[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/59.html on December 18, 2012

School's out for... er, Winter!

After two weeks of Spanish classes, we've graduated, and the school has thrown a party for all the students that are leaving this week!

Mariana and Felipe and the rest of the Se Habla teachers look on proudly as we are given our certificates

Our graduating class. We celebrate with chocolate cake!

We've spent 16 wonderful days in La Paz, making lots of new friends and pulling out the first tendrils of roots that we were starting to put down was difficult. We packed our once-light motorcycles with all of our traveling kit, ready to continue our wanderings. It was a sad goodbye to our homestay family but at the same time, it felt really good to hit the road again. Neda and I both agreed that we are nowhere close to settling down yet!

There is a ferry just outside of La Paz that is able to take us to the mainland. Unfortunately, our laissez-faire attitude to planning bites us in the ***, and the ferry to Mazatlan, which is just across the Gulf of California, is all booked up till January 4th, 2013! Seems a lot of Baja Californians travel to the mainland during Christmastime to see family and reservations are made weeks in advance around this time. Uh oh...

Fortunately, there is another ferry that travels to Topolabampo, about 4 hours north of Mazatlan. After having a good laugh over the funny name, we decide a 4 hour motorcycle ride from Topolabampo to Mazatlan is perferable to waiting another 3 weeks, as nice as La Paz is. Plus the Topolabampo ferry was much cheaper!

The ferry departs from Pichilingue, a great windy 10 km ride from La Paz

Along the way we pass some really nice beaches

We met some other motorcycle travelers at the ferry terminal - Jayne and Phil are a brother/sister team from Calgary (more Canadians!) - they were getting their vehicle importation papers done early for their trip to the mainland. I think they were staying in La Paz for a couple more weeks, so we suggested the Spanish school to them. We exchanged travel stories and they gave us some good roads to ride in the mainland, can't wait!

Into the belly of the California Star, capable of holding 100 cars and 900 passengers!

We were directed to park our bikes in a corner of the ferry's hold, and we searched in vain for tie-down hooks and straps. There weren't any around, so we assumed that the ferry was large and stable enough to keep our bikes upright even in the most violent of storms. We could not have been more wrong.

There was one other motorcyclist on the ferry: Rick was riding from Ensenada back to his home in Mexico City, and this was his very first motorcycle trip after getting his license late last year. Like all those that have been bitten by the touring bug, we would spend much of the 6 hour trip to the mainland talking about motorcycles, with him practicing his excellent English with us, Neda practicing her excellent Spanish with him, and me practicing talking Spanish like a 2-year old.

A couple of hours into the trip, we hear an announcement over the radio. All motorcyclists were being summoned to the cargo hold of the ferry. I looked at Neda and Rick and immediately I said, "I think the bikes have fallen over"...

A flurry of activity getting the bikes secured

Fortunately, the bikes were still upright. The staff had summoned us so that we could move our bikes to a spot where they could tie the motorcycles to the railing. The crash bars I put on at Mark's place in San Diego were to come in handy.

Excellent tie-down job by the ferry staff

The winds and waves were picking up very strongly, and I'm glad that our motorcycles were secured properly now. However, the contents of my stomach were less secure, and as the ferry undulated up and down and back and forth, my face got greener and greener until I had to rush to the closest bano. Neda alarmingly yelled after me, "Mujeres!" That mean's "Women's washroom" in Spanish...

Thankfully, even 2-year olds understand that and I stumbled out and then back into the "Bano de los hombres". Just. In. The. Nick. Of Time...

Well-rested in the morning in Los Mochis

We arrived in Topolabampo after sunset. Much like Pichilingue, it's not a very big town, just the ferry terminal and some buildings, so we rode with Rick about about 30 minutes away in darkness to Los Mochis. Rick is a biologist and used his corporate rate at a nice hotel in town and we had a really good night's rest on our first night on the mainland.

Rick is off to service his motorcycle in Los Michos.

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/60.html on December 21

I've never thought of Mexico as being divided up into states, but like the US and Canada, Mexico has 31 states and 1 federal district. Right now, we've crossed over by ferry into our 3rd state, Sinaloa, after riding through Baja California and Baja California Sur. In Los Mochis, we waited till noon for Rick to finish his motorcycle service and then we all rode together southwards along the coast towards Mazatlan. It's about a 6 hour ride including a break for a late lunch.

