a blast and worth every cent.

Then it was back to the hotel and time to walk off the booze. After which I did some maintenance on the bikes. Rosie finally got her carby rebuild and Mabel got her intake valve adjusted.

C – After copious amounts of water and some more chips, it was siesta time for this little black duck!!!





T - We took it easy for the rest of the day which was nice. Last nights hotel was a bit noisey and I don’t think any of us slept to well.

Tomorrow we are heading around the southern part of Lagos de Chapala and skirting underneath the big city of Guadalajara.

Hi Todd & Chantelle
Well that's been some journey so far no not yours mine its taken me a good few hours of reading your reports to catch up with you both. I am ready for a cup of tea now.
But more importantly lets get back to your journey and what a trip its ben so far.
The last and in fact the only other Postie Bike motorcycle trip I have read about was Nathan Millwards and his in comparison to yours so far seems to have been a lot less complicated. Not saying that Nats was easy though and still some achievement. Met him a couple times and a nice fella.
Rather than tempt fate I will just say I am glad you seem to have overcome that particular problem as I was tearing my hair out just reading about it.
With regard to another regular issue you have been having I have offered up a prayer to the *P - fairy so everything should be ok from now on.
Apart from motorcycling I also cycle so I am often over on the CGOAB Forum reading about some of the cyclist adventures and I have often thought it would be so much easier if they used mopeds or low powered scooters because they would see as much but without having to put so much energy in to doing so.
What you all have in common though is that you meet far more nice people than nasty even in places that some would say you should avoid.
Mexico going by your photos looks to be far more beautiful than I imagined it would be.
Also pleased to read Chantelle that it didn't take too long to get over your dicky tummy.
Well that's it for now I look forward to reading of your progress and viewing some more great photos.
Oh and to the girls " look after them both "
Regards


Ted

Thank you so much for the kind words! Im glad you enjoy our babblings! Nathan Millward is a fantastic guy and we hope we get the chance to buy him a one day! His story inspired us to do this on the posties!

Mexico is an incredible country. The media would have you believe some pretty awful things about places like this. But we have encountered nothing but friendly happy and extremely helpful people. But we are also avoiding the known "hot spots". The city we are currently in has topped even Durango (which I had previously declared the most beautiful city in the world). The colours and architecture and people oh my its just amazing!

The challenges we have faced along this trip have not been bad. Sure they get annoying but they also help make the trip what it is. And generally they have all been issues we have managed to create for ourselves, such as Mabels engine seizing because I didnt do the sump plug up, or Rosies spokes snapping constantly because Chantelle smashed into a huge concrete edge at 35 mph!

Glad to have you along on this trip and I hope you enjoyed your cuppa! I feel like one myself!

T - Not a very big post today. It was just a day of busy roads.



Today we said goodbye to Rick as our paths take us in different directions. We have had a blast hanging out with you Rick and hope we can stay in touch! Enjoy your ride and stay safe.





For us the journey continues on. I am keen to get to the Caribbean coast so we can start camping on the beach again. Today though we had picked a route that looked as though it may take us down some quiet back roads.

C – I was looking forward to some nice quiet back roads, after spending so much time on busy highways. We deliberately set our route to take in as many of minor roads as we could, whilst skirting around Lake Chappala.

It was sad to say goodbye to Rick, we have had such a blast hanging out with him! Take care Rick!!

T - We couldn’t have been further from the truth. The roads were jam packed full of traffic. Large slow moving trucks had us trapped while they spewed out thick black exhaust fumes. Most of the roads were dual lane divided highways and there was just tons of traffic. Still we plodded on. The beauty of Mexican traffic is that they are used to slow moving traffic on their roads which means we feel totally safe on the road.





We skirted past the lake which was choppy and murky. There was quite a wind today and the skies were very overcast.

C – The mood of the road was that of the sky.. grey. It wasn’t a particularly fun ride today and we were both eager to just make our destination. At one point, just before lunch, I was eager for a drink of water and a break off of the bike. We pulled off the road and I hit a deep pile of gravel, spectacularly dismounting in front of a taco stand. Lucky for me though, everyone saw and then spent the next 5 minutes starting at me. It was not exactly the break off of the bike I was hoping for.

