What happened…

Andrew writes: Oh man, what a way to start the day. As I was getting ready to push my bike back to the road from our wild camp, I notice a giant, gaping hole in one of my panniers. The bag is held onto my rack by a plastic rail, and it ripped off at some point yesterday during the descent. I have spare parts, and I was able to repair it, but not before Jean and Gareth cycled off towards Nicolas Flores, about 6km away. They were getting “eaten alive” by bugs. So I got that fixed, and then started to bomb down the rest of the descent after J&G, except when I got to the bridge at the bottom for whatever reason, one of my panniers ejected completely. Things just weren’t going my way to start the day today.

It took another 90 minutes or so of climbing after this to reach Nicolas Flores, and when I arrived with Amanda there was no sight of our companions. Right there in the middle of town was a big farmer’s market though, and sure enough, in the town plaza I saw Jean. We spent maybe two hours eating in the plaza, and checking out the market. It was pretty cool also, the way that complete strangers would come up to us, greet us formally, bid us welcome to the town, ask us a few questions, and then very formally say goodbye. I haven’t experienced that kind of hospitality anywhere else in Mexico yet. One guy even gave me a bunch of my fruit for free when I went to buy it from his stall. And so with the sun breaking through the clouds, we all decided to call it a day and enjoy the warmth that Nicolas Flores had to offer. We found a hospedaje, and after getting settled, went back and hung out in the town plaza again.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet, and we all rested and recovered from the big climb and descent yesterday. Amanda was a little miffed because she had her heart set of a big ride today, but she was a real trooper about taking a short day.

Amanda writes: As we set out this morning the bugs were out in full force so I totally understood Jean and Gareth heading out. The climb was a good one again but we knew it was coming. I like knowing what lies ahead and Andrew is great about doing research on the terrain so I know what to expect. With that said I was mentally and physically prepared for the big climb after Nicolas Flores and frankly was looking forward to it. So when my three traveling companions announced they’d like to stay I wasn’t overly pleased however it was 3 votes to 1, so I compromised. That’s another new aspect of traveling as four … there are more people to try and please. Once we got to the hospedaje (hotel like place) and I saw how nice it was and reasonably priced I figured, oh well; we’ll ride tomorrow then. And while I learned to be okay with it I still thought a lot about only going 6 kilometres before stopping when we had planned to ride up a big hill. Live and learn.

The town was pretty cool. The big market in town was awesome. We enjoyed so much reasonably priced food and bought great fruit and vegetables at great prices too. After returning to the hotel I was able to wash a lot of our clothes and hang them to dry in the sun. The relaxing day was nice and we both got our own rooms so the little bit of space was welcome too. Gareth and Jean had the room next to us and they watched an episode of The Sopranos. Tonight they decided to not put in their headphones and use their speaker. I was tempted to go next door and ask them to plug in their headphones because I was trying to sleep but I didn’t want to be a bitch. I mean it was Saturday night and I was lucky there wasn’t a huge party going on. I just plugged in my own headphones with some music and tried to block out their show. Again, if that’s the worst thing to put up; our new team of four rocks.

Today’s Photographs