TravellingStrom

Friday – Toluca, Mexico

A long day and late riding day today and talk about toll booths!!!!

We had planned on a 10am start and after some breakfast we managed to get away on time. Now, before I go any further a quick mention of what happened the other day which I had forgotten to write about, sort of on purpose 🙂 We had witnessed a rear end shunt on the highway and stopped, but as both people got out and started arguing we left as there seemed to be no injuries, yet!!

OK, back to the story, we left the motel and immediately were pulled over by these federal police type people 😦 I was unsure what was happening because the guy who pulled alongside seemed to have a smiley face not a bad cop face, so I had thoughts of the other day, but pulled over anyway! All they wanted was a photo, whew, wipe sweat from the brow 🙂 😆

So, after a short chit chat session they had their photos and we had ours and were on our way, that was fun 🙂 It looked like we were going to be in for rain on and off all day and it did look threatening up ahead.

I spotted this large bull silhouette on a hill and had my camera ready for when I got along side it, but there was a small hill blocking my view, but instead I startled a flock of birds, so that was interesting and I had to get the bull shot from behind going away 🙂

The roads were good and fast and the only reason to stop was fuel or in my case piss breaks while V twitters away if there is any mobile phone coverage which seems to be the case more often than not 🙂

We went around then across a lake after going through a small town behind a truck, the road was cobblestone and hard to ride on slowly.

We got stuck in major traffic in Zacatecas and headed south via a back road to avoid the toll roads which were becoming a bit expensive, which meant small villages and topes. The tolls were very annoying especially the operation of them, they should let the cars on and let them pay when they get off, but no, they have new booths every 50kms or less, a real PITA!! Especially when it is raining and your money is under the wet gear, V had them problems, I had cash in my tank bag side pocket, easy to get to most of the time. 🙂

After a slight discussion(read different opinion) on the way we should go, we eventually headed for the toll roads. It was gone 4pm and we still had 260km to go to get to Toluca, the road we were on were continuous twistys, which normally I am right into, but this late in the day with rain on and off I just wanted to get into town before dark, safely. The toll roads were certainly faster once we got on them, well you would think so, but we got into some major traffic snarls here as well 😦 It was becoming a frustrating day!

We eventually got into the east side of Toluca around 7pm. This is only about 15km from the meeting point with Gary on Sunday and we checked out a couple of motel type places before settling on the Gran Marques. We had some frustration and confusion here too as this hotel also had the separate garages we had had last night, but the rooms we were taken to did not have a garage. Our rooms also cost 3 times what the other rooms cost and we thought we were getting ripped off. We eventually worked out at what type of place we were staying at and it was the same type as last night, but we did not know it at the time. The downstairs rooms are specifically for short duration stays, maximum 5 hours for P$200, so basically this is where the pros get taken to perform 😳 That would explain all the extra mirrors in the rooms last night 😉

Needless to say, we ended up staying there and paid for two nights. Once we were settled in and our bikes sorted out in a spare garage, we headed up the street for a feed as we were starving, it was now nearly 9pm!! This hotel advertised in big letters, restaurant, bar and disco, but it was empty and closed so we had to go up the road to a place called Friday’s. After a quick beer we had a great feed, mine was called Dragonfire Chicken, it was spicy but not hot so that was good and a bonus was the vegies 🙂

After dinner we went next door to another place and had a few more beers, this place was quite busy but seemed to be the place where you meet for dinner and drinks prior to going out, some very nice talent getting around 😉

We headed back after the rain had stopped around midnight, we could actually sleep in for a change, although I knew I would wake up at 6 anyway!

Day – 366 miles and 589 km
Trip – 39,802 miles and 64,055 km

Salud
TravellingStrom

USACanadaMexico

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