I've been living in Mexico for over three years, with only a single 5 month hiatus.
In January 2005 I brought down a Honda XR650L motorcycle from Canada. I knew it would be a major hassle having a foreign vehicle here, but it was the bike I really wanted, and they don't sell it in Mexico.
On that trip, I shipped it from Detroit to El Paso. After picking it up in El Paso, I drove 2577 km from El Paso, to Chihuahua, Creel, through the Copper Canyon to Urique, coming out at Choix, continuing on to Los Mochis, Mazatlan, Guadalajara, and finally arriving home in Morelia.
After nearly six months, the 180 day import permit was about to expire. So on June 28th I set off on a 2779 km adventure across Mexico, to go renew the permit. I had not been preparing for this trip, as after nearly two months of hassles, immigration told me my FM-3 application looked ok. The only problem: I wouldn't have been able to leave the country for 4 or more weeks while the application was processed. As I intend to go visit Canada sometime this month, in July, this was not ok and I had to delay the application until I return.
This meant I had to drive to the border, cancel my current permit, and request a new one.
By car, I've super slabbed it from Morelia to Laredo more than once, and didn't want to take the interstate toll highways this time. I can only handle 50-75 km without stopping for a short break anyway, and prefer the slightly slower pace of the secondary highways.
So, the route ended up being this:
I managed to get all the way from Morelia to Tulancingo, only paying a 39 peso toll outside of San Luis Potosi. I also had to pay 22 pesos each way to cross the bridge over the Rio Grande, 28 to cross the Puente Tampico, and 33 to cross the bridge in Tuxpan. But the first four days were mostly free highways. The fifth and last day was very expensive. I think over 300 pesos in tolls.
I sure got to see a lot of the country on this trip. And combined with the first trip, I think I have the north pretty much covered. Next time I will be going south!
The most pleasant surprises on this trip were Real de Catorce, Highway 31 from 57 to Linares, and Tampico.
As I had done virtually no research or planning prior to the trip, I had no idea what to expect. I basically expected to see the same things as I've already seen everywhere else in Mexico.
San Miguel de Allende seemed like a quaint town, I can see why the gringos like it. I spent about 1 1/2 hours there, driving around, and hanging out at one of their plazas. I was struck by two things: the number of dual sport motorcycles in that town, and at the sheer number of young, pretty American girls. The crowd seemed to be a lot younger than I had expected, and I was really surprised at the number teenaged American girls. I'm not sure if they live there with expat parents, or if its because of it being summer vacation time. It seemed to be a lot more modern than I had expected. I didn't see any old, run down, Patzcuaro type buildings there. The dual sport bikes are probably popular because of the crappiness of the roads in that town. The roads are all cobblestone.
I gassed up in Matehuala at 8:45 pm, and thought the 55 km to Real de Catorce would be a piece of cake, even if it was already dark by this point. I didn't know what Real de Catorce was all about, only that it was a ghost town in the desert, an old mining town, where people went to do peyote and wander around in the desert.
The first 30 km out of Matehuala are on a narrow, but fairly straight road with only a few curves. After that, you turn onto a cobblestone road for the last 24 km, driving up into the mountains. After 9:30 pm, I was driving down this road in the opposite direction:
By the last 5 km, I was starting to get a little freaked out. I had passed only two cars in the oncoming direction since I had turned onto it. I had been thinking to myself what I would do if I broke down, hang out on the side of the road till morning or what, when I saw what appeared to be a snake on the road. It freaked me out a bit, but in retrospect it was probably only a stick or something. Who knows!
I started to see what appeared to be old, run down buildings, with signs pointing to some little villages. Since it was almost 10 o'clock, I was getting a bit worried. I didn't know where I was, or where I was going to. It certaintly wasn't a "normal" town with paved road going into it. Eventually I came to a tunnel:
I drove into it, at about 10 to 10 pm, kinda starting to wonder where the hell I was. This tunnel went for over two kilometers:
I didn't pass any cars in the tunnel, but when I came out at the other end, there was a town! There was a guy standing at the entrance to the tunnel. I drove on the road into the town, and instantly knew I was in a completely different world. It was so silent and barren. I passed the first building that said Hotel, and kept going. It didn't look very appealing. Then I passed another hotel, right on the main road going in, and decided to stop. Inside there was a nice young girl, with a Power Mac laptop on her desk, and an old man on a couch. It looked ok. I saw a white girl walk out of the hotel. I asked her how much for a room, she said 400 / night, and I said I'll take it!
