Cain Manor

OK, I REALLY got it working this time. I tried it, and it works. I just needed to change cainmaor to cainmanor and it worked. Thanks to Austin for helping me on this.

What does this mean to the rest of you. Get a typekey account, and you can call me whatever names you like. Ha!

This was a pretty fun weekend. I saw a couple of things in the surrounding countryside that were pretty popular, and got to ride my motorcycle for a whole bunch of hours.

Cyrus was leaving on Sunday, and he wanted to see some of the local sights, so we took a local bus to Tule. The town (called Santa Maria El Tule) has a 2000+ year old tree. Initially I was sceptical about it being a big tree. In the Northwest, it’s hard to swing a dead cat without hitting someone that complains about you just having killed a cat. And when they step aside, you hit a big tree. So I’ve seen a lot of big trees (biggest cypress, biggest fir, etc.) But when I got there, it was one big tree. I’ll even go on record as saying it’s the biggest tree I think I’ve ever seen. It was huge. I’m glad my skepticisim was removed for a while.
Continue reading ‘Road to Hierve el Agua’ »

Ever since crossing the border, I’ve been fascinated by the cars and motorcycles they have here. Most of the cars here are newer, which is different than the sterotype that people have.

The cars are pretty cool, and generally different. People with a LOT of money drive Suburbans, and generally only Suburbans. They are a large percentage of the traffic on the toll roads, since only rich people can afford the tolls. Most of the other cars are pretty economical, and some of them are just dang cute. I could see myself driving the Ford XA. One reason people drive the economical cars is that gas is a LOT more expensive here. It cost about $16/US to fill a relatively empty tank, compared with $10-12 for the US when gas prices were very high. Gas is taking a much larger chunk of my budget than I thought it would.

The bikes generally are older, and almost all of them are small - 125 or 150, with a few 250s. Yesterday (8/24/4) I saw my first Harley, followed by another one about 10 minutes later. Someone in town has a Ductati Dual Sport, and there are a few BMW F650’s in town. On Saturday ( 8/21/4 ) I saw about a dozen BMW’s pull into the Zocalo. They drove in from Mexico City for the night, taking the same road I took from Mexico Districto Federale. I guess that means it’s a pretty good road, otherwise they wouldn’t have taken it. They didn’t seem very social, so I didn’t chat long. On to the Pictures

I’ve been here a week now. It’s been a pretty good week, other than the fact I still can’t speak Spanish. Sign.

My day has developed into a pretty good routine. I wake up about 7:30, grab a quick shower and head downstairs for breakfast. Normally I don’t eat breakfast, but it’s included in the price of my room and board. I think it’s the board part. My hostess (Carmina) is a pretty good cook, and we have a traditional mexican breakfast, which includes a big plate of fruit (papaya, banana and apples) cut into bite sized pieces, eggs, tortillas and some type of juice. Usually it’s not orange, and usually hand squeezed. I assume it to be a traditional breakfast, but I don’t know for sure.
Continue reading ‘Oaxaca, Oaxaca’ »

I left Zacatecas pretty late in the day - right around noon. I didn’t have that many miles to go before I got to my next target - Guanajuato. The day was pretty uneventful until I turned off to Guanajuato. I was in a several mile long traffic jam. They were paving the road, so cars ahead were kicking up a big chunks of asphalt and gravel. I had to keep my facemask closed to keep from getting one in the eye, and I was only going about 30 MPH, so it was damned hot. I only did about 200 miles, if that much, but it was enough.
Continue reading ‘Guanajuato’ »

Today was a much better day than yesterday, which I needed. However, I got a decent enough nights sleep, even though the hotel was right off the main road.

Travel Tip - Bring Earplugs.

When I woke up at 7:30 my bike was blocked in by several cars. Rather than fret about it, I went back to bed for an hour or so. When I woke, those cars were gone and I noticed I wasn’t naseous any more. Huzzah!!
Continue reading ‘Road to Oaxaca’ »

I din’t realize that the day I left Guanajuato was Friday the 13th until I started typing this up. It makes more sense now. I slept in a little bit, which I was glad to do. I found a place around the corner to grab a latte, and the sun was shining. One thing I was going to do, but didn’t manage to was find a cash machine without a line around the block. My assumption is that people get paid on Friday,and since this appears to be a cash based economy, they need to get to the ATM to do whatever it is they do. I hit the road almost exactly at noon, which was a little late given the miles I wanted to do, but usually once I start riding, I’m pretty good at muscling through. In other words I don’t stop for food - usually.
Continue reading ‘Leaving Guanajuato 8-13-4’ »