World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Mexico

We quickly shook off our disappointment the next morning, set course to Mexicali at the border. Planning the route was easy. We set our Navigators to "Fastest Route" and after a short calculation time we noted that we had 900 miles ahead of us. The next two days we got up early rode the entire day and only stopped for food or gas. We rushed through the Baja California North and found ourselves back at the border in just two days. We quickly got our tourist cards for about 30$. For the temporary import permits we had to go to a military bank to put a deposit down for the bikes. This bank was sadly not at our border point but at the other one in town. Luckily it was not too far away and they were still open when we arrived. So we got all the paperwork sorted out and after about 2 hours we were back on the road with all necessary documents for the Mexican mainland. Sun was already setting but we still decided to ride further South East at night. We did not plan to spend a night at the border to the US and so we continued on for about 60 miles. We found a nice little motel in the end and fell exhausted but relived into our beds.

Since we did not want to loose too much time because of our detour, but we also did not want to continue riding like through the Baja before, we agreed to take roughly 3 days for the 800 miles towards Los Mochis where our ferry would have eventually landed. The roads were quite boring since they stretched for many miles straight along the ocean but the countryside and scenery along our way was breathtaking at times. On the North East coast of the Gulf of California we suddenly rode through some beautiful sand dunes and large dried out flatlands. But the scenery changed constantly. In a matter of miles we rode out of the sandy part of Mexico that we knew and into a green jungle like region that we had not expected. We were suddenly surrounded by trees, palm trees and lots and lots of other plants. When we finally left the coast and turned towards the mountains we were eager to get going on some of the mountain roads. Some of the passes went over 8000 feet and we quickly left the 110°F temperatures behind us. We enjoyed a couple of days riding through the mountains without having a certain destination and simply explored the Mexican outdoors.

A couple of days later we found ourselves looking for another cheap place to spend the night when suddenly a nice driver in a Mustang stopped behind us. He stopped when we stopped and asked if he could help us out somehow. In the blink of an eye we decided to take him up on his offer and so we followed Salvador and his son Salvador to the nice Hotel Hacienda de los Galvez at the outskirts of the small village Colotlán. We decided to meet back up later to spend the evening and enjoy some local cuisine. We talked about his passion for bikes and that he was a member in a local small biker club. Luckily he and his son spoke good English because our beginners Spanish would not have allowed for much conversation. We decided to end the night with a bottle of Tequila "Tradicional", together with the owner of the hotel. The next morning he also invited us for probably the best breakfast we will have in Mexico. Thank you all for an unforgettable time in Colotlán.

On an entirely different note we noticed that a lot of the "Motels" were in fact payed by the hour. We have found them in and around every city and they usually are completely upfront about it. From menus with sex toys, viagra or lingerie to sex chairs and porn channels on TV. Good about these establishments was that each apartment had their own parking lot with at least some plastic curtain for privacy reasons. Overall all of them were very clean and well maintained. The only thing missing was a catalog with women, these you still had to bring by yourself.

When we parted ways with another one of these hotels we set out for one of our more unlucky days of this journey. It already started with rain in the morning and after just a few meters Fabi noticed on his bordcomputer a yellow warning light. His rear tire had lost over 1 Bar over the last night and so we knew that we had to stop at the next gas station and take a closer look. We quickly found two small punctures which we luckily could fix quickly with plugs. We have to give a little sympathy in this occasion because anything that Fabi owns what is supposed to keep air in, has had punctures by now. Sleeping mattress, pillow, tent, a couple of times the front and rear tire, a lot of fixed punctures started leaking again. But for this day the fix held up and in the end we arrived save and sound in our next destination.

We decided to skip Mexico City and were eager to head into the mountain range south of it. Our excitement did not last for too long though because we headed from one heavy thunderstorm into the next. The fog was so dense at times that we barely could see the bike ahead of us. To make matters worse the roads turned into slippery hell when wet, so we had to go much slower than we wanted and soon were fed up by these conditions. We decided that we couldn't take this miserable weather no more and so we headed on the shortest and quickest road out of the mountains towards the general direction of Cancun.

It turned out to be the right decision because once we left the mountain range it rained much less and we were able to pick up some speed on the well maintained highways. It only took us two days to reach Palenque, another town near Mayan excavations. The town thrives due to tourism attracted by the ruins. So we quickly found us a nice hotel for the following two nights. The Mayan ruins were well restored and gave an incredible insight of the Mayan culture and architecture. On some of the temples there were still Mayan symbols to be found. Quite an extraordinary sight since most of the temples had been destroyed or poorly renovated by the Spanish colonialists. It is a marvelous experience to walk through ancient ruins like these and to swell in the atmosphere of past civilizations.

After Palenque we headed further east towards Cancun. But no matter how straight and little populated the road, no matter how small the village, Mexico is by far the number one in laying down speed bumps. It is one of the most annoying things in Mexico, because most of them are barely visible or at complete and utterless senseless locations. Almost daily we were at least thrown once out of our seats shortly after hearing our front forks being brought to their limits. We believe to have had more break wear in Mexico than in the past 30000 miles. In Cancun we split up for a short time again, because Denis, Heather, Steffi and Fabi decided to enjoy a couple of times in an all inclusive hotel near Tulum. Basti meanwhile explored more of the area surrounding Cancun.

Basti had decided that he had not seen enough of the Mayas yet and therefore he headed straight to Chichén Itzá. But since the ruins were quite close to Cancun and other tourist spots in this area, it turned out to be too busy for his taste. On top the entrance fee was more than quadruple than those of other historic places. All in all Palenque was much more worth seeing in his opinion.
On the way to Cancun he decided to try to see a couple of flamingos near Rio Lagartos. It was not the right time for the usually huge flocks of flamingos but after a while he was happy to have seen some. A truly unique experience!
From Cancun he took the Ferry to Isla Mujeres. Thanks to a friendly Mexican he was able to move into a nice apartment right at the ocean for a good price. At lunch he met a crazy group of Americans that told him about their incredible experiences snorkeling around the island. He decided to look for one of these trips in the city and soon he had found a tour to swim with whale sharks. Since he had never swam with a bigger fish he was quite nervous about swimming with the largest fish of the seas. But once he was brought up close by the boats there was no time to think about it. Since they are so fast you have to brought up close to them and hope that they swim towards you. They swim along the surface totally calm and majestic. Since their movement is rather slow and predictable, Basti did not feel uncomfortable going up close with them. He enjoyed himself very much watching this incredible creature glide through the water.

Five days later we were back together. Steffis flight turned out to be delayed for an entire day, since the planes were used to evacuate the islands endangered by the hurricane Irma. The following day she made it to the airplane safely and we had to say our farewells. Steffi had been with us for the past 4 months from Washington D.C. to Cancun in Mexico. The time flew by and we had a lot of fun together, glad you could make time!

Consequently after Steffis departure we were back to the infamous threesome! Basti, Denis and Fabi gathered their belongings and rode towards the border. We have spent a little over a month in Mexico and we have to say we had a great time! The people are friendly and hospitable, we had never worried about us or our bikes. It is sad that this country has such a bad reputation because we had no bad experience whatsoever.
Happy and with a good feeling we crossed the border without any issues towards Belize. Muchas gracias, adiós Mexico!