Listening to These Days Powderfinger
Pull up the lyrics...no explanation needed!
This band makes you proud to be Australian.
The Agony and some Ecstasy
Its pouring rain and I've got the visor half cracked open to stop it fogging up. As I look into the next corner a white VW Golf overcooks it and goes into a spin like it's on ice.
As it pirouettes in slow motion it slides completely into my path.
I dab the rear brake looking for an escape avenue. The car completes a full 360 ending up on my side facing me and still coming straight at me. I stick my boot out (stupid huh) and nudge the front corner as I dive up the inside on the road verge hoping I don't snag the panniers on the rails. Oddly I don't shit myself as the concentration level needed just getting along today just processes it and starts looking for the next hazard...ho...$&!@#n..hum...gulp!
I leave Xilitla around tennish totally relaxed.
Only three hundred and sixty eight K's to Teotihuacan.
Easy...yeh nah should be good.
Nine hours later I arrive in Teotihuacan a dripping shaking wreck...nine hours, one stop for fuel, one fifteen minute stop for a leak and a drink (fourteen minute leak and a one minute drink...I'm old!). Three hundred and sixty six K's mostly in first, second or rarely third gear. Nine hours of driving rain, impenetrable fog, ultra slippery chewed up roads, crawling semis and tour buses, crazy driving locals (see above), a godzillion topes (every Mexican town has these speed bumps, generally so bumpy they are taken in first or second gear...if you see them...if not then taken partly airborne!), bumper to bumper traffic jams and picking your way at walking pace through village markets...nuts!
And on some of the best scenic roads I have ever ridden.
Just delete the the former items to arrive at the latter...that's a lot of deleting! Yep from the moment I left events conspired to give me a severe lesson on planning in Mexico...don't! This is one of the most stunning scenic rides I've done even though most was shielded by fog and rain. Even when you drop out of the mountains and head towards Mexico city the scenes of geographical wonder are amazing. I got all stubborn at the end refusing to stop till I was all the way there, yep extremely immature, even though it was still really bucketing near Teotihuacan. Hmm gotta learn, Mexico's bigger than I am ...that was stupid...but what a day!
Teotihuacan...worth it!
I'm not the sharpest on a lot of stuff, generally I'll have a look and then head off to the next shiny thing. I knew there were pyramid structures in Mexico but who knew it was this big including the third largest pyramid in the world. When I finally arrived at Teotihuacan wet, tired and hungry I accidentally stumbled on a good cheap hotel in a dark backstreet. Winner! The next morning I google the pyramids and find they're only two K away, winner again. Donning backpack and my gooby hat off I go. About a kilometre up the street I'm a bit knackered, wow I must be losing my fitness just sitting on my arse all day. Further up the street it dawns on me, we're 2300 metres up here, no wonder I'm puffing. Four hours later after climbing the two pyramids to the top and checking out the whole site I'm seriously struggling getting back to the hotel. Hmm at least I was the oldest on top of the pyramid by quite a bit!
Listening to Wonderwall Oasis
Not sure why but I missed the whole Oasis thing
back in the mid nineties. Love their stuff but
either Oz radio didn't push it or I was looking
somewhere else...kids...houses...motorbikes
who knows...
So I'm not good with food...right...
Some day Search and Rescue will find me dead in a food court clutching a broken can opener. I'm getting seriously hungry and there's restaurants everywhere but deciphering a Mexican menu is a non foodies Rubik's Cube. Finally...that's it...I march into a restaurant near the hotel, plant myself down, pick up the menu and just point to something. The startled owner heads off and fifteen minutes later a bowl of rice, some chicken with some sauces and salad is served up...awesome...looks like..Japanese...hang on, I grab the menu and find...
I've headed into the only Mexican Japanese restaurant in town!
The next day I head down to the local markets to get
some apples and bananas. I stick out like a sore thumb
...it's definitely not a tourist spot and...
a skinny old white guy in socks n sandals looks like
something from out of space.
I spy some ladies working flat out serving food to people at a bench right in the middle of the market. The place is crowded with people and well behaved stray dogs threading their way through stalls which sell all kinds of fruit, veggies and meat. Well here goes. I plonk myself down on the food bench, point to something someone else is chowing on and off we go. The ladies think it's hilarious as I work my way through eating whatever I spy someone else having. I leave full and contented and how cool was that, sitting in a crowd of Mexican folk having a laugh and eating who knows what!
...mind you I still don't know what to eat next time!
Teotihuacan to Santa Maria del Tule
takes it's toll...over and over and...
