Merry Christmas to all my family and friends! This was my first Christmas on the road and it wasn’t too bad. Got a few calls into my family so it was almost like I was there (albeit via Skype).

The 24th or “Holy Night” is the end of a nine day celebration of the Nativity so it was a little louder around here than it normally is. Fireworks were going off (nothing extravagant) and toward the end of the night the kids staying here were outside beating a Piñata with a stick. It was actually pretty fun to listen to the kids yelling and the adults singing. Here’s a good site that describes how the holiday is celebrated in Mexico. A lot of places are closed but not everything and thankfully not the restaurants. PB&J on Christmas would be bad.

I noticed something on the trip map that I posted yesterday that kind of has me intrigued a little. OK, more than a little. Cuba is very close. I did a little checking and there are daily flights from Cancun to Havana. There are some considerations to making a trip like this; especially to a country that is considered an “enemy” of the United States. Legally I can fly there but I can’t spend any money. My status as a dual citizen (Canada/United States) doesn’t help me out here either. Could I get away with not breaking this law by bringing my own food and camping? For the sake of this publicly posted web site… you bet!

Lot’s more research is needed before I pull the trigger on this one. For one thing I’d need to figure out how to pack my bike/gear up for the plane ride over. I’ve read nothing but good things from the other touring riders that have been over there. Columbus even described Cuba as, “the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen.” How could I not go there?

One of the things I needed to do while I was lounging around here for a week was to figure out where I’m going next. After digging through web sites, my travel guide (Knopf Guides – Mexico) and checking to see if my road selections were feasible I think I have a plan. Here’s what I came up with:

There’s a fair bit of looping around to get to places but there are only so many (paved) roads. I wasn’t planning on heading over to the Yucatan but how could I not visit Chichen Itza? There are a so many amazing looking sites that I’m dying to get back on the road again.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell the dentist story. So I show up for my appointment and am told to head upstairs. The dentist lady is there and tells me to go ahead and lay down in the chair. I plop down and am momentarily distracted when she turns on some soft music. A second later a candle has filled the room with the scent of fresh roses. Was something lost in translation? Was I about to get a massage instead of a teeth cleaning? She walked over and sat down next to me and, much to my dismay, told me to open up. No soothing backrub for me. She ended up telling me I didn’t need a cleaning so I left. That seemed weird too. It makes me wonder if the dentist I’d been using back in the States was just going through the motions so they could bill my insurance. Who knows.

There are now 5 touring riders staying in the hotel here. Byron didn’t leave this morning and might end up staying through Christmas. Tom and Haley, who I met a couple weeks ago in Santa Rosalia in Baja, are here now. James is also here. I ran into him at the town square but he’d already met Bryon who told him about this place.

While wandering around this morning I passed by a dentist office. Figuring it was a good time for a cleaning I walked in prepared to be told it would take a couple weeks and cost way more than I’d want to pay (no insurance). My appointment is tomorrow afternoon and it’ll cost just under US $40. Holy crap. I’m going to learn the phrase “no extractions!” just so there are no misunderstandings.

Went over and exchanged my bike seat for one that fits the brackets I have. I tried it on but I’m not sure I’m going to like it. I’ll keep the Brooks just in case.

Now if I could just track down a supermarket I’d be all set.

Just read this interesting bit about Mazatlan while trying to find the name of the church I saw this morning:

The city of Mazatlan then got the dubious distinction of being the 2nd city in the world after Tripoli, Libya of being one of the first to suffer aerial bombardment. During the revolution of 1910-17 General Venustiano Carranza (later president) intent on taking the city of Mazatlan, ordered a bi-plane to drop a crude bomb of nails and dynamite wrapped in leather to the target of Neveria Hill adjacent to the down town area of Mazatlan. Well the bomb was crude and the art of bombing was cruder. The bomb landed not on target but on the city streets of Mazatlan and in the process killed two citizens and wounded several others.

I love Mazatlan! In fact I like it so much I’m going to stay here until the 26th. No point in spending the holidays stuck in my tent out on the road somewhere. This city is just amazing. I’m staying in Old Mazatlan, which is a far cry from the gringo tourist area north of here called the Golden Zone. I rode there yesterday and hated it. Hardly anyone was walking around and there were no cool street side stands. The big draw for the area is a McDonald’s, Burger King, Sam’s Club and I think I remember seeing an Office Depot.

The streets in this area are packed, its loud and the sidewalks are in brutal shape. In the States an area like this would have driven me back inside in minutes. Its different here though. The people are very respectful of each other. Not once did someone even bump into me or stop in front of me and block the sidewalk. There are virtually no extra-extra-large people so the rather confined sidewalks are easily navigable. Jay walking is rampant but the cars/buses keep a safe speed and stop if someone crosses in front of them.

