Triumphrat

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 10:47 AM

These trip reports are becoming more of an ongoing story than stand-alone reports. Here's a bit of backstory for this one:

Manolo is the Director of CMA (Christian Motorcyclists Association) in Mexico. He lives in Huatusco, Veracruz, which is a market town in a coffee-growing region about 80 miles inland from Veracruz. The town has a population of about 25,000 and sits at an elevation of about 4,000 ft on the rainy (Eastern) side of the Eastern Sierra Madres. The nice thing about Huatusco is it is not on a highway, it sits in a sort of backwater without a lot of through traffic and few tourists. Because of the elevation and climate, it's incredibly green year-round and anything and everything grows.

I visited Manolo and his family in January in Huatusco and enjoyed the trip immensely. They quickly seemed like friends I had known for years, though I only met them a few months before at the CMA Changing of the Colors rally in Hatfield, Arkansas.

Most of the pictures in this post were taken by Sapo, a few by me. Have to give credit where credit is due.

This is (from the left), Andrea, Ortensia, Manolo, Saraí and Grumpy. The picture was taken on my January trip.

Manolo has joined us at several of our trips to Mexican bike rallies this spring, one in Ciudad Victoria at the beginning of March and another in Tampico at the end of May. This is at Ciudad Victoria.

Here's a shot of Manolo at the Tampico rally, awarding Angel and Carmen their CMA membership cards:

Several days after the rally, we received an email from Manolo's family, saying he and their older daughter, Saraí, were in a car wreck near Reynosa, on the border. The family owns a boutique and they were on a buying trip to stock up the store. Manolo wound up putting his head through the driver-side window, getting a good concussion in the process, and injuring his chest, when it slammed into the steering wheel. He spent a week in hospitals in Reynosa and another week in town recovering before he was able to go back home.

We visited Manolo several times in Reynosa. His wife, Ortensia, had joined him and Saraí and they stayed in a small, loaner house till he was well enough to travel. This is what his head looked like a week and a half after the accident. Definitely had a few divots taken out of it.

Their car wasn't insured for collisions, the hospital stay was expensive, and the money intended to stock the store went to pay the hospital bill. We helped what we could, but wanted to do more. So....

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 10:50 AM

Lefty came up with the idea of having a smoked turkey leg sale as a fundraiser for Manolo and his family. We got the OK from CMA to do the sale and made arrangements with the City of Corpus Christi to sell the legs on the Fourth of July at a local waterfront park, which was hosting a Christian music festival. The park is also a popular spot for fireworks watching.

Getting everything ready took quite a bit of work and left Lefty a bit worn out.

but we were finally set up and ready to go. Sapo was proud of our efforts.

The cooking went slow and we had 20 cases of legs to smoke. My blue CMA T-shirt still has grease stains on it. Steve, our head cook is coaching me on proper technique.

We were at it till long after dark, but managed to cook and sell all but a few legs. Mary, Lucy (with her back turned), Gloria and many others worked hard to make it happen.

The sale exceeded our goal and then we were left trying to decide how to deliver the money. I felt it would be a great excuse to make another trip to Huatusco and Sapo said he wanted to ride along. We scheduled the trip to coincide with CMA Mexico's annual get-together, partly as a smokescreen to keep Manolo from wondering about our reason for the trip (we didn't tell him anything about the fundraiser), and partly because we wanted to get to know the Mexican CMA members better.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 10:54 AM

The CMA Mexico Congreso was held on a Friday and Saturday, but Sapo couldn't get off work until noon Thursday. Huatusco is about 800 miles from Corpus Christi. Our plans were to ride 300 miles to Soto la Marina (between Ciudad Victoria and the coast) Thursday afternoon, spend the night, then ride the remaining 500 miles to Huatusco on Friday, hopefully putting us into town at a reasonable hour.

Huatusco is marked with an "A" on the map.

We left on schedule, made it to the border in three hours, then ran into a snag when my phone fell off while crossing the International Bridge. Sapo saw it fall but didn't know what it was. We turned around and rode back across the bridge (about 2 miles), did a U-turn on the US side and spotted the phone going back. It was in pieces, but still worked. The Mexican soldiers at the border were curious why we had turned around when we did and searched us pretty closely, but let us through with no hassles. We both had current papers, so that made the crossing easier.

We had dinner at the "Y", gassed up and headed on. We took the highway south to Soto la Marina, then held our breath when the road construction left us on a gravelled "desvio" for a mile or two just north of Soto. We both still have vivid memories of the desvio on the Matehuala trip a year ago. We made it into town, got a room at the Hotel Rey, and some sodas before we headed for bed.

The next morning we took off fairly early. We still had 500 miles of riding to do. We stopped for breakfast before we hit the main highway again, just north of Tampico. I had a route figured out to get through the middle of Tampico, but missed an intersection near the airport and we wound up downtown, wondering where the bridge went to. Several locals gave us conflicting information but got us headed in the general direction. We finally managed to get on the approach to the bridge, crossed the river and paid our first toll of the trip on the far side.

Traffic was much heavier, the road wound through rolling hills and the "doubles", tandem semi pulling two full-length trailers, slowed down traffic, piling other cars and trucks up behind them. Passing was a cat and mouse game with the limited sight lines and the amount of oncoming traffic. Lunch was some roast chicken in Cerro Azul where I had eaten before.

We worked our way on south, took the bypass around Tuxpan, stopping to buy some mangos and bananas at a roadside fruit stand. Note to self: Ripe bananas don't travel well on the back of a motorcycle.

