Rideforsmiles, Solo Australian to Africa Europe and Beyond, starting June 26th 2011.

Today was spent recovering, we were going to head to San Miguel de Allende but one more day hanging around here wont kill us. We hung around for the morning then went over to Mike and Alex's place, they had told us about some hot springs not far out of Acambaro so we went and had a relax in them for awhile which was really very nice. I had the ol 12 o'clock hang over kicking in and was hoping Mike say yeah lets give it a miss so I could go back to the hotel and crash out for awhile but he was keen so was Alexa and Ev as well so I had no option but to go along for the ride and actually I'm glad I did it was really very relaxing.

The springs are not anything flash but they were really warm and the water is heated naturally so I'm pretty sure the hippi element out there would say they are good for you too.

Mike and Alex on the way out to the hot springs



The hot springs just outside of Acambaro, I know it just looks like a pool but they were nice enough to keep us in them for about an hour.



After a nice dinner with Mike and Alex we headed back to the hotel to relax, we will be riding to San Miguel de Allende with Mike tomorrow so it will be good to be riding together again.

As a dancer you make a great bike rider Sheldon

Hey just for that I'm going to post another pic of me breaking out the moves, read and weep buddy your just jealous I've got the moves to get the chicks.

We got up earlyish to pack up and headed over to Mike and Alex's for a coffee before hitting the road. It was nice to see Alex again she is staying down here in Acambaro for work and Mike has his Chiro practice up in San Miguel de Allende about 140 k's away. The rode itself is quite boring but the funny thing is for the first time since being in Mexico I felt like I could be back in America.

There was a few tollways towards the San Miguel end which were cheap 22 peso's for both so nothing to bad, considering they were only about 1 kilometer long im glad thats all they were. I had asked Mike what San Miguel de Allende was like when we were tossing up whether to come up or not and Mike had told it is like a movie set. We headed up the cobble stone roads to Mikes office and parked the bike. Mike had an appointement in about 30 minutes so and me Ev had decided to stay in town near the centro as mikes place is about 20 minutes away not conjusive to good walking around a new town.

We rode down the hill, Ev had marked a hotel on the Maps with me pro so it was never going to be to hard to find. The streets are narrow with all the buildings brightly coloured in yellows browns and orange it is really very pretty and very different to anything else we have come across here in Mexico. We rode around for 10 minutes obviously the traffic is a bit of an issue in these small streets but nothing to bad everyone seems to be very polite and not in a hurry. Your not going to have an accidnet here the top speed anyone gets to is about 15 kilometers an hour at the most.
We found the hotel we were looking for but when Ev went into suss out and see if we could get the online rate they advertised, she was told she needed to go book it online and wait till it came through then come back to get that price, yeah righto buggalugs as if im waiting for that shit to happen when im sitting in the car park of a hotel next door. So when Ev told me there story i just said go book us in here.

Ev came back and and was worried it was to much but it wasnt to bad for a night so it was ok. We unpacked and chilled out for awhile then headed up to the main square to check out the El Jardin and when we first layed eyes on it we both thought it looked like something out of a fairy tale.
We walked around for a few hours checking out all the little back streets. We went and sat in the main plaza and took it all in doing a bit of people watching. We hung around for about an hour until Mike had finished work and came over. Mike knew a few good restaurants in town and told us about one of his favs that I could get a chicken snitzel so yep that was us. The dinner was nice, a little expensive but nothing to bad I had a chicken snitzel with creamy risotto and a few drinks and it cost me about 18 bucks, Ev wasnt that hungry but had a spinach soup and a salad which looked pretty nice as well.

We spent a few hours at dinner talking about old times and new times, it has been great to catch up with Mike. We walked home from the restaurant through town, Mike headed back to his bike to ride home, we are not sure what we are doing tomorrow but we are thinking of hitting the road but we will see it woudl be nice to spen a little more time here and hang out with Mike even though he is working most of the day.

Sure that's just hay for the cows buddy.



Mike on his Gs 1150 heading towards San Miguel de Allende



The colours along the way were really nice, don't ask me what they were but they looked good anyway.






Arriving in San Miguel de Allende






Tell me that doesn't look like it's out of a fairytale.



Now just some random pics of San Miguel de Allende, I know I post a few pictures of these different paces I hope it isn't to many.



The street vendors are out in force but very little hassle.












Ahhhh deep in thought about the tough decision's that lay ahead here in San Miguel de Allende, yeah you guessed it, cigarette or a coke or both.

Coke, cigarette or break into some more dance moves,,,,


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I'm in, don't know how I've missed you in the last few years.

