Day 10 11/5/2021
Odometer- 24,718-25,139 —– 421 Miles Today ( 2439 Miles Total)
Austin, TX – Monterrey MX
Hello friends!
The last few days was spent running a bunch of errands,napping, working out, enjoying some good food and seeing my friend Shyama mostly along with seeing Veronica, Miguel and Veronicas Mom Angela!
Today i got up before the sun came up and started packing up excited to hit the road! Met a few people in the Elevator on the way down to load up my bike and it just amuses me when we get into the conversation and i tell them im riding to Argentina. They literally dont believe me for a second. Then comes the next question….Whats your IG! Hah. Its incredible to see how many people are dying to see the adventure unfold.
Anyway! I loaded up the bike and hit the road. It was 4 hours to the border crossing which was a breeze since they didn’t even stop me to check my passport. Im lucky i had a friend Steve Yak (Grandpa) do the trip in 2017 or so and unfortunately for him he passed the border and went straight down Baja to take a ferry to the mainland. When he was waiting for the ferry in Cabo after a 1500 mile drive down from the border they told him he needed a Visa and a Vehicle permit that he can only get at the border crossing in Tijuana. Unfortuately gramps had to make a 1500 mile drive back up to get a piece of paper and all the way back down. INSANE
So i crossed the border and waved down a border patrol officer and he guided me to the right direction. Right before i left his side he proceeded to make sure i understood how crazy i was that i was doing this trip alone. He made it seem like its going to be super dangerous. Its getting a bit annoying how some people are controlled by fear. I wish people would just keep those comments to themselves! Off to the building where i would do my paperwork,…. a few photocopies and a quick $490 and i was free to go. They charged me $50 for the vehicle permit and the other $440 i will get back when i leave Mexico and go to Guatemala.
As soon as i left and hit the road it all settled in like the good old days of my solo bike trip across Europe and Africa. Just seeing the drastic change of scenery as soon as i crossed the border was wild. I made the 3 hour drive down to Monterrey to my Airbnb so i can ease into the new country instead of camping. Thanks to my friend Lilly she translated everything about finding the place to talking to someone i found working in the housing development for the Airbnb about how to find my room, get in and figure out secure parking for my bike.
I unloaded the bike and headed into town. It was a pretty chilly day 55-60 degrees and super low overcast so seeing the mountains disappear into the clouds was incredible but not very photographic! Or should i just say i suck at taking pictures on this 5D. I parked my bike in front of a hostel my friend stayed at a month ago doing the same trip as me and i ran into the owner of the Hostel since i parked right next to his bike. He ran into me on his way out and invited me to a motorcycle show tonight which will be pretty cool! I get to meet a bunch of people and make some friends! I went out for some tacos after that. I got 6 tacos for about $3.50. Incredible!
Just wanted to throw this out there. After my last moto trip in Morocco and Western Sahara Desert to being in Mexico now. it makes me really appreciate being a US citizen and growing up in the US with so many opportunities within reach for us. The amount of poverty out there with a dead end for most people is very sad to watch. We have life so easy in the US yet people have so much to complain about which is insane to see from an outside perspective. After speaking to people in many different countries and knowing what we make in a year at our jobs is what they dont even make in ten years really makes me think about how lucky we are. It all came back to me pretty quick today seeing some of that here in Mexico. Some of the people really dont have much at all but they’re willing to give you their shirt off their backs and their hearts to someone passing by from the few interactions i had today.
Sorry for all the typos, back and shoulders are killing me from the 7 hour ride today! I didnt get to take too many pictures today but tomorrow its actually supposed to be sunny for once and ill be taking a ton of pictures!