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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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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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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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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The fireplace was nice but I noticed this morning that all my stuff had a thin layer of black soot all over it. Oops. No wonder it looked like I’d been snorting charcoal when I blew my nose.

The morning took a fast turn for the worse when I went to raise my bike seat up to provide some relief for my knees. With the seat raised to the right height, I started to tighten the bolt that crimps the seat clamp tighter. That’s when I hear SNAP. The bolt broke in half and now nothing was keeping my seat from moving side to side. At least it was already as low as it could go. Using my new Spanish skills I asked a guy on the street if there was a bike shop in town. There was and I even understood the directions. Found the place and said a little prayer that they’d have a bolt. They did! Sweet. I was back in business.

The weather finally won and I wore my rain pants for the first time in months. It didn’t actually rain until I was almost in Uruapan but it was still cold. Met a really cool guy just into the city. He’d stopped his car ahead of me and got out to ask all kinds of questions about bicycle touring (in English). Hope he gives it a shot.

Also saw my very first car accident in Mexico (actually on this entire trip). A delivery truck was stopped heading down a hill because the car in front of him had stopped in the road to make a left. A white car behind the delivery truck wasn’t paying attention and slammed into the back of the truck. Fortunately the car wasn’t going more than 10 mph. The driver of the white truck didn’t even get out! He just drove off. The white car was drivable so he took off too. I guess dealing with the police/insurance isn’t worth it.

Staying in a nice hotel (US $23) since it was the only one I could find away from the central area and not on a main road. I need some rest tonight. Not 2 minutes after got here someone started shooting off the same exploding rockets I had to listen to all day yesterday. Love it. They stopped after an hour so I have my fingers crossed.

I found out from some backpackers in Angahuan that the street parties were part of a 3 day wedding celebration. They couldn’t stand the noise either so it’s not just me. Today is also the first Monday of February which is when Mexico celebrates Día de la Constitución (Constitution Day) so there might be some fireworks tonight.

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The plan was for me to ride my bike to Guadalajara and meet up with Beata, Diana and Isaac at the place that loans bicycles to people. Unfortunately by the time they got to the bike place there were no more bikes left. We just ended up just walking along the sidewalk checking out all the bikes and people. After a couple miles we made it to a mall at which point Isaac went home and the girls went shopping. I jumped on my bike and rode along with the other cyclists. I ended up riding about 14 miles through the city until hunger set in and it was time to head home.

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.

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