Looking for intel on Mexico. Leaving from Laredo TX, no reason just trying to avoid Tamaulipas as per US State Dept.Here is my tentative route, I'm looking for your guidance and expertise. This is my first Adventure Ride. I am a "Harley Guy" with many miles in the saddle across the US. I'm a complete NOOB to this type of trip. I don't drink or smoke and will not be visiting any places that would be suspect. Just there for the adventure...No hablo español

I plan on riding 85 to 850 to 40 maybe stop at Parque Nacional Cumbers de Monterrey for 1st night or pushing through to Matehuala, San Luis Potosi. Ideas, comments or advice for my first leg?

Down 57 to Teotihuacan get some Aztec Culture. Ideas, comments or advice for my second leg?

Shoot over via 132D catch 136 to 140D/143 to 180 and hit Heroica Veracruz just because of a Warren Zevon song...but am open to hit some other gulf town of interest. Ideas, comments or advice for my third leg?

150D to 145D, 180, 180D, 186 to Palenque, Chiapas see the Mayan Ruins.Ideas, comments or advice for my fourth leg?

Cross over into Belize at the Corozal, Comité Proterritorio, Chetumal, QR crossing than into Guatemala at Benque Viejo Del Carmen. Ideas, comments or advice for my fifth leg?

Head over to Yaxha - Nakum - Naranjo National Park. then meet my daughter in undetermined Guatemala location. Ideas, comments or advice for my sixth leg?

Donating bike at end of journey to a sustainable farm. Flying back to Michigan. Want to find a KLR650 at a reasonable price outfitted and updated to accomplish this.

I know I'm asking a lot, any advice would be appreciated, Thanks!

Er ... uh... sorry to shock you , but Nuevo Laredo IS IN TAMAULIPAS too .

But really that does not matter a whit.
Your State Department warnings are very cautious statements and if you were to take them to heart you would never visit Mexico ever. And that would be a shame .
What you should be doing is getting actual background info on any recent events that might relate to ANY of the border crossings you might think of using and base your go/ no go decision on that .
Within the last year I have used the crossings in Matamoros, Reynosa and Nvo Laredo ,Mexicali and Ojinaga with no experience of danger.
Flare ups of a type involving police and army activity can happen anywhere but then the situation will stabilize . Become aware of where those " hot spots " might be at the time you plan to travel and decide on the border crossing point then .
Do your own research and make a judgement .

Yes you do have many questions and an obvious lack of good information. Let's see how we can help you in the next while. Your naïveté is endearing ( to some perhaps ) but it could get you into problems.
Please leave any notion of iron butt style US rides behind you when you cross the border. For your first day of your first trip into Mexico trying to get to Matehuala is wildly , dangerously optimistic. And your guess about finding a place for the night inCumbres de Monterrey shows you do not yet understand what that park is .

A pm is coming your way.


As to finding a good recent vintage kitted KLR I don't think you will have much trouble there , folks here are always praising their eBay finds .

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Your State Department warnings are very cautious statements and if you were to take them to heart you would never visit Mexico ever. And that would be a shame .

I get it...That is why I am posting these questions. I only picked Laredo because I could get out of Tamaulipas faster that way. I used to have family in McAllen and went to Matamoros often during the 80s. I have been given advice by them to stay away.

Please leave any notion of iron butt style US rides behind you when you cross the border. For your first day of your first trip into Mexico trying to get to Matehuala is wildly , dangerously optimistic. And your guess about finding a place for the night inCumbres de Monterrey shows you do not yet understand what that park is .

Hahahaha, yes we Harley Dudes do Iron Butt riding it's true, just did a 1000/24 two weeks ago with my Club Brothers. But the distance from Laredo to Matehuala is only 336 miles. Are you sayng a 400 mile a day average is too optimistic? I thought I was being realistic. Would stopping in Monterrey be better? It sounds like you are saying I have not planned enough days to ride through Mexio...Please let me know.

As far as "Staying in the Park" I imagined it was a drive through the mountains with some turnouts on my way to Matehuala. I plainly asked for suggestions and advice for each leg of my trip...

I appreciate your input Sjoerd, that is why I am asking these questions. I thought I could get some great tactics and reconned routes. I stated that I was a NOOB in traveling in Mexico. All good stuff, thanks for your help. I think as a maiden voyage, this should be doable...

