Belize Is Beautiful, Guatemala Is Great

Days 76-77

Once we'd stopped at the beach in Mexico we found it hard to leave, so having spent an extra day there we'd be spending less than 24 hours in Belize, zooming across most of the small country the same day we came in and not bothering with the (more expensive, and away-from-the-bikes) islands.

All this staying extra days in Mexico had another consequence which we didn't realise until we reached the border – we had outstayed our visa by three days! While Emily had visions of Mexican jail, Ric was directed hither and thither to talk to different people and try to work things out. In the end they couldn't really be bothered with the paperwork so just sent us on our way - phew!


So we found ourselves over the border with a 1-day transit visa. This was something we instantly regretted as we had no idea Belize would be quite so nice. Maybe it was the relieving fact that everybody spoke English (Belize being ex-British Honduras), maybe it was the laid back Caribbean feel (nobody is in a hurry in Belize, as indicated by the fact that not one single person overtook us while we were in the country), or maybe it was because it was just a beautiful place.

Whatever it was, though, we didn't want to leave so the next day we went to the border and blagged an extra day! That afforded us a walk in some great botanical gardens (where we saw our first tarantula in the jungle section, thankfully dead) and a bit more time to absorb some of the atmosphere.


Days 78-81

Our Guatemalan experience began with the famous ruins at Tikal. We've seen a lot of Mayan ruins recently, but this one stands out because it's spread out in an enormous rainforest that you can look out at from some of the taller structures. It's also quite un-restored, so you get more of an idea of what it must have been like for the first archaeologists to come across the huge structures completely covered in jungle. And in that jungle we also saw lots of cool wildlife, like spider monkeys, wild turkeys (which look more like peacocks than the turkeys we know), and a big raccoon-type thing.

We're now in Antigua, the old capital of Guatamala (before it was destroyed by volcanic activity) which is nestled in the mountains between three volcanoes and is part trendy gringo town and littered with crumbling, gleaming and half-restored buildings. We have taken a day to see the stunning Lake Atitlan, surrounded by more dramatic volcanoes and traditional villages; and yesterday we climbed the closest active volcano. It's quite a luxury for us to spend three nights in one place, but we're planning on going through four countries in the next three days so it's nice to have a bit of a rest first!

A Reflection On Mexico

Before we came to Mexico we were warned by practically every North American we met about the place – Mexico has received a lot of bad press, it seems. Some warnings were factual (“The drug cartels rounded up and shot dead all the police in Tijuana last year”), some were even from people who had been there (“I used to go biking in Baja California all the time but haven't gone for 3 years now”), and some were quite amusing for us Brits, like Ric's favourite exchange with a Harley rider:
- Yerr goin' to Mexico?
- Yes, that's the plan
- You gotta guuhn?
- Er, no, I don't have a gun
- Well you better geet one!

Now that we've spent over a month and ridden some 4,000 miles in the country we feel it's time to set the record straight and give some feedback to any of you who are still following our blog. Yes, there is some fighting between drug cartels, and between them and the army, but the only evidence we ever saw of this was being passed by army vehicles on the road and being stopped at numerous army checkpoints (it seems they particularly like to stop bikes) where they very politely asked to look through our luggage. All of the Mexicans we met were overwhelmingly hospitable and honest, and at no time did we ever sense any danger to either ourselves or our possessions. Admittedly we didn't hang around in any border towns and we were always careful not to flash too much cash around and to keep a close eye on our things, but that's just common-sense stuff we practice everywhere.

We were really blown away by the amount of history and culture in Mexico. Because we know so many North Americans come to Europe for such things we weren't expecting to find it so close, but actually Mexico has loads to offer from ancient Maya ruins to Spanish colonial architecture. Not just this but the scenery is fabulous, the roads are generally in very good condition (although the toll roads are a little on the expensive side), and the food is tasty and surprisingly diverse!

And as for swine flu – there are no people dying on the streets! We didn't see any effects of it, and a number of good sources tell us that it's no worse than a normal seasonal bout of flu.

The Mexican people have taken us in, showed us around, looked after us and generously shared their country with us, and it's been unfailingly great. So don't be put off by the media and go and discover an amazingly diverse and interesting country if you're lucky enough to get the chance.

