Wow – what a day!!
The morning ride from Tuxla to San Cristobal de las Casas was
amazingly beautiful – the temperature dropped quite a bit – felt very
very nice. The road was excellent and San Cristobal was very cute. Had
a colonial feel to it with indigenous population. As Marc put it, it
was the first time we got a real feel for Mexican culture.
The ride then got really interesting.
It was only 100 miles to Palenque… we were warned that it would take
about 4 hours and that the roads were very windy… the sky was
gray… but we went ahead…
In the first half hour the rain started. We stopped to put some rain
gear on.
Then suddenly it got dark and it was only 6pm! The rain got really
heavy. After about an hour or two, totally drenched, going about 35
miles and hour, we stopped for a breather. Marc said that our
situation was pretty bleak – raining, dark, and in Mexico. I replied
saying that at least it wasn't cold.
We started riding again and I thought that the being in Mexico part
wasn't that worrisome… I was more worried about the road which I
couldn't see really well. I decided to risk my eyes a little and
lifted the visor up – we were going really slow anyway so the rain
drops weren't hurting that much. I also turned my rear view mirrors
down so that Marc's head lights weren't in my eyes…
Then I see a motorcycle light facing me on the right side of the
road… I turned the high beam off but then noticed that there was
something on the road. When I turned my high beams back on I saw two
men lying across the road and a pick up truck parked at an angle on
the shoulder of the road. One of the guys was moving… I saw no blood
and thought that they were too well aligned on the road to have been
thrown out of the truck, if it had crashed. I simply avoided the men
and kept on going… looked back hoping that Marc would not stop
either – which I was sure he wouldn't. I'm pretty sure it was a
setup… truly bizarre…
At an intersection we stopped briefly to make sure we were going in
the right direction and about 5 dogs came charging towards us… they
were fearless and ran along side us for a good 20 meters almost being
run over.
When we finally got to Palenque we stopped at a gas station – yes – I
was also almost out of gas – Marc started laughing almost
uncontrollably. He asked me if I had seen the "Entrando zona
revoculionaria Zapatista " sign and another sign from the "Federales"
with some warnings – I missed them completely. That obviously made him
even more nervous.
At one point a pick up truck made a U-turn in front of us… I thought
nothing of it because I saw the driver saying goodbye to a family on
the side of the road… we came to a full stop to allow him to make
the turn… I didn't notice that there was another pick up truck
behind us at that point. Marc was sure it was an elaborate kidnapping
scheme going on 🙂
One more – but this time it was reversed – I started to follow a pick
up truck – he would be my eyes ahead on the dark road – after a little
bit he started to slow down for no reason and started signaling us to
pass him – I didn't want to. So he accelerated and I kept up with him.
He repeated the slowing down and signaling and I realized that he was
scared of US! He probably thought it was strange that 2 motorcycles
were following him so closely.
In any case – we got to Palenque and found a nice hotel with
apparently good internet 🙂
Should have some videos up by tomorrow – they usually take about 4 or
5 hours to upload 🙂

"Para hacer un viaje assi hay que tener dos cosas nada mas… Huevos!"

By Omar who we met at the hotel and loves motorcycles. He drives a
Hayabussa – one of the fastest production bikes out there 🙂 Him and
his crew gave us tons of tips on where to go and what to see. They
were filming a tourism video in the Chiapas region for the past 16 days!

Great day of riding – for me at least – Marc was tired and didn't seem
to enjoy it as much as I did…
The twisty roads were many… the cross winds were CRAZY!
Took tons of videos but the internet connection here is terrible so I
don't know if they are going to go tonight.
In summary we left the mega resort in Huatulco called Las Islas and
immediately got some nice winding roads along the coast.
We then hit some flatter roads with quite a bit of traffic.
We then cut inland and went up some amazing mountains.
We met another lone rider – at first I thought it was Ari – but it
turned out to be West, from California, also riding a KLR. We rode
together for a little bit but I think he stopped to take some pictures
and we lost him – kind of hard for a 650cc to keep up with our 1150cc
and 999cc.
We got to Txcla Gutierrez at night – quite a big city with big traffic
as well – the hotel we got is also big and quite nice.
We tried to do some laundry but all the places were closed already –
will do tomorrow morning maybe.
Tomorrow we're going to do some sight seeing in San Cristobal de Las
Casas and Palenque – about 3 hours away.
While parking our bikes we ran into a group of locals who had been
traveling around this region for the past 13 days filming a tourism
video. Lots of tips and ideas of what to see.
All is good here… no economic crisis fortunately here for us…
scary to hear about it "out there"…

Day 24 – Zihuatanejo to Playa Ventura:

Day 25 – Playa Ventura to Huatulco:

Last night we stopped at a very small beach town a bit before where we
wanted to get to since it was already dark. Marc and I had a hard time
sleeping due the heat, humidity, mosquitoes, and a dog that would not
stop barking. Around 3am I managed to to finally sleep with my iPod
on…
We woke up pretty early and hit the road. We got to Puerto Escondido
and had lunch there at a cute restaurant in front of the beach.
We got some tips there and decided to do a little less riding than
planned today and stay in a nice hotel with air conditioner, so we
stopped at Huatulco in a hotel called Las Brisas. The place is HUGE.
Met a Mexican guy – Mario – who had run a triathlon yesterday and gave
us some good tips as far as where to go.
We are thinking about not going to Belize and stick to a more straight
route since it will be both shorter and more scenic… let's see how
the planning goes later on tonight.
Todays video turned out to be pretty boring today so don't expect
much 🙂

“Sigue derecho!!”

Finally got good internet to upload the videos 🙂

Day 21 – Waiting for the ferry – quick video

Day 21 – La Paz to Puerto Vallarta:

Day 22 – Puerto Vallarta to La Ticla:

Day 23 – La Ticla to Zihuatanejo – pitty I didn’t get the bike’s rescue on video – it was lifted by a chain placed on the crash bars – surprisingly easy for the tractor/crane to take it out. If we had to muscle it out it would’ve been quite hard!