Author: admin

Day 26 11/21/2021

Odometer 26,806 – 26,870  —— 64 Miles Today (4,170 Miles Total)

Puebla, Mexico – Jose Maria Morelos, Mexico

Today was one of those great days where I saw so many beautiful things and felt so great that I feel like it should be three full days combined!

Slept pretty well last night and when I woke up I felt great about the day ahead of me even though I didn’t know what was in store for me really. Those words Yak sent me yesterday really turned things around for me.

I loaded up the bike this morning and left the city of Puebla, Mexico. I headed off into the mountains to check out a waterfall and swimming hole  a guy at the gym told me about! It was a nice hour long ride in the mountains and it wasn’t too cold which was lovely. Once I got into town I saw a few bikers eating breakfast at a little store in the beginning of the town. And by town I mean like 10 houses and a few stores to eat at. Some other guys pulled up on adventure bikes and one of them dropped it right in front of us all. Pretty embarrassing for him I bet! His lady friend heard me trying to order and came over to help me order. I had a nice bean and egg breakfast with coffee which I never ever drink but they brought it out and I decided to try it and damn it was good. Probably had a pound of sugar in it!

As I was eating the first group of bikers came over to me and said to me with a funny look on their face “Did you really ride here from New York City”? I said yeah and I’m heading to Argentina! They were speechless. They asked me if I was going to the waterfall and I said yeah! They told me they’ll wait for me to eat breakfast and I can follow then there since it was a bit of a trek. Weird because the guy at the gym didn’t mention any of this. Im glad these guys offered to escort me there for the most part because I would have never found it!

We left the breakfast joint and it was a 15 minute ride on some nice twisty roads and then boom they hooked a left onto a dirt road. Now I see why two of them were taking air out of their tires while I was eating breakfast. We rode down a 5-8 mile dirt road loaded with rocks and sand downhill  which I almost crashed on a few times but got away lucky. It led down to a little village in a big valley. They stopped at the end and pointed me in the right direction since they were going all the way to it today. I paid 50 pesos, parked my bike, changed, locked everything up and started my 3 mile hike. There was a slow group off people in front of me and unsure of which way to go I had to wait for them to point me in the right direction since we were sort of walking through the town and past peoples houses. Once they said “rapido” I assumed it was a straight shot to the waterfall and took off.

The whole walk was near a river that was very clean and clear. Once I got closer I found pools of blue water. So many pools I couldn’t keep count. I kept climbing and climbing and the view was unreal when I got to the top. 2 40’ waterfalls into a huge deep blue hole. I took a ton of shots and check it all out. My mind was made up and I was spending the whole day here. I went for a swim a few times, met a bunch of people that spoke English which was nice and they were locals too! Jumped off a 20’ cliff into the water a few times. It was such a nice time in the water all day it was just what I needed. I worked on my Spanish a bit on Duo Lingo and sat with myself thinking about how nice it was to be living in the moment and not be anxious about the future of the trip especially where I’m sleeping tonight. Such a big change overnight after reading what Yak wrote to me. Its wild and I’m very thankful. After being in the sun for a few hours and starting to burn I’m pretty sure I decided it was time to head out. I had a nice walk back to the bike enjoying the views of the mountains around me with the huge cactus’ growing on the mountains. It was about 85 all day and clear blue skies. Perfect

I got back to my bike and thankfully no one messed with it. I typed in Oaxaca on my GPS and it was a 8 hour ride. My gps tried to take me another way then which way we came in and as I turned down this road yaks message came to my head about how screwed up the GPS directions are here at times and the shit roads it takes you down, 5 minutes later and three dead ends on a steep hill I bailed and went out the way I came in!

I started noticing how many camping spots I could easily pull into but first I needed to eat. I laughed because I do this all the time and then when it comes time to look for a spot to camp there’s nothing! I rode past a few small towns on the backroads and saw a couple Harleys parked so I pulled in next to them. They waved me in, as I sat down they saw my non existent Spanish and boom they spoke English and told me what to order, they walked me across the street to get a HUGE cup or Horchata I think it was called. I think it was rice and sugar mushed up with water and my god it was delicious. One of the guys walked with me to make sure I didn’t  get hit with the tourist charge and pay more then 15 pesos which is literally 75 cents USD.