Yes 400 MILES in a day of riding in Mexico is too much for fun or comfort., trust me.That is over 600km,and get used to km because that is what all the road signs and the distance reference markers are given in. No big deal , don't waste any time converting.At your normal travel pace it takes about an hour to cover 100 km so treat the the upcoming distances like decimal divided hours, easy peasy - like 275 km could take 2 and 3/4 hours.
But the kicker is that you will not be able to travel at such a steady speed , there will always be slowdowns for many reasons - traffic and changeable road conditions, towns and villages, gas stops and just going slow to enjoy the scenery. And for goodness sakes don't let yourself fall into the gringo trap of immediately getting onto any and every express toll road to avoid experiencing Mexico.
You say you " used to have family in McAllen" who now advise against travel there. Not questioning their motives , but if they no longer live in in McAllen their current advice may be unreliable, reflecting the views of the slanted USA news reporting.Many Americans living in the border area have never set foot across that border yet readily spout off on the danger they perceive .
On your first day beginning at Laredo you will use an hour or two in the combination of border processing and carefully finding your way out of town. Don't race out in a panic, get a look around .Stick to the LIBRE to Monterrey.
Thread your way through and by the time you are to the entry road to Cumbres de Monterrey, aka " highway 20" atCola de Caballo waterfalls your day will be so far used up it will be time for a hotel there.You will not want to start into that section before evening .
The curvy 20 does take you across that great bunch of mountain scenery but it should take you hours before you come out the other end onto Mex 57. It is surprisingly wild and rugged and worlds away from Monterrey just on the other side of a ridge or two. Rustic villages and little hardscrabble farms ,great scenery and slow going.
So no , 400 mile days are not something to try for. Remember no riding after dark..... livestock on the roads, debris, stalled vehicles without lights and major headaches if you have a flat tire.
If you get a KLR you will be set for relaxed cruising and exploring and never worry about feul because they have a tank with a 500km range- more than you should want to use in a day.

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Stated in a slightly different way, consider this:
On your ironbutter rides you can't tell me you cover that distance between a civilized relaxed breakfast and dinnertimes with a leisurely lunch and roadside stops thrown in.I wager it takes you between 16 or 18 hours , close?
Remember , you are planning the trip for December into the tropics, not June in the upper midwest where you have long daylight with lingering twilight at either end.No riding the highways in Mexico and CA after dark•
With the short daylight of the season and normal lifestyle habits you have only
about 8 hours on the road available before you need to find a place for the night . So your 1000 MILE = 1601 km day " ain't ever gonna happen in Mexico" and realistically even HALF that distance is impractical unless you get up an hour before sunrise and do nothing but push and ride from the moment you have light .That is no way to treat a trip like this , your first experience of Mexico.
Your ironbutt ride amounts to THREE DAYS and MORE of riding in Mexico and CA . Don't treat it like a nuisance in the way of getting to your destination point .
If you can't afford the time or patience then get an airplane ticket .
Done properly you wil have plenty to keep you entertained en route
while covering around 400 km ( yes) each day . Less is just as much fun .

Re: donating the potential KLR at end of trip- is that really a practical idea? Consider if you want to RIDE BACK if you have so much fun on the sway south?
Also if you donate ( DUMP) the bike there will YOU pay the import taxes for the recipients ? A KLRis a big tall heavy machine not of much interest to the local youth, so it will be little use except for tall gringos. As usual with donated vehicles the recipients have no mechanical aptitude nor money nor access to good technical assistance so the bike will quickly Degenerate to scrap and immobility at the first minor problem.If you want to give them support in their missionary position one would think money would be the most useful.

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Wow! 250 miles/400 klicks? That seems really short. Iwasn't trying for 1000 mile days in the saddle but 250 miles seems really low. I am aware of the metric system...I served in the military and NATO standards were our standard. You sound a bit condescending hahahaha.

Great info about the short days...I did not factor that and you're right our midwestern summer days are long and we ride sun up to sun down. Thae last 1000/24 took 19+ to do but we took our time and took some back roads.

I did understand that there was to be no riding at night. I had not planned to do that at all.

