--Los Pollos Hermanos-- : Learning how Mexicans Drive

Day 13 Tepic to Morelia (Approx 500km.)
Started the day off on the toll roads and followed them all the way to Guadalajara. The road was amazing, it weaved through the hills and mountians with very light traffic. It was very scenic. We had a blast.

Guadalajara is quite a big city. We gassed up at the outskirts and made our best effort in crossing the city. Looking at the map it appeared there was a ring road..... After about 60 km and several wrong turns we made it out of the city. Traffic and roads were very busy.
While traffic may look crazy, the drivers are actually amazing. We have seen no accidents and have never felt uncomfortable. Traffic just flows, that's honestly the best way I can describe it. Lanes are optional, if you want to go somewhere you just start going and cars just slow down a bit and you slip in. We had followed a little 125 CC honda weaving through traffic the day before and learnt how Mexican traffic worked. We started lane splitting and taking full advantage of being on a bike. Tons of fun and adrenaline flying between two lanes of stopped traffic and driving on the wrong side of the road for miles because people would just move over a bit for you.

After leaving Guadalajara we took a non toll road. We stopped for another full chicken at a roadside BBQ place. So good!

The road had a lot of construction. At one point Trevor ended up passing a semi on the gravel part of the road that was under construction flying over a big ridge to get back on the road again! The entire ride was a lot of fun but hard to get many miles in.
The non toll roads pass through all the towns. In every town there are a series of speed bumps called Topes. For some reason Mexicans are very afraid of these and just crawl over them. We take advantage of this by passing as many cars as we can on the shoulders.

We motored on and ran into a thunderstorm late in the afternoon. We past through the worst of the storm only to realize that we missed the turn to Morelia. We talked to a very helpful mexican named Pedro who advised us it was 1 hour to the next town or 1/2hr back to Morelia. Because it was getting dark we opted for Morelia and additionally Kyle had found a hotel that looked decent online. It was pouring rain and very dark as we pulled in to Morelia. Quickly we came to the conculsion that we were never going to find our hotel and decided to pay a taxi (150 pesos) to show us the way across the city. Streets were flooding, it was quite the ride.

The next morning. Hotel California courtyard. Nicest hotel room yet.

Day 14 Vibrato Mucho.
Woke up a little later the usual and we were packed and on the road around 10am. We had planned on about a 3hr ride to Cuernavaca to visit Trevor's friend.

The night before Kyle's bike was acting strange, vibrating more and more. Kyle thought it was just the chain on its last legs. It was the original chain and we had brought new ones. Trevor changed his in Las Vegas. Kyle tightened and lubed the chain and we hit the road. 20km outside of Morelia we pulled over as things were still not good. The bike was shaking madly.

We discovered that 9 of the rear spokes had snapped. What Kyle thought was the chain skipping because it was loose was actually spokes snapping. Crap! Trevor approached three Mexicans across the road asking about a repair shop. Since today is Sunday everything is closed. They said a shop in Morelia would be able to fix the wheel. After a short discussion they hopped in their cars with their grandparents, wives, and kids; we slowly drove the 20km back to Morelia stopping in front of a Yamaha/John Deer Dealership. We thanked them for their help.

We headed for the town centre and stayed in the ancient Hotel Morelia

Checked out the Cathedral and "pan" (bread) festival that was going on.

We also checked out the International film festival that was taking place but just about every show was already sold out. We explored later on that night with the niece of the hotel owner and friend that was working at the hotel as well. We had a good time practicing Spanish and just chatting.

Day 15 Monday Oct 21, 2013.
We set off with the Hotel owners daughter and the niece from the night before in search of a bike shop capable of fixing the spokes. We decided that the girls should have the helmets so we ended up getting even more attention than usual cruising around the city with hair flowing in the wind. haha

Eight repair shops later we found one that was willing to experiment with not necessarily the right parts. He told us it would not be as strong but he could make it work for now. We are extremely thankful for the girls help as they translated for us and we would have had a very tough time navigating the city.