Mexico City and Pachuca

After getting up I had breakfast and headed out towards Mexico City. Being that most of the road runs thru the mountains and is quite high up, it actually felt cold. The first cold I had felt since early in my trip in Texas on my way south. I was about 160 miles from Mexico City and since it was basically a toll road and a freeway going there I expected to make good time. I thought if I hit it about lunch time this would give me all afternoon if needed to get across it without encountering the evening rush hour. Like that would make any difference, since I think it is probably always  rush hour there. Though I can't imagine what the go home rush hour looks like.

The highway was dotted with some magnificent views. As I said in my previous post the toll road running from Acapulco to Mexico City is as modern as any Interstate in the U.S. and some of the rivers and canyons it crosses, sometimes with thousand foot drops, seemed to have made them have to create architectural and engineering wonders. It was impressive, and also I guess because it was a toll road, traffic was quite light.

The closer you get to Mexico City the more the highway climbs. Up and up until you pretty much know your going to get to the top and then descend into this huge valley and city of 20 million people. At one point I got a glimpse of the huge volcano that overlooks the whole valley and the city, but found it, like most views of the city as well, became lost in smog. There is no great view of the valley, city and volcano all together, at least not on this day. The smog hangs over the whole valley and seems to cut visibility down to a mile or two. So the awe inspiring view of a city this size I expected to see did not happen.

What looks to be tepee's of a type of hay dot these fields just before Mexico City.

I continue to descend into the city, there is one last toll booth to pay at. I find it kind of funny how you pay to get on, and then have to pay to get off, seemingly not getting anything for your money after the last time you pay except to be ushered into the city traffic and streets.

I remembered looking at my city map of Mexico City and seeing how the toll road ends and just turns into a main street heading north right thru the city. I also see that highway 105 which I need to pick up to keep heading north thru Mexico runs thru a town called Pachuca about 30 or 40 miles north of the city. So this then needs to be my strategy. Too stay on this road thru the city which appears to basically head due north, no matter what, and hope it eventually leads me to some signs for either highway 105, or Pachuca.

I have read different accounts by world travelers traveling in such obscure places like Mongolia where with no signs to go by, and incomplete maps at best, one basically must return to ones instincts. Almost like being lost in the woods, one must get a bearing on the sun or whatever to first determine your direction, then like in this case knowing there are only a given number of roads that will eventually take you cross country to your destination (in Mexico like in Mongolia usually just one), keep heading in the direction you need to go in and in a process of elimination, eventually find the road you need. This coupled with the universal asking of directions, usually gets you on the road you were looking for. Eventually, and usually.......

This strategy worked really well for Mexico City. I was just glad I came in on a road that basically didn't change direction and I didn't have to get off of to find another road. Though I wasn't sure it would work until I got on the north side of the city, I just inched my way along  in the traffic and kept moving. And there are some things I have learned about traffic jams in my travels.

One is you will always encounter them, certainly at places of construction, cities or public events. Two, in Central America and Mexico since there are so few roads or freeways that actually go around towns, you will certainly find them at just about every village or city you have to go through. The size of the traffic jam being determined to a big degree of course by the size of the village or town encountered. And finally the most important thing to remember is that they do move. I think everyone will agree, we have never got in a traffic jam that didn't eventually move and we were able to get out of. Worth remembering every time the thought occurs "I'm never going to get out of here, or this traffic is never going to move so maybe I need to find a different route". When you feel like you already maybe lost, trying to find another route, especially in Mexico City, may not be the best option. For me patience was the word of the day.

Welcome to the state of Morelos, this sign was at the mountain pass going the other way just before Mexico City.

I had planned on at least 4 hours to cross Mexico City, not even knowing the distance I needed to go, what roads I would need to use, or what the traffic would be like ( this is another instance where tour books, better maps, and better planning all could of paid off big time for me). Amazingly it took about two hours. I just stay' d on my original road which first crossed thru the new city where I went by what looked like the 1968 Olympic Stadium and some other major downtown attractions, and then headed thru the old city. This road had 3 or 4 lanes going each way (along with a bus lane) and we just seemed to inch our way from one traffic light to another, with all lanes being full. No one really beeped their horns much, or hurried, this was just a fact of every day life here, you moved when the person ahead of you moved, at least that was my attitude and seemed to be shared by everyone. But that didn't mean if you saw an opening to change lanes or gain that extra few feet to get across the city you didn't take it!

Its worth mentioning here that in many places, especially Costa Rica where there are so many small motorcycles (usually in the 90cc to 125cc range) that if riding one one can save an amazing amount of time by going between cars, passing on the right, moving to the head of any line and even running red lights. Its sort of like if you can do it, do it (after almost 5000 miles south of the border, I don't think I ever saw anyone get pulled over for a traffic violation, except me once!). I think its not only not seen as being rude, its expected of bikes to be driven this way. And maybe even this way they don't take up a whole lane that a car could use. While I don't know if I would say bikes are more respected down here or not, I do think people are more aware of them, and I often saw even the smallest of bikes moving slow out on a main highway be given the same lane recognition that a car would get, not always, but most of the time. Of course Guatemalan busses come to mind, but they didn't seem to give respect to any creature, whether alive or dead!