The other touring rider staying here, Bryon (web site), is probably leaving tomorrow so it’ll just be me and the couple retired Americans/Canadians that are also staying here. Walking around town, I haven’t seen too many other Americans. There was one guy who had a Jesus thing going with all white clothes, a long beard and no shoes. Yes, he was walking around the city streets with no shoes on. Goes nicely with the somewhat socially accepteble habit of spitting that goes on here. There are a fair number of police walking around or riding custom mountain bikes. Some of them even have automatic weapons in hand. I think its mostly for show. I have yet to hear a single police siren.

Let’s see what else I’ve done. I went and bought 48 patches for my tire since I was getting low. That should hold me over (for ever). I bought a new bike seat but it won’t mount using the bracket I have. I’ll run it back over tomorrow and try to get another one. It cost about US $5. No more Brooks for me. Byron has a Brooks Imperial seat and he hates it. He ended up getting a new seat too. I’m glad I didn’t buy the Imperial in San Diego because I tried his and it wasn’t any better than the Champion I have. I also picked up a new water bottle cage to replace the one that broke when I ran into the taxi door.

After 10 months I’m going to get my sleeping bag washed tomorrow. I’m a little worried but I converted the cleaning instructions to Spanish for the laundry mat people so we’ll see what happens.

I took a picture of me standing in the entrance to the bathroom here in the motel room. I’ve probably smashed my head into the top of the (concrete) door frame at least half a dozen times so far.

Last night I decided to upgrade my web site to Wordpress 2.9. That was a miserable failure. I ended up staying awake until 4am after having to back out of the upgrade because the database wasn’t current enough. You’d think they run the compatibility checks before the actual upgrade process starts.

Update: I finally got around to finishing my Highlights page. The description at the top and the additions of Best Scenery and Biggest Annoyance were the only changes.

12/18 Here’s a short version of what happened over the last 24 hours. Rode 75 miles and made it to La Paz in one piece. Had a brutal headwind all day and some hills but nothing too bad. I was just really glad to be in La Paz. For the next couple hours I rode around the city checking out the huge street market and trying not to get run over. At 6pm, after finding a cheap motel (but not registering for a room yet), I headed over to an internet cafe. That’s when I discovered that the ferry to Mazatlan leaves in 2 hours and not again until Tuesday. There’s a Sunday ferry but I think that’s reserved for cows or hazardous materials or something.

The sun has set by this point, the ferry is 13 miles from the cafe and I’m tired and quite starving by now. I decided that 5 more days in La Paz would be less than ideal so I turned on my front/rear lights and started riding. It was a terrible experience and I thought of turning back many times. Riding at night is bad enough but I was on a rural road with occasional semi’s, cars, no shoulders and zero street lights. I wasn’t even 100% sure where I was going or if that was even the right place to buy a ticket. It was probably a stupid move riding out there but I was careful to move off the road when I needed to. The worst part was how tired I was about half way.

Somehow I made it though. I’d even found the right place to buy tickets. So US $130 later my bike and I were in line to board. Only problem was ticket salesperson thought bicycles were “cargo” and had me in the wrong line. I found this out after standing there for 20 minutes. Now I have 10 minutes to ride another mile to get to the right place before the ferry leaves. Brutal. Complaining wouldn’t help so I jumped back on my bike and raced over to the right place.

Finally I was on board and ready to go. They didn’t even check to see if I had a ticket. In the area where they had me park my bike I was happy to see 3 other touring bikes.

Funny thing is the ferry didn’t end up leaving for another two and a half hours. Not sure what the hold up was but I was kicking myself for riding like a madman fr 3 miles.

The ride across the gulf was 12 hours and it went pretty fast. After eating (cafe on board) my next goal was sleep. I didn’t get a cabin so at 11pm I curled up on 2 seats called it a night. The next morning I grabbed some breakfast and met some of the other touring bicyclists on board. Byron is heading down to Argentina. Chris is another guy that I first met in Alaska (still amazes me that you can run into the same people thousands of miles away like this). There were also a couple from Montreal but I don’t remember their names. They are heading north up the coast.

Once the ferry landed we all packed up and rode into town. Byron and I had a similar plan to hang out here for a couple days and figure out where we’re going next. We gave that even more thought while drinking Coronas down by the beach all afternoon.

Mazatlan is easily my favorite place in Mexico so far. From the bustling city streets filled with vendors to the sidewalks that that are completely different in front of every building it just feels different from the other cities. The town square was amazing as was the huge church next to it. More pics tomorrow. Best part– the motel is US $10.83 a night. It has hot water and a fan so I’m good.

GPX Track