November 8th, 2015

What happened…

Andrew writes: It’s weird. Maybe I’ve been spoiled with too many feather beds lately, or maybe it’s just my “Princess and the Pea” complex, but I had an uncomfortable night last night sleeping on Carlos’ floor. It was too hot, then the A/C came on and it was too cold, then too hot. My back ached. I “slept” for as long as I could before giving up. Looking at the clock it was 0730hrs. Ok, time to get up.

We goofed around on our laptops while sipping coffee and enjoying breakfast. Then, we took off for a bike ride around La Paz. Surprisingly, despite driving all over the city last night with Carlos, somehow the streets didn’t seem to be such a labyrinth, or the city limits to be as large as we imagined. We reached the malecon in no time, and rode along its’ length for several kilometres. We stopped in at the ice cream joint from last night. Ramiro showed up! He had just cycled in from San Pedro (where we had lunch yesterday). Once again, we sat in the shade with Ramiro and enjoyed a good talk. Then he settled in to watch soccer on TV, and Amanda and I went off in search of another cycle tourist who had ridden by earlier.

Our search took us to the Rin Rin Pizza parlour, and though we never found the cycle tourer, we did enjoy a couple of slices of pizza pie and a bottle of Pacifico. As we were about to leave, I saw someone ride by, loaded down with baggage, and I called out to him. He stopped, and turned around, and that’s how we met Mike Dits, from Illinois. He has been on the road since August, and told us he plans to cycle “around the world” over the next 3 years. What a coincidence! That’s what we’re doing too! Too bad all of our pizza was gone, or else we could have sat and chatted for hours. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be, since Mike was trying to get to the ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Mazatlan and continue his ride south. Perhaps we’ll meet again!

Arriving back at Carlos’ home, he invited us to go and see a movie, which was in English with Spanish subtitles. I was beat from riding around in the sun all day and instead, Amanda and I sat in the dining room computing while listening to Gladys (Carlos sister) sing beautifully to a collection of Katy Perry, Beyonce, and the Beatles. I asked her if she understood what she was singing, and she told me she knows some of the words. I’m often amazed at the power of song, and how it crosses the boundaries of language. Carlos spent some time teaching Spanish to Amanda too, which hopefully comes in handy as we cycle through Baja. Maybe he taught her some new swear words I can use…

Today’s Photographs