I decide righto, it's Mexico, don't expect the day to go to plan, just work with what you're dealt. I'm off to see a guy named Calvin who runs the Overlander Oasis in Santa Maria de Tule with his wife Leanne. It's four hundred and eighty odd k's but I'm not making plans. The day starts wet and foggy for the first couple of hours. I'm on toll roads again which are pretty good this time except I think there was four, possibly five toll boxes in four hundred K's. What a pain in the arse on a motorbike. The prices vary from 22 pesos to 7o and nope I can't figure why. Halfway there I make a big whoopsie and take a wrong turn dreaming. I run off onto the verge when "holy !@#ck they've dug a bear pit in the grass!"
I lock em up and go ass over head at slow speed...bugger.
I'm not hurt and the left pannier has a couple of scratches but all good. A couple of guys stop in a truck and help me pick up the bike...we have a bit of a laugh...ah well...it's gonna happen. I make it to Calvin's in slightly bruised condition after the customary hour long Mexican traffic jam at the end in the heat. I've got a few tasks to do here so I'll be here a three or four days. I hire their only unit and settle in...feeling pretty comfy actually!
Listening to Born to Run Bruce Springsteen
I wish I could print the lyrics without copyright stuff cos this song's got it all.
Don't just read this and go yeh whatever, go and play it..loud!
Yeh yeh Marty Robbins, Fiddler on the roof...
what next..Ode to Joy...well yes, hmm Beethoven.
Santa Maria del Tule
Right, I possibly need a tyre, maybe change the front sprocket, wash the bike as it is totally trashed, do some laundry, get some food lessons and polish my trashed boots. Hmm yep back home I could knock all this off in a day no worries...but here..
This is a story of the Mexican way.
It occurs on day three at Calvin's, read on.
I rise early on a mission, today I'm gonna get the mythical tyre that for the last two days shops have quoted on, shrugged their shoulders on and offered everything but the right one. I head off about nineish towards Oaxaca 10K away determined to pay whatever for whatever. Calvin tells me the president is visiting and it might be difficult getting around later. Eight K's along the cops are blocking the roads already. I head into the back streets with massive amounts of cars, buses and motorbikes. It's everybody for themselves, footpaths, wrong side of the road, around cop road blocks, basically, there is no rules today. The first three larger franchised shops turn up nothing (although one had quoted me and assured me all good).
Now the fun part.
Seems teachers in Mexico have been protesting for years on a massive scale and today, its gonna be a big one. There have been many deaths in the past and as I bomb the back streets I'm amazed at the huge number of people gathering and blocking the roads as their protest. I'm blocked from going back home but spot a little bike shop and stop for a look. The guy inside is super helpful, rings around and tells me a shop I visited yesterday definitely has a tyre. Aha hmm. I set the GPS and launch back into mental traffic jams and humidity until...I get there and they don't have it. Great, but hang on they have another branch and they have it...but the address isn't on the GPS !@#$. Now what. The lady manager's teenage son is there as the school is shut because of the protest and he speaks a little English. Finally we arrange for his sister to take the shop scooter and fetch the tyre. (With no helmet) While I'm waiting I establish that they don't fit tyres. OK...wonder@#ful. I have a good chat with the manger and her son on google translate and it's all pretty cool. When the sister returns an hour or so later I pay and then she motions me to follow her to a place that can fit the tyre. So off we go on foot a block or two past a few ladies of ill repute at work and scores of nifty small businesses.
I get introduced to Jorge, whose workshop is about the size of the average Australian toilet, seriously.
It's now about one o'clock, four hours in, getting hotter, I'm busting for a leak but I feel we're getting somewhere.
I ride around to Jorge's and wait another hour while he attempts and fails to sort the carb on one of the zillion Chinese bikes in Oaxaca. My turn comes, I buy him a coke and he removes the wheel. He tells me something in Spanish, takes my wheel, jumps on a scooter and disappears into the traffic. Hmm, here I am on my own in his shop, open to the street, tools and everything strewn about, obviously no worries about theft or trust here. I wait there over another hour till he reappears. During that time another customer arrives and the Chinese carb customer comes back with his bike still refusing to idle.
We sit, we look at the time, we move around as the sun moves, we people watch, we buy 25 peso fruit mineral water at the hole in the wall restaurant opposite...
yep this is Mexico don't plan.
When Jorge finally returns I pay him 200 pesos, shake hands and naively launch back into the traffic thinking the protest must be over by now. Hmm odd...not much traffic. I make it half way till I turn down a street and I'm brought to a halt by protesters blocking the way
with a bus...
going up big time in flames.