We stopped in a small pueblo for lunch and were absolutely delighted to have a torta filled with carnita (slow cooked pork basically).. it was absolutely amazing!!



T - We set the GPS for our hotel. We didn’t have to far to go and soon enough we were there.

C – As we arrived at the hotel, Mabel decided she was completely done for the day. Todd put her on her centre stand, but nope, she wasn’t having a bar of it.. straight down she went and proceeded to sulk whilst Todd made her stand upright again.

T - It was a funky little hotel with bright colours on the outside and each room had its own large mural painted above the bed. Our room had a very stern looking Jesus looking down on us all night.





Tomorrow we head for Guanajato, around 250 km’s away. We have found some nice twisty back roads on Google Earth so we shall check them out.

T - Another short entry today. We packed up our bikes at the early hour of 830am, and headed out of town and on towards Guanajuato. The hotel we stayed in last night was really funky and some of the artwork adorning the walls was quite fun! Chantelle really liked the fat mermaid on the wall in the passage! Not that we got a photo of it!

We had picked a road with a few bends in it that would lead us down into Guanajuato but first we had to ride 200km’s to get to there. We basically ended up on another busy road and spent our time dodging stray dogs and cyclists.

C – We were a bit disappointed with sitting on a busy highway yet again, but were looking forward to the road later in the day, which the GPS promised us was full of twisties!



T - My poor tum has been feeling a bit unwell lately and I have been developing quite a nasty headache. I hope its nothing too serious!

We stopped at a gas station which had a convenience store attached. We were feeling a bit peckish so we bought ourselves some plain chippies and some biccies. Mmm mm. The lunch of champions!

As we were coming out of the store an unmarked white van pulled up next to the bikes and a police man got out and stood nearby, his finger resting on the trigger of the massive gun strapped to his chest! He watched us for a second before wandering off and standing in the middle of the car park. The driver of the van then started asking us a heap of questions. First it started with the usual, where are we from, where are we going, what types of bikes. Then he started asking about money. Chantelle and I immediately both got the heebie jeebies. He wanted to know how much we had spent, how much we had allowed etc etc. I down played it as much as possible even trying to joke my way out of it. It was very uncomfortable but they soon packed up and left.

Then another heap of police pulled into the parking lot. As we were finishing our food and talking about our weird interaction with the policeman suddenly he was back. He had circled back around the block and had parked up behind us. He came over and asked if he could take our photos before shaking our hands and leaving. It was weird, mainly so because not once did he smile or show any emotion. We felt the police were looking for something but clearly it wasn’t us.

C – The questioning from the policeman was a little weird, particularly given the other policeman didnt get back in the van, but stood behind our bikes, with his hand firmly on his gun. He really wanted to know who was funding our trip, like there should of been another answer that wasn’t ‘us’. It was all a bit weird and I felt really weird about him taking our picture with the bikes on his phone... anyway... it was definitely time to leave!

T - As we were packing up and getting ready to ride one of the gas attendants came over and repeated almost the exact same questions. He had been sent over by another policeman to speak to us because he could speak english. We decided it was time for us to leave.

On the way up the road we passed through several large police road blocks. I mean huge! Not once did they look at us or stop us though and we put our feelings of unease at the gas station down to paranoia.

C - I have never seen so many police in one hour. It was incredible. The police seemed to be looking for something, with some pretty thorough searches of vehicles going on as we just sailed on by!

T - We finally made it to the windy road and followed it up the side of a mountain as it changed from bitumen to cobblestone. What a shaky rattly ride that was! I’m sure we will have a few loose bolts on the bikes after that!







C – The road wound itself back and forth, climbing about 600mtrs in elevation. We weaved our way around buses and through small pueblos, following two very full military vehicles all the way to the top.





T - At the top of the mountain there was a giant Jesus statue. So we decided to go up there as we figured there would be an amazing view out over the valley. Sure enough there was!





From there the road wound back down and into the city of Guanajuato. What a city. Even from a distance it looked amazing. Brightly coloured houses stacked on the hillsides surrounding the ancient parts of the city. Gorgeous!

