Curvas Peligrosas

While we were in Monterrey, our hostel recommended that we change our route and go south through Zacatecas instead of west through Torreon.  Our host told us that Torreon and Durango were not so safe and more importantly, were kind of boring.  After some serious trip planning we decided to head south on Libre 54 to Zacatecas.

The problem we ran into from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey was that there were far less gas stations than expected.  Though we never even made it to our reserve tank, I don’t think I’ve ever driven that far without seeing a gas station.  For our ride to Zacatecas we researched where and when we would see gas stations.  Our tank has a range of about 120 miles so if we don’t see a gas station by 60 miles, we decided we would turn back.  Of course this turned out to not be a problem because at mile 55 we found a gas station.  After that, gas stations every 40 kilometers or so.

Zacatecas was far more amazing than Anna or I had expected.  The city had stone streets, colonial buildings and an amazing cathedral.  Zacatecas is situated high in the mountains so the nights were freezing and the air was thin.  The festivals during the day and the beautiful scenery were worth it though.  Anna even asked me if I thought that this would be the most amazing scenery we would have this trip.

Leaving Zacatecas, the hostel recommended that we take the cuota route (toll road).  We decided to take the libre (free) route and we were glad that we did.  The difference between the cuota and the libre is that the cuota routes are better maintained and considered to be safer.  My opinion is that the libre route has speed bumps everywhere.  At one point we were riding along at 70 mph only to encounter a speed bump with no warning.

The ride to Guadalajara from Zacatecas has to be the most beautiful that I had ever seen.  The day was warm, the roads were curvy, and we were riding along a mountain next to a valley with lakes below.  The trip had been hard and cold up to this point.  Now we were doing what we had imagined when planning a motorcycle trip through the Americas.

It took us a little longer than we had thought to get to Guadalajara and we got in around 7pm.  We would be leaving a little over 12 hours later so we got some dinner and some sleep.  The next day I hunted down some stamps for our postcards but we left at about 11am headed for Puerto Vallarta.

The ride to Puerto Vallarta was possibly more amazing than the day before.  We passed by the town of Tequila, volcanoes, and finished off by speeding through mountain curves.  We accidently made a wrong turn onto the cuota, but by that time I had decided that I was tired of the speed bumps.

Coming into Puerto Vallarta, we figured out that we weren’t exactly in the right spot for our kind of trip.  The signs turned from Spanish, to Spanish and English, then finally to just English.  Farmers and locals riding their horses turned into hoardes of American and European tourists.  The city had tried to preserve it’s older look by keeping the cobblestone roads.  The other tourists must have liked it but our motorcycle did not.

We’ll have a break into Puerto Vallarta and then head on our way.  Next stops are Manzanillo, Zihuantenjo and Oaxaca.