Riding in Mexico
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2007
1
29
47
Trip End
Nov 13, 2007
Oaxaca,
Mexico
Saturday, September 29, 2007
My first shock was that drivers in Mexico were not homicidal maniacs. From reading books and blogs by motorcyclists travelling around the world I'd come to the understanding that all drivers outside the USA are utterly insane and will kill you if you are not both very careful and very lucky. I've actually found Mexican drivers to be more courteous and attentive than the drivers in Chicago (who, upon reflection, are utterly insane and might be homicidal maniacs . . .). Now, all this might change the farther south I go, but so far I'm very happy.
Dad working on the bike
My second shock is that the roads in Mexico don't suck. I kinda pictured dusty tracks full of potholes that will destroy my bike if I'm not both very careful and very lucky, but the roads have been generally in good shape, at least as good as those around Chicago (which, upon reflection, are full of potholes which will destroy my bike if I'm not careful and luckly . . .).
My final shock is that, in general, Mexican cities have not swallowed me up like a black hole. I would never, ever want to drive through a major American city without a good map, a good plan, and a command of the English language. I've found Mexican cities, though, to be basically easy to navigate. If I'm trying to get to the center of a city there are always signs for 'El Centro' and if I'm trying to get out there are always signs pointing towards the road to the next town. I've only really gotten in trouble when I second-guess the signs. When I say 'gee, I haven't seen a sign in a while, maybe I should turn down a random street' I inevitably end up very lost. If, instead, I say 'gee, I haven't seen a sign in a while, I better stay on this road till I do see one' I do just fine.
Now all is not rosey in the land of Mexican driving
Parking the Bike
. There is one horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad object, designed by the dark lord Satan himself to make Mexico a trying place to ride a motorcylce. That object of eternal darkness and woe is El Tope. What is El Tope, you ask? Well a tope is a speed bump, but it's more than a speed bump. It is a huge speed bump that requires you to slow down to almost a dead stop to get over without screwing up your vehicle. They are located EVERYWHERE. At the entrance to every city, town, village, sub-village, abandoned village and possible location of a village in the future. Within the towns, they are located outside every school, public building, intersection, restaurant and anywhere else there is room to put them. Furthermore, sometimes they are not in towns at all, but just randomly placed out in the middle of a rural highway. Usually, they are marked but sometimes there won't be any warning that there is a tope up ahead until you hit it at 55mph (which REALLY REALLY sucks). As you can probably tell, El Tope has somewhat marred my experience of riding through the otherwise idyllic rural parts of Mexico.Enough about evil El Tope, however! For the next couple of weeks my Dad and I are settling in in Oaxaca, Mexico. We're going to enroll in an intensive, learn-crappy-Spanish-quickly program and try to pick up some useful language skills. My old and rusty Italian is actually serving me pretty well, but I'd like to be able to form an actual sentence, and hopefully this class will help. While we're here we're going to be staying with a (very) little and (very) old lady in a charming (not too) old house. Who knows, maybe my next post will be in Spanish . . . and then half of you wouldn't be able to read it and the other half would die laughing my mangled syntax . . . maybe I'll stick to English here.
Till then, take care y'all!
Matt
