Our numbers continued to dwindle until there was three bins of dead chicken and only a couple people in the back of the truck. There has only been a couple times in my life I wished I was dead due to the agony that I felt, my butt hurt, my back hurt, the choice not to eat breakfast (only a mango and some bread), and I was tired from the heat and dust inhalation. I avoided drinking water because I didn’t want to know what going to the bathroom would be like, pulling over on the side of the cliff to pee, no thank you. We were in San Quintín, the driver asked where we were heading, Laguna Miramar. He stopped right at the edge of town where we were to find the tourist location to receive our permits for the hike to the Laguna. My body ached from the truck ride and it was hot not like San Cristobal high in the temperate mountains, on went my pack and with one foot in front of the other we dragged our selves through town asking for directions to the tourist location. We found it relatively easy with only a kilometer walk. We purchased our permits with a small bonus of a canoe tour to some Mayan ruins. The hike in was 6 kilometers, it was around 5:30 when we started. After purchasing our permits a guy that works at the tourist check in area took us to a lady’s house to get something to eat before we took off to Laguna Miramar. Chorizo and eggs, hand made tortillas and refried beans, a classically safe dish. When things are looking shifty at an eating area this is normally an ok thing to order. I try to avoid chicken I if I can, it freaks me out at home not to mention at this place. We then head back to the check in spot. The people of Emiliano Zapata hold this place sacred, it is a beautiful place. Zapatista villages don’t sell thing or trade with the outside world, so this tourism is one way they make money.

one of the nicer bridges we have crossed over

The guide takes us about a kilometer and points us in the right direction, just go straight from here, the heat is present and killing me. Maybe I ate too much at our meal, or it was the lack of water all day, I was feeling horrible. I stopped and dropped my bag and sat on the side of the trail. I either needed to put on my big girl pants and walk the other 4 kilometers that were left or turn around and sleep at the tourist center and leave the next morning. It was a bit of a race against the sun. When I hike I really just like being slow and steady, not stopping much and just go. My mouth was starting to water after hiking some more and my belly ached, then I hunch over and tossed my churzio and eggs, I hoped nothing was going to come and eat that.

yes I do match my bag quite well, barfing time

I felt better. In hind sight I most likely had some heat exhaustion, dehydration and chorizo and eggs wasn’t a good choice after not eating all day. We hiked on through cow pastures, over little creeks, and all kinds of jungle. Mateo was super encouraging, even though I was slow, sweating, and wanted to pass out. I finally saw a mans silhouette against water! Yeah yeah we finally arrived. We checked in and found a camping spot then quickly jumped in the water!

Our first sunset here

Look at that Beauty

There she is again

We are on the bus to Ocosingo, this is the first time since the beginning of the trip I’m not sitting behind Mateo in my helmet and riding gear. It is strange to be able to point out scenery or fall asleep on his arm. There has been, in many ways, a burden lifted. No more checking on the bike, or dawning heavy riding gear, or bike mantanice. In the hostel in Tuxtla Gutierrez I was admiring how the couple sharing a room with us just got up in the morning tossed on their bags and left. A couple things Mateo and I had spoke of with frustration was a lack of communication when in route to places, how heavy our riding gear was and how sore our bums were when riding. So now our entire trip has changed. We have thought of all the ways we could get places, Vw bug, Vw bus, hitch hiking, bicycle, busses. Re-building the bike will cost too much, buying a used engine will cost too much as well, getting a lower power Mexican engine doesn’t seem worth it, and all these repair options will take at least three weeks and that’s if we get the perfectly correct parts. If ordering parts is anything like ordering dinner our chances are slim, and considering availability  in Mexico, we will be importing all the parts. We could be in Panama in three weeks or Costa Rica. So we will decrease the size of our stuff, readjust our hiking bags and head out on bus and foot. Adventures wouldn’t be adventurous if we knew what was going to happen!
Oh wait one thing, the bike still needs to have the temporary import permit redeemed, there is a $200 draw on Mateo’s credit card and if we don’t bring his bike to the vehicle export office at the Mexico-Guatemalan boarder than he will have to pay $200 and will never in his life be able to temporally import another vehicle into Mexico. That’s never a good idea if you consider Mexico as a good place to live. We arrived in Ocosingo around 5pm, it was a painless ride. I managed to sleep most of the rickety combi ride, it was really warm but Mateo and I sat in the very back row and had 4 seats all to ourselves to relax and stretch out.