Not knowing any better, we were routed to the toll road, which has a great speed limit of 110 km/h, but it was very expensive! We estimate that we paid the same in tolls that we did in gasoline. Note for the future, stay off the Cuota (toll) roads!

Cruising the Malecon in Mazatlan

In Mazatlan, Rick showed us to one of his favorite hotels right on the Malecon. It was relatively cheap since it's off-season and it seemed like we were one of the only occupants in the hotel. Rick took off to spend the night at his friends place and we would meet up a couple of times later in the city for a bite to eat.

Beach on the Malecon

Mazatlan is very much a beach town, but unlike the more well-known seaside resorts like Cancun, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta, there are more local vacationers and less foreign tourists here. We like that a lot. We got to practice our Spanish with everyone. Man, I really need the practice...

Normally I'm pretty good at seeing where things are headed, but...

ooookey...

We stuffed ourselves with shrimp and seafood. I think this is the biggest meal we've had in Mexico!

After lunch, I felt like this guy...

Colourful parasails punctuate the sand, sea and sky

Sea and sky blend together as birds give chase to the sailboats

Pelicans dive-bomb the waves - the waters are filled with fish!

We tried some Cuban food for a change

Here I'm having a dish called Ropa Vieja, literally translated means "Old Clothes". It's a popular dish in Cuba and it's made of shredded steak in a tomato sauce, some plantains and rice. Although the owner spoke fluent English, Neda made me talk to him in Spanish. From the look on his face, I think I may have ordered "moldy laundry"...

This is the Gringo Tourist section. Everything is done up pretty, but it's way overpriced

This senorita was celebrating her 15th birthday, these are the guys in the party, the rest of the girls were in the nightclub

Plaza Machado is one of the oldest places in Mazatlan, lots of architecture influenced by the French and Spanish. It's recently been restored by local businesses to attract tourist $$$. Very pretty area to stroll through, but it felt a bit sterile, so we didn't stay too long.

Walking around old Mazatlan

The steets around old Mazatlan have been closed to traffic, I think this happens every evening on the weekends. There are tons of people walking the street. We felt much more at home in this environment, with street vendors offering everything from tacos to toys, shoes and clothing and stages set up at every intersection playing live music, dancers and DJs. Amazing!!!

The streets are crowded with locals enjoying their weekend!

Indoor market where the locals shop

Now *THAT'S* what I'm talking about! Keep it coming...

Open air concert in the closed off steets outside of old Mazatlan

Dancers strutting their stuff

Pre-Christmas nuptials

Christmas-time outside the Catedral de la Immaculada Concepcion. How appropriate!

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/61.html on December 25, 2012

The Road of 3000 Curves.

When we met Phil and Jayne at the ferry dock in La Paz a week earlier, they mentioned that they were planning on riding this road when they crossed into the mainland. 3000 curves? How could we pass this up?

Rick had to leave Mazatlan earlier than us, something about getting back to Mexico City and going back to wo... going back to wor... nope, can't say it. Anyway, that left us by ourselves again, heading towards the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental. This meant that we were going to leave our sun-drenched beach haven for colder climates, so we had to mentally prepare ourselves for this. The Alaskan winter had scarred Neda deeply and she curses bitterly anytime she's forced to put on her jacket liner: "I thought I was done with this stupid thing!"

Stuck behind a couple of trucks, time to snap a picture!

I found out that another thing Neda curses at are the Cuota (toll) roads in Mexico. They are really expensive. Everytime we see a sign saying "Cuota", I hear a string of expletives over the intercom. So we go looking for the sign for the "Libres" roads. In this case, Carretera 40 Libres leaving Mazatlan *is* the Road of 3000 Curves, and the villainous Cuota road threatens to spoil all motorcyclists fun by smoothing the twists and turns by all manner of technology: bridges and holes through mountains.

Twisty heaven!

