What happened…

Andrew writes: A couple of things stood out for me today. First the terrain really reminded me of the Oregon coast as we would climb several times to 150-200m and then go right back down. Below us the waves would crash against the rocks or the beach. They are huge!!

I recall vividly some of the wildlife too. There was a boa constrictor that had gotten smushed and was on the side of the road, and a turtle, and a big iguana. All smushed.

Finally, the town that we rode through on our way to the beach to setup camp. It was poor. No one smiled. No one talked to us or asked questions. A lot of my questions were met with blank stares. Actually everyone stared at us too. It was kinda weird.

We had a pretty awesome beach camp and setup a shower and a cook station and it was nice. The water didn’t look very inviting because the giant waves were breaking, 15 feet high, right on the edge between water and sand. And there was a scary point too when Amanda got my attention and we both watched three men with machetes marching towards us. They also had some moonshine or alcohol de Cana which is a manufactured moonshine. So I cut them off at the pass and tried my best to be friendly and practice my Spanish, and everything was fine in the end. I think though that we are a little on edge because of the reputation for violence here in Michoacan. We’ve been through a few naval checkpoints and witnessed other less official people walking around or sitting with guns. There are slogans against the corrupt government painted on every bridge. So yeah, we are a little nervous.

An update on the three men. They came back through out camp around 2000hrs. The young one in the lead was singing, and the two behind slurring along. Two of the three carried long/large tree branches. The third just stumbled along drunkenly, although he wished us “Buenas Noche” as he staggered past.

Amanda writes:
Today included a lot of slow climbing. Our average speed was terribly slow, however somehow we were okay with it because Sebastian had warned us a day or two ago. The scenery was beautiful. As we continued to roll through a town here and there and buy drinks we were often greeted by people who would continue to warn us. Today we had a store owner who told us to be careful. He told us that people sometimes get robbed on the road and that we should watch out. On we went with more warnings along lightly traveled roads.

We decided to pull the plug in a very small community because we could see that it was on the ocean and we liked beach camping the night before. As we rolled into town it had a different vibe from the others. We soon recognized the feel of an indigenous community with traditional roots. It reminded me of some of these similar communities in Northern Canada and even one we came across in Montana. People living simple lives by choice and perhaps living in less than desirable conditions. There was a transportable medical truck on site in the town square to offer medicine and medical help to the locals. The people working on this truck were the only ones who spoke to us and smiled; the locals didn’t appear to appreciate our visiting.

After stocking up on food from the local store we headed toward the beach as our map showed. The closer we got to the beach, the further we got from the houses. It was interesting that most of the houses were away from the ocean. I mean weird, the ocean is beautiful and the white sandy beach is glorious; why didn’t anyone want to live near it? So we go down to the beach and there are some cattle and a couple of donkey’s hanging around and we see an old palapa and we proceed to set up. It provided lovely shade and just beside us was a fenced area for the tortuguilla’s (baby turtles) hatching. We made dinner and set up the tent and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the waves crashing (with of course roosters crowing in the distance). I started to do the dishes and Andrew was walking towards the turtle fence to hang the solar panel for charging, when I see three men with machetes walk around the corner looking like they mean business. I was between Andrew and the men and based on recent warnings and the fact that we were clearly in a community that didn’t support the local police I was quick to call for Andrew. He saw the situation developing and the non-smiling faces of the men and quickly turned around to get to them before they got to me.

As Andrew discreetly folded up the solar panel and greeted them I took notice of their frowns and clear plastic glasses with clear liquid, which clearly wasn’t water. Instead it was the pure alcohol that is designed solely to get you shit faced drunk. As Andrew said hello I wandered over to my bike to grab my pepper spray and pocket knife. I just worked diligently at the dishes, kept my head down and put on more clothes than I had before and tried to not be seen. I watched Andrew to see if I got a sign from him at all that he wanted me to join him. We later chatted about it and my intuition of not joining in was a good one. These were three macho men only wanting to chat with another man and not be interrupted by a woman. It was a bit scary at times because I could hear snippets of the conversation. Words like big problem, money questions, where are you from, dangerous, etc. I of course was thinking the worst and painted a picture of them saying our being here was a problem and because we’re from Canada we would need to give them money. In fact they were just asking questions about our trip and like everyone else telling us we should be careful. Andrew was great in working his charm with the three bandits and I’m grateful he is so good with people.

While it all turned out well there is part of me that thinks it sucks that we are sometimes defensive based on warnings from others. We declared when we left that we feel like people are all good inside and don’t want to harm others. The other part of me while holding on to that belief still thinks it’s good that we are careful and a bit defensive just to be sure.

Today’s Photographs