TIKAL A MOCKINGBIRD

I know its not a mockingbird but the title works


above, view from temple 4 , temple of the jaguar

above temple 3 in the main plaza

10-28-06

As I pulled out of the tiny airport in Flores I looked in my mirrors to find no one, no one in front either, it was a little spooky. Jay was catching a morning flight back to Vail to await surgery. We had shipped his bike to Miami earlier that morning. As I drove the hour or so to Tikal it just didn’t seem right like I had forgotten something. I am sure I will get used to traveling alone, but I may take a while.
I spent the late morning and afternoon exploring the ruins of Tikal. The ancient city that peaked about 1400 years ago had a population of over 100,000 souls. It was mysteriously abandoned about 900 A.D. It is very different than Tolum and Palenque, the size of Tikal is amazing. It covers several square miles with over a 100 excavated buildings an temples, it is believed there are over 3000 building sites still unearthed. The buildings are not in an open area like Palenque or Tolum but scattered through out the thick jungle. The day was overcast and partly rainy; this gave the deserted ancient city a surreal feel, low hanging clouds partially obscured my views. Paths are cut through the jungle that bring you to various clusters of temples, alters and buildings. It is very easy to get lost or disoriented do to the thick growth between the clusters of buildings. The jungle is thriving with wildlife, monkeys swing form tree to tree and howl at you from above, scarlet macaws and toucans screech out warnings of your arrival, the brush is constantly rustling from beasts that elude your sight and description. The magnitude and size of the many pyramids is unbelievable, the pyramids stretch over 130 feet towards the heavens. As you walk through the jungle you can see numerous pyramids tops above the jungle canopy long before you arrive to their bases. After exploring the ruins for about six hours I was exhausted. I climbed up just about every pyramid and temple I could.


above, pyramid at Mundo Perdido, below view from top of pyramid looking to main plaza




The park closes at 6:30 shortly after sunset. I asked one of the guards if it was possible to spend the night in the park. The guard told me that it was illegal, but than gave me the expression that he could possibly look the other way. We negotiated on a bribe of 50 quetzals or about seven dollars that I happily forked over to him, he than gave me his Guatemalan Sergeant Shultz impression as he said “Yo nada miro” or “I see nothing”. He did tell me not to sleep in the main plaza if anyone spotted me both of us would get in trouble. During my days adventure I remember climbing a pyramid in the far section of the city called Mundo Perdido, or lost world. So I grabbed my hammock and my sleeping bag off my bike and back into the jungle I went. I waited for all the people to exit the park before setting up my hammock at the base of the pyramid. The weather was fairly pleasant, not very hot due to the cloudy day and surprisingly the mosquitoes were not to bad. I climbed the pyramid to watch the last of the sun disappear over the horizon and it felt wonderful to have the city to myself as the darkness fell, I climbed back down to my hammock before darkness completely engulfed the city. At around 4:00 a.m. I woke to a huge commotion, the spider monkeys high up in the canopy of the trees were jumping from limb to limb creating a racket, the howler monkeys were making an eerie screaming noise and several large cats were roaring possibly fighting with each other or something else. Something was crashing through the underbrush not to far out in the darkness. After about half hour of this continuing racket I thought it best to seek higher ground, if something was coming for me it would have to climb the pyramid after me. I wrapped my sleeping bag around my neck and scurried up the 100 or so stone stairs as fast as the darkness would permit, to the top of the pyramid. Atop the pyramid, there is about a 30 square foot platform were I set up my new bed, I felt safe enough to fall back to sleep. I woke several hours later as the sun was peaking up over the dense jungle canopy. The morning light resulted in the tops of the facades atop of the other pyramids and temples that dotted the landscape above the tree tops to emit a warm yellow glow. It was amazing to wake to such a glorious sight. I soon realized my camera was still at the base of the pyramid, I had left it there when I retreated to my now current position earlier in the night. I debated weather to enjoy the sunrise or scurry down and retrieve my camera and climb back up. The sunlight was about to give way to incoming clouds so I remained on top of my lost word and enjoyed the view.
Jay I wish you could have been there with me, especially during the late night chaos, I could of used some marine support. As an army veteran my motto has always been send in the marines first Well at least enjoy the pictures..

