May 2 - Oaxaca to Izucar de Matamorros - 255 Miles

When it comes to riding for the pure joy of motorcycling, today was one of the best ever.  We rode for about 200 miles of mountains and uninterrupted curves.  For the motorcyclist who loves controlling a powerful, good handling, fast bike, this route was the best!  Not too many villages to cause slow downs, not too many Topes, very little traffic, and great riding on the ridges of the mountain chain, all made for a great ride.

The scenery didn't cause any distraction from riding today, because after 25 mountainsides all looking their parched worst, it was "If you've seen 25 parched mountainsides, you've seen them all".  It's becoming very clear that Mexico has a terrible drought problem.

We started the day by going to the ruins of "Monte Alban", and enjoyed seeing the differences between it and the Maya and Toltec ruins.  These  people at Monte Alban sat atop a giant mountain, surveying their domains and subjects in a great basin caused by a Caldera of volcanoes.  The mountain upon which Monte Alban sits must have been a volcano in the middle of the caldera, with all of the surrounding mountains forming a huge bowl.  They were there for perhaps 1,000 years, and most of what one sees now is from their Classic Period.

Burros, burros, and more burros (and sheep, goats, and cows).  That's what we saw grazing along the roadway while riding today.  The little burros were cute, and for the most part seemed to be wild.  We must have seen at least 50-60, seeing 1,2 or 3 at a time.  They were always just off the shoulder, and the traffic didn't bother them.  Once today and a few times in the last few days we've seen little burros with pack saddles on their backs, waiting for their masters to take them somewhere to work.  And in the past two weeks, we've seen several times little old men with their little old burros, either pulling a wagon, or with a pack with firewood tied four feet high on the little critters, or being ridden.

As for the sheep, goats, and cows, it is apparent that these animals don't get enough of the good grass where their owners live, so the owners herd the sheep and goats to graze along the roads.  The owners are there with their herd, just patiently watching to make sure the little critters don't get run over.  The cows just seem to be loose, and one sees them all the time along the roadway.  Fences - who needs fences?

At one town, we got to be a parade for the local folks.  The little village was having a Bicycle Race, probably with local kids and young men.  As we came toward the village, we went by one spot where the 3 or 4 leading bicyclists were making the last U-turn on the road.  Slowing down, we went into the village to find that the whole town was gathered to cheer on their favorites.  It looked like they were going to have a parade as soon as the bicyclists arrived.  They looked at us like we were part of the parade, because they hadn't ever seen big motorcycles like Gold Wings.  We felt pretty special.

All in all, a really fun day!

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