Beautiful San Cristobal...and bike problems...

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  San Cristobal de las Casas, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico
Sunday, July 13, 2008

Oaxaca... I don't want to leave !! I could live here!...wait..have I said that before? I think I might have to abandon my opportunity to gain American citizenship and move to Mexico! I love the people, the culture, the food and the way of life here. The people are so friendly and they want to help you have the best time you can in their country/city...the way of life is relaxed but at the same time people seem to work hard but make time to enjoy their families and their religion/culture. It's not an easy way of life by any means, there is a lot of poverty, whether they know it or not. However, the people themselves don't seem to mind, it's more of my Western mentality that makes the judgment that they are poor. But maybe they are rich and we are poor? Also, the people who speak English love to practice it with us...pero nosotros necisitamos practicar Espanol!

Bueno. Today we had our longest and hardest day on the bike so far, in my opinion. We skipped breakfast and left early but we got lost in the rain and the sprawl of Oaxaca on our way out town. It took a lot of patience and "listening to each other" ( don't forget I am a therapist) before we found our way out! Again, we did not know if we would be able to reach our destination hundreds of miles away, and we just burnt an hour negotiating our way out of Oaxaca, but San Cristobal de las Casas is supposed to be another beautiful colonial town, hidden far up in the mountains of Chiapas, so we really wanted to get there!

Most of the day we climbed mountains in the rain and the temperature went as low as 61 degrees, plus wind chill, mind you.

Riders of the storm...

I was freezing!! We stopped at a small comedor (eatery) for breakfast which is often a person's house where they have a set menu of one or two dishes you can order. With some coffee and eggs and bacon in our tummies we were ready to face the challenges of the day!

Oh, and again we were riding up this windy mountain road when we saw the line of gasoline trucks, cars and people on the road....and I thought.. Oh no, here we go again...Federales and everything else! Jess, of course started to cut the line and I just closed my helmet as well as my eyes. We got in front of the line and a tour bus had driven off the road!!! Jess just said, we can get around this, and this time he was right. He made his way around the whole accident site ( there were no injuries) and again, it was an open road for us. We probably saved 5-8 hours of just waiting, and we would have lost a full travel day...

But the adventure did not stop there...we had to go through several thunder storms where the day turned to night. Literally, it was as dark as evening and not even 3 feet of visibility. Jess navigated through the storms with great comfort it seemed... and for the most part safely. However it was extremely intimidating just riding into this blackness seeing lightening bolts just hit the area we were riding into. It created this feeling of excitement but dread simultaneously . At the end of the day I was soaked, tired and hungry...but hey...that's every traveling day so far! And yes, the bums were hurting as well.

Mexican winches

We found our hotel with my perfect navigation skills :) ( and with the help of the Lonely Planet map). It was again better than I expected and we decided to make it our home while looking for an apartment. Later, while walking in the rain, we stumbled over this amazing Indian restaurant that served up dishes from Lebanon, Turkey, Greece and of course India. Now that we have finally reached our destination, we need to find an apartment and enroll in Spanish school.

Hey Jess here...good job Malin in describing the ride! It's true, today was gnarly...the hardest rain we've seen thus far..and there was a strange squeak coming from the rear brake as we negotiated the steep downhill sweepers in the Sierra Madre. In my 12 months and 10,000 miles of road testing the Bean Burner (the bike, submitted via email by jgraham!) before our adventure, I was able to average about 4500 miles out of set of rear brake pads, even though the BMW service interval was 6000 miles (I guess I'm just hard on the brakes). I put a new set of pads on before we left as well as adjusted engine valves, rocker arms, engine oil, transmission oil, rear drive oil, throttle body sync, etc., and stashed two extra sets in my tool tube located under the rear sub-frame of the bike.

Ok, back to the ride - we had two contingency points to make our "Go, No-Go" decision, and each time we decided to press on....388 miles total, over 10 hours in the saddle....wow! We navigated through rivers of brown sticky run-off, more mud slides, and as Malin pointed out, another traffic jam where a tour bus had driven off the cliff! Luckily it only fell about 100 feet, supported by the thick tropical foliage that covers every inch of open earth around here.

Another roadside spectacle

This time, after making it to the front of the line, I was stoked to see that there were no Federales! I guess Nacho Libre lost our scent somewhere around Puerto Escondido!

I got off the bike and scoped out a muddy channel next to the road that I could use to navigate around the two tow trucks that were winching up the bus...it was going to be little hairy, so Malin waited on the other side as I stood on the foot pegs and did my best EnduroCross impression on the 1000 pound beast...it worked! We were free and clear! Some of the bystanders watching our little maneuver looked a little jealous, but I just thought to myself, "tiempo es dinero", and Malin remounted the steed and we banged gears out of there!

Once in San Cristobal (more about this gem of a town in the next blog) we found a great hotel and I took some time to assess the rear brake situation. Not only were the pads wasted (the caliper side was much worse than the wheel side), but the brake disk itself had been ground severely thin...not from metal-to-metal pad wear, but from sand and grit thrown up through all of the rain and becoming imbedded into the pads themselves. So now quickly doing the mileage math in my head, at the current rate of wear, we would run out of rear brake pads before we got back to the States....hmmm....and inspecting the front pads, where the bike actually has two sets of calipers and two brake discs, it was obvious that they were wearing faster than usual as well...and although I have spare front pads at home, I didn't bring them on this trip...my experience told me that under normal circumstances, we should arrive home with plenty of life left on the front brake pads.

The bus is almost up...but probably hours away...

But obviously, these weren't normal circumstances!

Ok, time for an action plan: First step - replace worn rear brake pads...I've got a complete set of tools and this took no more than 10 minutes...and I even got a little suntan in the process. Next step, and I've got too much precious cargo to take risks here...I break out my cell phone for the first time and call up BMW Costa Rica to order parts. I order two additional sets of rear pads, one set of front pads, and one rear brake disc. (By the way, before we left I noted the contact information and GPS coordinates for all 6 BMW motorcycle dealerships in Mexico and Central America). Fortunately, they have the parts in stock and will hold them for me until I arrive there...I asked for the price and they said that it would be $966USD!!! Geez...I don't even pay that much for brakes on my truck! Oh well...it's about 3 times what the cost would be for comparable aftermarket parts in the States, but I'm not taking any chances...we'll pick up the parts on August first from Estaben at the BMW dealership in San Jose, Costa Rica. Hopefully he'll offer up some garage space so I can do the work there myself...I don't like other people (other than Rob Bush) wrenching on my stuff!

Yes it's expensive, but this is once in a life-time adventure, and I was just stoked to finally have a reason to break out my killer tool set! I've been building this kit for months! I even did the entire pre-trip service using my on-board took kit, rather than the tools in my garage, just to make sure I've got everything I need!

Okay...enough moto talk...we're planning on staying here in San Cristobal for a week and enrolling in intensive one-on-one Spanish lessons and soaking up some of the Chiapaneco culture! More about San Cristobal in the next blog entry...but now, I've got to get back to my Swiss Army knife, chewing gum, and toothpicks...I've got a motorcycle to fix!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Scenery from the road...see the Blue Agave?	Can you taste the tequila?	More awesome vistas	Compare the new pad to the old pad
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance	Our hotel	un poco mas...	Nice place eh?
San Cristobal from the cafe...	Desayuno...breakfast!	The Rain King...safe and secure...for now.

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