They got some crazy stuff crossing the roads down here.

...AND THEN THERE WAS ONE.

10-25-06
Things can turn bad in split second; sometimes it is easy to forget that. How’s that for an opening line to a paragraph. The day was going great as we left sleepy little San Ignacio, The border crossing form Belize to Guatemala was only a short drive for San Ignacio. Once again we had smooth sailing through another border, a little more running back and forth from building to building than previous but we got ourselves and the bikes through another bureaucratic hoop. As we entered Guatemala we took one or two wrong turns but it was quickly caught by my G.P.S. and we were put in the right direction. I forgot how bad the roads are in Guatemala our first 30 miles we were on an extremely rough dirt road with huge potholes and to top it off it started to raining, hard at times, turning the road muddy and slippery. To our relief we finally joined back up with pavement and the rain eased up and finally stopped but our troubles were far from over.
The signs were telling me were getting close to our destination of Flores, Guatemala. We were both getting excited as we closed in on the town. The Ruins at Tikal has been a highly anticipated destination for the both of us.
The road was slightly uphill and I was in the lead with Jay trailing behind, as I slowed down for the topes which are large speed bumps at the beginning and end of every small town in México and Central America things went really bad. The topes were the normal 12 inch or so type we have now seen a hundred times by now. I slowed down to about 20 mph and as my back tire peaked upon the hump the back of my bike was lifted into the air, I could not quite comprehend what was happening to me as my rear wheel decended back to the pavement I could hear the sound of crushing metal. I looked in the direction of the noise to see Jay’s bike come up and over as he landed on his back and shoulders all the while still straddling his bike which now had the tires pointing skyward and he and the bike were sliding up the slight incline. As my back tire came down and hit the pavement it was no longer in line with rest of my bike I started to skid out to the left, I was able to get the bike back under me and not let it high side which would of resulted in catapulting me over the other side. I was extremely lucky to keep my bike upright and me as well. I veered of to my left as Jay was still sliding along side me, his bike had now passed him up and was now somersaulting up the road. I all seemed not real, like a bad dream. I pulled of the road as soon as I could, I tried to get off my bike and get to Jay but my right box was crushed and twisted around my leg at the foot pegs. I kicked the box of the bike and ran back to Jay who was now starting to get to his feet. Upon asking him if he was okay he looked at me with a stunned expression and said I think so. As he spoke those words I noticed his shoulders were not of equal height a sure sign of a broken collar bone or separated shoulder, but other than that he seemed fine mentally and physically. A few villagers who saw the accident happen came running to our aide. They immediately were trying to pick up all the broken pieces of Jay’s bike and began piling them up, and there were a lot of pieces. Looking back it was almost humorous, they were picking up every screw, nut, bolt, spring and bits of plastic and piling them up next to the bike as and Jay myself just stood there dumbfounded. I was amazed at how calm Jay remained; I think the adrenaline was still masking the pain of his obvious broken collarbone. He kept on apologizing and explaining to me that he had been glancing down at this map and never saw the topes coming or me slowing down. He looked up from his map on his tank bag just as he was hitting me probably at about 50 -60 mph. He was experiencing more mental anguish than physical at this point. I felt terrible for him it just as easily could have been me back there screwing with my G.P.S. I kept telling him. The accident happened nothing we could do about it now, we now needed to focus our attention on what the hell to do next.
Danileo was one of the young men who were assisting us on the road. He works as a taxi driver in the next town about 15 miles away. When I asked if anyone had a truck he told me his boss had one. We got Jay settled down in the shade the locals brought him out a chair and some water and were looking after him. I had Daniello get on the back of my bike and we sped off to town. He excitedly pointed out every topes that we approached on our way to town, than hung on for dear life as I eased over them. After negotiating with his boss for the use of his truck we quickly sped back to Jay. We loaded up Jay’s bike and all the pieces along with my crumpled box and went back returned to town. Jay did not want to go to the hospital until the bikes and ourselves were checked into a hotel and he would not listen to me otherwise, no sense in arguing with him as he still remained calm and coherent although I could tell he was starting to feel the pain. We quickly found a place that would take us and his broken bike. The local hospitals here are terrible so we found a private doctor (not much better than the hospital) who confirmed the broken collarbone with an x-ray, the separation of the bones is very severe about two inches. I made Jay a sling from his sarong before he left for the doctor and that is what they sent him back to the hotel with the same sarong for a sling. His bill was only $30.00 so I guess you get what you pay for. Most of our time has been spent exploring our options, getting surgery here, which I thought a very bad idea with the threat of staff infection or a number of other complications. The extreme frustration of dealing with insurance companies with the awful phone system in this country and no one in any of the companies seems to respond to our e-mails.

