From one mad house to another!

We arrived at the gardens early which meant we had the run of the place and hired an English speaking guide who gave us an excellent tour for a couple of hours. The other benefit of an early start is that the humidity factor is less of an issue, especially when wearing bike gear.

The Road to Las Pozas was the usual rubble highway.

The house that James built.

Every piece of work was left unfinished to give the impression that it was actually in decay, the artists intention was to let the jungle finish his work.

Gothic arches (many of the pieces copy aspects of traditional architecture)

We also got the opportunity to climb around the place which is something not normally allowed when the gardens are full, James intentionally designed certain features that can only be seen from a specific viewpoint.

The face through the wall.

All the staircases have no handrails and lead nowhere.

Bloody tourists!

Another Bug moment.

Some of the walls and non reinforced structures have already started to collapse.

Concrete bamboo screen.

We left Las Pozas with enough time to get us to Queretero that evening, we had originally intended to go to North to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato but the lure of the Pacific coast was stronger so we decided to head straight for Zihuatanejo. When we got to Queretero the problem with the keyboard arose so instead of us taking a look at the city I spent the time trawling the PC shops for an alternative means of typing the Blog.

The road out of Xilitla (check your brakes).

The next day was a good ride to the coast in glorious sunshine, we have been fortunate to miss riding in the really heavy rains and as we are coming to the end of the rainy season the waterproofs will get relegated to the bottom of the tank panniers.

Stopped on the way to take a churchy type picture.

What the well dressed motorcycle cop is wearing this year....Spurs!

We stopped off in Patzcuaro and had lunch on the street that houses the local the carpenter's workshops, they were basically wooden shacks with corrugated tin roofs but they all held a bewildering array of furniture and carvings.

These guys carved anything and everything (even had Michael Jackson on the roof!)

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying......

That line is from the movie The Shawshank Redemption, one of my all time favourite films. If you've seen the film you'll know that The character played by Tim Robbins eventually escapes to start a new life in Mexico in a place called Zihuatanejo (pronounced say-wot-an-heyo), It's a small resort in a sheltered bay a couple of hundred kilometers up the coast from Acapulco.

Zihuatenejo Bay.

The water was really shallow.

The view from the hotel pool.

Ruby throated hummingbird.

Sue relaxing on the balcony.

Me relaxing at the bar.

Another Pacific Ocean sunset.

We'd heard that turtles often frequent this area to lay their eggs and asked to be woken if one appeared during our stay. That night at 11.30 there was a knock on the door and we were escorted via torchlight down to the beach and watched while mama laid her eggs (about 100). There is a financial incentive to the hotel staff to protect the turtles so they retrieve the eggs immediately and place them in a mesh covered pen until they hatch and are ready to start their life at sea.

It's truly amazing that these creatures cover thousands of miles of open ocean and still return to the same spot they were born. I have difficulty finding a bloody hotel with a map and GPS.

There are 3 species of turtle that frequent the beach, Hawksbill, Leatherback and this type the Olive Ridley turtle.

The last time I witnessed a live birth was.......and moving on.

We were fortunate that when we took the eggs to the compound where they are reburied and labeled, that hatchlings from a previous brood were poking their heads above the sand. So these were helped out of their hole, put back into a plastic bag and taken down to the shore.

In the background you can see the wooden stakes with the projected hatch date marked on them, these babies were due on the 22nd of September and were 2 days late.

Unfortunately the sea unceremoniously pushed many of them back onto the beach and we spent a few minutes running round picking them up and taking them past the breakers to give them a chance (when I say taking what I actually meant was throwing).

It's suprising how far you can throw a baby turtle! (only joking)

It was too far to ride from Zihuatenejo to Mexico City in one day so we decided to break the journey and stop overnight in Acapulco.
Leaving Zihuatenejo we met up with a couple of travelers, Ron and Garrett who were parked up at the side of the road waiting for Garrett's bike to cool down after he thought he had an overheating problem. They are both headed to South America and we decided to ride to Acapulco together and meet up for a beer that evening (we never did, sorry guys) We left them on the outskirts of Acapulco and soon found ourselves in the middle of the city.....Lost!, I had forgotten the location of the hotel and the GPS was giving instructions in that tone of voice that says "I thought YOU knew where we were going". Being a bloke and not wanting to admit my navigational skills were only slightly better than a pigeon with Alzheimer's I drove around for a while not wanting to admit defeat (what we should have done was pay a taxi driver to take us there) and in desperation made a U- turn on the freeway in an attempt to head in what I thought was the right direction. Mistake number 124...... this nice policeman (who from now on shall be known as 'Bastardo') pulled us over and proceeded to explain that not only had I made an illegal manoeuvre but I had also ran a red light, after we explained where we were trying to go he said no problem I'll take you there after we sort out the formalities. He then went through his usual crooked routine "do you want to go to the station or shall we sort it out here", because we were tired and hungry I agreed to sort it out on the spot, rather than extort money from us on the hard shoulder he escorted us to our hotel via a dead end street where he explained the fines would amount to 1300 Pesos (about £50) I whinged and whined and got him down to 500, if we hadn't been so tired I think I would have enjoyed the sport in calling his bluff but we paid the money and booked into the hotel. Oddly enough Ron and Garrett also got robbed the next day (sorry I meant fined), that evening we had a quick walk along Copacabana beach, which is not very nice, 1 in 4 gradient and looks and feels like building sand! and that night sat through another tropical rain storm. I was so pissed with the whole thing I couldn't be bothered to take any photos except this one from the hotel balcony.

