Noel Campbell and I are in San Miguel de Allende, which is about half way between Mexico City and Guadalajara and 1800 miles from Prescott. Noel is riding a BMW 1150 GS and I am on my Triumph Bonneville and we will attend a BMW Moto Tour along with 150 BMW riderss from around Mexico. This is the bridge over the Pecos river in Texas. This is the latest one after several others had been washed away in floods.
We couldn´t resist staying here in this downtown Matahuala hotel on the main square. The price was 270 pesos, about twenty bucks. Old, but quite clean and we enjoyed the people there. We rode our bikes through the large front door and parked them in the lobby.
Noel and Fedencio, one of the best waiters I have ever experienced. He even gave me the recipe for frijoes chollas and I promised to send him this picture. The ride through this part of Mexico from Saltillo down is a very dry and flat desert akin to west Texas. We also had a cross wind to add to this unpleasant part of the ride.
But worth the trip!! This is the first view of San Miguel coming in on a high hill overlooking the city. The main cathedral is on the town square and our hotel is about on the left side of the photo, half way up, and is a fifteen minute walk to the cathedral. Temeratures are 60 to afternoon highs of 85. Quite perfect. The other riders are somewhat clickish and wear their club jackets and shirts. One on one they are very friendly and open, but when it comes time for a social function, they gather with their clan. Mostly our age with too much stuff hanging off of thier mostly BMW GS bikes and wearing mostly BMW logo clothes. Maybe 20 percent brought their wives along.
This is the view from the area where I worked when I took my sculpture class here in 2004 at the Instituto de Allende. In 2004 there were eight of us but now the studio is closed and I didn´t even see any students studying spanish, the main portion of thir curriculum. The town is packed though as in addition to our group, there are five major weddings and the pope and Mexico´s President Calderon are in the neighborhood. Police are on every downtown corner.
Parque Juarez in midtown is host to a group of students waiting for their turn to perform at the anniversary of Juarez´s birthday or death. A very patriotic event in a very beautiful and large park.
Harry´s Bar, now owned by Bob, is the hot spot for meeting locals and other visitors. It is just off of the square and it quickly became somewhat of a habitual happy hour for Noel and me. Twofers margarita´s and popcorn for 70 pesos, five bucks!
Thursday night, we paraded from the hotel to the cathedral led by two donkeys all decorated and a 12 piece mariachi band with a very entertaining conductor. The city has a sound and light show that projects onto the face of the building and lofty music floats down. It was extremely enjoyable and normally only shows on the weekends, but bikers are special. And the band played on... Afterwards, Noel and I went to a hotel that had a live band and salsa dancing. A small dance floor, but great dancers. Noel and I did our best.
Friday we had a tour for one hundred miles, some of it quite lovely with hills and windy roads between picturesque pueblos. But half of it was on flat roads with too many cars, trucks, and topes. We stopped for ice cream in Delores Hildago, thats my bike about half way down. We all posed for a group photo on the steps of their cathedral and then returned the 30 miles to San Miguel, detouring through what they call the Santuaria on the old road between Delores and SMA. All cobblestone and a ton of churches and chapels. This is also where the hot springs are located and was a very rich part of the area.
This large scultpture is on the outskirts of Delores Hildago on the way to SMA. The cleanliness and greenery is typical for larger Mexican cities, but lacking in the poorer smaller towns. We have had a great time here so far and will take a different and hopefully more enjoyable route home going northwest to Zacatecas and staying to the left of Chihuahua, crossing into New Mexico at Columbus. We will leave early Sunday moring and take five days or so to get home. I saw a bumper sticker in New Mexico on the way down which said ¨Welcome to New Mexico, actually it is not new. Actually, it is not Mexico.¨
Noel Campbell and I are in San Miguel de Allende, which is about half way between Mexico City and Guadalajara and 1800 miles from Prescott. Noel is riding a BMW 1150 GS and I am on my Triumph Bonneville and we will attend a BMW Moto Tour along with 150 BMW riderss from around Mexico. This is the bridge over the Pecos river in Texas. This is the latest one after several others had been washed away in floods.
We couldn´t resist staying here in this downtown Matahuala hotel on the main square. The price was 270 pesos, about twenty bucks. Old, but quite clean and we enjoyed the people there. We rode our bikes through the large front door and parked them in the lobby.
Noel and Fedencio, one of the best waiters I have ever experienced. He even gave me the recipe for frijoes chollas and I promised to send him this picture. The ride through this part of Mexico from Saltillo down is a very dry and flat desert akin to west Texas. We also had a cross wind to add to this unpleasant part of the ride.
But worth the trip!! This is the first view of San Miguel coming in on a high hill overlooking the city. The main cathedral is on the town square and our hotel is about on the left side of the photo, half way up, and is a fifteen minute walk to the cathedral. Temeratures are 60 to afternoon highs of 85. Quite perfect. The other riders are somewhat clickish and wear their club jackets and shirts. One on one they are very friendly and open, but when it comes time for a social function, they gather with their clan. Mostly our age with too much stuff hanging off of thier mostly BMW GS bikes and wearing mostly BMW logo clothes. Maybe 20 percent brought their wives along.
This is the view from the area where I worked when I took my sculpture class here in 2004 at the Instituto de Allende. In 2004 there were eight of us but now the studio is closed and I didn´t even see any students studying spanish, the main portion of thir curriculum. The town is packed though as in addition to our group, there are five major weddings and the pope and Mexico´s President Calderon are in the neighborhood. Police are on every downtown corner.
Parque Juarez in midtown is host to a group of students waiting for their turn to perform at the anniversary of Juarez´s birthday or death. A very patriotic event in a very beautiful and large park.
Harry´s Bar, now owned by Bob, is the hot spot for meeting locals and other visitors. It is just off of the square and it quickly became somewhat of a habitual happy hour for Noel and me. Twofers margarita´s and popcorn for 70 pesos, five bucks!
Thursday night, we paraded from the hotel to the cathedral led by two donkeys all decorated and a 12 piece mariachi band with a very entertaining conductor. The city has a sound and light show that projects onto the face of the building and lofty music floats down. It was extremely enjoyable and normally only shows on the weekends, but bikers are special. And the band played on... Afterwards, Noel and I went to a hotel that had a live band and salsa dancing. A small dance floor, but great dancers. Noel and I did our best.
Friday we had a tour for one hundred miles, some of it quite lovely with hills and windy roads between picturesque pueblos. But half of it was on flat roads with too many cars, trucks, and topes. We stopped for ice cream in Delores Hildago, thats my bike about half way down. We all posed for a group photo on the steps of their cathedral and then returned the 30 miles to San Miguel, detouring through what they call the Santuaria on the old road between Delores and SMA. All cobblestone and a ton of churches and chapels. This is also where the hot springs are located and was a very rich part of the area.
This large scultpture is on the outskirts of Delores Hildago on the way to SMA. The cleanliness and greenery is typical for larger Mexican cities, but lacking in the poorer smaller towns. We have had a great time here so far and will take a different and hopefully more enjoyable route home going northwest to Zacatecas and staying to the left of Chihuahua, crossing into New Mexico at Columbus. We will leave early Sunday moring and take five days or so to get home. I saw a bumper sticker in New Mexico on the way down which said ¨Welcome to New Mexico, actually it is not new. Actually, it is not Mexico.¨
