Yes, are on the move. No, there hasn’t been a post in a while. Why? Ummmm I suppose no good reason except for working on getting healthy again. Yes, we are on the mend!

So, let’s catch up from the last post…We hung out two days in San Carlos while Deby continued to get better. The next stop was a relatively short ride to Los Mochis where we booked a room at the Best Western in the center of town. Deby was tired but seemed to be feeling a little better. Me, I was still fine. We decided to explore a little and walked to a nearby botanical garden, it was full of people enjoying the warm evening.

We kept walking and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Feliz Navidad was still in full force.

Deby and I even stopped for ice-cream to sooth her throat, I liked it too.

The next day it was me waking up with a sore throat and Deby felt like her recovery had stalled. We got on our bikes and setup for another 6 hour riding day south towards one of one of our favorite Mazatlán beach resorts. The Palms Resort.   https://www.palmsmazatlan.com.mx/

On our way we met some fellow travelers on their way to South America.

They call themselves the Wandering Alaskans. https://wanderingalaskans.com/ Their blog is a work in progress but they promise it will be updated. Judy rides a R1200 BMW with a side car for their dog Rasta. Michael is on a BMW F800. Fun to bring a dog along. Rasta was a very good boy.

We got to Mazatlán and settled in for a few recovery days. Along the way we stopped at a farmicia and talked with a medical consultant who gave us a list of things to buy.

Well, ok. They didn’t prescribe the Tequila. That was recommended by Dr. Donn. By this time I was starting to feel a cold coming on so I joined Deby in living a better life through chemistry. Two days on a warm beach and we both started to feel better. Get ready for it, here is the first of what I hope is many beautiful ocean sunsets.

Deby was clearly feeling better.

Mazatlan has these cool decorated taxis. I wanted to go somewhere just to get a ride on one.

Finally feeling better we decided we better leave and make some progress on the trip. Next stop – Puerto Vallarta. We might have skipped the touristy town but our friends Don and Terry live there and invited us to stay with them. Hard to resist a free stay at a swanky high rise condo with some good friends. Don is a music and motorcycle friend. In Puerto Vallarta where he plays in a band off and on with some local musicians. One of the guys he plays with was doing a gig at a nearby restaurant so we had to go check it out.

Here’s a great shot of Don and Terry.

His buddy (Gilberto?? spelling Don?) was on stage shredding it. Seriously, this guy was good. I found out he is a music teacher at the American School teaching classical guitar and violin. In the past he toured Europe in a metal band and has a solid musical pedigree. Now, he preferers to live near his family and earn a living as a teacher and local musician. I was impressed. Here is a short clip of him shredding to a Rush tune.  

Whoo hoo, fun times with Don and Terry – big thanks guys. That was fun.

So now where? Looking at a map i saw we are within striking distance of San Miguel de Allende. We were feeling much better after being fully medicated and decided to point east into the mountains. It’s a two day ride but not really too far out of the way. Our great friends Art and Carol invited us to stay at their beautiful hacienda. About halfway is Lago Chapala. There is a city there called Ajijic that is supposed to be a popular tourist stop. Why not?

On the way we came across the first that I am sure will be many huge backups. Fortunately, we are on motorcycles. A flagger at the end of the line actually waved us onto the shoulder to get to the front of the line. All normal in Mexico. Sorry I didn’t edit the video at the end, but you get the idea.

We pulled into Ajijic about 4:00 without a hotel reservation. We didn’t know anything about the city or if we really wanted to stay the night. The highway into town was jammed with slow traffic and we couldn’t really find the center of town. Running out of options we randomly made a right turn down a rough cobblestone road just wide enough for one car and bounced and bumped towards the lake. Maybe there would be something there? We stopped at the waterfront in a dirt parking lot where I took this picture of Deby. 

You can almost read her thoughts…. ok wise guy now what??? See that yellow building? Well, according to Google, that’s a boutique hotel with good star ratings. I walked all around and couldn’t find a door or a sign. Hmmm, giving up I dialed the number listed on Google expecting to put my slightly improved Spanish skills to work. After two rings someone answered in perfect English, Hello?  A room? Tonight? Nope, not a chance this is the busy season and he wasn’t sure we could find a place anywhere. I was slowly walking back to admit my failure to Deby when my phone rang. It was the hotel. Um, yes as a matter of fact we do have an opening. When will you arrive? I explained we were sitting outside of the gate. He was in his car driving from Phoenix, AZ. What? He would be there in 10 minutes. Wow, we can wait! I finished my walk back to the bike, now with a stride of victory. That is how we ended up in the penthouse suite of the Villa Pajaro de Sol. https://www.villapajarodesol.com

Beautiful gardens.

