Only 341km looks like a short day, but we just arrived at the hotel 19h15. It was a strange day. We got tickets to see the……. not sure what I should call it……. so will explain it later and you decide what it is. The site opened at 9h00, so we had a late start, early this morning Milsy had to clean his fuel-valve which started leaking during the night, he needed to clean the 0-ring inside. Then we met for coffee at 8h00 and at 9h00 we heard we may not walk around without a guide, that was going to tell us in Spanish what we are looking at, the history and all the famous people who has been there in the past to have a look.
This is my list house I stayed in last night:
My room was minute, but it had an air-con, so nothing else mattered, except the hole in the bathroom window that enabled a squadron of Mosquitos in to torment me during the night, I plugged it at midnight with toilet paper and spent time taking revenge on them.
A few more photos of yesterday:
I wish we could wait for the 10h00 tour which was going to be in English, but we had to get riding. In 1942 a British Poet visited Mexico and fell in love with this area, in a Rain Forest, he thought it looked like the garden of Eden, so he decided it needed flowers, so he planted 1500 Orchids which lasted 18 months before they were all killed when a very cold snap came, so I think that was where he sort of lost the plot and decided to then build a Sculpture Park to make the garden look better, this is what he built;
We sneaked away from the tour at 10h00, then kitted up, filled with fuel and rode mountain passes, 90% of today, I think I told Doc we like mountain passes, and he delivered. It was very small roads and the 1st part of the morning it was nice and cool, the fun was on. The terrain changed so many times today as we went over mountains, from rain forrest to desert, then more twists and turns and then forest again. The road was quiet with very little traffic, but we had to pass several little towns where everybody was out in the town to buy flowers for Mothers Day which is today, on a Wednesday, not Sunday like with us. The Mexicans are very religious and are Catholic, maybe the reason??? Passing through these towns was difficult, they were like Jozini at Month End.
We stopped after only 87km to eat our Mothers-day Lunch and then a mother came to our table and said her son would like to have a photo with me, (yes, me, he obviously knows a good looking guy when he sees one.)
When we left the restaurant we re-loaded our air-conditioners, (we take off our shirts and riding jackets and run it under the tap, until they are soaked, then we put it on, dripping onto our pants and into our boots, and then you have a nice cool ride, but only for an hour as the heat and air-flow dries the jacket within the 1st hour.
And then Murphy struck, with a lot of little errors that escalated into stealing our joy, (almost.) After our Mothers Day lunch, just as we left the bustling little town, Milsy stopped, his music had stopped working, so we all carried on but Doc, who was the sweeper (riding in last position,) stopped to wait with Milsy. Doc wanted to phone ahead to Edwardo who was leading just to tell him to slow the train down until they had caught the group again, but then Doc discovered his phone was left at the restaurant, so he turned back and Milsy continued. Luckily our train had realised we are missing some riders and we were now going slower. We decided to pull over and wait for them, Pie decided it was a good idea to sleep next to the road, scaring the locals who thought he had an accident and was not being attended to by his friends, so he must have passed on.
I was just about to wake him to make him stop causing mothers to freak out on the way back from their special day lunch when Milsy arrived telling us Doc had turned around to get his phone, upon which Rodger said that he took Doc’s phone from the table but also told “Professor” (they call him Professor) he took the phone. So then Rodger turned around and went looking for Doc and we continued to wait in the next town. When we checked on Maps we discovered the town was 18km away as the crow flies but it will take 54 minutes to ride there and back.
We had a coffee and I got bored and started walking around in the little town, watching most people walking around with a bunch of flowers, traditional mariachi music was being played at full volume at all the little shops and vendors. There was a festive vibe and some mothers were being transported proudly on the back of trucks (Vans or Bakkies,) sitting on chairs with all the grand kids sitting next to her.
Eventually we were all re-united and we set-off again, by now it was 15h30 and we had only managed to do 133km, out of planned 350km. So we buckled down and rode, thankfully the roads became less twisty but sadly the terrain became more like a desert again, but thankfully we were climbing, our altitude went from 85m above sea level to 2150m above, so it was slightly cooler. We are now near Mexico City which is at 2300m, but we will go around it, we have seen enough big cities in the past 92 000km.
It looks like the Karoo, but with mountains. And one koppie:
I am now back from our dinner, the town reminds me of Split in Croatia, with cobbled-stone streets, many little restaurants and bars, a big Cathedral, really stunning, only difference is the prices (compared to Split,) and there are no tourists, thankfully, because this place should be over-run with tourists, this town offers more than what other European Towns offer, but tourism is almost non existent compared to what another country with the same standard of sites and history have to offer.
Mexico reminds me a lot of South Africa, here you also need local knowledge to avoid the dangerous areas, its also a 3rd world country, fuel costs exactly the same as back home, the Rand and the Pesos trades “One for One” and you also get 18-39 Pesos for $1-00, and here the people are just as friendly as in South Africa.
I am off to bed folks, we will continue tomorrow.
Fleisch
Thx, always nice to read!! 🙂
I’m So Fucking Jealous. 🙁