I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got up this morning. After considering it for 10 seconds I opted to stay here for the day. Glad I did.

Had my first ever television interview today! I was sitting in a park using the free wireless internet (wish more places had this) when a guy comes over and asks in English if I’d mind doing an interview. He asked all kinds of questions about where I’ve been, where I’m going and how I’ve liked Mexico. This interview went much better then the newspaper interview I had. I don’t even think I looked at the camera once. Then they had me jump on my bike for an action shot. Boy am I glad I didn’t crash into anything or fall. I’ll keep my Google Alert emails on just in case it makes it to their web site.

Did a lot more riding today. I had totally forgotten about this but when I saw it I was just amazed. There’s a massive 284 year old aqueduct stretching almost a mile across the city. It has 75 arches, each 65 feet wide at an average height of 75 feet. It’s one of the most impressive looking man-made objects I’ve seen on my trip. Saw a lot of other magnificent looking buildings and statues around the city. I could stay here for days and still miss things I’m sure.

For the last day I’ve been afraid of being deported back to the States because of how bad my shirt smells. The guy at the front desk, at the very affordable Hotel San Francisco, pointed me over to a laundry mat so I should be safe now.

Also went back to the bike shop to get a new tube. I have 3 spares but presta valve ones are hard to find so I bought the only one they had. It’s one of those self-healing tubes with slime inside. I’ve never used one before so we’ll see how it does. Grabbed some new rear brake pads too.

My knee is back to 100%. The guy I met a week ago at the side of the road passed a nice cold onto me when we shook hands so I just got over that. Glad to be healthy again.

I miss my Canon 40D a lot. It’s almost like I’m doing a disservice to the things I’m taking pictures of because they usually look distorted, washed out or flat. The Pentax was so much better than this Olympus I have now. Then again I saw an American on the boat over to the Isla de Janitzio a few days ago and he looked pretty obnoxious with his monster camera and lens.

01/02 Lot’s to write about today but I’ll try not to make this too long of a post. It rained all day but it was warm enough to wear shorts. Had to bust out my yellow rain jacket though. It was about 53 F. Riding on the highway was horrible especially once I got into the city because the roads are in rough shape and the puddles of water made it hard to tell what I was riding through. The drainage system here is definitely not very efficient. My front panniers, both of which have big tears in them, didn’t let too much water in but it wasn’t pouring out either.

Passed through the famous city of Tequila, Mexico but it was raining pretty hard at the time so I didn’t stop. The Spanish school has outings every other day after class and one of them is to Tequila so I might jump on one of those. There were so many stores lining the highway selling mini and not-so-mini barrels of the potent drink. I don’t know how so many of them manage to stay in business from all the competition.

Rode past a Best Buy in what looked like a mall so I checked into a nearby motel and took a taxi back over to do some camera shopping. Cab rides are a bit different here because there are no fare meters so you negotiate the price beforehand (well, if you speak Spanish you negotiate–if not you get in and hope for the best).

The name of the mall was Galerías and I was floored by how modern it was. It was easily as nice if not nicer than any mall back in South Florida. Not only did they have a Best Buy but there was an Outback, a Hooters, Sears and a million other “Western” outlet stores. All 3 floors were just jammed with people. Dinner was at the Outback but it was a little disappointing. I should have went to Hooters. Outback had no Foster’s to start with. They did have Budweiser so I felt kind of like I was at home. Had the prime rib but I had to send it back for another round of grilling because the version of medium here is more like rare.

I’m very happy to have a new camera again! I spent at least 2 hours walking around the different stores looking at cameras until finally I went with the one I should get; not necessarily the one I want. My new toy is the Olympic Stylus Tough 6000. It’s an upgrade from the Pentax Optio I lost in terms of zoom (3.6x) but it doesn’t have manual shutter/aperture settings like I really wanted. I just couldn’t find a small enough DSLR-like camera I liked and that would fit in my handlebar bag. The selection of good Canon point & shoots was also poor (no SX200 Jason and trust me I looked). The Olympus is shock/water/freeze proof and the biggest complaint I could find online was the fact that it doesn’t do well submerged. I’d only use it in the rain occasionally so that’s not concern for me. We’ll see how it does with actual picture taking. The microSD card I bought isn’t compatible so I have to head back over tomorrow and exchange it. Stupid Visa got declined again after I just used it to pay for the motel. I hate them. Thank God my Amex always works when I need it.

My bike seat is finally in a spot that didn’t produce feelings comparable to sitting on a hot iron all day. Still not perfect but a lot better than it was.

GPX Track

12/29 Lot’s of hills today. Not kidding. They were brutal. None were very steep but they were huge and there were a lot of them. I was very glad to finally get to Tepic. It rained last night so the humidity really kicked in. I burned through a lot of water which was bad because of the route I took.

I cheated and rode on Mex-15D for most of the day. 15D is the toll road vs. 15 which is the free or Libre road. Having a wide shoulder makes all the difference in the world. Being able to ride without having to constantly watch for vehicles coming up behind you makes for the much more relaxing day. I did have to worry about the police pulling up and telling me I couldn’t be on the toll rode but I don’t think they care. Two police cars passed me and kept going and I didn’t have a problem going though 2 manned toll booths. As long as you stay out of the toll booth lanes by keeping to the far right, on the sidewalk if possible, they’ll let you pass. The only real problem with the toll road (Couta) is that it skips all the little towns and there are almost no services. I didn’t hit a place to get water for 35 miles and had that place not been there I would have definitely run out.

I’m missing my Canon camera today. Kept seeing huge lizards and lots of birds I’ve never seen before. They were too far for the P&S camera so I didn’t bother trying.

Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get some sleep tonight. The $7 a night room I stayed in last night had some design flaws: the adjoining walls didn’t quite reach the outside wall or the ceiling. So at 3am and 4am when my neighbors got up to take a shower, go to the bathroom and go to work I got to hear everything.

After paying for my room with my credit card and then sitting down to eat dinner the waitress comes back and tells me my card was declined. My bank’s fraud department said they didn’t see a reason but I’ll have to call back during business hours. I checked online and there’s no balance so it’s not like I was late or anything. What a pain. At least the call won’t be horribly expensive now that I’ve finally embraced using Skype. Two things I wish I’d thought of before leaving on this trip: bringing a 2nd VISA card (nothing else is accepted down here) and bringing a 2nd ATM card from a different bank (for backup). Both things I have; I just didn’t think to bring them.

Update: Tried the credit card for breakfast and it worked fine.

The hotel is called the Zar and its rather fancy. The room is spacious and everything is new and clean. The shower was awesome. The noise for the heavy trucks using their their engines to brake is the only thing that ruins it.