It has always been the moto travelers Achilles heal – there is never enough time to do everything – so you have to make a choice. Our choice is to move east then swing down to Chiapas and the Guatemalan border. I think it has taken us all by surprise how high Mexico City is (7,500 feet) and the mountains that surround the city as we move south hitting heights of almost 11.000 feet. It is hard to really express the exhilaration of working your way up though pine forests and the sweeping curves as we descend, only to climb again – a moto travelers dream. Matthew and Mike took a detour to the BMW dealer in Mexico City to deal with his side case and brake cable – fixed the former, but had no luck with the rear brake – so Matthew continues to ride without rear brakes.
Our destinations are often chosen because of the time of the day – but this time Lee has a special request to stay the evening in the colonial town of San Christobal de las Casas and the group agreed. Unfortunately as happens from time to time the group got separated in heavy traffic and when Lee’s bike had a second backfire and stalled – I somehow missed them on my way through the city. Fortunately , when we travel we always agree on the meeting place – on this trip it is the central square – so I went there and was surprised as the hours passed not to see any sign of my friends. Finally around 9pm I got a text saying they were sitting in a bar a block away and headed over to find out why they had been so delayed – which turned out to be a road repair of the air intake blowing off its connection – a problem we had on the Baja. The road side repair went well – but leaving the guys to ride the hour and a half in the dark, something Lee swore never to do! We all agreed that despite the late evening – we would be up bright and early to hit the Guatemalan border in good time.
It is always nice to have a plan – sometimes they even work! This time however, it did not! It started well. First Try – we got Lee’s connections taken care of in a tyre shop – only to ride a kilometer out-of-town to have Lee pull over with serious back firing. So, we turn around and head back into town to find a bike shop, there in no time the bike was pulled apart and back together again. Second try we get to the same 1 Kilometer spot and the bike started acting up again – so back to the bike shop and we find it is an easy fix – so finally around 1 we head out for the Guatemala border arriving late afternoon.
From Italy helping children around the world on Motorcycles 