We rode in hoping to find a cheap hotel. But there was a festival on and everything was booked solid. Unless we wanted to pay $20US to pitch a tent on a patch of concrete. No thanks! So we had a quick ride through the city, including riding through the incredible maze of old mining and drainage tunnels under the city, before heading back the way we had come to the small town of Silao.

C – The city was absolute chaos, with people, cars, police and buses going everywhere. It soon became clear we were not going to find a room. After learning that the festival was on its second last day, we figured we might be able to book a room for tomorrow night and come back tomorrow.



T - We found a cheap hotel with secure parking and called it a day. I wasn’t feeling too well and after a quick shower I was ready to sleep. Which was not to be unfortunately. I ended up making several trips to the toilet where I emptied my stomach numerous times before almost passing out in the shower. What a horrible night made even worse by being in this awful hotel. No seat on the toilet, the upstairs plumbing leaked and ran down our bathroom window making our room smell like stale urine and cockroaches came out in droves. A real dive. Spewing my guts up in a stinking room, into a seatless dirty toilet, with cockroaches running over my legs was not fun.





Tomorrow we shall try to find a hotel in Guanajuato that’s in our budget. It looks like an amazing place to walk around for a few hours.

T - Off to Guanajuato today. Neither of us slept well so we are both keen to stay in a quiet hotel somewhere tucked away. And it just so happens we found it! Even if it cost us a whole days budget it is still worth it!

The ride into Guanajuato was pretty uneventful. Our GPS did a sterling job of navigating us through miles of tunnels and one way, narrow alleys and bought us right to the door of the Hotel Casa Del Sol. The bonus of this hotel is that it is at the end of a dead end alley, and about 50 meters from centro! Very happy!







We were a bit early to check in to our room but the hotel was happy to store our gear and park our bikes, so we wandered off in search of some tunnels to walk through, and the mummy museum.







We wandered past a myriad of food stalls selling anything from chocolate skulls to tacos and hamburgers. The crowded streets were swollen with people but in a good way. Everyone was smiling and seemed happy. It gave the city a beautiful vibrancy and we soaked it all in.





We found a stair case leading into the dark damp depths of the earth and so we descended down it to see what was on offer. We popped out into the middle of a lengthy tunnel that must have been ancient. There were massive brick arches and bricked ceilings galore! I loved it!!!







We followed the tunnels along for a while until the smell of car exhaust became too much and we climbed back up onto the streets just blocks away from the museum. There was quite the line to get in so we joined onto the tail end of it.

Once inside we watched a short video in Spanish on how the mummies came to be, well we think thats what it was, before we headed into the museum proper. There were mummies lined up down the sides of the passage way. They were both morbid and incredible. Some fully dressed in suits still and some completely naked. They were in amazing shape with many of them still having hair and dried up eyes. I enjoyed trying to capture some Walking Dead style shots of them.









Then we wandered back to our hotel and checked in. I needed a shower and a rest. I feel better today but have very little energy.



After a few hours lounging about we went back into the city for some dinner and a wander down the streets. Boy was it crowded now! The streets were full to bursting with crowds. We spent most of our time walking on the street, dodging busses and motorcycles. So awesome! I love this place!









Our dinner tonight was pretty boring. Chicken burgers and chips. I need something plain and boring in my tum today.

Then it was back to hotel. I am buggered and am feeling quite out of breathe. Stupid man flu.





We have planned a route that will take us from here across some mountainous areas full of winding roads and down to the east coast over the next three days or so.

T - There was so much going on around here last night. It sounded like fireworks and singing and clapping and so so much laughter! Seems like the festival was an absolute hit!

We were up and about at the reasonable hour of 9am today. There was breakfast on offer included with our room and we sat out on a little balcony that overlooked the street. It was a beautiful little spot and we people watched as we ate, and waved and said hello alot!

We packed our bikes and set the GPS to take us out of the city and to a small village called Colon about 190 kms away. We set it to avoid all highways, major roads, interstates and toll roads. Which it did! In a very short amount of time we were crawling in second and then first gear up a steep dusty and rocky road that slowly disintegrated into a rutted track.





C – We did have some reservations about this, as the routing through these back roads is only as good as the mapping. We had some experiences through Canada and the US where the GPS would attempt to get us places, but we would end up at a dead end as things on the ground had changed since the maps were last updated. Still, we were both sick of the highways and missing riding off riding, so thought we would give it a go!