Wow...better pull up and get a photo...
As I sort the camera a series of big explosions erupt nearby. Hmm must be the bus gas tank. I notice all the taxis doing hurried u turns and leaving. Odd. Suddenly the crowd all turn and run towards me yelling something...huh most of them have their faces covered. As the mass streams
around me my eyes start stinging and I'm suddenly coughing my guts up.
SHIT...BLOODY TEAR GAS!
I try to turn the bike around amongst the crowd but I just can't escape the gas. Even when I get going it's still in the air a couple of blocks away stinging the crap out of my eyes...wow.
Shit stuff. I scoot back into the city and go right round through upmarket areas with people dining outdoors seemingly untouched with what's happening just down the road. The main street towards the Oasis is still blocked by police roadblocks but I follow all the other scooter riders and just ride around them. We belt down the wrong sides the road, up footpaths, nudge taxis and squeeze between police vehicles and traffic poles. The fully armed police just ignore us and finally about four thirty I arrive home and head to the toilet. Calvin comes to see where I've been and I just have to give him shit.
You and your crazy f!@#&ing country!
Reality Check No. 8.
Apologies for the long blog. Seriously there's so much more to write about but I fear too much blah blah. The next part heading through Central America is going to be the hardest part of the trip I figure with all the borders etc so not sure how regular the blogs will be. Hmm who knows. I've been lucky so far and other than banging myself around falling off I'm in reasonable health. Shoot me a comment in if you can it's nice to know you're watching, Cheers Dean
Next Blog.
Things get shaky...real shaky!
Aaargh an earthquake and another hurricane mess with my plan...towards Guatemala...or not?
 |
| Add a car in the middle of your lane...do you see much space? All depends on how big your eyeballs are at the time! |
Only three hundred and sixty eight K's to Teotihuacan.
Easy...yeh nah should be good.
Nine hours later I arrive in Teotihuacan a dripping shaking wreck...nine hours, one stop for fuel, one fifteen minute stop for a leak and a drink (fourteen minute leak and a one minute drink...I'm old!). Three hundred and sixty six K's mostly in first, second or rarely third gear. Nine hours of driving rain, impenetrable fog, ultra slippery chewed up roads, crawling semis and tour buses, crazy driving locals (see above), a godzillion topes (every Mexican town has these speed bumps, generally so bumpy they are taken in first or second gear...if you see them...if not then taken partly airborne!), bumper to bumper traffic jams and picking your way at walking pace through village markets...nuts!
And on some of the best scenic roads I have ever ridden.
Just delete the the former items to arrive at the latter...that's a lot of deleting! Yep from the moment I left events conspired to give me a severe lesson on planning in Mexico...don't! This is one of the most stunning scenic rides I've done even though most was shielded by fog and rain. Even when you drop out of the mountains and head towards Mexico city the scenes of geographical wonder are amazing. I got all stubborn at the end refusing to stop till I was all the way there, yep extremely immature, even though it was still really bucketing near Teotihuacan. Hmm gotta learn, Mexico's bigger than I am ...that was stupid...but what a day!
 |
| I know it has to be wet for it to be green. Unfortunately its seems it has to always be wet for Dean as well. |
 |
| Urgh...any thought of stopping and finding shelter looked more miserable than riding on. |
 |
| Oh look almost a break in the clouds...not even close! |
 |
| This is on the way out of the mountains towards Pachuca. I've even got gaitors on to try and stop water getting in. Every break in the fog and rain revealed fantastic geography. |
 |
| My camera got wet and a lot of photos on this day and the next day at the pyramids were not good. This one's almost there. |
I'm not the sharpest on a lot of stuff, generally I'll have a look and then head off to the next shiny thing. I knew there were pyramid structures in Mexico but who knew it was this big including the third largest pyramid in the world. When I finally arrived at Teotihuacan wet, tired and hungry I accidentally stumbled on a good cheap hotel in a dark backstreet. Winner! The next morning I google the pyramids and find they're only two K away, winner again. Donning backpack and my gooby hat off I go. About a kilometre up the street I'm a bit knackered, wow I must be losing my fitness just sitting on my arse all day. Further up the street it dawns on me, we're 2300 metres up here, no wonder I'm puffing. Four hours later after climbing the two pyramids to the top and checking out the whole site I'm seriously struggling getting back to the hotel. Hmm at least I was the oldest on top of the pyramid by quite a bit!
 |
| Pyramid of the sun...had to be climbed. |
 |
| Ooooh my hammies,,,and hips..and ankles...and knees and ah !@#$dy everything! |
 |
| So how many older people up here, right just me! Somehow my body's telling me I'm not clever. |
 |
| Dramatic cloud and gooby hat photo, oh and the third biggest pyramid in the world.. |
 |
| From the top of pyramid of the sun looking at the pyramid of the moon. |
 |
| This is from the pyramid of the moon. What a great place. I think my camera is finally drying out. |
Not sure why but I missed the whole Oasis thing
back in the mid nineties. Love their stuff but
either Oz radio didn't push it or I was looking
somewhere else...kids...houses...motorbikes
who knows...
