Left Mazatlan yesterday and started heading for Puerto Vallarta since Ed Zachtamundo knew a guy who had built a house for his mom down there and said we could all stay. We also added two more riders to our group (both KLR riders) who only rode with us for the day. We've been avoiding the toll roads for the most part and sticking to the "Libre" side, but man, getting stuck behind semi's doing five miles an hour and jangling about on what seems like an endless procession of "topes" definetly makes you wish for a toll road sometimes. For those of you that don't habla, topes (and vibradores apparently) are the speed bumps that mexico and much of central america uses instead of things like speed limits and traffic signals to help people drive safely. Because people just pretty much totally ignore things like stop signs and one way streets.
We stopped and had lunch at an open air, road side cafe out side of San Blas on some random backroad and saw this lovely little machine:
If the XRL decides to explode on me, I know that I can always pick up one of these bad boys and keep on trucking. Or maybe I should just get one now and carry it with me on top of my rack. It would probably weigh less than one of my boxes!
After lunch we stopped at a Pemex and I filled up "El Senor" with what the attendant assured me was premium. I've been using premium to try and keep the engine running cooler. However, after filling up my tank, I reallized that it had a suspicious red tinge to it. Sure enough, everyone who had filled up with the "Premium" started experiencing a serious power lag and higher engine temps. The XRL ran surprisingly poorly, was struggling to get above 55 MPH, and was heating up really fast. Eventually I just pullled into a gas station, disconected the fuel line, and drained about 2 gallons of the crap into the parking lot.
Some guy came over and asked me what I was doing. I told him "La gasolina esta sucia!", which he apparently understood, cause he walked away and left me alone. Other than the dirty gas, the riding was beautiful. Much more vegitation than baja....almost jungle like......
Got into Mazatlan a little later than we expected and after checking out a few hotels on the outskirts, decided to go into downtown and stay at a hostel. Big mistake! Never stay in a backpackers hostel when you and six other people are on bikes. After getting really lost, really frusterated, and really tired, we finally found the hostel and immediatley commendered the entire building. The few broke college kids and hippies staying there were a little shocked to see seven surly and pissed off bikers walk in and start yelling at the kid behind the desk for beer and a place to crash. Unfortunatley I failed to get a picture of all seven of our bikes crammed into a tiny space in front of the hostel, all chained together, with two disc alarms on the outside bikes. It was quite impressive.
This morning woke up late and left Mazatlan by the crack of Noon. Made it to Tequilla, Mexico. Apparently they invented Tequilla here or something. Don't really know, was too tired and pissed of from staying in a hostel last night to really care. There were tons of Agave fields on the way in though and they were quite pretty. Here's some pictures from the day's riding:
Was really tired when we got to Tequilla and didn't feel like going through the hassle of finding a cheap hotel, so we splurged and got a fancy hotel (580 Pesos, or about $45). It's really nice in here. Unfortunately, they won't let us take our bikes in the rooms. Darn.
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