T - We passed through little towns and crossed a few streams before we were confronted by a set of steel gates and a security guard. Bugger. Our GPS wanted us to go straight through what appeared to be an active mine site. We spoke briefly to the security guard and he confirmed our fears. We couldn’t go this way. But he pointed us off to a side road and we assumed that it would curl back on itself and rejoin the road on the other side of the mine.





C – At this point, we decided to just give it a go and see what happened. There were a few vehicles coming from that direction, so we figured the road must go somewhere, despite the GPS insisting it dead ended at a church.

T - We followed this track along for a while and soon we were crawling and bumping our little overworked bikes up a narrow, very high, rock strewn goat track. It was quite a struggle to get up this part even in first gear. Finally though we did it! Sweating buckets on our over heated bikes we had a little cheer and carried on. For about 30 meters. Where the road just ended. Well it did continue on but we would have had to pass through a barbed wired fence and onto what we could only assume was private property. So we turned the bikes around.







C – I quite enjoy challenging myself to get up these steep, rocky climbs. What I do not enjoy as much, is coming back down them. I find it much more difficult to keep up the momentum whilst sliding down steep rocky hills, despite the fact that some momentum is important for keeping the bike upright. Of course I got down without any trouble, but, maybe one day these steep rocky descents wont scare the crap out of me!





T - It took us two hours to reach this point and the only way back was to go all the way back to Guanajuato and then take a highway road out. This wasn’t a bad thing though. We had both been missing our offroading and so we were absolutely relishing this ride. So instead of setting our sights on Colon, we instead headed for San Miguel De Allende which was about 60 km’s or so from Guanajuato.

C – We picked San Miguel as a destination because we were being too lazy to get out the map and pick another one.. and we both knew this town was close. We also knew that San Miguel has a large expat community and would be an expensive destination for the evening. But, laziness prevailed!

T - After a fairly quick ride back to the city we were soon racing down the highway. It was quite a nice ride and the air was refreshing cool for both us and the bikes.

We made it to SM De Allende and soon we found a hotel that was slightly expensive but still the cheapest we could be bothered finding. It seems that something we have eaten or drunk in the past day or so wants to make us unhappy again. We might go to a pharmacy and get some doxy we think. Good for malaria and helps to keep stomach bugs at bay.



Tomorrow we are heading due east and have found some more dirt winding roads that lead us through some spectacular looking country. I’ve checked them on Google maps and assume, a very dangerous thing, that the roads go through because there is Google street view of them!

T - Oh god. If I have to ride over another speed bump I am going to lose my mind!

Today we were headed for the town of Ixmiquilpan. I don’t even know how to pronounce that! The distance was approximately 250km’s and would get us a little under halfway to the coast. We set the GPS for a hotel we had picked out and off we went.

As we were leaving the gas station in San Miguel a nice chap came over to chat to us. Turns out he was the president of the BMW Motorrad club here in San Miguel. He kindly invited us to stay the night with him and if we hadn’t of already booked and paid for our hotel in Ixmiquilpan then we would have said yes!

C – We headed back to Bogar’s shop for a quick chat and he kindly provided us some guidance on our route, and his favourite places in Mexico! We were disappointed that we had already paid for the accommodation. We normally don’t do that, but we had found a hotel with a great discount so had decided to book it. We promised Bogar we would stay if we came back via this way again though. It would of been lovely to meet his wife and family!

T - We headed out of town via some back alleys and cobbled steep streets before bouncing over a few topes and then we were on our way!



Now for some reason our GPS has gotten it into its little electronic brain that we like to drive over topes. Well thats what we think. Every road we took, no matter whether we were in a town or on a highway, we were presented with endless speed bumps. 12 going into town, 12 in the middle of town, 12 going out of town and then a few camouflaged ones along the highway for good measure.



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C – We ventured in and out of small villages all day and became intimately familiar with all of their topes.





T - It would have been a pretty uneventful ride otherwise. We cruised along all day and eventually found our way via another 600000000000000000000000000000000000000 speed bumps to our hotel for the night.

My ass took a pounding today. I think I might have to dunk it into an ice cold bath.