The pavement is smooth, but the air gets colder as we slowly ascend the mountains. Every once in a while, the bushes along the side clear and we're treated to a magnificent view of the green valleys below us. Traffic is light in the middle of this weekday, but we still manage to get stuck behind a couple of trucks and have to wait for a straightaway to pass them. I'm amazed at how brazenly these large vehicles cross the median when apexing blind turns. Surprised there aren't more accidents!

There is a sign about 1/2 way through the road reading, "Espinoza Del Diablo": the "Devil's Backbone", a very apt nickname for this piece of asphalt!

A different kind of hazard on the Road of 3000 Curves

Along the way, soldiers and army vehicles have occupied all of the tiny villages. Part of the reason they are building the high-speed Cuota road through the mountains is to make it easier to mobilize troops to combat the drug traffickers who have a stronghold in this region. The soldiers barely take notice of us, and those that do give us a thumbs up on our rides.

We're told it takes between 6-8 hours to make the journey between Mazatlan and Durango. We do it in 5, with an hour break for lunch...

Riding through the streets of Durango

The city of Durango is the capital of the state of Durango, and is the most modern city we've visited in Mexico so far. We've opted to stay here for a few days because we don't want to travel during the holidays. Also, we've planned an entire Christmas day of Skype sessions with our family and friends back home, and we take the time to scope out a hotel with fast Internet.

Being on the road for this long is a curious affair. In some ways, we are closer to our family and friends, because we are making more of an effort to keep in touch, without the excuses of work. So far TelCel's mobile Internet infrastructure has been quite extensive and impressive, outclassing any provider in the US and Canada. Not sure what we're going to do once we've travelled past this luxury.

Our favorite place just around the corner from our hotel for cheap eats
Chilaquiles for me and a gordita for Neda

We find a nice hotel right downtown and for the next few days venture out enough into the strip to become very familiar with all the local eateries. On Christmas Day, we treat ourselves to a Chinese buffet, which is I think our first non-Mexican meal in Mexico. The restaurant is staffed by two Chinese women, I think the three of us represented the entire Asian population in the state of Durango! They seemed just as amused as I was to see a brotha!

Frolicking in the fountain. During the day, temperatures were beautiful, but dropped quickly in the evenings and early mornings

Fountains and churches - two mainstays in Mexico architecture

There's always someone carrying around some musical instrument in Mexico!

Neda wrestles the camera away from me...

Catedral Basilica de Durango at night

There is a markedly increased police presence in Durango compared to all other places we've been to thus far. I'm not sure if it's because this is a larger city or because it's the holiday season, but police cars and uniformed officers vigilantly patrol the downtown streets. The plaza at night is continuously lit by the Christmas ornamentation and the flashing blue and red lights of the police car permanently parked in front of the Basilica.

Feliz Navidad from Durango!

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/62.html on December 28, 2012

We took a leisurely two days to travel from Durango to Guadalajara, opting to bypass the Cuota roads to take the non-toll highways instead. The roads are flat and boring, skirting the far eastern side of the mountains and nothing eventful happens, save for my Sena communicator, which stopped transmitting just as we arrived into town. The problem with constantly being on the move is that if we do need parts shipped to us, where do we send them to? And how long will it take? The logistics involved are annoying. So for the time being, I was in listen-only mode, which suited Neda just fine!

Guadalajara is Mexico's 2nd largest city. Our bikes are due for regular service (again, so soon?!?!) and we had originally thought to schedule an appointment in Mexico City, but after some research, we found a dealership just less than 10 kms away from our hotel! The only spot they had open was next Friday, so I guess we're here for a while! We took the opportunity to get acquainted with the city!

Main streets are really busy, so we took to the side streets

A lot of Mexican life centres around three things: the church, the market and the plaza. Every neighbourhood has a local version of this triumvirate. We rode to the center of town to the Marcado Libertad, which is the largest and most popular market in the city, right beside the Catedral de la Asuncion de Maria Santisima, which also happens to be the largest cathedral in Guadalajara.

Snack-time: Watermelons drenched with lime, seasalt and chilli! *delicious!*

Limes are Mexico's beloved condiment, they use them like Americans use ketchup. You can put them in beer, on tacos, watermelons, etc! We met a local girl the other day who just got married to a Belgian and had moved overseas to be with him. She told us that in Belgium the limes are so small and expensive, and this is one of the things she really misses about Mexico!

