PowerCycle

02/27 Found a nice spot to pitch the tent tonight down along a huge dry river bed. Apparently the land is used for grazing given the large amount of dung, the donkey that I can hear but can’t see and the flock of sheep that are grazing on the other side of the river. The clanging bells should let me know if the come by my tent tonight.

Lucked out twice today. The second time was when I lost the liter of water I’d bought so I’d have enough for the night. Fortunately it fell off when I pulled off the highway so I just had to walk back a little ways to get it. It kind of sucked that it fell off right next to a rotting donkey carcass though. I guessed it fell there because I swerved hard to get upwind.

The first lucky thing happened when I found a bike shop the same day that I noticed a 1 inch gash in my front tire. The same front tire that lasted almost 12,000 miles. It was time to part with it though. The guy at the bike shop spoke a little English and I found out he was from Fort Myers. He was pretty impressed that I rode all this way so he’s going to hang the tire up on his wall. I bought a US $10 replacement with a sweet red pin stripe on it. The make is Winsor (never heard of it). I was going to have him adjust my derailleur but he scared me a little when he started talking about popping links off the chain. I declined that fix for now.

Update: OK make that 3 things. The sheep were being herded by Alfredo. I saw him walking up the creek bed so I went over and asked if I could camp here for the night. He was cool with it after a little reassurance. I don’t think he would have seen me but he had a rather large machete and I didn’t want to surprise him. He said something about policia like maybe he thought I was one. Somehow I think drugs were a concern of his because he made some kind of motion like he was injecting something into his arm. I could see this area being pretty good for growing cocoa (did I spell that right?) so maybe the police have raided this place before? The craziest part was we actually had some semblance of a conversation. He didn’t understand when I tried to say acampar (camp) and when I showed him the word in a phrase book he still didn’t understand but I think he might not be able to read.

Had a great ride on Mex-95 today. There was one little climb but a couple wicked downhills that had me hugging the curves. A headwind kept me from breaking any speed records though. Nice shoulder the whole way. Hope it lasts. The scenery was gorgeous. Riding down canyons with huge hills on both sides can’t bee beat.

GPX Track