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The air was cool when we left Xilitla a little after 9:30am but that was soon to change as were headed towards the gulf coast today. The ride was on all small roads through small towns and villages which meant lots of topes. For those of you that don’t know, Mexico’s roads are littered with varying sizes of speed bumps made of varying materials as you go through towns and villages. I guess it’s the only way to get people to slow down. For motorcycles they are both a curse and a blessing. A curse because of course you have to slow down considerably to ride over them and also because they are often very hard to see so can be a last minute surprise and heavy handful of brakes. The blessing part is when you can time passing over the speed bump while overtaking a slower vehicle or truck as they have to hit them much slower than bikes with decent suspension. This is where my little 250 dual sport comes in handy. I can stand up and hit them a a pretty good clip with my tall suspension. Anyway, we must have hit hundreds of them between Xilitla and Papantla. We also came upon a demonstration in one of the small villages blocking the road with rocks and debris, but they quickly let us through so no issues.

Papantla is a mid sized town in the state of Veracruz. We rolled in late afternoon and found a pretty cheap hotel for about $10 per bed. We were too far from the square to walk but there was an old church next to the hotel so explored that a bit. The hotel itself also was old and appeared to have some interesting history attached to it. We got to climb up to the bell tower (which rang on the hour and half hour between 6am and 9pm) for a nice view of the city and then grabbed dinner on the street from the various vendors selling mostly tacos. I got what I thought was a veggie tostada but it ended up having some dried chicken mixed into it. The next morning we went to the square for breakfast and then were off to Veracruz.

The morning was already hot as we were on the east side of the coastal range. It would get considerably hotter as we approached Veracruz running mostly toll roads. I have a hard time keeping up with the bigger bikes and it takes a lot of mental concentration to run the little bike over 65mph as it gets a little twitchy at higher speeds. Usually they all run ahead and I catch up at a toll booth or when going through a congested town. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful resort right on the beach and although I enjoyed my cucumber/avocado salad, I’m looking forward to finding a salad with lettuce other than iceberg which is all I’ve had so far. We arrived into Veracruz at rush hour but after getting past a slowdown due to a stopped truck, it was not too bad the rest of the way to our hotel in the central historic district. We had rooms at the Hotel Veracruz Centro Historico right across from the main square – a pretty nice hotel for only $20 per bed. The heat index in Veracruz was 113 when we arrive and I was feeling a bit sick. My camelback bladder had sprung a leek a few days ago so I haven’t been able to drink water while riding. I try to down a bottle or two at our stops, but the high humidity was not allowing my body to keep up and I think I ended up getting dehydrated. I felt terrible and had a massive headache. I passed on dinner that night and just stayed in the room drinking water and laying in bed. Luckily it only took me down that one night and I was feeling normal the next morning.

Tuesday we took a cab to see Fort San Juan de Ulua built by the Spanish in the 15 and 1600’s. It’s a large complex of fortresses, prisons and a former palace. We hired a local guide who explained the interesting history to us in English. Glad we hired him (only $3 US each for the two hour tour) as he was an encyclopedia of knowledge on the history of the fort. By noon it was time to leave as the midday temps were reaching 100 with super high humidity. After relaxing in the hotel for a bit, I walked around the historical district and snapped a few pictures. We took cabs into the newer section of town for dinner and drinks. The new town wasn’t too interesting with no shortage of neon signs and chain restaurants. We took cabs back to the old town square and listened to street musicians before retiring for the night.

Wednesday morning was hot already when leaving around 8:30am from Veracruz. As we were gassing up in town, a little altercation came up with the attendant. She filled my tank (all pumps are attended in Mexico) and I gave her 400 pesos for my 328 peso gas bill. I glanced at the 50 peso bill and change she returned and put in in my sleeve pocket for easy access at toll booths. After pulling away and waiting off to the side for the other she came up to me waving my 200 peso bills and shouting in Spanish something about wrong change. Hank came over to translate and it appears she though she gave me 100 pesos too much in change. I was quite sure she gave me the correct change and objected. The manager came over and initially sided with the attendant. I stood my ground and they decided to close the pump and count all the money to balance it against her cash. You pay attendants directly with cash and they keep the wads of bills in their pockets. Seems like a terrible system but that’s how they do it. Anyway after about 15 minutes of waiting the manager returned and stated that the attendant was incorrect and had given me the correct change. I was ready to say screw it after about 5 minutes of waiting in the stifling heat (100 pesos is only about $5 US) but I think Hank wanted to see this one through just on principle.