View from the window of the combi

With the motorcycle breaking down we have had a lot of waiting time, and stress, maybe I shouldn’t call it stress because before I even left Washington I told myself if the bike breaks down to no return that I will be ok with backpacking Central and South America, we did prepare well and our backpacking packs were what we brought for good reason.
It was pouring down rain when we stepped out of the combi, combi meaning a bus (van) with many rows of seats in it and typically as many people as possible. We stowed away under the awning, and prepared our selves for the torrential downpour. Mateo put on his giant blue poncho over his head and also his bag, this is when I became completely unhelpful and started laughing hysterically at him. Did I say unhelpful yes, sometimes I find myself laughing when I should not be laughing, and then becoming offended when Mateo is laughing at me. Double standard I think so. 🙁

On foot we went into the city center, the thunder and lighting had started to join the rain. It was raining more than we normally get in Seattle, our shoes were quickly soaked in water. Turning down a street we were stopped by a couple they stood safely in their door way, inquired where we were going and turned us around to the opposite way. The Esmeralda hotel was only a couple blocks away, we found it quickly and hid under the cover. Only 250 pesos! For both of us, and the hotel man was super nice and gave us information about the colectivo that left at 8 am to Emiliano Zapata. It’s a Zapatista community that borders the Landandon Jungle. From there it is a 5km hike to Luguna Miramar.  A couple blogs said the transit was something to write home about and it surely is.

Bus station in Ocosingo

Waiting to depart

Right before the bike had broken down I was sitting back there thinking to myself, I want to find my self on one of those sometime. Now here I am 730 am, stepping in to the back of a small pickup truck caged in by steel, hoping this thing doesn’t get into an accident. This is the most I have ever felt like cattle. We departed 2 hours later than expected because like most transport here in Mexico, the load must be full or no one makes any money, so we wait and wait and wait. Departing Ocosingo with about 11 people and six bins of dead chickens and we were off. Ok Emily this isn’t so bad hot yes, but horrible no. There were about 7 guys riding on top of the cage, I decided to lay down and get comfy for the ride on my 6 inch bench and Mateo’s lap.  I mange to sleep an hour, some of the corners nearly swayed me off that little bentch but Mateo tried to counter act the corners. I was surprised to have slept at all between the rickety truck, loud crickets passing by, and corners. The night before I had the worse sleep, it was in my favor for the truck ride to sleep, we still had five more awesome hours of feeling like pigs in the back of a truck being shipped somewhere. I was pleasantly surprised at first when there was only five people in the truck, the rest were up on top of the cage. Then the truck stopped, and it stopped again. This was the most rural bus I had been on, the truck raced along the dirt road picking up as many people as possible, with the pleasantly sheer cliffs on one side of the “road” and intentional brush fires on the other. The fullest our truck was twenty five people, six bins of dead chicken, one live chicken and everyones’ personal luggage. I found myself sitting atop the bins and resting on a big bag of cookies, just inches from some ones butt right above my head. 🙂 I think I’m going to have brown boogers for the next couple days from the dirt inhalation. I thought I packed my hankerchife at the top of my bag, I guess I only thought about it.