The moment the camera came out, this guy started doing tricks with his knife, flipping and tossing it up in the air. Very entertaining!

Mercado Libertad is huge; sprawling through indoor buildings and spilling outside into the open-air stalls. The air was alive with the sounds and scents of vendors selling fast food, groceries, toys, clothing. We had a great day snapping pictures and interacting with the locals, with Neda honing her ever-increasing Spanish skills. As for me, I was skilled enough not to need a knife to butcher their language...

Grabbing some lunch, over-the-counter-style, inside the Mercado

There are so many places to buy food, so we've developed two criteria for deciding where to eat: 1) no gringos! 2) it has to be busy. If there's nobody eating there, there must be a reason! I've fallen in love with the taco asada (shredded beef) and chorizo (sausage), but one item on the menu intrigued me - Brain Tacos! Walking Dead Style? It sounds much more appetizing in Spanish: tacos de sesos. Mmmmm! I've made up my mind to try this the next time.

Mercado is alive with bursts of colour everywhere!

Fruits and vegetables here are so much more juicier and flavourful than back home

Ice skating? In Mexico?

Outside the Catedral, there was a long lineup and when we investigated, we found that a large outdoor skating rink had been built, complete with skate rentals. Everyone wanted to try ice-skating, which I assume is a novelty in Guadalajara. It's 28C outside! Ice-skating skills must be a rarity here, because this girl target-fixated on my camera and I barely got out of the way as she careened towards me, arms flailing.

Also, no zamboni, so the ice got pretty funky after a while...

A different kind of taxi around town

Pedestrian traffic is heavy on this beautiful, sunny weekend. Catedral on Neda's left

Inside of the Catedral de la Asuncion de Maria Santisima

The inside the catedral is so beautiful and ornate, however there was a pre-recorded mass playing over the speakers, and the record kept skipping over and over again in the same spot. So we had to leave because it was a little bit annoying and slightly creepy A friend of mine told me that this catedral is a popular place to shoot TV shows, a lot of Spanish soap operas are filmed here!

A family is surprised by a toy bird flying overhead, set aflight by one of the vendors in the plaza

Boys playing by the fountain

Pensive? Or slow day for shoe-shining? I love the look on his face, so lost in thought!

Church spires compete to reach the sky

Catedral de la Asuncion de Maria Santisima, the centre of Guadalajara

Selling beads and other religious trinkets outside the catedral

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/63.html on December 30, 2012

Tequila is a Magical Village!

I know that sounds like something you drunkenly slur out aloud after 8 or 9 shots, but the town of Tequila, about 60 kms outside of Guadalajara, has been designated a Pueblo Magico by the Tourism Board of Mexico:

A 'Magical Village' is a place with symbolism, legends, history, important events, day-to-day life - in other words, 'magic' in its social and cultural manifestations, with great opportunities for tourism

The town of Tequila is famous for birthing the liquor of the same name. I had reservations about visiting this Magic Village, because of my bad experiences with the drink. The last shot of Tequila I ever had was in 2005, after a bender of a night in the Dominican Republic with a couple of friends. The morning-after-dry-heaving-head-pounding-walls-moving-around-you-hangover was the worst I've ever had in my life, and I swore off To-Kill-Ya forever.

But no harm in visiting the town, right?

Panhandlers compete for pesos by performing tricks between red lights. Currently this is the bar: Guy with a mohawk, juggling flaming torches, while on a stepladdder, covered head-to-toe in silver paint...

It's a beautiful, sunny day for a day-trip. As we leave Guadalajara, we make sure we plot a route with no Cuota roads. It turns out the free highways have a few entertaining twists and curves as it leaves the city and heads up into the hills. Still need to be careful around the blind corners because of this:

In the off-season, Alonso drives an 18-wheeler through Mexico

Riding through the streets of Tequila, Neda has her eyes set on the prize straight ahead - CuervoLand! Or Mundo Cuervo in Spanish.

The Tourism Board has really pulled out all the stops, and when we arrive into the city centre, we're greeted by music and a troupe of dancers dressed in indigenous costumes performing ritualistic dances.

Performer dressed in Aztec costume

Depicting an Aztec ritualistic dance

The captain of the dance crew calls it: "Una vez mas!"