After about an hour of riding we were climbing into the mountains and enjoying cooler temps. The forecast was for rain so I had geared up with the liners in my jacket and pants. It ended up raining on and off for most of the afternoon. By 5pm we were just getting to the outskirts of Oaxaca. Once we hit the city traffic was heavy and it took almost an hour from there to reach our hotel in Centro. We are about 5 blocks from the Zocalo which is the main square. A quick walk to the square indicated that the city is already packed for the upcoming Dia de Muertos celebration. I had a delicious salad that had some mixed greens and romaine instead of the iceberg in all my previous salads in Mexico. Oaxaca is well know as a food mecca so I’m sure the salad quality will be this way in most restaurants. After the Day of the Dead celebration over the weekend I check into my AirBnB apartment on Monday and start a month of Spanish language and Oaxacan cooking classes. So looking forward to this experience!

Friday morning got a late start on the bikes from Tanchachin because it was raining buckets. A late start wasn’t going to be a big deal as we only had about 100 miles to cover to the next destination. When it finally lightened around 11am we were off to Xilitla. Unfortunately we caught up to the heavy stuff in only about 30 minutes of riding. With fairly high heat and humidity it made for some fairly tough riding conditions. As we started climbing up the mountain to Xilitla, thick fog was added to the mix. We ended up driving around Xilitla for about 30 minutes up and down steep slippery stone streets trying to find the hotel Hank had booked. Not that Xilitla is that big, it’s just the the streets are narrow and jam packed full of cars, trucks, 4 wheelers and motorbikes. We did finally find the hotel and it was on a walking street up a steep stone stair/walkway. We parked the bikes at the bottom and unloaded and dragged the gear up the hill. Semi secure parking was provided by the hotel down the block a bit – also down a super steep and slippery stone street. Hell, I could barely walk up the street to the hotel as my boots were slipping on the smooth stones.

Xilitla is a town in the state of San Luis Postsi, in the Huasteca region of Mexico. It’s known for its fertile mountains and springs which create panoramic landscapes throughout the town. It’s literally built on the side of a mountain in the Sierra Gorda range. The rugged landscape has shielded it from industrialization, helping preserve its indigeonous culture. It’s one of Mexico’s designated Pueblos Magicos towns. It is also home to Las Pozas which is a bizarre subtropical 80 acre garden with waterfalls and polls interspersed with towering sculptures in concrete and stone and beds of tropical plants created by Edward Jones between 1949 and 1984. At one time there were over 29,000 orchids there. We walked down there after getting settled but was closing at 6pm so decide to come back in the morning. We were planning to stay 2 nights in Xilitla so decided to visit Las Pozas in the morning and then ride bikes to some of the nearby natural attractions.

The next morning – after trying to find a decent cup of coffee before 9am on a Saturday (impossible), we walked back down to the entrance to Las Pozas. It was pretty interesting – funky and strange at the same time. The amount of labor to build the structures and stone walkways must have been immense. The waterfall and stream running through was pretty spectacular as well. Another interesting thing was the hippy camp that was down near Las Pozas. The little individual cement casitas, stone teepees’s, (also made of cement) etc. matched the funkiness of Las Pozas. Luckily yesterdays rain had brought a cold front through so the temps were only in the 70’s. Xilitla is know for it’s hot and humid year round weather.

We finished touring Las Pozas and vicinity and then hopped on the bikes to check out some of the water features in the area. The most interesting stop included about 20 kilometers of off-road and a boat ride to the spot in the river that actually hits a wall because the water is flowing from an underground cave. There is a couple hundred feet of land where the river stops and starts again with the flow going underground. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and mild temps so all and all pretty good. We did get pretty muddy as the off-road were still full of muddy puddles from yesterdays heavy rains.

So the group I’ve joined up with includes Scott and Amy from San Antonio…Frank and Gabby from Germany and Tibor and Anna from England. Tibor is originally from Poland and Anna is from Lithuania. And of course there’s Hank from Dilly, TX. So happy to have joined up with this crew of good people and getting to see some interesting small towns and villages on the way down to Oaxaca. Hank has rooms in Oaxaca starting on Wednesday next week so only 4 more riding days to get down there. Can’t wait to see where we end up tomorrow!