Ed

Glad to see you can pull off stuff like that years after your accident! Congrats man, your spirit is indomitable!!!

You might of seen it Ed but couldnt understand my jibbering or typos like so many other people. The good news is Johnny who I met in La Paz turned out to be somewhat of an author and has published a few books and thought the stuff he could make sense of would make a good book. So he is in the process of decyphering it into a readable form. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with when hes finished. He did say dont ever change the way I write to which I responded I dont have the intelligence to change. I think he likes the idea of short stories maybe Africa Europe and the Americas seperate who knows hes the pro. It will be sold on Amazon for a few bucks. Its an interesting development see where it leads. Anyway thanks for following im off to email Fabio about doing the cover

Seen snippets of this thread here and there but only today noticed the NSW numberplate.

Something about seeing a local plate in a place where it doesn't make sense gets me excited to do the same :)

Love the report and looking forward to more :)

Cheers mate thanks for following as you can see from facey im a few days behind.

We ended up staying an extra day in San Miguel de Allende but all good we just relaxed and took a break for most of the day then later taking in a few of the sites. We caught up with Mike after he had finished work in a nice roof top restaurant bar and then headed down town for a meal. Tomorrow we will decide if we go stay at Mikes for a day or two. My gut feeling is that we are out of here as much as this is a pretty city its not really me.

Enjoying a beer overlooking San Miguel de Allende



Dinner is fried chicken and chips and some other shit like a ravioli mashed potato concoction I don't know you know the crap you get in fancy restaurants, man just slap some mash on my plate will ya, Mike was laughing cause I think all he has ever seen me order is chicken snitzel or Spaghetti Bolognaise, hey don't want to ruin a good diet you know. Ev and Mike's meals do look decidedly more healthy than mine in this picture don't they, oh well something's got to get you might as well be my diet, I can change that after my quadruple bypass when I'm a little older anyway. I can see it now Ok Sheldon the surgery went well its all good you will live till your a 100 but you have to cut out the fatty diet NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you will hear the scream from the other side of the world, pull that chord now Doc. I might just go for the full transplant and get a pigs heart maybe while I'm in the drive through at Maccas, i'll have a big mac meal and a pigs heart thanks mate, no worries sir the pigs heart will be a few minutes can you just pull into parking bay 1.......sweeeeet.

We decided to leave San Miguel de Allende but weren't in any hurry. Alex had given Ev the name of this nice spot called Grutas de Tolantongo a group of caves that were worth seeing so thats the way we were heading. Google maps had it just on 250k's and about 3 and a half hours so not to big a day. We awoke to a phone call to say the road out the front of the hotel will be closed at 11 oclock for a few hours as there is a parade, ok it looks like we are goign to hang around for that there is no need to be blowing out of town and see what might be an ok event.
We went down for breakfast the standard cereal and my regualtion coke for me, I was feeling a little off yesterday i dont know why maybe it had something to do with the cereal milk, papaya and honey, scrambled eggs on toast, nachos with cream on toast, strawberry jam on toast all washed down with coke, a coffee, an orange juice and a glass of milk seriously thats what I had only small portions but im pretty sure that would be enough to upset anyones stomach just a little.

We headed out for the parade at 11 it was a school thing all kids so the it wasnt anything to exciting with costumes and the like but nice all the same, I have no idea still what it was all about but it was on the news all over Mexico so it isome traditional day, there were a few signs with revolution written on them so maybe it had something to do with all that.

The parade went till about 12:30 so then it was time to get going.






I said to Ev if she ever wants to dump me she can do it now there is some serious talent around here, I could take my pick from this bunch of hotties, more my age anyway.



Shhh don't tell Ev I was looking at this chick back to school for me estudio Espanyol senorita.



Hey this is a parade you are supposed to look and take pictures aren't you.



Ok Back to the real parade












I txt Mike to see if he was in his office but he was out to lunch so just said cya next year on the way back through. We hit the road expec ting it to take 3 and a bit hours but there was some traffic works and it wasnt expressway for most of the way so in the end we arrived in the area of the caves at about 5 oclock so just over 4 and a half hours. Not to bad we had a couple of stops along the way one for petrol where we bumped into a few Mexican guys that had ridden their bikes up to the Grand Prix in San Antonio Texas. We chatted to them for awhile one of the guys is heading to Chile next year so you never know our paths may cross again somewhere down the coast. The funny thing when I said Morocco was my favourite country in Africa he said is it safe to ride there, I thought that it was funny hearing it from a Mexican when you hear so much about how dangerous it is here, which by the way I have seen absolutely none of unless you call and 8 year old girl trying to sell you a bracelet dangerous.



