Brian’s Microblog

March 03, 2026

Morning in Jalpan de Serra found us a bit groggy because the beds and the pillows in the hotel seemed to be more for show than function - these were the firmest pillows I have ever tried to sleep on. We had some protein bars and cookies as a light breakfast and left Jalpan around nine. My tire still had good pressure this morning. Highway 69 initially follows some rivers going north-west from Jalpan and we didn’t gain much elevation, but we did get to cross some low ridges and curve along with the rivers. Some good riding in the morning.

We stopped in Ríoverde at Hotel Renzzo for brunch - chilaquiles again. The food was good, and the service was stellar.

From Ríoverde we headed toward San Luis Potosí on MX 70. There were a few more decent curves on this road going over some ridges.

The roads started getting straighter as we passed through San Luis Potosí and got on MX 45, which goes through some other bigger towns. We were slowly climbing all this time, though, eventually getting up to 8,000 feet in Zacatecas.

These straight roads didn’t need much communication, so we switched our helmet intercoms out of intercom mode and I listened to an audiobook for a while and Gustavo played some music.

We arrived in Zacatecas around four and checked in to the Hotel Meson de la Merced again - we liked it last time. We got a slightly nicer room this time and I did a little sink laundry to get me through the last few days of this trip. Then we walked around the town. Last time it was getting dark by the time we wandered around, so I took a few photos with better lighting, and we wandered a bit further.

We walked by the Museum of Abstract Art and then started back in the direction of the hotel on a parallel street to see some different things. There are a fair number of little plazas with fountains or monuments. We were a little intrigued by the “Tacos Enveninados” (“poison tacos”) place, but not intrigued enough to eat them! Our guess is that they are super spicy.

Eventually we arrived at a plaza with a monument celebrating 100 years since the 1810 Mexican Revolution. This would have been erected just a few years before a second revolution in 1914. I was tired so we sat on a bench for a while and listened to to the very loud Grackles there. According to Wikipedia When grackles are in a group, they are referred to as a “plague” - I can believe it after listening to them for a while.

Gustavo did some research on nearby restaurants and found some good reviews for Comida Casero at Rincón Típico. It’s a tiny place at the end of a little alley. They do most of the business for breakfast and lunch, and only the owner and his friend were there talking. We were invited to join them at their table, then the owner got busy in the kitchen. We told him we did not want much, but what we got was a ton of food. He cooked while his friend talked to us for a while, then when the food started arriving his friend left and we talked to the owner while we ate. Imagine Bilbo Baggins in the Fellowship of the Rings movies, then make him Mexican and you get Jesus, the owner. He had a sort of halo of white hair, prominent nose, and the manner of Bilbo. We did enjoy it, but it was way too much food. While we ate, Jesus told us about some of his life, and it was clear that his dream for the past several years has been to make great food and watch people enjoy it. The green chile enchiladas are probably the best I have ever had.

And all that food came after a big bowl of Sopa Fideo (a simple noodle soup).

March 02, 2026

We got up around seven and just started getting ready to go. We have been eating so much that we decided to try having only brunch and dinner today. The morning light was pretty from our east-facing hotel room.

We got on the road a bit before nine. My rear tire held air again this time. It was already getting pretty warm but we started climbing toward the big cliff up in the clouds on Mexico Highway 120.

We went up and over a pass and left the state of San Luis Potosí and entered the state of Querétaro. It was wild to see and feel how the climate, the plants, and the geology all seemed to change right around the state line. The temperature dropped almost ten degrees, it got drier, and instead of jungle there were pine trees. As we descended, the pine trees gave way to stuff more like sage brush and it slowly got warmer. We stopped at La Terraza Restaurante just short of Jalpan de Serra and had a big breakfast around ten thirty.

