Around Mexico on a motorbike. Part 1

Moscow-Amsterdam-Mexico City

“Now you'll feel a little uncomfortable”, – said the masked girl and quickly inserted a thin long flexible stick with a cotton swab on the end into both my nostrils alternately, and then scraped my throat with the other one.
Indeed, not a very pleasant sensation, although the whole procedure took less than a minute.

This is the second time in the last two days I've had to endure this. It can't be helped, preparing for travelling in a pandemic is like a quest. In addition to the standard activities such as buying air tickets, insurance, visas, hotel reservations, etc., we have to take two Covid-19 tests, one not earlier than 72 hours and the second at the airport 4 hours before departure.

In addition, it is necessary to fill in and print out health forms of a certain form in advance, as all countries have different requirements. All the papers must be filled out in English or another foreign language of the country of stay. But there are pluses: Sheremetyevo airport is half-empty, there are no queues at registration and passport control and all cafes are empty, so I have a glass of foamy drink before boarding and off I go. The journey begins!

The A320 Airbus bound for Amsterdam on Aeroflot flight SU-2550 is also less than half full. For the third time, a pretty stewardess (though nothing is seen under the mask, all stewardesses at Aeroflot are pretty) asks me very politely to put on my mask, otherwise I will have to leave the plane. Apparently, right during the flight. I obey unquestionably, and half an hour later I take it off. But it's already official, because they brought food and for another half an hour you can chew, sneeze and cough without fear that you will be thrown out of the plane. Apparently the coronavirus doesn't infect while eating.

Amsterdam met us with cold wind, snow and a long wait for the bus. At the entrance all the certificates and questionnaires were checked. The airport was empty, the impression was that apart from us a couple of dozen Indians from Mumbai had flown in and that was it. Most of the duty-free shops are closed. We found one working cafe, took a sandwich and a bottle of bad red wine in a plastic bottle. Two hours later we boarded the local airline KLM. A long flight across the Atlantic lay ahead.

The first day in Mexico

This happened to me for the first time. After walking around the centre of the colourful town of Cuernavaca and having lunch in a cozy café, we returned to our bikes and found that they had no plates. There were two policewomen walking nearby. After a brief dialogue in Spanish-English-Russian, it turned out that they had swiped the plates because we had parked in the wrong place. When asked to return the registration plates, the lady quickly said something in Spanish, poked her finger at the red kerb, shook her head negatively, and out of all this I could only make out a few words – penalty, money and mañana.

For 20 minutes I was persuading the lady that we were Russian tourists who had arrived yesterday and had not yet figured out what colour the kerb should be and were ready to pay the fine now, and we were not happy with the mañana. In the end we agreed on 600 pesos (2300 rubles). We were fined one by one in a police box. Of course, no receipts were issued. Just like ours do! :) :) :) The official fine is even higher – from 800 to 1700 pesos.

Mexico City is a huge, contrasting city with a population larger than Moscow, if you count the suburbs. As in all Latin American megapolises, there are poor, dirty neighbourhoods with mounts of rubbish, shabby walls and beggars at traffic lights, and there are prestigious, clean, modern districts with parks, supermarkets and skyscrapers made of glass and concrete.

Unfortunately, the current situation with Covid-19 in Mexico City is very difficult, so all museums and historical monuments are closed for visiting, and there is no sense in tearing between the rows in traffic jams, driving around the city at the temperature of 26-27° C. Tomorrow we will go out of town again, to explore the beauties of central Mexico, of which there are plenty.

Mexico. The Silver City of Taxco.

Today we decided to make a small circle of just over 400 km on mountain roads not far from the capital. We started with a visit to the centre of Mexico City – the Plaza de la Constitución. It is the largest square in Latin America, surrounded by historical buildings. Beautiful cathedral, pedestrian streets with boutiques, cafes, restaurants and huge numbers of police. There are very few tourists and the plaza is practically empty. The cathedral is closed as are the museums, so there is not much to do.

Our today’s destination is the small town of Taxco, a hundred and fifty kilometers from Mexico City.

On the way we decided to climb the fourth highest volcano in Mexico, Nevado de Toluca. On the map there is a road leading to the very crater of the 4680 m high volcano, but we were not lucky: on a dirt track, a few kilometers from the peak, we were stopped by armed men on duty and told that there was no further passage.

They were not impressed by the story that we had travelled from Russia for three days to look into the crater of this volcano, but the sticker they were given as a gift promoted a friendly talk, and in the end we took a photo together. Still we were not allowed to go to the volcano.

Further on we drive towards Tasco along a very beautiful infinitely long mountain serpentine. The road is perfect, the nature is amazing, the altitudes are from 1500 to 3700 meters. The temperature varies depending on the altitude. The lower it gets, the hotter. The minimum was 9° C, the maximum – 34° C.

Tasco is an incredibly beautiful city, located on the slopes of the mountains, where huge silver reserves were discovered in the 16th century. And, as a matter of fact, this is what gave rise to it.

