Morelia

Well I’m not really sure how I did it, but I busted the sidewall on the rear MT-90 Scorpion.  I discovered this about 5 minutes before I was going to leave S. M. de Allende.  I must have run over one of those numerous metal things, which resemble a piece railroad track  embedded in the cobble street, but sticking straight up a good four inches above everything else.  Really strange.

Anyway, I had the tire guy down the street put a patch on the sidewall but I had my doubts it was going to work (I’m running a tubeless rear and didnt want to put in a tube just yet).  It worked well enough to get me to Morelia via the pavement as it only lost about 7 pounds of air over 4 hours.  So, time for a new rear tire.

I pull into Moto Altavista – Morelia, a Suzuki and KTM dealer, and low and behold they have a rear Scorpion that fits.  Bingo.  I’m lucky, its the last one they have.  How much?  M$1680 pesos, installed.  Its OK, I can spoon the new tire on myself, I planned on doing that anyway.   If I want to do the install myself, how much would it cost?  M$1680 pesos.  Hummm, thats a dilemma.

These folks literally dropped everything they were doing at the time and started on my bike.  How cool is that?

The boys in the shop looked pretty competent as I was watching them work on all types of bikes, mostly EXC’s and XC-W’s but a few 640 adventures, RMZ’s and Honda CRF’s.  What the heck, have at it boys.  They had the new Scorpion mounted up in no time.  Cool, this is going to take all of 20 minutes out of my day.

Then, they started cleaning my chain and sprockets.    After that they brought out the Simple Green and the power sprayer.  I told them that they didnt have to clean anything, but the quite stern reply came back in Spanish of course, “dude, relax.  This is what we do for you long riding gringos coming through.”

Wow, cool!  One guy scrubbed on my bike for almost a hour!  Wait, how much is this going to cost?

Well, I have a new rear tire mounted, my bike was all shiny clean, my oil checked, my chain adjusted, cleaned, and lubed.  Besides that, the owner of the store sat down with me on the computer and worked  out a route to the Michoacan coast.  Still only cost me $1680 pesos.  Just that tire costs about $145 bucks in the states.  In retrospect I should have had them change the oil as well!  Wow, you guys rock!!!  Moto Altavista, Morelia  – Highly Recommended.

I wasnt quite sure about this place when I got here the other day.  It seems that I couldnt find any of the budget hostels listed in the Lonely Planet book.  So, figuring that I was just an idiot, I stopped and asked directions.  However it was really strange.  Every time I would say “buenas tardes” people would shake their head and shake their finger at me.  Whats up with that?  I know I dont smell that bad.  I said the right words with a smile even.   Interesting, this place is about a friendly as the anger management convention.

Oh well.  I did eventually meet some nice folks that would talk to me, but its a way different vibe than Zacatecas and Guanajuato.  More of a big city vibe, but this really isn’t that big of a city.  I guess I just got used to the friendly people in Zac and Gto.

OK, well now is when I walk around the city and take more boring pictures of…………………….you guessed it, churches.  I know you’re all bored with this, but indulge me one more time.  The main cathedral in the city centro.

more old buildings……..

some people………

some people and birds……..

A door.  I love these old ornate doors.  Too bad I cant take a decent pic of them.

An old aqueduct…….

Some Communist dude that I think is pretty famous down here……

And finally, dinner!  That was the coldest Negra Modelo that I have ever had, and man, was it ever good.

And some ugly looking dude eating the dinner.  Jeez, I need a shave and haircut, badly……..

It was a short stay in Morelia.  Its really a pretty cool city and worthy of at least 3 or 4 days minimum.  However, I came here to get a tire.  I’m kind of burned out on big cities, old beautiful churches and constantly ringing bells right now. so I felt the need to move on.  If you take the time to look around this place a little more than I did, I’m sure you will find that its a fantastic place, and most likely one of the coolest larger cities in Mexico.  So if you come here, plan to spend a little time.  I think it will grow on you.  Sadly, I didnt even scratch the surface of the place.  Maybe next time.

Saludos.