Introductions

We met the group last night and it is diverse and interesting, and let me just say that this is the scariest, wildest, most dangerous outlaws you would ever fear encountering. The good news is that we are riding with them and so I fully expect the cartels and gangs to give us a wide berth. Nan and I have our own built in protection. We pretty much have impunity to do anything we want and go anywhere we want. Traffic parts, tables clear and pedestrians dissipate; we are untouchables.

Our hosts John and Lynn are ex-pat Canadians; John had been in the diplomatic foreign service so they have lived in many places in the world. They told a story about their "first date" in which they flew on a Twin Otter into the Amazon delivering supplies to an indigenous tribe. Lynn packed sandwiches. And Champagne.

We all met at the hacienda of the owners of the tour company yesterday. We arrived at the appointed hour and started with an introduction to Chuy (sounds like "Chewie") who is the resident mechanic and "sweeper". A mechanic is someone who looks after the bikes. A sweeper is the person that rides at the back of the group with a big broom and sweeps up the mess left behind by riders ahead of him, such as when they crash and leave a lot of broken glass or limbs on the road. Formerly an employee of the one of the two BMW dealerships in Guadalajara, he was stolen away by John, the owner of Ride the Sierra Madres, our tour group, several months ago. Amazingly, Chuy has a devoted following of BMW owners whose bikes he serviced while he worked for the dealership and they can't quite give him up, so he continues to service their bikes. Here is a picture of a bike Chuy is servicing. He is changing the oil:

Chuy, is this all necessary?

You don't want to mess with anybody this far into an oil change if you have any hope of getting your bike back with all the parts attached.

After a tour of the shop, we had some refreshments and then walked to a local restaurant, called "Tango".

This isn't quite the full group; one person, who actually lives in Ajijic, wasn't joining until the following day. In this picture, considered the "before" picture, we are all showing our nice, healthy hands, as opposed to the after picture which might be, well, anything. (Falling off a motorcycle is hard on the hands.)

It a fun group and there is instant camraderie, so it should all go well for the week. I'll get into introductions more later as I will tell back stories for those you see in the picture. Just make sure you memorize those faces but in the mean time, from the left is John, Len, Windy (those two are an item), Lynn, me (Howi), Nono (we are an item) and Eric. Motorcyle enthusiasts will be particularly interested in Eric's back story. Not the part about how he has five kids and looks 22.

Below are some random pictures from around Ajijic today.

Fifi! Don't jump!

This mural showed a history of Mexico. Further to the left was the part about the Spaniards enslaving the indigenous peoples and how the rebelled and won their freedom.

Watch pugs. They monitored us as we passed by, on the way to the restaurant.

Fifi! Don't jump!

That sign says "no parking"