Even though delivery on my tires ended getting pushed back until Tuesday UPS came through and got them to me today. Tomorrow I’ll pop new tires on and head out of here on Sunday morning. I was going to get a tune up on my bike but the guy at the bike shop (Zona Bici) once again was as helpful as a bad case of saddle sores. He couldn’t do any work on the bike because 4 of his 6 mechanics were sick or didn’t show up and it would have been too much of an effort for him to recommend another shop so I didn’t ask.

The biggest and best news is that I have a new camera! I’m now the proud owner of a Canon Powershot SX20 IS. It’s pretty sweet. And what a zoom range! 28mm – 560mm (20x). (I have it sitting in my handlebar bag since I don’t have a waterproof case for it. The pictures from today were on the Olympus so stay tuned for better shots (hopefully). Getting it was a stroke of luck. Marten, Karin and I were walking around last night and I happened to peek in a store called Contino on Independencia and saw some DSLR cameras sitting there. They didn’t have the one I wanted but they were happy to order it even though its not something they stock (see how that works Zona Bici?). It came in this afternoon.

As usual VISA’s top-notch anti-fraud team caused me more gray hair today. They let the charge for the camera go through yesterday but decided to decline the charge the next day from the same store (SD card). I had to sit on the phone with my bank for 30 minutes using Skype while they explained how a problem that had nothing to do with me caused my charge to get declined. That is one screwed up system they have there.

I also have some antimalarial pills now (Aralen). I have to take 2 per week until I get to Panama where I’ll have to switch to a different kind. Fun. I hate taking pills.

It’s very hot here now. It got up to over 90 F this afternoon when we were walking around Mount Alban. That was an amazing place. It’s a large pre-Columbian archaeological site that dates back to 500 BC. We took a bus up a very narrow, winding road and wandered around the huge site for a couple hours. I’d say this place was my favorite so far even though there were a lot of tourists and vendors.

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