10-27-06
Jay has finally made some headway with his evacuation Insurance, they have him on a flight tomorrow back to Vail, and surgery set for that night. I have been trying to figure out what to do with his bike, I have come up with a few options. 1st, He could have it fixed here and stored until he can return in the spring and ride it home. 2nd, He could sell it as is to the dealership who is offering a not very fair price. 3rd The dealership thinks they can get it shipped to Miami for what seems like a reasonable price. The insurance company is being of little help. My Spanish is being truly tested with these negotiations. Jay is aware of all his options and is going to make a decision this afternoon.
To find the Kawasaki dealership in the next town I had to look in the phone book at the hotel. There is one phone book for the country of Guatemala. When I first opened it up I thought, wow this little city were in sure has a lot of services, it took a few minutes to realize the book was for the entire country. I think that’s what we need for the U.S. just one big giant phone book, you could keep it in your garage with a ladder on each side of it.
Someone once told me everything always turns out okay; let’s just see if she is right, I hope she is, she usually was.
Jay signing off, adios mi amigo

TOLUM AND INTO BELIZE

View as we approached the ruins

10-21-06
Tolum could be one of my favorite spots as of yet. It is a quite beach town located about 80 miles south of Cancun on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. We found a great spot to stay for our three nights in Tolum, we rented a tiny little cabana right off the beach. The Cabana was a small thatch roofed hut with two small beds and some mosquito netting. I was weary of its ability to resist the afternoon and evening storms but it kept us and our belongings dry somehow. There were a handful of other cabanas sprinkled along the beach and in the center was a bar that had swings for barstools, made for some interesting happy hours. Down along the beach was a thatched roof with open sides, with swinging beds hanging from ropes coming down from the rafters, a great place to escape the sun to relax and read or just stare out to the gently rolling waves and watch the afternoon storms roll in, it was also my favorite siesta location, a place were hangovers end and the next one begins. The snorkeling was great as well, the northern tip of the second largest coral reef in the world extended past our cabana. I saw large turtles, huge rays, dolphins and a plethora of exotic brilliantly colored fish
Just down the road a mile or two was the ruins of Tolum, although not as impressive in its grandeur as Palenque its location along the shore is awe inspiring. The massive stone palaces and temples adorn the cliffs that overlook the powdery white sand beaches and calm turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.

our cabana in Tolum
On the last day in Tolum we went on a cenote tour, a cenote is an underground cavern that has filled with water. It was amazing. A guide is necessary, first of all they are located in the jungle and they are hidden underground, you could be standing right on top of one and not even know it. There are small cracks in the surface that you climb down into to about 30 or 40 feet down into the darkness, the first one we ascended into was a large cavern with enormous stalagmites and stalgtites that came into view as your eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light. There was a genereator that powered a series of underwater lights that our guide light up upon entering the cave. We put on our snorkeling gear and proceeded to enter the cool crystal clear water which immediately dropped to depths of 10 to 50 feet. The stalgmites and stalgtites extended through the water, you could dive down one cave and come up in another, being careful to not bang your head or end up in a cave with no air pocket, It was one of the most exhilarating expierences I’ve ever had. If anyone is in the area of the Yucatan I highly suggest a visit to a cenote. The second cenote we entered was an entirely different type. We descended the 30 feet down a metal ladder that put us directly into the water, this time our lights were hand held flash lights, the cavern was not vast but a maze of small corridors we had to swim through. The ceiling of the cenote was only inches above the water line not even high enough to get half your head out of the water. You had to breath through your snorkel and make sure your head didn’t hit the ceiling which was comprised of hundreds of thousands of stalagmites the size of icicles, it was like a demented Christmas nightmare. We traveled for about 45 minutes into the depths of the earth then the tight corridors gave way to a serious of large caverns with ceilings of 40 feet or so and the water went from being 6 to 7 feet deep to what appeared to be endless depths. It was a remarkable day one that I think I will always remember.
Our Mexican tourist visas only had a day or two left so we thought it best to move on to Belize, it just wouldn’t be fair to be in México illegally and set a bad example. The Border crossing to Belize was again pretty easy. I have heard all sorts of stories of border troubles but so far so good. Belize is an English speaking country so that made the process a little easier. We crossed over from Chetumal and headed southwest to a small town near the Guatemalan border called San Ignacio. I really enjoyed this town, an ecliptic mix of x-patriots mostly retired U.S. military trying to make the most of their pensions, Rastafarian, Creole, indigenous Mayan people and slave descendants, throw in a few old hippies and some motorcycle travelers to round it all out and it makes for an interesting evening which we defiantly had. I was tempted to stay a few more days but we were both eager to get to Tikal in Guatemala.