Our suite was on the second floor, nice.

When the hotel owner, John, asked us where we were from and we told him the name of our really small town he said he knew right where it was. Huh? Turns out, he grew up near us and attended Sammamish high school, nearly the closest high school to our house. Small world…. Thanks John for all your help and your wonderful hotel.

We explored the town and the Malecon. Deby took this cool picture of art in progress. 

Next day, on to San Miguel de Allende. We were totally excited to visit Art and Carol. We’ve known them for years and have ridden motorcycles on trips with them multiple times in Mexico and more recently in Portugal.  We’ve attended many Norton motorcycle events together and our paths have crossed frequently.

It was an easy ride to SMA on mostly highways. I took a screenshot of Google Maps on the way. How did this make any sense?? The upper left says to go straight through a roundabout, the arrows a little further down seem to indicate a right turn, and in the middle of the screen, the big arrow,  which indicates us, says to follow the road to the left!

Arrg, but we finally arrived.

We arrived at Art and Carol’s expecting to only stay one night so we can make up for some lost time. Art said his club in San Miguel was planning a group ride the next day, and would I want to go along? Ahh, sure! Deby decided it would be fun to have a day hanging out with Carol and reading in the garden so I could ride with “the guys”.

Here are the guys: Left to right is Peter, Bill and Art. Not shown is Randy. They were all on KTM 390’s. Hmmm, I should be able to keep up with these guys right? I mean I’m on a big BMW with an engine over 3 times the size of the 390 KTMs. Which one of these bikes doesn’t belong?

Soon we were on our way to the statue of Christo Rey about 80 miles away on top of a 8,000 foot mountain. Deby and I had been there once before and the road was a miles long rough cobblestone route. It was brutal. I asked Peter about this and he said they know another route that was a little longer in the mountains but it was on “smooth” cobblestones. What? Isn’t that an oxymoron? It didn’t matter, we were off. Soon we were blasting down back mountain roads, and I mean BLASTING. These guys were hauling ass, I mean full speed race mode! Holy buckets, I was hanging on trying to keep up. It was great riding the big R1250GSA without the panniers or luggage. The lighter weight helped but I was using all my skills keeping up with the Dukes. I was wondering do they always ride this fast? Full leaning in sharp corners, high speed straightaways, and full on screaming double yellow passing.  Oh I know, it’s a test… can this wannabe new guy keep up. Later I asked Art and he said no, they always ride like that!

Here is the “smooth” cobblestone. It was still pretty bumpy but that only slowed us down a little. I learned that cobblestones actually are pretty grippy around the corners when leaned over.

It was great at the top. The views were fantastic. You can see the old road Deby and I rode in the past winding up the mountain. 

Here is Art.

And Christo Rey.

On the way back we continued our spirited ride and stopped at a high elevation mountain side restaurant for a well deserved break and obligatory story telling about motorcycle adventures past and future.

Leaving the restaurant Peter took off like a horse heading for the barn taking full advantage of the 40 or 50 miles of twisty mountain roads remaining. I somehow was right behind him and determined to stick to his tail. Accelerating on the straights, quick brake and flip into the corners, quick passing of many trucks when there was the slightest traffic window. For a dozen miles I stuck right with him, big smile as I was nearly redlining the big BMW. On one long straightaway I noticed there were no motorcycles in my rear view mirror. I realized then that I was following the wrong guy. He wasn’t going to Art’s house, so I relaxed the throttle and waited for what seemed a long time for Art and Peter to catch up. I flagged Art ahead and settled into a good but slightly more relaxed pace to Casa Bone.

Here is Art and Carols home from the outside. In typical Mexico form, somewhat plain on the outside but wonderful inside the gate with beautiful gardens and living spaces.

So today, we need to say goodbye to our friends and continue south. Our slow pace is catching up with us because I only purchased three weeks of motorcycle insurance for Mexico and we now have only about a week to get to Guatemala. I think we can do it, but there is not much room for unexpected delays. I’m glad that Deby and I are feeling much better. We can both breath easily and only have the occasional dry cough.

Here is our progress so far. You can see the live map by clicking HERE.

So, thanks again for following. I’ll try to get a few more frequent (and shorter) posts along the way.

Donn and Deby