I had planned 5 days to get through Mexico. It looks like 7 days to get to Guatemala, does that seem better? Then do 2 days, lyout the 3rd day in Guatemala? More like 300 mile/490 km? I really appreciate your comment "That is no way to treat a trip like this , your first experience of Mexico." You are absolutely correct there. I do want to enjoy my journey. BUT I can't just tool around either I'm on a mission.

Sadly I will not be traveling back north...I will have to leave the scoot. I checked with InGuatdeTurismo they seemed happy to help facilitate the donation. The farm seemed happy to have an extra vehicle to use. There are many international workers evidently.

Help me out bro, don't tell me I can't do it. Tell me how I can do it. I'll listen to you and accept your experience and knowledge.

When I rode through Mexico, both ways, on my Central America trip, I'd be lucky to cover 400ikm's in a day. The only exception was on the way back in northern Mexico where there was no traffic and straight, beautifully paved roads. I left from south of Chihuaha at 6:00am and managed to put in 850km's by 2:30pm and found a motel in a dusty town before the heat did me in. I was also on a mission to get home to BC for an appointment.

I took all the "libres" (free roads, mostly two lanes). I'm sure you can travel a lot faster through the country by taking the "cuotas" (toll roads) but you won't see much of Mexico that way. Fives days to cross Mexico, or even 7, seems to me like more of a race rather than an adventure trip. From the looks of it (I've only travelled some of the shorter sections of this route in the south) you've chosen regular non-toll roads. Those are pretty much all two lanes with lots of traffic including slow moving vehicles and a steady stream of oncoming traffic, making it difficult to pass. Don't expect to be getting anywhere in a hurry. Back home in BC, with our plentiful 2 lane highways I count on 100km's/hr plus breaks and I can usually stay fairly close to that. In Mexico I had to almost double my time ...and I'm accustomed to busy two lane mountain roads.

While I absolutely love Mexico, especially the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, Guatemala is to die for (OK, cue the dying jokes ). Only three days for Guatemala seems like self imposed torture. There's so much to see and so many amazing roads. Also, once in Guatemala you will "fondly look back" on Mexico. The roads in Guatemala are even twistier and you pretty much have to create your own passing opportunities, traffic permitting. Mexico is slow, Guatemala is slower ...at least compared to riding US Interstates.

Anyway, it's your trip and you can probably do what you're hoping to do. Expect to pay lots of tolls and expect to not see much of the two countries you're visiting. Expect to leave at the crack of dawn and ride all day chasing the sunset and hoping it doesn't get there before you do. Expect to not do a lot of sightseeing. Expect to drop the idea of first heading into Belize and expect to be picking a shorter and more direct route.

I have a few suggestions for sights and interesting things along the way through Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. But quite frankly, they all require more time.

Good luck on your trip. Any ride, no matter how intense, is better than no ride.


...Michelle

It's like that scene in "Stripes" with Bill Murray; "C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin."...I have really need to re-think my travel time. Thanks, I will try to see how much more time I can devote to this trip.

I really had no idea that it would take so long. First I get Sjoerd telling me I'm "danerously optimistic" with my milage, now Scrabblebiker...I can take a hint.

Looks like I have to go back to the drawing board.

Thanks for the help, I do appreciate the comments. I will post more once I get a better idea of re-routing and stops.

THANK YOU MICHELLE for those words from real experience . We are getting the message through to him now
I had another note assembled last night so here that is.

You CAN do it.
But you do need to adjust your plans .
Riding regular roads in Mexico at a tourist pace will take longer to match what your Midwestern daily rate of progress would be.
Riding 400km in a day in Mexico and CA while not using toll express roads can easily fill a day. If you stick to just riding the major highways and blitz by every town and village you could get over 500 km in the wide open northern desert regions but not in the crowded areas like around central Mexico ,Veracruz , Tabasco or mountain regions .

