So your friend Salvador sent you to a comfy love hotel (i.e., motel) in Parral, following which you stumbled unknowingly onto one of the world's premier motorcycling roads, Espina del diablo. That's hilarious. You're the perfect contrast to all those posting here and elsewhere who believe that the essential ingredient for any journey is endless research and parsing of possibilities long before any departure.

Keep it up!

Mark

Yea, the motto for this trip is definitely "minimal planning". We didn't even have a map for the first 2,000 miles of Mexico, just a print-out of the google maps Mexico image. Our host in Union De Tula gave us a Mexico atlas, but Michelle insists I not look at it. She's lucky, so I'll bank on that. Doesn't really matter where we end up anyway.

We check out of our Mazatlan hotel and look for breakfast. Above all the street level vendors in the central market there are second story restaurants. Very cheap, 15 pesos for breakfast, which was delicious and filling. Definitely a good find if you're on a budget. Too bad we didn't find it earlier. Also had "cafe con leche", which is coffee made without any water, just coffee and milk. Very tasty. We also sent postcards to the folks back home, which was a little time consuming, so we got a late start. We camped near Tepic, off a little farm road. Very noisy with the trucks engine braking down that area, we didn't sleep well. The farm workers started going down the road when we were packing up. They were confused and-or amused by the spectacle.

We stopped in Tepic to eat our breakfast of fruit, bread and butter we had bought the night before. There was a great little park not too far into town, very picturesque.





We were now on the "Ruta De Tequila" according to the highway signs. Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, looks like a blue cactus, and there were enormous fields covering the hills and along the highway.


Also a weird field of black rocks. Didn't look like the other brush-fire fields we'd seen.


Very hilly, simple but beautiful.


We ate in Tequila, famous for it's many tequila factories. We were going to take the tour, but our waitress said it was 250pesos per person, which was out of our budget, so we skipped it. We did buy a very overpriced bottle for our friend we were meeting in the next week. It was 160 pesos, which is similar to the price in the US. I didn't realize that tequila is only a fraction of the price here in Mexico. A few weeks later I would be shocked to see 750ml bottles of apparently decent tequila going for around $3.20USD.

Just before Tequila, the camera took a soft little tumble into the sand. So no pictures of Tequila, but I did get it going again on the last day we were in Guadalajara, so I could take some pictures.

We get to Guadalajara just in time for rush hour. We had no idea where we were going, no idea where any hotels were, no idea how crazy Guadalajara traffic was. I liked it. Motorcycles cut through traffic, pop onto sidewalks, go the wrong way down one-ways. I was burdened with extra wide saddlebags, so I wasn't as nimble as other bikes, but we got around. After over an hour of riding around cluelessly we randomly found a couple of hotels on a strip that were actually decently priced. We chose "Hotel Astur", About $20usd per night, but it was clean and we could park the bike in our room. Little did we know, but we were actually in the Historical District, right in the middle of the city, walking distance to the Libertad market, several museums, tons of shopping, and countless cathedrals and plazas. Very lucky, we were so tired we would have taken anything. Our faces were a blackened from all the soot in the air.

(If you're going to Guadalajara: Calle Independcia Sur was the road with Hotel Astur, we found less expensive hotels around the block on Juarez)

We only had 97 pesos left, and the money changers were closed. We ate dinner in La Libertad market. Tortas, potato chips with salsa, a coke, and cerveza for the both of us = 96 pesos ($8usd). Gotta love it.

Next day we change money again, not so good this time, as expected. We get 11.70 pesos to the dollar (compared to 12.5 in El Paso, TX). We spend the day walking around and updating the blogs at a ciber. We both love Mexican food but decide to do something different, and get pizza slices on the street

While we're waiting in line there is an attempted kidnapping. A man grabs a 6yo boy who is eating pizza with his mom and brothers, the kid freaks out and gets free, runs to his mother, who is panicking now as well. She rushes all of her children into the pizza shop doorway. Everyone around was pointing at the man. I had no idea what was going on at that point, but Michelle says she saw the man kick the boy as he struggled free and that he walked right around us, as if he was still intent on nabbing the kid. He split, and the police were called. I doubt they caught the guy, he easily vanished into the crowd. Michelle's older brother was almost kidnapped in Guadalajara when he was a baby. Luckily there was a policeman around the corner and kidnapper ditched him to not get caught.

We spent the rest of the day getting lost walking around Guadalajara. We went to the market, which was very cool.


Chille rellenos, with canzome and the most delicious tortillas I've ever had, $2us.

Lots of plazas, cathedrals. Very beautiful part of the city.






Next day we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was the day before Christmas, so we didn't expect anything to be open. We were surprised to find it would be open for another 2 hours. (Bring your school ID, half off for students, 70 pesos regularly). Incredible building, and the work housed inside was fantastic. The first chamber (old Cathedral) is covered by 57 murals by Jose Clemente Orozco. Probably my favorite of what we saw. The main dome has a huge painting entitled "El Hombe De Fuego", which is breathtaking.

