Cardenas, part II
The whole of November....

While waiting for the parts to arrive, for the mechanic to be ready and for the stars to align, we decided to go on a little trip with a few mexican bikers around the mountain region of the Chiapas province. We did about 1600kms in 3 days, covering San Cristobal, lake Montebello, and the beautiful falls at Agua Azul, all connected by superb vistas and awesome twisties.

Next few pictures are from this trip:

San Cristobal, cathedral in central plaza

This is a great looking city (a bit rare in Mexico), with cobblestone streets and colorful houses. Many tourists, mostly from Europe, some hippies, and the locals looking fashionable. San Cristobal is the heart of the Zapatista movement due in part to the honour of being in the poorest province in Mexico. A small shrine in the main plaza gave homage to the fallen.

That's the sign that a speedbump is about to ruin an otherwise great road, but I'd like to think of them as a pair of boobs...

Caroline is going all artistic with the picture-taking in the back (she's getting bored as a passenger, while I abuse her steed))

Stopped at Lake Montebello, which looks like any Canadian lake.
This meat looked delicious...for the flies.

Alberto has a BMW 1200GS adventure, but for some reason decided to borrow a friend's cruiser, I didn't get it. But I was pretty impressed where that thing could go, like this picture is showing.

That piece of shit also drank gas like a pig, we had to buy gas from some people, using this rustic method

Keeping with the rustic moment, we had some excellent steaks and hot chocolate at this roadside "restaurant"

Then found the modern telecom wing

Along the route, we stopped in a small town where the central plaza had received a visit from Edward Scissorhands. Actually, he travels a lot in Mexico, while the houses are in a sad state of disrepair, the trees around the same houses are trimmed artistically.

Oh, the twisties! hard to ride as the view was competing for my attention.

And to top it all off, the lovely Falls at Agua Azul.

Love the signs here. Not a lot of thought was spent on this one.

And that was the end of that trip.

In the previous post I mentioned that the replacement part had arrived and was installed successfully. Well, after riding my bike for no more than 100kms, on the evening before our planned departure from Cardenas, on the way home the engine, and with it the rear wheel, locked. Pushed the bike home as it looked like a big one...

Next day, we loaded the bike in a pickup truck (again!) and drove to the mechanic, without further notification. The nightmare was getting bigger.

Mechanic drops other things like afternoon nap, and gets his hands dirty.

The horror! That is a counterbalancing chain that's wrapped tightly around the crankshaft.Broken.

A ray of sunshine is always welcome in times like these.

Back to office central, trying to balance what to do next....after unsuccessfully searching for a chain locally, had one ordered from Canada again, and had it shipped express to the shop. Another 2 weeks before that engine would turn again.

So in the mean time we got to experience more of the local scene, and befriend with the local canine, of which Terry is a great specimen.

I don't think he wants to come with us....

We went fruit picking, mexican style.

We don't know if this place belonged to somebody, but we went in there anyways.

Caroline eating the coating on the cocoa beans.

Me eating something super-sour

This could make a great advert picture. "Our fruits are as big as a dog"

B I G leaves. Small dog.

Then in the weekend we went to see the local racing team. The mechanic, who is also a successful racer, took caro and her bike on a fast spin.

Then went warp 9 on his own bike (mono seat), with a t-shirt and an ill-fitting open-face helmet.

Marvin, fast!

Took me on the same ride from hell, I honestly though I was going to shit my pants. He moved the relative "fast" to a new level for me.

Here's our host, Memo, with a funny riding attire. Yes, it's a ski mask.

And another very good friend, Andy. We had a funny 3 people ride from the pizza store.

This is the quintessential mexican picture, with the bad street, the dog and the corona truck.

Went to the mall to get some european meats and cheese to show off our culinary expertise. Saw this weird-looking bike.

Memo had an industrial grade aircon in his room, That thing was forming ice on the fins, and had to be stopped every now and then, to let the ice melt. I think it was just part of a freezer.

I'm getting a ride on the back of the R1. I am very nervous, as riding skills seem to lack in this part of the world.

Finally, the chain arrived, got installed, the engine started, and I left happy. For about 10 minutes. The bike was vibrating badly beyond 4000rpms, no way I can finish the trip like this. I thought I was gonna lose it, one eyelid was vibrating like Scrat from Ice age.
Went back home, took a deep breath and decided to throw in the towel. They mean well, but I had to put a stop to this nightmare. I decided to head back to Brownsville, TX, where Kawasaki Canada promised my bike would be fixed under warranty (after sending an email to the big boss at kawi Canada, including the forum link where I posted my misfortune). A biker lent me his pickup truck, I thought out of camaraderie, but he was a weasel and upon return asked for money, a lot of it, which left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Here we are on our non-stop 20hour trip, covering about 1600kms though mexican hell. It was a rally course.

Got to brownsville, where they promptly disassembled the engine. Verdict, it's fucked.
So they ordered and replaced pretty much everything inside, except for the gearbox.

I really hoped he knew what he was doing. He did.

Killing time, we went visiting the neighboring towns. This was the only thing worth mentioning. Pretty cool!

The sales manager, Arpad, turned out to be a super-cool dude with a history of adventure riding in his familly (his Hungarian father rode the Alaska Highway in the 50's before it was paved on a honda 350cc - that's balls!) He invited us to stay with him while the bike was being fixed.
Below with his hot mexican girlfriend, and her daughter.

Bike was fixed, everything back to normal, I actually had to break in the engine again :-)
On the way back we saw this truck with the car load leaning dangerously.

The last few night in Cardenas, at Memo's house. He became very attached to us, talking about how much he enjoyed spending time together.
He also told us his girlfriend became pregnant the month before and that they had decided to get married at the end of September. He asked us to be best man/bridesmaid....which we had to decline.

The last dinner in the family. We cooked!

And the very last picture in Cardenas. Time to fly, baby!

Next:
Yucatan peninsula -> Belize -> Honduras