PowerCycle

12/29 Lot’s of hills today. Not kidding. They were brutal. None were very steep but they were huge and there were a lot of them. I was very glad to finally get to Tepic. It rained last night so the humidity really kicked in. I burned through a lot of water which was bad because of the route I took.

I cheated and rode on Mex-15D for most of the day. 15D is the toll road vs. 15 which is the free or Libre road. Having a wide shoulder makes all the difference in the world. Being able to ride without having to constantly watch for vehicles coming up behind you makes for the much more relaxing day. I did have to worry about the police pulling up and telling me I couldn’t be on the toll rode but I don’t think they care. Two police cars passed me and kept going and I didn’t have a problem going though 2 manned toll booths. As long as you stay out of the toll booth lanes by keeping to the far right, on the sidewalk if possible, they’ll let you pass. The only real problem with the toll road (Couta) is that it skips all the little towns and there are almost no services. I didn’t hit a place to get water for 35 miles and had that place not been there I would have definitely run out.

I’m missing my Canon camera today. Kept seeing huge lizards and lots of birds I’ve never seen before. They were too far for the P&S camera so I didn’t bother trying.

Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get some sleep tonight. The $7 a night room I stayed in last night had some design flaws: the adjoining walls didn’t quite reach the outside wall or the ceiling. So at 3am and 4am when my neighbors got up to take a shower, go to the bathroom and go to work I got to hear everything.

After paying for my room with my credit card and then sitting down to eat dinner the waitress comes back and tells me my card was declined. My bank’s fraud department said they didn’t see a reason but I’ll have to call back during business hours. I checked online and there’s no balance so it’s not like I was late or anything. What a pain. At least the call won’t be horribly expensive now that I’ve finally embraced using Skype. Two things I wish I’d thought of before leaving on this trip: bringing a 2nd VISA card (nothing else is accepted down here) and bringing a 2nd ATM card from a different bank (for backup). Both things I have; I just didn’t think to bring them.

Update: Tried the credit card for breakfast and it worked fine.

The hotel is called the Zar and its rather fancy. The room is spacious and everything is new and clean. The shower was awesome. The noise for the heavy trucks using their their engines to brake is the only thing that ruins it.

12/28 I knew this would happen sooner or later but my Spanglishareds is failing me. That’s Spanish-English-Charades which is what I’ve been using to communicate with people here. The further south I go the more people have no idea what I’m saying. It’s getting to be very frustrating and of course it’s my fault for not learning Spanish before I got here. I’ll have to check my Visa and see how long I had left because I may stop for a couple weeks and take a Spanish Immersion course. Guadalajara probably has something so I’ll check next time I get Internet access.

The seat change made a big difference. My miles were low for the day but even if I’d ridden longer I think the discomfort would have been tolerable. The skinnier seat is the way to go it looks like.

The highway is still horrible for riding on. Further north it wasn’t as bad because there wasn’t drop if you did run off the road. All day today I had to ride with a shoulder drop and fairly busy traffic (car/truck passes at least every 20 seconds). The toll road, with its wide shoulder, would be nice but I don’t think the scenery would be nearly as good. It also skips a lot of the little towns that I like riding through.

Rosamorada is another town that only has one main road leading from the highway down into the town center. Navigating in smaller towns like this is so easy because the tallest building is always the church and it always sits next to the town square which is where all the stores and most of the motels are. The motel I found was only US $7.75. No hot water but the room is much bigger than the place last night. This place doesn’t have a toilet seat either. I might have to start packing my own.

You get tell not a lot of Americans visit this place because the entire time I was walking around people stared like I was from another planet. A few people tried to ask me things but I have no idea what they were saying. Sucks for both of us because I always have a bunch of questions from things I’ve seen during the day and there’s no one to ask.

In one of he outdoor bars I dropped in for a beer. The bartender and 2 customers were up at the counter (guy and girl). The guy kept trying to pimp out the girl to me which made for an uncomfortable drink because he kept using the p word to describe her and the group at the far table probably heard him (a kid was sitting at the table too). Needless to say I didn’t hang around.