We had a wander down the street for some dinner but it seemed we were in an industrial area so we had to settle for a cheapo bag of crisps and a bottle of soda. Neither of us could face a ride into town with more topes!



Tomorrow we head over some mountains on a very windy road!

T - We were up early today and ready to ride. The road we had picked looked to be a dirt one so we weren’t too sure as to how long it may take us to get through it.

We fueled up, bought our selves a yoghurt for breakfast and then climbed on the bikes and immediately became lost. We were riding down alleys and one way streets that didnt even appear on our GPS. So around and around we went eventually circling the main square twice before somehow we fluked the exit and we were out of there!



C – We were both excited about the ride today. Dirt roads, through the mountains, on roads that didnt appear on our GPS! We could see on Google Earth the road existed and got confirmation from ADVRider that road at least existed!

T - It was a lovely cool morning and the bikes were humming along nicely, as usual really! We started to climb slowly as we headed for the town of Tolatongo. The road we had picked for today is called the Lib. Al Cardonal. We couldn’t find much information on it other than it was ‘a bit rough’.





As we got to the beginning of the mountains we were met with some of the most incredible views. Mountains just pushing up so steeply from the ground, full of deep valleys and tiny tracks criss crossing them everywhere! Wowsers!

C – The views were simply breathtaking and the riding was superb. So far, it had all been bitumen and in relatively good condition.



T - We followed along the road and soon began a series of steep down hill switchbacks. The corners curved back so tightly on each other. What a ride! We were so excited to have a day of this! Then we realised we had missed our turn. Way back at the top of the mountain and now we were on a deadend road to nowhere. So we swung around and began the gruelling 2nd gear climb back up to the top. Poor Mabel.

C – There was a construction crew working on this section of the road, transforming it from dirt to concrete. They were busily working on one lane, which left us riding down the wrong side, with no traffic control in site. We passed quite a few cars on the lane bit and thankfully didnt have to find out how we would go trying to pass a car on the single lane in the construction zone!

T - Once at the top we used the phones GPS, as ours appears to not have any maps of this area, and we soon found the start of the actual road we wanted. It deteriorated rapidly from smooth hard dirt to rocky washouts and eventually turned into someones driveway. Errr... Again we had taken a wrong turn and had to back track over some fairly mean ground.



C – Despite the wrong turns and incredibly rough terrain, all the wrong turns led us to some amazing views. Definitely some of the best wrong turns we have made yet!!

T - Finally, and this time we had it right, we found the proper road. It climbed up and over a hill and then we were in the valleys of the mountains. Our road stretched away beneath us, draped like a piece of limp spaghetti across the mountain side. Curving back and forth all the way down into the distant valley floor. No guard rails, just a very long plummet down. It was brilliant!







C – The road was rough, but easily rideable and again, gave us some spectacular views. There were a few moments were we stopped and looked at the drop offs with a ‘wooahh’! Vertigo inducing!



T - We curved back and forth slowly as we headed down. There was evidence in some spots of fairly recent landslides and the road was rocky and slippery. We hit the bottom and passed through a beautiful quaint little village before we began our climb up the other side.







Then it was down that set of mountains and into one of the most fertile and lush valleys I have ever seen. From above we were greeted with a patchwork of greens and browns from the farmed land. It was damn gorgeous.

C – The greenness of the valley is indescribable... just beautiful. The fields were full of workers, performing manual labour tasks. Everyone stopped and stared at us for a moment, then came the big waves and the massive smiles!



We noticed what we thought were spider webs in the trees. On closer inspection, we saw millions of caterpillars in these webs. Some kind of silk worms maybe?





T - We stopped in the little village in the valley for some tortas. OMFG! The best tortas we have had and possibly the best food we have had in Mexico yet! These puppies were huge, and stuffed full of pork, egg, cheese, avocado and jalapenos!





From there our quiet slow ride ended and we were back onto some major and very busy highways all the way through to our end point of Huauchinango. By the time we got there we had donned our wet weather gear and we rode down into the city in thick fog and drizzling rain!



Tomorrow we should hit the coast! Woohoo and hopefully we will find some nice camping spots.

