PowerCycle

Woke up to another beautiful sunny day. The owner of the motel pointed out a good place to grab breakfast so I walked over and sat down like I knew what I was doing. No English speaking people here but hotcakes are universal so I ordered some. Then he asked if I wanted a quesadilla or what I thought was soup. I wasn’t looking for soup so I said quesadilla. He brought out some syrup and butter and then sat down what looked like minestrone soup. Figuring he just made a mistake I dipped in the spoon and ate a bite anyway. Well it was salsa and it was hot. Oops. Hotcakes were good though.

On the way back I was introduced to the guy that was going to drive me to the bike shop. I can’t recall his name though. The owner told him what I was looking for in case the bike shop people couldn’t speak English and we were off. The first place was closed but we ended up at a bike shop called TNT. They had 3 new presta tubes for me and a new pair of bike shorts. The spandex pair I wear under my baggy mountain bike shorts have a nice rip in them at the seam and I wanted to try a different pair for another reason. After just a couple days of riding the sore spots on my rear are coming back again. I’m pretty sure I know what it is now. The bike shorts might help but I think part of the problem was that my bike seat was too high. I lowered it a little and we’ll see if that helps.

On the way back to the motel we drove a little out of the way and got to see the touristy areas of Ensenada and some local hot spots. The two soccer fields in town were right up there on the list. The main street where all the gringos hang out is called Avenue Lopez Mateos. The street pictures below are all from there. I didn’t want to see just the jazzed up area of the city so I walked over a few blocks to Avenue Juarez.

What a difference. This was the real part of the city. The sidewalks were filled with people, music was playing from every store and vendors had just about everything displayed in stands right on the sidewalk. Compared to gringo avenue, where very few people were strolling along, it was like night and day. The sidewalks were in pretty bad shape and the buildings didn’t look postcard perfect but I felt more comfortable here. Shop owners weren’t trying to lure me into their stores, people weren’t following me down the street trying to sell me cheap silver necklaces and I didn’t feel like a tourist. I was dressed like one in my flip flops and shorts but I was already sticking out since I’m 6′ 3″ and no one else came close.

Staying in town tonight at Motel America. It’s cheaper than the place last night at only US $25 (or $25 dllrs as they like to use in Mexico).