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!