I took my things to the room. I talked to the old man while taking the bag off the back of the bike, and he seemed pretty nice. I left my bike on the street, and he was to watch it during the night. The hotel seemed to be about a block off the Zocalo. There were a few people walking around, but the town was dead silent, with no vehicular traffic circulating around.
I called my mother from the payphone, bought some pop & chips, wandered around for a few minutes and sat in front of the hotel. It was sooo silent. You could hear footsteps a block away. There was a little bit of Mexican music being played somewhere, but quietly.
It was very silent in the night, no traffic at all, only the sound of the church bell ringing every 15 minutes, which caused the dogs & cats to start barking and meowing for a couple of minutes each time.
In the morning I got to see the town. I was still impressed, but slightly less so than the night before. I can't stand people pestering me trying to sell me stuff as though I'm a tourist (even if I am!). In the case of Real de Catorce, it was guys trying to take you on horse back tours through town and to some ruins.
I felt wierd driving my bike around town. It felt like I was the only person driving. I found a road leading out into the mountains, and went exploring in the hills for an hour or two:
In the above picture, the outskirts of Real de Catorce are in the middle right, with the rest of the town being off to the right behind the hill that is blocking the view. I think there are enough roads around there to keep you entertained for several hours, but I didn't have time to fully explore.
This is the road where I took the above picture from. At this point I turned around and went back to town:
The town was really old. I took quite a few pictures:
I left Real de Catorce at about 1:00 pm. After driving only one or two km on the cobblestones, I decided I didn't need the extra gas I had in my bag. I dumped it into the tank, and later ditched the jerry can altogether.
Highway 31 to Linares turned out to be a very scenic drive, with only a few trucks that were fairly easy to pass. It reminded me of the Copper Canyon, but I didn't think to take any pictures until I was almost out of the mountain range.
From Linares, I went north to Monte Morelos, then up to China, and finally Reynosa. The following are a building on the Linares Zocalo, The Monte Morelos, and the highway from China to Reynosa:
I went through a gazillion military check points that day. This one is on the autopista into Reynosa:
Another guy had his automatic assault rifle resting on my bike, but he had wandered away when I was getting out my camera. The soldier called for him to come over so we could have his gun in the picture, but he laughed and was too shy.
It was about 10 o'clock pm by the time I got to the car permit place in Reynosa. I turned in my permit, then went inside to get a new one. The immigration officer opened up my passport and saw a stamp for January 7th. He asked where it was. I told him I had just given it to a guy outside. This was a huge mistake. He told me to go get it back. I went out and got it, and went back in. What proceeded was a lot of arguing and an overt request for a $40 bribe from the immigration officer.
Basically he told me some bs about not being able to give me a new tourist card until the current one expired. This was a complete crock of shit. He said he couldn't give me a new one for 6 more days. He then gave me an exit stamp in my passport, but said he still couldn't give me a new tourist card for six days. I said I would go to Texas, sleep in Mc Allen, and come get a new one tommorrow. He asked: "How much is a hotel in Mc Allen? $60?". I said no, a Motel 6 would cost me only $40. He said "Ok, I'll give you your new tourist card right now for $40". Not wanting to mess around too much, I asked if he'd take pesos. He said "400". I opened my wallet and gave him what he wanted. I think everyone else knew what was going on because I heard them talking about it while I was filling out my tourist card details.
I got my permit, chatted with a guy for about 15 minutes, then went to Mc Allen anyway. I preferred to spend the night in the USA.
The next morning, I ate some Mc Muffins at Mc Donalds, and went to Reynosa. Mc Allen is about 15 km from the border. I eventually found my way out of Reynosa, to the highway to Ciudad Victoria.
