Mexico City!

We're in Mexico City! And we're going to Frida Kahlo's house on my birthday! More soon!

<3xoxojen

The best of San Miguel de Allende and onwards.

Tomorrow we are riding east, by northeast through the Sierra Gorda biosphere where we are going to go camping with some fellow couchsurfers Ben and Buffy. Xilitla is our ultimate destination in this our last stab into the interior of Mexico. 

Mexico's rugged interior has been spectacular for motorcycle riding.
Only once did we find ourselves on a dead straight road between Monterrey and San luis Potosi.

I am expecting the riding to be excellent for the next couple of days. The Sierra Gorda biosphere is a nationally protected region comprised of one third of Querétaro state. It is host to three bio regions, epic mountains and spectacular valleys. At the northern tip is Xilitla and the surrealist landscape, Las Pozas, of James Edwards. I don't want to spoil it with some preview pictures so wait for us to get to Mexico City to update you on this adventure.

After Mexico City our route will head towards the Pacific Ocean. This will be the second time we visit the Pacific Ocean on this trip and will be a highlight of this epic journey. We will probably follow the coast down towards the border of Guatemala before heading back inland, and across to the Yucatan Peninsula. 

There are still loads of things to see in Mexico, plus we are only starting to really get into our Spanish speaking groove. Our importation permit on the motorcycle expires at the end of June, so I think we will probably stay in Mexico till then. It really depends on where we next pickup work. In Mexico City we will be chasing a couple of journalism leads, but that depends on how long we can find hosts. Couchsurfing has been great so far. We have one host lined up for the first week, and we are looking for a host for a possible second week if we can get a good lineup of interviews and article pitches for the English speaking publications. If you have any contacts we should know about in Mexico City please fill us in.

Here are the best photos of San Miguel de Allende:

The central garden,

La Parroquia,

Treats.

Benjamin

It took us two days to get to Guanajuato because we were held up in Aguascalientes. No, not that kind of hold up. 

The kind of holdup every motorcyclist loves to run into. A fellow motorcycle enthusiast that can't get enough of your story. Duro spotted us on the 6 lane autopista (freeway) running straight into Aguascalientes. We stopped and chatted for a couple of minutes about our trip, and his interest in taking smaller motorcycle trips, and we were hoping he could point us in a good direction for some lunch. It was about three in the afternoon and we were both starving. 

He then noticed that we were burning oil on the right side exhaust pipes. I tried to explain to him that I was constantly watching the oil, and that I knew what the problem was, and that I was in the midst of resolving the issue. Which is our cam chain tensioner not holding tension and leaking a fair bit of oil past the seal. Well, instead of pointing us to a good restaurant for lunch, (we finally made it to the Birria market that I was dreaming of before we left the next day.)

The back of a lamb on the table in front of us. 

Pretty good Birria cook. 

Side note, Birria is a specialty of Northern Mexico where lamb, mutton and goats are raised. The best place to get Birria is in Aguascalientes, so stop right here.

Eat and watch your bike at the Juarez Market.

Back to the story, We got the Birria information later that night when we meet up with Duro and his wife, and got a tour of the city. But, the first place Duro took us to was the infamous motorcycle garage of the Maestro Jorge Venegas Estrada.

We discussed the issue with my motor, and he offered up a quick solution. drill out the old bolt on the cam chain tensioner so we could thread in a stud bolt. This was a good option, but I knew if we made one mistake Jen and I would be stuck in Aguascalientes for much longer than we wished to visit this uber modern city. Mind the Birria market. I chose to talk my way out of the situation, and I learned a good lesson.

Even if the mechanic you are talking to about a problem wants to do the work for free, it doesn't mean it is always the best decision. 

So to fill you in on why we decided to pass on the offer, I have found a used cam chain tensioner on eBay for seven bucks. This includes the cam chain and the guides. Not a bad deal.

So we get the tour of the town that night by Duro. Auguascalientes is one of the highlights on the Mexico bull fighting circuit. Some of the best bulls in the country are breed here and killed here. We also got to see a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, sorry no photos I forgot the camera, she was standing over a grate in a section of town that had the cars passing underground. When a car would pass underneath her, the viewers would get a little glimpse as she posed innocently for the photos.

The next day I got up early, to check the condition of the bike, oil, and cam chain tensioner. I had to add a bit of oil, but that was expected. We then took off for a visit to the National Museum of death.

Click on our pictures for more great photos from the Death Museum.

So here we are in Guanajuato. I again have the engine out, and I am getting the broken bolt on our cam chain tensioner fixed temporarily as our new tensioner gets shipped to us.

I am going to replace our original one, because I also want to replace our head gasket, the oil seal around the cam chain tensioner bolt, and put in a master link on the cam chain. Plus in the care package with these parts from the states will be a new electric starter motor for the bike. Lets hope all goes well. 

 Benjamin

In Guanajuato, Motor is OUT!

So we made it to Guanajuato in one piece. We stayed over in Aguascalientes for a night, both for Ben to check out the Museo Nacional de la Muerte (National Museum of Death), from which we have some very interesting photos of the art there, 

but also because we literally got pulled over by a fellow motorcycle enthusiast, Duro, who runs the blog En Dos Ruedas, written in Spanish.

We stopped in Aguascalientes for three hours, putting us off track for our destination in Guanajuato that night, so we got a room, saw the museum and walked around downtown a bit. 

The three hours we spent at the motorcycle shop was pretty hilarious. It involved Ben waving his hands at Harley Davidson enthusiasts, saying, part in Spanish, part in English, "Please, please, no! Don't drill into the head!" For those who don't speak motorcyclese, the head basically equals the motor and drilling into it and leaving metal shavings is a terrible idea. 

We made some quick friends in Aguascalientes, and got a little nervous about the cam chain tensioner being loose--not only are we losing a lot of oil regularly, but the cam chain tensioner is sitting in the motor, shaking around. If it gets completely detached from the outside, it will bash into something important (i.e. the valves or the pistons or something like that) and then the ride is OVER. Capital O-V-E-R. So Ben took the motor out, again. And I helped, a little. Here are the photos:

This is Judiht's courtyard, and the view from our current bedroom. There's Apolo, the collie and the engine sitting out in the courtyard.

Muchas Gracias!!!

Thank you everyone for continuing to support us, our motorcycle, and our blog. Thank you for the financial donations that make my work on Bonnie possible and keep us on the road to adventure and new friends. Thank you for your comments, anecdotes, blogs, and twitter updates. We love sharing our stories and experiences with everyone we meet in our daily lives, and with all of our dedicated followers on the blog, through advrider.com, and on twitter.com. 

We have received some very generous donations since we left the states:

Christopher Hillard, your donation has helped us cover the costs of cleaning out our gas tank. 

Michael Saunders, we have finally found a good deal on an electric starter.

Steve Brawley and Marc Lanciaux, your incredible donations are going  towards a new front tire. I have been searching far and wide for a good deal, quality that will last, and tread that will keep us on the beaten path while allowing us visits off the beaten path. I have a supplier in Mexico City all lined up for the transaction.

 

Robert Owen,  thanks for the donation. It will help us get the motor back in the bike for good. I have found a used cam chain tensioner a used cam chain, and a new head gasket. 

Mark Hyatt, your donation has bought us a new cam chain master link.

I also want to say thank you to my family for helping us with shipping our care package of parts and tools to Mexico.

Viva Mexico!

Benjamin

 

Videos on the Road

Here are some baby videos taken while we were driving to Zacatecas

Oh no, Mr. Bill (Ben)!