Bells and bubbles

Tourism machine is even putting the kids to work

"Squirrel!"

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, which is found here in abundance, because of the fertile red volcanic soil in the region. However, the distilled liquor can only be rightly called "Tequila" if it is brewed only in this town. Throughout the city, there are several pieces of art, paintings and statues dedicated to the process of making Tequila and the farming of the agave plant.

Hector and Manuel's latest practical joke on Juan may have gone a little too far this time...

The Mariachi - an ever-present Mexican tradition

Neda booked us on a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory, which is headquartered in town. This is quite a popular tour, and there is a special train that runs to and from Guadalajara called the "Tequila Express", that is very popular and allows people to get liquored up here without having to drive back drunk. I had no idea that Neda booked us on the Tasting Tour of Mundo Cuervo... UGH!

Disclaimer: These bikes stayed parked until we were 100% sober again

It all starts off with a little shot

More performers in Cuervo Land

To help fund this trip, I am now shooting magazine ads for Jose Cuervo

Our assigned tour guide describes the process involved in creating Tequila, all the way from harvesting the agave plant, baking it, sticking it in huge steel vats, then into wooden barrels and finally pouring it down people's throats. Neda was only interested in the last step, so we really didn't pay a lot of attention to those in-between steps...

Agave plants. Cuervo is Spanish for "Crow".

Our tour guide looked exactly like Dani Pedrosa. Except he was normal-sized and knew a heck of a lot about tequila. After the "basic" tour had ended, because Neda had booked us on the extended "Tasting Tour", we were led to the basement of Mundo Cuervo, into the special secret cellar where 250-year old, 30,000 peso bottles of Tequila were being stockpiled for the next Baktun.

We were offered a taste of Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia, $150/bottle, only sold in Mexico

By now, we were more than a couple of shots into the tour and I was dreading the impending after-effects. I was assured by our tour guide that the infamous Tequila Hangover is caused by other sugars added to the tequila and that the 100% Agave alcohol with no added sugars shouldn't cause any ill-effects. OhReeeeeaally...?

Tequila tasting class? Or Cascade commercial?

After the secret cellar tour, we were taken upstairs to the tasting room where we were given three tequilas, blanco, annilo and geez, I can't remember... the rest is kind of hazy... I think at one point, I put our guide in a headlock and then I gave him a little noogie while screaming, "Who's your daddy, Dani! That's right, Jorge's your daddy!", then we were kicked out of the tasting room...

So after the Tasting Room debacle, this was the only tequila offered to us. Here, Neda is a bit more sober than I am...

We spent the rest of the evening sobering up while munching on cheap tacos in an eatery just outside of the main plaza. I was not feeling too good. One of the folks in our tour group recommended that we take the Cuota road back home because there were a lot of drunk people driving on the way back to Guadalajara. So we dished out the pesos begrudgingly, even though it did thankfully get us back to our hotel much quicker.

I crawled into bed with a really bad tequila headache that didn't go away when the sun rose the next day.

Oh god, never again! (damn you dani pedrosa)

 

[grogie]

I hope your head is feeling better! Thanks for the updates.

 

[lightcycle]

I hope your head is feeling better!

Tequila gives me the worst headaches, even worse than cheap red wine.

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/64.html on January 3, 2013

It rained all through New Year's Eve and into the first few days of 2013.

While I was still recovering from Tequila poisoning, we opted to stay in for the night while the steady rain poured down on all the merry-makers. The sounds of fireworks and music was a testament that you just can't drown out a good party! We are staying at a fabulous (and cheap) bed and breakfast about a 15-minute walk from the city centre. For the next few days we stayed around the neighbourhood, shopping at the local mercado.

Neda cooks up stir-fry vegetables to make up for all the greens that are lacking in the Mexican food

I have been gaining lots of weight on this Mexican diet of fried tortillas, tacos, and huevos. And it's all so cheap! Good thing there was a kitchen we could use in the B&B. Although the local food is high in fat and carbohydrates, obesity has only become a recent problem with Mexicans. Prior to the 1980s, the numbers were negligible, but with the expansion of US fast food chains, the average weight has steadily increased. There is a McDonalds in every city and it seems like Coca-Cola has focused all its advertising dollars in Mexico.