Acapulco Bay (home of the 'Bastardo Federale')

Throughout our trip we have visited friends who made contact with us through the two main websites for adventure travelers (Horizons Unlimited and Adventure Rider). One of the first people to offer help and advice was Garry from Mexico City, Garry is an British ex pat who now lives in the city with his Mexican wife Ivonne. They have both traveled extensively and host fellow travelers as a way of paying back the hospitality they were shown when they were on the road (that's how this thing works). Under normal circumstances you would be mad to even think about riding into Mexico City but Garry being the stand up type of guy that he is will actually meet you and escort you in. He agreed to meet us in Tres Marias a small town outside the city which on a Sunday hosts all the local bikers looking to meet their maker on the twisties in the mountains.

Tres Marias in the rain. (BOB attracted the usual attention with people wanting to sit on him and have their photo taken like some safari park elephant)

Mexico City is not as bad as people make out the traffic is no worse than any other city with 20 million inhabitants and in the four days we were there I rode around the city every day and never saw one accident (they must move the dead really quickly) I have driven in worse places, Turkey, Iran, Italy and the Yorkshire Dales and with Garry taking the lead I soon settled into the routine of lane splitting, pushing in and using the pavement as a kind of extra lane! In Mexico we have found the Road Traffic Laws are more what you would call guidelines! most taxi drivers are red/green colour blind and the local police would not have enough time or paper to process all the traffic infringements.

During our stay Ivonne drove us into the city to have a look round (we can now swear fluently in Spanish) she is a superb driver and Sue said she felt at ease in the back of the car and even I was relaxed (being one of the worst passengers ever).

The museum of Beauty and Art.

Sue and Ivonne in front of the Cathedral in the City square.

The view of the square from our lunchtime restaurant.

Sue's Chile en Nogada, a wonderful dish consisting of a green chile, white walnut sauce and red pomegranate- the colors of the Mexican flag. This dish is a Mexican Independence day favourite.

Inside the cathedral is a pendulum hung from the centre of the roof showing the amount of subsidence and movement since it's construction in 1664 (white arrow)

The main alter in the cathedral

Restoration work to one of the side chapels.

Downtown Mexico City.

Garry and Ivonne were superb hosts and took us for a day out to the Aztec ruins at Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramidal structures, Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the so-called "Avenue of the Dead", and numerous colorful, well-preserved murals.

Bloody tourist in front of the Pyramid of the Sun, the pyramid is the third largest in the world after the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and the Pyramid of Cholula just down the road in Puebla.

The hand rail is there for a reason (it's as steep as it looks)

Sue and Garry at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun (in the background is the Pyramid of the moon)

At the top of the pyramid in the centre is this piece of metal embedded in the surface, this is reported to be a focal point for the suns energy and people climb up there to lie on the spot or touch it in the hope of being invigorated with solar power. I wonder if no one was looking you could drop your pants and...no,no,no!

The stones projecting from the walls of the pyramid were originally designed to hold in place a lime stucco covering that was then painted bright red.

The Pyramid of the Moon.

"No Darling yer bum's not really that big, it's a wide angled lens it's supposed to make things look wide"

Looking back down the Avenue of the Dead from the top of the Pyramid of the Moon.

Some of the original wall paintings.

Ongoing restoration work at the Citadel.

The Temple of Quetzalcoatl or Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent.

Close up of carved serpent head.

Mexico is big on wrestling, really big all the shops sell replica masks of all the favourites. First of all I didn't buy this mask I borrowed it off Garry's son Lloyd, so here's me disguised as one of the most popular wrestling hero...Mystico!

And here's Sue disguised as.....well..errr

Viva Zapata!

One of the reasons I needed to get to Garry and Mexico city was to replace the rear tyre, the Metzler Tourance we had fitted in Vancouver had done over eight thousand miles fully loaded and would not have got us to Guatemala City which was where the next chance to change tyres would be. Garry did some ringing round before we got there and managed to source a Michelin tyre at a reasonable price, the front still has a few thousand miles left on it so that will get changed in Guatemala. We got the tyre fitted and balanced at the local Suzuki dealer but I also decided to get the 24,000 mile service done whist we were near a main BMW dealer. The cost of the labour was half of what we were paying in the States or back home so the bill was reasonable but the biggest result was that I managed to get a new visor for my helmet. As a result of the crash both our helmet visors were scratched, Sue's more than mine and we managed to replace hers in Vancouver. I have continued to ride with mine until now and the service guy at the BMW dealership in Mexico City sold me a replacement off a new helmet (it wasn't cheap when you consider the cost of a new BMW system 6 helmet here is close on £600! All in all it had been a successful time for BOB and me.

We spent a hugely entertaining four days with Garry and Ivonne but as with all our visits this one came to an end too soon and we needed to be heading South again. We said our goodbyes and Garry kindly showed us the way out of City and we were on our way to Oaxaca.

Following Garry out of Mexico City in morning traffic.