chasingsummerp.015

Chasing Summer p.015

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Nov 6th - Morelia to Tlayacapan

No tourism today: the goal is to get to Mexico City to get different parts at the KTM dealer and then continue on our way outside of the city until dark. We’re a bit anxious about this trip for 2 reasons: the first is that everyone (guides and the Mexicans we’ve met) have warned us about the thieves supposedly omnipresent in that city. So we lock every bag and prepare our ‘fake’ wallets. The 2^nd reason is that we’re afraid to not find the KTM place in such a huge megalopolis without a city map. We had look at the location on internet and also entered a waypoint with the coordinates on the GPS so we should be fine.

To save time we decide to take the ‘freeway’ that is everything but free! Toll after toll after toll it must have cost us $25 each which represents a lot of money here.

But at least there is barely anyone else on the road and it’s fast. Amazingly the freeway west of Mexico City climbs up to almost 3200 m (10,000 ft)! Then we start to see the skyscrapers and the smog above the city.

Everything goes surprisingly smoothly on our way to the dealer: it’s located on a big boulevard on the west part of the city and is pretty easy to find. It’s seems a pretty chic neighborhood and we feel 100% safe there. The KTM shop is located in an extremely modern and design building.

We manage to park in the front and are astonished by all the great bikes displayed!

It’s however ‘too beautiful to be true’: it’s not the right place!

This is only a show room and the parts (and service) are in another location pretty far away in the city. Fortunately Ramses, the sales guy is extremely helpful and understands that it would be difficult for us to navigate in an unknown city and so he asks someone from the other location to deliver the parts we need. Awesome! We take our time to admire the KTM 690 rally...

Of course it took 2 or 3 times longer than the hour he had announced but there was a café nearby and waiting there was 100 times better than struggling through traffic to another location.

Since we are close to the ‘pereferico’ we’re also doing pretty good to leave the city even it takes quite some time. Driving here reminds me of driving in Paris where you have to ‘force’ your way to get anywhere.

When we reach the south suburbs it becomes more challenging, especially to find the right directions. We have some ‘moments’ like going backwards on a one-way street

but we get it sorted out.

The idea is to go in the general direction of Oaxaca, avoiding the toll roads of course. The scenery is spectacular: fields of cactus separated by stone walls and two huge snowed peaks at the horizon while we are already at almost 3000 m! It’s the end of the day, usually the perfect time for pictures but once again it’s way too hazy so I just snap a couple of pics while riding.

We pass through Tlayacapan (20 kms north of Cuautla) not too far from the sunset and while not especially attractive it looks like an okay place to spend the night. The idea to be in a totally not touristy place is appealing as well as the potential savings it should represent. We ask for hotels but there are none. There are however 4 or 5 ‘posadas’ (rooms in a family house). We try one but no one is there to tell us if a room is available. At the 2nd the guys asks us the equivalent of $100 US!!! We’re ready to leave this town when we finally end up at a nice place with a more reasonable price.

While we’re oiling our chains Teryk discovers that the chain of his bike is grinding the aluminum of the swing arm! He had ordered a new chain guide in San Francisco but Scuderia had not received it before his departure and it was not in stock at the KTM shop in Mexico City.

While in town for dinner we look for something that could replace the plastic guide. Finally at the hardware store we get a used metal plate from a neon light. Teryk spends a good amount of time that night to cut and form the metal to fit perfectly on the swing arm.

He makes it much longer to make sure that the chain will not rip it and fold it in 3 layers at the point where the original plastic chain guard was. Between the layers he puts a good amount of JB Weld.

We'll see on the morning...

Nov 7th - Tlayacapan to Oaxaca

Interactive maps: http://www.gpsxchange.com/phpBB2/download2.php?id=1449

At 7 AM Teryk is already working on his bike. You can see on this picture how the swing arm started to be grinded:

He drills the piece he modeled yesterday to fix it using the screws holding the chain cover. The result looks good. The view from our balcony looks really good too!

Teryk also discovers why his bike has been running poorly lately: the ignition cable was barely connected to the spark plug cover. Damn vibrations again. After re-screwing the cover on the cable his bike ran perfectly again.

There is quite a long way to Oaxaca and after the first 20 kms I’m starting to wonder if we will ever arrive there tonight: the roads remains in some urban zone, with a lot of traffic and ‘topes’. A ‘tope’ is basically a 'bump' build on the road to slow down vehicles. Since few drivers respect the signalization, the topes are the most efficient way to slow down cars in villages which explains why there are so many!

