Seattle to Ushuaia

I did not write in very much detail about yesterday’s ride.  This was mostly because yesterday was intensely frustrating, and I did not want to think about it.  My plan was to find the road that connects the coastal highway (MX-200) with the inland highway to Oaxaca, but my hopes were frustrated by bad roads, misleading directions, and imprecise/inaccurate GPS map data.  After a long and broken conversation with a group of four local men who (I think) were saying that the road I wanted was in very bad condition, I cut my losses in the late afternoon and returned to the city of Ometepec for dinner and a night’s rest.  As it turns out, this was just what I needed.

Today I woke up earlier than I have this entire trip.  I woke up so early that it was still dark out!  Laugh if you want, but I am not a morning person by nature, so setting my alarm to 5:30 AM was truly a testament to my devotion towards finding Oaxaca.  I was on the road by 6:30, and the sun did not rise until close to 7 so I enjoyed the twilight and the cool morning air while I had it.

The fields were covered in a thick mist this morning, and the riding was cool and quite comfortable.

After a couple of false starts, I found the right highway and made my first real foray into the highlands of Mexico.  The road I took (MX-125) starts off slowly, but soon begins to climb into the mountains.

Clouds dominated the skyline on the southern side of the mountain range, but it never rained.

This was exactly what I’d been looking for.  Don’t get me wrong – the coast is nice, and I love the beaches and the sandals and the warm weather, but I’d been missing the mountains and those lovely mountain roads for a while.

Today was a day of (nearly) non-stop jaw-dropping riding.

The air chilled considerably as I climbed. I actually had to close the air vents on my jacket for the first time since entering Mexico!

The riding was phenomenal, and it was only with great difficulty that I was able to pause and snap a few shots before jumping back on the bike and zipping off.  The extremely narrow (and often non-existent) shoulders complicated things, as I had to search hard for safe places to leave the bike in order to shoot photos.  I’m very glad I did so.

The road had very little traffic, which helped make it safer for photographing.

Imagine this, only 200+ kilometers of it.

Exhibit A: one extremely satisfied motorcycle rider.

According to my GPS, the route peaked at about 8000 feet, whereupon it began to descend into the valley which contains the city of Oaxaca.  The mountain must have a very powerful rain shadow effect, because the southern side was green and moist while the northern side remained arid and hot.

The northern slope was less green but still beautiful.

The mountain road eventually turned into a high-speed toll highway which I followed for the last 110 KM into Oaxaca.  By then my ass definitely felt the effects from all the hard mountain riding, so I was more than happy to coast the rest of the way to the city.  I found a hostel near the historic center of the city, and tomorrow I intend to explore some of the ruins near the outskirts of Oaxaca.  I probably won’t stay for more than one night since I’m excited to get to Guatemala, but this city has already shown me some cool sights.

La Iglesia de Santo Cristobal - a really large church in the middle of the historic center of Oaxaca.

I watched these kids toss around a large, inflated plastic bag in the city's main plaza.

I had my first chance to try the Oaxacan cuisine. This tamale wasn't much to look, but it sure was tasty!

My first impressions of this city are decidedly good.  It’s at a higher elevation than most places I’ve stayed so far (5000 feet), which helps with the heat and the bugs.  I’m looking forward very much to going out tonight and checking out some of the bars that I noticed while walking around earlier this evening!  I don’t know where my next destination will be, but stay tuned – I expect to be in Guatemala in 3 or 4 days.

I woke this morning, groggy and confused, to the sound of loud percussion and brass instruments playing nearby.  It took me a while to place this sound as it seemed so incongruous with the usual early-morning din of a city.  A quick glance at the clock told me that it was only 6:15 AM.  What kind of manic would allow a marching band to play so early in the morning?

After a few false starts at getting back to sleep, which were interrupted by intermittent drum- and trumpet-playing, I finally resigned myself to wakefulness and stumbled into the shower, which was thankfully hot.  Showers have been hit-or-miss so far and I am learning to appreciate them when they have  hot water.

Eventually I made it to the street and over to a large plaza located immediately down the block from my hotel, where I found these guys doing their thing:

See the white building in the background? Yeah, that's my hotel.

OK, so that explains the source of the wake-up call.  I planned to stay in this city for one more night, so I hoped that this was not a daily occurrence.  I wandered down through narrow streets in search of some breakfast and saw all kinds of odd activity.

