DAY ONE: SAN LUIS POTOSI
Taking the Backroads
After many weeks and countless hours of preparation, planning, and spending money, it’s time.
Waking up at six, I set a goal to leave by 10 AM. I had futzed around so much the day before configuring my Cardo helmet intercom, Carpuride Display, and mobile phone that I had drained the bike’s battery. A few hours on the charger and it was good. I finalized my packing and put the bike in gear at 10:37 am.
This first day is one of finding a rhythm. There is the rhythm of riding, which is essential. Starting a big trip, I question everything, including my riding abilities. Thoughts of potential problems cycle through your head. The shit I thought I forgot to pack. Then there is the rhythm and ritual needed at your first town stop: take a couple of one-way streets the wrong way, illegally park the bike, seek the best lunch in town, and take the requisite iconic photos. You need to find a way to carry a heavy jacket, helmet, gloves, phone, and camera and try to not look like a dork.
I don’t know about my dork quotient on my first stop, but I do know that somewhere along the line, I lost my stylish and protective Spanish leather gloves. Fortunately, there was a moto shop close by, and I bought some cheap motocross gloves, which turned out to be quite a bit cooler, so maybe it was fortuitous. Carelessness creates new opportunities for change in one’s life. So yes, it was a philosophically valuable loss.
My lunch town was Ocampo, Guanajuato, about 90 minutes, mostly north of San Miguel. An agritown of about 25,000 people, it’s not remarkable—just a working person’s town. However, any first stop on a long trip is special. Checkpoint completed, you are now officially chasing your adventure. You order lunch and realize you’ve left expensive Disneyland San Miguel behind.
While I didn’t have time to stop, I’d still tell you to visit El Cóporo—a 1,200-year-old hilltop city built by nobody-remembers-who on the northern frontier of Mesoamerica, quietly aging while almost nobody bothers to go.
But for me, it was time to shove off to San Luis Potosi, a new destination for me. Arriving on a Saturday late afternoon, I found Centro hopping! Hopping the way a city center of 900,000+ people hops. Many weddings and Quinceañeras that night.
The city of San Luis Potosi is located on a fertile central plateau and is the state capital. It seems a proud, handsome colonial city, one that most tourists skip, which adds immensely to its charm. It has a genuine, lived-in quality. The historic center is compact, anchored by an impressive cathedral and jardin. The neoclassical architecture is quite fine. There are several large churches and expansive plazas within a dozen or so square blocks.
San Luis Potosi deserves more than an overnight — and it’s three and a half easy hours from San Miguel on the back roads. Go there. It’s real Mexico.
Here’s a short list to entice you:
*Their Tianguis has over 6,000 stalls
*Leonora Carrington’s museum is housed in a former state penitentiary
*It was briefly the capital of Mexico
*Their enchiladas are orange
*The plazas are filled with clowns, one of them being clownish for 40 years
*A replica of Jesus’s house sits in the middle of the city.
*It has a National Museum of Death – I need to go.
This is going to be an inexpensive trip. My daily expenses were 300 pesos for fuel and 125 pesos for lunch. Those who travel with me know I seek out inexpensive, quirky accommodations. This night I did splurge on accommodations, paying 1,400 pesos for a room, twice my usual budget. This time I went for the historic Gran Hotel Concordia.
Tomorrow is Finding Rhythm.