Uruapan

In Chapala, we met a local fellow, who rode a BMW GS Adventure like mine.  So he was keenly curious about our trip, and wanted to help out.

So he outlined a route for us through the back roads of Mexico..

Travel by motorcycle is unique in that you are keenly aware of your surrounding at all times, and we truly feel we are riding IN the places we visit, rather than driving through them.  The smells, the wind on your face, the bugs in your eyes, all of it adds up to a wonderful experience (maybe not the bug part)

The road we took in the last few days has wound it's way through innumerable small towns and villages, where the streets narrow to one cobblestoned lane, with centuries old buildings lining each side.  In the middle of most towns, the road usually opens in the City Center to reveal a magnificent old Catholic churches.    The street are lined with vendors, dogs are roaming everywhere, and the sights and sounds of Mexico are with us all day long.    It has been an amazing ride.


We don't stop much, but in this small town we saw a motorcycle shop and Cory needed some chain lube.    The owner and workers were very friendly and helpful, and we gladly posed for a few pictures with them.

The only problems we've run into so far today, is the cube vans.

We always seem to end up in a 3 or 4 car line up behind a cube van going 30km per hour.

Also, it seems that the large crazy bus drivers lay in wait for us, and only come screaming around the tight corners, hugging the centre line, when we are there.  Or so it seems.

We stayed last night the town of Uruapan, our Hotel was a grand old structure with a magnificent curved cobblestone driveway bracketed by moss covered stone walls.


However, the rooms it seems have not been upgraded since the 60's.  My TV looked to be original.



After spending a night in 3 star splendour, we packed up this morning, and headed east towards Mexico City, which down here, on the signs, is just "Mexico".  It's that big.

Our goal was to miss the city on our way to Teotihaucan but we got sucked into it anyway, and spent the last 2 hours riding 40km through the dirtiest, most grossly polluted place we've ever been.

By the time we got to Teotihaucan, my eyes were burning, and my throat was scratchy.  Our faces were visibly dirty from the pollution, and we'd been in it for less than 2 hours.



It's hard to believe people live here at all, let alone 20 million of them.

It's been some of the worst traffic we've seen in all our travels.  To get anywhere, we are forced to lane split... drive between the lanes of traffic.

Most times, there is at least of foot of room on either side of the bikes, and people are GENERALLY pretty good at moving for us, but from time to time, with trucks on either side of us, we can have less than a couple inches of room.

In the daylight, it can be hairy.  In the dark, its insane.

Cory smacked a guys mirror today with his pannier, and the driver wasn't too pleased.  I rolled up behind and flipped his mirror back into place, and gave him the thumbs up.  He didn't smile at me either.  :(

But we made it to our Hotel for the night, and once again, were told to roll the bikes right into the hotel for safekeeping.  And this is a fairly nice hotel!  They opened the doors to the large conference room in the back for us this time.   We giggled like schoolgirls.  :)



Troy and Neal are still in Guadalajara, we hope to meet up with them in the next couple days.

Tomorrow:  The ruins at Teotihaucan.


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