Brian’s Microblog

February 25, 2026

We got up around seven again, and after we showered, we went downstairs for breakfast. The receptionist had to call the chef to come make our pancakes for us. I think we were the only guests in the whole place that night.

We got packed up and on the road around 9:30. It was cool, but not cold. We thought we would try a different route out of the city to the road that goes over the pass to Dolores Hidalgo. There is a tunnel that cuts under the center of the city. Unfortunately, we missed the turn into the tunnel, and these streets are so narrow that they are almost all one way, so we ended up making a fairly long loop to get back to the tunnel entrance. There is actually a network of tunnels, and we had to turn at a couple of intersections underground.

Once out of the city, I really enjoyed going back over the mountain pass to Dolores Hidalgo. It’s a pretty curvy road that goes through an oak forest. As we dropped elevation, it started warming up and we stopped to take off some layers. As we headed further south I could see that there was more water available. Agricultural operations started looking more successful.

We stopped for lunch in Juventino Rosas. By then it was over eighty degrees. Eventually we turned off the highway onto a narrow paved road that leads to the small village of San Joaquin. Then we took some small streets to a primitive dirt road that goes a couple miles to the home of Gustavo’s friend Jose Luis.

As soon as we got our riding gear off we met the dogs, and then Jose Luis brought us some beer and peanuts. The three of us sat in the shade of some long needle pine trees and talked while Jose Luis’s wife, Letitia, finished cleaning the guest room.

Then we took a little tour around the three or four acre property. The house is at 8,000 feet elevation so the temperature was pleasant. Jose Luis has a funny or interesting story about everything, and they have spent a lot of time working on the house and property for the eight or nine years that they have lived here.

Letitia made a tasty dinner and then we all sat on the couches and talked. I was able to follow a fair amount of the conversation but there are a lot of Spanish words I don’t know.

I was staying up after everyone went to bed to put this trip report together, but then the Internet went out. The house is primarily powered with solar panels and I think the Starlink modem is on a timer or something to save electricity.

February 24, 2026

We got up at seven and went to the little restaurant in the hotel after showering. We talked with what are probably the only other guests here at the Chocolate Suites, a Canadian couple who live near Vancouver. The breakfast was two pancakes and a syrup packet with coffee. Gustavo convinced the lady to get me an herbal tea - they didn’t have any black tea.

We walked down to the city center and visited the Museo Iconográfico del Quijote - basically art related to Don Quixote. “I don’t know art but I know what I like” - I really liked this painting. Be sure to view it both ‘distant’ and then zoom in.

Then we rode the funicular up to the big El Pípila statue that overlooks the city.

El Pípila heroically crawled to the door of a fortified warehouse with a large flat rock on his back while the Spaniards fired on him. He brought some tar and a torch and lit the door on fire, eventually breaking it down and allowing the revolutionaries to take over the warehouse and the stockpile of weapons within - a key event in the Mexican Revolution in 1810.

It’s a great view of the city, and we walked a little ways either way on the Panorámica road that circles above the city center and then got a licuado and sat in the shade while enjoying the views.

We went back down the funicular and wandered around for a while and settled on Santo Agave Cantaritos Estilo Jalisco for lunch. I had the Pozole Estilo Jalisco which was very good, but my wife makes pozole that is just as good while being less greasy.

We walked back up the hill to the hotel and got on the bikes. We rode across town to a motorcycle shop. The mechanic was away on an errand, but his wife called for him and I handled some email while we waited. When the mechanic arrived he changed out the valve stem core in my rear tire which I am hoping will solve the slow leak. Gustavo’s rear brake was not working properly so the mechanic bled that which fixed the problem.

Then we headed back on the Panorámica road past our hotel to a dirt road. We were trying to make a loop out to Highway 110 but we got on the wrong road. We missed Carretera a Peñafiel and ended up on Carretera al Cubo. Carretera al Cubo took us up a valley and over some ridges past several mining operations but it eventually ended at the little village of Rosa de Castilla where there was a church overlooking a valley.

We returned to the Panorámica road and decided to make the full loop around the city center, finally returning to the hotel. Then we walked down the hill and looked for a place to have a light dinner. We found Mecha Corta (“Blown Fuse”) where we had some craft beers and a burger. The Yerba Mate / Tres Fronteras beer from Porfirio Cervercería was very good. The Yerba Mate flavor was faint while drinking but had a lingering flavor, and we talked about the Guaraní tribe for a while.

Afterwards we wandered around town a little more. There was a group of historically costumed university students playing and singing in the main plaza.

February 23, 2026

We were both tired after the long day, and Gustavo actually slept until eight. The hotel provides a nice breakfast of chilaquiles with scrambled eggs, then a buffet of fruits, yogurt, and granola. We got on the road a little after ten and it had warmed up to 50 degrees, but it did not get much warmer until after noon.