We were in the final stretch maybe 100 odd k's to go and we past this biker on the side of the road it was weird where he was parked so I slammed on my FRONT brakes and pulled over, we were getting along at the time so it took us about a 100 metres or so past him to stop and I looked back around at him and he waves us off as if it was all ok, so we hit the road again. We were riding up the road and I thought to myself that wasnt the type of postion you would stop a bike if everything was ok and I had a feeling he was out of gas so I said to Ev lets just fill this jerry can up and go back, its not far out of the way. W got to the next service station up the road filled it up and headed back down the hwy and did a uturn this time stopping next to him and when I pulled out the jerry can full of petrol he had a big smile on his face as thats exactly what he needed.



As you can imagine he was pretty happy we got the jerry can back and hit the road, the good deed for the day and hopefully earnt a few break down karma credits along the way, I said to Ev I should of stuck my hand out for some money like a real prick before I gave it to him, im still not sure how much the juice is here in Mexico I just pay what it comes too in this case it cost me 50 peso's plus the tip I left the servo guy so only about 5 bucks to help a fellow biker out small change really, what goes around comes around.

That's one thing I really see every day on this adventure, bikers being brothers and helping each other out where ever it is or even just saying hello and being welcoming. I had a friend on facebook that is following me and he's a surfer and is in Peru at the moment and he posted a picture of two surfers having a punch up cause they each wanted the wave the other day it really is pathetic and although the gang bikers might like to punch it on now and then us regular joe bikers show no side of that at all. The biker brotherhood has no boundaries it really is nice to be in such a great family.

Anyway in this instance we all left happy me earning breakdown karma credits, Ev thinking wow he really isnt just a prick (yep that means two minutes of fun for me tonight) and the other dude happy as well im sure.
We got to the end of the road at the top of the Valley where the caves were and the view was unreal, just beautiful. It was getting a little late and we had about 10k's of dirt road to get past and it was all down hill so without back brakes I was going to be taking my time, I'll get around to them one day, maybe Mexico City, yeah whatever.

We took our time riding down the hill the views were great so there was no hurry, we eventually got down to the hotel Ev had read was recommended so she went in and booked us in, its only 350 a night but you have to pay a 120 peso day ticket each so that brings the price up to 550 a night, still only a 45 bucks or so. In the end after we got unpacked we realised there was campsites down by the river and we could of camped, that sucked the tent hasnt been out for a while.









Went up to the restaurant for dinner surprise surprise chicken snitzrel on the menu so guess what I had. We are looking forward to the caves in the morning there is hardly anyone around at the moment im glad we came midweek which was our plan to miss the crowds.

The view from our hotel was quite nice and for the princely sum of 400 pesos so about 33 bucks AUD. You can camp right down on the river which would be really nice to. We just had booked the room before we even knew we could camps so there was no asking for our money back. The rooms aren't anything to special no Television, no internet here in the valley but a beautiful place to unwind and relax for a few days.

We took our time getting out of bed this morning, we had started watch the Matrix on the pc last night and didn't finish it so put that on. There is no internet or tv here in the hotel so Ive been having to fight Eva off with a big stick, shes like a dog on heat when theres nothing to keep her attention of my muscular physique, oh well things could be worse I guess, like she could actually be prescibed glasses, I'll just live it up while I can.

We headed up to grab a bite to eat, just some biscuits, we sat in the restaurant but we both weren't really feeling like a meal so we ate them and then headed up to the cave. The walk wasnt far, the caves were amazing, you got to come here if you are in this part fo the world what a fantastic day we had.


The entrance to the cave.
































The pathway back from the caves.







After spending an hour or so in the caves which you can do easily as the water is so warm we headed back down the river swimming in some of the man made pools along the way. Ev enjoying the bath like water with our hotel room in the back ground.












After lunch we headed to Pozas pools, ok pozas apparently means pools so you can call them pools pools if you like, they were up on the hill about 2 k's away, I was ok on the first section but then the trail tuirned uphill and I mean uphill, it was really quite steep and quite a few occassions I said to Ev one more corner one more corner. My right side of my lower back was the first to go so we had to slow right up and then the left side went too and I had to sit down for a few minutes to suck it in. The joys of getting older and having a truck hit you in the back.

