In Jalpan you can find a couple of simple but nice hotels and some restaurants. Another possibility to spend night is to ride a few more miles west to a place called Conca where you 'll find a hotel with Spa to relax from day's ride and get ready for rest of trip.

After Jalpan our next stop and final destination is Xilitla, so you head north-east till you reach state of San Luis Potosi.

A few miles after crossing state limits in middle of mountains, at about 3,300 ft asl, in a rain forest of incredible vegetation you get to Xilitla.

This town was chosen by Sir Edward James, a surrealistic British artist - also noble and rich -, to spend rest of his life. It is in this place he built a huge garden, a private zoo and a meditation place in middle of jungle. Its very difficult to describe it with words... Maybe photos in this site can help: http://www.junglegossip.com/.

In Xilitla you can stay in Castillo "The Castle" house of former Sir Edward James' right hand and friend: Plutarco Gastelum. This exclusive Bed and Breakfast is unique in its kind and you can see, feel and breath influence of artist everywhere.

Another possibility to spend night is to ride a bit more to north and stay in Ciudad Valles an important city of San Luis Potosi state where you will find all kind of hotels and restaurants, night life etc.

My recommendation... stay at Castillo, forget about your ride and enjoy for a whole day this Mexican Shangri La.

After spending whole day in Xilitla prepare for a long ride back to Queretaro. For this one I like to leave early in morning and keep, if possible, a fast pace. Turn, turn...

We are talking about many miles and literally hundreds of twisties... Once my wife counted them... She stopped when she was at 500th and we hadn't arrived back to Queretaro City yet!

It's so fun that time flies and suddenly you realize it's all over and you would like to turn around and do it again...

You know feeling right?

Another possibility from Xilitla is to head to famous Huasteca Potosina a zone of exuberant rivers, waterfalls and springs... But that area deserves a whole article by itself. I will be writing it in future.

If you liked trip I described and want more information about great motorcycle rides in Mexico and/or to contact me for any other issue please visit my site at www.japanese-motorcycles-only.com.

Enjoy ride!

Daniel Levy

P.S. Below you will find a few facts about this ride.

Facts about ride:

Difficulty: Intermediate-Advanced Recommended time to enjoy trip: 3-4 days Total length of ride: about 600 miles. Checkpoints: Queretaro-Bernal Bernal-Military Checkpoint Military Checkpoint-Pinal de Amoles Pinal de Amoles-Jalpan de Serra Jalpan de Serra-Xilitla

Weather: normally clear and dry with exception of rainy season from July to September where you can find some heavy rain.

Recommended Map: Guia Roji Mexico Tourist Road Atlas. You can find it at Amazon.

The Japanese Garden of Monaco was designed at request of Prince Rainier who thus fulfilled a desire Princesse Grace had expressed during her life-time. The garden was designed by landscape-architect Yasuo Beppu, has 7,000 square meter, its construction took 3 years and it was inaugurated in 1994.

There are some specific elements:

* The wall (Heï) with an intermediary bamboo fencing (Takégaki) that stands for fragility and simplicity.

* The main gate (Shô-mon)

* The stone lanterns (Tôrô) - each having special different characteristics;

* The lake (Iké) with large swishing gold fish.

* The stone fountain (Fusen-Ishi)

* The covered terrace (Kyukeïjo)

* The islands (Shima) - represent two long-living animals - tortoise and crane, symbols of complementarity expressed

* The Tea house (Chatshitsu)- named Garden of Grace (Ga-én)

* The dry landscape (Karésansui) - quintessence of Cosmos

* The Belvedere (Azumaya) - a house on a hill allowing view in all four corners

* The waterfall (Taki) - symbolizes strength of Man and Nature, contrasting to horizontality of lake.

* The arched red bridge (Taïkobashi) - is red, color of happiness and is narrow so as to make access to divine island more difficult.

There are olive trees, cherry trees, conifers, azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias, a varried, rich vegetation of Mediterranean, South American, Australia, African and Asian origin, pruned according to Japanese tradition.

Walking in crowded Monaco, with all its stone, steel and glass, you can find in Japanese Garden a peaceful, green oasis where even great number of tourists passes unnoticed, wandering on winding paths, through thicket of garden.

Laura Ciocan writes for http://www.ilovemontecarlo.com/ where you can find all you want to know about living in Monaco