T - After yesterdays amazing ride we knew today wouldn’t be anywhere near as exciting. It would be hard to top it really! We had our route planned that would take us through to the Gulf of Mexico where we both had high hopes of camping on the beach.

C – Our real goal here was to skirt around Mexico City... both of us are keen to avoid accidently ending up in the middle of chaotic traffic there!!

T - We followed the highway out of town and surprisingly the road started of bending and skating back and forth as it wound down off of the mountains. Even though there was a bit of traffic we managed to get away from it for short stints which meant we could really get the bikes leaning over. It was great fun and we both were grinning like morons!





We passed through a few villages. Each one colourful and lively and our little bikes got a heap of attention. This is a very picturesque part of the world and we were really enjoying it.

C – We decided to stop for some lunch in one of the larger villages, so we visited a grocery store and emerged with bananas, fresh rolls and Todds new favourite Mexican treat – Pinguiinos. We enjoyed sitting on the kerb at the grocery store, watching masses and masses of traffic slowly drift past. We also managed to provide entertainment for a lot of people!



T - We hit the edge of quite a large town and then we were spat out onto another major highway which took us straight to the coast. Yay! We caught our first glimpses of the Gulf through gaps in buildings. The whole coast here was built up. Heaps of hotels and houses almost blocked the entire beach from the road.

C – As we glimpsed the ocean we saw the dark coloured sand and the roughness of the ocean. The swell and waves stirred up the silt and sand and the ocean was a very uninviting greenish/brown. Still, it was the ocean and we always enjoy that first hit of sticky, salty air that licks at your skin as you near the coast.

T - We spied a few hotels that advertised camping in the town of Casitas so we wandered in to check them out. And left rather quickly after being told it was $AUD20 for the night to pitch our tent!! WOW. No thankyou! We continued our search and finally found a place that would let us camp for $AUD10. The water was dark and rough and thunder heads were building up in the distance. We set the tent up as the wind started up.

C – I was excited to be spending the night in the tent. The tent now feels like ‘home’ and I have been missing it staying in so many hotels.





T - Then it was time to chill out before dinner. As we got back from dinner the rain started to come down and there was lightning and thunder crashing all around. We picked a good night for camping! So we lay in the tent and watch Everyone Loves Raymond(will this show ever end) until the battery in the laptop gave out.

Tomorrow we are heading for Veracruz.

T - It absolutely bucketed down last night! Our tent was drenched and there was huge puddles everywhere outside. We packed up and set our sights on Veracruz. It was only 150 odd k’s away so it should make for an easy ride.



And it was. Within 3 hours we were pulling into the crazy mad bustling streets of the port city. We were whisked along with the flow of buses, trucks, taxis and cars. It was pure mayhem! Sometimes there was three lanes when there should have been two, sometimes it squeezed out to four lanes. Taxis pushed each other and us out of the way, usually into the path of other cars or buses. We got the hell out of there quick smart!!!

C – Veracruz was really as expected - A bustling city that has a very large working port. As we drove in, we saw mountains and mountains of containers ready for shipping and big cargo ships everywhere. The city had a gritty feel to it and we both quickly decided not to stay here. It was only lunch time and too early to stop.





T - After a very fast tour of Veracruzs water front we raced for the outskirts of the city. We both missed the small quiet country towns. The GPS for some reason soon had us heading for the gates of a toll road. No GPS this isn’t where we want to be! So we looped back and found a smaller highway and continued on our way. We made it to a town called Tierra Blanca where we found a ‘love’ motel for the night.





Not too many photos today as we were just stuck on busy roads all day! We have decided to move away from the coast now as it was crazily expensive and instead will take an inland route around to Palenque and up into the Yucatan.

T - After a very decent nights sleep in a very large bed we packed up late and headed on out of town. Our destination today was a city down on the south called Juchitan De Zaragoza.

It was a day of quiet highways for us. Our GPS’s maps seem so unreliable here that we are a little reluctant to take the ‘backtracks’ as we seem to always run into dead ends! But thankfully we had a fairly pleasant, if uneventful meander southwards.