This was uneventful, albeit very hot. Tamaulipas is seemingly a very nice, developed state, even Reynosa. People have grass in their yards, and on the side of the road, all the way down and into to Veracruz. There are a lot of nice houses, that have front yards, and that are not connected to each other!
After a few hours on the highway, I decided to hit the beach. The beach I went to was 45 km over from the highway. It was called Barra del Tordo. I didn't go into the village of about 1000 people, only to the main beach. There were tiny villages and homes along the road going in. The drive over was very pleasant, with lots of grass.
I was there for about 1 hour, swimming, before I hit the road again, arriving in Tampico at about 9:45 pm. The driving in Tampico is very, very fast. Not necessarily stupid, but very fast. I drove in from the north, past a whole bunch of factories and whatnot, and into the town center. It felt like I was still in the USA. My first impression was that Tampico is by far the most developed city I have seen in Mexico. After driving around for a while, I found a nice hotel for 585 pesos / night. I took my things to my room, then drove around town for a little while longer. I followed the signs pointing to the beach, into Ciudad Madero, but eventually turned around fearing I was going to get lost. I ate dinner at a place called Peter Piper Pizza, a very American big box restaurant. I don't even know how to describe it, except to say that it was very American, very big, very colourful, and had an arcade etc for the kids.
I couldn't believe Tampico. So developed, so modern, so fair skinned, I saw lines of young people waiting to get into clubs, on a Thursday night, and when I pulled into an Oxxo 18 year old kids pulled up in a nice car and got out, at 11 o'clock at night, the girl with a very short mini-skirt, and across the road was a seemingly happening bar/restaurant called Callejon de los Milagros with more young people with nice cars outside. This was just down the street from the big Mercedes Benz Dealership. Very, very different from my part of the country.
In the morning I went to the beach:
It was very nice, but definately a city beach, not a tropical island or tourist resort type place. For better or worse. I didn't see any hotels lining the beach, etc. I spent about an hour there, swimming again, and then went for an oil change. I had passed a Honda dealership the night before while driving around. I got the oil change and the brake fluid topped up.
There is a big bridge called Puente Tampico. This is near the downtown area, and goes over a big river. It is very industrial around the bridge, with ships and factories below. The other side of the bridge is undeveloped, and the beginning of the next stretch of highway. The river is the border with the state of Veracruz. It was 4:05pm when I stopped at the toll booth on the Veracruz side of the bridge.
I drove straight for the next 6 hours. It had been my intention to make it to the autopista that goes from Tulancingo to Mexico by dark, and then drive on the autopista to Teotihuacan, the town with the pyramids 40 km north of Mexico City. I expected to leave Tampico at that time, and make it to Teotihuacan by 10:30 pm. It was only supposed to be 375 km from Tampico to Tulancingo, assuming 5 hours to cover 375 km would have put me on the autopista by 9pm, very shortly after dusk. Then 110 km on the autopista to Teotihuacan. Piece of cake.
WRONG. The ride to Tuxpan and Poza Rica was uneventful, they even had signs pointing the way to Mexico City. But Poza Rica to Tulancingo was absolute hell, the WORST riding ever, and I didn't even make it to Tulancingo. After driving through what I thought were a lot of twists and turns, rising heavily in altitude, I stopped for gas in a small town. It was already 9:00 pm. The gas station attendant informed me that I was still looking at another one and a half hours to get to the autopista in Tulancingo! He told me what I had just driven through was straight, but I was facing a lot of slow driving with a lot of curves! Oh shit.
Seeing as it was a really ugly, small village, with tractor trailers lining the highway all through town, I decided to continue on. It was only supposed to be 55 km, how bad could it be? It turned out that even after 9:00 pm at night, there was a long, steady line of traffic, including truck after truck after truck, in each direction. There were very few opportunities to pass. But once I got out of it a bit, there was so much fog I couldn't see two feet in front of me. This was on a twisty mountain road, going from sea level to the altitude of Mexico City which is around 7200 ft I think. There was no shoulder on these curves to pull over to. I was driving only about 10 - 20 km an hour, guided only by the white line on the side of the road which was the only thing I could see.
