Days 40,41,42,43,44 - 22nd to 26th August - Mexico

Well I guess I better start updating my blog. Didn't know how much hard work it was going to be, I think I needed a break and just travel.

Finally made it to Ecuador, South America after crossing five countries
in 11 days. More about that later.

I will start with Mexico and then update Central America country by country.



Heading to Central America



Mexico roads have been hit and miss. The winding roads around the coast have been fantastic but as soon as I hit a town, which seemed to be every ten kilometers, the topes (speed bumps) would slow the progress every time. Also found myself stopping more often for a break at the many resurants on the side of the ride for a refreshment break, lunch beer.

Decided to skip as many major towns as possible as I would need a new set of lungs by the end of the trip if I hit them all. I was thinking
about hitting Acapulco but decided to head inland and travel some of the mountain roads for a change, instead of going through smog city's.

The hotels I have been staying in have also been on the hit and miss side. Pay $40 to get a flea pit and then pay $30 to get a terrific room.

I must have been waved through 20 military check points with teenagers holding automatic rifles before I was finally asked to pull over so they could check my bags. The further I headed south the more thorough they were, although I got the feeling they were just interested in the bike and gear. Other from that all the road sections through Mexico have been fine contrary to all the negativity about Mexico. Sure the border areas with the US is in a bad state but the rest of Mexico has been fine.

I started to head inland to my final destination in Mexico, San Cristobel de La Cases before my jump into Central America. The town has a lot Spanish buildings and some date back hundreds of years. It turned out to be an interesting town.

To sum up Mexico would be a land of contrasts. There seems to be a large gap between the poor and the well to do. Some larger towns I crossed had 2 sides, one looked like any well to do town and the other side was slums. All up the people have been great and have been very helpful with my lack of Spanish.

Thanks for all the comments folks, good to read and know somebody is reading the blog.

To answer a couple of comments, dropped the bike 3 times and counting, beers are going down great and might hold you to the ransom fund!!!

Also don't take any notice of the map on the blog page if I haven't already mentioned it.

Thought I should mention again that if you would like to track my progress through google maps the link is

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0HrlUAqQrdBn0VBjprIdjDNxfVA3ucYPi

Cheers

Greg