Then we continued on 120, climbing up and over another mountain range, then back down and up again, finally coming out into a big, dry valley surrounded by mountains. We turned off 120 to go through Peñamiller. From there we took a little side road that goes west. This had some absolutely terrible pavement for the first several miles, so bad that I rode it like a gravel road.

Eventually, though, we reached a long section that had great pavement, but did have rock fall and bushes growing into the road. Still, it was very curvy and lots of fun. Finally we returned to Highway 120 in San Pablo Tolimán and started heading back towards Jalpan de Serra where we would spend the night. Gustavo had his bike’s motor traction control in off-road mode, and when he grabbed some throttle to pass a slow car in Tolimán the road was dusty or something and his rear tire slide a couple feet to the side - this is the closest we have been to having an accident so far on the trip. We stopped in Pinal de Amoles to drink some sodas and rest in the shade since even being at seven thousand feet elevation was not keeping the temperatures down.

We checked in to the hotel in Jalpan de Serra around five thirty and then changed clothes and walked around the town a bit. There is a big church that also appears to be an active convent.

The founders of the church also were big fans of the Camino de Santiago Compostela and have their own 127 kilometer Camino, at least if I understood the interpretive sign.

We got some ice cream and looked at a few restaurants, eventually selecting Serra Bonita where we had beer in frosted mugs and had a good dinner. I had a huarache (“sandal” - a thick corn tortilla shaped like the sole of a shoe) with nopalitos (prickly pear cactus) that was really good.

There was a really striking painting displayed near the main plaza.

After dinner we picked up some water and cookies to have for breakfast and watched the Thai MotoGP highlights. They also had a Tuk-Tuk challenge race which was pretty hilarious - the GP riders had to ride “two up”, one as a passenger and the other as driver, for a lap and then stop and switch drivers for the second lap.

March 01, 2026 We left around 8:30 after a quick breakfast of bananas and bread. My rear tire had still been full the morning before, giving hope that the sealant had worked, but this morning it needed some air. It was pleasantly cool in the morning and we climbed up into the mountains as the morning went on, so we stayed cool for a while. The mountain roads were really curvy but with varying pavement quality. The road goes through Los Mármoles National Park, but there are lots of tiny towns and houses built here and there alongside the road. The road crosses over ridges and feels like it spans a couple different mountain ranges. In the higher parts we looked down at valleys filled with clouds below.

After three hours of endless curves we stopped to have lunch just outside the city of Taman. I ordered enchiladas rellenas con huevos y cecina. What I expected was two or three enchiladas with eggs and meat inside, but what I got was six tiny taco-ish enchiladas filled with scrambled eggs and a huge but thin slice of grilled meat - really tasty, and enough food for almost two lunches.

By the time we stopped for lunch we had descended quite a bit and it was warm and humid. We continued going down into denser agriculture and more frequent settlements. The views were still impressive, but for part of it we were in the clouds (which felt cool) then we got out of the clouds and everything was very hazy. I have too many photos of mountains and valleys already so I didn’t take more photos, but I really enjoyed the glances I got when there was a chance to take your eyes off the road. We got down to some flatter areas. For a lot of the morning we had been between five and seven thousand feet, but now we were below five hundred. We had followed MX 85 from near Tasquillo north-west and then later north-east and finally we turned off and rode a couple dozen miles to Xilitla. We arrived around 1:30 so that we could check in to our hotel and get a taxi to the Edward James' Garden for their only English language tour of the day at three. Per Wikipedia, Edward James was the son of William James (who had inherited a fortune from his father, merchant Daniel James) and Evelyn Forbes (think Forbes Magazine). He was incredibly wealthy and he spent his life as a patron of the surrealist art movement, a dabbler in mysticism, a poet, and a drug user. He traveled a lot and became entranced with this valley and over the forty years from 1944 until his death in 1984 he lived here for a few months every year and hired artisans and workers to create physical representations of some of the surreal visions he had while using drugs as well as adapting designs and art from other contemporaries in the surrealist movement. Our guide Carlos did a nice job explaining some of the history and helped give some context to the wild and impractical constructions here.

