PowerCycle

03/22 Today was one for the record books. Climbed 5000 feet and had what’s sure to be my slowest day ever– average speed: 7.8 mph. The wind was to blame for the slow speed. The entire day consisted of non-stop headwinds that had me clinging to my handlebars at the side of the road on more than one occasion. The road conditions today were bad too. No shoulder which is about the worst thing when the wind is blowing you around.

Yesterday was a rest day so no movement on the bike. Just hung out in town and watched coverage of the health care bill online. Pretty exciting.

Right when I arrived in town and found a cheap motel Pete rode up. We grabbed some beers and will probably head out to grab some food in a bit.

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03/20 Moderate winds again today which made for some easy riding. I’ll be in the mountains and hopefully out of this 90 degree heat with 80% humidity. I was used to it in Florida but when I was riding there it was on a 25 lb mountain bike; not on a 150 lb touring bike.

Nothing crazy on the ride today. You can tell the tropics are getting close. Lots of green trees everywhere. Great roads for almost the entire day. Wide shoulders are so much better to ride on. People have been very friendly for the last few days. Lots and lots of waves from people passing by. For the first time a police truck gave me a honk. That was kind of cool.

A little after I got here there was a knock on my door. Pete, a bicycle tourist riding from San Diego to Bolivia, heard from the front desk lady I was here. We’re heading the same way but I kind of want to hang out tomorrow and relax. Not 100% if I’ll do that. It’s hard leaving a room with an AC, Internet, cable TV and a place to buy beer next door.

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02/24 Back in my tent for the first time in a long time. I missed it. Had it not been for the (Spanish speaking) bicycle tourists I met here at the ruins I’d be in a motel. After a pretty decent climb to the site here at Xochicalo I pulled up the place where you buy tickets and saw 2 fully loaded touring bikes leaning against the wall. Mazatlan was the last time I saw another touring rider so I was kind of excited. I paid the $51 pesos to get in and went to check out the ruins and see if I could find the bike riders.

I spotted them after a couple minutes. They are Marten and Karin from the Netherlands. They are on their way from Alaska to Bolivia. I knew they’d been in Alaska because they have a big old thing of bear spray attached to one of their bikes. They had already gotten an OK to camp up here right next to the museum so I went off to explore the ruins since they’d be here for the night.

What an amazing place. Basically the entire top of the (huge) hill was leveled and a city built on top of it. The area where the ruins are is much larger than I thought it would be. I grabbed some pics and then headed back to the museum.

I didn’t want to impose so I was going to head back downhill to a motel but Marten/Karin were cool with me camping up here too so I stayed. The people that run the site let us pitch our tents in the parking lot on a grassy section so that’s where we are–camped next to some old Mayan ruins.

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02/11 I’m not really sure what town I’m in right now but it’s not Nopala de Villagran. That was the closest one and I’m too tired to get up and ask the motel manager. Wherever I am it’s not on the GPS or on the paper map. The town is a decent size so I’m kind of surprised it’s not at least on my GPS.

I was very glad to find a motel room for the night because the day was a long one. I only rode 60 miles but there was 3500 feet of elevation gain that wore me out. That and the brutal wind that luckily was hitting me from the side most of the day. Still made it tough because it kept wanting to blow me into traffic. When I got here I saw a taxi sitting at the side of the road so I rode over to see if there was a motel in town. Just my luck I busted him looking at some porn. Fortunately that’s all he was doing. He was no help anyway so I asked another guy further up the road and he told me where the motel was.

Riding on Mex-57 was horrible. It was 6 lanes the entire way and traffic, especially heavy truck traffic, was constant. I did get to meet a couple pretty cool guys that had stopped ahead of me and were waving for me to come over. Both of them were wheelchair bound but, and I’m not sure how, were able to ride a custom 3-wheel bicycle they had sitting up on top of their car.

When I turned off onto Mex-45 it was like night and day. Very little traffic and a nice shoulder. It didn’t last very long before I had to turn off onto a 2 lane road that’s quiet but whoever thought curbs would be a good idea should be hit over the head. The people that passed were pretty good about moving over because I take up a lot more room when there’s a curb.

The other thing I’ve been seeing a lot of, and it kind of sucks, are flatbed trucks hauling pigs (hogs). The cages they keep them in are very small and you can see them laying on top of each other because there’s no room. Brutal.

I’m also going to stop trying to figure out what state I’m in and then getting the official abbreviation. There are just too many and it’s a pain because I sort my pictures by state and it takes forever.

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