Some are well signaled but many are very hard to see. At the beginning it’s quite dangerous because when following a car it’s surprising to see it slow down abruptly, almost to a stop when there is nothing visible ahead. Then you realize that there was in fact a tope. After a while, since our bikes are not too bothered by them you realize that they’re a great opportunity to pass trucks and all, crawling over them. On the background the silhouette of the Popocatepetl, one of the two volcanoes near Mexico City.

After a while the traffic magically disappeared! It might be partly because there was a bifurcation to a toll road but in any case it became fantastic for us: 300 kms of twisties with little traffic. The scenery was ever changing with the elevation: down to 1000 m then up to 2500 m before to go down aging to Oaxaca at 1500 m. In many sections the road was really on par with the best ones I know in North California. It was a lot of fun but despite a spirited pace we didn’t arrive before 5 PM in Oaxaca.

At lunch time, in a small village we discovered again a new meal with tortillas almost prepared like a pizza.

Even if it’s always the same few ingredients (at least in the cheap places where we’re eating) the Mexicans have many different ways to accommodate them. We discuss a bit with the people from the restaurant, tell them about our trip, and the general consensus is that ‘we’re locos!’

We also took the opportunity to take a look at the improvised chain guide: it’s working OK but the 1^st layer of metal is already pierced.

There will be no problem until Oaxaca but it will not work for much longer. OK, what to do? We call the KTM dealer in Oaxaca but they don’t have it in stock. However they’re okay to receive the package for us if we send it from California. So Teryk calls Scuderia who agrees to send it right away; they just don’t know yet when it will arrive.

Back to Oaxaca. We look for a place to stay there but the youth hostel we were targeting can’t have the bikes inside. Not a problem: in this neighborhood there is at least 3 hotels per block! We find a nice one with parking.

Teryk calls back Scuderia and if they indeed sent the package right away it will not arrive until Monday

. And this is with the fastest delivery option available (about $60).

In our quick tour to find a place we notice how busy the traffic is here, at least at this time of the day. We do however have a great evening and the city starts to grow on us, which is good news since we'll have to stay here for 5 days.

Nov 8th - Oaxaca

Oaxaca is definitely a beautiful city even though the streets are mostly square blocks that in my eyes don't have the charm of narrow tortuous streets. There are however big plazas and some pedestrian streets that are really nice.

There are of course some great churches...

What was amazing on this church is that every square inch of the walls was covered with 3-D relief. Some were like real statues popping out of the wall.

Including on the ceiling...

We wanted to see the close by Monte Alban site with a good light so we went there at the end of the afternoon. It was amazing!

And there were very few other people than us (Teryk on this pic)

The ball court

Some constructions were from BC. even though most were from around 900-1200 AD.

The site itself is really beautiful, at high elevation with a good view on Oaxaca and the surroundings mountains.

Nov 9th - Oaxaca

When we arrive things are just starting and we’re a bit disappointed because it seems a bit small on the main plaza

One of those cute taxis that are very popular in this area

Most of the stands are held by ‘Indians’ (mostly Zapotecs in the area).

There are some 'classic' items like those carpets...

...and others more mysterious like what seems like chalk. From what I understand it's probably an alkali used to convert corn into posole. Posole is a form of hominy: a food dating to pre-Columbian times remaining very popular in Mexico especially within native (Indios) population.

Unusual also those items for saddles or the piece that held two oxes together for trailing.

Strangely enough it looks like the market increases it size while we progress! In fact it's huge and occupies several streets around the plaza. At some point we were 'lost' and had to use the sun to figure out where our bikes were parked.

This was the 'aisle' for living poultry...

It was strange to see customers holding one of those turkeys by the legs to evaluate the weight and negotiate the price.

Modern churches are often using bright colors, mostly blue like this one below. But we also saw one entirely painted in intense pink.

We then head east through a small road to reach Mitla, another ruins site famous especially for the geometrical figures on the walls.

Sadly the Spaniards built a church above one of the monuments and destroyed others to use them as material for the church.

One of the rooms of the Palace

Some more motifs

And one of the tombs

Meanwhile, all the opportunities seem good for the visitors of the site to do some shopping through the cactus fence.

On our way back to Oaxaca we stopped to another site called Yagul, situated on the flank of a hill covered by cactuses. here is the most interesting piece of it: one of the biggest (and well conserved) ball court.

It’s back in the hotel, by looking at the map of Central America that we came to the conclusion that I should leave the next morning to make sure that I will be on time in San Jose.

Nov 10th - Oaxaca to San Cristobal

Interactive maps: http://www.gpsxchange.com/phpBB2/download2.php?id=1451

We had a great evening last night with Teryk. Oaxaca is really a party town on the weekend and the plazas are full of people, many dancing to the sound of bandas. There is one group that we particularly like so after the restaurant we go listen to them for some time. It's a good thing that they eventually stopped because we could have listen for hours and we still have my front tire to change.