Wednesday morning I got loaded up and and rode downtown to meet Hank’s group at 8:00am on Houston St, just a few blocks from border Bridge #2. This is the smaller and less commercial of the two crossings in Laredo. Just when I though I somehow missed them as it was approaching 8:30am, 4 big BMW GS’s come down the street towards me. I had parked in the Wells Fargo Parking lot and was still just sitting on the bike with my helmet cradled on the mirror so I just threw on the helmet and gloves and filtered in behind them as they stoped at the light a block ahead. We payed our toll and crossed the bridge into Nuevo Laredo, MX. The first step in the process as you get across the river is to go through the light metered gate where you randomly (?) get a green light or red light on if you can proceed. Of course I get the red light and have to pull over to be searched. A quick document check and questioning what I am carrying into Mexico in my bags on my bike and then I’m off to the Immigration and Customs building to join the group. The couple from England (he’s Polish and she is Lithuanian) also got the red light so I wasn’t the only bike to get nipped right off the bat.

Customs and Immigration was pretty quick and easy as it usually is going into Mexico. There was an issue with one of the rental bikes that Hank had to fix that held up one couple – but other than that short delay it was painless. The whole process took maybe an hour, which included the mandatory deposit we all had to pay to the Banjercito for temporarily importing vehicles. Since my bike is new I paid approximately a $400 deposit which all vehicles 2015 or newer pay. We were on the road towards Monterrey before 10am. Hank asked me if I could run at 75mph on my 250 and I laughed – because I knew that is my top speed with the throttle pinned, with no wind and probably slightly downhill. I finally said I might be able to maintain 70, but that was stretching it. He gave me a quick set of instruction on his intended rout through Monterrey in the case I got behind that I absorbed absolutely none of and we were off.

Somehow I was able to maintain about 65-70mph and was lucky the German couple was not going much faster so I had them in my sights when the group pulled into a gas station to top up just as we were coming into Monterrey. Every time I got up around 70 the front end got unstable so didn’t want to try to go any faster…probably all the weight on the back of my bike unweighting the front wheel. I definitely have more clothes with me than any other trip. I didn’t want to look like a dirt bag during my month in Oaxaca. Usually when traveling I’m in a new town every day or two so don’t have to worry about wearing the same clothes day after day – no one to call you on it. I think I weighed my load of stuff I’m carrying (pictured) at about 42lbs. The GS would absorb that about of stuff, but for the little 250 its a load. Anyhoo, after gassing up we performed the unpleasant task of getting through the large city of Monterrey. It’s been about a year and a half since I have been that congested, lane splitting, dog eat dog craziness on a motorcycle. I soon got into the mode and came to appreciate the zippy little WR250. Finally, I had an advantage over the BMW’s. I could dart in and out of lanes pretty easily at the lower speeds of the heavy traffic. We made it through unscathed and headed south towards Santiago.

Santiago is a small town about 60k south of Monterrey where we stopped for lunch. It was a nice pace change from the congestion of Monterrey. Lunch was pretty delicious – I had a huge avocado salad for about 100 pesos (about $5 US). We were then off to our final destination, a small village in the coastal state of Tamaulipas called Santa Engracia. We arrived at the Hotel Hacienda Santa Engracia around 5:30pm and were greeted with fresh made Margaritas. The original property hotel was a hacienda built in the mid 1500’s. It had been converted into a hotel in the 50’s. At least that what I got from one of the waiters in my feeble Spanish comprehension. I need to google it to find out the full story because the hotel and surrounding compound was pretty darn cool. The stay included dinner and breakfast the next day for 800 peso each (about $40 US). My Victoria beers before dinner were only 21 peso’s each. Gotta love Mexico!

The next day after breakfast we took the back way out of the village and did a huge mountain loop enjoying incredible views all day. I enjoyed the time at elevation as the state of Tamaulipas is mostly tropical with its proximity to the ocean and mountain barrier. I rode the other side of that range on the way down to South America and it is basically dessert. Such a difference on the Tamaulipas side. So steamy hot! Up in the mountains in between it was nice and cool and dry. The roads were twisty but rather bumpy so I had to be a bit cautious for most of the ride. I’m basically on a dirt bike with knobby tires so not exactly the perfect tool for that task.

