Veracruz seems to be the spot where we meet other travelers traveling like us, today was a British guy on a BMW 1200 adventure touring bike, this thing was massive. We would not have met him, just his bike, if it wasn't for our own bikes being blocked into the corner of the parking garage. We had to wake up three other people just to get out, the whole process took about half an hour.
I had not realized it until I was putting my cases on the bike that it was extremely windy outside. We noticed it but didn't really pay it any attention until we drove our rout out of town to the southeast out of Veracruz and Boca del Rio. We drove right next to the water, when we could because waves were crashing over the road, and enjoyed the nice onshore gale force breeze.
It kept getting darker and darker out and it started to drizzle and we knew we were in it for the long haul when we pulled over to jump into our rain gear.
A few nice things I enjoy about motorcycling in "bad weather" especially weather like todays is that its great for the tires life due to the fact that we are at such an angle, around 45 degree, that we utilize the parts of the tire we never touch in "good weather". Also, the bike is lighter and easier to manuver, "how is this?" you say. Simple we take out and get in all of our clothes, making our cases virtually empty and the bike quick and fast. the only problem is that the bike doesn't actually go any faster or manuver any better because now all of the weight of the clothes it up 5 feet off the ground and not two feet. Some people spend hundreds of dollars to feel better about themselves and trick themselves into thinking mud baths are magical, well they are only when they are free. It is amazing what a nice mud bath will do to the pours of a motorcycle, add in a rain shower and the bike is like new, just sparkling!
I had my luggage rack fixed up today. Friendly people and did us a world of help putting the rack back together and reinforcing it.
Coatzacoalcos truly is a wet place: it receives 3 meters of rain each year! And hey look at that, that's where we're going.
It seems that the best and worst parts of life are right next to each other. Today we had two of these moments, bare with me while I explain why the Mexican people are outstanding: First, We were totally lost in a crappy little city, well not that the city was crappy but just being in cities is crappy for us (we like the mountainous dirt roads) it was getting later in the afternoon and were in the middle of the city, lost, in despair. All of a sudden an older man, asks us in Spanish if we are lost and need some help. We explain that we are and in our best Spanish, which is nothing short of pathetic, we go on to say we are trying to get to Agua Dolce to a campground. He tells us to wait a moment as his father, who is on the balcony overlooking us comes down to speak to us in his broken English. We did attempt to talk but his hearing was seventy years old, a little after its peak, and was best not from a balcony but right next to us with his entire family, all three generations of it, next to him. Within seconds we are all laughing, the granddaughter is testing her English, the grandmother is telling us we speak terrible Spanish. We figure out that Colin and I will follow the entire family, minus the grandpa they just visited, all six of them, back to the highway. The get into their tiny little red car, happy as can be, and lead us lost souls to el camino.
A great moment for me was after we went our separate ways and said our goodbyes and honked to our heart content I looked back as the roads were getting further and further apart the granddaughter, who was hanging out of the window of the little red car, saw me give a final wave and waved back in such a way that was just magical and special and felt as if this was a great moment in her life.
The second event was....
Darkness crept up on us and all of a sudden and we were many miles from our destination. Just to add a little fun it decided to ran again, not like drizzling but hard core pouring. Unlike a car motorcycle helmets don't have visor wipers and when you do use your hand to get the water off it kind of makes it better, but it also smudges it around and all you can really do to stay on the road is focus on the red taillights ahead of you, hope that there is a truck going slow that you can find safety behind.
We had enough and pulled off where we saw some 18-wheelers. There happened to be a little restaurant there and we were glad to sit down, out of the rain, have a cafe and a nice warm meal, or two...
We finished up our meal and realized we had to get back on the rainy dark windy road. Donde es el camino de Agua Dolce? We asked the waitress. "its up the road a bit, take the exit and its a little bit further. It didn't sound far but also didn't sound appealing either.
"Es posible por me y me amigo to campana?"
"Un momento... Si, esposible"
That was all we needed to hear, we stayed a little longer and waited for the other patrons to leave, we said goodbye to the family who ran the restaurant and set up our sleeping pads and bags right there. The kindness of the family we really great. It was a wonderful end to our long day on the road. We are good at finding places to sleep, especially here, the entire floor of the bungalow style structure was dry except for right next to us.
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