Ruined!

We really have some catching up to do – sorry folks!

Days 67-68

Setting out early from San Cristobal we rode out of the mountains into the jungle and to the Mayan ruins at Palenque. On the way we stopped at the ruins of Tonina. These ruins are much less impressive and therefore much less visited by tourists so we had the run of the place. It was also a welcome break from the terrible road we had to drive to get to Palenque. The road surface was generally fine, and it was twisty and scenic; the problem was the topes... Topes are all over Mexico, so this is not a new thing, but the quantity and surprise nature of these particular topes has yet to be surpassed. Every cluster of one or two houses had at least three lying in wait on the road, hiding in the long morning shadows, and every now and again going into or coming out of a sharp turn in the road would reveal a nasty topes-surprise. Very few warnings or signs alerted us of the impending danger, though Ric's emergency breaking and swearing across the radio acted as warning for Emily a few times. Yes, topes are Mexian's “sleeping policemen”: whilst we understand the requirement to reduce speed in settlements, it's pretty hard to do so once you're flying through the air.

Because the journey took a bit longer and the ruins closed a bit earlier than we thought, we didn't get to see Palenque ruins properly until the following morning. With the jungle backdrop they were the most exciting we'd seen though also the hottest and most humid. We made an important purchase at the ruins – a hand held fan for 50p – which has been in almost constant use since. From Palenque we travelled North, had lunch in Tobasco state, and made it to Campeche by early evening. It was Independence Day in Mexico and as we investigated the public area where the fiesta would be later on we saw a hotel that had been on our list of those to try (we have a few on the list in case our chosen one is full or there's nowhere to leave the bikes - we're not organised enough to contact them all in advance). We were just discussing whether they would have let us drive our bikes into their lobby when, lo and behold, we saw a 1200GS with Canadian plates already in there, which answered our question but of course raised many others! We asked if the owner of the bike was around and met Victor – an Argentinian who lives in British Columbia and who is headed the same way as us. We had a good evening chatting about our experiences and our plans, and got a few good tips for the roads to come, as well as some emergency contacts (his family) in Argentina.

Later on that evening we enjoyed the Independence Day celebrations which involved some sort of traditional dancing accompanied by more modern musical-style singing, and at one point live cock fighting, making a slightly odd family show, in our opinion! We've been assured since that this is quite normal. This was all followed by a 1970s latino heartthrob who appears to be famous here– he certainly had all of the Mexicans, grannies and kids alike, running to the stage drooling! Not fully understanding the local culture, we just found the glittery white suite and long wavy locks quite amusing in an ABBA-esque kind of way.

Days 69-71

The road from Campeche to Merida is littered with Mayan ruins, all with a different Puuc style of architecture so we visited three of these the following day before getting settled into Merida for the night. One of our new Mexico City friends, Ernesto, had given us the number of a friend of his in Merida, saying he was a biker and that he would love to meet us. So once settled into our Merida hotel we made the phone call to arrange to meet up for a drink with Jorge that evening. We had no idea when calling up Jorge that we would be greeted not just by one person but by his whole wonderful family! They insisted that we come and stay with them and allow them to show us around the region over the next few days - an offer we could hardly refuse! We had a brilliant few days, up at their beach house at the nearby Progresso bay, on their boat and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on the trip, riding our bikes with their two sons (also on BMW GSes) to nearby towns and to a secret cenote (cavern like hole in the ground filled with fresh water – a bit of a mystery of the region), sampling the local food and hanging out with the extended family. We also found out where Ernesto's classic 1956 BMW had come from as Jorge has a whole collection of '50s and '60s classic BMWs which he's lovingly restored. Jorge also insisted on having his "help" clean our bikes (for the first time in Mexico) and fixing Ric's cracked pannier, which we were starting to seriously worry about. On top of all this, Jorge has travelled through Central America and was able to offer advice on routes and places to stay for the next ten or so days.

Our last night was Friday night and we were invited to go to the Merida theatre for a musical performance and then on to a Cuban club (BuenaVista style)! As the family donned their glad rags Emily was mortified to find that the best outfit she could muster for an evening of culture and dancing was: walking sandals, a shabby faded knee-length skirt, and a linen top she'd bought two days previously at a market for three pounds fifty! That aside, we had a fantastic evening, managed not to drink toooo many mojitos and left feeling pretty refreshed the next day.

