Motorcycle Diaries

This is Logan. I met him in Chacahua and we quickly became good friends. He is from Austin, Texas and since I grew up in the South also, we had a lot in common and got on well. We have very similar senses of humor and most of our time hanging out was spent laughing and talking shit to each other. Fun fact about Logan is he is Apache Native American. One of only some 25,000 in the United States.

Logan has been traveling around Latin America for some time now and has done a few motorcycle trips himself. While I’m Chacahua he came up with the idea to meet back up in Oaxaca City and go for a weeklong motorcycle trip. It sounded like an amazing idea so we agree to meet back up in Oaxaca City in about a week after I leave Chacahua.

After a couple great days in Oaxaca spent catching up with old friends and making new ones, Logan arrives and it’s time to finally pack up and go for the trip. Don’t let his mean mugging face fool you, there is one goofy guy behind it.

Logan had rented his bike in a different city and it was time to go get mine from a local rental spot. There weren’t many options in the city and I got the only dirt bike available. It was a struggle to get it as they said the bike wouldn’t be ready for another day. Thankfully, Logan has fantastic Spanish and was able to talk to them and get it available the same day.

After some stressful riding in the city, we finally got out of it to some countryside.

Here’s my bike, a 150cc Honda. I would have liked a little more power but this 150cc did everything I needed.

Also no, I do not have any formal motorcycle license or training. I learned to ride last year in Nicaragua and picked it up very quickly. Driving in countries like this is a totally different experience to back in the States. There are no rules really and you can lane split and cut around pretty much anywhere. It’s quite exhilarating.

I was the route planner as it’s something I love to do. We were following some bike packing routes as I know them to be amazing. Our main goal was to ride up towards the third tallest mountain in North America and then come back down.

We were both ecstatic at this point. We had been waiting for this moment for a while and the route was already blowing us away. The excitement of the week ahead was overwhelming. We stopped nearly every few minutes to take more photos.

We had descended into a small Pueblo with a little bit of sun left in the sky. We stocked up on water and picked up some Pollo Asado (grilled chicken), tortillas, and a can of beans. It’s a super cheap and easy dinner that we would save for when we got to camp.

After the town there was a long and beautiful climb into the mountains. All I could think about was how this climb would take hours on my bicycle.

With the change in elevation, also came a change in biome. Now we were riding through a pine forest. This is something we would experience many times a day, these incredible biome changes.

With sunlight fading, it was time to look for a place to camp.

A bit later than intended, we found a campsite in the dark. It was next to a river right off the route. We quickly setup camp, ate some grilled chicken tacos, and then got in the tent to play our favorite game, chess. Logan and I started playing together in Chacahua and would sometimes spend hours each day playing together.

After a good nights rest, we awoke excited to see what roads lay ahead.

Turns out it was some more beautiful roads.

The slow change of foliage with the elevation. The pine trees thrive at this higher elevations.

Our first of many many remote mountain towns. Most people in the towns hardly speak Spanish as the main language is indigenous languages. Mostly what we encountered was Mixe.

After a stop for a quick snack we continued on in search of a place to eat. A great thing with motorcycle travel is you don’t really need to carry much food or water on you. We are easily able to ride and eat at towns on the way.

We arrive at a slightly larger mountain town and enjoy exploring it for a bit. We find a nice comedor and eat some great food while talking to locals.

After some more riding we go through a small city with a large market. We stop for some food of course.

And fresh juices! These juices are amazing and have been everywhere all over Mexico.

We come across a distinct forest of trees covered in lichen.

The route info shows us there is a waterfall in the town that we decide to check out. We came from the cliffs above to the right and it was a magnificent looking town from above.

We start the hike to the falls and I’m already getting excited seeing the deep and windy erosion caused by the river.

Our first view of some of the falls. This is just a small section of it as the river makes its way to the valley floor. Logan, who doesn’t even like waterfalls, was blow away by the beauty of this.

The river made dramatic and deep cuts into the rock.

This was the main and largest part of the falls.

We had to swim, of course. It was freezing cold but our shower for the day.

We come back from the falls into the valley just as the sun is setting behind the cliffs.

Further up the river we are able to find a place to camp. We go to town for dinner and come back to camp with a small bottle of mezcal and spend the evening drink, playing chess, and laughing until it’s time for bed.

Directly across from our camp site, only about 100 feet away, is a massive cave we decide to check out.

It’s hard to capture good photos of course, but it was pretty cool. This town had so much natural beauty in it and we both went in with no clue what to expect. It was easily a highlight of the trip.

Back on some nice paved riding for a bit.

All smiles for another wonderful day on the bikes.

It’s always nice a mixture of slow dirt riding and fast paved riding. The paved riding on a motorcycle was really fun, especially when it’s a curvy road.

Somehow there are palm tree like trees up here??

Another small mountain town full of farmers. We stopped for food and had a great time talking with locals and enjoying a break.

After the town we had a very long decent. As we got lower and lower, the heat got much stronger.

As we got lower in elevation, the biome changed again into a more desert like one. Full of cactus.

We came across quite and interesting challenge. A long bridge with a small pathway on it. We were following a bicycle route still and this bridge would be no problem on a bicycle, but with a motorcycle it was very intimidating. The path was right next to the edge of the bridge and any mistake would mean falling 20+ feet with the motorcycle.

Logan, being the more experienced motorcyclist, decided to go first. He didn’t say a word the whole time and I could see the tension in his riding. You have to go fast enough to maintain balance but also not go too fast to lose control.