Regular service at Germania BMW

Thankfully the weather cleared and we dropped the bikes off for service at the dealership and walked around Zapopan, a larger town in the north-east Greater Metropolitan Guadalajara.

Almost every Mexican town or city has a gate

Whistling and skipping amongst the orange trees!

"Oranges and lemons, say the bells of... um the Virgin of Zapopan"

The Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan is the most famous building in the area, celebrating the likeness of the Virgin Mary. Like all Mexican neighbourhoods, it also has its own market and plaza and we spent most of the day walking around in the hot sun.

Pope John Paul II and a friend

Street musician outside the Basilica

Babysitting.

The mercado at Zapopan. More veggies please!

Restaurants are ready for the lunchtime crowd

While in the Farmacia in Zapopan, these two nuns approached me, and I helped them fix their old transistor radio.
I'm SO totally going to heaven now!

Mural on the wall of a cemetary, now my new desktop wallpaper

Cemetary just around the corner from our B&B

BRAINS! Well, that veggie diet didn't last very long...

The taco place around the corner from our B&B has become our second home. By now, I've tried almost everything on their menu. The report on the tacos de sesos (brains): it tasted exactly like it sounds. When cooked, it's a white meat. Very mushy, but you could still feel the texture of the brain folds. It was definitely an organ meat and not as salty as muscle. It wasn't bad, but not my favorite taco.

Guachimontones

During the weekend, we took another day-trip outside of the city to Teuchitlan, about 60 kms away - not too far from Tequila. It's home to a very unique set of structures called Guachimontones. Although not as grand as the Mayan or Aztec pyramids, these have the distinction of being built almost 1,000 years before the rise of the Aztec empire. They are considered "pre-hispanic".

Main Guachimonton, up close and personal. Several smaller ones scattered throughout the area

Another unique feature of the Guachimonton is that they are round in shape and rise up in smaller concentric circles like a cone. All other pyramids are straight-edged. These pyramids were built to honor the God of the Wind. At the very top, it's speculated that a long pole was erected where Velodores (flyers) would jump off the top with ropes tied around their ankles and slowly descend while rotating around the pole. Hearing this story sparked a memory of a TV show I used to watch called, "In Search Of" narrated by Mr. Spock, and in one episode he was describing this exact ceremony. Not sure why this stuck out in my mind so much...

Tourists from all over the area visit the site

These flat pads used to be the site of large permanent huts, all facing the Guachimonton

The town of Teuchitlan lies in the distance

Relaxing afternoon amongst the remains of an ancient civilization

 

[lightcycle]

Update from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/65.html on January 7, 2013

After 10 restful days in Guadalajara, we laden our bikes with all our gear once again and set off to explore more of the state of Jalisco. A popular destination for Guadalajarans and others in the region is Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest fresh-water lake. It's only about an hour away and the weather is sunny and beautiful for the afternoon ride.

Riding through the cobblestone streets of Ajijic

We're told to explore Ajijic, which is a very pretty town 5 minutes away from the lake. Our internal organs are given a bit of a shuffle as we bounced up and down over the cobblestone streets of the old city. The weather and scenery here is idyllic, however it seems that lot of Americans and Canadians have also caught onto this fact. There are over 20,000 gringos and Cangringos living in Ajijic and you can't turn a corner without that North American twang of English wafting through the air like a bad smell.

To underscore the point, every other building in Ajijic seems to be a real estate agency...

Lunch at the funky Nuevo Posada Hotel

Giving our kidneys a break by walking the streets of Ajijic

Pretty side streets in Ajijic

The ex-pat community here is fairly old, made up of American retirees, Canadian snowbirds and families who have brought their elderly parents here for the cheap cost of assisted living. We've noticed that ex-pats greatly change the landscape of the culture wherever they tend to coagulate, raising the prices of real estate and food, and creating a very non-Mexican bubble supported by their influx of foreign dollars.

Ajijic is a beautiful town, but we wouldn't want to live here.