The road was full of curves and dips and was in pretty good shape. We passed through a few small villages where there seemed to be a lot of men lounging around in the shade and watching us. In fact I have found that the men in this part of Mexico openly stare at us. It is becoming quite unnerving actually and I am going to learn how to say ‘Excuse me but it is quite rude to stare’. The women on the other hand don’t seem to pay us much mind at all.





The scenery today changed from thick tropical jungle to much more of the scrubby stuff as we rode south. The smaller villages gave way to bigger and bigger ones and the traffic started to build.



Then we popped out of a cut through a hillside and we were greeted by the site of hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines. As far as we could see in all directions. These things spun away silently. It was quite a sight and totally unexpected!





Once we were down onto the open plain on which all the turbines were installed it became apparent why they were put there. We spent the next 30 minutes battling against incredibly strong side winds as we rode into our destination for the day.





We managed to score a gorgeous little hotel for the night that had locked gates and secure parking for our bikes.

Tomorrow we head eastwards where we think we will stop and have a day off of the bikes. Both of us are feeling a little tired and could do with a break.

T - We took advantage of the laundry service at our hotel. For $4 they washed dried and folded all of our very stinky and dirty clothes for us! Poor buggers. I feel sorry for the person that was ‘volunteered’ for that job!

We got away late today, as is becoming our custom now, and headed back out into the windfarms. The wind this morning was brutal and we wobbled and weaved down the shoulder of the highway while trucks blasted past us. It was quite funny riding behind Chantelle as she looked like a drunk person trying to ride down the ride!



C – Riding in this strong, strong wind was just no fun at all, poor Rosie is pretty light in the scheme of things and we get shoved and pushed in all directions by buffeting winds. It was unpleasant getting overtaken by the bigger trucks this morning, with the buffeting increasing just as they passed us.







Despite riding in the wind, it was magnificent to see this massive wind farm is. I must admit I do not really know what I expected of Mexico, but for some reason a massive wind farm was not in my expectations! It has been wonderful to see so many wind farms of this scale on our trip so far.

T - We saw a very sad thing happen today on this part of the road. There were a few cows on the side of the road at one point and a large calf had wandered into the road and was standing on the centre line. We and all the cars around us slowed down as we went past so we didnt spook the calf and cause it to run into oncoming traffic. However the absolute dick head who zipped past us heading the opposite way didn’t. The calf was spooked and turned and ran away and straight into the front of a semi trailer. The little thing went under the truck.

We were horrified. What and absolute asshole. There was no need for the driver of the car to drive like that. If he had of just slowed down and waited a minute the calf would have probably just stood where it was until the traffic passed by. We were so mad. It seemed to be such a senseless thing, and for what? That cow was someones livelihood. Disgusting.

C – It was so ridiculously avoidable. The truck was already moving quite slowly, but surely people who reside in rural areas understand that if two vehicles pass an animal on either side, effectively trapping it, it will run and hit one of the vehicles. Common sense. I couldn’t believe that neither the truck behind us, nor the guy going in the opposite direction, considered the calf to be a hazard on the road. And really, despite what your individual opinions are on the value of life of animals, needlessly killing someones livelihood is just not ok. These cows were in very good condition and obviously belonged to one of the farms along that stretch of road. I was so saddened by this.. I have been dreading the day that I have to witness an inconsiderate driver hitting one of the millions of stray dogs here.

T - We rode along in silence for a while after that.





Soon we branched off of the main highway and took the free road that was much quieter. It wound up into the mountains that we had been riding behind and with the height came some nice coolness and some respite from the relentless winds of the plains.





C – As we climbed into the mountains, came the corners... and who doesn’t love twisties! We were whizzing (as much as one can ‘whizz’ on a postie bike) left, right, left, right.. what fun!!! We were giggling along as each corner our panniers came closer to kissing the ground.





T - We warily watched some big dark clouds forming up ahead of us and when the first few spots of rain came down we both refused to admit it was raining and therefore not put on our wet weather gear. A very dangerous game right?



In the end we rolled into the town of Tuxtla Gutierrez without being rained on too much and soon we were ensconced into our nice little room with our bikes locked away in the courtyard out the back!







We are going to rest up here for a day or two. I have some stupid flu thing that won’t go away and we are both a little fatigued. There’s quite a few places to explore in the local area so we may do some slow moving over the next few days.