What happened…

Andrew writes: Being a “side-sleeper”, I tossed and turned a little bit in the night because the hard ground dug into my hip a little. I know that I slept soundly at some point though because I had this vivid dream about the Vancouver airport having a petting-zoo inside, and Amanda and I were trying to make some crazy flight connections to get to Malaysia, on an airline that I’m fairly certain doesn’t exist. Everybody seemed a little bit more in-sync with the wakeup this morning. With our circadian rhythms restored, everyone was up with the dawn and as soon as we had packed up and warmed up in the frigid morning air, we set off towards El Palmar, about 14km away.

It took some effort to get there, immediately we had to push our bikes up out of the field where we were camped and then get on our bikes mid-hill and climb up a few hundred meters. We descended 50m according to Amanda before again climbing straight up a switchback section, of 200m elevation in 2km. This was probably our most difficult climb that I can recall here in Mexico. Normally the grades are pretty low, but not today! It’s all good, as upon arriving in El Palmar, there was a farmer’s market, and we spent probably half an hour mulling around buying this and that. In our case, it was fruit and veg. We all reconvened down the road in front of the town church, where we spent another 90 minutes chilling out. Amanda and I ate gorditas, with blue-corn tortillas (our first, and they were amazing!), Gareth likes to work out in his off-time, Jean drank a 1L banana yogurt. Everybody here walks to the beat of a different drum I think! A few ladies ended up spending about 20 minutes talking with Amanda. I’m so proud in her ability to practice her Spanish.

Then with the sun high in the sky, and about 15km under our belts so far, and the next major town 60km away, off we went. There was a brief spell on the main highway before we again turned down a secondary road (paved today!) and we spent about 15km mostly descending. After the early climbs in the morning it was heaven! Gareth powered on ahead of us, and I found him waiting in the shade of a tree up ahead a short while later. Then Amanda rolled in, and finally Jean. We spent another 45 minutes or so just chilling out. Jean was having trouble with the heat/sun. I’m going to put on my judgment hat for a second, and I think it’s strange that both of them ride without shirts on. Jean has a skinny tank top and shorts, and Gareth just rides in shorts. They spend all day in the baking sun. Meanwhile, Amanda and I are layered from our waist up in long-sleeved shirts, buffs, helmets, sunscreen and sunglasses. It is kinda cute when Jean asks, “Buggy” to put sunscreen on her back.

Right, so after the latest stop, we climb a little bit and then a fabulous ride down into the town of Bella Vista. This time I find Gareth sipping beer in the shade of storefront. We all crack a couple of cold ones and sit in the shade and enjoy the respite from the sun. It may have been sitting directly in the sun, but my thermometer read over 40C. I think it was more like 35C truth be told, which doesn’t seem to bother Amanda and I like it used to; ever since Cuba, we’ve been pretty good in the heat. So off we went again after another break. Do I sound annoyed yet? The riding pace, when we’re riding is good, but I’m not used to stopping so much. I think our total time out on the road today was about 8 hours, but you can see in our cycling stats that we only rode for half that time. It’s a period of adjustment for the two of us though, and we’re trying something new, so it’s exciting, and it’s not permanent. We’ll see how it goes.

Our day hit a bit of a snag as we started riding down, down, down after Bella Vista del Rio. We came around a corner, and there before us and below us was a lake. It was incredible! Perhaps mostly incredible because it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, here, in Mexico. The lake was created when they dammed a river back in the 90s, and we had passed the hydroelectric station, which serves the dam. And then after a few more curves, there was a tunnel. Not just any tunnel, but a tunnel guarded by a soldier armed with a machine-gun, and a whistle. Blessedly the soldier elected to use first the whistle to get my attention. He indicated that this was the first of three tunnels that go for 10km, and that we can’t cycle because it’s too dangerous. There is traffic to contend with (not any that we had seen), and also falling rocks. He did offer to help us find a ride in a passing truck.

We tried flirting, cajoling, begging, acting dumb, and finally, we agreed to sit and wait. It wasn’t long actually before a truck came along and picked up Amanda and I. I had a bouncy ride in the dark, in the back of a small pickup truck, with my legs stick out the back, as I clutched onto a bike on either side of me, wedged in between our bags. It was terrifying, speeding along in the dark, staring blindly behind me, while Amanda sat super-comfy in the front cab. It was over within a few short minutes, and I’m almost certain that we could have cycled through the tunnels and been OK. It was downhill the whole way even! On the other side, we waited for an hour before Gareth and Jean came in the next truck.

Sorry, I had to just interrupt writing the blog because a wind/sand storm blew in. While tents were blowing away, I managed to whip out my wind meter and measured gusts in excess of 20 knots (km/h?). First Jean and Gareth managed to grab all of their gear and set it up out of the wind. Amanda and I had a brief discussion and decided that since we’ll face strong winds like this in Patagonia, we should leave our things as they were. That lasted about 5 minutes, as the wind increased and the air became filled with dust. Fortunately, we were able to take shelter under the palapa of a restaurant, which is just at the other end of the tunnels. We’ve got a tough climb ahead of us tomorrow, but frankly we ran out of sunlight/time today and couldn’t get much further. Hey, it’s not a sprint, it’s not even a marathon, or a race for that matter. We’re just taking it one day at a time, and happy to face moments of adversity like tonight with friends around us.

Amanda writes: I usually blog after Andrew is done and it makes me smile. He wrote that he didn’t think Jean had the strength to ride. My impression is that Jean is strong enough and instead she chooses to walk because it’s just as fast and easier to walk. Speed wise again I was pleasantly pleased with the fact that at the end of the day we roll at the same pace. Yes Jean and Gareth take more breaks and that gives me a chance to catch up.

I mentioned in my post yesterday how it’s very interesting to travel with other bicycle tourists to see how we are the same in some ways and different in others. Andrew and I do cover ourselves up from the sun a lot more than others and while it is interesting that Jean and Gareth like to soak up the sun, it reminds me of other cycle tourist friends we know. I seem to recall Brandy and Lewis also enjoying some vitamin D on their skin so maybe it’s Andrew and I who are a bit different. Who knows and who cares; we all do what works for us. I’m thoroughly enjoying seeing how we all do things a bit differently.

The tunnels and having to shuttle through them were certainly unexpected. It worked out just fine and as we flew through the super dark tunnel I was glad we weren’t riding. Arriving on the other side we found what seemed like a nice camping spot and the lady said no problem. I could immediately tell that the wind was going to be an issue and suggested to Andrew that we find out what time she opened in the morning so that we could put the tent under the palapa and just be sure to clean up before she arrived the next day. Apparently my suggestion fell on deaf ears because after I bathed myself I returned to find the tent erected in the wind. In an effort to not come across as ungrateful that Andrew had set it up, I opted to not say anything and figured let’s give it a try. As Andrew mentioned above you know how this turned out. At the end of the night we slept safely and all is well.

Today’s Photographs