So I'm not good with food...right...
Some day Search and Rescue will find me dead in a food court clutching a broken can opener. I'm getting seriously hungry and there's restaurants everywhere but deciphering a Mexican menu is a non foodies Rubik's Cube. Finally...that's it...I march into a restaurant near the hotel, plant myself down, pick up the menu and just point to something. The startled owner heads off and fifteen minutes later a bowl of rice, some chicken with some sauces and salad is served up...awesome...looks like..Japanese...hang on, I grab the menu and find...
I've headed into the only Mexican Japanese restaurant in town!
The next day I head down to the local markets to get
some apples and bananas. I stick out like a sore thumb
...it's definitely not a tourist spot and...
a skinny old white guy in socks n sandals looks like
something from out of space.
I spy some ladies working flat out serving food to people at a bench right in the middle of the market. The place is crowded with people and well behaved stray dogs threading their way through stalls which sell all kinds of fruit, veggies and meat. Well here goes. I plonk myself down on the food bench, point to something someone else is chowing on and off we go. The ladies think it's hilarious as I work my way through eating whatever I spy someone else having. I leave full and contented and how cool was that, sitting in a crowd of Mexican folk having a laugh and eating who knows what!
...mind you I still don't know what to eat next time!
 |
| These ladies feeding the needy and desperate...I have no idea what that thing is...but it stayed down! |
 |
| The market is kinda like proper markets anywhere...no hype or hoopla, just providing real food for real people in a community atmosphere. |
 |
| So when I sat down the bench was full... maybe I need a launderette or they don't like me copying what they're eating! |
takes it's toll...over and over and...
I decide righto, it's Mexico, don't expect the day to go to plan, just work with what you're dealt. I'm off to see a guy named Calvin who runs the Overlander Oasis in Santa Maria de Tule with his wife Leanne. It's four hundred and eighty odd k's but I'm not making plans. The day starts wet and foggy for the first couple of hours. I'm on toll roads again which are pretty good this time except I think there was four, possibly five toll boxes in four hundred K's. What a pain in the arse on a motorbike. The prices vary from 22 pesos to 7o and nope I can't figure why. Halfway there I make a big whoopsie and take a wrong turn dreaming. I run off onto the verge when "holy !@#ck they've dug a bear pit in the grass!"
I lock em up and go ass over head at slow speed...bugger.
I'm not hurt and the left pannier has a couple of scratches but all good. A couple of guys stop in a truck and help me pick up the bike...we have a bit of a laugh...ah well...it's gonna happen. I make it to Calvin's in slightly bruised condition after the customary hour long Mexican traffic jam at the end in the heat. I've got a few tasks to do here so I'll be here a three or four days. I hire their only unit and settle in...feeling pretty comfy actually!
 |
| Rattles the KLR after a well earned wash at the Overlander Oasis. |
 |
| How cool is this unit. Just makes leaving harder. |
 |
| The tree behind the sign is a world heritage listed Montezuma Cypress. It has the stoutest trunk of any tree the world (thanks Wiki) |
 |
| It really is massive and impossible to capture on film. |
 |
| It has a cute church next to it and impressive gardens. If you look closely there's a little guy with maracas on the right. |
I wish I could print the lyrics without copyright stuff cos this song's got it all.
Don't just read this and go yeh whatever, go and play it..loud!
Yeh yeh Marty Robbins, Fiddler on the roof...
what next..Ode to Joy...well yes, hmm Beethoven.
Santa Maria del Tule
Right, I possibly need a tyre, maybe change the front sprocket, wash the bike as it is totally trashed, do some laundry, get some food lessons and polish my trashed boots. Hmm yep back home I could knock all this off in a day no worries...but here..
This is a story of the Mexican way.
It occurs on day three at Calvin's, read on.