For me having a bigger bike, and coming from a place where it maybe either seen as being rude or you might get a ticket for driving like this, I usually didn't take advantage of my size. No doubt standing out to other drivers like a sore thumb waiting in traffic that other bikes would have simply gone around, or gone thru between the parked cars. Though the longer I am down here, and in certain circumstances I do begin to go around or thru traffic. And I begin to understand that driving down here is just a way of life. Not really that different then negotiating the L.A. freeways every day, the Ohio Turnpike, or a New York rush hour.

This all being said I definitely was not taking any chances here. There were no places to park or pull over, these were strictly traffic lanes. Where ever people parked for work or whatever other business they might have wasn't on this road. This made it hard like many other places in Mexico for stopping and taking any pictures. It also made it hard when I noticed my temperature gauge was running hotter then ever and I could smell radiator fluid and wanted to pull over to check it out. There wasn't any place to do so and I certainly didn't want to make any turns here. My mind set was very simple, just head north. No turns, stops or anything. A driver next to me pointed to the bottom of my bike and I looked down and saw a puddle of anti-freeze. If I had been driving a car I would have had to stop and deal with an overheated engine. But I figured since most bikes are air cooled anyway, I was hoping it would not overheat enough to do any damage and I could at least get it out of the city before dealing with it. Like most of the lower elevations in Mexico, Mexico City was hot. The coolness of the morning and being up in the mountains had given way to the heat along the valley floor and the city. In my sort of I'll deal with it later philosophy, I just kept going. I didn't have a lot of choice since I couldn't even pull over without blocking a lane.

Mexico City did impress me in ways, at least the small amount of it I was seeing. The downtown area seemed to have a lot of interesting architecture and just reminded me culturally and business wise of any other major city I had been in. I could see it would be a neat place to come back to and really spend some time visiting. Even though the traffic and smog seemed overwhelming at times, and there were even people wearing filter masks, I assume to help with pollution, it just seemed to have so much to offer, and I also got a sense it was a world city with all the amenities and problems that come with being one. Yes I so hope I get a chance to get back.

The bike was running hot, but never got into the red zone. The thing is, once it ran out of coolant the temperature gauge and the external fan for cooling wouldn't work because there wasn't any fluid to get a temperature reading from. At one point once I got out of the city I did put some water in it but of course that leaked out as well.

So after about 2 hours of sticking religiously to the street I was on I came upon a divided highway and a sign for Pachuca, the next town I needed. It seemed almost too easy and I was grateful. For something I had worried about so much, it turned out to be not that hard after all, and nothing major had happened. In fact Pachuca, Tampico and Veracruz and countless other cities much smaller then Mexico City proved to be a lot more trouble to cross or find directions in.

As I began to clear the city traffic and head out towards Pachuca I felt good that that obstacle was passed, and I was just that much closer to Texas and the states. Pachuca looked to be a town of about 100 or 150 thousand people nestled up on the south side of the Sierra De Pachuca mountain range.

 

Getting thru the city of Pachuca to this point overlooking it just north of Mexico City was one of the hardest things to do on the whole trip.

I had checked my bike and it looked like just the drain plug had snapped off of the radiator and that's where it was leaking fluid. It seemed a small problem and I was glad it wasn't a hole in the radiator itself. The question is where would I stop to try to get it fixed, and also I didn't have many Pesos left and getting it fixed in Mexico might mean I would have to find a bank and change more dollars. Finding a bank down here is never my a favorite thing to do. As mentioned before they are often buried in cities somewhere, where there is a lot of traffic and people. You have to more or less leave your bike out in the open so someone could snatch something off of it. Go thru a metal detector to get in the bank, struggle with the language barrier, get it done and then find your way back thru the traffic and people to the main highway. No, I know I could look at it differently but finding bands and going thru all that just isn't fun, and its also very time consuming. At this point I thought since the bike seemed to be doing ok I thought I would just try to make it to a hotel and then in the morning maybe look for a bank and a mechanic to see if they could fix it.

So I headed into Pachuca hoping to find my highway 105 heading north, get on the other side of the city and then start the trip up 105 hopefully going around Tampico, a town that I had been lost in the first time thru for several hours. I knew once I got north of Tampico the roads would be good again and it would be a straight shot to Matamoros and Brownsville Texas. Tampico was the last city going north that I thought would pose any problem, either with traffic or getting lost. I was getting close to the states and I knew it. Having just got thru Mexico City it seemed like only a few obstacles remained. One of them being Pachuca, and the Pachuca Mountains.