Entering the water in the first cenote

HANKY PANKY IN PALANQUE

10-18-06

I finally left San Cristobal, if I learned anymore Spanish I don’t think I would have been able to fit my helmet on my head. I left Jay in San Cristobal as he was still waiting for his parts. Our plan was he would catch back up with me in Palanque or Talum. The ride out of San Cristobal was not as exciting as our ride in. The next stop on my route was Palanque to view the Mayan ruins. I made a few stops enroute to Palanque first was a series of water falls called Agua Azul the water is full of calcium and phosphorus so it has an iridescent blue color, my camera didn’t pick up the color but it is amazing it is almost electric and the calcium builds up on the rocks creating hundreds of waterfalls in a short span of distance. The second stop was a big waterfall called Miso-Ha the waterfall is about 120 feet and is located in the jungle with a nice swimming hole at the base of the falls. A slippery stone walkway snakes behind the waterfall giving you an interesting view from behind the veil of the falls out to the lagoon. The water is nice and cool, it sure was a nice relief form the days ride.

Miso-Ha above and Agua Azul below




















The ruins at Palanqe are amazing. My words can not give the sight justice, even my pictures do not capture the true magic and magnitude of this ancient city located in the heart of the jungle. The heat and humidity was almost overwhelming the thick jungle canopy offered some relief from the sun but the humidity was at about 102%. It is an incredible sight when you first approach the city through the jungle, the thick vegetation gives way to an opening that is the heart of the ruins, the main temple and palaces are clustered together with smaller temples and buildings surrounding them. There is an ancient ball field that they played a form of basketball using a smooth round rock and rock hoops, this is possibly where the phrase “pass me the rock originated”. The losing team was beheaded following the outcome of the game, a motivation tactic the N.B.A. should consider, with that kind of inspiration even the Boston Celtics could win a couple of games. The outskirts of the city are where the common folk lived and this consisted of several clusters of communities surrounding the city.




The ball court

I arrived at the ruins early in the morning. There were just a handful of visitors when I arrived. As I was exploring the outer temples I was walking through a tight stone hallway that brought me to an opening, as I rounded the corner I came across a couple who were very obviously more excited and inspired by the ruins than myself. The man had his lady friend up on a stone altar and was performing a ritual that although not exclusively Mayan was I’m sure enjoyed by the ancient people. Let’s just say she was no longer eligible for the virgin sacrifice. The flustered couple I am assuming from their accents from Australia or New Zealand called out an apology as I continued on my exploration.
The stairs leading up the pyramids and temples are incredibly steep. You almost have to use your hands like climbing a ladder on some; a slip would result in a broken neck or death. It is amazing the ability of this ancient culture to erect such massive buildings. There extensive knowledge of astrology and mathematics is impressive it is still a mystery as to why the culture vanished, by the time Columbus arrived in the Americas the city was already abandoned. Some credit it to the constant state of warfare with their neighbors or a depletion of the natural resources surrounding the city. Jay caught up with me the next day so I got to spend two days at the ruins. After two days climbing around the city I was pretty worn out. The following afternoon after I explored the ruins in the morning with Jay we headed west to Talum a little south of Cancun to check out more ruins this time right on the ocean.