San Cris is a charming place, with a strong mix of indigenous people, Mexicans, and travelers. It feel like a Mexican Portland, many people selling their awesome crafts and a strong food culture. One day we even ate falafel, best falafel and hummus I have had. Since we were visiting during a popular season at night the streets were packed full of people and special events going on, Paintings were being displayed and tons of live music. Mateo and I spent many nights bussing into town and just exploring the city. Laura took us to a special market about 20 minutes north of San Cris, this market is special because it is less touristy and only Indigenous people are selling things there. We also visited a famous church, it is famous because it was kicked out of the Catholic world and no longer deemed Catholic due to its spiritual rituals and extra saints. Mateo and I visited Landers farm area, I really liked helping out on the farm and so did Mateo, we helped watch the baby, really we just took her on little walks to pick up eggs, and entertained her so Laura and Lander could get stuff done.

The canals built to feed water to all the plants

Landers green house area

Mateo working hard

A lovely day for goats

I worked a little as well

We heard back on the bike as well. during the first break down the engine over heated and caused expansion of everything inside, and broke a part, the guy just did a fixer upper weld, the bike actually needed much more fixing than a patch. Well when we were heading up the hill to Landers the guys quick fix broke and ended up taking out the rest of the engine. So now we are faced with the choice of a full rebuild or put a Mexican engine in it, both options will be expensive and take minimum of three weeks if every thing goes smoothly.

The motorcycle with no heart

Ugg not a good answer. lander has told us of an awesome lagoon to go to, so we decided to go out to the lagoon for a couple days to think on our options and let the dust settle from the break down.

Our first Costa Rican Dish Made by Laura, black beans, onions, rice, cilantro, and fried plantains

Arriving on Saturday kept us from getting the bike to a shop until Monday. The sound was horrible and we didn’t even try starting it again  because we knew it was bad, it is now parked in Lander’s garage safe and sound. It’s feeling like we will be enjoying San Cris for a while. Regardless of the bike situation I was excited to be staying with Mateo’s cousin! We went down into town and found Laura who was still there selling jewelry and she had Inada. Lander is funny and smart, he has a job working at a government owned community farm. Laura is really sweet, they both have really kind and welcoming hearts for Mateo and I. Inada is super cute and smiles all the time even though she is teething, with four upper teeth coming in. Where they live is about 3 kilometers out of central San Cris, in a quiet little nahborhood, we were able to set up our tent in the back court yard on the roof of some other apartments. In Mexico it feels like there are very little homes that are completely finished, with Mexico’s lack of building regulations many people start building get one section/level done and then move in and keep building up. Where we were camping seemed like a section that could still receive a second floor. Lander and Laura’s place is complete with a spacious kitchen and bedroom. They are vegetarians which I am stoked for, we haven’t been eating too healthy since being in Mexico. I found out later that they are both awesome cooks as well! We took the bike to the shop on Monday the guy says to give him a couple days and come back for some answers. We are in limbo again, we both know this feeling from when we broke down before. Maybe it is just another 400 peso fix, maybe we won’t be so lucky this time. Riding on a motorcycle is a very stress free way of travel, we just get on the computer figure out our route find a place to stay at the end of the route and pack on our bags and we are off. So the thought of leaving the bike means we have to figure out bus schedules times and stay more in the cities. That would bum me out.

