We leave the city of Oaxaca in two days. Oaxaca is the capital of the the state of Oaxaca which is located in the southern part of the country. The city itself is up in the mountains at over 5,000 feet. Oaxaca is a colonial city known for food, (especially mole), art and especially Mezcal, an alcoholic drink made from the agave plants that are ubiquitous in the area.

Our journey brought us into the mountains of Mexico for the first time this trip. We had a couple of road options and of course, we choose the “old highway” that twists and turns into the hills. The old highway is being replaced by a new toll road between the city and the quaint beach town of Puerto Escondido and as such, has had limited repair in recent years. We didn’t mind because that also meant there was less truck and tour bus traffic.

We’ve been travelling down the west coast of Mexico for three weeks now. The further south we get the warmer it gets as we dip into a more tropical climate. The riding is fantastic if you like narrow roads with tight turns. Motorcycle riders are strange that way, those are the roads we love.

It seems like weeks, well, it has been, since we’ve had decent WiFi, so I finally have a chance to put together and upload some short videos. I made a short video using the Relive online app that shows our route from an ariel viewpoint. I love that it gives a really good idea of the topology and just how many turns are in the road.

We’re Ok, as I write this we are at a nice resort hotel in Mazatlán, Sinaloa Mexico. Getting here was an adventure of sorts. I’ll get caught up with a quick summary of our trip to Sinaloa where Mexican authorities arrested the son of El Chapo of the Sinaloa Cartel on Thursday Morning. Article HERE.

Mexican authorities have again arrested cartel leader Ovidio “El Ratón” Guzmán, son of incarcerated Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and leader of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. According to official sources cited in the newspaper Reforma, the operation occurred around 4:40 a.m. Thursday morning in the city of Culiacán in Sinaloa. 

Burrrr, we arrived home to record cold temperatures in the Seattle area, 22 degrees F. Yes, a few weeks earlier than planned but for some reason we were ready to be home.

The motorcycles returned with almost 13,000 more miles clocked than when we left. We felt that we explored a large part of Mexico and covered most of the states. Truthfully, we only scratched the surface of places to visit and only saw a few of the 121 “Pueblos Mágicos” (Magical Towns) in the country. I’m sure we’ll be back for more.

Once we left the state of Quintana Roo which is the furthest East in Mexico, and actually in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States, we realized we were now pointing closer to home rather than further away for the first time. According to Google, we were 3,609 miles from home via the fastest route. That number was in my mind as I checked the condition of my back tire after almost 10,000 miles already.

Hmmm, is that a crack?? Yup, it seemed like this tire was about due but we had more riding to go before we could get that taken care of. After all, it still held air….

Officially Mexico is known as Estados Unidos Mexicanos or in English, the United Mexican States. There are 32 states in Mexico, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve been to them all. Hmmm.Our destination after leaving Kevin’s group was what gringos commonly just call the Yucatan Peninsula. In actuality the peninsula is made up of three states, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo.

After finding our way into Mexico City we met up with about 20 other riders to start another GPSKevin adventure. For those who aren’t familiar with Kevin and his adventurers here is a short summary in my own words. You can read the official version here: https://www.gpskevinadventurerides.com/