October 22, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER BETH!!

a picture to show my sensitive side

DANCING LEE RAYMOND

I sure was surprised to run into my friend Lee Raymond down here in Mexico, he appearently has got a job dancing in fornt of a convience store.

STILL WAITING

It has just been discoverd the reason of the decline of the Mayan empire. It's a little know fact the Harley Davidson was actualy a Mayan invention and they all rode up north and settled what is now Milwakee

10-16-06
Not much new since my last post. We are still waiting here in San Cristobal waiting for Jay’s parts. The parts have left the United States and are somewhere here in Mexico.
I am still attending Spanish classes twice a day. My Spanish is coming along great, I’m pretty much fluent by now. I now consider English my second language. Just kidding I am sitting here watching Monday Night Football and all I understand is blah blah blah Chicago Bears blah blah blah blah Arizona Cardinals blah blah blah.
One more thing before I sign off, I’ve got an update on Jay’s wallet Chivas is the pro soccer team out of Guadalajara, translates to the fighting nanny goats, that wallet has to go and so do I, adios.

BIG MAN ON CAMPUS

10-13-06

The heavy rains woke us up early in Pichucalo not surprisingly considering the hotel was made of tin. Jay’s troubles continued, his bike would not start again, even after changing his plug out it wouldn’t start, I thought he might have some moisture in his tank or carburetor so I bought some starter fluid and gas stabilizer, not an easy task when all the labels are in Spanish, very few if any people speak English in the smaller towns. After putting the stabilizer or what I hoped it was stabilizer, we got a nice big flame shooting out of Jay’s bike after a few good shots of starter fluid and his bike came roaring back to life. We put the small fire out that was still burning in his air box and we hit the road. The road to San Cristobal was amazing.
The road twisted through the mountain jungle like a python strangling its prey. It almost seemed like a video game the road twisted climbed and descended its way up and down the mountains. The thick jungle came right up the roadside and in many places canopied the road, vines and branches literally reached out from the dark jungle taunting and teasing you. In many places the jungle was so thick it became dark as night in the middle of the day. The heavy rains from the previous night had done some damage, parts of the road were completely washed away, mudslides and running water covered sections of the road. Several of the bridges were damaged or partly gone. It was one of the most gripping sections of road I’ve ever been on. The ride climaxed with an incredible accent up to San Cristobal. We had now been driving for about three tedious hours when we were consumed by a thick fog right out of a Steven King novel. Visibility was at about 10 feet and we were still trying to negotiate the twisting road that clung to the sides of the mountain with sheer drop offs of hundreds of feet around each corner. We finally started our decent into the city when I realized we were not in fog but actually driving through the clouds.


"the fog"

The Hotel Media Luna is a block of the zocala (remember the town square) in San Cristobal and I couldn’t have been happier to get of my bike and check in, I was done riding for the day and was ready for a beer or two. Lucia the lady who runs the hotel let us park our bikes in the open air atrium in the hotel so we could keep them off the street. As we unpacked our bikes and did some inspection Jay, noticed his sprockets and chain had some issues, they were not lining up, the chain was getting caught up in his back sprocket and the sprocket teeth were worn in sections, we both knew they would have to be replaced. San Cristobal is an extremely remote mountain town in southern Chiapas. Getting parts for his bike was going to be extremely difficult. After a day of running around the city, hours on the internet and frustrating long distance phone calls Jay finally found a company in Washington state that would ship him the parts here to our hotel, so San Cristobal is our new home until the parts get here in about a week. I couldn’t think of a nicer place to be stuck in. It is like a Mexican Boulder (or Northampton for my east coast readers) It is a college town that has a very liberal outlook, the town is mélange of international backpackers and tourists, university students, indigenousness Mayan people, local merchants and broke down motorcyclists. The town has a history of mistrust of the government and contempt of the church both of which have long persecuted the local people, it is a cradle of revolution, sounds like a good place to spend a week. In 1994 the city made word headlines as the Zapatista rebels took control over the city in an armed rebellion against the Mexican government. The locals are very proud of their independence and support of the Zapatista movement. The state of Chiapas is respectful of their land as well as its indigenous Mayan population. It’s a city where the stone age intertwines with the modern world it is a city of magic and wonder.