An awesome church in the city central

San Cristobal da la casa is located at a high altitude and has what I consider great temperature, very temperate and cool. I was really excited to meet more of Mateo’s family, from what I have heard from Mateo, Lander is really great and we are both excited to meet Laura Lander’s partner and Inada their 7 and a half month old daughter. It has been great meeting Mateo’s Mexican family, every one has been so nice and welcoming of us! It is a Holliday week, the week before Esther so there are many cars out on the road and San Cris is poplar place for people to vacation. Also there are added patrols out as well. Much like we experience on Fourth of July, a ton of extra people everywhere. Lander and Laura spend a lot of time selling their hand made sliver and macramé jewelry during the two Holy weeks due to the amount of traffic that goes on in the city. We were about 6 kilometers away when we heard a breaking noise, the gas hadn’t run out, the tires were still intact, our chain was good. It was the engine defiantly, oh geez the engine was bonkers again. For only 400 hundred pesos we sure did get far! We pushed the bike until it was just around the bend on the side of the highway. The two options we had were flag down a truck that would take our bike and us into San Cris to find Lander or possibly push the bike up the hill until it started on a down hill slope and hop on it and ride on a non running bike into town. Our Mexican phone had no reception, there was no calling Lander for assistance, and he and Laura just sold their Guatemalan licensed VW bus a couple days before we arrived. Many trucks were passing, but it was the same as trying to flag down some one on I-5, not an easy task when cars are zipping by you. At least we were just around a corner so we could see who was coming around it as they neared. We spot a white truck, bahh it looks like there is something in the bed of his truck. Then he turned on his emergency lights, ah a tow truck. And on the side it said green angles, a free towing service enlisted by the state to get people off the road. This all sounded awesome but he tows cars not motorcycles. He is pretty confident that we can get the motorcycle up into the back of the truck, this is Mexico. I was not so sure the truck bed is nearly as tall as I am, and there is a built in towing device in the back. Stripping the bike of the bags, we all joined together to push/pull the bike into the back of the truck. No easy task but no other options. The truck driver man was a skinny older guy, then there was me, then there was Mateo, Mateo did most of the pushing from under the bike and I did pulling/maneuvering from in the truck and little truck driver man helped. Eventually the bike was in the truck with our back packs and Mateo, I road up front with what ever remained of our gear. Once we were in phone reception at the edge of San Cris and we had the truck driver talk with Lander to drop us off close to the house. After giving him some information we where dropped off in San Cris and Lander said he would be arriving soon. It cost us nothing for the tow, and the truck driver man wouldn’t take a tip either. We where so blessed to have that tow truck driver man show up and tow us, we weren’t on the side of the road for more than a five minutes.

Just out side of the thunder storm

sky is clearing up

We chose our next destination to be Tuxtla Gutierrez, it was a good drive around two hundred and fifty miles but it would put us only a two hour drive from San Cristobal da las Casas. We also located a great hostel for cheap to stay in Tuxla. The rain clouds were beginning to creep in as we were closer and closer to the end of our ride. It had been a really rainy day as it is, and at the beginning of our day I dropped a glove, so we drove 40 minutes back to see if we could spot it on the road somewhere. Nothing, this is when the rain started. Eventually we gave up, we were to be little soggy beans the whole day. The wind was warm and at the toll road booths you could see the people being sad for us. Today was a toll road day to get us where we needed to be, we don’t take many toll roads mainly just all free roads. Sometimes the free road do not go directly where we need to be. We had one mountain pass to cross over, the closer we were the darker it was, soon enough we were in the heart of a rain storm. It quickly included thunder and lighting, not the sort of thunder and lighting that you watch in the distance but the sort of thunder and lighting that breaks right in front of you and is felt in your chest. This is a time when headset devices would be nice, to communicate with Mateo. There was no pulling over only being very careful, trying to miss the large boulders that had fallen onto the road and other cars swerving. A red VW bug was in front of us, they were horrible drivers so passing them was on our agenda. Luckily they did drive through water over the road way that we had not spotted and we quickly slowed down and stuck our feet up not to get water directly inside our shoes. Our bags were a different story, once finally making it though the storm on the descend of the pass we were relieved to see the city of Tuxla Gutierrez. Arriving an hour later than our scheduled check in time at the La Casa Del Jardin (the garden house).

Really the only way we can make sure the bike is safe at night.

Garden House

We stripped off our wet clothing and emptied out our bags of all of our fairly wet belongings. Our hostel room looked like a washing machine threw-up everywhere with wet clothing and riding gear. Hopefully the people sharing a room with us won’t be here for a while. Mateo and I wanted to venture out into the city but had no energy, the storm had really taken it out of us. The hostel was also a cafe that we received 20% off at, so I soothed my tired self with a hot chocolate and crepe, it felt good to be warm and fed. That night the mosquitos came out in a vengeance from the storm, attacking all four of us sleeping in the room at 2am. It was too hot to hide under the sheets so we applied repellent and they all seemed to disappear, thank goodness. I can’t sleep at night when all I can hear is the buzzing of mosquitos. We had a casual morning of crepes and heard about this awesome gorge we should drive up to.

