First ride in Mexico

Readers of this blog who ride motorcycles will totally uderstand the first part of today's commentary: HOLY GUACAMOLE!

More on that later.

We present ourselves at the hacienda at 9:00 on Thursday morning ready to ride. It is warm - not sure but I suspect in the mid twenties already. Before we ride, we have paperwork. LEGAL stuff, like, we won't sue NO MATTER WHAT and, who do they contact if something goes seriously wrong. John gives us a thorough briefing - by "thorough" I mean at least an hour, where he furrowed his eyebrows several times - on riding in Mexico. I am already scared out of my wits by what I have seen and now I am hearing it described in graphic detail, followed by the words "we will break the law". As I have said earlier, I have already seen how the Mexicans can somehow manager to squeeze three vehicles into two lanes and now I am hearing about when to go through stop signs, ride between lanes of traffic and drive 140 km/hr. Also, Nan and I are riding John's prize bike: a BMW GS 1200 water cooled bike. Eric is drooling all over it and telling us what it will do, some of which involves riding. This bike is pretty new; it is a 2015 but it does have 29,000 km on it, so if it goes down, it will at least have had some fun. Also, everytime he describes how something is done on ANY of the other bikes, there is always an exception or something different about how it is done on the bike we are riding. John tells me several times how he is planning to ride it to Toronto in a couple of weeks. He doesn't arch his eyebrows or anything like that but it is clear he has plans for the bike. Which involve riding.

John's prize bike, the only of it's kind (in his inventory). He has another 1200, but it is AIR cooled.

After the briefing, everybody feigns confidence, except Eric, who really is confident. We are all showing pictures of our bikes on our smart phones and he identifies that the KLR I own is actually a very uncommon model (the "C" model - for "Canadian") so he seems to know bikes. We are all about to launch ourselves into the heart of darkness and we are supposed to look "excited" about it.

When we get out to the shop, people are trying out their assigned bikes. John and Chuy are introducing each rider to their bike and amazingly, there are a selection of seats they have and quickly change out a couple of seats for people who want a different stance. Here, there doesn't seem to be an attitude of "make do" but rather "do it". Pretty good service.

I get introduced to the water cooler. I'm thinking to myself the whole time I would like to take it for a ride before Nan gets on so I can get a bit of a feel for the bike. I wouldn't even ride my own bike with Nan on it at the beginning of the season until I had taken it out for a time or two. John suggests we go our for a short ride just the two of us so I can get a feel for the bike.

It is a little tall for me but should not be too bad. Slightly little taller than my KLR, I can manoeuver it around the flat of the garage without trouble. It is a little more than 100 pounds heavier than my KLR but about 100 pounds lighter than my ST, so I figure I'll be o.k., even though I am on my toes a little bit. John pulls out onto the street and I follow and promptly stall the bike. Twice. It has a sensitive throttle so I know it will take me a bit to get used to it. He had said in the briefing that everybody will stall their bikes so I don't worry about it too much but thenn I remember he also talked about the one guest that stalled his bike over 100 times for his week and my heart sinks. I don't want to be remembered for something like that.

After our short ride, on which I stalled on some gravel, we are gearing up. John has described today's ride and we don't have a tonne on the agenda; it is more of just a warm up day so that people can get used to their steeds and as well, I suspect so that John and Chuy can asses the riders, though they don't volunteer this information.

Our first ride into Mexican traffic. Here is the HOLY GUACAMOLE part. Traffic in Ajijic is thick and full; there seems to be little in the way of order as, in addition to the lane of traffic travelling in each direction, there is a multitude of things going on on either side of the road, like pedestrians, people on bicycles, people on scooters or small motorcycles going IN EITHER DIRECTION, occasionally horses, people waiting for buses, people trying to sell stuff, people turning into our lane, pot holes so large that we see families living in them, oh, and get this: Mexican speed bumps, called "Topes". Topes are not speed bumps like we used to see at the local A&W, Topes are speed bumps that if you hit them at speed, chances are that you would find yourself in low earth orbit. I thought I saw one once when Nan and I rode to Alaska last year but turns out it was Mt Robson. John talked a fair amount about them in the briefing and how he had seen a rider and pillion (passenger) both become virtually completely separated from their bike, the only remaining connection being two hands on the handlebars. And ended up in low earth orbit.  I'm not clear on whether they got to finish their tour.

We somehow manage to get ourselves out of town, intact and with all our limbs, though it completely escapes me how that was possible. If you have looked at the map on page one or at the Spotwalla link, you can see that we rode out to Mezscala Island,in Lake Chapala, where John had arranged for a boat ride out to the middle of the lake and a tour guide. Despite the "ping" in the middle of the lake, we didn't ride on the water, so I hope you were not thinking somehow there had been some Divine work going on here but did leave our bikes ashore.

Mezcala Island, just off the village of Mezcala, is the home of Mexican independence. It was the centre of resistance when the Mexicans decided they had had enough of Spanish rule, just over 200 years ago. Initially started by some political activists and intellectuals, Mezcala became the refuge for 1000 Mexican soldiers and their families; people who were prepared to fight to the death to be free of the tyrany and slavery that the Spaniards had inflected upon them. As it turns out, 1,000 soldiers is not much when the Spaniards brought 8,000 soldiers to put down the rebellion but they were undaunted. The Mexicans built two rings of rocks around the islands and when the Spaniards attempted to raid the island, the Spaniard boats hit the rocks and floundered. In the mean time, the Mexicans used 15 captured cannons to fire and the shops and hurled spears and slings at the mariners, who were victimized by their heavy armour and, if not succumbing to some other method, drowned.

On the island, there was a large fortress as well as many of the other things that would OBVIOUSLY be on an island in the middle of nowhere, such as soldiers barracks, prison and kitchen. However, it looked like a harsh existence. There is also a prison and we could see where prisoners (Mexican, in this case) had carved elapsed days in the slammer.What they DIDN'T have was bathrooms or food. Even though the Spaniards had blockaded the island, it was possible for canoes of soldiers to make it to shore to collect food to return to the island but they didn't manage the bathroom problem and many people died from disease. Nonetheless, the Mexicans prevaled desipite overwhelming odds and as such, the history has apparently not found its way into Spanish history books.

Riding back to John's hacienda, there are several varieties of cold beer, other beverages, a pool that is heated by solar heat and is the same as the air temperature (about 32) and the makings of dinner by the aforementioned Lynn. Just about everybody has a swim because we are really hot... and thirsty.

These are pictures from Mezcala town.

Looking back on Mezcala town on the way to the island.

Our guide for the tour of Mezcala Island.

Inside the prisoner's box, some had marked off their days.

Making tortillas in Mezcala.

Lynn and John's place in Ajijic, and our home base.

On the way back to the hotel at the end of the evening, there was a band playing for someone's birthday.

The street was blocked and tables were set. The music is called "Banda" and it is a combination of tubas, guitars violins, trumpets and who knows what else.