Zacatecas is approximately 460 years old, the narrow cobblestone streets were designed for pedestrians and burrows, so the roads that could be traversed by car are almost all one-way. It is a labyrinth of streets, alleys and stairs and has been likened to an M.C. Escher drawing come to life.
Our last night in Zacatecas was outstanding. As we would be leaving the next day, Julie, Grant and the two of us had a fantastic supper of Australian rissoles (like meatloaf-style hamburgers without the bun), prepared by Julie, then we all went for a walk around town. It seemed that every night at least one free, though usually more, cultural and entertainment events was taking place. This night there was a French dance troupe performing in Circ de Soleil style with a group on pogo-stilts and gymnasts on a wire hanging from a giant mechanical praying mantis. As the music reached a crescendo, fireworks were launched off the head of the praying mantis, exploding above the bell towers of the adjacent cathedral. It was quite a dramatic show. After the show a small parade passed through the crowd. It was lead by a man walking a burrow, followed by a large group of people singing. As they passed, many of those of around us started to sing along. This is when we realized that one week of Spanish lessons was not nearly enough as we had no idea what they were singing.

We were reluctant to leave and were kicking ourselves for having only gotten 30-day visas for Mexico. We had many miles to go to get to the Guatemalan border and had to get on the road. In the morning we got a later start than anticipated, hugged farewell and promised to meet up somewhere in our travels. Grant & Julie are spending an extra month in Zacatecas, and then heading to South America early next year. They are one month longer into their round-the-world trip, and as the world is such a small place, we know our paths will cross again.

Julie and Grant

Guanajuato was our next destination. We rode into town to find streets similar to Zacatecas, mostly cobblestone, many one-way, but traffic grid-locked, and sidewalks packed with people. After riding up and down steep hills and through tunnels, we did find a hotel within our budget. We grabbed the camera and headed off to see why the city was so crowded. It turned out that we arrived on the last day of a two-week festival called Cervantino. It is an international celebration of the arts. Being the last day of the festival made sense - or at least it made clear why we saw so many people sitting or lying down in the parks, on benches and even on the sidewalk in many places - they were recuperating. Cervantino is quite a large event and it appears that no one wants to miss a minute of it.

Street in Guanajuato

San Miguel de Allende (aka Gringo-landia) was the next stop on our travels. We had heard that this was another very historic city and looked forward to seeing it. Riding in the city was much simpler as it was not built in a small valley, but laid out in a grid pattern, though it did have a lot of character with the narrow, one-way cobblestone streets. According to our Mexican friends in Zacatecas, three places in Mexico deserve the moniker Gringolandia - Cancun, Acapulco and San Miguel de Allende. It was full of foreigners, including ourselves. San Miguel de Allende would have fit the bill as a great place to stay twenty or thirty years ago, but along with tourists, comes money and increased prices. Being outside of our budget we decided to move on after spending a few hours in town.

Cathedral in San Miguel de Allende

Women in San Miguel de Allende

We met Albert in Creel, Mexico and again later on the road as we were heading south. It was at this road-side meeting that he gave us his phone number and told us to call if we needed anything. When we arrived in Queretaro, Dave called him and asked if he knew where we could get a tire. Albert asked where we were, and gave instructions to meet at a hotel 5 minutes from our location. Dave, being who he is, took a shortcut and we arrived 25 minutes later. Albert had us follow him to a motorcycle shop where a replacement tire was purchased and strapped to the back of Dave's bike for when it will be "really needed" - probably when we are on the roads recently washed out by the hurricane in Guatemala.

Albert asked us if we had a place to stay, then offered to let us spend the night at his house. He said he had an errand to run and would be back in a little while. Deb & I spoke with the owner of the bike shop, his son and Hugo. Hugo told us that he and seven friends will be riding to Argentina on 180cc motorcycles leaving in January and returning in June. We then looked at our heavily loaded 650's and wondered how they would pack all their "stuff" on their small bikes. We are slowly learning that having plenty of storage on a bike is not always a good thing. If you have the storage space, you will usually find something to put in it! To give us some credit, we no longer need to stand on the lids of our cases to get them closed.