Look out point Center

My favorite bird the Vulture

Parque Nacional Cañon Del Sumidero

One of the Five look out points

Great bus selection.

Crazy is as crazy does!

We arrived back to our hotel just in time to shower and hit the road before our checkout time. Veracruz here we come, I had planned in our route to drive along a small strip of land that boarders the cost of the Gulf of Mexico.

Mateos first time basking in the Gulf of Mexico

Then camp some where in the National Park of Los Tuxtlas. Our late start on our day is going to hurt, less stops more petal to the metal… MORE butt hurt, a little more everyday. Or it gets better everyday. After few stops we arrive in Heroica Veracruz, it is a normal beach town, feels a bit like a party in the streets. With the shortened time, continue on we must. Heading south since we arrived on the Gulf of Mexico, we will soon be passing through Alarado a small village on a small strip of land that will take us to Los Tuxlas. I see all these cars turning toward the beach, we are in need of a pit stop so we follow. This is the first time I have ever seen the Gulf of Mexico and walked along the beach, what a good place to stop. We soon headed towards the coast to find camping about 60 miles more. We carried a prize possession with us a pineapple we had bought at a stand.

Trusted fruit stand, piñe is successfully purchased.

After the long drive we realized we were not on the coast but we were close to a a giant lake, and from what we have read it’s common to just approach a house and ask to pitch a tent, I wasn’t really sure of this option. In search for such a home we found nothing, but we did see water. In the town beforehand we talked with the tourist people and they said to go about seven kilometers and there is Agua de playa. We were also looking for that place or a place to camp, turning down toward some houses and realizing they were all deserted, luck was running thin and the sun was on its way down, thinking the main road may be better we nearly both fell over from the downhill slope and rocky dirt road. Proceeding down the main road again we passed Agua de playa it just looked like a resort. We started looking at the maps on Mateo’s phone and found a location for camping, a place call La Jungala. In the next couple of kilometers we came upon a sign that said  La Jungala, I was so excited to find this place! The drive way was long maybe a kilometer full of rain forest foliage and really rocky. The driveway opened up, we parked and went to talk with whoever to check in, the price was reasonable and the guy was really welcoming. We pitched our tent and ate our pineapple and finished with some tequila we had been caring around since Mazatlán. This was really a jungle hut in the middle of no where right on a lake, the bugs were not bad and the homemade swimming pools were great. Too bad we only spent an evening and morning there. Every minute was awesome.

Big waves in the Jungle

Under water vision

Under the canopy

Lake Catemaco

Cheese Balls

Every place we stay that has a swing I’m happy

Jungle Camping, and the water slide

Tuning up before we leave

If only our signs to Mt Rainer were this rad I’m sure more people would be climbing it!

A Creator of a lake.

Another chilly day ahead of us. We were heading to the small town of Orizaba west of Cordoba. We had some beautiful scenery today. Mexico has really surprised me with it’s wide variety of scenery. From mountains to rainforest, desserts, and jungles. Much, much, more than I could have thought. Climbing up a giant mountain pass and down, twisting in to the valley. There is a mountain close to Orizaba that resembles Mt Rainier, with no snow. We pulled in to Orizaba around 6 pm, the roads were all one ways and confusing and we hadn’t found a hotel location to stay in before leaving Celaya. The draw to Orzioba was that Mateo had read a blog and it had mentioned some hikes close by. I know I need to do more hiking, it is my therapy, being on the bike is therapeutic for Mateo and hiking is therapeutic for me and Mateo. So it was an absolute yes to Orizaba. Out fist stop was the Holiday Inn, thinking this would be on the cheaper side of the hotels, it typically is in the US so of course it is also cheap in Mexico. We thought wrong, 1000 or more pesos and they were booked. I’m realy not ready for a really bad hotel when our tent accommodates us so well. We rode around and found ourselves at a cute hotel where the cockroaches were few and the linens were clean, extra plus no shared baños! We met the owners furring our checkin, they were a super sweet couple, the wife spoke very good English and the husband a little as well. When we meet people they normally ask where we from, and we normally get a astonished response when we say we have travels by motor cycle to where ever we maybe. Even on the Baja people were surprised! We cruised around Orizaba for the rest of the evening after unloading our bags and found some excellent tacos and horchata.