After the tour we had run out of cash for the taxi and had started walking the hilly few miles back to the hotel, but we stuck a thumb out and got a ride from a couple who were on a road trip and had taken the Spanish language version of the tour. Gustavo later found them in one of the photos we had taken. We washed up a little at the hotel and did some route planning for the next few days, then we hiked up the hill to the center of town, wandering around a little before settling on a restaurant. I ordered some enchiladas for dinner that, despite having a different name, were quite similar to my lunch - the lunch was a bit better.

February 28, 2026

I think today’s loop from Tasquillo was the most epic day of riding of my life!

At nine we walked over to a street with a couple of laundry services. The one we’d heard good things about did not open, but the one across the street opened a few minutes after nine. We dropped some laundry off, then headed back to the hotel where the restaurant was to open at nine thirty. We had a very good breakfast of chilaquiles and scrambled eggs, but it was not included in the room rate. The chilaquiles came with green sauce instead of the red I had seen elsewhere.

We got on the road around ten thirty and headed north to Zimapán through some interesting twisties, but we ended up taking the wrong road out of Zimapán. It started as a twisty road with a lot of potholes that were patched with gravel, then turned into a very rough gravel road. After about twenty kilometers we realized we had the wrong road, but we did get some great views and some good practice on rough, rocky roads. We returned to Zimapán and got some gas because we weren’t sure if the extra forty kilometers would make it so we couldn’t complete the loop we had planned.

Once on the correct road we headed north-west (instead of south-west like the first time) and over a ridge, then on gravel roads down toward some mines in Arroyo Chipinque. The road got rougher and then the switchbacks got crazy. Mining trucks coming up the hill have the right of way, so we had to be careful to pull over in one of the occasional wide spots if we saw one coming up.

We saw a group of bikers down at the bottom of the switchbacks. We eventually caught up with them, but then as we started driving down the road that follows the creek, they ended up passing us when we stopped to take photos. This road is seasonal, and every year after the rainy season it has to be rebuilt by the mining company. The water was higher than what we expected because it is still the dry season here. When we got to this slot canyon we might have turned around if the other group of motorcyclists hadn’t gone through first.

Me entering the first of the slot canyon sections.

A big group of locals with side-by-sides were waiting on the other side of this slot section and one driver had posed his vehicle against the canyon wall for photo opportunities.

We both made it through despite stopping because of the crazy side-by-side. After another mile or so we stopped for a break in the shade.

There were only a few slot sections - most of the seven miles or so of this canyon bottom route was more like this:

We caught up to the big group of riders at a tiny store in Las Adjuntas, a tiny town. There were about ten guys from various parts of Mexico and one Irishman who had been living in Mexico for the past several years. We had some Cokes and a salty snack while we talked to the Irish guy - he is planning to ride up through Oregon in April. They took off, then we left ten minutes or so later.

There were a few more miles of rough gravel roads to get out to a highway (MX 120) where we quickly crossed the big river that the creek in Arroyo Chepinque joined up with. The bridge ran right into a short tunnel which was fun. Then this highway started climbing. We climbed about three thousand feet in a couple dozen miles. We caught the group again as they were heading to an un-marked scenic overlook on a ridge top.

This highway is absolutely epic motorcycle riding. Eventually it came to an end and we turned to get back to Zimapán by way of La Presa Zimapán, a huge reservoir (presa means dam or reservoir).

Finally it was back through Zimapán to Tasquillo and our hotel, arriving around six thirty. We were both exhausted despite it only being around two hundred miles for the day - the dirt riding, especially all the water crossings, was stressful and the road sections were so twisty that it was just intense all day long.

We walked back to COBA for dinner and had the Hawaiian pizza - was also really delicious, but I liked the smoky flavor of the barbecue sauce on the California pizza better. On the way back to the hotel we picked up some bananas and pan dulces (sweet breads) to have for breakfast tomorrow since we need to get an early start.

