July 2,1997 R80G/S 24825 R100GS 16774 Xalapa, Mexico The hotel clerks had to pull out five vehicles out of the crammed gated hotel parking area so that we could get our motorcycles out. This process took about 45 minutes. We drove the 100km through drizzle to Xalapa (Jalapa). The junction on Mexico 180 at Cardel was closed, so we wound our way through town. An initial sign got us pointed in the correct direction, but as what has typically happened these signs were not followed up by successive ones leaving us directionless in some neighborhood. This time we got lucky and happened on the correct turns. The roads are all quite excellent, however as has been our plan, I still wouldn't want to ride on these at night. We came across a construction area that had large slabs of concrete blocking off parts of the road under construction. At night these slabs have a coffee can full of oil? burning on top of them to signal warning. Should these cans be blown out, run out of oil, or be forgotten to be lit, cars and or motorcycles would be totaled as they ran into the difficult to see concrete slabs. In previous days of travelling we saw a gas tanker truck turned over. The tank was still in one piece and in one location, so I assume it was empty when it overturned. Came across a semi that had rear-ended a bus full of people as it tried to pass at highway speeds. Fortunately they were both going at highway speed and it looked like noone was hurt. Often, large animals (horse and cows) can be found grazing in the grass along the side of the highway. Some are tied up, while others not. None so far have been spooked as our motorcycles pass by, or have actually been wandering on the road. Some driving conventions for Mexico... When two vehicles converge on a road and a slower moving vehicle is in between them, the driver who flashes his lights first has the right of way. This is also true for trucks or busses wishing to turn left across traffic. If he flashes his lights, he's assumed to have right away. Often in cities and towns there are traffic cops in brown uniforms directing traffic making it safe for pedestrian crossing, and making sure vehicles see the sometimes obscured/poorly placed traffic signals. When driving on the road and a vehicle wants to pass you, the custom is to drive off in the shoulder if possible making it easier. Further, it is the custom to lane share as one is passing. If a slow moving vehicle in front wants to signal that it is OK to be passed, that vehicle will turn on his left turn signal. This custom seems dangerous to me as a left turn also could mean the person is turning left, thus a side collision... Falling victim to Ted Simon's B-grade movie syndrome, where in every unknown circumstance, one imagines the worst possible situation, I feared the worst before entering Mexico. I had thought driving in Mexico might be like India, where there are only two rules of the road... 1) The larger the vehicle is, the more right of way it has. 2) *Try* to pass oncoming vehicles on the left As a western driver in India, it may be prudent to grasp how an Indian driver might think. There are nearly 850 million who believe in reincarnation. If this life sucks, go on to the next. Why drive safer? We have a population problem as it is... I'm helping the overpopulation problem. I'm told by my Indian friends that most truck drivers in India drive intoxicated to deal with the anxieties of driving on an Indian road. Driving in Mexico is much better than I anticipated. There are enforced driving customs that one can anticipate and typically count on. The only dangerous part for me and them is my learning curve of their customs. The drive up to Xalapa was again very nice. The roads were nicely paved with shoulders. For a small section as we climbed into the mountains, the road drove along a scenic canyon to the South. Xalapa is at a cool altitude of 4,300 feet. As soon as we rolled into town I could tell we were going to like it. It's a beautiful Spanish Colonial city in the mountains, that is also the capital of the Veracruz state, and is home to the University of Veracruz. I pulled into the parking lot which was across from a weight lifting gym. Good sign. The last thing a labor oriented society would want to do is work out in a gym. Paying to stay fit by doing meaningless weight lifting repetition is a luxury that only a sizeable population of educated white collar workers would support. This is a rare thing to see in a third world country, and an indication of economic well being for this local area. We parked in a guarded public parking lot that charged 1 peso per hour. As I was securing the bikes, a gentleman behind me said "Hi". In excellent English that sounded like Ricardo Montablan, he introduced himself and welcomed us to Xalapa to which his family had been living for four generations. His wife who had blue eyes and looked of Arian blood had Mexican mannerisms and also spoke excellent English. They had spotted the Illinois plates and asked about our trip down here. He suggested that I try the coffee while here, which this area is known for. We checked into our 70 pesos per night hotel which was excellent for the price. It didn't have a/c, but it also didn't need it since the temperature hovered between mid 60's and mid 70's the entire time we were here. A block down the road was the nicest restaurant we've been to or had seen in Mexico called La Casona del Beaterio. It was housed in what looked like a several hundred year old Spanish colonial building with a small open air courtyard and multi tiered running water fountain. It was well lit with natural lighting, and had new age jazz music emminating from the rafters. The wait staff was quick and attentive and the food was excellent. The comida corilla consisted of the following. A basket of bread with butter. Warm soft corn tortilla with the edges folded up so that it looked like a small tarte, and contained a verde sauce with a sprinkle of white cheese on the top. Creme of carrot soup which tasted like a potato/carrot soup. Tuna croquettes served on a bed of lettuce and tomato. pork steak with a pimento sauce and delicious mashed potatos. Chicken leg with a red (satay like) peanut sauce, with sliced carrots, peas, and fried plantains in the sauce. With a side of delicious refried beans. And for dessert, a crepe with orange/pineapple sauce and a cup of american style coffee. All of this for 24 pesos (US$3.00) What a deal. We ended up coming here several more times. Notes on refried beans... A key to making excellent refried beans I've discovered here is to carbonize them (euphamism for burn). The burnt beans stirred in with the rest is excellent. Negro Modelo beer is by far the best beer I've had with good refried beans. The carmel flavor of this beer nicely picks up the carbonization of the refried beans. In Ciudad Victoria, I swear they refried them in a little bacon grease... delicious. The next night, we went to the same place for a dinner snack. Sharon ordered the sopa Azteca which was a mild spicy soup consisting of large avocado chunks, lots of melted white cheese, crisp fried tortilla strips, tomatoe chunks, whole roasted garlic cloves with some dried maroon peppers (chipotle chili) on top. This also went well with Negra Modelo beer. We ate this along with some nachos (totopas) while listening to live acoustic guitar music. July 3, 1997 Xalapa, Mexico We had breakfast in a little cafe. Sharon had some good American style coffee, while I had some excellent expresso, which on the menu is just referred to as coffee, and some orange cake. We went back to our hotel and ended up working on our journals. It was so nice just to relax in this mid 70 degree weather. In the afternoon, we were wandering around, and saw a copy shop with several computers one could work on their resume with. I asked if they had internet service. She gave me directions to another place. We're still working on directions in Spanish. A couple more copy shops and several more directions episodes later we found the printing shop she and the other copy shops referred to. The guy at the printing shop apparently had his own ISP hooked up to a Macintosh that he surfed the web with. He offered to let us use it, however being a Macintosh it wouldn't do what we wanted which was to transfer our DOS floppy diskette of diary entries back home. He gave us the name and directions to his Internet Service Provider which was six blocks away. Three more stops/directions, we found the ISP, who said they didn't rent computers to use the internet, but gave us the name and location of a place that did. By this time we were getting good at directions and conversing what we're looking for all in Spanish. The place that rents PCs by the hour for internet use, just happens to be about a block away from our hotel. They charge 26 pesos per hour($3.25). This is much cheaper than the $2/minute I was expecting to pay for a phone transfer. We went home to wrap up our journals and work on some email. Unfortunately, tomorrow being a holiday back home(July 4th) followed by a weekend, we don't expect to get any email back.