Stage 4: Laredo – Saltillo – Guanajuato – Mexico City: Two for the Road

During the last stage I had a sudden phone call with back home and at the end the surprise was perfect: In stage 4, I will have a companion for the most part of the trip. Although we only did once a day trip by motorbike together, I know for sure that she’s the best companion I could imagine.

We meet in Dallas at the airport and wait together for the delayed plane to Laredo. Around 2am we finally go sleeping and get up about three hours later to pack the motorcycle and get over the border as soon as possible. Still, some time for a group picture is left: Sarah-Jane (aka SJ – the Beauty), the beast (me) and the Beast.

No room for rumors: We’re just very good friends!

So, let’s get on the bike, hit the road and get over the border to Mexico! …just like thousands of Mexicans on this day at exactly this border. The highway is completely jammed and it takes quite some time until we come closer to the border control. I park the motorcycle under a bridge to figure out to which office we have to go first. When I come back a few minutes later, I find SJ interviewed by a local newspaper reporter. Before any TV reporter-teams show up we head together to the right building and get into the long lines for the different control steps. A huge hall with dozens of desks behind glass-walls and hundreds of people waiting. It’s hot, loud but a relaxed atmosphere. Sounds like Mexico, feels like Mexico. No officers with guns running around but children playing everywhere. After some long hours all three of us are legally entering Mexico. To be able to reach our planned destination of the first day, we take the highway to save some time. Sounds good but again: Thousands of people also decided to do so. The traffic jam takes nearly the whole way from the border to the next city, so about 50 miles. Lucky us that we’re on a motorcycle and that mostly is enough space to pass by with reduced speed. As we don’t want to drive in the dark, at least not on the first day, we chose a hotel close by and celebrate our first day in Mexico with Mexican beer and food.

To get out of the way of the heavy traffic we chose for the second day a small road along a mountain range. We only have to start on the highway for some miles…which are also jammed for the most. As soon as we leave the highway we’re nearly alone on a windy road in a beautiful scenery. A wide field with some cactuses on it, mountains in the background looks too great to just get passed by. Time for a small break and an adhoc photo session off the road.

As nice as the small road is, the average speed to go on it is far lower than I’m used to be. To be able to reach the city we wanted to reach on this day, we have to drive a little bit in the dark. Yes, I know: Never drive in the dark in Mexico. Don’t even think about it. Well, we have to and not only once but regularly as the days are pretty short in December even in Mexico. And yes, there’s a downside at driving in the dark: You don’t see the scenery. That’s it. It never felt more dangerous than during the day. Nonetheless the first night-drive had some special moments. As the roads through a village isn’t usually a straight road through it but a way where you have to turn several times without any signs or other indications, it’s good to have someone who knows the way. And we found this someone as a SUV driver in front of us. I didn’t ask him I just identified him as he was driving for a certain time in front of us and knew the correct turns. Only when the road lost its pavement I decided to look on the map again. Well, we were good. Nearly. I just should have turned to a different road one mile before. Nothing to worry about. More to worry about the eight police officers in their ballistic vests and armed with submachine guns. After realizing that we’re „Gringos“, they get a little more relaxed. It’s just a bit surprising that they don’t know the next big city we want to go to and that they have no idea which road to take to get into the right direction after I showed them the city on my map. Whatsoever…we find it on our own. Only 30 miles left to go. I can already taste the beer which I want tonight… The paved road gets more and more potholes. The potholes get bigger. At a certain time the road is only a huge pothole. Perfect. Let’s introduce dirt-road biking to SJ. …in the dark. The villages we go through have more horses in front of the houses than cars. Well, there are no cars at all as the roads are getting more and more rough and narrow. It’s not a road, it’s an off-road track with big rocks on it. According to the rock-walls we’re also driving along a slope. As I cannot see too far ahead, I cannot really plan my way through this area. We bump hard or scratch with the bottom over the rocks. Out of nowhere the pavement comes back. I stop, get off the bike and am ready for the verbal attack which I expect after such a ride (which was the third time for her ever on a motorcycle). I just say „crazy shit“ with a forced smile. SJ responses with a huge smile „That was fun! I guessed several times that we crash but finally you made it quite ok!“ – WOW! I didn’t expect this kind of reaction at all. The next beer is on me! It’s not a fancy bar but a stand on the side of the road but fits to the day: Authentic, dusty, good.

The first big milestone on our trip is Guanajuato, which is on the UNESCO list of cities of the year 2017. We reach it on our third day. It’s an old medium size city on a hill with hundreds of colored houses. City tours are done by music groups in traditional clothes who guide the tourists from square to square where they perform songs, some role plays and tell the story of the city. The only down-side: These tours are only done in Spanish. One musician addresses to us, while we walk through one of the small alleys, first in Spanish, then English and finally in German. This surprises us a lot. After a nice conversation with him, Dario, and his story why he speaks some German (as he was touring through Europe and stayed in Germany a little longer because of a girl), he spontaneously guides us through the city. As he has to return to his musician group, SJ and me chose one small outdoor bar under the night-sky to enjoy the first calm evening on our tour.

The next big stop is the capital: Mexico City! A little worried about the famous crazy traffic in this huge city, we start early to get there. But again our expectations do not consider the Christmas holidays but in this case it’s the opposite in comparison to the jammed highways before: Nearly no one is on the streets of the multi-million inhabitants metropole. Empty streets everywhere. Even the wide main-roads are missing any traffic. In a way it is fun to drive through the city. We can go whatever speed…mostly slow when there’re sights…only for us. The downside of this empty city is, that we cannot really find a good place to celebrate Christmas Eve (in Germany, our home-country, it’s common to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve). A hotel restaurant is the oasis for all travelers in this city on that evening. We also go there and celebrate a very interesting, loud version of Christmas which wasn’t bad at all…just very different. With the view from the top of the building over the empty capital we decide to leave it earlier than planned. Finally it was a nearly silent night in a silent city.