When I got back there was a huge plate of soup on my table with a coke and a huge plate of meat with all the ingredients for delicious tacos. I stuffed my face for 15 minutes and chatted with the guys about my trip. They were telling me I shouldn’t camp around this area because the cartel is here and got busted for stealing oil from a pipeline. They said if I get caught alone they’ll take everything I have, literally down to my underwear and leave me naked in the street. Great. He then reassured me that ill be fine….Hah

We chatted for a bit and I got on the bike to try to make it to a town he mentioned about 1 hour away. I don’t like riding in the dark here as many people told me not to. I saw a few clouds in the distance and 2 minutes after leaving where I got dinner I saw a nice big hill with trees which looked like farms with a view of the huge volcano nearby so I figured I would pull in and see what I can find. 2 Minutes later I found a nice spot down a small hill with a view of the volcano and I was pretty secluded with the brush around me. I said this should be safe so I’m gonna pitch my tent here. As I was setting up the show from the sunset was incredible behind the volcano. As I was taking pictures of that the storm was building up pretty fast and hard behind me. I made the right call pulling over to set up camp or else I would have gotten stuck in the storm in the dark and that’s no bueno. <<<<———Ah my Spanish is starting to come out! Hah

As I was done setting up there tent I turned around and there’s a full rainbow in the sky with half of another one next to it. This just couldn’t get any better! As I was done taking a ton of pictures and enjoying the show it started to downpour. I ran in my tent, unfolded may sleeping things, started editing photos and writing up the days events. I hear some voices off in the distance, quite a few gunshots nearby and the wind hitting my tent is creeping me out as it sounds like someone is walking on the grass nearby. Hope I made the right choice setting up here!

Im really excited about how fun today was and how I had no anxiety. Im trying to stop thinking about the future of the trip so much and live in the moment. This was the first day I wasn’t worried about where I’m going to sleep or what I was going to do. I hope it stays the same the rest of the trip and possibly even gets better and easier. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures. I downloaded Lightroom last night and I’m getting the hang of editing pictures and todays pictures were really wild. The sunset shots didn’t even need any editing. Enjoy you all and I hope I’m alive in the morning with all my clothes on!

Tomorrow I’m going to get some breakfast in the morning with WIFI hopefully to upload the pics and I have a 7 hour ride to Oaxaca!

Day 25 11/20/2021

Odometer – 26,800 – 26,806 ——6 Miles Today (4,106 Miles Total)

Puebla, Mexico

I got to sleep in a bit today which was nice for a change. I texted grandpa Yak last night and he got back to me this morning. I asked him a few questions about my emotions on this trip and where I was going wrong. I’m actually going to post what he texted me this morning which was really helpful and what I needed to hear! I asked him why I’m not having as much fun as I think I should be having.

Day 24 11/19/2021

Odometer – 26,675 – 26,800  —— 125 Miles Today (4,100 Miles Total)

Teacalco, Mexico – Puebla, Mexico

For sleeping in my tent on a hillside surrounded by cows with some huge sharp horns on their head I slept pretty well. I got up at the crack of dawn to get some shots of the campsite and started to pack up. It was quite chilly this morning packing up, 52 Degrees. I rode about 30 minutes near Skydive Mexico and stopped for breakfast. Delish

I got to the Skydiving place and it wasn’t quite open yet so I decided to go to another one about 2 hours away which was a pretty rough ride on the side roads and not on the highways. I counted 197 speed bumps on the road. Just kidding. There were probably more than that. My bike is taking a damn beating with all these speed bumps.