Since we were to be stuck in the city I figured I would make the best of it, I enrolled at the Universidad de San Cristobal for Spanish classes. I feel like Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Back to School. I am learning a lot but it sure is a confusing language. So here I wait in this beautiful city, we’ve been here for four days. I am enjoying the time of the bike but am starting to get the itch to move on to other adventures. We’ll I got to go I got some homework to do, or as I call it trabajo por casa.

The school has some pretty hot co-eds

ALL ROADS LEAD TO D.F. NOT ROME

"TEQUILA ES MUY BUENO", AFTER A FEW SHOTS THE LANGUAGE JUST ROLLS OF MY TONGUE

ALL ROADS LEAD TO D.F NOT TO ROME

Tequila is a very cool old town. The small run down town is surrounded by slopes of the Blue Agave plants that are destined to be turned into tequila. The town is surprisingly small considering how much tequila is made here. All the big producers Sauza, Jose Cuervo, Patron and many more are all located in town. We got into town in late afternoon and checked into a local dive hotel, once inside it was kind of nice but in a sketchy area. They let us drive our bikes into the lobby and park them next to the front desk, it made unpacking easy for a change since my bike was parked about five feet from my room. We caught the last tequila tour of the day on an old trolley that took us around the small town, we were the only ones on the tour which was nice. The tour made stops at Sauza and Cuervo before bringing us to a small distillery called El Gran Jubileo. At the distillery we got a tour of the whole process from cultivation to distilling and finally to drinking. Tasting tequilas is quite different than tasting wine, you start to get buzzed a lot quicker. When in Napa I can usually taste all afternoon not the case in tequila, I had a good buzz about an hour into the tour as you can see from the picture.

Sauza distillery

blue agave plant

10-8-6
We left Tequila that morning our destination was San Miguel de Allende. About half way into our days ride we came to the big city of Guadalajara. The highway signs in Mexico can be very confusing they don’t have highway numbers just towns they bring you to, so if you don’t know the names of the towns on your route you can get confused very easily, and we did. I have a g.p.s unit on my bike that works great in the United States but is limited due to lack of software for it in Mexico. I was trying to rely on it to much going through Guadalajara and before we new it we were in the wrong part of town, the asphalt ended and we entered a very undesirable slum area. I looked at Jay and said well according to my g.p.s we are on the on ramp for the highway, it was more like the on ramp to our demise. So we proceeded through the streets getting some pretty nasty looks, our bikes are worth more than most will make in their entire lives. The road was in terrible shape with broken down vehicles and trash everywhere. We finally got out of the area with nothing more than a few scary glares. Although in a much better neighborhood we were still very lost, we now put more emphasis on our maps than the g.p.s. I actually turned it to compass settings and used it just as a directional reference. As we wandered the streets of the big city we ended up high up on a hillside on the outskirts of town in a very poor rundown section of the city, but it seemed much safer than our earlier neighborhood. It was a Sunday so the rough dirt roads were full of locals having some kind of fiesta, we were greeted with smiles and waves in this area much to my satisfaction I was still lost but felt very safe if not even welcome. Finally we came across a major highway, not the one we wanted but we were very happy none the less. It was going east and that was good enough for us. We had now been traveling for over three hours and we were only 21 miles away from our start. Our new found road the hell out of the city brought us south of our destination so we changed destinations to the town of Morelia and I am glad we did.
Guadalajara was now in our rearview mirrors as we started to climb into the mountains, the cool air was very refreshing and after a while it started getting actually cold. I checked my g.p.s. now that we were friends again, and it said we were at 7000 ft and still climbing. I stopped to put a jacket on and we continued to climb the high desert gave way to a pine forest very reminiscent of the Vail area we finally peaked out at 10400 feet and it was quite chilly, I couldn’t have been happier although I knew it wouldn’t last so I enjoyed while it did.
Morelia is a Spanish Colonial city. My favorite town as of yet even though it is a city of over half a million it has a small fell to it. It is full of beautiful churches and cathedrals, everywhere you look you can see a stone spire reaching for the sky or a brilliant blue tiled covered dome. Our hotel for the night was right off the zocala or town square clustered with cafes and shops and restaurants. The hotel as well as the rest of the city had combination of Moorish and colonial Spanish architecture, big thick heavy stone and carved archways and wrought iron balconies that looked down on the bustling cobblestone streets. The climate is extremely pleasant as well due to higher altitude of over 6000 feet.