One of many trucks that I saw with towers of speakers powered by generators.

I found a seedy-looking covered market with butcher shops, fruit stands and several small restaurants, and decided to sit down and see if I could experience a “real” local meal.  I’m not sure if they even had menus.  I pointed at something another patron had ordered and said, “yo quiero eso tambien”.

"Eso tambien" turned out to be two fried eggs, some beans, and a mess of tortilla chips cooked in salsa, all covered with some kind of not-very-strong cheese. Pretty good, and it was only 25 pesos.

My breakfast was cooked by this pretty girl. The "kitchen" was a bit cluttered but she managed.

Sated, and now fully awake, I went back out onto the streets to learn what exactly was going on.  The sidewalks were by now lined with people and I figured that it must be in preparation for a parade – but for what, I had no idea!  A woman I asked informed me that November 20th was the day of the Mexican Revolution – hence the festivities.

People lined the streets past the Catedral de Tepic in anticipation of the parade.

While walking down the parade path, I heard somebody ask, “¿de donde eres?” (where are you from?).  The question was repeated, and I turned around to see a group of seven young kids smiling and looking up at me.  “Los Estados Unidos”, I replied, and we launched into conversation – where are you going? where did you learn Spanish? can I come with you?  They insisted that I take a photo with them:

These kids were very excited about me and my trip. When they learned that I was going solo, several of the girls asked to join me!

The actual parade was a little disorganized and difficult to photograph.  I had fun watching the proceedings, but as the morning went on and the temperature rose, I began to feel the effects of my interrupted sleep and I decided to retreat to the air-conditioned comfort of my hotel to rest.  A little while later, I went back out and caught the tail end of the parade.  After it ended, I snapped a photo of this guy:

Half motorcycle, half cart!

I’ve seen several of these strange-looking vehicles around.  At first, I thought they were some kind of specialized motorcycle produced by a company that caters to street vendors.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that no – these are literally motorcycles, minus the front forks, that have been welded on to metal carts at the point on the frame where the triple trees would usually attach.  The carts have a swivel that allows the front two wheels to turn, making the cart maneuverable (albeit awkward).  I love the ingenuity!

As the daylight drew to a close, I went to the plaza to relax and read my book when I saw this lovely sight.

While eating dinner at a cafe down the street from my hotel, it occurred to me that I hadn’t had any real dessert on this trip yet, so I ordered this:

It was delicious.

Tomorrow I will try to change the oil in my motorcycle (I tried to make it to a mechanic today to change the oil in my bike, but they were all closed – presumably because of the holiday).  I could change it myself, but I haven’t found a place yet that stocks a 10W40 oil.  I’m hoping that a mechanic will have a supply.  If all else fails, I will use a higher viscosity oil, which would probably work just fine in these higher temperatures, but makes me a little nervous.

That’s all for Tepic.  I’ll continue south tomorrow, although I haven’t decided yet whether to follow the coast or head inland.  Oh, what difficult choices I face – c’est la vie!

The last time I updated this, I had just arrived in La Paz, Baja California Sur.  I am now back over on the mainland in Tepic, Nayarit.  Several days have passed so I’ll try to catch up on what’s happened in this post.

I spent two nights in La Paz (Sunday and Monday night).  By pure chance, I found the quirkiest hotel ever.  It was owned by an older man and staffed by his (I think) brother and nephews.  The name is Hotel YNK, and I highly recommend it.  On the first night I spent in La Paz, I finally set out to find some dinner at around 10 PM, but it turned out that pretty much everything was already closed.  The nephew of the hotel’s proprietor cooked up a tasty bowl of cheese/bean/veggie something and fed me for free!

I parked my bike in the courtyard of the hotel in La Paz.

The city of La Paz is very large and I wasn’t able to find a comfortable place to hang out, so instead I took a few day trips out to some local beaches north of La Paz near a city called Pichilingue.  One of the beaches was completely primitive and had the most lovely sandbar that stretched out over several hundred yards.

The Balandra beach had a shallow sandbar that extended several hundred yards out from the shore, never getting more than about 2 feet deep.

I spent most of an afternoon at the Balandra.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my bathing suit on this particular outing, but luckily the water was shallow enough to get by with rolled-up jeans!

Standing in the sandbar and enjoying the warm waters of the Gulf of California.