We stoped for lunch at the La Palucha Hotel in Ciudad Valles and then to our destination for the night in the village of Tanchachin. Hank had reservations for the group at the Hotel Cascada Huasteca. The name is for the amazing waterfalls that inhabit this region. We all walked to the river about 2 kilometers away knowing it would be brown from the recent rainy season. In the winter and spring it is a Caribbean blue from the natural spring and minerals at the source. Oh well, it was a nice walk and the surround mountains at sunset were pretty cool to look at.

It is Thursday evening as I’m typing this update but unsure if it will go out due to the weak internet in the village. So fortunate to hook up with this group as I’m seeing some very interesting places that I never would have found on my own. I have completely diverted from my planned solo route and am perfectly fine with that. Just going with the flow. I’ll be with the group all the way to Oaxaca and now get to experience Day of the Dead there as Hank had booked the rooms back in March. I had originally wanted to get there before my AirBnb booking on November 4th but couldn’t find anything anywhere near the Centro. Traveling is all about meeting people and I’m so happy I met Hank and am now traveling with this awesome group!

Tonight I’m here in Laredo and will cross the border to Mexico tomorrow. I lot has happened in the past 7 weeks that has taken me from Denver to Michigan to Denver again then to Ohio, Virginia and now Texas. I was fortunate to spend some quality time with family and friends in all the aforementioned states. Much thanks to Jason, my sister Julie, Ken & Marybeth, Jeff and John for great visits. Jeff and John are old friends living in Dallas and Austin respectively that I haven’t seen for over 20 years so it was extra special to be able to connect with them after all this time. Thanks so much to you all for your incredible hospitality! With my current status as a travel nomad I’m so grateful to be able to connect and stay with family and friends along the way.

I left Virginia almost 2 weeks ago with the truck camper and trailered Yamaha WR250R. I arrived in Dallas 5 days later and left the rig parked on the farm of a friend’s uncle (thanks Stoney!). I just decided I didn’t want to run the little 250 the required 1500 miles to get to the border from Virginia. The 250 will be great in Mexico but not so much on US interstates. I went back and forth in my head on taking the BMW vs. the Yamaha and the end went with the smaller bike thinking that it would be much easier to deal with in Mexico. Riding from Dallas to Laredo has me second guessing my decision. I got accustomed to comfort after 6 weeks on the BMW through Canada to Alaska and back. The 250 is anything but comfortable, but not horrible. With a top speed of 75mph (and not exactly stable at that speed) it isn’t going to win any races. I only have about 3 or 4 inches of wiggle room between the tank bag in front and the duffle behind me. I’m sure I will come to appreciate it in Mexico but right now missing the BMW.

While it Dallas I stopped to have lunch with Joseph whom I had met in Ecuador on the trip down to Ushuaia. Joseph has traveled extensively in Mexico and it was good to catch up and get some tips for my upcoming trip. I told him my plans to slowly make my way south to Oaxaca where I had booked an Airbnb for a month to study Spanish and take some cooking classes. Joseph had suggested I stop to see Hank, a friend of his, on my way to Laredo. Hank is a bit of legend in the BMW community as he is a talented BMW mechanic and his own 1100GS has over 500,000 miles on it. He as traveled extensively all over the world on that bike and has his shop in Dilley, TX. He makes frequent trips throughout Mexico and is known to be a bit of an expert on the country. I arrived to his shop late morning and he was in his office talking to a couple from Poland and Lithuania. A few minutes later a couple from Germany walked in and he explained he was guiding a tour with 3 couples through Mexico leaving on Wednesday morning. We got to talking exchanging plans for Mexico and it turns out they were planning to be in Oaxaca the weekend before I planned to arrive – which is Day of the Dead weekend. I had tried to book my rental to arrive before the festival weekend but couldn’t find anything as it is mostly all booked out months in advance. Oaxaca is known for one of the top cities for the Day of the Dead festival so rooms book out way in advance. Turns out Hank booked accommodations for the tour back in March and a friend of his was to meet him in Oaxaca to share the double room he had booked but couldn’t come last minute. Hank graciously invited me to cross the border with the group, join them for the tour south and share his double room in Oaxaca during Day of the Dead! My rental starts on Nov. 4th so I only have to find a room for Sunday night in Oaxaca. The festival ends Sunday and the town clears out for the most part so should be a problem.

So tomorrow I met up with Hank and crew at the border for the ride down to Oaxaca. Everyone will be on a big BMW except me so I hope I can keep up. So looking forward to the journey south and then a month in the historic city of Oaxaca – let the journey begin!