February 27, 2026

We got up around seven again after another night of good sleep. Letitia made us another great breakfast, then we said our goodbyes. It took a while - we didn’t get on the road until ten thirty.

We headed north and east and stopped in Tlalpujahua to look at the church and main plaza there.

Gustavo remembered there was a Christmas Village in the town and we walked toward where he thought it was, but we didn’t find it. It was hot, so we turned around and stopped for a Coke at a restaurant on the main plaza. We got back on the bikes and rode a few blocks further than we walked and found the Christmas Village - it looked like it was open, but we didn’t stop.

We got back on the road and stopped for lunch at Aculco. A plate of five small but delicious tacos al pastor at Julio’s Taqueria was only 85 pesos, less than five dollars.

We followed some smaller roads to avoid the toll highway. Before the lunch stop we came down from a ridge into a big valley and found a sequence of descending hairpin turns with hardly any straight in between them - that was really fun! Later we ended up taking some definite back roads - narrow and very rural.

We spent the whole day traveling across wide valleys and going over ridges of small mountains to the next one. Eventually we neared our destination for the night, as well as some bigger mountains.

We checked in to the Hotel Casona Marshei in Tasquillo and got a huge room.

The hotel has a lot of interesting artwork in the rooms and in the hallways. We washed up a bit and then walked around town a little bit, eventually finding COBA, a great patio restaurant only because Gustavo found it on Google Maps. From the street it just looks like an entry to some parking in the back or something, but instead you find yourself in a small patio with a big pizza oven. The owner and crew are friendly and the pizza was among the best I’ve had.

February 26, 2026 I slept well - it was chilly in the cabin because our hosts only use the heat when really necessary, but I had an extra blanket. We got up around seven and Letty made a breakfast of fruit and pan dulce (sweet bread). I think they usually only have a very light snack and coffee but Letty made sure we had as much as we could eat. We showered and talked for a bit, then we went riding with Jose Luis. He led us across the Lago de Cuitzeo to the small city of Cuitzeo. We found some parking near what I think was the main plaza, then Jose Luis took us to the Convento de Santa Maria Magdalena de Cuitzeo. However, the building was made by the Augustinian monks, and I don’t think they had nuns, so this was properly a monastery not a convent. It is a big building that appears to have been added on to several times since it was first constructed in the mid 1500’s. It has some art, and there was a ‘guest museum’ display of medically useful herbs, but the main point is just to see how the monks lived and the architecture and decorations of the building.

In the monastery there was still some elaborate painting on the walls and ceilings in places.

We walked a couple blocks to a rooftop buffet restaurant to have lunch. From there we got a good view of one of the main streets in Cuitzeo.

We headed back toward Jose Luis’s house and then continued beyond and turned up a winding mountain road that goes to an area of sulphuric hot springs called Azufres.

There are at least a couple dozen thermoelectric power generation plants here, and the different pipe types tell me things have changed over time as they added more generation capacity.

We went to a lake high on the mountain which appears to be a big domestic tourist destination during the summer.

We went back down the mountain and stopped at a llantería (tire shop) that Jose Luis has worked with before to see if they could figure out why my rear tire has a slow leak.

They put the whole wheel in a tank of water and discovered that the air is leaking from where the spokes go through the rim. KTM has a sort of cheesy method of making tubeless wheels - they just take a fairly normal dirt bike wheel and add something like a giant rubber band to cover the holes where the spokes go through. Apparently mine got damaged when I changed the tire. The guys at this shop did not have any way to fix or replace it so we ended up putting some liquid sealant in the tire hoping that some would get to where it needs to be. Then we headed back to Jose Luis’s house. I think I mentioned last time that Jose Luis lives on a primitive road.

Letitia had been busy while we were away and soon after we returned she had another delicious dinner ready for us.

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.