We headed south on 49 toward San Luis Potosí, but we turned west to take a small road to Pinos. Unfortunately we didn’t feel like we had time to explore “El Pueblo Mágico” as Pinos is styled. As we continued west and south we passed between two wind farms that were up on distant ridges. They were generating lots of power today as the wind was pretty fierce. This area also cultivates Nopal or prickly pear cactus.

We continued south to Ocampo and then to Dolores Hidalgo. We stopped in the main square to take a photo of a replica of the bell that was rung in the first uprising for independence of Mexico from Spain known as the “Cry of Dolores” in 1810.

We had lunch at Estación 28, a restaurant in at the site of an old Pemex gas station. I had Tacos Ahogados - “Drowned Tacos” - which were some nice tacos drowned in a red chili sauce that was really tasty.

Then we headed west from Delores Hidalgo on a curvy road that goes over a mountain range to Guanajuato.

After checking in to our hotel up on a hillside above town we down to the center of the city and wandered around for a while, including exploring some of the tunnels that go under the ridges of this hilly city. Then we met up with Michael, who we contacted through Adventure Rider. He tried to take us to a couple of restaurants that he knows, but they were both closed on Mondays. Instead, we ended up going to one that was next door to the first one (which had an amazing view), and then to another one a couple blocks from the second one. We just had beer and appetizers at both places since we’d eaten a pretty filling late lunch.

February 22, 2026

We tried to get on the road by 8:30, but after a substantial and tasty breakfast at the Hotel Mirador we ended up leaving closer to nine. It was only 45 degrees out and it warmed up very slowly. We definitely got our money’s worth from our electric jacket liners for several hours.

We kept going south, but the landscape changed only very slowly. There is a lot of Mexico that is dry, and today it was windy, too.

We took Mexico 16 south to Mexico 24, then to Parral where we got some gas. Then we continued south, joining up with Mexico 45 as far as Rodeo. We turned off to follow the Nazas River to the east. This road started off being almost more patches than road, then the patching crew gave up and it was potholes everywhere. Finally we got to some pavement in reasonably good condition because the road has a lot of nice curves. Eventually we joined Mexico 49 to the south again, all the way to Zacatecas. We rode about 500 miles and for most of nine hours, stopping only for gas and a short break to eat some protein bars.

After unpacking and spraying some lubrication on the motorcycle chains in the dimly lit garage under Hotel Meson de la Merced, we walked around the town for a while before settling on dinner at Garufa, an Argentinean restaurant. The meal ended up being huge, but very good.

That evening we learned that government or police forces had killed “El Mencho”, the head of one of Mexico’s biggest cartels the previous day. As a result, cartel activity in various areas was causing chaos: roads being blocked by the cartel with burning buses, trucks, or cars, and other roads blocked by the government to try to control traffic. Cartel gunmen even stormed an airport and burned a passenger jet. We will be doing some careful research before getting back on the road.

February 21, 2026

We had breakfast at The Shed in Las Cruces with Gustavo’s friends Ross and Maryanne. My breakfast burritos were delicious, Ross had “Eggsadillas” which looked really interesting (scrambled eggs between tortillas), and Maryanne had some really nice looking French toast.

After breakfast we went to Ross and Maryanne’s house and unloaded the motorcycles and sorted out all the motorcycle gear from the stuff that would stay in the truck. The new rear tire that I just installed on my bike was almost completely flat so we will have to watch out for a slow leak or something.

We left the truck at the house and got on the road around ten. It felt chilly - it was only about 45 and windy. We arrived at the Santa Teresa border crossing around eleven. Unfortunately the line for the vehicle permits moved very slowly and we did not get out and back on the road until after noon. Fortunately it warmed up into the low sixties.

The next few hours we drove straight roads through a landscape that could easily still have been in New Mexico - dry, flat valleys with low mountains. The intercom system we had installed in our helmets worked really well for a while, then seemed to stop working when the speeds increased. We will probably turn it off at high speeds and just use it in towns where it is very handy.

As we got closer to Chihuahua we took the old highway to avoid one of the toll roads. It had some curves, one where a semi and trailer had tipped over, and one with a monument to some school children who died many years ago in a school bus crash.

We arrived in Chihuahua around five Mountain time, six Chihuahua time. We stopped at Gustavo’s sister in law’s house and I met her and her mother. They made a great dinner for us, and then we took their car to make a quick run to Costco - his sister in law does not enjoy driving in traffic. Then we rode to our hotel closer to downtown Chihuahua.

After checking in we walked to the main plaza and down some of the shopping streets, then had a beer at a bar.