November 7th, 2015
After beaching it up yesterday, it’s uphill for 30km, flat for 30km and down 30km all the way to La Paz on a nicely paved, sparsely populated highway with a nice wide shoulder. Reaching La Paz, the shoulder disappears, as does any semblance of order and respect towards other users of the road.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: El Pescadero, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Destination: La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
88.87 km trip, 5:36 time, 42.9 km/h maximum speed, 15.8 km/h average speed
What did we lose today?
Today’s instalment is brought to you by Andrew. As Andrew spread his things out in multiple areas of Kevin’s place his cycling gloves and a rag for cleaning the bikes was likely buried amongst some of Kevin’s things. We set out without the gloves thinking he must have packed them. Later in the day we learned that they were not in fact in his panniers.
What happened…
Andrew writes: We spent a lovely day yesterday relaxing in the Mexican fashion. We rode our bikes down a dirt road to the beach, and spent a few hours lying in the shade, swimming in the surf, lying in the sun, and watching some really good surfers enjoying head-high surf. I find myself most surprised at how hard it is to stay on budget here. Somehow I think that restaurants in Mexico serve up super-cheap food. The reality is that they serve up really GOOD food, which all adds up at the end of the day. Even with free accommodations, we’re hard pressed to stick to our $30 budget for the last two days. Kevin was gone all day, and we went to bed around 2100hrs and he still wasn’t home. So we had the whole place to ourselves!
Going to bed so early was part of our tactic to wake up before dawn and enjoy as much time on the road without the hot sun on us as possible! So when my alarm went off at 0530hrs, we snoozed until 0630 before waking up. While making breakfast, we ended up waking Kevin, and that just led to us talking to him until after 0830hrs. Reminding myself that there’s no rush, I was able to enjoy the time talking to him. I was goofing around on my tin whistle when Kevin recognized “Danny Boy”, and this triggered a memory he had of cycling across America with his father back in the 1980s. He showed us a small slide show he had made up for his Dad’s funeral, which included pictures of their trip together. It made me think about how I always wished that I had gone on a bike tour with my dad but it wasn’t meant to be. Kevin is such a nice guy, and I hope he is able to learn to surf, and to learn Spanish, and serve as a role model for our future selves!
So there we are on the road by about 0900hrs, and the route itself was rather unremarkable. We had a long way to go today, between 90-100kms to get to La Paz, and it felt like it was uphill the whole way. I’m full of joy all day because now that my drivetrain is fixed, I can just sit in my middle-ring up front and just spin away. Amanda struggled a little bit getting into her “granny” gear for a few of the hills, and hopefully we can get the kinks worked out over the next few weeks as our new parts wear in. Maybe the only poopy part of the day was the weather, as the further into the day we got, the harder the wind blew, and it was a headwind the whole time. I took the lead, and Amanda drafted behind me. Amanda took the lead at one point, but we just end up going even slower then. Still, I appreciate that she wants to share duties up front.
We saw a touring bike in La Garito propped up outside of a restaurant and went inside to talk to Ramiro, a Mexican who is cycling in Baja. He has ridden from Mexico to Argentina before, as well as in Cuba twice, so we had lots to talk about. Usually when we meet other touring cyclists, we are standing on the side of the road, and so I was really happy to be under the shade of a palapa, with a drink in my hand, as we sat and talked to Ramiro. He has a very spiritual approach to cycling, and I feel that he and I share a spiritual connection also. We are both born in January 1979, and we both also played goalkeeper in a youth soccer program. The similarities are almost endless!
We stopped for lunch and had a beer sitting out in front of the OXXO convenience store in San Pedro. I thought back to when we were sitting outside of the General Store in Tulameen, BC, drinking our beers while the children licked their ice cream cones. This is one of the things I enjoy about Mexico. No one hassles you! It’s a good life! So while the day felt long, we got to La Paz near 1600hrs, and found our Couchsurfing host without a hitch.
Carlos is a language teacher, and he speaks English, French and Spanish fluently. He’s also very friendly, and was quick to offer us a ride in his truck down to the malecon (boardwalk) so that we could take in a special La Paz sunset. We shared good conversation over ice cream, and then a ramen noodle dinner. Carlos is an interesting person to drive with, and every time he would start from a light or stop sign (of which there are many) it would be a test to see how quickly he could get his truck up to 80km/h before slamming on the brakes and starting again. He weaved in and out of traffic, and I was really glad that I was riding shotgun, and not Amanda. I don’t think she would have handled it as well. Still, he got us home before we turned into pumpkins and as the clock struck nine, ding, dong, we curled up on our air mattresses on Carlos’ floor and were sound asleep instantly.