Day 72

This day was what you would call a Bad Day. It started in hight spirits – leaving our new friends and heading towards Tulum on the East coast of the Yucatan with only three hours of riding and one ruin to visit on the way. About an hour down the road, Ric came on the radio asking “does this road feel funny to you” - a question often asked when the surface makes it feel like your back tire is flat. “Erm...” replied Emily, “No, I think there's something wrong with your tire!”. We pulled over and sure enough a two inch nail had embedded itself in Ric's rear tire. We managed to plug the tire with our “stop and go” puncture repair kit that we'd picked up in Anchorage within one hot and tiring hour. Ric was heroic with the hand pump when it came to pumping the tire back up! Emily did her best to help with refreshments, and the fan of course.

On we went to the ruins of Chitchen Itza – one of the world's seven wonders that we had to see on the way. As we'd lost an hour it was way over lunch time and we needed to cool down so we went to the restaurant before looking round. As we ate we read what our guide book said about the ruins and learned that because we were so close to the equinox we should be able to see the light cast shadows on the main pyramid in such a way that there appears to be a snake weaving down it – how fortunate we thought! We came out of the restaurant at 3.15 refreshed and excited to look at the ruins. However, at this point the sky was also ready to drop millions of gallons of water on the whole area. We waited under highly inadequate trees, getting thoroughly soaked but trying to protect the less waterproof things on us (camera, passports, etc), as the water level rose around us. The rain finally eased off enough for us to see anything at 4.20, ten minutes before the site closed for the day. We saw what we could which did not include a snake winding it's way down the pyramid as there was no sun at all!

Now even further behind schedule we arrived at the coast as it was getting dark, our GPS was lost and confused and we'd forgotten the instructions of where to go from our hosts. We found ourselves next to a couple of hotels so decided to check into one for the night, and call it a day. We weren't entirely surprised to be swarmed by mosquitoes as we unpacked the bikes – it was that time of day - but we were more disturbed to find our bank had chosen this day to block our cards and we were running out of cash. We changed a small amount of emergency dollars so we could buy dinner and then used our last little bit of local currency to get online to contact the bank. After all of that we slept surprisingly well!

Days 73-75

The rain continued in Tulum so after a quick look round the ruins (unique because they're right on the coast, with a beach in the middle of them) we headed South to Xcalak, at the end of the Costa Maya peninsular. It's beautiful and remote here, there's a marine park running along the coast and if you look south you can see Belize! So we've done a bit of diving, kayaking, snorkeling, a bit more relaxing, and a bit of reflection as we get ready for the rest of the Central America countries. We'll be leaving Mexico in the morning...

We Get Wet

Days 61-63

Leaving Oaxaca we had a beautiful mountain drive ahead of us to get to Zipolite, an old fishing village with a beautiful long beach and now a bit of a travellers' hangout. Just after lunch we felt a few drops of rain and Emily asked if we should put our waterproofs on. “No”, Ric replied confidently, “we're driving out of the mountains now anyway so we should be fine”. It was true that as we rode out of the mountains we rode into sunshine, but this was after an hour of of the most torrential rain, thunder and lightening that either of us of had ever seen, let alone been right in the middle of as we slithered our way down the twisty road. Water gushed down the sides of the mountain in muddy waterfalls, turning the road into one big flash flood interspersed with landslides. It was raining so hard we couldn't see with our visors down so had to ride with them up and endure the stinging rain in order to see anything, and even then we could only see a few meters as we were driving through the storm clouds. We could have tried to stop and shelter under a tin hut or something on the way down but our radios had stopped working due to being soaked, and anyway, where's the adventure in that...? When we'd driven out into the bright sunshine at the bottom we pulled into a petrol station and as we started ringing out our gloves, the attendant asked innocently “Did it rain?”!

We spent the next few days drying out in Zipolite... seafood, sun, snorkelling and surf. The waves were pretty brutal so we weren't able to swim in the sea much, but had fun watching the multitudes of surfers and body boarders doing their thing while we relaxed on the beach.