I got to Skydive Cuautla at about 11am, and talked to some people that some other people recommended to me a few days ago. Next thing I know I’m on a plane with Legaspi’s rig having a great time with the local crew. I did two jumps which took a few hours as the dropzone was taking their time waiting for more customers coming in. It was nice being there and checking out Mexico from 12,500 feet. We could see two volcanoes nearby that I was planning on riding to tomorrow and checking out which was really cool to see from the sky. While I was there someone started a conversation with me about my trip and how he works at a church. He mentions a lot of people come to him asking what is the purpose of life after they retire. They are so lost and confused on what to do now. It’s wild that work becomes the center of people’s lives and it’s all they know after a while. Once they retire they just have no idea what to do with themselves for 8-10 hours a day because all they ever did was work work work and now what? I guess I’m sort of feeling the same way. I’ve been working more than I usually do the last year of my life and it started to become normal. What’s the point of our life if we’re just going to spend 40 years working and then when we retire we’re old and tired and beat up and can’t go out living life on trips you’ve been dreaming of your whole life. I mean I know a few guys that are retired and still out there crushing it but most people’s health goes to crap because they’re too busy with work to take care of themselves. And here I am. 34 years old, on my third big motorcycle trip trying to knock off visiting every country in the world on it. How did I get so lucky? Did I get so lucky? It feels too easy and now I feel like I’m not appreciating it. I hope that feeling goes away. It was an interesting conversation we had about all of this. Definitely made me think about a few things, I packed up at about 3pm and decided to get out of there.

For some reason I had a lot of anxiety today about where I was going to sleep. I ended up bailing on the volcano idea for tomorrow and just booking a hostel in Puebla City, Mexico which was recommended to me by a guy I met paragliding a few days ago. Rushed over on the highway to make it just before sunrise. Settled in and then ran out to make it to a Crossfit gym for a 6:30pm class. I walked in and the coach asked me a few questions about what i’m doing here so i mentioned the bike trip. He was mind blown. It’s nice to see the smile on peoples faces when I tell them what i’m doing. At the end of class I double checked the cost of the class and he said it’s on the house. It was only 100 Pesos but just that small gesture really turned my day around and cheered me up a lot. That was very sweet of him to do for just a stranger that I am.

I shot back to the hostel to take a cold shower. Ugh. Went out into town and found a lovely restaurant. I stuffed my face with Mole con Pollo and some other good stuff. Took a stroll around the city which I’ll check out more tomorrow morning after the gym and see what i get into. I might go for a ride to the volcanoes. I ended up booking this place for two nights when I got here. Time to slow down a bit more again and relax!

Day 23 11/18/2021

Odometer – 26,509 – 26,675 —— 166 Miles Today (3,975 Miles Total)

Mexico City – Teacalco, Mexico

Jacki was supposed to catch a flight at 9am but misread the information. She’s a flight attendant and currently just finished school to officially be an Airline Pilot so she gets to hop on any flight she wants to whenever she wants.  Instead of taking the 9AM flight she just decided to take a 4pm flight.  We got to have breakfast together and then parted ways. 

Its rough leaving somewhere you get used to with someone fun to get back on the road not knowing where I’m sleeping tonight and having no one to talk to!

I opened up the phone and decided to head south to a pretty huge cave system I found along with a wild beautiful blue river in the mountains. It was a 2 hour drive on the highway or 5 on the backroads. You know which one I took! I hit 10,000’ elevation on some mountains on the ride and it was chilly for sure. I bounced around with which place to see first and ended up going to the Caves. The cave  was wild. I did a tour which I bailed on halfway because it was all in Spanish. The cave was maybe 150’ tall and 200’ wide I assume at the mouth and it slowly got smaller and opened up again. We walked in maybe 1/2 a mile with plenty more to go before I decided to turn around to get to the river with enough time to go for a swim before it got cold.

I had another 90 minute ride to the river. It was just like the pictures and there was no editing involved to make the water look that blue, it was just naturally blue. There were about 6-7 separate pools of water that gathered with waterfalls coming off of each one. I stripped down and went for a swim and took some pictures. The water was pretty chilly which was nice since it hit 85 on the ride and I was hot. 

After the swim I decided to google a skydiving place about 2 hours away and ride close to it tonight so I can try to make a few jumps tomorrow. On my way I found some wild waterfalls in the mountains about 1500’ above me I got some shots of. I stopped in a little mountain village and got an incredible meal with chicken and pork beans I think it was with a coke. Ugh it was so good. I also found a pretty big town on a mountain side called Taxco. It has such small streets with cobblestones and hundreds and hundreds of little stores. I looked for a hostel to stay at there but there were none. My friend Phil told me that where most of the silver gets made in Mexico which was pretty cool!