Albert returned in short order. After telling him that we did not want to inconvenience him, and that we could stay in a hotel, he said that it would be no trouble at all then explained the directions to his house. He said he would go slowly enough for us to keep up. What followed was our lesson in combat riding in traffic. To-date on this trip we avoided larger cities whenever possible. Well, it was a fun trip to Albert's home! We met his wife, Sylvia and daughter, Catherine. Deb checked our email and I looked and a beautiful car that Albert had recently restored. Albert and Sylvia were fabulous hosts, taking us our for dinner and a driving tour of part of Queretaro. We drove past the convent which was several hundred years old and saw the aqueduct built in the 15th century to provide water to the city. It is a massive work of art and achitecture, allowing us a glimpse back in time.

Silvia, Albert and Catherine

Albert and Dave stayed up late talking shop - motorcycles and airplanes. They both worked as professional pilots in former careers.

We skirted Mexico City to the north, getting much closer than we had planned. We tried to stay off the primary roads due to the number of slow moving trucks that require passing on the curvy mountain roads. The secondary roads are a little narrower and not as smooth but have less traffic on them. One of the downsides to these roads is a lack of road signs. It was not always clear to us how to get through some of the towns. At one point, we rode into town on the highway and ended up on a narrow cobblestone street with no clue how to get to the highway on the other side of town. We decided to just follow the bus in front of us, thinking he would know the route through town. Well, we followed him to rougher cobblestone, then a dirt road, then a mud road, through some water, then he pulled over and parked. We eventually found our way out of town.

The next day, we planned on riding southeast to Villahermosa but decided to swing north to Veracruz because we had heard nice things about the city. Veracruz is on the Gulf of Mexico and it was quite a change to feel the warm, humid air at sea level after spending so much at higher altitudes. We found an inexpensive hotel with secure parking and then took a walk along the malecon (waterfront) where there were vendors selling t-shirts, jewelry and food. We bought corn on the cob covered in lime juice, mayonnaise, shredded cheese and chili powder.

The city has many plazas and each seemed to have musicians playing lively xylophone music and people dancing. The children are taught the traditional dances and put on shows both nights we were there.

Young Girls in Veracruz

We made decision to splurge and take the toll road to Villahermosa which is 50 miles inland from the southern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The toll roads are very expensive, but are in great condition for the most part, four-lane and a huge time saver. It cost us almost $75 to get two motorcycles from Veracruz to Villahermosa, about 300 miles. In Villahermosa, we had a difficult time finding an inexpensive hotel with secure parking. Finally, one hotel owner convinced us that we could park on the street in front of his hotel and he would provide 24-hour vigilance. The hotel was across the road from an entertainment complex located on the bank of the river. For our evening entertainment we watched a Cuban band with dancers. The following day we toured La Venta park, a zoo and archeological site with artifacts from the Olmec period, 900-300 B.C.

2500 Year-old Olmec Sculpture

We traveled to Palenque and found a hostel that allowed us to park our motorcycles in the lobby. Riding up the slippery tile stairs was a challenge. Getting them out was much easier.

We visited the Mayan ruins just southwest of town. The site is located at the edge of the rainforest and was our most pleasant experience visiting Mayan ruins because most of the site was in the shade all morning.

Mayan Ruins of Palenque

We also visited Agua Azul, a series of cascades that were an amazing turquoise blue. It is said that there are more than 500 of them. We took a long hike upstream and saw people washing clothes, bathing and swimming. Dave took the opportunity to cool off with a swim as well.

Agua Azul

David and Deb

It was 120 miles from Palenque to San Cristobal de Las Casas but took 5 hours due to the twisty mountain road. Chiapas state is the poorest in Mexico but from what we've seen has the most beautiful scenery. At several points, there would be people with ropes laid across the road, waiting for someone to drive by. At one of them, they pulled the rope tight to block the road and we were forced to stop. We gave them a few pesos as a toll and were sent on our way with a smile. We are San Cristobal for three days of celebrations - Halloween on Oct 31, All Saints Day on Nov 1, and the Day of the Dead on Nov 2.