Pachuca turned out to be one of my hardest cities to cross and find the highway I needed out of it. Its a cross roads for about 6 major highways coming in from every direction and I'm sure I got on each one of them at one point or another. I had to continually stop and ask directions. I would get directions, make one turn, and then go ask someone again. Always narrowing my search but never quite finding the right road. And the old problem of not having a more detailed map came up to get me. Though I'm not sure that would necessarily have helped since not everything is on every map anyway. So many times the town they used as a direction indicator would be changed to another town at the next direction indicator or turnoff. So you would be looking for something saying  Pachuca  to head for, but instead of that major of a town to use as a direction they would put in something quite smaller so I wouldn't know I should have turned there. This continually using different towns names for directions would give me problems on the whole trip, and certainly going north towards Tampico would be no different. At one point I got a sign saying Tampico 360 kilometers, and then didn't get another one for 180 kilometers. So for those next humdred miles or so you were never sure if you were heading in the right direction or not.

After what seemed to be several hours of driving in circles and asking directions I still could not find the highway I needed. I was so frustrated, like I just can't do this. Finally I looked at the sky to see where north was and noticed an incredibly steep and winding road heading up into the mountains. It was the only one heading in the direction I needed to go so that had to be it. I asked again at gas stations while I continued to narrow my selection down to streets that brought me towards those mountains. Finally as I climbed into the mountains I found a sign for Tampico letting me know I was finally on track again. Pachuca had turned out to be 10 times harder to get thru and find my road then Mexico City.

As it was getting dark I started my way into the Sierra Pachuca Mountains. Unfortunately I soon ran into the proverbial runners with torches celebrating the Mother of Guadeloupe Festival. On mountain roads with large busses and lines of well wishers following them at a crawl we all snaked our way along to the next shrine of the mother that is often placed on the mountain roads between villages. This was the weekend of celebration for her and every village seemed to have runners, firecrackers and these long lines of people and cars following them. It was one more thing to "deal with" as I tried to make some time crossing Mexico. It was also one more reminder that Mexico for the most part is not set up for any kind of speed. You simply, like in so many aspects of life here, take what she gives you. For someone trying to get back to the states after two months on the road, tired and with a bike not at 100%, their celebration was unfortunately turning into my obstacle.

After what seemed like it was going to be a decent day for travel, especially after getting thru Mexico City, now seemed to have turned into a typical hard day in Mexico. Having spent so much time lost in Pachuca, and now climbing into some serious mountain roads with ongoing lines of runners and busses from the festival having to be passed on very dangerous roads, not to mention a horrendous accident with backed up traffic for miles each way, things had taken a definite turn for the worst.

The accident looked like a truck had nearly completely gone over one of the sides of the road and guard rail and was dangling a thousand feet or so up from the bottom of the ravine. Another car had been demolished and was at its side. Police were directing traffic (for a change!) and they were alternating using the one lane that was open between traffic coming from each way. I could see the traffic backed up behind me twist all the way around the canyon and back up the winding road to my right. Another hour or so delay for most of us. For the people in the accident it looked to be quite a longer delay. I don't know if anyone was hurt.

I could not see over the side to see if there was a car at the end of that 1000 foot drop, and only hope there wasn't. It like so many accidents down here was at a curve and looked like maybe the truck had taken the turn too sharp and to avoid a head on collision veered off and to the right almost completely off the mountain. It was a sobering sight, but it was not too long before the traffic had seemed to forget about it and was off at a breakneck speed again!

It was not long before I ran into another line of runners and we all had to slow down. The thing is they always had police escorts with them and you didn't know if you should pass or not. Finally I just thought flashing lights or no flashing lights I'm passing. Curve or no curve, on coming traffic or no on coming traffic I was going to pass! My god I was turning into a Central American driver! What was next, maybe applying for a job as a Guatemalan Bus Driver! My life was changing before my eyes. Or maybe just passing before my eyes on these roads.

As the it became darker and darker, and colder as well (at this altitude it was probably in the 40's as it was getting dark), I had just passed another long line of runners and their entourage, I had had enough for the day. I would think about my radiator and getting more Pesos in the morning. I found a hotel for 240 Pesos, walked across the street where I got 4 tacos made to order, a Coke, and a donut for about $3. Went back to my room and on my t.v. which only had 5 channels watched a Sam Elliot movie. In the style of Rambo or Chuck Norris he was exacting vengeance in South Africa for a wrong done. I like Sam Elliot but his role as a vigilante in this didn't do him justice and it really was a pretty bad movie. It seemed to be just another pay check for the actors and that's about it. Still it was something to watch in the remote mountains of the Puchuca's before retiring.

As night settles in in the Sierra De Pachuca's, so does the cold.

It was very cold that night and of course none of these places have heat. I don't think anything does south of the border. I got my sleeping bag out as the temperature dropped and try' d to sleep as fireworks seemed to going off everywhere, in honor of the weekend festival no doubt. Boy did I choose the wrong weekend to cross Mexico on.

I had traveled about 270 miles that day and it seemed that I might only have one more day in Mexico, and that was kind of hard to believe. I had left El Salvador Monday morning, here it was Thursday night and I had put in one day of 400 miles, two of 300 miles, and one of 270 miles. About 1300 miles in four days and it was kicking my butt. Mexico again was proving that you have to adjust to it, or you just really make it hard on yourself. Because it certainly was not going to adjust to me.

Tomorrow I would be heading thru some of the prettiest and most challenging mountain roads I have ever been on.