Planes trains and now auotomobiles

I know.... I know.... its been a while. The Internet has been hard to find and we have been on holiday from the adventure but more of that later.

We left La Paz in the Baja via ferry for the Mexican mainland. This was an rough old crossing which saw the shed topple over in the hold. The poor tie downs and general naff ness of the crew to check everything was in part to blame, and the heavy seas did not help. Anyway the shed was fine and we started our Mexico mainland odyssey. Arriving at Mazatlan we headed south and east. We had been told about a dormant volcano that was now a lake in Santa Maria del Ora which was our first stop. A great evening with stunning views and a chance for me to relax after my first experience of busy Mexican traffic. Having now ridden and driven (more on that later) I have come to both fear and admire the Mexican driver mentality.

Before I enlighten you about the driving I must first explain about the roads. In short they can best be described as variable. Some roads (mainly toll roads) being snooker table flat with dark grippy tarmac, others can only be described as rugged and wholly neglected. I have been told that some of the pot holes are visible from space and one pot hole we found had helicopter sight seeing tours available for it. These roads are truly shocking.

Back to the driving. First of all the average Mexican driver sees the center line in the middle of the road as an art form. It has no function whatsoever other than its a nice colour. Sure from time to time it keeps speeding oncoming traffic on opposite sides of the road but it does little more than look nice. Drivers will overtake or undertake whether or not anything else is coming from the other direction.

Indicators are purely cosmetic, being switched on and off at random and giving absolutely no indication of the drivers intent. It's a play thing to the Mexican driver.

Now, waiting at traffic lights is a wonderful and rewarding experience. You can be patiently waiting for the green light when all hell will brake loose. The electrons have not stopped spinning in the red light bulbs fillerment, the red light bulb has not had time to extinguish fully when a chorus of horns will remind you that you no longer have the response time of Micheal Schumacher and tell you that you should be half way to the next red light. But.... as you look around and view these horn crazed drivers you will see no one getting angry or agitated it's just the way it is..... and what is even odder, after three or four days of driving you are joining in the horn chores and having a right good time.

Back to the adventure. I had imagined Mexico to be very different to what I found. Being brought up on cartoons and Westerns stereo types I was expecting main land Mexico to be dry and baron. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. It is a beautiful green lush country with stunning views and rolling hills. In some parts it's very like Britain, and if you can take your eyes away from the mad Mexican drivers and canyon filled roads you can really enjoy Mexico.

Anyway from Santa Maria del Ora we went onto to Morelia, a small cathedral city with more traffic than New York.

We did find one street without traffic

However, it was beautiful. We found a hotel near the cathedral (in any strange town in Central or Southern America on a bike always head for the tallest building. This will be the main town church, and there is always a load of hotels next to it).

We parked the shed up in secure parking about a mile away and had a great few days exploring the city.

We where about to start our vacation, remember I mentioned this earlier. This would be a trip to Cancun (east Mexico) to meet up with my daughter Michelle (Shelly) and we had some options. We could fly from just about any airport, we could ride the bike all the way, or hire a car to take a break from the riding. We decided on the driving option after we had asked for help via Horizons unlimited (Google it) A Chap called Halleam replied to our plea for help and said we could store the bike at his place in Puebla (south east of Mexico city) and he would help with the car and the like. So after a brief stop over in Toluca and some hard lessons on Mexican traffic jams (read Sandra latest blog) we arrived at Haallems' place. This young Chap has a heart of gold. A keen traveler with a big dream of one day completing his big adventure. Haallem has taken us on a tour of his city which included the BMW dearlership

Raul made us feel very welcome at BMW

and Harly showrooms the later having the biggest Harly sign in the world.

He has helped in so many ways, including feeding and watering us, that we can only wish him well and hope that his big dream will come true and that we can be part of his trip as he has been part of ours.

In a nutshell we got the hire car, sercuerd the bike at the local BMW dealer and headed east in Shed II a Nissan something or other. A round trip of over 2000 miles lay ahead of us but Haallem had given us directions and a list of places to visit and stay. We stuck mainly to the toll roads (very expensive but fast and safe) and headed of on holiday.

It took just over two days to get there and we where reunited with Shelly. It was just wonderful seeing my daughter again and we spent the next days eating, drinking, swimming and having a great time.

Shelly will thank me for this pic

We even had a chance to go all cultural and visit Chichen Itza with her and her friends, Daniel and Jack.

Shelly Sandra and Me at Chichen Itza

It all went too quickly and we had to return to the adventure. It was with a really heavy heart that we said our goodbyes, it finally dawning on me just how much I miss both my Son and my Daughter, and just how much they mean to me.

So we are back in Puebla , the shed having been serviced. We are keen to get on our way. Mexico has taken much longer than we thought. By the time we cross into Guatemala we would have spent a whole month here traveling from the very north to the very south and from west to east coast. To those people who warned us about all the dangers that we will face in Mexico all I can say is you're wrong, so very wrong. We have found Mexico exciting and beautiful, its people friendly and generous to a fault.

Thanks Mexico, Guatemala here we come.