I think part of the problem is that the headlight on the XR650L is so bright, that people often flash me thinking my high beams are on. While I couldn't see a thing, I was passed by a few cars. So I think part of the reason I couldn't see so well was because it was like I was driving through the fog with my high beams on. I can't even turn the headlight off on this bike.
At 10:00 pm I went through the outskirts of another town, and stopped at a Pemex on the way out. I was a little bit worried by this point. As I was sitting there looking at my map in the parking lot, four bikers pulled in to the parking lot. One went for gas, while another one noticed me. He came over. He was on a cruiser, with leathers, while the other three were on sport bikes dressed in full Joe Rocket gear.
He told me it was still another 3 hours to Mexico City. He told me there was a motel further up the road. He asked what I wanted to do, and I said yes a hotel would be great! He asked if I wanted something cheap, and I said something safe! The other two had come over, with their helmets still on we shook hands, and the guy explained to them he was going to take me into town to a hotel. We waited for the last guy to finish at the pump, and we took off, and they lead me through town to a nice hotel just off the main plaza. They had asked what do you want to do, do you want to come party with us?? I said first I wanted to find a hotel, and when we got there, I talked to them for a minute, and then they took off.
It turned out I was in Xicotepec, Puebla. A small city with a population of about 35000. I called home, then got a couple of hamburgers from a street vendor on the main plaza, I ate them there then went back to the hotel. In the morning I got up early, went to Milano to buy a new shirt, then the pharmacy to buy some more sunscreen, and off I went. While I was loading up my bike, some bum was talking to me. Then he started crowing like a rooster. The people around were smiling and giggling, I think they all knew the guy. I left Xicotepec at 10:52 am. Here is a view from the hotel room balcony:
Driving on twisty mountain roads is supposed to be fun on a bike, but not when you're stuck between transport trucks with two full trailers, travelling at about 20 km / hour. Passing was hard, and I soon learned that it was futile anyway. After passing one long line of cars, which is easier on a bike, after about two kilometers I just came up to another long string of vehicles anyway.
To further complicate things, the road signs in Puebla did not point to Mexico City. They pointed to the city of Puebla and Pachuca, neither of which I was going even remotely close to. I saw two signs: Highway 130 Pachuca / Puebla, and 130 Huauchinango. I knew Huauachinango was the next town I'd be going through, so I took that one. I got stuck going all the way through town, when I could have by passed it by taking the Pachuca/Puebla way. After passing the Zocalo, there was a cripple in the middle of the road in a wheel chair, and he latched on to a random taxi that was driving in front of me, to pull him up a hill. It was pretty funny, I wanted to take a picture but its so hard to take the gloves off quickly. This is the Highway 130 detour through Huauchinango:
It took 47 minutes to cover the 18 kilometers from the outskirts of Xicotepec to the outskirts of Huauchinango! And that was passing a whole lot of vehicles, trying to keep up with a guy on a Honda NXR 125 Bros. After Huauchinango, the road was still twisty, but with a little bit less traffic. This is a picture of a waterfall that I passed. This is just a few kilometers before the border with Hidalgo:
I finally arrived at Teotihuacan at 1:48pm. I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes there, climbing to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. I was on a tight schedule, and could not stay much longer. The pyramids were nice, sort of what I expected. At first, coming into the parking lot, I was sort of thinking it might be a disappointment. But after I parked the bike and started getting closer, I could really see how big it was.
I climbed up to the top of the above pyramid, the Pryamid of the Sun. I did this with all my valuables in my backpack including clothes, bathroom stuff, camera, map, sandles, and so on. It was pretty cool, but I wish I wasn't there alone. It was so full of foreign tourists, who were with other people, and not a lot of local girls to smile at or have them smiling at you. The following is a picture of another pyramid. There are three in total, the above being the biggest, this one being the medium one, and a smaller one that I didn't take any pictures of. I didn't have time to go over to the other two pyramids or visit any of the archaeology museums in the area.
