The ferry from La Paz arrived early and we rolled quickly off into the morning hustle and bustle of Mazatlán. We hoped on to the cuota (toll road) to head out of the city, along the coast to Ruiz. The last few miles on backroads we were expecting banditos or corrupt police to jump out of the bushes at any moment – but nothing happened. The hotel manager said that we were very brave to travel through Mexico on bikes as mentioned by other locals we met, but we had heard from other overlanders that there was no trouble at all. We would have time to find out ourselves over the next weeks.
The first interesting road was the “La Ruta del Tequila” – a lovely ride with great views over many tequila agave plantations. Tequila itself was very touristy and hotels very expensive. So we bought some Tequila and found a cheap hotel in the small town of El Arenal.
Passing through the major city of Guadalajara and some twisty mountain roads our next stop was Guanajuato. The charming city of Guanajuato set in the mountains of central Mexico is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with many small plazas and colonial-era buildings. Cobbled narrow streets and long sets of stairs wind up and down the mountainsides. An underground network of tunnels run beneath the city to divert the traffic. On Sunday after arriving, our AirBnB host Marcelo said the place to be was the Sunday market in the main park. So we headed down the steep staircase into town to mingle with the locals.
From Guanajuato a long ride on the cuota to make progress took us to the city of Tula de Allende to visit the ancient Toltec Archaeological Ruins. In Tula we had the best tacos on our journey so far! If you ever pass through there – the small taco shop is on Melchor Ocampo, just around the corner from the lovely hotel Posado Tolteca.
The next plan had been to visit the Volcano Popocatépetl, but because of the recent major earthquake in and around Mexico city the alert-level was on high, with increased potential of eruption. After a detour around the area we stayed at the Oaxaca for a few days, camping out in the rain, whilst working on the bikes and eating great Mexican food with our new overlander friends Norbert & Bettina. Norbert is a photographer and they travel around in their lorry collaborating with various local artists they meet along the way.
So far we have spent a lot of time on the highways and the landscape has been rater flat – we hope to find some nice mountain roads as we head to the East of Mexico.