Since Mexico City I have been carrying 3 spare tires

and so it's time to drop one. With Teryk's help it went smoothly and we then discuss about the roads that we will take separately.

My goal is ambitious for today: arrive in San Cristobal about 650 km further, which is a lot in Mexico. Because of this long riding day, there is no pictures at all.

The 190 to the coast is awesome, curve after curve for hundreds of km. It didn't take long for my front tire to be scrubbed all the way. While I really enjoy riding on it I think to myself that it would be better to have a faster road today.

Finally I reach the coast and hope to make a good time there. If indeed it's straighter there is however a terrible wind, especially around la Ventana. It must be pretty common since they've installed wind turbines.

When the wind calms down, the road works start. Will I ever arrive in San Cristobal today?!?

Now the road goes back inland and climbs in the mountains. At one moment it's fantastic with a very smooth pavement but very tight twisties. A great motorcycle moment! The 2nd highlight is on the final stretch of road before to arrive San Cristobal: the road climbs at 2300 m and the scenery is very beautiful. Too bad that it was already starting to get dark so I didn't stop for pictures.

Soon after I arrive in San Cristobal and on the evening it's quite surprising to see the people dressed almost like in a ski resort. Even in Oaxaca it was pretty cold in the evening but here at 2200 m a polar fleece is really welcomed.

The Youth Hostel I find is great, although the rooms are very poorly isolated and of course with no heater. I go for a tour of the city and find San Cristobal really beautiful and quite animated, at least on a Saturday. There is a good number of tourists but certainly not overwhelming. I eat in a bar where a great trip is playing. My Mexican neighbor explains to me that this music is typical from the Vera Cruz region (on the Carribean side): one guy plays a sort of 8 cord-guitar, maybe 3 times smaller than a regular one; another girl plays that 8 cord-guitar but hers is 3 times smaller than the guy's. But what I liked the most is that the 2nd girl was tap dancing, although she was not really dancing, just using her feet as a 3rd instrument. And the 3 of them were singing: it was awesome!

Back on the hostel I start to work on the thread when a group from different parts of Europe takes me for another drink in some salsa place. All in all, a tiring but great day...

Nov 11th

Interactive maps: http://www.gpsxchange.com/phpBB2/download2.php?id=1452

I wake up early and spend the whole morning visiting San Cristobal.

I spend some time at the market. Some don't have much to sell...

But I like how they present it...

I think that some 'Indians' come from far away for the market and had to spend the night somewhere uncomfortable in the city. Hence them being tired in the morning...

The church is different from the ones I've seen so far but just a beautiful...

I wish I could stay in San Cristobal longer because I like it a lot. And I’m not the only one! For example a really nice Canadian guy now works at the hostel just to extend his stay here.

I take the 190 towards the border and stop in some small town for lunch. I liked the relaxed atmosphere of it...

The bike (and the GPS) creates some interest...

Border crossing - I’m not good at dealing with administrative papers and formalities and it shows once again. I arrive at the Mexican border around 3 PM and no one asks me anything. I see the immigration office on the left lane which seems logical for the people entering Mexico, but I’m leaving the country so I just continue my way.

Four km later, amongst a quite messy town, here is the Guatemalan border. First stop is to ‘disinfect’ my wheels: $2. Then it’s the immigration office. Problem is: my passport has not received the stamp to exit Mexico. I don’t know why Guatemala cares about that but I go back to the Mexican border. No problem: the road is fun and with a nice scenery.

Over there I show my tourist card and receive the exit stamp. Back to Guatemala everything goes smoothly with the passport. Now the customs for the vehicle permit: passport - check; title - check; Mexican vehicle permit - nope!

For those with a good memory, Ron and I when entering Mexico, ended up going through roads where there was no check point to buy this vehicle permit. The goal of this permit is to prove that you will not sell your bike in the country, so you get it when you enter and cancel it when you exit. Since I never got it at the entry I thought that there would be no problem as soon as I would be out of Mexico. What I had not anticipated is that Guatemala absolutely requires this Mexican paper to enter their country. I try to talk them into letting me enter but the only choice is to go back to the Mexican border to get the permit, cancel it and come back.

Those mountains are in Guatemala. So close, yet so far with the border in between...

So on my way to the Mexican border again. Damn, customs are closed! (it’s not even 4 PM but it’s a Sunday) and the guy at the immigration can’t do anything for me. Back to the Guatemalan border. I’m now officially pretty fast on this section of road.