Days 64-66

We're now in San Cristobal in Ciapas state, back up in the mountains and the cooler climes. We'd looked up a hostel here but found it closed. However, fate shone on us once more when one of the seven Ciapas BMW club members happened to drive by and see us consulting our map. Fransisco pulled up for a bit of a chat and invited us to stay at the beautiful hotel he owns right on the town square for a very generous rate, so now we're in the lap of luxury... We really like Mexican BMW owners!

This area is full of very traditional indigenous villages so we visited a couple of these today. There were no photos allowed at the first which is a shame because there was the most bizarre church there. Half catholic and half traditional religious beliefs, apparently this church is entirely unique and has special permission from the Vatican to be thus – worshipping the sun, not using the bible and yet having a resident catholic priest conducting baptisms and confirmations inside. The second village was less busy and more relaxed – we visited a very welcoming family who had us try on their traditional wedding dress, sample the local alcoholic corn drink “bosh” and eat some very yummy freshly made tortillas.

Friends And Food

Days 55-57

Mexico City was an altogether very friendly experience for us. Whilst we were looking for our hotel when first arriving in Mexico City we joined a queue of traffic right behind a local BMW Adventure – a slightly bigger version of Ric's bike. This was quite exciting as we have only seen a handful of BMW bikes since entering Mexico. Within a couple of changes of the lights the rider of the said bike, Juan Jose, had made friends with Ric, given us his number to meet up the next day and offered to lead us to our hotel – off we went, through a few police road blocks (apparently they don't apply to motorbikes), a few turns our GPS probably wouldn't have known about and we were there (well, we thought we were – there then ensued a search for a hotel with parking, but that's a different story).

The following day we went to see the nearby awesome Teotihuacan pyramids, dating back thousands of years. We met up with Juan Jose and his friends Andres and Ernesto (all BMW riders, and with Ernesto on a mint-condition 1956 classic), plus girlfriends that evening and were treated to a great French / Italian dinner. There we made plans to meet Juan Jose again the following day so he could show us a few sites around Mexico. After a drive around and a second delicious meal with our new friends we were really very sad to leave that afternoon - unfortunately the schedule must be obeyed at all costs, or so we were thinking until we were still trying to leave Mexico City a few hours later (in Friday rush hour and rain) and doubly wished we'd stayed!

Andres is in fact the editor of Mexico's only BMW bike magazine and happened to be doing a feature on women riders, so Emily might even appear in the next edition! We also now have a few contacts in other places in case of emergencies which are invaluable, so we're altogether extremely grateful for this fortuitous meeting!

Apparently Juan Jose makes a habit of meeting tourists on motorbikes and befriending them so if anyone's reading this and about to go to Mexico City, look out for a shortish guy ( :o) sorry Juan Jose!) on an Adventure and you won't want to leave!

Days 58-60

From Mexico we rode to Puebla and then onto Oaxaca, the food capital of Mexico. Exhausted, we were pleased to have scheduled an extra day here and took advantage of the time by doing a one day cookery course, so hopefully we can recreate some of the culinary delights when back home. One of the specialities, grasshoppers fried in chilli, onion and garlic, is not something we'll be trying at home, though actually it was pretty nice... We'll stick more to the also-traditional dishes made with chocolate (both sweet and savoury) – yum!

The Sea, The Highlands, And Into The Big Smoke

It's been quite a while since our last post, and we've been pretty busy, so brace yourself for a fairly long one...

Days 49-50

After recovering from the Copper Canyon we rode to Mazatlan, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean – our first ocean sighting since the Arctic! We had a fun couple of days looking around the colonial old-town, chilling out on the beach, and eating some fantastic seafood which we're hoping to repeat at our next seaside stop. The only downside of Mazatlan was the heat and humidity which had us arriving at the hotel literally pouring with sweat!

It was in Mazatlan that we had the first indoor parking for the bikes. Indoor being inside the hotel itself. We were a little surprised at being invited to bring them in, but since then we haven't been at all phased about riding them up pavements and into doorways off busy streets. It's so nice to know that they're safe, even if there probably isn't any real danger for them outside.