San Francisco Church just off the Malecon in Chapala

About 5 minutes away is the town of Chapala, and the main draw here is the Malecon, from where you can watch the prettiest sunsets in Jalisco. We spent the entire afternoon people-watching, while tracking the movement of the sun as it fell from the clouds overhead to a more photogenic position just above the horizon over the waters of Lake Chapala.

Walking the pier on the Malecon in Chapala

Ice cream break! Neda really likes her skirt

The native whitefish population of Lake Chapala was decimated when they brought foreign Tilapia into the waters. Huh? What metaphor...?

Boats watch the sunset like angels on the beach

I see a little silhouette of a man...

The Sun of King Midas touches the waters, turning them to an iridescent gold

Street vendor resting his arms

Walking the Malecon at sunset is a popular activity here

So cute! Stray dogs were running all over the beaches, playfully chasing each other. None of them looked like they wanted for food

We have about 300 more shots like this...

299 more.

 

[profdlp]

The pictures just keep getting better - and they were pretty darn good to begin with! :ylsmoke:

 

[lightcycle]

The pictures just keep getting better - and they were pretty darn good to begin with! :ylsmoke:

Thanks so much!

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/66.html on January 10, 2013

While we were at Germania BMW in Guadalajara last week getting our bikes serviced, the service technicians gave us some great ideas on places to ride around. One of them told us that local bikers ride up a twisty road to Tapalpa for the weekends and hang out there. When we found out that Tapalpa was also a Pueblo Magico, well that sealed the deal!

Riding the cobblestone streets of Tapalpa

Tapalpa is about a two-hour ride from Guadalajara. The road winds up the Tapalpa mountain range, and the temperature drops precipitously into single digits (C) as we reach the mountainside town early in the evening. Tapalpa is known for woodworking and a lot of the architecture features nice wood finishes to doorways and arches. We spent some time walking around the town square just outside the San Antonio Parish, the main church in Tapalpa.

Disapproving look at my parking job?

I thought this nice old lady said she'd watch our bikes while we walked around town. Neda says to me, "Wow, your Spanish really sucks, cause she just threw a bunch of swear words at you...

Birds fly (Whisper to a scream)

Statue outside the church heralds the sunset

We ordered tamale de acerga (swiss chard), typical for this region

Bells and crosses dot the skyline

Shortly after sunset, we watched as a crowd of people started lining the streets outside the church. Then a huge processions of dancers, musicians and paraders made a giant circle around the town square. This lasted a whole hour and I was sorry that I didn't have my camera on-hand to take pictures. The waitress at our restaurant told us not to worry, this would happen every night - it was a 9-day festival honouring the Virgen de Guadalupe, and pilgrims from all over slowly make their way to Tapalpa. This fiesta happens every night for 9 days!

Felipe, our Spanish teacher in La Paz, told us that Mexicans *LOVE* their festivals and parties. There seem to be more national holidays than working days, which affects productivity somewhat...

There were several marching bands with brass instruments and also these musicians with fiddles

Then the Aztecs came out, managed to get them still for a picture

A flurry of feathers and headdresses as everyone lined up to go into church after the parade

Fireworks shot up at the end of the parade and kept on going well into the early morning

Walking back from the fiesta

The back streets of Tapalpa are quiet. Most of the residents and pilgirims are still at the plaza outside the church celebrating. Our walk back to our casa is punctuated by the pop of fireworks amidst the distant sounds of a marching band playing well into the night. We love being here in Mexico!

As recommended to me, I had Tacos de Tripita (fried tripe). New favorite taco!!!

There is music everywhere in Mexico. One of the things I *LOVE* about this place!

And of course, lots of shopping for Neda

Not an original idea. I saw little kids doing this last night. Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have admitted to that...

Visitors are not allowed up here, but we sweet-talked our way up the church tower. By sweet-talk, I mean begged. And we also gave a donation to the church as well...

There was an old radio program I used to listen to when I was a kid. It was a late-night program and I wasn't supposed to be up that late, so I would be under the covers in bed with my old transistor radio. I can't recall the name, but it was a Twilight Zone-like show. One of the episodes had the main character climb up a tower, and since he was afraid of enclosed spaces, he counted the steps till he reached the top, to occupy his mind. When he descended, he again counted steps down but to his horror, the number kept on increasing past the number of steps he climbed up!

Every time I climb stairs, I remember that radio program...