There I try again but since I still have no paper it’s impossible. I can be convincing when needed and I really want to cross this border today so I insist calmly and explain that I need to meet my family very soon in Costa Rica and that they have to help me. The guy is nice and we go together see a Mexican custom officer 50 m further. We discuss a long time and he explains that he can’t deliver the permit so I will have to wait tomorrow morning to get one at the customs and then wait the next day to have it canceled because that’s the minimum delay. This is crazy!

After more ‘begging’ he comes out with an idea: the Tourist card has mention of the vehicle entry in Mexico so maybe that would be OK for Guatemala? The Guatemalan officer is fine with that so I’m going back again to the Mexican border where I get a copy of my tourist card.

Full of hopes I show it to the officer back on the Guatemalan side. Oh no! There is indeed mention of the fact that I entered on a motorcycle in Mexico but there is no plate or serial number so it’s back to zero!

The guy explains that he would be in trouble as a functionary to let me enter without the required papers and he just can’t do it. OK, this will be my last try: could he call his boss to see if he would allow an exception for me? The officer is OK with that and even better, he gets his boss on the line right away. He does quite a bit of explanations and finally gets the OK for me, yeah!!! I’ve never been happier to pay for the $6 to get that permit.

I lost almost 2 hours with all that but I admit it’s only because I didn’t have the required papers and it would have gone smoothly without that issue.

It's getting late and so I hurry to reach Huehuetenago, about an hour down the road. It's funny to see how different Guatemala is vs. Mexico. It looks greener, with more relief and oh... the topes are just brutal here.

Nov 12th - Huehuetenago to Uspantan

Interactive maps: http://www.gpsxchange.com/phpBB2/download2.php?id=1453

The plan today is to go and stay somewhere around the Lake Atitlan. The 1 or ‘Pan-American’ leads to it. Being one of the main roads of the country I was afraid that it would be a big boring one but it’s not the case at all! It’s a small road winding around the mountains and climbing above 3000 m.

The first half of it offers a smooth pavement and is fun to ride

. Then road work starts and the pavement is often degraded. What’s cool though is that they let me pass while the cars have to wait at the road blocks. Or at least that’s what I understand from their vague flag waiving.

I arrive at the end of the morning to Panajache, on the border of Lake Atitlan.

The lake is indeed beautiful but the city is too crowded, built-up and with too many gringos for my taste. The guide mentions a few more remote and beautiful villages south of the lake and the one I want to stay in is San Marcos.

At this point I meet a cool English guy who rides a KLR and who has been leaving in the area for 4 years. We have a great talk about traveling but unfortunately he has never been to San Marcos and he’s not sure if the trail goes through: most people going there by boat. He finally see some locals he knows who confirm that’s it is doable and preferably via the west side of the lake since some bicyclists were attacked at gun point on the east side

.

The trail is not following the coast so I have to go back North to Solola which seems pretty nice and with a big market.

There I’m supposed to take a trail west to Santa Lucia then South towards the lake. The problem is that I can’t find that trail! And since most streets are one way and the market blocks the center of town, at every unsuccessful try I have to go for one more round of the city

. I ask a few people but most don’t know and I can’t find what the others indicate .

At this point I start to get warm (it’s noon) and I’m tempted to pass on San Marcos. I might regret it later, but my maps don’t even show San Marcos and it might not be a good time on my trip to get lost on a trail.

So I head North to follow a suggestion from the English guy: take a road through the mountains that bypass Antigua and Guatemala City. I wanted to checkout Antigua, but the mountains and the dirt road before Coban are more attractive to me.

I pass through Chichicastenango, famous for its huge market (but not today). Then it’s the town of Quiche surrounded by forests and minuscule corn fields. Animals and people seem to be leaving on the side of the road around here. They all look at me like if I was riding an UFO

The road is beautiful...

... but it climbs really hard and I can't believe seeing this family of 'Indians' climbing it carrying huge loads

.

I notice that most cemeteries here are very colorful (unlike Mexico)

At Sacapulas I head East to Uspantan. I kind of wanted to sleep in Coban tonight but it’s already 4 PM and there is at least an hour of dirt to arrive in Copan. I’ll better stay in this small town of Uspantan (3,500 h). One more reason is that it's now foggy/cloudy...

I find an hotel that let me park my bike inside. It's not exactly luxury but they do have hot (let's say 'not totally cold') water in the common bath room...

Well for $4 is hard to ask for more, right?

When I visit the church I notice this woman and her 2 daughters progressing very slowly on their knees on the central alley...

Looking at the map, the route I’ve done today looks like a 'U': there was indeed a much, much shorter way to go from Huehuetenago to Uspantan. Considering that I didn’t stay at Lake Atitlan, that was quite a long detour. Oh well…

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