We hit the toll road to get around Poza Rica and headed on South. When we reached the Costa Ezmeralda, we stopped again so Sapo could try some fresh, cold coconut milk. The lady running the stand took the cocos out of the refrigerator, whacked the top off with a machete, stuck in a straw and let us at it. Great stuff. Especially in the middle of a hot ride. Then she split the coconut and scooped out the meat so we could eat that, too.

I think there are 5 toll bridges along the route and one toll road (the bypass around Poza Rica). I've learned to carry small bills in my jacket pocket so I don't have to drag out my wallet, and then pay for however many are in the group at one time to speed things up. It still takes longer than the cars take, but nobody seems upset about the extra time. I guess that's just Mexico.

And then there's the topes. Every town has them south of Tampico. Every town. Some towns, they're every hundred yards, for several miles. And high enough the bike scrapes going over them. I have a whole rant about topes, but you probably don't want to hear it, so I'll skip that.

We finally made it into Huatusco, 500 miles in fourteen hours, and made it to Manolo and Hortensia's house. They put us up in the girl's bedroom, farming the girls out to their grandmother. Sapo got Sarai's Hermosa Princesa (The Beautiful Princess) bed, so that is what I called him the rest of the trip. Their guest rooms out back were taken and there were tents up on the lawn on the side of the house where a couple of the teenagers were sleeping.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 10:56 AM

Many of the CMA members left after the meetings on Friday, but others were still in town. Angel, one of the newest CMA members, was still there though was leaving in the morning.

Mt. Orizaba was still there. Still had snow in July.

Manolo had a Saturday morning ride planned to a village about 10 miles away named Colonia Manuel Gonzalez. He said it was settled by Italians. Before we went, Sapo wanted to change the spark plugs on his Yamaha. It had been running rough on the way down. It was no problem finding replacement plugs in town.

We met up in downtown Huatusco. It was a while before everybody was there and ready to go. The sign says "No parking. Tow trucks are used." Javier, one of the CMA members, told me later there are only two tow trucks in Huatusco.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 10:58 AM

Sapo and I were taking Manolo and Ortensia's girls along with us on the ride. We didn't have to do much arm twisting to get them to agree. We also loaded Saraí down with our cameras and said she was the official photographer. We headed out with Manolo in front in the car. He said the road had a few tight, off-camber turns and didn't want anybody to get in trouble, so he led the pack.

Andrea seemed to be sitting pretty comfortable behind me. It wasn't till I saw the pictures that I saw how tight a grip she had on the grab rails. The road to Col. Manuel Gonzalez is beautiful. It drops about 1000 ft. in elevation, winding through some nice green hills. We were all wishing Manolo would drive faster.

The ride there was fun, but too short. We parked by the plaza in town, which was beautiful.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 11:00 AM

Everybody gravitated to the store on the far corner to buy sodas and popsicles. We killed an hour or so, goofing around, talking, taking pictures. I imagine Gustavo and I are discussing motorcycles.

I told the girls they looked like a flock of birds sitting on a powerline.

Gustavo showed me his new V-Strom. Very nice.

Then it was time to head back. This time, we got going before Manolo could get in front of us with the car. Gustavo led the pack, I was behind him. He knew the road and I figured any corner he could take two up on his bike, I could do on mine. Needless to say, the ride back to Huatusco was quicker than the ride out.

I love seeing road signs like this one. Definitely my favorite.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 11:02 AM

Back in Huatusco, we headed for Los Cocuyos (the Fireflies), a tourist hotel on the edge of town for a buffet lunch. We were early, so we spent some time goofing around the grounds. The hotel has a few holes for golf, tennis courts, a swimming pool, some detached guest cabins, etc., etc. Beautiful place.

Some black spots on one of the plants turned out to be crickets or grasshoppers or something. I like the two-toned paint jobs they have.

The kids were playing on a grassy hill while we waited.

The grounds at the hotel are beautiful. I guess you get that in an area where almost anything grows. Gustavo and Agustina posed with their bike. They spent quite a bit of time getting to know Sapo and me.

Then it was finally time to eat. Los Cocuyos puts on a pretty good buffet. We finally worked our way to dessert.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 11:04 AM

After eating, we enjoyed the grounds a bit more. This flowering bush is called a Trumpet Flower.

Back at the house, the Hermosa Princesa got a shot of a hummingbird in Ortensia's garden.

The plant itself is pretty nice.

Ortensia relaxed a bit with Jeremias, their hyper Chihuahua.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 11:05 AM

Later, the CMA people met at the Central Park to do a prayer walk around Huatusco. Sapo and I tagged along as it was a good chance to spend some time with the CMA members and see a bit more of the town. Javier, who was leading us around, spoke good English and was born in Huatusco so he was very familiar with the town.

Some retired official owned this house.

This old church was located right next to the market in town.

Some creative tree-trimming back at the park. I've seen other pictures of this on the 'net.

andyc740 · 08-21-2009, 11:07 AM

That evening, we relaxed and sat around and talked. Jorge is from Guadalajara and seems to be Manolo's right-hand man in CMA matters. He was telling Manolo about his trip to the CMA International meeting he'd attended in South Africa a few months earlier. Manolo wasn't able to go, so he sent Jorge.

Manolo always seems to be leaning to the left. His back is still bothering him after the accident and he always lists to the left. I told him next time I saw him, I wanted to see an upright man.

In the morning, we talked some more before heading out. Manolo seems skeptical about whatever I'm trying to lay on him. And he's still tilted to the left.

Mt. Orizaba gave us a goodbye peek (peak, get it?).

Then it was time to say goodbye and hit the road. They did a bike blessing for Rocinante because I had swapped the windshield in Texas and my bike blessing sticker was on the old one. I thought it would be cool to wait till I was in Mexico to get another one.