You could race across from Texas to the Guatemala border in 5 days IF AND ONLY IF you took the shortest route and toll roads.But that does not fit the routing you listed.
Also in your first post you mention a number of places and ruins sites you wanted to see. Each one of those can easily eat up a day in getting to the location and then actually visiting it.It is not like you will find everything neatly in a line .
Cumbres de Monterrey are but a time consuming wonderful detour. Teotihuacan is an hour or two off the " fastest route " and once you get there you can easily spend many hours wandering the site , the whole day no actual advance to GT will be made . Same for visits to VERACRUZ and PALENQUE. etc etc
Of course you should visit as many places as you can make time for , 7 days is better and MORE days could only be better still .
You listed in your first post the route plan going into Belize at " Corozal" ( really from Subte Lopez ,/ Chactumal MX ,to Santa Elena BZ. ) then into Guatemala .
Speaking of shortest and fastest route , do you know that there is an excellent border crossing from Mexico into the Peten of Guatemala which will let you chop off the day or two you would use to get to that crossing into Belize.? It is the El Ceibo border southeast of Tenosique and several hours from PALENQUE and it hooks you directly into the Guatemalan road network .
To do this apparently " once in a lifetime trip" you should free up lots more time for the actual transit to your destination. Probably you have committed the gravest error by setting a specific date for your arrival. That ties you down . Never make promises you do not know are possible .

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Okay, okay...I'm a little hard headed. I am trying to reconfigure my plans to do this...I'm trying to do 14 days. Does that sound better? I have to be with my daughter in Guatemala by 16 December 2016 to fly back to the states with her.

9 days through Mexico, 3 days in Guatemala with 2 days built in for the unexpected. Does that sound more realistic?

I was only going to Belize at the suggestion from the Guatemalan Tourist Board so I could hit Yaxha - Nakum - Naranjo National Park.

Sjoerd, I have been listening to you the whole time, I believed you, I just was in shock. With Michelle's added information I am a true believer!

Ha, I knew it ! You made promises before realizing what was involved.
But it is good to read now that you can come up with a two week spell to do this trip , much better.
And once you have done it there is a good chance you will trade the HD for a new comfortable lighter bike with high ground clearance and begin laying plans for another ride into Mexico .Wanna bet ?

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"Donating" the bike in Guatemala will cost the receiver quiet a bit of money and paperwork (I've done it several times) .

BTW , Yaxha, Nakum can be reached without going through Belice .

14 days is definitely more reasonable. It's all a question of what you want to see or not see. But I would consider a bit more time for Guatemala. It may be tiny compared to Mexico but the going is simply that much slower in Guatemala. As I mentioned earlier, your original plan could be doable ...but at what cost or sacrifice. I just went back to Google maps to retrace my route from 2010 and most of my days in Northern Mexico were around the 400km mark. My riding time in Guatemala consisted pretty much of full days of riding for a whopping 250 to 275km's per day. I'm sure you can cover more than that but it should give you an idea of what it's like there compared to Mexico, not even mentioning the USA.

I'm actually becoming quite excited about your trip and I'm always happy to see newbies heading out on adventures like this. The more we all travel and get to experience the wonderful people all over the world, the better off humanity will be.

...Michelle

Riding in Mexico is like riding on 2 lane back roads in the US. 250 miles takes a good amount of time, especially when you stop to eat the great food and see the beautiful things.

In San Luis Potisi, be sure to visit this hostel. I's owned by a biker and is super friendly.

Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende in the same area are wonderful.

In Guatemala, don't mis San Pedro de Atitlan.




A bit of a scary ride going in on a big bike but If I can do it, you probably can.

Great stuff!!! Yes, I will take twice as long as I originally planned.

Sojourn: I did make plans to be somewhere by a certain time...But, I can leave earlier so that helps tremendously. But, I will keep the beloved Harley , maybe add another bike to the stable? My church sponsors an orphange in Zambia, sounds like the next trip

Guaterider: I was aware of that. I was imagining stating a low value say $1000.00 USD then paying the import duty for them. Any idea what kind of money we're talking about? What expertise do you have with this? I'd like to hear any advice you might have.

Michelle: I will try to average about 350 km a day due to stops and sightseeing. I know I can do more some days, less others, especially in Guatemala. That makes it abound 10 days and would give me about 4 extra days to play with. I am excited for this adventure too!

VicMitch: Thanks for the shout outs and hotel info, plus the ride on 14...you did that on a Kingpin?

I really appreciate all the help. This site and the people are top-notch. Thanks! Sorry for all the Emoticons, but I just figured out how to use them.