Puebla - Veracruz - Oaxaca

Four relaxing days on the Stahlratte were great after the ride around Cuba. Cigars were burning and rum was flowing for the usual afternoon shenanigans.

I had a mission. I wanted to get back into the area I was in Mexico before I had to race to Cancun and Cuba. I felt like I travelled too fast through Oaxaca, Chiapas and the areas in between, staying only a night at the major towns and riding 500-600kms days. So I made the decision to backtrack to Palenque and catch up with my friend Felipe. Head down, I back-tracked through the little lakeside town of Bacalar where I had left my neck scarfe. Stayed in the friendly little hostel again for another night then rode a long day to Palenque. As usual his hospitality was fantastic and generous so I stayed for two nights at his hotel. 

The second night saw a group of riders on KTMs and Ducatis. One was the owner of the local KTM/Ducati dealership, another worked for him and they were on demo models. A couple of others had just bought new bikes. They were planning a ride to San Cristobel the next morning and invited me along, but I knew they would be riding faster than me so I declined and headed off towards Puebla.

 Puebla kept coming up for me. It is where the Ortega family I met in San Rafael live during the week and several people I had met along the way come from there. I wanted to catch up with the Ortega's again and I thought it would be a good place to stop and find a Spanish school. Two long days on the bike and I pulled into the north of Puebla. It’s a medium sized city, certainly large enough for me and not a crazy size like Mexico city. Over the next few days I made contact with friends, found a mechanic and changed the oil in Ziggy and repaired a couple of small problems I had in Cuba, namely the headlight. 

Once all set I found a small and very cheap room just out of centro, a yoga class and a Spanish school. Yoga lasted one class then I got sick after getting caught in the rain. I connected with the parents of a couple from Puerta Aventura and they had a cheap room that I stayed in for three weeks. Unfortunately the housemate was like the student from hell and after several arguments and putting up with a dirty, lazy, smoker who slammed every door he walked through, I decided it was time to leave and get back on the road. Three weeks of Spanish left me more confused than enlightened although I’m sure it is important to distinguish between Ser and estar, and between 23 different ‘esta’s’!!

 It’s funny but the open friendliness I had found with Mexicans seemed to dry up in Puebla. People were hard to connect with and those I did connect with were all busy and I didn’t really see them, with the exception of the Ortegas. 

My adopted family took me places and beautiful Diana taught me lots of Spanish and walked with me for hours in centro.

You guys were once again the shining lights and will be in my heart forever. But after three weeks I was getting restless, was yearning for some warm weather (Puebla is 2200m) and less cold rain. So I decided to cut my last week of Spanish class and my room rental and loaded up Ziggy to head to Veracruz.

 Now as it happens, you make a lot of contacts along the way and Mexico is VERY connected. My friend Dudu who I met going to Cuba, put out a call for anyone in Veracruz and I had a reply from James, a local business owner and biker with a BMW 1200GS. Immediately the hospitality and friendship I had come to love about Mexico reappeared and I spent the next three days in Orizaba, a small town surrounded by mountains, being fed, housed, shown around and introduced. I met a great group of people and was treated like royalty. Thanks for the shirt Arturo! A special long sleeve denim shirt with the Mexican flag embroidered along with the Aussie flag and a kangaroo. It is my new canvas for collecting patches and badges!

The ride there from Puebla started well with sunny skies, winding backroads and small towns that I love to discover. As I climbed into the mountains I could see fog ahead and sure enough I entered into a pea soup just where the mountain was the highest and windiest. 

Visibility was down to a bike-length in front of me and on three occasions I was on a tight hairpin bend only to be confronted in my lane with the rear of a semi-trailer that was using the whole road to come up the mountain. There is nowhere to go because there are no road verges, just a drop off the edge and the occasional metal barrier. It rates amongst the most dangerous rides I’ve had this trip. By the time I reached Orizaba it was pouring with rain.

But after a couple of days with James’s fantastic hospitality I headed towards Veracruz on the coast and some sun. I had heard a lot of positive things about Veracruz but I found it a bit expensive and touristy. I only stayed one night and did my usual walk around town in the evening. It’s always easy to find some good street food but after a look around I decided to continue the next morning.

Catemaco is a lovely little town on the edge of a large volcanic lake of the same name, just a couple of hundred kilometres south of Veracruz, slightly inland. I arrived in the afternoon and found a hotel at the end of town and negotiated a good chunk off the price because the place was empty. It is only days before the summer vacation and this place will be crowded and busy. Meanwhile it was quiet except for all the vendors prepared for the vacation. I was the only tourist walking along the lakeside, running the gauntlet with all the artists, food stalls and boat owners. The town is known for it’s witchcraft (bruja) and you can get a reading from a warlock. I passed. The first night I walked into the township away from the touristy malecon and as usual there was a large square with food stalls and people just sitting and walking around. It seems that this time of night between say 6.30 and 8 is when families come out and do their community socializing as there were a lot of people around.

In the morning was a great day starting with a two hour boat ride on the lake. It included a face caked in mud, good for the complexion, and stops at a few small beaches and a monkey island. 

Later I rode around the perimeter of the lake through beautiful lush rainforest. Found a steep and rocky road that led to an eco-park and 60m waterfall.

That day I found a nice coffee shop that had lots of books in English, some incense burning and real chai. It was a lovely spot with a great energy about it. I sat there in the evening overlooking the square.

The next day I packed and headed for Oaxaca. Half of the day was riding through lush green tropical vegetation with the temperature reaching 36C. I stayed on the libre (no cost) roads and passed through numerous small towns and hundreds of topes(speed humps)! I made my way to Tuxtepec where I had stayed one night before on the way to Puebla, but passed around it and headed to the mountains. I found a small restaurant and had a big meal of fried chicken to load me up for the ride into the mountains. It was still 200kms to Oaxaca and about 3pm. I wasn’t sure if I would get there.

Heading into the mountains was another of those wonderful Mexican winding rides and I moved gradually up in altitude as I wound around mountains, down into gullies and up to greater heights. 

The weather became cooler and after about two hours I hit the top of a mountain with a lookout and a sign reading 3000m. It was 12C. 

I had to put on my warmer gear as I was still in my body armour only, set up for hot weather. Even the heated hand grips had a workout. It became foggy and threatened to rain. At around 6pm I realised I was still over 80kms from Oaxaca so I followed a sign to a camping ‘eco village’. The dirt road wound down deep into a valley, dropping a good 500m in altitude and eventually this beautiful lake and valley opened up in front of me. 

There was an administrative-looking house on the right so I stopped and spoke with the owner. He offered me a place to hang my hammock for 100 pesos for as many nights as I wanted. He explained that it was about to get busy over the next few days (the weekend) due to summer holidays. I explained that I just wanted to hang my hammock and stay one night so he said I could stay for free. Near the lake there were a number of shelters so I hung the hammock in one and fortunately set up my wet weather tarp. That night a thick fog descended on the valley and in the small hours it started to rain lightly through the fog. By morning the rain was quite heavy and even though I was dry I had to pack up the bike in the open, clad in all my wet weather gear. As seems usual, I was ready to leave about 10am, and as if on cue, the rain stopped and the fog lifted. I rode back up to the road and took the winding mountains to Oaxaca without another drop falling on me.