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.

Mexico is huge. . . almost out

This is told by devin, (read Matts palenque, Mexico)

we made it to palenque almost out of Mexico. we ran into a man just out of Mexico that told us palenque has the best permids in mexico, so we headed this way. we planned to see them today and head to san Cristobal but we got there 2 minutes to late and they would not let us in. so we found a place to stay for $5.50 each and found a church for tomorrow as well.

we left mazatlan and headed toward Mexico city. we stopped and got a picture of the temple in gatalajara. we had two people offer us a place to stay the night soo nice. i thought it creepy at first but then i just think people are nice down here. everyone we past, stare us down, they always ask what size of bike. . . we already had an offer from someone to buy one. i thing we do look odd with all our luggage and a tire strapped on the back. but i also think that they like the bikes, all the bikes down here are small 2-strokes. i think our bikes are ugly, i would never own one except for this trip but the bike are growing on me. with all the rough roads it is perfect. i nicknamed mine la gorda.

we made it most the way to Mexico city and stayed the night in a field. a guy in gatalajara warned us about travailing at night because off the bandits toward mexico city. so after we were just getting to sleep (matt sound asleep) a car pulled up right next to us and four men jumped out. the first one the only one i could see good was waring a mask and a black suit with a mushing gun. Dang! scared the crap out of me. they were just cops wondering what we were doing. they laughed at us and drove off.

Matt's back tire was looking bold so we strapped the bike to a tree and switched it. then we headed off toward mexico city. the tull roads are draining us. so we took the free roads, a little longer but took us in the country side more. we finally came to mexico city and it was a nightmare, we got lost, in fact i never new where we were at. after two hours we saw a sign that said welcome to mexcio city. so ¨i think¨ we made it to mexico city. . . after getting stuck in a stand still we asked a lady how to get to the pyramids north of Mexico city. she told us to follow her and she drove us all they way out of the mess and on our way strait to the pyramids. people are soo nice.

we got there too late so we found a cheep place to stay and eat. the next day we spend an hour touring the pyramids and then we were off. we gave the city a large birth and passed by pica de orizaba i believe is the 2nd largest peek in north America. our plans were to make it to this beach sanchez magallanea. we got lost a few times but finally made it grabbed our bags and died. i woke up to 10 crabs biting at my tarp so i wake up and strung my hammock.

the beach was awesome. it was an island with a lagoon. there was a bridge on both sides so we wanted to ride the island. we went for a swim and came back to our bikes with a lady screaming at us. i thought she was going to tell us to get off. but she was telling us someone was stilling our stuff. i guess a kid was going through our stuff when a girl saw him and held. he rand off with matts front tire but dropped it running away. the girl brought it back to us and nothing else was gone.

then the whole community came out to discuss it, seemed like big news to everyone. then we had to sit there while four different people came and talking up a storm, soo nice. i think they were trying to say that the boy who stole our tire was from another town and that their village was a good one. . . we acted like we understood them.

we then drove the cost for 30 miles, soo pretty water on both sides. I have been to a lot of beaches but this one rises to the top. soo awesome from sanchez magallanes to paraiso, dang!