I ended up staying here today hoping that there’d be a change with my sister’s condition. No such luck though. Tomorrow I’m going to ride to the next town and make plans from there.

While walking to dinner tonight I’m fairly sure that I saw someone being kidnapped. A couple people on the sidewalk in front of me had stopped and were looking down a side street. When I got to where they were I could see a white mini-van with the door open stopped next to the sidewalk. Right next to the open door 2 or 3 guys were struggling with another guy and it looked like they were trying to get him into the van. I didn’t go over because that would have probably been a stupid move on my part. The Mexican guy standing next to me didn’t head over either so I figured he was staying out of it for a good reason. I didn’t stand there for more than 10 seconds because I kind of stick out here. First time I’ve seen any kind of violence in Mexico. It’s possible it was something other than what it looked like but I doubt it.

I just saw the Wikipedia entry for this city: “Escárcega was featured in fifth position on the 2002 Lonely Planet Guide to Mexico’s “worst of Mexico” list.”

Nice. I haven’t seen that much of the city but it doesn’t seem that bad (other than people being kidnapped). There is kind of a weird feeling you get here that I noticed yesterday. People don’t seem as friendly and even walking down the street I’m not stared at like I normally am. Maybe it’s because people are afraid? Who knows. Or it could be that everyone here thinks Americans are jerks because the dumbasses at Burger King thought it would be cool to stick up this huge obnoxious sign that you can see from miles out of town. No wonder some local kid back in Palenque used BK as an insult when he said I should go there to eat. To be fair he was drunk but still.

I love Mazatlan! In fact I like it so much I’m going to stay here until the 26th. No point in spending the holidays stuck in my tent out on the road somewhere. This city is just amazing. I’m staying in Old Mazatlan, which is a far cry from the gringo tourist area north of here called the Golden Zone. I rode there yesterday and hated it. Hardly anyone was walking around and there were no cool street side stands. The big draw for the area is a McDonald’s, Burger King, Sam’s Club and I think I remember seeing an Office Depot.

The streets in this area are packed, its loud and the sidewalks are in brutal shape. In the States an area like this would have driven me back inside in minutes. Its different here though. The people are very respectful of each other. Not once did someone even bump into me or stop in front of me and block the sidewalk. There are virtually no extra-extra-large people so the rather confined sidewalks are easily navigable. Jay walking is rampant but the cars/buses keep a safe speed and stop if someone crosses in front of them.

The other touring rider staying here, Bryon (web site), is probably leaving tomorrow so it’ll just be me and the couple retired Americans/Canadians that are also staying here. Walking around town, I haven’t seen too many other Americans. There was one guy who had a Jesus thing going with all white clothes, a long beard and no shoes. Yes, he was walking around the city streets with no shoes on. Goes nicely with the somewhat socially accepteble habit of spitting that goes on here. There are a fair number of police walking around or riding custom mountain bikes. Some of them even have automatic weapons in hand. I think its mostly for show. I have yet to hear a single police siren.

Let’s see what else I’ve done. I went and bought 48 patches for my tire since I was getting low. That should hold me over (for ever). I bought a new bike seat but it won’t mount using the bracket I have. I’ll run it back over tomorrow and try to get another one. It cost about US $5. No more Brooks for me. Byron has a Brooks Imperial seat and he hates it. He ended up getting a new seat too. I’m glad I didn’t buy the Imperial in San Diego because I tried his and it wasn’t any better than the Champion I have. I also picked up a new water bottle cage to replace the one that broke when I ran into the taxi door.

After 10 months I’m going to get my sleeping bag washed tomorrow. I’m a little worried but I converted the cleaning instructions to Spanish for the laundry mat people so we’ll see what happens.

I took a picture of me standing in the entrance to the bathroom here in the motel room. I’ve probably smashed my head into the top of the (concrete) door frame at least half a dozen times so far.

Last night I decided to upgrade my web site to Wordpress 2.9. That was a miserable failure. I ended up staying awake until 4am after having to back out of the upgrade because the database wasn’t current enough. You’d think they run the compatibility checks before the actual upgrade process starts.

Update: I finally got around to finishing my Highlights page. The description at the top and the additions of Best Scenery and Biggest Annoyance were the only changes.