Mexico Daize 3

After I left Daniels with the extensive map he made for me I felt pretty confident I could at least avoid having to go into Veracruz and get lost again. His map was so all inclusive it had all the toll booths on it, how much they cost, how many kilometers between them, all the towns between his place and the turn off to get around the city, and a general route all the way to Guatamala. He said I should be able to make it to the border in 14 hours, a little optimistic maybe but we'll see.

The next 45 minutes of driving was some of the prettiest I came across in all of Mexico. The morning ride along the Carribbean, the valleys and clouds hanging on the peaks, the wide jungled mountain sides sweeping down to the sea. It was beautiful and reminded me of Hawaii in many ways. Along with beach access (more rare then you might think down here) the towns had a lot of shops, and many of the resorts were right on the beaches, I'm sure a lot cheaper then Miami's South Beach Hotels ! Maybe a place to go Christmas shopping on my way back and rest.

Unfortunatley I didn't have time to do any exploring now. I still was hoping to be in Costa Rica by the 3rd.

It was nice cruising on this my third morning in Mexico. The bike had been running well up until now and as I headed into the mountains up away from the Carribean, way too soon for me, I was saying good bye to the Carribean but hello to some beautiful mountains. At one point I came upon what looked like giant landslides. Like entire mountain sides had just been carved away, or had simply fallen away. I would have thought maybe they had been excavated but some of the faces were a thousand feet high of more. Deep red dirt contrasted against the deep green mountain slopes that were left standing behind them was unlike anything I had seen before. If any reader knows what formed them please comment. They are just up in the mountains as you travel out of Alvaredo, or in that area.

I am learning the discipline of taking good pictures, and its not easy to just get going in morning on a smooth road and get settled in for a couple hour ride, and suddenly have to make myself stop, get everything out and take a picture, only to get going again and see something else. I think if other trips are more planned around taking photos and seeing certain areas its easier to do, somewhat. On this trip since I have to think of my dental work as well as my homestay schedule and I don't have a lot of time for stopping. But I do try to stop and take 3 or 4 good pictures a day, and even that takes some discipline. The technical know how and upgrading of equipment in order to take better pictures is something that will be down the road. For now I'm really just trying to survive, get thru all this, tell a story, and hopefully take enough pictures to give readers an idea of what kind of country I'm travelling thru. On the return trip I will have more opportunities. And on subsequent trips hopefully I can incorporate some gained picture taking experiance as well as the addition of video and audio to help bring the story and trip to life.

Despite my best efforts and Daniels map I still ended up getting lost for awhile trying to get around Veracruz. Somehow I found myself heading back to guess where, Mexico City. This time I was able to get back on track a little faster, but still frustrating to continually be wasting time backtracking. I hear it now, get used to it.
But overall my third day was better. Some construction, and hit some rain for an hour or two. Had to stop and put the rain gear on but driving in rain during the day is a lot easier then on a mountain highway at night. After my experience the night before I was almost ready to stop at a motel and wait it out. But reason took over, if I stopped everytime it rains down here I'll never get there.
But later that night I found something to eat early, and then found a hotel to stay in. Both I drove by and then turned around to first go to the restaurant, and then go to the hotel. Instead of being lazy and just assuming I'll drive right up to what I want without ever having to turn around, I stopped before it got too late, and went back to the places that looked good. I guess I'm learning.



Again everything must be adjusted too. I'm not on an interstate in the U.S. where there's 24 hour restaurants and a motel if you need it at every exit.
The food was in a restaurant by a Pemex, and I guessed at something off the menu. There were a couple of Federal Policeo's eating at the table next to me, I nodded to them as I came in and sat down.

After eating I drove to a hotel just before town. It had a steep drive down into the court yard. The whole place was painted bright yellow with green trim and was called The Hotel Polymar. I drove up to a lobby to register and there were two young women watching t.v. They didn't understand a word of English and I had them (like I do everywhere where I'm not sure what I'm being charged) write down how much a room would be for the night The lady wrote down 300 Pesos (about $25). It like other hotels had a garage which is where you entered, can close that door, not lock it though, and then head up stairs to the room. I did like being able to garage my bike even though I have to carry all my gear upstairs. The Hotel Polymar was its name, but like most towns in Mexico, there is no sign saying its name as you come into town, and if its not big enough to be on the map, you have no idea of what town your in. Only how many miles from the next major town. In this case I was hoping I was still on 180 somewhere between 175 and 185.

The room was fine, I hooked up my laptop and wrote down some notes on the previous two days travel. I could usually plug in my laptop at these hotels but one didn't even have outlets to use. I'm still learning to prepare uploads and posts in advance so when I do have the internet I can start posting again. I'm also learning to date my posts so they will post on days I am travelling, so unlike last week where I didn't have internet where I was, there won't be week long gaps in my posts. Unfortunately this has put me somewhat behind, but it just means while everything will be in order as the trip progresses, there will be a lag between when you receive the post and when it actually happened. Maybe a week at times, maybe more or less others. But this should help with continuity with the posts. Ideally I would like to post 2-4 times a week.