DEAD ARMS, DEAD WOMAN AND 3600 MILES AND COUNTING!
DAY 12 SAN LUIS POTOSÍ – MEXICO CITY
waking up in clean sheets is a real treat! We spent most of the morning eating our world-class continental breakfast, showering WITH hot water, and using the internet. Around 3 PM we said goodbye to our luxurious accomodations and headed south towards Mexico City. The terrain started out arid but soon turned green as we approached the Mexico City valley and its infamous smog bank. We arrived in Mexico City just as it was getting dark to realize that the directions to my friend marko´s house were worthless. After a couple hours of mind blowing, crazy, intense traffic and frustration we arrived. We found Marko and went straight for the nearest taco stand. then bed.
DAY 13 – JUNE 18TH – MEXICO CITY
Stomach problems for Chase once again. He´ll be going on the bread diet from here on out. In the morning we went to the doctor. A 3 minute walk from the house. The doctor recommended several different drugs for pain, irritation, infection, etc. Lucky for us Marko´s dad sells drugs, (the good kind) so we got everything cheap. The doctor charged chase $2.50 for the visit. Not bad!
The rest of the day I hung out with Marko and some neighbors and talked about motorcycles for like 5 hours while Chase laid in bed.
DAY 14 – JUNE 19TH – MEXICO CITY – ACAPULCO
That morning we said farewell to our friends in Mexico City and set off for the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan. 15 miles away. It was a quick trip. We went to the top of the sun pyramid to make peace with the sun god and got back on the road towards Acapulco. Unfortunately for us, Mexico City was in our way. There´s no way around it. It took about an hour and a half to make it through the traffic and back onto open road. From the city we climbed to 10,000 feet into some foreest and then back down a mountain into what i´m going to call jungle. For the first time ever, we are surrounded by dense dark green vegetation. But the ´jungle´comes with heat and humidity.
That quickly disappeared as mother nature hurled a thunderstorm at us. No jackets this time, or boots. We were soaked through in less than a minute. During the rainstorm we passed through a small city. It was extremely refereshing to feel the brown street water drench my chest and helmet from passing buses. Hopefully those Hepatitis shots are kicking in.
I would have caught the action on my GoPro but the battery just fried. Hopefully Chase´s camera can pick up the slack.
We made it to Acapulco (a disgusting city) before dusk and found the gated hotel community area to our liking. As usual, we pulled up and some stranger was there to tell us where to put our motorcycles for security and where to camp. He also provided us with a little bungalow and chairs. We bought him a liter of milk for his mom and tipped the guard 65 cents for his troubles. Tuna sandwhiches then sleep.
DAY 15 – JUNE 20TH – ACAPULCO – PUERTO ESCONDIDO
We left our our little bungalow around 9 am and got on some of the most fun roads of the trip. In my opinion. The jungle got a lot thicker here towards the coast. The roads were always curvy but rarely any hairpins. It was hot though. Even at 65 mph we were both sweating. But there were a few special highlights.
Chase almost rear ended me when I braked for one of the 10,000 speed bumps we´ve crossed so far.
Side note… Mexico is an interesting place. They substitute paying police for traffic/speed control with some cleverly (and not so cleverly) placed speed bumps. BUT. They don’t like spending money on cones and road signs for construction. They use people with flags instead. We pass 30-40 flag twirlers on any given day as we pass through construction zones. They must be cheeper than cones. Whatever.
Other highlight of the ride. We came up on a group of wild west, shotgun toting, ammo-belt-wearing farmer-policemen on the side of the road. I thought it was strange. Then I saw what they were standing around, which was even stranger. An elderly woman in colorful indian garb lay flat on her back dead with a look of horror still in her face. No blood. Just dead on the side of the road. We{ve seen a lot of dead stuff on the side of the road. This was the first dead human. Hopefully the last.
We pulled into Puerto Escondido, “the mexican pipeline,” around 3 pm. The waves were huge but blown out. Sizing it up I got super nervous. I had to surf. No matter the conditions. I found a dude from LA that gave me all the details on the break and I ended up paddling out with him a couple hours later when the wind died down. I paid 50 pesos for a nice fatty shortboard and spent about an hour and a half out in the water. The whole experience went like this…
On the paddle out (through smaller waves on the north side of the break) I was a little sketched out. Got held under a couple times for quite a while. But it was fine. When I made it to the main break the biggest sets came through with face heights at a good 16 feet and HEAVY! I caught 2 waves and air dropped on a third into oblivion. Everytime I got caught on the inside I´d take 3-4 waves on the head, get shoved to the sand, wait 5 seconds and push up as hard as possible. I was disoriented everytime. On one hold down my board smacked my tricep hard enough to give me a dead arm for a sec. I got a third wave and called it a day. To give you some additional perspective on the power of the waves, 2 dudes of the 10 of us that were out there snapped their boards. Glad I got to experience the mexican pipeline with only a slight bruise on my tricep.
Now off to bed on some part of the sand.
Update on Chase. When asked how his stomach was feeling. He gave me a smile, a the thumbs up and said he farted a couple hours ago!
A Two Wheel Journey to South America 
just keep farting! thats great hahaha
Hahahaha brilliant final update.
What a sweet way of seeing Mexico, where’s next!?
First the state of Chiapas, then Guatemala, and every other country south!
I laughed out loud at the refreshing brown street water. Huzzah for vaccinations! Jared may have to join you for a few days after all…this sounds too fun.