It started raining lightly after I got back on the highway after Teotihuacan. I pulled over and put the rain cover over the back on my bike. It was spitting out, but I didn't get really wet. I intended to take the autopista around Mexico City, then cut across on a secondary highway over to 55 D, the autopista from Toluca to Atlacomulco, and on to Morelia. But somehow I missed my turnoff from 85 D, and the next thing I knew I was in Mexico City. It was only 5 o'clock, so I knew I had three hours of day light to get myself out of there. I decided to work my way west through the city. I followed gut instinct, and on both 4 lane and 2 lane roads made my way to the Tlalnepantla district.
Although one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world, no one came over to mug or kidnap the gringo taking photos in the Mc Donalds parking lot. My main concerns were that first I did not know if my license plate number was allowed to circulate that day, and second whether motorcycles were allowed on the major roads and highways in the city. I had seen news stories about 3 or 4 weeks ago about how hundreds or thousands of df motorcyclists were protesting that they weren't allowed on certain roads, saying the laterals were slow and made them more prone to crime. I decided to ride on whatever roads I felt I needed to and took the risk!
On my 1 page map of Mexico City, which isn't very detailed, I could see a road from the Tlalnepantla district connecting to that highway I wanted to take over to the Toluca - Atlacomulco autopista. But when I was riding around Tlalnepantla, I starting seeing signs for Toluca. I decided going to Toluca would be the safest option, even if it was 50+ km out of my way. Typically if you are driving from Morelia to the Mexico City downtown, you would take the autopista to Toluca, but I was in the north of the city and didn't want to go to the south end.
It was very cold, and wet. The autopista that I found in Mexico that took me to Toluca was all wet, and my visor got very messy. It wasn't quite raining, however.
In Toluca, somewhere along the highway going past the airport, I pulled off to go get a drink. From going 110 km / h down the highway, I pulled off into a Pemex parking lot. I had to cross the parking lot, and the pumps, to get to the store. I was still going about 35 - 40 km / h, when the next thing I knew, I came crashing down and hit my head first into the ground. I quickly determined I was ok, hit the kill switch, and picked up the bike. It started back up fine, and I pushed it over to the store.
It seems this guy had started mopping his soapy water, but then wandered away for a moment. Well, he was near the little tree behind the Bardahl rack, and I wasn't even paying attention when I drove over the very smooth concrete where he is mopping. I'm not sure what happened, if I had tapped the gas a little bit after going over the tiny hump up onto the smooth concrete, or what, but I completely lost traction and wiped out for the first time in my life. I think from now on I'm going to start wearing my helmet at all times, after seeing how easy it is to lose traction and fall while doing something so silly as driving across a parking lot. I had the helmet on when I wiped out, and at all times on this trip, but living in Mexico and not having to worry too much about the police, I've sort of gotten into the habit of not always wearing it while running around town.
After getting back on to the highway, I quickly realized that something was wrong. The handle bars were crooked. But there were no loose parts, and they turned left and right fine while stopped. But the right side was an inch or two closer to my body than the left, when the wheel was pointed straight. I did some slow speed riding down the lateral, and determined that I was going to try and make it home. It was only 275 more kilometers, after 2500+ already travelled. I was able to do it, and got used to riding that way. Left leaning was a little awkward, but I was still able to do it once I got used to it. I'm not sure how extensive the damage really is, as the bike has been parked all day today and I haven't even looked at it. I'll take it to the Honda dealer in a few days. As far as me, my back was a little bit sore last night, but nothing major. Tonight, my left shoulder is still a little bit tender, but again, nothing serious.
I could see lightning in the distance the whole way from Atlacomulco to Morelia, and it was very cold until I hit the Michoacan border, at which point the decent down from Mexico City altitude to Morelia altitude began. There was a bit of fog as well, but only small patches. I expected to get wet, and very cold. I didn't have a rain coat or jacket. But I arrived home, safe and sound, and dry, 4.5 days and 2779 km later, at 10:52 pm.