Time to leave Mexico City and say goodbye to Anna, Alberto, Gloria and Isabel.
We are ready to leave Mexico City but can’t take Isabel and Gloria
Today is election day in Mexico, so many roads in Mexico City are closed and Anthony wrestles with the GPS constantly working out a new route. We finally get onto the road out of Mexico City and are lucky to run under an overpass for a while, as…. it is raining!! We don’t get too wet and are soon out of Mexico City and into clear blue skies, but it is cold – in fact we have been cold the whole time in Mexico City. 13 degrees in the morning, up to 17 during the day!!!
The rain clouds are finally breaking up 90′ after leaving Anna and Alberto’s
After a couple of hours, we pull over at a petrol station to get a hot drink and warm up. We meet Daniel, from Mexico City. He is on his way to Alaska and today is his first day! I am not sure who was more excited – him or us, for him. Then when we stop for lunch, we meet another biker, Herman, from San Luis Potosi. We spend a hour chatting with Herman. We love the motorcycle fraternity. There always seem to be an instant connection. And we love how traveling on motorcycles enables us to meet and talk to all sorts of people. Car drivers are intrigued and talk to us. This reminds me of a most interesting conversation I had with young Gloria, at Alberto and Anna’s: she asked me so many questions about our travels, such as what happens when you are hungry, what if you couldn’t find any food, where do you sleep, how do you know where you’ll sleep, what happens when you run out of petrol. How can someone so young be so insightful?!
Daniel from Mexico City heading to Alaska
Strawberry fields at 2,000 metres high
Lunch stop – hot salsas and fresh pineaple juice before lunch arrives
We meet Herman from San Luis Potosi at our lunch stop
There is a supermarket near the hotel so I head off after checking to buy some snacks for our dinner. I thought I would get Anthony a beer as a surprise, but that was not possible:
No alcohol can purchased on election week end in Mexico
From San Luis Potosi, we head to Monterrey …
Leaving San Luis Potosi at 7am
Riding through San Luis Potosi is starting to feel like the US
Heading to Monterrey, Mexico, an hour out of San Luis Potosi
Loving the early morning light
We’re on the road again and loving it!
Stunning mountain range an hour and a half out of San Luis Potosi
Restaurants along the road to Monterrey
Half way to Monterrey
Another Mexican police check
Love the police shelter
Coming into Monterrey
Coming into Monterrey
On the outsgkirts of Monterrey
We head straight to … BMW. Streak has developed a squeak. From what sounded like a slight seat groan as I sat on it when we left Mexico City, it has gradually sounded worse. On the road to and then once in San Luis Potosi, we both had a good look and both agreed that it was coming from the suspension area but sounded like plastic squeak rather than metal. An over enthusiastic clean at BMW may have removed any lubrication maybe? We did some research online, sent off a query to one of the motorcycle forums, got a response and left confident the next morning. But as there was a BMW at Monterrey, I wanted someone to confirm there was no structural problem. There we met Juan Carlos, a BMW customer, who became our interpreter. BMW immediately took Streak away, confirmed our suspicions, lubricated the area, ran a diagnostic test on the whole bike and told us we were good to go but will have to have the shock absorbers replaced at our next service. What a relief.
Monterrey BMW dealershsip
Juan Carlos at BMW Monterrey
We then head to our hotel which is on the otherside of town, for an easy exit the next morning: Juan Carlos offers to show us the way which is very kind and helpful so we follow him until we are safely on the right road to our hotel. We have our last meal in Mexico in a small restaurant close to the hotel. We are presented with free dips, salsa and chips, as is the tradition here. Those salsas can be so hot that one tiny corner dipped is usually plenty hot enough for me. This one comes with a lovely smooth guacamole. Anthony tries it first, taking a good scoop of it onto a corn chip. Eeek, that is green chilli, not guacamole and it is HOT!!!!
