on and clung on to it for dear life as
the police cheesed it down the mo-
torway at 80mph, at night, with us on
the back.
We arrived at a hotel about 20
minutes later and were told there was
no room at the inn. One of our new
friends in blue, walked in with us
and asked again, suddenly there was
a twin room available and we stayed
the night in relative luxury. Really,
we had been saved again by Josue
and the global biker community. It’s
amazing how people who own motor-
bikes pop up to save you, all around
the world.
The following day we fixed the
tyre and did a few kilometres up to
Puebla where we decided to relax for
the afternoon. Next, we set off north,
headed for Queretaro.
We racked up another couple of
hundred kilometres when we broke
down once again! Another flat!
This time it was the sidecar tyre.
Again, we couldn’t plug it. It was
leaking from a patch that a Colombi-
an guy had put on back in Pasto. We
couldn’t believe it. This time there
was no Josue so, with no mobile
phone, and nobody to call anyway, we
put our thumb out and hoped for a
saviour.
The recovery guys came again.
They blew up our tyre and it held
long enough for us to get in to a
roadside cafe. We sat down, grabbed
a coke, ordered a massive Torta and
rang for a proper recovery truck
through our Mexican road insurance.
They arrived 6 hours later - 6 hours!
We stuck it on the back of their
truck and once again headed off
to the nearest town, around 50km
north, where we could repair the
tyre. The following morning, we
fixed the tyre and drove back to the
spot where we broke down because
our journey had to be a full circum-
navigation by scooter and sidecar, not
scooter, sidecar and recovery truck.
After the nightmare past few days
TRAVERSE 78
the jinx was lifted and we managed
to make our way north to the states
relatively trouble free.
We absolutely loved our time in
Mexico and think it is an adventure
bike riders paradise! I’d recommend
anyone to travel there. You’ll find
ancient history, colonial architecture
and a super modern capital city. The
people are incredibly friendly and
whether we were exploring the amaz-
ing countryside, chilling on the beach
or watching our football team lose in
the capital city’s bars, we felt nothing
but welcomed. All of the travellers
we met in South America who had
come through Mexico had told us that
they got stuck in Mexico for months,
when they had only planned on
weeks. We can see why and had we
not been chasing down the Alaskan
winter we might have too! MB
To see more about As Seen From
The Sidecar or to become involved visit
asseenfromthesidecar.org