April 10, Friday Good Friday, and height of Holy Week, which is also a national holiday week. This means there were many more crowds at all the tourist spots, more traffic on the roads, and big markets going on everywhere. We got up, packed up, and all rode off together towards San Cristobal. The road to S C is absolutely amazing. Take the “Tail of the Dragon”, and add spectacular mountain views, unannounced topes (speed bumps), sections of road missing, sunken 6 inches or gravel, buses on the wrong side of the yellow line - when there is a yellow line, more amazing views, no guard rails, tiny villages with villagers walking roadside, free roaming and hobbled horses, cows, goats and sheep, and about 120 miles and you’ll have Chiapas riding. We stopped at one village ... read more

April 8, Wednesday This was a day to split up and have a little "alone" time. I hopped on the bike after a fruit breakfast and rode across town to the BMW dealer. Luis tried to help me find someone that had a decent gps map of Mexico, as the Garmin had informed me that Mexico was not in North America, therefore it wasn't on the North American map that I had purchased. No luck with that, it would take Garmin sending me the smart chip by mail, so I decided to just keep on figuring out the routes as we've been doing. I headed for the twisties to Xalapa. This town is up in the mountains and boasts the second largest archeological museum in Mexico, Museo de Antropologia. Once I arrived in town the process ... read more

April 4, Saturday Checked the bike out of Senor Roman's garage, donated the two Wal-mart blankets to him, I think he can use them as he apparently sleeps in the garage on an old car seat. Our plan was to head for Vera Cruz, and see how things went along the coastline, figuring that we'd stop for a hotel somewhere near the tourist area. We had a fairly late start out of Papantla, and as we headed for the coast on Mexico 180, we came to a halt in traffic. 180 is a two lane "major highway" that's one lane in either direction. We inched along, in the heat and direct sun, wondering what had happened. Eventually we came upon a flat-bed semi, opposite direction, that had taken a turn too fast and dumped its load ... read more

April 2, Thursday Check out time is 2:00 in the afternoon for many of the Mexican hotels, so we knew we weren't in a rush this morning. We planned to ride only as far as Paplanta, not a very long ride. We had coffee in a nearby shop that Deb had spotted last night, checked for a cash machine, and walked along the river for a bit. Tuxpan is where Fidel Castro departed for the conquest of Cuba. He was given a boat, and some money from an American, and off he went for Cuba. We mounted up fairly late in the morning, and began our ride with a little detour. I had decided to take the road closer to the coast, as it looked less like a highway with more twisties and little towns. We ... read more

March 30, Monday Today marks a week in Mexico. Quick impressions - Beautiful and varied geography, friendly people that almost always return a greeting with a smile. Great weather ( so far ). Amazing variations in the towns and villages - some are remarkably clean and seem proud of themselves, some are very squalid and dirty, most are some of both. There seems to be many buildings that have been started, then left unfinished. Everywhere - in towns, villages and even just along the roads there are unfinished houses and shops, apartments, and even hotels. I'm not sure why this is so - possibly that construction loans are not available (or desired?) and the building proceeds at the pace of available money? Food is inexpensive. Gas is a touch more about $3.50 a gallon for the ... read more