10:30 a.m. I woke up a frantic mess. I had no idea where I was, what was going on, or why I was so sore. I collected my thoughts, realized that I had only been asleep for a couple hours, and went back to sleep. A couple hours later and I was up. I packed all my nasty dirty clothes and put on my second to last clean shirt. I went to the hotel office and talked them into letting me use the hotel computer. Still no E-mail from Dave and Nian. I was still rollin alone in Mexico. I tied all my gear up on my bike and hit the road. Not before stopping and downing a Monster of course. I was definitely feeling the 4-5 hours of sleep. I topped off my gas tank and hit the freeway! I was surprised to find one of the most scenic motorbike rides i've ever been on. The freeway was windy and full of trees. I was wishing I had a super bike so bad. It was such an awesome ride. The road wound back and forth up to around 8700 feet elevation. My bike is jetted for sea level so once I got up to the higher elevations it began sputtering and choking due to the thin air.
The Yellow line on top is the Road between Orizaba and Esperanza Mexico that I drove
Once I got over the mountains I realized that my back breaks were completely gone and that my back sprocket was almost worn out again. I stopped and Tightened my chain. I looked up and saw an awesome mountain. Pico de Orizaba. Little did i know that It is the highest mountain in Mexcio at 18,500 ft elevation.
Orizaba Peak from the toll booth
The views from up in the Mexican mountains were unreal! I always thought that Mexico was full of nasty cactus desert. Not true.. I rode as fast as I could towards Mexico City. As I came down out of the mountains a strong wind slowed my roll down to about 50mph and killed my gas mileage. I ran out of gas but luckily I had filled up a gatorade bottle the night before. I coasted into a town called pubelo. I filled my tank and set out in search of a bike shop. I got the run around all over town. People ran be back and forth for almost two hours looking for bike parts. I found a little shop that sold me a battery and some mirrors. They sent me to the honda shop to find the rest of the stuff that I needed to fix my bike. I finally found the Honda shop and started talking to some guy about what I needed. An older fellow came up to me and asked me if I spoke Portuguese. I guess he had a Brazilian mother. Turns out he spoke English, Spanish, Portugese and 3 other languages. Also turns out that he owned the Honda Shop. We chatted it up for almost half an hour. He had lived with a Mormon family in the US, lived in sweden, and been all over the world. He was closing his shop because it was saturday and they closed early on saturdays. He sold me all the parts I needed for super cheap and got me back on my way. I checked my E-mail before I got back on the road and what do you know, Dave had written me. They were ahead of me again. They were fixing Nians bike closer to Mexico City. Dave told me to check my e-mail in Toluca which is just past mexico city. I got a new spark of excitement, grabbed some grub, and hit the road. As i got closer to Mexico City the more ghetto my surroundings became. I tried keeping my tracks straight but without proper maps and someone to help navigate while I drove I soon found myself lost in south east Mexico City. I was surrounded my chop shops and GHETTO! I worked my way east in trying to get as close to Toluca as I could. Soon my eastbound road ended and sent my North. This sent me into one of the nicest upscale metropolitan cities I've ever been to! There were sushi bars and steak houses on every corner. Soon instead of being surrounded by trashy old cars i was surrounded by BMW's and Benzs. It was a night and day difference. All the sudden my chain came off as a drove down a busy street! It locked my tire up and brought me to a dead stop in the middle of traffic. Luckily I wasnt run over. I forced my bike to the side of the road and spent the next half hour trying to unbind my chain. Finally, with the help of my handy leatherman, I was able to free my wretched chain. Back on the road again. I began to ask people next to me in traffic which way I needed to go to get to Toluca. I asked probably 8 or 9 people. Not one of them would even talk to me. Some street sweeper sent me east through the center of the city. I would have told you that I was In Washington D.C. There were were monuments and parks everywhere. Tall trees and flowers were on every corner and in the median of every street. It was simply beautiful.