Days 51-55

We headed back into the mountains to visit some old colonial centres on some beautiful twisty roads, including “The Devil's Spine” - a road on a ridge between two expansive valleys meaning some amazing views. We've since been on a plateau at about 2000m above sea-level, which is much cooler, and also home to quite a bit of British-like drizzly rain. In each of these towns we found random celebrations in plazas, marching bands, and more, so despite the rain, or maybe partly because of it, we've felt relaxed and right at home.

Surprisingly Durango, our first stop, has a desert like climate and was the home of many a John Wayne western in it's hay-day. We stumbled across a bus in town that took us to an old movie set, and had to watch some Mexican gun-slinging type entertainment before being allowed back into town (it was quite fun really, and the spanish-speaking people all thought it was very amusing)!

We then stopped at the old silver mining towns of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. In Zacatecas we were able to go down an old mine which was pretty cool as you could see the mineral seem in the rock go from the top to seven floors down. We also got some culture at a rather scary masks museum – full of old masks used in theatre, carnival and other celebrations and ceremonies. Unfortunately we forgot the camera this day, which is a shame as the museum was also in the grounds of a beautiful crumbling old convent.

Guanajuato, which for many years produced 20% of the World's silver, was our favourite town. Its pretty plazas and colonial buildings were on a par with the other towns, but with a university of 20,000 it has a really young and vibrant feel. The only downside of it was that with a complicated one-way system of tunnels in old river-beds running under and around the city centre and the general uselessness of the GPS (more on this later) it took us 1.5 hours to find a suitable place to stay!

Last on the list was Morelia. Bigger than the other towns its centre was the grandest and it was wandering the streets of Morelia that we made a decision: to go to Mexico City. We had decided not to do this because of the whole 20 million people / 4 kidnaps per day / swine flu central type of warnings but Emily got it into her head that we should just go there and see it for ourselves, so we did. It was surprisingly easy to get here though we spent a small while looking for a hotel where we could park the bikes safely. It wasn't until afterwards that we realised our guidebook has parking symbols next to hotels with car parks! Hopefully none of the scary warnings will be realised – certainly it seems ok so far...

Navigation, the roads and drivers

Since being on real roads again we've come across a few surprises about driving in Mexico. Firstly, they have very good roads! Unfortunately a lot of these are very expensive cuota or toll roads, often working out at about M$1 per km for each bike, meaning we've often paid about the same in tolls as we have for a night's accommodation! These roads are also boring motorways, but trying to find the more interesting libres (free roads) is more than a little tricky, and apparently more dangerous, due to an increased risk of roadside robberies and corrupt police who might flag you down and ask for money (though we haven't seen any real evidence of that actually happening).

Our GPS doesn't know about a lot of the cuotas and generally gets lost trying to find the right way on the libres. It also doesn't know about one-way streets, or about steps, and the fact that vehicles don't generally want to drive on them. We've managed not to turn up any roads made of stairs, but have made it part way the wrong way down some one-way streets (they don't seem to have no entry signs here) and have been directed up and down some pretty scary cobbled 45 degree inclines for no good reason, which is tedious (and a little frightening in the rain).

It's not just the GPS that's out to get us though. Our next biggest opponent is the left-indicator. We were a little surprised in Alaska to discover that in American cars the brakes and indicators often share the same lights. So what looks like the car in front braking a bit is sometimes the car in front telling you he's about to turn left across all the traffic. Here in Mexico we have encountered a whole other meaning of left indication - when a car or truck is driving particularly slowly on a single lane road they'll put their left indicator on when there's a gap for you to overtake. This is kind and helpful but you must use it with care. They could mean “overtake me now”, or the more traditional “I'm turning left”, or, often in Mexico, “I'm braking erratically and my right brake light is broken”. Since arriving in Mexico City it often just means “I forgot / can't be bothered to turn my indicator off as I'll probably want to use it again soon anyway (and it doesn't seem to cancel automatically)”. But don't be too sure – sometimes when you think it must mean the latter it actually means “I'm a complete nutter and really do want to overtake you even though it's a blind corner... please will all other traffic, yes oncoming too, move onto the hard shoulder so that I can get to where I'm going one minute faster”.

So we read the left indicator light with caution these days!