Well, I'm finally on the road again after four months of "Harry Potter School" as my friend Marni calls it.
I have to say that today was one of the harder days of traveling. Not from the riding perspective though, that went very smoothly. I put in about five hours of riding and crossed over the boarder into Mexico with no difficulties and made it to San Christobal de Las Casas for the night. Its a very touristy little town in southern Mexico. I didn't even have any of the usual (two or three times a day on most riding days) "close calls" with assorted livestock and random vehicle behaviour on the roads. In fact, there is actually very little traffic around these days. I'm told it is due to the much increased fuel costs - people have just stopped driving for the most part.
No, the difficulties today, were all internal.
When most people think of motorbike riding, they immediately imagine the freedom and the variety of exotic experience etc... and so they imagine the good stuff - and true enough, there is plenty of that. Then the next thing they think of is usually the dangers involved of riding in foreign countries with third world facilities and legendary bad drivers... and this is some of the bad stuff. But in truth, I have to say that this is not as bad as imagined and the feelings people have (initially including myself to a certain extent) are usually just fueled by lack of knowledge and good old fashioned paranoia!
But, for my money, the hardest thing about motorbike touring is always "leaving".
Ive just spent four months in one place. I got comfortable with the area, and I made some really good friends. But now I have to go, so I just have to say goodbye and leave it at that. I will likely never ever see many of those friends again. And I'm driving away from comfortable familiar surroundings into the unknown yet again. To do this takes a great deal of energy, and it doesn't seem to get much easier with practice. Every time I spend a week or more in one place it is the same struggle to leave!
It is a perfectly Buddhist exercise in "letting go of attachment" - and its bloody hard!
I think there are very few people (Id guess at 1 or 2%) who could manage to do solo motorcycle touring as a life style because of this one factor!
So, for me, today was emotionally quite mixed. As I rode along, I could watch the whole "zoo" of emotions passing through my mind. There was good and bad and past present and future etc...
It started out tough but got better as the day went on and I rode along the yellow serpent of the dividing line painted on the road.
I'm sure it will feel even better tomorrow.
I have to say that today was one of the harder days of traveling. Not from the riding perspective though, that went very smoothly. I put in about five hours of riding and crossed over the boarder into Mexico with no difficulties and made it to San Christobal de Las Casas for the night. Its a very touristy little town in southern Mexico. I didn't even have any of the usual (two or three times a day on most riding days) "close calls" with assorted livestock and random vehicle behaviour on the roads. In fact, there is actually very little traffic around these days. I'm told it is due to the much increased fuel costs - people have just stopped driving for the most part.
No, the difficulties today, were all internal.
When most people think of motorbike riding, they immediately imagine the freedom and the variety of exotic experience etc... and so they imagine the good stuff - and true enough, there is plenty of that. Then the next thing they think of is usually the dangers involved of riding in foreign countries with third world facilities and legendary bad drivers... and this is some of the bad stuff. But in truth, I have to say that this is not as bad as imagined and the feelings people have (initially including myself to a certain extent) are usually just fueled by lack of knowledge and good old fashioned paranoia!
But, for my money, the hardest thing about motorbike touring is always "leaving".
Ive just spent four months in one place. I got comfortable with the area, and I made some really good friends. But now I have to go, so I just have to say goodbye and leave it at that. I will likely never ever see many of those friends again. And I'm driving away from comfortable familiar surroundings into the unknown yet again. To do this takes a great deal of energy, and it doesn't seem to get much easier with practice. Every time I spend a week or more in one place it is the same struggle to leave!
It is a perfectly Buddhist exercise in "letting go of attachment" - and its bloody hard!
I think there are very few people (Id guess at 1 or 2%) who could manage to do solo motorcycle touring as a life style because of this one factor!
So, for me, today was emotionally quite mixed. As I rode along, I could watch the whole "zoo" of emotions passing through my mind. There was good and bad and past present and future etc...
It started out tough but got better as the day went on and I rode along the yellow serpent of the dividing line painted on the road.
I'm sure it will feel even better tomorrow.
