First a story line about this pic. This photo was taken in Tekax, Yucatan after it was freshly washed. I had traveled down to Punta Allen the previous day and gotten the bike seriously muddy on the dirt road that followed along the shore. I was looking for a car wash to wash the salt mud off and couldn't find anything until the next day. When I finely found a place to get it washed (Mexico has no self service car wash bays like in the US) the young kid spent a good 45 minutes washing, scrubbing and detailing it with every thing he had at his disposal. He was so proud of the job he had done that he went and got his phone and asked me if he could take a pic of his work. I'm guessing he probably had never seen that big a bike in his life. He had sprayed so much gunk on the brake's that they were useless for the next 100 miles. He charged me $3 so I paid him $5 and he was pretty thrilled.
From Tucson back to Tucson
83 Days - 7,746 miles.
Only a couple chain adjustments, an oil change in Oaxaco and a side of the road clutch lever adjustment for the entire trip.... after all It's a HONDA!
The first question everyone will ask - "was it safe?" The short answer, I probably felt safer in MX then in the US. Really the only time I was nervous and looking over my shoulder was when I was visiting an ATM. I'd always suck out the max the machine would allow so sometimes that would be 7,000 pesos (little over $300) that is a big stack of bills which I would quickly stuff in my pocket and drive off.
Up north, as you would expect, there were quite a few military checkpoints I had to stop at. The questions were always the same - "where are you coming from, where are you going and am I a tourist?" They were more interested in my bike and my journey. Usually they would wave motos through without even stopping me though.
There was always a military/police presence. Again up north it was the National Guard but the further south I went the less military and more police. They were always young 20 year olds wearing full combat gear... and well armed.
I only had one "interesting" situation - just south of Acapulco I stayed 2 nights in a nice hotel on the edge of a small town. The morning I was leaving I brought my first load down to my bike which was parked around back in a little court yard. When I walked in the yard I noticed 2 men standing talking so I said buenos dias and one of them replied back. I loaded my panniers on my bike and went back upstairs not thinking anything of it. I came down the second time and looked up and one of the men were leaning against a rifle and still chatting to each other. That got my attention but they didn't even look my way. So I went back up for my helmet and jacket thinking maybe he is an undercover cop or something, not wearing a uniform but just regular clothes. When I came down for the last time they were still there and again didn't even look up at me but they turned and were meeting another car that just pulled up. I also noticed there was a pickup that was idling next to my bike with tinted windows and no plates with a guy behind the wheel. I quickly pulled my helmet and jacket on and drive around to the front of the hotel where I finished prepping and quickly got on the highway.
The two days I was in town each afternoon I had walked the length of main street looking for something to eat. In small Mexican towns I really stood out as a tourist so everybody in town knew there was a stranger passing through town. I guess I didn't look like a threat.
The one thing I never got used to was the trash. As someone who enjoys hiking and spending time outdoors and gets upset at seeing a cigarette butt on the ground Mexico is a hard place to get used to. The towns and cities never had trash cans on the streets so there was really no place but the ground to toss your trash. And traveling through the high country each community you come to just outside of town would be the local dump. On the side of the road would be a huge mound of garbage which every morning someone would light on fire. You could look down the mountain ridge and see plums of smoke from a half dozen towns in the distance. And of course the smoke would hang in the valley so the sky was always brown and smelled of burning trash.
And then the beaches. When you got away from the main tourist beach which they kept clean(er) there would be mounds of plastic bottles and trash that washed up. And the most disturbing, you would see "medical waste" the glass vials and syringes (with needles). I had always heard stories we were dumping our medical waste in the ocean but I didn't really believe it.
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