Brian’s Microblog

March 07, 2026

We got up early and had a huge breakfast at the Best Western.

We got on the road a few minutes after eight and headed north. It was cool, around 55 degrees, and slowly warmed to the low sixties. We took the toll roads to save some time. It slowly got windier the closer we got to Juarez. There is a lot of sagebrush and rocks, but also some agriculture, including a lot of pecan trees.

There was a military checkpoint where we had to stop and a guy went through our luggage. The sign looks like a computer translation of the Spanish equivalent.

We completed our temporary vehicle import permits and terminated our tourist permit and got exit stamps on our passports at a low-traffic customs station on the outskirts of Juarez. Then we skirted Juarez and headed back to the Santa Teresa border station where we entered Mexico. Unfortunately the line was really long. We spent two hours slowly creeping to the U.S. entry station.

From there it was less than an hour to Ross and Maryanne’s house. It took about an hour and a half to get the bikes loaded up and sort out what would stay in the truck and what Gustavo would fly home with. Then we drove a short distance to Gary and Shannon’s house to pick up a gas tank needing transport to Portland for our friend Tony. Catching up with them took a while - eventually said our farewells and found a place to eat dinner and got on the road to Albuquerque, where the motorcycle adventure part of this trip ends.

This trip was a really fun ride and adventure. We saw a lot of neat stuff, ate great food, and found excellent curvy roads, but we could wish for better pavement on many of the roads.

March 06, 2026

We slept in a little and then walked down to the end of the block to have breakfast at Tío Molcas, a restaurant with its own hotel attached. The rooms at the Valles Inn Plus are much larger and newer - in general nicer and more spacious than most we have stayed in on this trip, but the bathroom has absolutely no towel racks or hooks. We had a nice breakfast at Tío Molcas - I tried their chilaquiles which were a different style, but still good.

We returned to the room without any hurry - the temperature was only in the forties. We packed up and left at ten when it got to fifty degrees. My tire was still holding air. We left Creel and, despite it feeling like Creel is high in the mountains at 7,700 feet we began climbing, eventually at least a thousand feet higher. While the roads curved around and over ridges, unfortunately the pavement quality was really bad for much of the ride out of the mountains.

We turned off at San Juanito to go to Basaseachi falls. On the road to the falls we could see the cabin where we stayed nineteen years earlier. The bad pavement we rode on today from the turnoff was just sixty-some miles of gravel road back then, and we spent most of the day going from Basaseachi to Creel, but with a few detours and side roads along the way.

We stopped at an Oxxo in La Junta after one thirty to get some cold drinks and a few snacks for lunch. By that time we were out of the mountains and on the plains, although the altitude is still 6,700 feet. The roads got straighter and there was a lot of agriculture in this area, most strikingly big apple orchards arrangements to cover the entire orchards with a net or mesh to keep birds out, and they also help ward off frost.

We arrived in Chihuahua a bit before five and checked in to the Best Western Plus. This is a very upscale Best Western, fancier than any Best Western I remember in the U.S. It is our most expensive hotel in Mexico of the trip on this final night in Mexico, a little over a hundred dollars (we have been between $50 and $60 in most places for a room with two beds). Still cheaper than the much less nice Ramada where we stayed in Las Cruces.

After unpacking lubricating the chains we made our way a few miles further to Gustavo’s sister-in-law’s house. She made us a very tasty dinner using hibiscus, chiles, and nuts with beans and tortillas. We talked for a while with her mother and aunt, and then went to run an errand for them again - a more than fair trade for the delicious dinner.

March 05, 2026

We got on the road around nine after a buffet breakfast at the American Inn hotel. It was starting to warm up in Parral, but as soon as we got out of town and started heading up into the mountains it stayed pretty cool. It even felt pretty chilly above 7,500 feet.

We headed west from Parral first on MX 24, then on MX 23/25. The pavement on most of the roads we took today was in poor to terrible condition which was too bad because these roads are curvy and have fantastic views.

We did eventually find a construction crew doing some paving, and then we got about three miles of brand new pavement, but that was one percent of the distance we rode.

We got to Guachochi and rode down a short bit of badly eroded gravel road to the Cascada el Salto. There is a nice park there and we ate some bananas taken from the breakfast buffet, cookies, and granola bars for lunch.

We weren’t sure whether there would be a gas station before we turned off towards Divisadero so we decided to fill up on the way out of Guachochi. But this guy in the truck was using both sides of the pump, and filling a couple big barrels like that takes a fair amount of time.

I was especially happy in this photo at the Copper Canyon overlook in Divisadero because I just saw that Kristi Noem was going to lose her cabinet position.

After looking at the canyon for a while and walking through the mostly-closed vendor area, the train arrived while we were getting ready to leave. We headed back on MX 77 to Creel.

We saw a sign about a Tarahumara sewing center and went down a dirt road to see what they had. They have a lot of the traditional women’s outfits and some other crafts. I got a neat keychain.

We arrived at our hotel around five. After unpacking and lubricating the chains we walked up and down the main street in Creel before settling on The Lodge for dinner.

After dinner we spotted this armored vehicle at a hotel.

It belongs to the state investigative bureau. While we were checking it out Omar, one of the AEI guys, showed up and talked to us about it and let us look inside. It’s based on a Ford F350 chassis but it looked to me like the suspension had been beefed up. Omar seems like a nice guy and I hope he doesn’t end up needing all that armor.

We walked back to the plaza because I wanted to stop at Ice Creel, an ice cream shop with a fun name.

March 04, 2026

We got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then got on the road around nine. My tire was still holding air, so maybe the “fix a flat” stuff actually made its way to the right place.

It was a pretty straightforward day of riding north and west to Parral. We started on the main highways, 45 and then 49, but then we tried some different roads, taking Highway 33 from Nazas to 30 de Noviembre. It was warm most of the time and hot in some areas. There were some clouds once we got north of Cuencamé de Ceniceros and we got sprinkled on a few times which helped cool things down to the low eighties.

The more main highways in Mexico often have these shoulders that are almost a lane wide. There are no signs about this, but slower traffic typically either just drives on the shoulder, or moves over when they see you approaching in their mirrors. This way you can pass even with oncoming traffic. Even semis will do this - they just rely on oncoming traffic to move to the right since they typically have to be part way over the center line to pass.

We arrived in Parral at five and were very happy that the hotel room had an air conditioner.

After catching up on email and news for a while we walked a couple blocks to the Taco Factory. We had some very tasty tacos that came with every fixing you could think of.

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.