I rode for about another hour and turned off the road onto some little paved road that led up to a mountainside, turned down some dirt path and found home for the night. Couple of cows cruising around here yelling at each other, some cowboys riding around on horses with dogs in tow wondering what this white boy is doing setting up a tent next to all these cows. I have a nice view of some mountains in the distance, the moon is out and its super quite and peaceful up here. Its going to be 49 tonight which is great since i won’t be overheating and ill sleep like a baby as long as a cow doesn’t decide to ram my tent as its red!

Day 21, 22 11/16/2021 – 11/17/2021

Odometer – 26,429 – 26,509 —— 80 Miles (3,809 Miles Total)
Mexico City

We got up Tuesday morning and went out for breakfast at a local spot recommended to us. Incredible.

We hopped on the bike and went about an hour north to some pretty big pyramids that were 2000 years old! I don’t understand how people built these things this big especially by hand. We hung out there for about an hour and then Jacki held me at gunpoint and told me I had to take some shots of her since she’s kinda a big deal on IG. She’s going to kill me if she reads this! LOL

For the next two days we pretty much just ate food by the hour and had quite of bit of delicious drinks.

Tacos
Churros
Margaritas
Tostados
Coffee
Hot chocolate
Tuna
More tacos
Mexican Coke

We just jumped back and forth to all the good spots we found for food the entire two days. The food here was incredible. I couldn’t believe how good it was and most of it was pretty cheap, some places were a bit pricey for Mexico. We rode the bike all around the city through the day and night exploring as much as we could. We took a bunch of pictures and actually used my tripod for once trying out some slow shutter speed shots for night time. Im happy I’m getting better with this camera!

The city is much cleaner and quieter then I ever expected it to be. Quite some traffic in the day time but it wasn’t bad at all getting around on the bike. I threw the bike in a parking garage every night incase anyone wanted my bike more then me and I didn’t get any tickets the whole time which was incredible! Hah!

Heres some pictures I took for the Mexico City portion of the trip. It was nice to just be off the phone for three days, explore and eat good food so I didn’t get to take too many pictures!

Day 20 11/15/2021

Odometer – 26,340- 26,429 89 Miles Today (3,729 Miles Total)
Valle De Bravo – Mexico City

Valle De Bravo…My god is this place gorgeous! I was googling places to skydive along the way on my trip and paragliding came up. I clicked on it and apparantely Valle De bravo is a world class spot for paragliding so I decided to make it a destination on the trip and here I am!  I pulled into town last night, got some dinner, caught up on the website and went to bed. The town is on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. The town is pretty much on a mountain as well and the ride up to the hostel was pretty challenging as it was a very very steep cobblestone street all the way up to it. If I had to stop for some reason like for traffic I would have been screwed with this heavy bike but made it without dropping the bike once!

I got up early today packed up the bike, got some breakfast and rode down into town. I met up with Raul from ProflyV who I spoke to last night about renting gear and he had all my gear set up which was awesome. I parked my bike, threw my luggage from my bike into his shop on the main strip, jumped in his van and off we went to the top of the mountain. He had two tandem paragliding passengers as well so they told me about some nice spots to check out on my way south in Mexico. On the drive up I mentioned I skydive for work and Raul told me he did two solo jumps in Canada recently and was working to get licensed. After another minute of talking I found out two people I know did his solo jumps for him in BC Canada! Such a small world this is especially in the skydiving and paragliding community. Raul doesn’t know me at all and for him to throw me some gear without asking any questions was pretty solid of him to do. I told him I called up my buddy who taught me how to paraglide on the drive up the mountain to make sure I wasn’t getting in over my head. I told  Raul my Buddys name, Cliff Ryder…and of course he knows him! He starts telling me how he met him in Brazil maybe 15 years ago or more.  They did a 120 mile cross country paragliding flight across Brazil and just landed somewhere, got a hotel and got a car ride back to where the flight started. Pretty wild stuff!

One thing I absolutely love about the Skydiving and Paragliding community is you feel right at home with these people anywhere in there world and there is always someone there that you have a mutual friend with.

