April 15-18, Albuquerque to Monterrey, Mexico - 980 Miles

Of course, we were concerned that my record of the ST1100 would come up, and cause untold delay.  The "ST1100 record problem" was the one Alex and I encountered in 2002, when I took my Honda Gold Wing GL1800 motorcycle into Mexico, rather than the Honda ST1100 that I had taken in 2001.  The problem was that the Mexican authorities had not recorded on their computer the fact that I had brought the ST1100 back into the U.S. after riding in Mexico.  So the second time, 2002, they insisted that I was bringing motorcycles into Mexico and not bringing them back.  (They have a problem with motorcycle smuggling and selling on the black market).  We had spent about 8 hours at the border immigration point trying to get it straight.

Fearing the worst this time, I took all kinds of documentation with me, in case the problem showed up again.

Well, fortunately the problem did not occur, and we made it through quite easily.  

However, we had to ride so far into the interior of Mexico, about 50 miles, to get to the "Aduana" that we decided to go ahead to the next town to get a motel.  We did, but that meant riding after dark, not the best thing to do in Mexico, and the distance for the day was about 450 miles.  Riding in the dark went OK, and when we arrived in the town, we were very lucky in that two police officers in a police pickup saw us asking for directions, and came to our aid.  They led us through a labyrinth of streets until we got to a hotel they knew.  The hotel had a fenced parking lot, and the policemen said that they would drive by every so often to see that the bikes were safe -- really good guys !!!

The next morning we found our way out of that town, with the help of a motorcyclist who lead us to the main road, after I stopped to ask him for directions.

Then we rode down here to Monterrey, an easy day, until we hit horrendous traffic in this town of 2 million.  However, the Mexican police came to the rescue again.  While we were stopped to try to recover from a wrong turn, a motorcycle policeman stopped and asked if we needed directions.  He wound up leading us to where we could easily find our hotel.

The hotel I had selected from the AAA information on my mapping program had apparently been purchased by another company who had refurbished it into a high-end luxury hotel.  However, they just happened to have a special this weekend on their rooms, for essentially half price, and we just moved right in.

A major reason to visit Monterrey was that when Alex and I rode in Mexico in 2002, we went through Monterrey without stopping, but were very impressed with the sharp, rugged, high mountains surrounding the city.  So this time we took a day and went on a bus tour that would get us in the mountains, as well as see more of the city.

We went to "Grutas Garcia", the equivalent of Carlsbad Caverns.  It was way up on a mountainside, requiring a Tram to get people up and down.  The caverns were discovered in 1846, and have long been a source of wonderment with their huge rooms of stalagmites and stalactites.  The bus trip gave us ample time to watch scenery and observe the city.  Monterrey is a major industrial city with plants for building Ford and Chevrolet cars and Mercedes busses, as well as Caterpillar tractors.

Walking around the city's central plaza was very interesting also, with views of heroic statues of historic leaders of the various Mexican revolutions and battles.

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