Lock that Love

Tasty Tasty

We woke up early to hike, our check out deadline from the hotel was 1pm. We hit the road early and arrived at the steps, the 500 steps was closed so we opted for another route with 300 and a good hike to follow. Hiking down into the rainforest and over a water processing plant, then into the woods. A hike is really what I needed with the bike breaking down and our delay in Celaya. It was nice to be exerting energy and pushing my self a bit. I have fallen out of shape in the last couple months, riding on a motor bike make you a strange exhausted, where you really want to be active because your have been on a bike all day and you don’t even feel like dinner just sleep. we finished our hike with climbing the stairs a couple of times. I felt it in my calfs the next day thats for sure!

Pretty little big flower

Mateo is getting old.

Oh those stairs what a beaut

Looks safe right.

And the cutest hiking couple award goes to…..

One of the best parts of this trip has been all the new places we get to see everyday. After packing up again, we took off but first enjoyed our hopefully last meal from Carmen and Ana. Sopes, amazing once again. We will miss Brenda’s maids, Mateo has told me that the relationship between Brenda, Carmen, and Ana is special, but you can really see it. That they are well cared for and not as some lower class. I wished I could see more of this, people being valued as people and not as a lower class. Which is what normally happens between classes, maids are often expendable.

Carmen and Ana’s SOPES

So we set off, after saying our goodbyes again. Our next big stop is in San Cristobal de las Casas where Laura, Lander and baby Inara live. Lander is Mateo’s oldest cousin from Brenda and Kurt. It has been excellent to stay with people who are constantly speaking Spanish, our Spanish has improved. I am more willing to try with strangers using my Spanish. Mateo understands plenty more than I do so I have fallen into the habit of just letting him do all the talking. But slowly I’m starting to initiate conversation with random people. It is difficult walking into a conversation knowing (not always true, but with high probability) that it is going to be difficult and inevitably some miscommunication will happen. Knowing how much I just smile and nod, it would not surprise me if people do the same to me. One thing I do try to do is cut all of the English slang out of my speaking, it needs to happen anyway. Doing this makes conversation much easier even with Spanish speaking people who speak excellent English.
I felt the moment we left Celaya the ride was up hill. This means we went slower than the usual slow place of the bike. It was super over cast, so it felt cold with the wind.

This is what happens when I get cold!
haha hat thief strikes again!

I get cold really easy, Mateo is a furnace most of the time but by the end of the day he was even cold. Today seemed like a longer drive than normal with the lack of speed and delayed departure. Our route took us in to the state of Hidalgo, this is where Pachua is and just beyond Pachua is where we are to find the basaltica rocks. At some times in the year there is a water fall that runs over the rocks, but it is not rainy season. I have really started to enjoy riding much more. The pass we where heading up was really winndy, These winndy roads I used to have to shut my eyes on and just hold on to Mateo, now I’m enjoying the contours of the road and trust not just Mateo more but also the bike. We arrived in the town and follows the GPS even further to where we had pinned on the map. It was looking like the end of the road was coming up quickly. In a rush to leave we hadn’t picked a definite location to camp. Both of us were excited to set up camp again. Staying in one location for more than three days makes us itch to be back on the road. Our little tent has become sort of an oasis of the feeling of a little house. It’s our little space, this tent has seen more in its short life of two months than most tents will see in their whole lives! We passed by many places that say acampamento, meaning camping, Mateo asks if I want to stop or keep going to the “location” on the map. Reluctantly I say keep going the road was getting really rough it had transitioned into dirt with holes and rocks. This always seems to happens that at the end of the day when my butt is most sore, the road turns to dirt and rocks. This dirt and rock combo is a time when Mateo has the most fun. Not wanting to end the fun I agree to keep on going. I always tend to get a little nervous about where we are going to sleep. We pass the park entrance for the Prismas Basalticos, and arrive a barbed wire fenced-in area. It has a giant sign, bigger than most highway signs, saying something about tourism. We managed to chat up a man that was oddly standing at the front gate. Is there camping here, it looks like some sort of a military compound. He waves us in so we head off to tour this area that we think is a camping area. To my surprise we see tents and a family BBQing, little cabins and a small store. As we loop around towards the entrance again it is set this is where we will be camping for the night. We find what we think is a camp site an turn off the bike. This always brings me such satisfaction to pull the bike into some where and stop for the night. We head over to the little store check in and start searching for the lookout that we noticed in our first drive by. I didn’t think we would be finding a place to camp like this, flushing toilets, showers and cut grass, a very family friendly and pedicured place to camp. It is a nice transition from pampered house to camping again!

