motosouth: We met mama in Oaxaca

Well we made it by some miracle to Oaxaca within an hour of our mother and stepdad. There were a lot of long days riding, and we drove 2500 miles of coastline and didn't get in the ocean once, but we made it mostly in one piece. We have very sore butts, and are glad to stay here for a while. In Acapulco Eric slipped on some oil and dropped his bike which broke the clutch lever. Thankfully we had a great group with us who helped to get things fixed within an hour, which included Mario finding a clutch lever in a little shop on a GXSR (the owner insisted on GIVING it to us!) which we had to file down to fit and Marcel knowing how to hot-wire the clutch release relay. Amazing! Somehow this would not have been so easy in the USA.
The drive up to Oaxaca from Puerto Escondido was breathtaking for its beauty and lack of oxygen (went over a 9000 foot pass within a few hours of the ocean). We passed countless bicyclists riding up crazy steep hills on single speed bikes, one with a cinder block strapped to his back. Ate lunch made by a lovely grandmother and granddaughter in a large shack alone in the mountains, huevos con chorizo with freshly made tortillas....mmmmmmm.

We will go to language school for a couple weeks here now before continuing south. Oaxaca is a lovely town. Below are some pics from along the way showing the mountains near Oaxaca, the rooftop cabana we stayed in right on the beach in Puerto Escondido, and one of the many beautiful beach vistas that we drove past.