Palenque, Mexico

So we have made it as far as Palenque, Mexico and so far clear sailing! Palneque Mexico has some really cool waterfalls and really good ruin, but we haven´t seen them yet because we got there at 4:32 and it closes for the night at 4:30. What a dog and pony show?? So here we are holed up for the night in a $12 hotel waiting for church in the morning and the ruins after that. We talked to the guy at the hostel and we get to sleep on the roof, because it is soooo muggy!!!! Well we successfully navigated through Guatalahara and got to see the temple and then after diriving 4 or 5 hours thought the night Devin and I pulled off on a dirt road under a big tree and a nice little stream with lots of stars and crickets and fell asleep. Everything was peaceful until I woke up to some spanish BLAH, BLAH, BLAH and saw a bunch o dudes with assault rifles and masks over their faces screaming at Devin. I happened to be the Federales(Police) who wanted to know what the crap a couple of gringos with big bikes were doing in the middle of Mexico. We looked and acted surprised enough that they left and realized we weren´t the drug lords they were looking for. Our next town was the worlds biggest, Mexico City! THIS PLACE IS NUTTS!! Big, smelly, dirty and lots of traffic. So we tried what we did in California last year and drove between the cars on a parked freeway. If you have never done this it is awesome, 1 reason you should ride a bike if you live in California. Didn´t work so well in Mexico City. Things got a little too tight and I took a guys mirror off with the kitchen sink I got strapped to my back rack. There I am with 10 or 15 cars all watching the crazy grigo think he is better than sitting behind a semi in 100 heat with a leather jacket, so I pass 20 or 30 cars till I go a little too tight and next thing I got a guy screamming at me in Espanol and wanting some peso. I left my wallet alone and gave him the dinero in my jacket and he got cool really quick.(think it was about 40 bucks). Next he was helping us find our way through traffic to the pyramids. PEOPLE here are sooo NICE!!We had a guy in Guadalahara offer us a free meal and a place to stay and another guy in traffic asked us where we were from and where we were going and offered us his house to stay. REALLY REALLY NICE PEOPLE!!! Hard not to love them. Missionaries here got it good!! After navigating the world finest traffic jam and making it to the pyramids we headed for the Caribean and a town called PARAISO. Pyramids were great!! Massive, Massive, Massive!! we hiked to the top and even gave out the first Book or Mormon to a guy who asked if I had one in spanish. Got lots of great pics!! We camped last night after driving through numerous towns looking for the right road that was on the map and finally pulled over on an isolated chunk of Caribean beach and slept 10 feet from the water and let the waves put us to sleep. Funniest thing happened in the morning. I rolled out of bed and jumped in the water and went for a swim, while Devin did a little snorkeling and all of a sudden the neighborhood realizes that Gringos were on the beach and come out of the woodwork. I thought that they were going to boot us out, but they instead come running up shouting Espanol with of all things my front tire! Some kid had realized that his golden opportunity had arrived and decided his life would be better with a spare tire off of our bike. Someone caught him running off with it and they nabbed him and brought it back. Half the village was there making sure that he hadn´t kifed anything else. So there was my camera, GPS, wallet, toothbrush and vasques; and he wanted the tire??? bless his heart! Laughed myself silly! Did I say these people were nice!!! They all came out jabbering and made sure we were ok and that I still had my toothbrush and all. I think I´m gonna move here after the trip and I´ll bring the the little rascal a spare tire ta play with. Well gotta go! Adios for now.