Bikes at Tres Marias - Near Cuernevaca

So we leave Mexico City and ride with Garry on the Honda, Michael and Alan on the Kawasaki for a hundred or so kilometres before Garry turned around and headed back home. Michael and Alan escorted us to Taxco where the Christmas traffic and many detours through narrow and steep winding streets proved a little difficult on the loaded Miss Piggy. At one stage we were climbing one of the many steep and slippery laneways when a car stopped in front of us suddenly. Poor Miss Piggy stalled and started sliding back until Grant could halt the descent with the gears. Sweating considerably we arrived in the Zocalo, stayed briefly, said our goodbye´s too our Mexican friends and headed out of town. Taxco is a lovely town, filled with lots of silver crafts tiendas (shops), but not at Christmas/New Years on a heavily loaded bike!

Zocalo in Taxco

The ride from Taxco to Iguala is a very exciting road, by motorcycle, with lots of fast tight corners and a good road surface, however Grant started getting a migraine head ache and we decided to stop in Iguala for a couple of days. Our little hotel had a tranquil garden and very comfortable rooms for $US15.00 per night including cable TV and hot water! You can even rent a room at 'Siesta Rates' for $US5.00 per hour. Hmmmm

Are we lost? - Road to Acapulco

We spent New Years Eve near Acapulco at Pie de la Questa where camping is very expensive. After celebrating the coming of the new year with a nice fish dinner we did our "normal" New Years Eve trick and were in bed asleep by 10:30!

Whilst Acapulco may be a pleasant stay in the resort zone, the rest of the city is noisy and dirty with heavily congested traffic and we were pleased to head out along the coast.

New Years Day - view from our tent

The 200 km road between Acapulco and Pinetepa Nacional follows the 'Rule of Fives'. It is littered with small towns each seeming to be 5 kms apart and posses at least 5 topes each. When you do your sums it adds up to lots and lots of bumps and a very slow day!

At Puerto Angel we turned inland and headed towards Oaxaca City. 220kms of steep winding and broken road surface which took us over 8 hours. Much of it was in first and second gear. None the less, the scenery was spectacular and made for a very exciting days ride. It is very interesting to see the small villages perched on steep precipices and ridge tops. Homes are very simple and consist of four walls and a bed. Most living is done outside, with this region being very poor many people live from day to day.

Lunch on the road to Oaxaca

Oaxaca City is very quaint but touristy and the hotel prices reflect this, it is very difficult to find cheap accommodation with parking for the bike. We stayed briefly and headed to Mitla 40kms away.

Balloon Seller - Oaxaca City

We spent two days in Mitla a very interesting small town built around an extensive ancient Zapotec ruin with excellent examples of stucco, stone carving and murals. The church and its grounds have been built by dismantiling some of the pyramids and temples and has utilised some of the walls of the existing buildings as its own.

Zapotec Ruins at Mitla

Another view of Mitla

We were sentenced to two nights in a cheap hotel that was much like staying in a dungeon or jail and had the most "unusual" bathroom we have come across so far! To shower you needed to stand over the toilet and lean on the basin. It was hillarious, to give it credit though the water was hot, the pressure good and the room was clean!

Dungeon

Dungeon Bathroom

We were dissapointed to find that the hotel managers children had decided to use our pannier as an advertisment for thier hotel and scrawled on the address with a black marker. We did not mind so much but the parents seemed to show little to no concern or even offer an apology.

The ride back to the coast was uneventful and in Tehuantepec we fully serviced the bike and met up with a local motorcyclist. Ruben and his son Daniel showed a great deal of interest in Miss Piggy and us. Ruben had ridden his Dynamo 250 Custom (Chinese imported bikes in Mexico - very popular and inexpensive) from Tehuntepec to Panama City and return!

Markets in Tehuantepec - Yes the rail line is in service!

We made Tehuntepec our home for a few days thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of the town and its people. We spent a great deal of time wandering the amazing street markets that were set up each morning on the rail way lines selling everything from plates to pineapples. Each night they would clear the tracks for the night freight trains to come through.

Moto-Carro - Tehuantepec public transport

The southern coast of the Istmus is renowned for its very strong winds and the next day ride to Tuxtla Guitierrez proved to us to be no exception. At times we were blown all over the road and at one point when we stopped to ask for directions Grant had to move the bike in fear of it being blown over. Grant could barely hold the bike in an upright position whilst stationery. It was quite scary and we were glad to head inland for Tuxtla about half way through the journey.