10-9-06
As Jay attempt to start his bike that morning the noise emanating from the bike foreshadowed things to come, trouble. To get to the sparkplugs on jays bike it is a pain in the ass we had to strip the boxes and tank off the bike to change the plug, it was fouled from the climb of altitude, he should of stopped and changes the jetting on his carburetor as we gained altitude but didn’t. It was time consuming but an easy fix, and on teh road we went.
Mexico City is the largest city in the world no one knows for sure how many people even actually live there, too many to count. When planning out the trip we had every intention of steering clear of the city. After our antics in Guadalajara a city a fraction the size of D. F. (de effe) as Mexico city is referred to as by the locals as well as all the countless horror stories I’ve heard of the city I was very reluctant to even consider going near it. Upon studying our maps to try to find the best route around we came to the conclusion it is unavoidable, all roads lead to the city. There were a few that skirted around but at that point I decided if you’re going to have to dance with the devil stick your tongue down his throat. and into the heart of the city we went.
As we approached the city full of trepidation the air became foul and acrid, the traffic congested and choked to a crawl. I eyed my g.p.s. with a feeling of distrust and said don’t let me down this time, and it performed above and beyond, my trusty friend fell back into my good graces, it led us through the city as if it had been born and raised in old D.F. Our only problem was as we were starting our exit from the bowels of downtown Jay got ahead of me and started down a wrong ramp that would have put us on the wrong road to points unknown. I was able to catch him and upon looking at my g.p.s. for a solution it basically said your fucked now. So we drove up onto the sidewalk and went down the ramp we came up on hoping that no police or pedestrians were in our way. We got back on the road and left the biggest city in the world behind us no worse for the wear.
The toll roads are extremely expensive; we have spent over $200 in the past few days. There are two types of roads toll (cuarto) and free (libre). The libre roads run through every small town and are chocked full of vehicles most in such disrepair they would be turned away by most junkyards as well as all sorts of commercial traffic. The couta roads are in pretty good shape for the most part and get you to where you want be in a fraction of the time, but you pay for it. During one of the stops to pay the tolls Jay’s wallet fell from his tank bag to never be seen again, and his problems aren’t over yet, I told you it was going to be a bad run of events, don’t let the easy passage through D.F. fool you.
Jay discovered his wallet missing so we decided to cut our days ride short and stopped at another old colonial city called Cordoba. Remember the Chrysler Cordoba that Ricardo Mantabalm (the guy from fantasy island) used to pitch adds for in the late seventies, I used to love to hear him say Chrrrysler Corrrrdobbba, anyway back to the story. Cordoba again has its share of churches and cathedrals not as awe inspiring as Morelia but still impressive. Lucky for Jay I think Cordoba is the wallet capital of Mexico, I’ve never seen so many stores selling wallets. With all the hand crafted leather wallets to choose from Jay selected the most ridiculous wallet possible. It’s a blue and red nylon wallet obviously made for a kid and it has chivas written across it, I still can’t find anyone who knows what chivas means, no it’s not the scotch. He said he bought it because it was the cheapest one he found, for three more dollars he could have got a nice leather one. That night as he was trying to put his remaining credit cards and license in to the wallet he commented that they wouldn’t fit, and I told him that most 12 year old boys don’t have either credit card or licenses to worry about, but it did have a nice pocket to put penny’s, nickel’s and dime’s in. I can’t help to chuckle every time he pulls the wallet out.
The next morning we again had trouble with Jay’s bike but eventually got back on the road with intentions to get to San Cristobal a good full days drive. Due to the late start we fell short of our goal, we were going to try to push it but it was starting to get late and the road form Teapa to San Cristobal is infamous for its danger. We decided not to push our luck and settled into a tiny speck on the map called Pichucalo in northern Chiapas to await Jay’s further troubles. Stay tuned.

Jay's new wallet