Starting a business really doesn’t allow you to take months off to go on vacation. So, with several days off for Christmas and New Year’s we took advantage and headed down to sunny Puerto Vallarta to spend the holidays with family from across the country. No vacation that we at AltRider take is complete without a motorcycle adventure.
Before we left, Jeremy searched the forums for people to ride with and places to rent but got little back (unlike our South African journey). So we started our search in town for ANY type of motorcycle we could rent. We ended up with a late model Honda XR250. We admit there were some interesting changes Honda has made to this classic dirt bike: it now has 6 gears and no kick start, electric start only (not great). Otherwise it’s the same machine outfitted with driving lights so it’s street legal (unfortunate for us Americans this great little bike isn’t available as a street legal model). While small, it comfortably fit two of us. If you’re headed down there go see Miles at coolrentals.com.mx.
As for the riding, we sailed down the cobblestone streets (even when wet), through the winding hills (with barely visible speed bumps), and passed many a vehicle (far surpassing the intended passenger capacity limit). It must be admitted that the rider had a bit more fun than the freaked-out passenger (that’d be Brianna… yes, this was a part of the inspiration way back when to get her license). One of the best little trips on the bike was to a restaurant south of town called Le Kliff – where we enjoyed a nice dinner while overlooking the ocean from different “cliffs”.
Jeremy did get to have his own adventure, solo. He did take to the beach, kicking up sand and getting the crazy-gringo comments and looks. Later he was the entertaining uncle that rode wheelies down the street while the rest of the family watched from taxis. His four year old niece was most impressed by this.
Jeremy also ran into a group of adventure riders, several on KLR’s, one on a BMW and one KTM LC4. They had all met while on the road down there. Who knows, maybe we will run into them again…this community is big, but there are still a lot of connections.
