THIS KLR RIDER TOO, SHALL PASS...THE BORDER THAT IS.

Am I in...Or am I Out

Eagle Pass to Xilitla

Listening to   Should I Stay or Should I Go  The Clash

Got this on "The Singles" album. If you were a punk rocker back then...

...you're over fifty now...so lose the safety pins!

I peel back the foil and peer at the contents. Hmm. A scrappy pile of lettuce, a lime, some sort of sauce in a plastic bag and six pastry roll things with what looks like uncooked meat inside. Hmm, well, I paid four bucks for it including a can of coke so

...um, down the hatch. 

I'm sitting at a blue plastic table roadside on Main Street, Eagle Pass. It's eight fifteen in the evening and still ninety one degrees. The sun's almost gone and I watch the endless stream of pickups come and go. The nacho guy in the caravan behind me  is doing good business...maybe the food is OK, sure tastes good.  I've been waiting here three days a couple of K's from the border sweating on a FedEx delivery from Marianne, which may still not get me over the border

...ah well...all part of the fun I guess! 

Wonder what's on telly at the motel...

Four dollars and includes a coke. Perfect spot to wind down and play
what pickup is that after a day flat out doing nothing.

Click on this and check the temperature on the right.
Aaaah sunset over MacDonalds.

Yep home till FedEx comes through. Just like display home shots
it looks flasher than it is. 

Spendin MyTime

 I've been spendin my time

using some of what's left

• any second I'm wasting
• is another one less
• 
  
• We're all on the clock 
• our time's ticking away
•  that ole one way hour glass
•   keeps drainin all day

 So crack a smile when you wake up
 ya gotta get outa that bed

forget about that hour glass
'n make lasting memories instead

Dean

Bienvenido a Mexico

I pull into the shabby customs car park sixty K's over the border and park so I can see the bike from inside. An old guy with a brown stump of a ciggy dangling from his lips shuffles over with a basket of some sort of weird candy and does the hard sell on me. I shake my head whilst checking out the large dog now taking an interest in my back wheel...all good it's a bitch...I think. I gather up my new set of papers and head in. As I approach the counter all three staff greet me like an old friend. Obviously not much happens round here. Thirty minutes later I'm back outside with the dog and the candy salesman. (who is now washing the wheels on someones pickup...the candy guy that is, not the dog) I'm clutching all the stamped and receipted papers I need for Mexico...woo hoo!...

Oddly I feel that the trip is just beginning here. 

Hmm, dial in Saltillo in the GPS and let's see what the day brings.

There's a toll road just past the Customs station.I'll pay! Let's go!
 OK OK this is almost a selfie...ya happy?

So I'm driving through Mexico...and it's great

Listening to   Can't Get you Out of My Head   Kylie Minogue
So I've just got over the border. I fire up FM radio on my bluetooth and 
what the? It's our Kylie singing away in Spanish on Mex radio
...nice one Kylie!   la la la la la la la la

When I got to Saltillo it was a bit early to look for a hotel
so I just followed the traffic to the city centre...
Hmm that looks OK...might park up and have a look.

And this is where I parked...whoa

I scoot around the corner and...wow.

This is the other side of the square.

Oddly the next street over there was a line if people
 stretching a whole block waiting to use bank ATM
Oh oh.

Xellent  Xtraordinary Xhilarating Xilitla

I leave Saltillo after staying in  a motel on the outskirts and head off in almost ideal warm conditions. I'm headed to a place called Xilitla in the mountains about seven hundred K away.  A mate of mine Nick has recommended it as worth a squiz and as it's basically in the down direction off I go. Whoa...I get onto the Mexican toll road system and it's a shocker. First up,  just because it's a toll road in Mexico doesn't mean it's maintained, at all. 

Next, the speed limits are mental!

They fluctuate between 80kph top to 40kph mostly and change almost every kilometre. Huh...for no apparent reason. Nobody pays any attention and flat out is the norm.

Police cruisers are ever present nabbing anyone unfortunate enough to be picked out from this crazy lemming race.

Badly maintained semi trailers infest the system spewing badly vulcanised retreads everywhere. One blew on a semi next to me and was like a jumbo landing with smoke and bits everywhere. As usual I overdo it in the heat and humidity and ride the whole way. It's a big day including four toll roads and  an exhilarating final couple of hours riding through the mountains. Although I'm bushed  it's Saturday night in the village of Xilitla so I grab a motel, change, and head out for a look around.

The semis spew retreads everywhere. Every second roadside shanty
is either a  backyard tyre vulcaniser or a restaurant...of sorts.

Xilitla on the side of pretty steep terrain. Kinda
hard to get a picture that works.

The streets flow in a narrow, steep, chaotic curve mixing
scooters, overheating F100s and tour buses.

The town square Saturday night just starting to warm up.
Seems stuff happens later in the evening in a lot of
places. Cooler perhaps and er well maybe all the tourists
 have gone to bed...I know I stuck out like a sore thumb!

Yeh yeh be careful walking around Mexico at night...so how ya
gonna see places then? So far out of my comfort zone in the
 town centre and the streets around it but oddly felt safe 
with people just doing family stuff and hanging out.

The town is in multi layers and seem to be a comfortable mix
of old and newish culture. The mish mash of badly maintained
roofs and gutters defy the amount of rain here...stuff drips everywhere.

The next morning I find the ATM in town is out of cash (real common it seems) and I'm a bit short. I had planned to hang around and visit Las Pozas  (spectacular gardens) but as the weather is closing in, I'm out of cash and the buses are building up in town I decide to make a run for Teotihuacan instead...but that's another story!  

Listening to   El Paso  Marty Robbins
Now don't laugh, but have this on my ipod.  Aaah yes the classic
story of cowboy love gone wrong. Favourite line has gotta be 
"I caught a good one it looked like it could run"...horse that is...
You tube it and crack a corona...maybe a six pack before 
listening...ah such a sad ending.
.

Reality Check No. 7

So far I'm liking Mexico. The people like to laugh, they are pretty patient and politeness seems built into their culture. When they say da nada, you're welcome, they mean it. I'm a bit of a mess riding too far every day and still haven't figured the food thing but I'm seeing stuff at every turn...which is why I'm here...to see.

PS. Life lesson. When I got knocked back at the border the first time I took it on the cheek and thanked the customs people anyway. Seriously, if they had really wanted, they could have done it again with the papers I had the second time.

 But we were now old mates...so don't burn your bridges!

Next Blog.
 The hardest, worst, most dangerous, but also the most memorable ride of my life, and almost my last!