PowerCycle

03/19 It doesn’t matter how much water you have with you– when its scorching out nothing beats a cold drink. I almost hugged the lady in a little out of the way restaurant just past where I thought the town of Santo Domingo would be. For the last 20 miles I’d been drinking warm water from my bottles which does nothing to cool me down. I need to find a sock to wrap the bottles in– I hear that helps a little.

This area, also called the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is reputed to be one of the windest areas in the world. Luck was on my side though, I just had a light breeze all day. Boy was it hot though. Tomorrow will be a short day because there’s a climb back into the Sierra Madres waiting for me after the city of Tapanatepec.

Being such a windy area I wasn’t surprised to ride by several large wind turbine farms. What did surprise me were just how many turbines weren’t spinning. Maybe 20% were operating in some capacity. Shockingly, there’s some controversy behind it. The Spanish companies came in after getting the government contracts and gave the Mexican landowners (farmers/ranchers) contracts that they couldn’t understand (most can’t read or write– this is one of the poorest states in Mexico). This was just fine with the Spanish companies. They just promised a steady income from the electricity generated in exchange for rights to the land. The farmers bought it.

It turns out that they ended up paying the farmers a fraction of what landowners in other countries would get paid, the electricity generated wasn’t used locally so prices remained unchanged (its being sold to huge companies like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and Cemex) and they rendered much of the land useless for the farmers by building 50 foot wide roads and fencing off huge tracts of land. They also didn’t do a very effective environmental study because many endangered birds use the area during migration and now they are all messed up.

So the turbines not working are because some of the Mexican farmers are refusing to let the Spanish companies back onto their land to fix the broken ones or get new ones online.

Karin and Marten decided to stay in Salina Cruz for an extra day so I set out on my own this morning. Maybe I’ll run into them further down the road when I find a place to hang out for a couple days. They hooked me up with a great present so every day I’ll have something to remember them by. The picture is below but its a waterproof Ortieb bag just perfect for keeping dried food in. My oatmeal has a new home. Thanks guys!

Finding a motel in Niltepec was an unexpected treat. A cold shower never felt so good. The shower was a suicide shower but the heater wasn’t working. I didn’t care. The room even has an AC. Now if I could just keep from setting the kickstand on my bike down on top of my foot I’d be pretty happy.

GPX Track

03/18 Salina Cruz is so not a beach resort town. After out flanking a massive political rally I headed into town to see the ocean and find a motel on the beach where I could relax in a hammock and down a cerveza or two. The closer I got to the ocean the more decrepit the condition of the buildings became. I quickly realized staying on the beach wasn’t going to happen.

A huge wall runs almost the entire length of the town so I had to ride up a small hill just to see the ocean. The water looked clean enough but damn was the beach ever a mess. It was completely deserted which didn’t surprise me. There was garbage and an amazing amount of broken glass in the sand for as far as people could throw it. The city is known more for its the huge oil refinery so maybe people avoid the water because its not as clean as it looks? The only public buildings open that overlook the garbage beach were 2 rundown restaurants, both of which were empty. What a shame letting a resource like the ocean go to waste. If they cleaned the beach up someone could make a killing by opening a nice bar/motel.

The wind wasn’t bad at all and its supposed to weaken a little tomorrow. It picked up a lot once I got here. There’s no way I’d be riding in it now. I know of 3 riders now that had to hitchhike in the last couple days to avoid the wind because its been so strong.

I was eating in a cafe when I saw K/M ride by so I ran out to get them (and probably scared my waitress). They are staying here at the hotel now too.

The political rally I mentioned was in full swing when I rode up to the tail end of it. There must have been 5000 people walking up the street while a guy with a microphone led them up the road while he yelled out whatever it was had them marching in the first place. The amazing thing to me was the complete lack of police. I didn’t see any; not even in front blocking cross traffic. That was pretty cool. The mood of the crowd was very calm which was good because if it was an anti-American gathering I was severely outnumbered.

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03/17 The big hill ended up being bigger than I thought. The weather was favorable which helped. Cloudy with a nice cool breeze makes for good climbing weather. The ride back down was fun but the scenery wasn’t quite as nice as it was for the last couple days. Had 2 dogs run after me but a dirty look scared them off. I think my dog Dazzer is broken. I don’t even try to use it any more.

Tomorrow might be a short day because the Pacific Ocean is just a quick 30 miles away and I might not get to see it again for a long time. The city of Salina Cruz is a little out of the way but there might be a side road that gets me back onto the highway without having to ride back up the same way.

Saw K/M having lunch at the side of the road which was nice because they left an hour before I did so I didn’t think I’d see them all day. We met up again in town and looked for a place to stay. There’s a motel but we wanted to see if camping at the police station was possible. It was but the places available to pitch the tent were kind of exposed for my taste and the wind is brutal so I rode over to the motel and got a room. K/M were going to stay but the wind drove them over here too. It was so strong I saw it blow the tin roof off a shack. We had to ride into it for a little but luckily we were in town before it got too bad. There’s a big lake at the edge of town and I rode over to check it out but it doesn’t look like any of the land along it is developed. My dreams of staying in a lakeside cabin in Mexico might have to wait.

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03/16 Low miles today but it was intentional. There’s a big hill waiting outside town and 50 miles to the next stop. The weather has been perfect for so long now. I feel like I’m getting spoiled. It was 93 F today which wasn’t bad at all for riding. We were on the road by 7:30am but by 8:30am it was hot.

The only exciting event on the ride today was having 2 dogs come running after me. I had to bust out my bamboo stick but no contact was made. I found out later they came after K/M too. The long descent was down a canyon that provided some gorgeous scenery. It’s cool seeing a line of green grass/trees growing in an otherwise very arid place.

Staying in a motel that has something that no other motel has had so far–an air conditioner! There’s even a pool in the back. I passed on a swim because the water looked a bit too risky but the teenagers that came over are having a great time back there. K/M are here too. Riding with them is great because they are excellent cooks.

Sleep was hard to come by last night. If I got 2 hours rest I’d be surprised. The gas station had a lot more traffic than I thought it would and the 3 dogs that stay there barked all night. I think I’m going to set up my tent just a little further from anything prickly next time. The tent survived but I backed into a cactus getting inside and that does not feel good.

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