A perfect combo, adventure bike and tent!

Sun setting from the lookout!

Panorama

Prismas Basalticos Rock Structure

Cheese anyone!

That is about 33 US dollars. The motorcycle was fixed and we picked it up early Monday morning. We were stoked, the mechanic that we used was recommend by Mateo’s family member, he said it was a quick weld, and that there was some additional noises but that it is running great. We thought it would be a good idea to take a day trip some where to make sure it was tuned perfectly. Mateo had really wanted to show me this place Gaunajanto. Its beauty is comparable to San Miegale and “questionably the most beautiful city in Mexico” says Google, so off we were. It is about a hour and a half drive. The majority of Gaunajanto streets are under ground, they used to be water drainage tunnels and were converted to road ways. It was really fun and confusing driving on them, and of course we did not have any GPS so we just went for it trying to find our way around. Our first stop was a bit out of the “city” at the San Cayetano Church. This is an historic church, the inside is fully gold plated, it is said that the man who built this church prayed to God for him to strike silver in his mine, and if he did he would build a church and make everything inside gold, meanig the entire altar to God would be made of gold. This is how San Cayetano Church came about. We toured the inside of this Catholic Gold shrine to God. It was really amazing inside, we were not allowed to take flash photography.

Underground Tunnels, there were many small walkways up to the streets from here.

The famous mummy museum was quickly kicked off our list of sites to see as it was getting later in the day and we have still been sticking to no driving at night rule. Mateo had some not so awesome memories from being a kid and going to see the mummies, and it was before they had formal displays, which I don’t know if they do now anyways, so he said he remembers it smelling really bad. I saw mummies in Italy so passing on the museum was not a question as the day burned on. My favorite thing to do in cities we visit is to just explore on foot and by the motorcycle. Seeing the people, checking out the architecture and eating food at shady shacks is what I find most fun.  We spent the rest of the day cruising around the city. One place I did have in mind was to see Diego Rivera house, he was a famous Mexican muralist! He was married to Frida Kahlo, she was a famous painter, she is the gal with the unibrow, self portraits.

Mateo has made a new friend, Diego!

Diego Rivera’s home 

After passing by all the usual Mexico city fiascos, clothing shops, tacos stands, cotton candy sellers and touristy things alike, we went in search for the frog park. It is a park full of frog structures with a great view of the cities hill side of houses! The motorcycle made it throughout the day magnificently.

What are those frogs doing, leap frog of course!

I’m really not sure about the “noise” but the bike is running great so we will be heading off tomorrow out of Celaya and up Pachua, where Brenda has recommended we go to Prismas Basalticos. An awesome land mass of basalt rock. I can’t wait to be back on the road and moving again. This was our first break down, it was an easy one being just 20 minutes away from Mateo’s aunts house we were really lucky to not be stuck on the Baja somewhere in the middle of the desert!

Tonight we found out there is going to lunar eclipse with a red moon, we will be setting an alarm to watch it! I have seen solar eclipses but not a lunar!