Ive been having a bit of grief with my back the last few days maybe it was all the stuffing around at the wedding I dont know but its been giving me hell, even Ev has noticed that ive been clenching my teeth alot when doing things lately. It was one of the things I remember from my recovery I was always in so much pain that I had to try and remember to walk upright and not grimace constantly and the last few days have been like that, I just keep reminding myself to breath and relax so I don't look like some grumpy old f^&k

One more corner one more corner and another one more corner and there it was, man Im glad 98% of the way back is down hill otherwise Id be looking for a taxi if it wasnt. Im so glad I made the effort its only pain in the wash up cause the pools here are nothing short of breathtaking. The water was warm to hot and so relaxing we stayed in the first one for about and hour which as you can imagine was so nice on my back. We got out of that one and went for a walk to check some of the others out and wow to think we would find something more beautuful than the first one we were in, well yes we did and we had it all to ourselves. Just look at some of the pictures below it really is an amazing place they could charge you 500 bucks a day here and you would walk out happy I reckon, it really is a special place on the earth, if you are ever in this neck of the woods do yourself a favour and come here to these caves and pools they are simply amazing.



The path up the hill to the pools was in itself breathtaking, we didn't pass anyone one on the few kilometre walk up and walk back







And this was the reward, well worth don't you say.



















Taking in tomorrows ride.







The pain never ends

We left Tolantongo and headed back up the hill the views are spectacular aroudn here so we werent in any hurry, look at these pictures and you will understand.

We hit the main road again after a few k's and that was us we were off to the Teohiluacan where Ev had scoped out some pyramids on google. We arrived at te small town near them latish in the afternoon and the town was a few k's from the pyramids proper so I said to Ev lets just go up see where they are and more than likely there will be a hotel right there and sure tle we will move tomorrow if we decide to stay a second night which is one the cards it certainly is a big site with from one end to the other about about 2k's then throw in some pyramid climbing and we are in for a big day, well I am Ev will be ok but I'll be paying some sort of price for it later, oh and of course Ev will be paying the price as well, come on don't kid myself, massage honey my back is killing me yeeeeeep that's the girl.

While I was sitting out on the pc I got chatting to a Canadian guy and then his wife came over and we were chatting about anything and everything, it was an interesting conversation and then Ev came out and joined us so we were all hanging around chatting till a shower storm sent us all running to our rooms. They certainly had some different theories on what is coming and how everythimg was formed, lets just the four quadrants of the universe and the 5th dimension came up in conversation, you know pretty out there stuff but you never know they might be just on the money, only time will tell, all the same it was a nice enlightening conversation we had and that continued later in the evening when we all went in for dinner. We didnt even introduce ourselves properly which was a real shame they were a really nice couple and she did an energy reading on me and gave me some holistic medicine which was really nice of her, you never discount any of that stuff and im one that has always kept an open mind on it.

We called it a night after dinner and chatting, they were to be leaving early inthe morning and I wasnt going to be in any hurry so we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways.



Just some of the views on the way out from Tolantongo.







Ev walked up the road to grab this photo at one point while I was admiring the view, how amazing is this place.











As you can imagine it took us time to leave this area but everyone keeps telling us south of Mexico City is the most beautiful part of the country, I find it hard to believe it could be more beautiful than what I'm seeing already but everyone keeps saying it so it must be pretty damn special.

On the road over to Teohiluacan we came across this rock formation, without knowing what's the bet this thing is called Cathedral Rock or something along those lines.







Some areas of farmland along the way, the changes of landscape here in Mexico is amazing, how many times have I used that word lately it 's better than typing supercalafajalistickespialadojus all the time. And yes I did Google the spelling of that.

We got up and walked over to the site of the pyramids and had a beautiful day walking around the site, as expected I was sore as shit by the end of the day and was really struggling but it was well worth it again, this country just continues to impress.


Ev walking up the steps of the smallest of the three pyramids on the site, the steps were actually quite steep.







Some of the artwork on this smaller pyramid was quite impressive, I bought one of these little dudes to glue onto my bike I hope it brings me Aztec good luck.







Alright time for the pyramid of the sun.

Half way up, come on slim you can make it.



Looking back over to the pyramid of the moon.



And the view back from the top. Ok I'm pointing at it lets go.

I made it up there and now it is off to the pyramid of the moon.



Along the Avenue of the dead.



The climb up was steep lucky for me I had my good pyramid climbing boots on.



Ewa looking back down the Avenue of the dead, at the very end you can see a open space well our hotel was on the other side of that open space somebody carry me please lol



The steps to the pyramid of the moon were really steep.



After all that guess what I had a day off, Ewa went for a walk around town by herself then I went with her for another one later but today was relax mode I was sore. Tomorrow we head off into Mexico City for a look.

Sitting here in Brisbane looking through your photos......mate I'm ssoooo envious. What a beautiful country. I don't think I've seen such beautiful parts of Mexico before. Very nice indeed. You deserve to be there.


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