The Day that was Two Days

The next morning Alfred and I were well rested and ready to try to find our way to the pryamids at Teotiuacan (Teo). While waiting outside for Alfred I met several guys from S. America who were on their way to Teo with a Mexican guide. What luck! They agreed to let us follow them. One catch, we had to keep up. No problema, we proved we could master DF traffic and as it was a Sunday morning we were confident that we were up to the task.

Our guide led us through a slew of side streets and alleys until finally we were on the highway towards Teo. Thirty minutes later the pyramids were in our sights! It´s an exciting moment when you see an ancient pyramid, especially as grand as these.

At 10:30 in the morning it was already 80 degrees f. It was going to be a hot one but we didn´t care. This was our first day of Mexican sun and we were going to enjoy it.

Once into the park we hired a guide to fill in the details. What use is it to travel thousands of miles, risk life and limb to stare at something you know little about? I can't describe the pyramids with any justice so just let me say, "Wow!". Here in the Americas was this complex, sophisticated and very large civilization and for some reason I learned more about Egypt´s culture than one of equal in my continental backyard. We spent several hours combing over the ruins and bemoaning the inadequacies of my general education before we decided to head out.

Our destination was Veracruz and it´s tropical flavor. Veracruz was several hundred kms away and with the slow pace of Mexican roads we figured we could make Jalapa before dusk. What a great day this is shaping up to be.

Mexico has a way of slowing you down. If you´re in a hurry or impatient she will know and you will pay.

By now the landscape had turned slightly greener, though not exactly green. Tall trees, bushes and some grasses were green but the rest was golden brown from lack of rain. Winter in Mexico is cooler and drier than in Summer.

Heading SW we felt we were making good time but miles of construction, the need to eat and refuel kept our progress to a modest pace. At about 4:30 pm we saw a sign for Jalapa 140 kms. OK, not bad if we keep the current pace we´ll be in Jalapa before sunset and having dinner before 7:00pm.

About this same time we began to climb up gently curved roads. Up ahead I saw a low hanging cloud and wondered if we had been climbing all afternoon and didn´t realize it. The next curve and we were in the same cloud. The temperature dropped dramatically and within a few clicks the temp had dropped by at least 40 degrees f to about 40. We stopped and dug out our cold riding gear which we thought we had seen the last of for quite awhile. Several kms down the road we were fully engulfed by cloud and or fog with a cold light drizzle falling. The terrain changed as well. Pine trees were everywhere and in fact it looked a lot like back home in N. MI.

For the next hour the sun began it´s slow dip beyond the horizon. The cloud/fog thickened and the roads became slick with the still falling drizzle. At some point we stopped briefly to look over our map and I realized we were on a mountain which peaked at 4200 meters! This meant we were probably at close to 3000 meters and had to descend soon. Soon came soon enough. With light fading every minute we began our descent. Visibility at this point was no more than 100 meters and at 6:00 pm the roads were full of trucks trying to get back to the office and people trying to get home.

I´m not a mountain person. I mean I like mountains but I grew up a flatlander. My only experience riding a motorcycle in the mountains was days ago as we left one colonial city for another. For those of you who have never ridden a motorcycle while descending a mountain, I´m going to try to give you an idea what it´s like. Bear with me.

Remember it´s dark or getting dark. There´s a heavy cloud presence and there has been a constant drizzle making the roads slick and covering my windshield and helmet shield with drops of water. Visibility is extremely low and diesel trucks are barrelling down your neck. OK, here goes......

¨God, I can´t see. Looks like a curve. A tight curve. Down shift, ease off your speed, don´t use too much back break. Lean, not too much the road is slick, ok straighten out, turn on the throttle, easy you can´t see too far ahead, oh, shit! another curve, ease off the throttle, lean, I can´t see, try looking around your windshield, it helps a little but I can´t stay like this for the whole way down. Why is that truck riding my ass? There´s no where to go, there´s cars in front of me and the road is too curvy to pass. Get off my ass!¨

All of this is happening is milliseconds. I´m not sure how many curves there were but there had to be a hundred or more. The ride went on forever or at least 1 and half hours. It sucked. I was nervous and tense for every second of that ride. When we finally reached Jalapa we were soaked and frozen to the bone. The ride was as harrowing for Alfred as it was for me. We decided that we would stop at the first hotel we could find.

Pulling in, the hotel looked decent enough. Nice cars parked outside made us feel a bit confident. At $25 and a ground floor room where we could look after the bikes we found home for a night. After dragging our wet gear and cold bodies into the room we discovered we were at the roach motel. Bugs check in, they don´t check out. There were dead roaches in the bathroom, no toilet seat, stains on the sheets and no heat .

With our nerves shot and our bodies near hypothermia we crawled into our sleeping bags and ate a gourmet meal of energy bars. We didn´t care about the filth or that many of the nice cars were only there for a few hours. We were not going back out in the dark with that cold bone chilling rain.

That night we stayed zipped in our bags content with the thought that if we were zipped up the roaches would have a harder time getting in.