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CHAPTER. 29


DAY. ? ZACATECAS TO LEON 240km

Firstly let me say how lovely our hotel has been in Zacatecas. It is a very old building tastefully done up as a hotel with old staircases, split levels and beamed ceilings.

Donde estas tu mi Juliet !

Aqui mi Romeo !




We started off the day with a circuit thru the centre of Zacatecas that was not entirely by choice. Again it was riding on old cobblestone streets which is somewhat challenging on a heavily laden bikes.





And talking of riding on cobblestones reminds me that I thought today of my relationship with my front tyre. You see when we were riding the cobblestones she , that is my front tyre , developed a mind of her own. I fought her, she fought me ! After a while I found it best to let her make the individual decisions as to which direction to go over which cobblestone. I agreed with her that she would leave the big decisions like which way to turn at corners to me. It was a functioning truce and it worked fine. You see I have no wish for me and my front tyre to be separated so we have to have a good working relationship. We have agreed she can have some leeway on the minor directional detail particularly on cobblestones and I will do the big picture stuff.


You can have your head on these too sweetie!




So today we drove down thru a picturesque landscape to a big town ( city really ) to Aguascalientes ( trans. Hot Waters ). After a another little tiki tour thru ancient cobbled street it was down to the city of Leon.

We were clearly in the high country today as the temperature was a delightful 20 deg C or so. You will be pleased if not relieved to know dear reader that it was cool enough to dispense with the newly found vent in front of my riding trousers. It's open nature had not been particularly helpful at hotel check in time!

The town square at Leon opened directly out on to the main plaza. It was a lovely late afternoon and early evening scene and let the photos do the talking -















The lions of Leon





DAY. ? LEON TO MORELIA. 200km

Today we left the highway half way to Morelia and came down the old rural road. It was just like driving thru an old Spanish landscape with old stone villages, lovely churches and cobbled streets. I half expected to see Don Quixote coming round the corner on his donkey. It was a Sunday and a market day as well and the little towns had stalls with clothing, handcrafts etc.

Some were little distracting tho. -




Enough to make a fella fall off his bike!




Interestingly enough there were certainly no foreign tourists around although there may have been local Mexican holiday makers around. Certainly there were no tourist buses

And speaking of tourists we have seen only about one other " pale face" over the last three or four days. We sort of stand out somewhat which may or not be an advantage.

So now it is Morelia which is another Unesco World Heritage site because of its old town centre and unique culture. It certainly deserves it. Again like last night it was fiesta night in the town square with lots of happy people, music and street theatre. I could never tire of seeing this.










When we checked into the hotel we were told parking was about 5 blocks away. Where? " No problem" said the helpful doorman. " I will hop on the back and show you ". So of I wobbled down the cobbled streets with the doorman on the pillion seat of the bike giving me directions in Spanish. It was all a bit incongruous!

Yours truly " taking the doorman for a ride" !




-Surprise to see the New Zealand Herald on sale in Mexico!








And finally there are riding boots-




And riding boots !





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Comments

Aaron said…
Wow! I’m glad you are having a great time in Mexico, Zacatecas is on of my favourites cities in Mexico, it was a Miners City, producing tons of silver and gold. Leon is a nice city to get leather clothes or shoes, its the Mexican capital for that kind of stuff. Please take care in Mexico city and keep posting tons of photos! I told you, Tijuana is not Mexico :)

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