Monument in the Middle of Mexico City
I finally asked some soccer mom in a nice car what way I needed to go to get to toluca. She said she was headed there and that I could follow her. I followed her through the heart of Mexico city. As we went out of the city I would have told you we were driving through Denver. There were mansions in the pine trees, best buys, and shopping malls everywhere. As the soccer mom drove away from me on the freeway I once again felt like God had sent me an angel go get me out of a bad situation. The road between Mexico City and Toluca was soooo pretty. It was a giant pine tree forest that never seemed to end. Once again I was almost out of Gas so I coasted down to the first gas station before Toluca. I got some gas, had another drink, got made fun of by some kids, looked for internet without luck, and got back on the road. Another hour or two and I was in Toluca. I checked my E-mail and hadn't received anything from them. From toluca I had two choices to get to Guadalajara. North or South? A chick in one of the toll booths told me that Going north was safer and that the roads were nicer. Once again I began a wicked battle with a hard head wind. I got behind a big bus and stayed like 10 feet behind it for almost an hour. When I got out from behind it I realized that I was pretty dizzy from the fumes! My surroundings were still way pretty and it was evening so it wasn't super hot. All things considered I was feeling pretty good. As I left the small town of Ucareo, I started coming down the hill towards lake Cuitzeo. It started getting cold and the sun was almost down so I pulled off to put on as much warm/dry clothing as I had. I piled on three layers, then my sunday clothes, and then,,, I witnessed on of the top three most amazing sunsets of my life!
One of the best Mexican Sunsets Ever!
I watched the sun go down until it was almost completely dark. As I rode past the lake I wasn't excited to find out that the whole distance of the lake was pure bugs! These weren't just mosquitoes either. These were like small dragonflys. As I passed the lake I was now mad thanks to the terrible film of bug guys on my visor and all over my stuff. I wiped as much as i could off and pressed on. By the time I made it to Guadalajara it was super late. I found an open internet place just to find out that Dave and Nian hadn't written me. I wrote em and told em to meet me at church in Mazatlan Sunday morning. I fueled up and tore outta there. I hadn't even been on the road for an hour and my chain came off again. I managed to get it back on and cruised slow to the next gas station. There I got some food and a drink and started feeling all strange. I got dizzy and wondered if I was going to pass out. I then laid down on the sidewalk outside gas station store and wondered if I was going to die. I closed my eyes for about 10 mins and started feeling better. I think I just needed some real food in my system. Too much gas station candy wasn't treating me well. I topped my tank and talked to a guy that lived in a wood shack behind the gas station. He was fixing a tire and said that he'd let me use some of his tools to shorten my chain. I had tightened it as far as I could and I was to the point where it was just going to break my sprocket if it kept going with it that loose. I put my bike up on a stump and tore it apart. I was excited to find that the bearings, break, and hub in the back wheel were all completely worn out. haha It took me about an hour to get the bike all apart, cut a link out with an old nail and a big steel hammer, and get everything back together. Once I got it back on the road I was flying! I felt so good. It was probably 3 or 4 in the morning and I was feeling great! As I came down out of the mountains towards the coast it got cold, I mean COLD!! I was doing leg lifts and jumping on my pegs. I even stopped and ran with my rain gear on! The night never seemed to end! I was probably 30 or 40 miles from the next town and I ran out of gas. Once again my gatorade bottle of gas saved my bacon. As I rolled down getting closer to the town I got stopped at a toll booth. I had started just driving around their gates and not paying them because they were wicked expensive. This time I got stopped by a gun. They were determined to make me pay and I wasn't about to spend my last few pesos on a toll. I was more worried that the gas station wouldn't accept card so I would have been out of luck. After arguing with these toll workers for more than twenty minutes I turned around and drove out the other toll exit without paying! I was waiting to hear bullets fly past my head by I must have gone unnoticed. I was then on the old highway. I sputtered on fumes into the next gas station just to find out that they wouldn't take my card. I got a couple pesos worth and the Guy sent me across town to top my tank at a better station. This place was actually pretty nice so I enjoyed a couple cups of hot coco, had some breakfast, and recharged my mental batteries a little bit. Around 5 a.m. I was once again headed towards home. It was so foggy that my rain gear was soaked and my vision was terrible. I creeped through it until the sun started coming up. As it started getting lighter I noticed a sign that said I was coming up on another toll. My Gps showed the old highway just a few miles to the east so I swerved off the road at my first chance. Of course I wrecked. Then I couldn't get my bike push started. Finally I got it going and made it over to the smaller town and got on the old highway towards Mazatlan. I was probably 20 yards out of town when my bike reved all the way up! What the heck... It's 6 o'clock in the morning.. I looked back just to see my chain laying on the ground. oh crap... now what.......