We got up to the mountain and what a view it was. Last time I went paragliding was in Slovenia when I was on my last trip and my friends that were traveling the world over there. (literally bought a van in Norway and they’re in the process of driving it to Asia) They took me up this insane mountain where I think you would launch on the mountain in Slovenia and land in Austria or Italy. It was an insane view. Anyway, two years later and my nerves were definitely kicking in. We opened up the canopy, I threw the harness on, clipped in, got the glider over my head, ran for my life and off I was flying over Valle De Bravo! There wasn’t much winds yet so it was a straight flight down to the landing area. I packed up and jumped in another van full of guys that offered me a ride back up. Took my a few tries to get the canopy over my head this time since the winds picked up and off I went! The winds were much stronger this time which means there are thermals which will let me go up in altitude unlike skydiving parachutes. I was cruising around next to the mountain going above it and  just keeping an eye on the birds soaring under me since they know where the thermals are so they don’t have to flap their wings to fly! I stayed with the birds for about 15-20 minutes and then lost the thermals and made my way down to the little landing area on the beach. I waited for Raul to land, said bye to him and I headed off to Mexico City to meet up with my friend Jacki who was flying in to see me for three nights!

I had a quick ride into the city taking the highway toll roads. Once I got there and unloaded my bike we shot right out restaurant hopping to all the places everyone sent me recommendations too! We ate at a few places , went to a rooftop bar to have a beer and called it a night. Mexico City is not what I expected at all. Christina recommended a neighborhood for us to stay at and it was so quiet I couldn’t believe it. Barely anyone on the streets, so clean and quiet.

Day 15 11/10/2021
Odometer- 26,000 – 26,050—– 50 Miles Today (3350 Miles Total)
Santiago de Queretaro – San Miguel De Allende

My GPS tracks for the trip. When you open the link it starts out in Nashville Tn where the company is based out of and then zooms out to show you my tracks. Give it a second to load up!

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/8354-102e3c09-202f/view

So last night I took an edible to help me sleep and while waiting for it to kick in I was writing out the email. It kicked in a bit hard and at one point I almost fell off my bed while I was just sitting on it. I shut the screen about 60 seconds later and went to bed. Hope their email was like the rest of them and not too weird! :insert weird face here:

I stayed at a gorgeous Hostel last night my friend Gareth recommended me to. I’m realizing this trip is going to be much different than my last one with the prices of hostels and how easy they are to find. I did alotttttttt of camping on my last trip mostly because where I went there were no hostels or airbnbs and if there were I didn’t want to spend that much on them. But this is a nice change of pace staying in hostels for sure. I get to meet people and get the lowdown on good places to eat and things to see from the person that works at the front desk. I’ve stayed in 2 or 3 hostels now on this trip in Mexico and they’re usually about $8-11 which is wild for how nice they are and they come with breakfast too sometimes.

This morning was the first morning I actually hung out where I woke up. I got up at 6:30am and did some research on what other things I should go find in Mexico. I crushed through the pins I saved on my google maps before the trip so it was time to fill up my saved pins on Google maps again. My plan was to be in Mexico for about 15 days maybe. Grandpa Yak did it in ten days, he said. Way too fast old man! I’m thinking I’m gonna have to do maybe 25 days here or so but we will see as I’ve only spent 5 nights here and I made it pretty far south already. When I got to San Miguel De Allende and checked into my hostel I booked another night straight away. This is the first city I have been to in Mexico where I would feel safe at night time walking around which is nice to see. The city here is so beautiful and much cleaner. All the streets are cobblestone with so many colors on the houses and buildings. There’s many churches here as you’ll see in the pictures. So after putting a lot of miles on the bike the last 5 days it’s time to slow down and enjoy this city and the next few i’ll be in. I sure saw a lot of beauty in the mountains and side roads getting here that’s for sure. The photography will change quite a bit for the next few days as I’ll just be in the city taking shots there so I hope I can get some nice shots here! Still trying to figure out this whole photography thing. I paid for an editing app so from now on I’ll be editing photos before they go out in the emails but it sure makes a huge difference. Thanks for the motivation Demi! And great, more work for me to do!