I rise early on a mission, today I'm gonna get the mythical tyre that for the last two days shops have quoted on, shrugged their shoulders on and offered everything but the right one. I head off about nineish towards Oaxaca 10K away determined to pay whatever for whatever. Calvin tells me the president is visiting and it might be difficult getting around later. Eight K's along the cops are blocking the roads already. I head into the back streets with massive amounts of cars, buses and motorbikes. It's everybody for themselves, footpaths, wrong side of the road, around cop road blocks, basically, there is no rules today. The first three larger franchised shops turn up nothing (although one had quoted me and assured me all good).
Now the fun part.
Seems teachers in Mexico have been protesting for years on a massive scale and today, its gonna be a big one. There have been many deaths in the past and as I bomb the back streets I'm amazed at the huge number of people gathering and blocking the roads as their protest. I'm blocked from going back home but spot a little bike shop and stop for a look. The guy inside is super helpful, rings around and tells me a shop I visited yesterday definitely has a tyre. Aha hmm. I set the GPS and launch back into mental traffic jams and humidity until...I get there and they don't have it. Great, but hang on they have another branch and they have it...but the address isn't on the GPS !@#$. Now what. The lady manager's teenage son is there as the school is shut because of the protest and he speaks a little English. Finally we arrange for his sister to take the shop scooter and fetch the tyre. (With no helmet) While I'm waiting I establish that they don't fit tyres. OK...wonder@#ful. I have a good chat with the manger and her son on google translate and it's all pretty cool. When the sister returns an hour or so later I pay and then she motions me to follow her to a place that can fit the tyre. So off we go on foot a block or two past a few ladies of ill repute at work and scores of nifty small businesses.
I get introduced to Jorge, whose workshop is about the size of the average Australian toilet, seriously.
It's now about one o'clock, four hours in, getting hotter, I'm busting for a leak but I feel we're getting somewhere.
I ride around to Jorge's and wait another hour while he attempts and fails to sort the carb on one of the zillion Chinese bikes in Oaxaca. My turn comes, I buy him a coke and he removes the wheel. He tells me something in Spanish, takes my wheel, jumps on a scooter and disappears into the traffic. Hmm, here I am on my own in his shop, open to the street, tools and everything strewn about, obviously no worries about theft or trust here. I wait there over another hour till he reappears. During that time another customer arrives and the Chinese carb customer comes back with his bike still refusing to idle.
We sit, we look at the time, we move around as the sun moves, we people watch, we buy 25 peso fruit mineral water at the hole in the wall restaurant opposite...
yep this is Mexico don't plan.
 |
| Jorges tiny establishment. I love this stuff. Dare I say a great guy to have around in a tight situation. Chinese carb guy relaxing in the sumptuous customer waiting room. |
 |
| Cue Rolling Stones...I'm just waitin on a ....tyre. |
 |
| Stage three or four..hmm. Have tyre, have fitter, join the two. |
with a bus...
going up big time in flames.
Wow...better pull up and get a photo...
As I sort the camera a series of big explosions erupt nearby. Hmm must be the bus gas tank. I notice all the taxis doing hurried u turns and leaving. Odd. Suddenly the crowd all turn and run towards me yelling something...huh most of them have their faces covered. As the mass streams
around me my eyes start stinging and I'm suddenly coughing my guts up.
SHIT...BLOODY TEAR GAS!
 |
| Note the taxi legging it...must be like a canary in a mineshaft! |
 |
| Bang...hmm must be the fuel tank. |
 |
| Ok time to lose the camera. Seconds later the street was full of people running and chanting. |
Shit stuff. I scoot back into the city and go right round through upmarket areas with people dining outdoors seemingly untouched with what's happening just down the road. The main street towards the Oasis is still blocked by police roadblocks but I follow all the other scooter riders and just ride around them. We belt down the wrong sides the road, up footpaths, nudge taxis and squeeze between police vehicles and traffic poles. The fully armed police just ignore us and finally about four thirty I arrive home and head to the toilet. Calvin comes to see where I've been and I just have to give him shit.
You and your crazy f!@#&ing country!
Reality Check No. 8.
Apologies for the long blog. Seriously there's so much more to write about but I fear too much blah blah. The next part heading through Central America is going to be the hardest part of the trip I figure with all the borders etc so not sure how regular the blogs will be. Hmm who knows. I've been lucky so far and other than banging myself around falling off I'm in reasonable health. Shoot me a comment in if you can it's nice to know you're watching, Cheers Dean
Next Blog.
Things get shaky...real shaky!
Aaargh an earthquake and another hurricane mess with my plan...towards Guatemala...or not?