Our ride from Monterrey to Laredo was stunning and so enjoyable. But maybe it was because it reminded us of Cape Town, where we lived from 83 to 85… And the temperature was perfect: a balmy 23 degrees at 7am. As we go through a hilly area, a large cat comes out and runs across the road right in front of Anthony, close enough for him to hoot at it to scare it off the road quickly. It is not a house cat but a bobcat. By the time I get to it, it is amongst the rocks, looking straight at me so I get a good look at it too. Pity I didn’t manage to get to photograph it…
New trucks heading for the US from Monterrey
Another glorious morning as we leave Monterrey
An hour north of Monterrey
An hour north of Monterrey, reminds us of Cape Town again
Mexican highways have these signs and pull over areas every few kilometres
More new trucks heading to the US
We are now approaching the USA – the number of trucks increases and the road surface resembles good quality US concrete roads. We have really enjoyed Mexico, Mexicans and Mexican food. Definitely a place to return to one day…
– Anne
2slowspeeds 
Superb. More good luck/karma meeting fellow motorcycle friends. On to th US.
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It is great how easy it is to talk to fellow motorcyclists – we love it. When and where are we catching up with you?!
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Your gaurdian angel is definitely all present. Oh Anthony , next time just a corner of the totilla will do !! Must have brought tears to your eyes ! You are sounding more relaxed. Have obviously caught up with yourselves. Lovely now to throttle on and relax !!Lots of love to you both xxxx
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Yes, our guardian angel is ever present :-). We are having a great time. Xx
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Might be time Anthony had his glasses checked if he can’t tell the difference between green chilli and advocado. I bet the bob-cat was really a kitten too ! Good to be back on the road I imagine. Thanks for the photo’s, I’m sure I would keep running off the road as there is always so much scenery to take your eye of the tarmac. There seems to be a lot of love for bikers too which is great to know.
Throttle on.
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Your comment made me laugh – you should see the number of sky/tank/knee photos I have when I have had to finally drop the camera and grab the handle bars/change gear!! And it was not a puddy cat, but some large wild one! Loving the open road again and singing into Anthony’s helmet 🙂
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Oh no, poor Anthony with the green chilli…Marion will be delighted that you enjoyed Mexico so much ; )
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He went back for more but in much smaller dose!! Xx
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Still beautiful scenery! and those wide, open and seemingly deserted roads – perfect for biking! Stay safe! Lots of love xxxx
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Loving the roads and scenery – big country, big clouds, big everything here!! Xxx
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Love the sleeping teddy bear face in the cloud above the police shelter. And the almost surreal morning light. How on earth are you going to choose which photos to use and which not to for The Book? xx
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Hmmm, didn’t find the teddy bear… It always takes me hours to chose the photos for each blog post – as you can imagine, there hundreds more per post I could have chosen! And then, there are moments I have no photo of as I didn’t think of it or it didn’t come out. Xxx
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I am constantly disappointed in the constant issues of Streak. The vaunted reliability of BMW has lost its gloss for me. But Storm seems trouble free! Perhaps Streakwas the last bike on the line on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend?
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Haha, I have thought the same, Streak must have been a Friday afternoon model. It is mainly the throttle issue I had when we met in Myanmar. Hasn’t gone away. Up to 10 days at BMW Denver later this month should resolve it. Storm has had no issue at all.
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AihP! we will have to change your nickname to Aih ‘F’ P after eating that disguised chilli! get it? :0)
Ride Safely
Love TB&AP
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Firery?!
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Beautiful countryside in the Monterrey area, it must have been glorious. Love that you continue to meet up with interesting fellow riders or really helpful locals who make the journey even more enjoyable. Guacamole vs green chili wowsers that must have been something and an easy mistake I think… Anne does your repertoire of songs change based on the scenery like mood music in a movie? xx
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Haha, interesting question Bev!! There is the first song of the day, which is the same, then there are different ones during the day – usually all made up, especially the words! Xx
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