(not my photo)
We saw as much as we could before they closed.

Museum from the outside, later that day.


Guadalajara definitely has a "big city" feel. Different than any of the other places we've been to in Mexico. Feels more modern, or perhaps more Americanized. Wonderful to visit though, perhaps my favorite part of Mexico yet.

Michelle's best friend is Karla Luna. Karla's family is from a little town called Union Del Tula, about 2 hours Southwest of Guadalajara. This year they were having a huge family reunion, first in 25 years, and we were invited to stop by for the tail end of the festivities. We packed our bags and left early, only taking an hour to find our way out of Guadalajara (good luck finding street signs in Mexico).

We ate Tacos Dorados on our way. Note: Tacos Dorados are fried tacos. Sometimes they have toothpicks still in them from when they were held together for frying. I didn't realize this initially, and I'm probably still digesting one or two.

We find Karla at the Cathedral with her family. It wasn't difficult to find the Cathedral, it's the tallest building, and there is only one for the whole town.There are a good 80 to 100 family members at the church.

Those are all part of the Luna family. They are celebrating her cousin Alex's first communion.
Karla and Alex:

The Cathedral interior:


We head to Karla's grandmother's house to change into clean clothes for the upcoming fiesta. It's a beautiful, clean, bright house with incredible hand-painted tiles, each one a little bit different.

During my time here I wear borrowed "Cubavera" shirts, very comfortable and fashionable here.

We head to Alex's communion fiesta. The hosts all sit at one table, the youth at another huge table, and the adults at their own tables. Everything is fully catered, with free cervezas, plates of tacos and cucumber with chile and lime for appetizers, birrea (beef dish local to the area) with rice, beans and tortillas for entre. We are treated to a VERY LOUD brass band. Everything is very loud here. The party is huge. Dancing, moonwalk for the kids, drinking, eating.

We jump out for a minute with Karla to see her family's villa. This is a little ranch house outside of town, with a room for each of the 8 sub-families that make up the Luna family. It is built on an old 19th century hacidenda, and there are remenants everywhere.



"Villa Luna"


Inside, the villa is beautiful. Lovely little gated courtyard.



Behind the villa there is a huge stable holding a good 20 prized dancing horses, worth up to $50,000usd each. Two of Karla's uncles ride and train them. Too dark for pictures.

We return to the communion party and eat churros rellenos. Later that night, we hit the town with the rest of the youth. At the first bar I learn that the moon (la luna) is the women's restroom, the sun (el sol) is the men's bathroom. My bad.

The next bar could easily been any bar in the US, minus the occasional accordion over the speakers. We danced, drank and had fun till closing time. Karla's little sister also showed up, who is 16yo but looks no more than 14. Carding isn't enforced like it is in the states.

Next day we wake up late and head to grandma's house for breakfast. Menudo (tripe soup), southern style with no hominy). Delicious. We come back and wash clothes.


... and hitch a ride to another party. This time at Villa Luna, with mariachis. We go in the back of an uncle's truck.

(Union de Tula is named for Union de T.V.L.A, the initials of the four founders)


This party is great as well. Again, fully catered. This time with sheep and chicken cooked over an open flame. Delicious.

We are also treated to a horse dancing performance.

Karla's uncle brings a horse into the courtyard and it trots around in step for a few songs. The whole family crowds around and takes pictures. Afterwards parents line up to have their children's pictures taken with the horse and rider.

Horsemanship is a big deal here. The next day we saw a young woman arrive at the Cathedral for her quincera in a flamboyant blue dress on a huge black horse. After the ceremony she rode away and her father danced along side with another horse.

That night we went to the plaza. We drank "calientitos", a delicious hot drink of boiled fruit, and ate Mexican hotdogs (wrapped in bacon, with chile and katsup). We also observed the tradition of "la vuelta" (turn). The plaza is a big square. Various food vendors lining the edges, with trees and a big gazebo in the middle. Young single women walk clockwise around the square, young single men walk counterclockwise slightly outside them. If a man fancies a woman, he'll stop and ask her if she wants to walk around with him. Couples walk counterclockwise with the men. This is how courtship happens in Union De Tula. Karla's pa*rents met this way decades ago, and still walk around the plaza to this day. Young and old participate. I found it very charming.
1349

The next morning Karla left back to the US to return to her work as a nutritionist. We spent one more day with her family. We went to the Cathedral and were blessed by the priest, who rubbed oil on our open palms. Karla's dad spent the afternoon chatting with various people in the plaza. He is very outgoing and has many friends here. We at posole (menudo made with pork instead of beef) and retired for the night.

