Mexico Too Dangerous!

Well it seems that tourism, one of Mexico’s biggest businesses, is way down due to the narco-terrorism justifiably amplified by the 24-hour media. Personally I’m glad. Listen to what happened to Mac and me yesterday.

We were trying to get to San Miguel de Allende. The directions we were given by Globebusters were seriously wrong. We were supposed to avoid Aguascalientes (Hot Waters) by turning left at a non-existent sign. Obviously we missed the turn and found ourselves deep in Hot Waters, a medium-sized city three hours north of Mexico City. As you may remember I’m battling a bad case of, sciatica. I have severe pain in my back and left leg. I can only manage 10 steps before doubling over in pain. When we reached the inner part of the city around midday I was tired, hot and grumpy. I stopped at a small taco stand outside a car repair joint in an industrial part of town. I asked Mac to have his taco and just leave me to rest. I lay in the shade and tried to get less grumpy. Mac has no Spanish. It amuses me to see him walk up to all Mexicans and talk to them in heavily accented British English. On this occasion a man standing next to the taco lady heard him speak and he spoke back in reasonable English. “We’re lost” Mac explained. "We’re trying to get 200 miles east of where we are mate". The man gave Mac such a detailed and complicated set of directions that Mac looked overwhelmed. The English speaker said “Don’t worry my brother will show you how to get to the correct road". It turns out he and his brother own the 4-bay auto repair shop we were parked in front of. He called his brother over. The brother spoke no English but was glad to help. They were both about my age. The brother went into the shop and came out wearing a classic, studded, black leather, James Dean-styled motorcycle jacket. Out of the far corner of the shop he backed out his vintage BMW R100. A true collector’s piece. He motioned his wife over and she happily climbed on back. As he led us through the maze of the city I pulled up to him at each traffic light. He explained that he’d ride with us for a while out of the city. He said he and his wife have put 180,000 kilometers on the R100. Once out of the city he really got going. He had us passing trucks at 90 MPH. After about 20 minutes we were joined by a Kawasaki sport bike. I saw him in the rear view but didn’t know who he was. Finally our guide pulled over. He’d gone over 80 miles with us. We chatted and he introduced this other brother. The first one had called this one and he jumped on his bike to ride along. After an enjoyable chat, the Kawasaki brother pulled out two Mexican-flag lapel pins and pinned them on our riding jackets. Don’t go to Mexico-it’s far too dangerous!!