After he made it safely across it was my turn. I decided not to think to hard and just go for it. Once you started, there was no going back. After I got moving I remained focused on the path ahead and not the massive fall directly to my left. After what felt like forever I finally made it to the other side and quickly got off my bike and high fived Logan. We were both shaking with adrenaline. It was definitely one of the sketchiest things I’ve done yet on a motorcycle.

To relax our selves, we decided to take a dip in the river below the bridge. We talked about how badass we felt and how people probably rarely cross that on motorcycles right when a local kid ripped the exact same bridge on a motorcycle going about three times as fast as us. It quickly made us feel a little bit less badass.

A large mountain of red rock.

One of my favorite signs now after being on a motorcycle. The more comfortable I got on the bike, the faster and deeper I would take the corners. Logan was much more experienced and faster than me but we would play games trying to catch each other.

We stopped at a gas station and noticed we looked pretty cool in the reflection. I rarely take photos of myself, as I prefer photos of landscapes and my friends.

Beautiful lighting as the sun nears the horizon. We were riding to a nearby town for a hotel and shower.

We find a hotel right by the square and we get an awesome room on the roof. These photos are from the roof just outside our door.

After cleaning up we went out for tacos and then sat at the park for a couple hours drinking and talking.

The next day we take off to head into the mountains behind us. It was really hot down in the valley so we wanted to get higher up to cooler temperatures.

This was a really cool looking mountain town. We stopped here during some sort of street fair for lunch.

We were now in the state of Puebla. It was noticeable different than Oaxaca. The people were much more Spanish looking instead of indigenous and there was also much more towns and people in the mountains.

Our first view of Pico de Orizaba. The tallest volcano and the third tallest mountain in North America. Our goal was to drive up Sierra which is right next to it. On maps we could see a road going up to the top at 4600m.

Logan thinking about something deep and important.

Pico de Orizaba finally coming into view.

We started up the rough road to the top of Sierra Negra racing against the sunset. It was very very slow riding. The road was in terrible condition. This photo is of a rare paved section.

The altitude was heavily affected our bikes also. They had a fraction of the power they had before and it was a real struggle getting up the road.

Sadly we reach a gate with a guard about 600m from the top. He told us the road was closed and we couldn’t drive past it. Really, it was a blessing in disguise because we were already freezing cold at 4000m and sunlight was slowly fading. We would have been riding much longer in the night on a dangerous road if we were able to pass.

Thankfully the views from here were still spectacular and we had a beautiful ride down back to civilization and warmer temperatures.

By far one of my favorite things is being above the clouds like this.

The views from here were incredible. We could see for so far. I don’t like riding after dark but this ride as the sun set was one of my favorites of the trip.

We had a long ride to get to the next town which turned out to be pretty sketchy. The hotel owner warned us it was pretty dangerous so we stayed in after getting some food from a nearby corner store. Beers and more chess ensued late into the night.

This was the furthest point of our trip as well. It was time to turn back towards Oaxaca. We started the next morning with some very fast highway riding to make up some ground before we dipped into some new mountains on another bikepacking route.

This route was taking us through some really cool desert land with yucca trees similar to Joshua Trees.

I love desert foliage a lot. They are always very unique.

Logan being one with the cactuses.

Before this area we had driven through a large city so I was very happy to be back out here. I love being in the remote and beautiful places more than anything. To have nothing but a road ahead through magnificent terrain is all I want.

We arrive a small rancho that has a couple cute and curious animals around. These little goats immediately caught my eye, I love goats.

The goats were very friendly and walked right up to us for some loving.

They even let us pick them up! They were much much lighter than I thought they would be.

There also was a friendly pup.

Rippin it.

We rode into a small town and then from there we made a lot of distance on a highway towards a large city we planned to get a hotel in.

We had a crazy and fun night in that city. We went out and met some locals at a bar and they took us out to a club and we didn’t get back until very late.

The next morning was slow and tough as we were both very hungover.

Shortly after trying to leave the city, Logan ran into some very unfortunate motorcycle trouble. He originally thought it was something pretty major that would keep us in town for repairs for a day. The mood was low but we found a repair man and he quickly located the problem and fixed it. We were back on the road in no time.

The days riding was pretty fast. We had some ground to catch up since we had to be back the next day.

We follow a trail off the road to a nice campsite.

The last campsite of the trip. The week had come and gone and we were just outside the city for a short ride in the morning.

I made sure we had a good spot to watch the sunset in our last night.

We had been carrying this can of beans since the beginning of the trip, so it felt right to finally eat it. We had nothing else so it was just eating beans out of a can with a knife.

We had some more bikepacking route left to finish off the ride, which meant some slow and peaceful gravel roads.

Along the way we came across a beautiful hotel in the middle of nowhere in an old railroad town that is past its prime. We stopped for a delicious breakfast and enjoyed the tranquillity for a bit before leaving, knowing that the ride was pretty much over and we were only about an hour from the city.

We road back into Oaxaca City and that marked the end of our trip. It was more than I was expecting and I loved it so much. I still love and prefer traveling on a bicycle, but it was fun to travel at a faster pace for a bit. I definitely plan to do a few more motorcycle trips while on this trip. It’s a great way to see places I wouldn’t see otherwise.

Traveling with Logan was also a blast. It felt like he and I were friends since childhood we got along so well. Our brotherhood was one of the strongest friendships I’ve made yet on this trip and I hope to see him again for some more motorcycle trips in the future.

He is off back home to Texas and I’m heading back on the bicycle towards Central America. My time in Mexico is nearing its end and it makes me sad but also excited to finally enter a new country.

Thank you all for reading and following along. I hope you enjoy the photos and stories from this trip.