I was going to have PB&J for dinner but this guy set up a hot dog stand right below my window and boy does it smell good.

GPX Track

12/27 Another painful day. I’m going to switch seats tonight and see how the narrower one does. I can’t take too much more of this. Riding is hard enough on this road without having to shift around in my seat all day.

Beautiful scenery along the highway pretty much all day. The free road ran more or less parallel to the toll road but it wasn’t as flat which worked out perfectly because the views were better. There was one stretch where they joined together and I got to enjoy a luxury that I haven’t had since I left Mazatlan–a wide shoulder. It was kind of funny in a couple spots where they had rumble strips set up to slow traffic down. There would be a dozen street vendors lining the road with booth set up to sell what mostly appeared to be shrimp. Some of them even tried sell me some.

Staying at a motel in Acaponeta tonight. It’s a pretty big building and I thought it might be too expensive. It was only US $12 though. When I walked inside I looked up and was surprised to see that there’s no roof. It must get a little wet in here during rainy season. Walked around the town square for a bit checking out the sights. The central cathedral is huge. First town I’ve seen with a fountain in the town square too. There were lots of vendors sells pretty much everything on the outside edge of it. I bought a big chunk of what I think was honeycomb. Also got a big bag of dried fruit. Hopefully none of this makes me sick because all the food is out in the open and there were lots of bees enjoying the honey. No flies though so I should be OK.

GPX Track

12/26 So the grass is greener on the other side. Rain must be plentifully in this area because things are alive and well on this side of the Sea of Cortes. I wasn’t sure what the land was like outside Mazatlan but I’m glad it wasn’t more desert. Baja is the 2nd longest peninsula in the world and pretty much all of it was desert so I had my fill.

I spent way too much time trying to find a place to get some coffee on the way out of Mazatlan this morning. It got to the point that I was about to give up on breakfast and just leave. I ended up having Coke and some kind of shrimp cocktail thing. It was pretty good though.

The ride started off fairly flat but the free highway 15 started meandering back into the hills and stayed that way for the rest of the day. The highway is in a lot better shape than Baja. There are still no shoulders and traffic is heavier but at least there’s not a massive drop if you do have to bail off the road (I didn’t). Saw lots of dead things which made for a stinky ride at times. The biggest thing was a cow. Garbage isn’t as bad as Baja but it can still be nasty in places.

El Rosario is off the main highway and once you get past the huge gate the main road slowly gets smaller as it flows into the homes and businesses that sit side by side on every block. Some (homeless?) guy was standing at the side of the road with his junk hanging out when I first rode past the gate. That kind of ruined the quaint, Mexican village image I’d been forming in my head. The streets are crazy. Very narrow, usually one way and mostly cobblestone which made for some bumpy riding. There’s no way I’m walking around tonight without bringing my GPS. The buildings are very old but things seem like they’ve held together a bit better than the older sections of Mazatlan.

I finally gave up trying to find a motel on my own and asked a guy for help. He pointed up the street and said there was one right around the corner. Sweet. I would have never found it on my own. The only sign is the word “Hotel” painted on a light pole. Paid US $9.60 for a room. I’ve heard about this place from another bike touring web site so I wasn’t that surprised when I discovered how tiny it was or when I saw my very first electric shower head. I tried to ignore the exposed wire while waiting for the water to come out warm which never happened. I ended up taking a very fast cold shower. There are also ants crawling all over the place so I think I’ll sleep with some extra clothes on tonight.

The new seat I bought in Mazatlan hasn’t done anything to help with the chaffing problem I’ve been having for weeks now. After 20 miles it gets to be pretty painful not having 3 layers of skin where you really need it. I stopped and lowered the seat all the way which helped a little. I have one more seat that’s narrower so I’ll give that a shot if this one doesn’t work out. The Brooks went into the garbage before I left. It wasn’t even worth giving it to the bike shop.

GPX Track