I *SO* wanted to ring the bells and yell out to Tapalpa, "DINNERTIME!!!!" Perhaps that's why they don't let people up here...

Inside of San Antonio Parish Church

View of the town square from the church tower

We haven't been getting a lot of exercise ever since arriving in Mexico. And on top of that, we've been eating really badly as well. So Neda found a great place to hike around, just outside of Tapalpa. Las Piedrotas are a set of huge boulders sitting in an empty field. Nobody knows how they got there since there doesn't seem to be any mountains immediately in the area, the field is just bounded by forests. It's speculated that aliens moved them. Really hard-working aliens that don't fiesta 200 days out of the year...

Jumping is exercise, right?

Climbing Las Piedrotas

Unrealistic expectations

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/67.html on January 12, 2013

From Tapalpa, we head eastwards further inland. We've been really blessed with sunny weather on this trip, normally it rains all throughout our previous trips. The ride takes us through a lot of farmer's fields and as we approach Uruapan, the geography changes to a tropical jungle, large leafy trees line the roads. We've crossed into our 7th state - Michoacan - supposed to be one of the most beautiful states in Mexico.

From desert cactus back to leafy trees

Spying lunch at the "food court" in Uruapan

Beautiful bass walking the streets looking for a gig

Downtown streets of Uruapan

Neda went hiking through El Parque Nacional de Uruapan, which is right inside the city. It boasts many white water rivers and waterfalls throughout its area, with rainbow trout swimming freely through its waters.

These kids would dive if you gave them a few pesos at El Parque Nacional de Uruapan

White water rivers in El Parque Nacional de Uruapan

Updating RideDOT.com in our very nice habitacion

We're staying a few days in the city in a great little casita, run by a Spanish couple who know the the area really well. They've given us some amazing recommendations for places to see and things to eat. Uruapan is the avocado capital of the world, and the fields we passed through on the way in were avocado farms!

Amazing guacamole!

Art gallery inside an old converted fabric factory

On Sunday, while we were coming back to our casita, we saw the housekeeper leave and we asked where she was going. She told us she was going to watch "los luchadores" in the town square. We thought "luchadores" had something to do with a lightshow or fireworks? From the Spanish word for light? When we went down to the square to see for ourselves, we found out "Luchadores" means wrestlers!!! OMG SO COOOL!!!

The town square is filled to capacity to watch the luchadores

So apparently, the WWF or WWE or whatever they call it in America, got its inspiration from Lucha Libres, a very popular Mexican sport founded in 1933. The wrestlers wear colourful masks, which would explain the popularity of all the masks being sold in the souvenir stores all over Mexico. Matches mostly consist of Battle Royales, tag teams or trios, such as the one we were watching today.

As with any wrestling match, there's a lot of this at the beginning...

...followed by a lot of that

This little girl in front of me wasn't very impressed. She was more interested in my camera. SO CUTE!

The crowd was chanting, "Tecnicos! Tecnicos! Tecnicos!", which I guess was one of the teams. So we got into the action, and joined in the chants as well. The locals standing around us thought that was hilarious, as it was obvious we had no clue who or what we were chanting for. Later when we got back to our casita, I looked up "Tecnicos", and it turns out that in any match, there are the good guys, "Tecnicos" and the bad guys, "Rudos". The Tecnicos play by the rules, have the better skills and moves, while the Rudos rely on breaking the rules to win.

While the cheering was strong for the Tecnicos, the crowd went absolutely crazy when the referees got into the action, getting a move put on them by one of the Rudos (or even a Tecnico!). Such a good time! We found out that these wrestling matches happen every other Sunday!

Somebody's gonna get hurt reel bad...

The greatest insult is to be unmasked in public by another wrestler

At this point I realized that we were watching a live action Saturday-morning superhero cartoon. So:

 

[goranvolvo]

gene you cant read this but neda will
slike su vam ekstra ,trebali biste usput i knjigu pisati
sretno i nezaustavljajte se .

 

[lightcycle]

slike su vam ekstra ,trebali biste usput i knjigu pisati
sretno i nezaustavljajte se .

Haha! Neda translated for me.

So I'll respond with one of only seven Croatian words I know: Hvala!