April 30th, 2016
Our second day in the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca includes another 1092m in elevation gain, and more flat tires.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Wild Camp MOFN (km 97), Oaxaca, Mexico
Destination: Wild Camp near San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
52 km trip, 4:53 time, 53.5 km/h maximum speed, 10.6 km/h average speed
Route Description
After you start the day and ride for about 6 kilometres there are two restaurants at the 103 km road marker. We thought we were at the peak after climbing to 2167 meters at the 117 km marker, but it wasn’t. You then begin rolling hills where you descend for a short time before climbing more. It’s rolling hills for the rest of the day. At the toll booth we decided to head into the small town of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca to get food as the prices near the toll booth were very expensive. The food in town was not less expensive. The hotel was 300 pesos. The town was pretty deserted and not worth the stop for us.
Accommodations:
There is a hotel in this town for 300 pesos. We decided to wild camp between the highway and the town. There are lots of un-fenced opportunities and it is easy to find a place.
What happened…
Andrew writes: What a shitty way to start the day. I wake up, make breakfast, eat, load up the bike, wait for Amanda to pack up and just as we are about to set out, I notice that I have next to no air in my back tire. Had I noticed it earlier, maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to drink my coffee and be in a rush to leave. I couldn’t quickly locate the source of the leak and so I just pumped the tire back up to 70psi and hurried after Amanda who had left at my request. Then, just as I reached the top of the first hill, I could audibly hear air leaking out of the tire. The hole in my sidewall that I had painstakingly patched yesterday had cracked open again somehow. Out came the needle and thread, and the super-glue, and the cardboard and I decided to try again. This time also, I swapped my front and rear tires, so that there would hopefully be less pressure. ARGH!!! SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!!
Amanda helped make the day a little brighter by buying me an early Coca-cola at the first store that we went to. The cold, fizzy bubbles tickled my nose and put a smile on my face once again. The sugar restored my energy so that I could tackle the next hill. It’s the little things like this that make our partnership so great. We each know how to help one another through the bad times like this. Thank you sweetheart!
We came to a bit of a crossroads today after lunch (spent sitting inside of a gas station store, in the blessed shade). We saw a sign directing cars down the ‘circuito turistico’, a distance of about 110km in total passing through a variety of towns. Each one with a (beautiful I’m sure) church, and artesanias, ancient ruins and hotels too. We decided to keep to the pista, which ends up being much shorter, and probably less busy route.
Eventually we wind up in S.J.B. Coixthualaca (famous for its’ mushrooms??) where we check out a hotel, but just end up buying food from. The elevation is a bit higher than that of the pista, and from our wild camp spot we could look down upon it. We are far enough away however, that we can’t hear any traffic noises. This is the first time I think that we’ve used our tarp as shade, and it was nice to just sit and read. Surprisingly the rock around here doesn’t appear very dirty or have many thorns either, so it was a nice spot for camping today.
Amanda writes:
As Andrew said the flat tires we’re incredibly frustrating. Perhaps my frustration stems from the fact that we’ve now spent no less than 4 hours on flat tires in the last couple of days. Maybe it would be less frustrating if I didn’t think it was preventable. I may have mentioned how I think we should have stuck with tires we had before since we got over 7,000 kilometres on them before our first flat. Or maybe part of it was that I recall how Andrew’s side wall bursted. Oh well, we’re safe and we’ll figure it out. I just hope that we can find new tires somewhere in South America because I fear that the days of flat tires will continue with the ones we bought.