This is what 15,000 miles looks like! We reached that milestone on the run into San Cristobal, on the 112th day of the trip. Some stats; Started the trip with 11500 miles on the bike. 134 miles per day average 41.5 mpg average (US) (5.6 l/100km, 50mpg UK) Carrying about 200lb (including the weight of…
Articles from December 2012
San Cristobal for Christmas
San Cristobal is a pretty town with a large indigenous indian population. There’s a huge market where all kinds of locally made goods are sold, along with numerous churches and colonial buildings. There’s also this one, a traditional “Burger King”.San Cristobal is also the centre of the EZLN movement – the “Zappatistas”. They were involved…
Mayan Village Festival
I‘d read about some Mayan villages just outside San Cristobal. I’d also read that they are not very welcoming to tourists, but don’t mind taking their money. They ask for money to take a photo, for example. Plus they were full of the vendors that I wanted to get away from in San Cristoabl. So…
The Day the World Ended (or not)
Then next two days getting to Palenque went ok – 200 miles to Villahermosa (another traffic nightmare) and then an easy 100 miles into Palenque on the 20th. I got there by lunchtime, had a relaxing meal at a restaurant just off the main plaza. This was the day before the Mayan “End of the…
Cemetaries and Churches
Cemeteries are pretty this time of year… One day I spotted this gorgeous church so turned off the main road into the village to check it out – and rode head-on into a funeral procession. They weren’t going fast so managed to avoid them! They were headed by a police car, then a girl carrying…
Palenque Doubts, and Riding in Survival Mode
After a couple of days working my way toward Palenque, it dawned on me that I should probably not have tried to make this run – would have been better to take my time. 200-300 miles a day on Mexican backroads is hard work! Well not all of it, the roads through the mountains are…
Sierra Madre Drama
I was enjoying this ride through the Sierra Madre, until this happened. I think it may have been something to do with the pannier clamping mechanism loosening off when I dumped the bike on the curb, landing on that pannier, a few days before. (Spoiler – the same thing happened a year later in…
On to the End of the World
I‘d agreed to meet one of the guys from that I’d met on the ADVrider formum in Palenque for “the end of the world” on December 21. It was early December when we concocted this plan – plenty of time to get down there I thought. But spent more time than expected around Copper Canyon,…
I Got the Tequila in Me
In Tequila – and tonight, tequila will be in me! I didn’t have long enough in Tequila – just one night. First stop was the Jose Cuervo tasting rooms. I thought I should have a finer appreciation of the tequila genre, and sipping a few different styles seemed like a good way to do it.…
Durango and the Devil’s Backbone
Made it to Durango the next day where I met up with 2 Aussies, Ken and Carol, who I’d first met in Creel. They’d found a great old hotel right in the center of town, off a pedestrian mall next to the main plaza. The plaza is all lit up with christmas lights and with…