I live in Corpus Christi, Texas and ride a 2001 Trophy 1200. The nearest US mountains are the Rockies, 1000 miles away or the Davis Mountains at 600 miles. To find some closer rides, Lefty (a friend and CMA buddy) and I have made two 4-day trips to Mexico in the past 6 months. Each trip was about 1250 miles, costs were about $250-$300 apiece each trip, including permits and insurance. Lefty grew up in Eagle Pass, on the border, and I've spent 5 years in Central America, so we both speak Spanish and are somewhat familiar with Mexico, we just hadn't been there on bikes. You can see pictures of our trips on my triumphrat.net member's album, andyc740. Sort the pictures by post date, ascending order to get the right sequence or see more pictures at
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrew.cripe
Our first trip was September 06. We left on a Thursday morning from Corpus Christi, waited in McAllen for my birth certificate to show up via FedEx (I couldn't find mine 2 days earlier and had ordered another), crossed the border about 1:00, rode through Monterrey at rush hour and wound up at our hotel in Saltillo about dark. The next day we added another rider, Jay, who was on his way to Honduras from Atlanta on his Beemer GS1150 to get married and happened to be at the same hotel. We rode some mountains S. of Saltillo, wound up in Matehuala and happened to meet a local bike club called the Coyotes Rodantes.
The next day we made a side trip to Real de Catorce, a mining town at about 8,000 feet elevation at the end of a 15-mile cobblestone road and 2-mile long tunnel. If you've ever watched The Mexican with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, it features Real in the movie, along with some of the local citizens. Lefty and I returned to Saltillo while Jay remained in Real.
Mexico's Independence Day, September 16th, actually starts on September 15th at 10:00 PM with the Grito de Mexico, their cry for independence. We were on the main square in Saltillo for the fireworks, festivities and bands that evening.
The next day, we headed back to Corpus Christi, dodging the Independence Day parades and me nursing some squeaking wheel bearings. We had lunch in Monterrey, finally worked our way out of town on the surface streets and got home about 6:00. It was a great trip.
Our second trip again started in Corpus Christi in February 2008. This time we wanted to avoid larger cities like Monterrey and Saltillo and explore farther south along the eastern Sierra Madres. We crossed the border at noon, didn't have to stop at customs (our paperwork was still current from the previous trip) and headed south. I took the wrong highway out of Ciudad Victoria after supper, added about 30 miles to our trip and we rode into Ciudad Mante about 8:00 at night after more than 500 miles of riding. Really flat, pretty boring.
The next day, riding south toward Ciudad Valles, things started looking up. We were approaching the foothills of the mountains. Vegetation was getting greener. Some of the houses had thatched roofs. We stopped in Valles at the park, talked to some police and they showed us the local visitors' center. The center had maps of the area with local attractions; a lot of waterfalls, caves and mentioned a town called Xilitla with some sculpture gardens. We decided to visit Xilitla, about 60 or 70 miles south of Valles, making a side trip along the way to see a spring-fed river.
The mountains in the area are mostly layered limestone, resulting in some spectacular scenery, lots of waterfalls, springs and caves and some nice tropical trees and vegetation. The area is working hard to promote ecotourism. The side trip to the river was nice, though we gave up on getting lunch at the local restaurant, and continuing the loop back to the highway was a grind, trying not to bottom the bikes on all the speed bumps in the local villages. It was also tough trying to find the road out of town at some of the villages. No traffic signs, just follow the cars and trucks.
We arrived in Xilitla after a very nice run up the mountain from the highway, about 2,000 feet climb in about 10 miles. Lefty's Harley was panting. I hit the gas station just as a motorcycle tour group was leaving. They were yelling at me, "What kind of bike is that?" so I lifted up the flap on my tank bag, letting them see the Triumph logo. "Nice!" it got a thumbs-up from them.
We spent the night in Xilitla at the picturesque, but cheap, Hotel Guzman, admired the balcony views, talked with the locals in the park. The next day we visited Las Pozas de Edward James, just outside Xilitla. Edward James was a very wealthy, British patron of the arts who built some surreal sculpture gardens in the jungle outside Xilitla. The place is privately owned, inadequately maintained and attracts tourists from the US and Europe. Sort of a grown-up jungle gym.
After touring the gardens, we headed down the mountain (a Nissan pickup ran off from me. In my own defense, the road was damp and he knew those blind turns a lot better than I did), hit the highway and turned north toward Valles. We stopped at a hot springs for a dip, but it wasn't open yet and we weren't too impressed. We had lunch in Valles and continued north, catching up with the tour group again about an hour north of Mante. They were going to spend the night in Victoria, while we were going another 120 miles north to Linares. Terrain became flatter and dryer but we were riding through orchards and roadside stands selling fruit (the orange harvest was on) and shrimp cocktails (not bad, but Lefty doesn't like raw onions).
We spent the night in Linares, found a restaurant that served Cabrito for supper and an Internet cafe to do our nightly e-mail and in the morning, rode on to Montemorelos, then right through China (the town, not the country), stopping for breakfast along the way. We turned in our paperwork at the border, exchanged some leftover pesos back into dollars and were home by about 4:30.
I really enjoy the Mexico trips. Mexico has a poor reputation with all the battles between police and drug traffickers, but we feel safe. The government wants to encourage tourists and the police these days are helpful, instead of hassling us for bribes. If we get stopped at checkpoints, it's because the cops want to ask us about our bikes. The only papers required are driver's licence, birth certificate, and title for the bike. If the bike has a lien, you need a notarized letter from the lien holder. Passports are good, but not required. Mexico insurance is available on-line. Major roads are generally well-maintained (better than some of the roads around Corpus) and the signage is pretty good. It helps to have a good map along. We're not too worried about theft, leaving the tank bag and helmets on the bikes when eating or sightseeing, though we do try to find secure parking at night.
I'm really looking forward to going again, possibly a 5-day loop from Corpus Christi to Linares, through the moutains to Matehuala, south, then back across the mountains to Valles, up to Linares or Montemorelos and back to home. Lefty will probably be out of time off, so I'll be looking for a another riding buddy. Wanna come along?