Union Del Tula is the opposite of Guadalajara. Though I love Guadalajara, you can't deny it's filthy, with massive amounts of poverty plainly visible and a somewhat lawless feel. Union Del Tula feels like a very small town, though apparently it has 28,000 residents. For the first time I was instructed not to park my motorcycle on the sidewalk. There were people sweeping the streets and the main center. It was very clean, very traditional. People take pride in their city and their traditions. I never felt ill at ease here, never suspected I was being ripped off because I was a tourist.

Many thanks to the Luna family for allowing us the opportunity to participate in their reunion festivities. It's one thing to view a culture from the outside, as an observer. It's quite another to be able to participate and be immersed in the culture. It was an incredible experience, both in Union De Tula with the Luna family, and in Chihuahua with Michelle's family. Living within the culture was a fascinating experience, and I will never forget the hospitality I was shown.

Eduardo (Karla's father) insisted we accept his gift of a Mexico atlas. Up until that point, we were relying on a compass and a tattered 4-page map of mexico we printed off the internet.

Hadn't had any problems with our current method, but we graciously accepted the atlas anyway. We tool the Luna family advice and went east to Colima via the back roads, then down to Tecoman. It was twisty, but covered with potholes. Very fun anyway. We got confused and accidently went 40km North to Manzanillo before we stopped. Manzanillo is a tourist town, and since it was the holidays everything was very expensive. We found nothing less than 400pesos. I didn't like it here. We camped on the beach for free.


Next day we headed South along Mexico 200 towards Acapulco. Twisty highway that goes along the mountainous coastline. My new favorite of the trip. The scenery expansive, picturesque beaches.





The motorcycle limited our camping options, since we couldn't just leave it on the side of the road overnight. We eventually found Playa Tunel, which was an incredibly picturesque little cove with a road going down. It was 50 pesos per person, per night to camp there, but the view was worth it. We had our own isolated, private stretch of beach, and a short swim north there was a few little beach-side restaurants. Perfect.




I was feeling a little ill the next day, so we decided to stay another day. I laid in the shade all day and recuperated. I felt better.

Next day we went exploring. You can see there is a cave going through the cliff into the open ocean. Michelle grew up in landlocked El Paso, and has never learned to swim until this summer. She bravely swam into the cave with me and hung around for a few minutes before turning back. In the cave there are crabs and sea urchins all along the walls. The ceiling is a good 10 feet above you and the waves crash all around. Surreal. Later I swam all the way through via a different route and into the open ocean. The waves are very strong and threaten to dash you into the rocks. The cliffs are lined with more caves and I explore a few more before I lose my nerve and come back to the cove.

Michelle and I are both stung by a jellyfish at one point.


We climb along the rocks to get dinner. We play cards with some teens while we wait. My Spanish is good enough for that at least. For are joined for dinner by a domesticated parrot and kitten who belong to the hotel kids. My Caldo de Pescado is served with the fish tail still sticking out of it. Fantastic. We buy some bottled water for the night and head out. By this time it's dark, and we've got a wallet, cell phone and leftovers, so swimming home around isn't an option. We have to climb around the rocks separating the beaches blind. Amazingly, we only lose one water bottle in the process, and neither of us gets soaked or steps on a sea urchin. Tomorrow we leave for Zihuatenejo

Cool ride man, im going down myself with a friend, checking out Yucatan at the moment. Maybe ill see you out in the road. Keep it up, great report. Stay safe.

Jordan, Michelle and the little Nija are looking like you are having so much fun. Well done guys, stay safe, keep the knee down and the Nija upright. I bet you when you get back home the first job will be to rebuild the 250? Keep in touch folks, all our love and best wishes from the UK. Steve, Karen, Steph and Chris. Watching your every move.... PS: The GT750M from 1975 is now near complete, pics soon.

We got into Zihuatenejo and immediately began searching for an ATM to pull out some more money. We had only a few pesos left at that point. We found a Santender and pulled out money, which cost $30 pesos from that bank and then $1 from my bank. About $3.50 to pull out cash. Meh. However, the rate was good, I calculated 12.25 pesos to the dollar. We would find that Santender banks always had the best rates by a good margin. I guess because they are a sister bank to Bank of America.

I did an illegal U-Turn (was going to make a left into a one way, then noticed and corrected myself). Traffic cop told me I could get a big ticket, then laughed and said I didn't know better, waved me on my way. We had good luck with the autorities in Mexico. Only a few times were we actually stopped at the military checkpoints, only twice were we actually asked to open our bags for a quick peek. Michelle always answered their questions with her usual inate friendliness and we'd be chatting like amigos in a few seconds.

