I managed to fall asleep for an hour or so.

I woke up to a kiss. As I opened my eyes a gorgeous French girl was leaning over me on the beach. “You have sand in your eyes” she said.

“I do?”

“I’ll be right back.” Her accent was impossibly beautiful.

I immediately fell back asleep.

A few minutes later she returned with a bottle of water she had just purchased. She opened it, poured a little on my face, and wiped around my eyes with a clothe. A moment later, she was gone.

This will be a good year. But aren’t they all.

I camp most of the time, and go to hostels other times. Occasionally it’s fun to splurge and clean up in a nice hotel.

I was trying to decide between sleeping for a few hours behind the gas station, or to keep on keeping on. It was cold, foggy, and late. In typical fashion, I kept going. And I am extremely glad I did.

Every once in a great while I get to experience an incredible serene and transcendent moment while on my motorcycle. Two previous events that come to mind are; riding through the dark in Bahia de Los Angeles with an incredible breeze in spring of 2009, and shutting off the bike while coasting down all the mountain passes in northern Pennsylvania in summer 2007, again at night. In this case it was descending down out of the mountains towards the gulf coast. On a slow curvy road over the course of an hour I dropped from extremely high elevations near the volcano, down through the canyons, to nearly sea level. The temperature kept increasing, flickering lights were scattered across the hillsides, and the glow of the moon illuminated the entire landscape. It was one of those beautiful numinous moments that most people miss out on. I’m convinced there is something about night riding that brings it out. But it’s more than just darkness, it’s a perfect combination of weather, location, spirit, and I suppose, being self aware.

Around 3am or so I hung up my hat.

I slept right here in the road, next to the bike. I didn’t even bother to take out the sleeping bag, just laid down in all my gear, slept two or three hours, then stood up, kicked the bike, and took off again. Still a long way to go.

I made it to Playa del Carmen at 10pm of the third day. I rode 17 hours on day one, 21 hours on day two, and 18 hours on day three. It was fairly exhausting, but more than that I just felt gross. I’d been on my bike in my riding gear for 72 hours, sweating in the sun, freezing in the cold, and getting coated with dirt the entire way.

I slept out behind a construction site I happened across.

The next morning I rolled over to the resort where my friends were coming in a few hours later.

And I noticed my front tire. Hrmmm…

Checked in, cleaned up, and settled in to a few days of relaxation.

I got myself in a little bit of a bind. 10 of my college friends were flying into Playa del Carmen in the Yucatan the day after thanksgiving for a little vacation. I was scheduled to meet them. However, that was now only a few days away and I had 1635 miles to get there. 1635 miles, if I took the highway the entire way, which I wouldn’t. The highways in Mexico are terribly expensive. It’s nearly $400 in tolls to go from the US border to the southern tip. I was a little low on funding after my hospital bills and nights in hotels. So I’d avoid the highway all together and instead travel 1900 miles of secondary roads, in 3 days, through the mountains.

I really wanted to limit my nighttime driving, but that simply wouldn’t happen with my schedule, not by a long shot. In fact I’d see every sunrise and sunset from the saddle of my bike the whole way.

So I said goodbye to Mazatlan.

And I set off. At sunrise.

The scenery is spectacular in central Mexico.

Sun down on the first day.

Once the sun disappeared I traced the roads behind other vehicles, mostly large trucks. They helped keep my speed under control, and they cleared the road of any livestock I might encounter.

The miles went by terribly slowly all day. The roads go through the center of every single town, and the towns are covered in speed bumps of various sizes. I’d often exit one town after 15 minutes of putting through, get up to speed, then immediately enter the next village and hit a series of speed bumps. It was certainly no highway.

Somewhere a little past midnight I turned off, threw down my sleeping bag, and went to sleep. Within 30 minutes or so I was awoken by police who said it would be safer if I went with them. I didn’t really want to since I’d be getting up in a few hours to carry on, but I obliged. I followed them a few miles further down the road and ended up sleeping at the police station.

I was up at sunrise and headed out.

The second day of this marathon was absolutely tremendous riding. I rode continuously all day through mountainous forested regions of Mexico. The scenery was astounding the entire way. The roads were a continuous roller coaster of steep ascents and descents, hairpin turns, and switchbacks. It lasted for hundreds of miles, it was an absolute joy. Tail of the dragon eat your heart out. I wish I had a helmet cam.

When the sun went down it became incredibly cold out. Incredibly cold. Riding was quite difficult, I didn’t have gloves on because of my casts, and it was definitely dipping down into the 30′s. I didn’t realize where I was, or that I was well over 10,000 feet at the time. I’m not sure how high I went, but at one point I was hugging the Citlaltepetl volcano which is 18,500 feet at the summit.

I started scouring the roadsides for places to sleep and couldn’t spot much. I figured I’d be too cold anyway so should probably just keep going.

I stopped at a gas station for a coffee and to stand inside for 20 minutes.

I knew I’d love Mazatlan, and finally it was the next stop. I still needed to rest and recover a bit, and would rather do it in Mazatlan than up where I was. The few hundred miles to get there was difficult with only a couple fingers to work with.

I hung around Mazatlan for another 5 or 6 days. I camped each night by riding around aimlessly looking for a place I could sneak my tent in unseen. It’s always late when I good hunting for a campsite, so it’s an adventure waking up in the morning and seeing where I actually am.

In a construction area behind a middle school. Woke up to the kids yelling out the windows at me:

A little tidal pond where some locals came in the morning to fish:

Down a back road in between some farms: