03/09 2 new tires are on the way. I emailed every US distributor in California listed on Schwalbe’s web site and most wrote back pretty fast. No one had the model that Schwalbe recommended though: the Marathon Plus Tour. Schwalbe did offer to send me the tires but shipping would have cost $100. I settled on the same model I have on the rear wheel now, the Marathon Plus. Rivendell Bicycle Works is sending them and I should have them Friday; maybe Monday. Shipping was $40.

I’m having them shipped to a bike shop that I found online. It was my first stop where I got here. The owner speaks English/Spanish but had no motivation whatsoever to help me order the tires. I’ll name names after I pick them up from his store. Bike shop people are either really nice or really dickish. There doesn’t seem to be a middleground.

I cheated and jumped on the toll road today. My GPS showed all kinds of tight, winding turns on the free road and that’s not good sign with all the hills. My legs were starting to feel it and another day of heavy climbing would have hurt. There were some long climbs on the toll road but these roads were designed to nearly identical standards as the US Interstate Highways System so cutouts were made to avoid really steep grades. There are also bridges. There are virtually none on the free roads. If a valley is in the way you are going down it and then right back up.

My friends Marten and Karin are a couple days behind me but we talked tonight and I should have some company for the weekend.

GPX Track

03/08 Two things of great importance to me died today. The first to go was the water immersion heater I picked up in Guadalajara. I’d heard they can have a short lifespan so I wasn’t too surprised. Fortunately I have another one. That thing saved me a fortune.

The second thing was my rear tire. It’s not dead yet but there is a tear on the side wall where it presses up against the the rim. The tube isn’t exposed yet but it won’t be long. It lasted 6000 miles. I have a spare Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire and can pop that on if need be. I need to find a way to get 2 new Schwalbe’s now. The Schwalbe Marathon Extremes seem like they’ll be the best ones for me. Oaxaca is the next big city so I might end up having to stay there a few days. I should get there tomorrow. Getting a bike shop to order me a couple will be fun.

Long day today. Big climbs but very little sun so I was happy.

GPX Track

03/07 Today was all about the animals. In the courtyard of the motel I stayed in last night there were about a dozen birds of various types in cages and just walking around. One of the birds would make this God-awful screeching noise every 20 minutes. Luckily it went to bed about the time I did. In the morning I walked by a huge peacock sitting on top of a swing set. It was pretty cool looking and seemed pleased with itself for getting up there. I guess they can fly but only for short distances. News to me (thanks Wiki).

Next up were 3 dogs that decided to chase after me. I got to bust out my new bamboo stick but it was just for show. They act tough until you stop and give them a piece of your mind. The Dazzer failed on all three and I just changed the battery too. There was a guy standing in a house off the road and I thought the dogs might have been his but its hard to tell who owns what dogs in Mexico. Personally I think all sales of dogs (as pets) should be banned and existing pet owners should have to get their dogs registered (with tags). If someone wants a dog and can demonstrate that they can actually take care of it then they can adopt one. I’m not sure if the police do anything here but enforce drug laws but maybe they could ticket people for keeping dogs in abusive situations (maybe enforce traffic regulations too)?

Anyway, the situation is way out of control and a lot of the “domestic” dogs are kept in horrible living conditions (like on the roof of someone’s house with no shade or chained up to a tree). You never see anyone walking their pet dog around the cities (OK technically I saw this once but I think it was a gringo). Every dog I’ve seen is some combination of the following or dead: underfed, pregnant, overly aggressive, chained up outside, barking incessantly (aka ignored) or running around the streets. If there’s a secret underground society of people that take care of their dogs I’d love to hear about it.

Then there was the donkey (burro). It was standing at the side of the road when I rode up. It was scared of me and tried to walk away but some jackass had tied its 2 front legs together so it couldn’t even hobble 2 inches. I was so pissed off when I saw that. I rode by it at first but then turned around to take a picture. There wasn’t a house nearby so I don’t know who it belonged to. It’s very common to see donkeys tied up to trees/fences so they can graze in a small area but I’ve never seen one with its front legs tied together. I’m sure it loves it when an 18-wheeler blasts by within a few feet. Keep in mind this was in the middle of the day, it’s in the 90’s and there’s zero shade. There’s no water nearby either. 1/4 mile up the road I saw another one with a freaking ribbon tied around its front legs so it couldn’t move. Must be a local thing.

In Huajuapan I was riding down the street minding my own business when I happened to look over and saw a bull about 10 feet away and closing fast. It was being led up a side street by a bunch of guys holding ropes. I booked it over to the other side of the street and watched. The bull was not very happy and I suspect its future is bleak. Behind the bull there was a mini-parade with people in costumes dancing and music playing.

On the bright side there were no issues with teenage girls today.

The terrain is getting more desert-like the further south I go which is almost the opposite of what I expected. There’s not sand but cacti are very common and the only green spots are near rivers. It’s very hilly and I’ve been getting up earlier and earlier to get the miles in before the afternoon heat kicks up. Even just riding 40 miles with these hills is tough. Tomorrow I’m going to get up at 6am and try to be on the road by 7am.

PS: Government people and the police…I’ve been ragging on you a fair bit lately… please don’t run me over. I know Mexico has some big fish to fry but there are some easy wins here.

GPX Track

03/06 Other than it being really hot nothing too exciting happened today. Still riding up and down the hills but none of them were that bad. There was one nice stretch where it was flat for a couple miles.

Acatlan is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Lots of street vendors in the market area around the central square. The motel is OK but there are a lot of mosquitoes in the room and they keep biting my poor feet. I still have that mosquito netting that I bought up in Alaska and could actually fit it over the bed if need be.

GPX Track

Weather in Puebla when posted:

Temperature: 24 °C, Humidity: 27%, Wind Speed: 10km/hr, Cloud Cover: scattered clouds

03/05 Tequila! The manager of the motel hooked me up with a (substantial) shot which I couldn’t say no to because its rude. He and his buddies hanging out in the lobby had a great time ribbing me about staying in the motel (it’s a sex motel but it was only US $9). They thought for sure I had a woman stowed away in my panniers and kept telling the manager to charge me by the hour.

It’s confirmed. There’s definitely something up with teenage girls here. I rode into town and wanted to find a bank so I asked this girl walking on the sidewalk where one was. My ability to ask this question in Spanish has proven successful in the past. She completely ignored me and kept walking. I suspected there was a cultural thing going on at this point so I tried an experiment. I found another girl by a bunch of taxi cabs and asked her where the bank was (even though I could see it a few blocks further down). This one was a little younger and even though she ignored me too she cracked a little smile like she wanted to say something but couldn’t. To complete the experiment I asked an older woman (40’s) where a motel was. She stopped and helped me out without batting an eye. The couple guys I asked when I was trying to find a laundrymat helped out too. I ended up finding it but it was closed which sucks because the heat is causing some ripeness in my clothes.

This town is messing with my pretty good sense of direction because there are two big dried up river beds that people actually use for roads. Even when I was given directions to the laundrymat the guy said follow the river up and turn left. It was a little weird.

Great ride today. I actually rode on reasonably flat land for a while. It was so nice. Hit a military checkpoint and rode through without a problem. Had a great Hawaiian hamburger for lunch which worked out well because of the climbing after that.

And the coolest thing of the day happened after I’d left the town of Xochihuehuetlan (try saying that 3x fast). A guy on a motorcycle rode past me and motioned for me to stop. He handed over a cold bottle of Gatoraide and wished me luck on my trip. How nice was that?

I noticed a couple days ago that the Tekkon external battery I use to charge my laptop/batteries is on its last legs. It won’t hold a charge at all but luckily I can still use it when it’s plugged into an AC outlet to charge my laptop. This sucks because its what my solar panel charged so now that’s useless too. I’ll hang onto it until I can find an AC adapter that my laptop can use and then send my solar panel to my Dad (head’s up Dad ).

GPX Track