I am still having fun, but I pretty much just lounge around now, there is less riding, and more eating.  Luckily the trip to Queretaro was slightly more exciting than my time actually spent in Queretaro thanks to the random route my GPS set me on.  On the way to Queretaro the GPS took me down some country roads/dirt roads/cobble stone roads, and by a small but sweet church.  Nothing special happened but I thoroughly enjoyed it, plus there was a wedding going on and in hind sight I should have tried to crash it, but the area was kind of cool, and really I was just happy to make it out of San Miguel.

Driving into Queretaro the city felt huge, I didn’t take the direct route in so never had any real idea where I was as the GPS had me jumping all over the place, and suddenly everything went from run down suburbs to large modern corporate America, err I mean Corporate Mexico.  Home Depots, Sams Club, Walmart, McDonalds, and more!  But eventually I found my way into the centro, which is surprisingly nice for a city of it’s size.

No social distancing allowed!

I stopped at a hostel thinking I would have a cheap room to myself, I figured there can’t be all that many people going to Queretaro right now.  Well, after waiting in the lobby 5 minutes, and then walking around the place only to find no one around I left, I guess there is literally no one stopping in so they don’t even bother working.  Ok fine, I try to find another hostel so follow google maps, but if it was a hostel it no longer is one now as the location was just an empty building.  Third time is a charm, but rather than have the place to myself I get a room with some dude from the UK…oh well, it is cheap and I am sick of looking.  He has had the place to himself all week, but there is another guy in a private room who has also been there all week, so me being the people loving social butterfly that I am, got everyone together for a night out….bringing people together, it’s what I do.  Unfortunately UK guy is taking time off from drinking, and the other guy doesn’t feel like drinking either, so we just walk around and do some people watching.  A motorcyclist from CDMX showed up but we never even saw that person.  I stayed for 3 nights but nothing really happened anyway, and was kind of in a rush to get back to Michoacan as I wanted to be there for xmas.   There are a ton of awesome sights to see in the area outside of Queretaro, but due to the timing I decided to hold off and see them another time since it is so close to Morelia.

So with the GPS set for Cuidad Hidalgo, I was finally going to make it…..taking the longest route possible to get from Morelia to Mil Cumbres.  That’s right, I am a man of my word, and after telling the guys on ADVRider months ago not to worry I was headed there next, I finally made it.  Of course, rather than head East from Morelia on the quick drive, I spent weeks going West to Uruapan, and North all the way up to Real de Catorce, then South to Queretaro, and then looped around to pick up the famous road, but damnit I made it, and not only did I make it, I arrived in style, dropping Churro before it even started!

Coming from this direction I arrived at the mirador with the large “Mil Cumbres” sign, with only 1 other bike around, and they were parked off to the side just relaxing.  I pull up ready to get some shots of Churro, but I wasn’t paying attention and drop Churro on his side…idiot gringo!  I haven’t dropped him at all in weeks, the problem isn’t that bad since I am used to it now, but here in front of another biker the idiot gringo makes a scene.  The dude comes over to help me lift Churro back up, before returning to his date, it could have been worse if the abuelo from a moto club had been around.  As soon as Churro is back up and he walks away, a group of “real” bikers roll in, everyone parks by Churro and in front of the sign, blasting music (at least it was good music), and passing around beers.  Now it’s pretty normal for motorcyclist to have a beer when they stop here, around the world on my bike trips I am often offered beers but I don’t drink when I am riding so wouldn’t have accepted a beer anyway, but these mother F’ers didn’t even offer me one!  Maybe they did see me drop Churro, who knows….we exchange hellos but that is as far as it goes.  So now, not only are they not impressed with the gringo who clearly drove down from the states, but they all get their shots in front of the sign, and then just hangout in front of the sign due to the shade.  I take some pics of my bike, a few of their bikes, and try to be patient hanging out off to the side as I needed a rest anyway, but I want to continue on and check out this road of a thousand curves that have eluded me the past few months.  After 15 minutes I politely ask them if they can get the F out of the way and let me snap some shots real quick.  They have no problem with the request, and one of their chicks even snaps some pics of me in front of the sign with my camera, so I then thank them and ask them to join me for a few.  They comply and we share some jokes/stories, but they still didn’t invite me to join their biker gang so I jump on Churro so he and I can get ahead of them….pfft like they could catch up to us, even with the bags and guitar, we move like lighting!

So the road is great, it takes you through the forest, with a bunch of curves, but it is nothing to write home about.  I was thinking it was going to be like Northern Thailand, which had so many switch backs that you eventually want a few straight aways just to mix it up….but really Mil Cumbres is just a curvy road through a beautiful area.  Unfortunately the forest is thick, so views of the surrounding mountains are very rare, and stopping for pics in the good spots is pretty much impossible…..but the few times there are views they really are amazing.  Plus I am doing it on  loaded KLR, not exactly the bike of choice for this type of ride.  It was still a blast and I will definitely do it again, hopefully without bags.  Plus as I said I just don’t care anymore, this was 6+ weeks ago, I was probably more excited back then, but now you get blah as my memory of the day is pretty much lost.

Waaaah.

Ok, maybe I better head to the beach soon for some surf and really recharge, my blood is probably low on salt.
More photos of Queretaro