We searched around to find a decently priced hotel room, it was clear that Zihuatenejo was going to be very expensive, a little touristy nowadays and new years eve. Hotels near the centro were going for $50+usd, near the beach would be even more. Eventually we found Hotel Krystal, for $350 pesos, shared bath. We thought it might be the best we could get, so we took it. DO NOT RECOMMEND. The whole place smelled of rotting food, not a very clean family ran it. Bathrooms, rooms and towells were dirty. My standards are very low, but this would have been a stretch for $100 pesos. It's funny that the most we spent on a hotel room was also the worst.

The next day we found another hotel called Hotel Washington, just a little bit off the main highway. Clean, $100 pesos cheaper, big room with two beds and private bathroom. Didn't smell of rotting food. Recommended.



I wish I had stories about a crazy new years eve celebration. Unfortunately, me and Michelle were both feeling pretty poorly. I went to the Farmacia Similares. The big pharmacies here (Similares y Ahoro) have a room next door which houses a doctor which will give you a basic checkup for little or free and perscribe you what you need. I was perscribed some antibiotics for my fever and throat infection. We both wanted to go to sleep early, but all around Zihuatenejo there were gun-shot like fireworks, starting at 8pm, including on the roof of our hotel. Michelle fell asleep and I watched shitty American movies in spanish.

Michelle also got a stomach flu at some point. Strange I didn't, because me and her had literally been splitting single plates of food the past few days. We stayed three days in Zihuatenejo, but didn't see anything outside of the few blocks of our hotel because of our illnesses.

We headed South for Acapulco, knowing we couldn´t afford to spend any time there, but wanting to see it anyway. We got there around 3pm but it took an hour to get through. Probably the worst traffic of the trip so far. Tons and tons of little VW Bug taxis in gridlock. We were sweating like crazy. There were huge hotels everywhere, just like we expected, and totally different than anyplace we'd been so far.
Acapulco beach:

The bay:


Eventually we found our way out of Acapulco and went to a little town called San Marcos, about 50 kilometers away. Got a little hotel with WiFi on the main road, $200 pesos. It was pretty much open to the elements along the top of the walls, the only climate control was a fan. We were now in a climate where enclosing the walls was not necessary.

We continued heading down Mexico 200 to our next stop, Oaxaca. We camped in a lime Orchard near Rio Grande. Simply asked some folks working on their house if we could throw our tent back there. It looked like it would rain soon, it was dark and there was lightning. The woman laughed and said it wasn't going to rain. It didn't.
The Orchard

The bike after 3000 miles of Mexico


Next day we woke early, expecting a quick dash to Oaxaca. Not exactly. Started off well enough, nice wide road, only the occasional donkey in the road.

Sometimes a lane was missing because it slid off the mountain, but no road is perfect. Soon we were in the Sierra Madres Del Sur though, and it turned into a dirt road through the mountains.

A little hairy, but very fun. My first time riding dirt roads for more than a few KMs.


Eventually we hit a long line of cars. We went to the front to see what was going on. Apparently the road was closed for construction. We waited about 40 minutes for the tractors to finish clearing the road. We chatted with folks about the road ahead and our trip.

After we were cleared to pass, we went a few more KMs and hit a donkey fight in the middle of the road. It was hilarious.


We hit Juquila, a little town at a fork in the roads. It's built onto the side of the mountains.


Here, we had trouble. The roads were all very steep and highway went right through the center of town. You might remember I had put modestly lower gearing sprockets on my bike back in Texas for the highway, and then a slightly oversized rear tire in Mazatlan because I couldn't find the original size. The result was ambitiously low gearing. No problem for most of Mexico, but big trouble here. When traffic stopped on a hill, I was unable to get going again. I was reving the engine, working the clutch, but she wasn't moving with her huge load. I stalled and the bike started going backwards. I grabbed the front brake, but the front tire had no traction and I was still sliding backwards towards the traffic behind me. I picked up my foot and did the rear brake too, finally stopping the bike just in time. Michelle jumped off and I nursed the bike up, full throttle but barely moving. Michelle ran up and jumped back on. I'm sure it was quite a spectacle. Two fully geared Americanos on their yellow motorcycle unable to go up the hill.
The traffic:

This happened again, and Michelle had the presence of mind to take a picture of me nursing the bike up the steep hill, using both legs to keep the bike alive.

I think stock gearing would have had no trouble, even slightly lowered gearing would have been fine. But be careful if you've got a torqueless bike and low gearing.

We ended up doing a loop of the city before we found the road out. Very confusing. We continued through a very rough, potholed road. Kids were on the sides of the road filling potholes with dirt and asking for donations. People would throw pesos out the window for them or they would run next to the car windows with open hands

Bizarre scene.

View from the road to Oaxaca.

Beautiful. Once we get out of the mountains it's straight as an arrow and we get to Oaxaca before dark.

hey man if you are around montevideo uruguay just contact me i recently finish a long trip on a yamaha 100! take care

Great pics!