Tecolote beach lies just a few miles east of Balandra.  It is more popular due to its size and the several restaurants and bars that cater to beachgoers.  I had planned to take the ferry over to Mazatlan, and it was not scheduled to depart until 8PM on Tuesday evening, so I spent most of Tuesday relaxing at Tecolote.  It seemed to be a popular destination for families and vacationing foreigners.

Relaxing on the beach near La Paz.

The woman at the ticket office for the ferry told me to arrive at the gate at around 6PM, so I packed up my stuff and left Tecolote as the sun began to set.  I arrived at the port in Pichilingue and got in line with the rest of the non-commercial vehicles, and while waiting for the boarding to begin, I struck up a conversation with two American guys.  Their names were Jacob and Erik, and they had been traveling together from California in an old Mazda pickup truck down the coast of Baja and hitting various surf spots on the way.  I must say that I envied their cargo capacity!  They carried two surf boards, some fishing rods, coolers, camping gear, and a whole lot of other stuff.  Not that I’m complaining – I love my KLR!

I decided not to spring for a room on the ferry, and I think it was an OK decision.  The rooms cost an extra $700 pesos, or about $55 USD, but there are rows of seats available for sleeping on at no charge.  Jacob and Erik loaned me a blanket and a pillow from their room and with my earplugs in I slept for nearly a solid 8 hours.

The ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan is big.  It has a restaurant, a cafeteria, a bar, an arcade, a nursery, a kennel, an on-deck pool, probably hundreds of private rooms, and several common seating areas.

The lower deck of the ferry. Notice the pool in the left side - it was covered, but presumably in the summer months it is available for passengers to use.

Thanks to the increased size it is much steadier in the open waters of the Gulf of California than the ferry that I took from Guaymas to Santa Rosalia, so I did not have to strap down my motorcycle, and I also did not get seasick.  I did, however, come down with the beginning symptoms of traveler’s sickness near the end of the trip.  When we disembarked in Mazatlan at noon on Wednesday I was feeling pretty bad, so I decided to look for a hotel to spend the night instead of continuing on down the coast like I had planned.

The night I spent in Mazatlan was pretty miserable, so I’ll save you the details.  Suffice to say that I’m even more paranoid about watching what I eat and drink now.

The following morning I felt somewhat better, so I packed up my things and put some distance between me and the bad memories of Mazatlan.  I’m a little disappointed because I had heard good things about the city and I expected to enjoy Mazatlan, but I couldn’t wait to get out of there!  I don’t think it had anything to do with the city itself – I just felt sick the whole time.

I was still recovering so I decided to take it easy by following the “cuota”, or toll, highways.  These highways are extremely well maintained and unlike most roads in Mexico they rarely pass through town.  This means that you avoid most of the topes (speed bumps) and rarely have to slow down.  I was unsure of how far I’d be able to ride, so I didn’t really have a destination in mind.  There were signs for a city I had never heard of called Tepic which lay just 200 KM outside of Mazatlan, so I decided to try to make it there.

As I drove, the scenery changed perceptibly.  At first the terrain was the same arid, desert-y landscape that I’d become accustomed to over the last week and a half. Eventually this gave way to orchards, and as the elevation climbed and I continued south, jungle!

At some point during the drive south from Mazatlan, the scenery changed. I am no longer in the desert!

With the elevation gain and the jungle came a welcome drop in the temperature.  I’m excited to see trees and vines instead of dirt and cacti!

I reached Tepic by 4:30 and found a hotel near the historic center of the city.  I spent a few hours walking around the marker area this evening, and I can already tell that I like this place!  It feels much more authentic than many of the towns I’ve visited so far.  I think that it’s a combination of the narrow streets, the old buildings, the open squares and friendly people, and I will probably choose to spend another night here.

Tomorrow I have one important goal: I need to change the oil in my motorcycle.  I’ve been keeping an eye on oil in Mexico, and most places seem to only carry 20w50 grade oil.  The manual for the KLR says to use 10W40, but this is probably only correct for the temperate area where it was sold (USA).  Since Mexico is so much hotter, a 20W50 oil will probably work just fine, but I’m going to do some research this evening to make sure.

I’m going to wrap up this post with a picture that I took today.  The air around here is filled with particulate, most of which I assume is water vapor.  This makes it hard to take photos of far-away things, but it can create some neat effects.

Crepuscular rays radiating out from a cloud. Yes, I had to look that up on Wikipedia.