I got some recommendations on places to eat from my buddy Mike Conti and Christina. They both pretty much gave me the same places to check out so I’m sure the rest will be good. Thanks guys! I stopped in a few bakery’s to get some homemade snacks and treats and I think I should pretty much wave goodbye to the 2-1/2 abs I have on my stomach. Bye guys, nice knowing you. 🙁

I took a little nap today after eating some sweets, and shot over to a Crossfit gym to get my workout on. Knee is acting up a bit after that hike in Monterrey. Shot back to the hostel after the gym, showered up and went out to experience my first solid nightlife in Mexico! My friend Mike recommended some street tacos which he claimed are the best in this city and god damn he was right. My favorite part was I paid $5 for 6 tacos with a coke, I even went back for two more on the way home! Got some delicious drinks at a restaurant near the center too. Walked around and took some shots of the city at night time and listened to a Mariachi band play for people in the streets for about an hour! I stumbled home after all of that like a drunken amateur and here we are!

This is definitely my most favorite night out of the trip so far. Beautiful city, people, food, atmosphere, drinks, music. It’s got everything! On my walk home I said to myself, Screw Argentina. I’m not going to be in a rush to hit Argentina by May. I’m pretty sure I’m going to slow it down quite a bit and wherever I end up when it’s time to come back the trip will end there, i’ll throw my bike in storage and go back in October again to finish it off! I feel like tonight was also the turnaround point in this trip where my anxiety is completely gone because of how much fun I’ve had and I hope I will continue having. This city is magical!

Day 14 11/9/2021
Odometer- 25,758 – 26,000—– 242 Miles Today (3300 Miles Total)
Cascadas De Micos in Platanito – Santiago de Queretaro

NOTE: I’m loving the replies I’m getting back. Thank you! Please please please though make sure when you reply you don’t include all my images i sent in the email because it’s killing my data!

My GPS tracks for the trip. Btw. When you open the link it starts out in Nashville Tn where the company is based out of and then zooms out to the whole world. Ignore my tracks in Europe from the last trip. It’s a bit of a complicated system where I had to use two different software companies to make that map on Spotwalla. Enjoy!

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/8354-102e3c09-202f/view

As lovely as last night’s camping spot was, the first night is always pretty rough in that tent. It was pretty hot last night but cooled off around 5am. I woke up at 1:30am and didn’t sleep much after that. A few bugs got into the tent as well and were definitely crawling all over me through the night. Ugh!

I got out of the tent at sunrise. Tried to take some shots of the sunrise but there were too many trees around. Went for a swim in the water….or should we call it a bath? Packed up the bike and went into town about 30 minutes away. My friend Gareth that I met in Montenegro two years ago is in Mexico too riding south. I have some motorcycle gear I ordered for him to bring down and not sure if i’ll catch him before he leaves to go back home for Christmas so i stopped at DHL to mail his stuff!

I was going to go to a wild art display in the jungle that Gareth found but it was closed. So I just hit the next pin I had on my maps and it was to a small town in the mountains. 4 Hours to ride 120 miles….that sounds like a fun ride to me. About 30 minutes into my ride or so I saw two adventure bikes like mine in a gas station and something made me think they’re from the US. I pulled in and I couldn’t believe it. New York license plates. Two guys from the bronx! We chatted for a few minutes, exchanged information and went on riding.

During the ride the amount of smells I kept smelling that reminded me of my grandparents’ lives in Serbia was wild. Burning wood and with what they burn I guess makes it identical to smells i had as a kid when i was visiting my grandparents.

At one point I was riding and for miles there were just wild trees with oranges and limes growing on the side of the road. most of the towns had all kinds of things for sale, one of them even had 25′ tall palm trees for sale! Stopped for some tacos in a little town. I eventually made it to a town called Bernal which has a huge rock formation right in its backyard. Took some pictures and then rode over to a city called Santiago de Queretaro which I’m staying at for the night. Pretty normal day!

BTW a lot of people mentioned to me that i shouldn’t let their tap water get into my mouth or i’ll get sick from bacteria. Being Marko you know how that would end up. I drank a bit of tap water every single night I’ve gotten to Mexico and nothing yet. Kinda surprised I haven’t gotten sick yet.