We walked to a taco stand next to hotel for breakfast in the morning. We actually had Tortas, basically a sandwich full of meat and cheese. Not the best thing to have for breakfast, but options were limited. We caught an Uber over to the motorcycle rental, signed a few more papers, loaded up our bikes and were off. I mounted my phone and a tire pressure monitor onto the handlebars. We both strapped our waterproof duffel bags to the back. The freeway was busy. We took a break for coffee once we got outside of town.
It was actually quite cold, around 45 degrees. Me being an idiot, had nothing but a t-shirt and a swimsuit on under my mesh riding jacket/pants. I actually told Joe, "Maybe we will stop at some Cenote for dip along the way!" For some reason I thought Mexico was warm. I did not even bring anything warmer. Joe put on jeans and jacket under his riding gear. Once we got off the highway and made our way up into the mountains I saw a resale shop in a small town. I bought a used fleece jacket and some jeans with a fleece liner. They charged my a ridiculous amount for them. Would have been about $10 total in the US but I think I paid $30 (Gringo prices). The comedy was that the jeans were size 32 waist (I am larger around the equator) and 4 inches too short, but they looked warm. I had to pull them on like long underwear (an interesting sight along the road as I lay straight-legged on the pavement) and they would not come above my hips. Joe was laughing saying, "Who walks into a clothing store and comes out with pants that fit like that saying they are “close enough?”" Necessity is the mother of invention. I didn’t care as I had riding pants over them, just needed the warmth.
We carried on. It started raining as we pulled into Huasco de Ocampo for lunch. A very cool small silver town.
They had a old silver mine close by that you could tour but that wasn’t on the agenda. We parked the bikes and walked the main street a bit. Joe tried to nonchalantly get a picture of a Federal carrying a shotgun, but discretion won out. Throughout the trip Joe was determined to get pictures of the heavily armed Police loaded up in the passing pickup trucks toting machine guns. Finally got one later on.
We stopped at a food stall to load up on warm Pazole (pork stew)
We carried on in the rain towards our night destination of Mineral del Chico. The rain was pouring, it was freezing, mountain clouds all were making the last 30 minutes challenging. This was a shame as the road really was nice and I bet the views were incredible.
Mineral de Chico was my favorite town of the trip. Small, with a beautiful central square and only a few restaurants and Cantinas to choose from, making my decision-making quite easy. It seemed to be the epicenter for outdoor adventure. Much like a Moab UT or Queensland NZ. People were flying around on ATVs, vans heading out on rock climbing trips, and people on Mountain bikes. I would not mind coming back here for a weekend. The roads around the main square were closed, where are lodging was located, so it was hard to find a place to park our bikes. Eventually we found a temporary spot and used a code to unlock our room randomly accessed through a nondescript door in the center of town.
I had read about some traditional drink you had to try here. Found a bar happy to serve it up
We had a few drinks then went to a fish restaurant up the hill
I had seen a TV special on their whole fried Trout, and just went with that. We had a few more drinks and then thought it was a good idea to move our bikes to a safer spot. We were always trying to make sure our bikes would be where we left them the night before.
Not the best idea after splitting a bottle of Tequila. We walked our bikes to the new parking spot, but the new parking was on a 45 degree decline. It was like wrestling a calf at the local rodeo. I am not sure how I kept from dropping it. The fact that we could not stop laughing surely wan’t helping. We went to another cantina for a nightcap where we always seem to be the only ones around. Instead of playing latin music, all we heard was “Winds of Change” by Scorpion. It is a Russian revolutionary ballad that seems to have caught on here. Well they kept playing it. What was funny was that if they were not playing this song it was a song from the Rocky IV soundtrack. Everywhere we went on this trip we heard Rocky music. We asked people, but they were not really sure why Rocky Balboa was the adopted son of Mexico. I assume it is similar to “Winds of Change”, they celebrate freedom from tyrannical oppression. In Rocky IV, Russia plays a central role in the storyline.
Up at 6am the next morning. We went walking around looking for coffee, but no one was awake. We waited as long as we could but still nothing open at 8am and we had to get going. We stopped at the first gas station for coffee and a Mexican Paste (oversized empanada popular in the area). Here is a shot I took right before this dog attacked me. Probably had about 20 events like this throughout the week. The joke was that a dog would run out and not get me, but he was then primed for when joe rode by and would not miss his change again and latch onto his pants.
The weather was warmer today and I shed the leggings and tied them on the back of the bike. We had a long day today. We stopped for food in Zimipan.
Here is my Anthony Bourdain shot of joe eating in the local market
After lunch we went up to a lookout at Mirador Saucillo. The trail was chained closed , but we found away around that
We rolled into Pinal de Amoles after about 8 hours on the bike. Joe was exhausted. I was trying to keep him positive and not throwing in the towel on this adventure. Amoles was another cool mountain town which I enjoyed walking around in the afternoon.
The lodging I had rented seemed like someone’s house. I guided us through all this back streets up and down steep inclines. I got to a metal gate and knocked. A lady came out, “Do you have reservation?” "No, we are just 2 white guys on expensive motorcycles roaming through the barrio looking to make new friends."
We found a courtyard where kids were dressed up as Native Americans doing tribal dances. Kinda interesting as you really don’t think of native Americans in this part of the country. I mean they had the full headdress with the feathers and even the same dance moves.
We found a little restaurant and had a good meal with our usual serving of Mezcal.
The next morning we rode into Jalpan de Serra for coffee. When we woke up in Pinal, I just plugged “café” into google maps and followed to one that looked decent about 30 minutes away. We made a stop at the architectural attraction know as Las Pozas in the town of Xilitla
It was closed on Tuesdays so we only stopped long enough to take some pictures from the outside
Lunch in some random town along the route to Ciudad Valles
I purchased some Yellow Marigolds from a vendor (flower for Day of the Dead) and affixed them to our bikes to try and blend in with the locals. We had a short day today so I took a detour up a hill to the village of Tancanhuitz
As you can see in the above pic, I lost the visor to my helmet by this point. We had stopped for a rest during the long 8hr ride yesterday and Joe said, "Something U-shaped flew off your bike about 4km back." Normally I would have thought he'd have stopped, but he was so exhausted that he just didnt have the energy to catch up and tell me or stop and pick it up. I am just glad it was not an important part of the bike.
From there I took a chance on some backroads and was pleasantly surprised with a rural road that went up to the highest point and slowly made its way back to the main road. We pulled into Cidudad Valles around 3pm. It was a pretty ugly place compared to our other stops. It reminded me of Khe Sanh Vietnam. Big buildings, very sterile, with no culture. A transportation hub.
We walked the main street and spent an hour drinking in a sports bar. Didn’t feel much like Mexico. We ended up having dinner at a seafood restaurant with a nightcap at a rooftop bar where we were the only ones keeping it open. Joe ordered a tequila from an old dusty bottle. We thought maybe it was a relic only brought out for special occasions. The bartender did not know how to price it (we eventually got charged the "Gringo rate"). We later learned that it was just a typical modern tequila bottle, it was just that this bar really never got any customers so all their offerings looked “antique” We watched a DJ on youtube
His moves were comical. We kept laughing at how he probably had his "set-up" in the corner of his parents' living room, and his mom was his biggest fan, while his dad would just be yelling, "Turn that shit off for like 5 minutes!" The other comical part when rewatching it is that he is rarely ever actually touching the turn-tables. They are really just props and the main focus is on the skyward finger points. I have since subscribed to his channel and try and share any new videos with Joe as they become available. The hand gestures are intoxicating.
Until Tomorrow,
Darren
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