Narrow winding streets paved with stone, steep ascents and descents, white houses with openwork balconies and climbing plants on the walls and a huge number of Volkswagen Juke cars. Hundreds of them. I don't know what it is, but apparently this is a trademark of the town of Tasco, as well as numerous jewellery shops with silverware.

After having lunch on the balcony of a snazzy restaurant overlooking the central square and an amazingly beautiful church, we walked around the center and flew back to Mexico City on the motorway. We still had 170 kilometers to go on the night highway.

Mexico. Day 3

We finally escaped from the stuffy embrace of Mexico City and for the next 10 days, hopefully, we will not return here. On the whole, I liked the megalopolis. There are no traffic jams like in Moscow, the drivers are very friendly and careful, the navigation is clear, and there are a lot of interesting places and sights.

The only inconvenience is the pandemic-related restrictive measures. In big cities, they are noticeably tougher than in the provinces, where we are heading further.

In the morning we were joined by our Mexican friend, Alejandro, a motorcyclist and Aztec descendant, he would be our guide and helper for the rest of the trip.

Today on our route we have another wonderful and very ancient town of Tepoztlán. It took us about two hours to walk through its cobbled streets.

Numerous shops and cafes are open, but there are very few visitors. And that's where the coronavirus comes in. I think in normal times it would have been crowded. But now – beauty and not a single Chinese tourist! :) :)

After having a snack at the market with local "shawarma", which is delicious by the way, we drive further along the motorway eastwards to the city of Puebla. Suddenly, a huge mountain appears on the horizon, its peak lost in the clouds.

It is an active volcano, Popocatépetl, the second largest in Mexico (5,426 metres).

It gets dark early now, at 6.30 pm the sun is already hiding behind the mountains, so we postpone the trip to the volcano to tomorrow. We enter Puebla in total darkness. Although it’s still not late, my eyes are closing, I want to sleep very much, it’s already morning in Moscow; the time difference is 9 hours.

Mexico. Day 4

Did you know that most of Mexico is located on a plateau called the Mexican Highlands? Its average altitude is about 2000 m above sea level. Mexico City, the capital, is located at an altitude of 2240 m.

Mexico. Day 5. Veracruz

200 kilometers of beautiful highway along the Gulf Coast to the city of Veracruz flew by. The road passes through villages and small towns, then coming close to the ocean, so that you can hear the sound of waves rolling onto the sandy beaches, and then moving away from water for several kilometers.

All around is a storm of vegetation – tall palm trees with bundles of coconuts on top, various cacti of bizarre shapes, banana plantations, unknown shrubs and huge freestanding trees.

From time to time, I drive down to the water to ride along the dense, perfectly flat sand or just look out at the ocean from the top of the high bank.
While I was enjoying nature, the guys went to the BMW dealer in town to change the rear brake pads, which for some reason on both of our bikes were wiped to zero. I should have checked them before we left.

After lunch I reached the final destination of today's journey, one of the oldest and most important cities in Mexico from a historical and economic point of view – Veracruz, founded by Hernán Cortés himself in 1519.

The port and fortress city stretches along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico for 35 kilometers. Beautiful granite embankments, luxurious beaches, expensive hotels, monuments, a huge port, historical buildings – this is what Veracruz is about, translated from Spanish as the city of the "True Cross".

In the evening we go to the best fish restaurant in town, and maybe in all of Mexico, to taste the local sea delicacies with the world's best tequila! :) :)

Mexico. Veracruz – Oaxaca de Juárez

Today has been quite a day. In the morning we say goodbye to the Atlantic and start southwards to the Pacific Ocean. It is possible to cross Mexico in one day, but it doesn't make sense. It will take about 650 km and most of them are mountain serpentines. Moreover, in the central part there is unusual nature and beautiful roads, there is something to look at!

The first stop is in Cordoba. A beautiful small city with 400 years of history, especially interesting is its central square surrounded by historical buildings and incredibly high palm trees. After having a cup of fine coffee, we drive on to the final point of today's route, Oaxaca de Juárez.

The heat intensifies and soon the numbers on the dashboard of the motorbike show 36°C! It was quite cool in the morning when we left Veracruz, just 15°C.

We leave the toll highway and head into the mountains. Secondary roads in Mexico are of good quality, the only thing that is a bit annoying is the incredible number of huge "speed bumps". Even in a small village there can be 4-6 of them in one kilometer. And if you can fly over these speed bumps two meters wide and more on a motorbike at 40-50 km/h, cars have to slow down to 5 km/h.

The roads are almost empty, winding, the pavement is perfect, to the left and right are mountains, cliffs, bizarre trees and a huge variety of cacti, some reaching the height of a three-storey house and even higher!

We turn off the asphalt road and follow a dirt path into a cactus forest. Have you ever been to such a place? Amazing unusual sight!

And it is also easy to get lost in such a forest, which, by the way, we did. Looping among the bushes, we went our separate ways. However, this time we didn't look for each other for a long time, but after an hour we lost each other completely, and as there was no communication in the mountains, we arrived in Oaxaca separately when it was completely dark.

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