03/15 Had a rough start this morning but once I got on the highway things were better. The new chain broke on my way out of town so I had to stop and fix that. Several links were still messed up so I went back to the bike shop where I bought the chain and had them get it back together in one piece for me. I grabbed another new Shimano chain just in case. I’m still having issues with the chain skipping on me. Not sure if its the chain, the shifters needing adjustment or the fact that I didn’t change the small/middle chain rings and they might be more worn than I thought.

Right outside Oaxaca is a very touristy town that has a nice car-free walkway running through it, all the buildings are well maintained and everything just has a nice, clean look to it. One area was fenced in so I wandered over since a cool looking church was sitting behind it. There was a sign in English by the gate saying donations of $5 pesos would be appreciated so I went in with the intention of checking it out and maybe leaving something on the way out. Well “donation” in this case was probably a translation error because the $5 pesos isn’t optional. I didn’t want to see it up close that bad since I’ve seen a million churches so I left. Later on I found out Marten and Karin ran into the same thing.

Tonight I’m camped on among some cacti on a patch of grass next to a Penmax station. K/M (that’s Karen/Martin–I’m getting lazy) were right behind me on the road and get credit for stopping to ask if camping here is OK. There are showers, beer and water so its home for the night. The gas station is open 24/7 so hopefully its not too loud.

Huge descent after just a short climb to end the day. Traffic was light which made it even better. The view down the canyon was incredible. I’m really surprised how many cacti there are. I thought it would be more humid further south so actual trees would be more plentiful. Then I remembered they probably all got chopped down.

Yesterday was going to be my departure day but K/M wanted to stay and Roland and Belinda were in town so hanging out for an extra day was easy decision. We all met up for lunch and then hung out back at the motel for a while. It was so cool to see R/B again. The last time was all the way back up in Alaska. Roland’s beard has grown to epic proportions.

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03/08 Two things of great importance to me died today. The first to go was the water immersion heater I picked up in Guadalajara. I’d heard they can have a short lifespan so I wasn’t too surprised. Fortunately I have another one. That thing saved me a fortune.

The second thing was my rear tire. It’s not dead yet but there is a tear on the side wall where it presses up against the the rim. The tube isn’t exposed yet but it won’t be long. It lasted 6000 miles. I have a spare Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire and can pop that on if need be. I need to find a way to get 2 new Schwalbe’s now. The Schwalbe Marathon Extremes seem like they’ll be the best ones for me. Oaxaca is the next big city so I might end up having to stay there a few days. I should get there tomorrow. Getting a bike shop to order me a couple will be fun.

Long day today. Big climbs but very little sun so I was happy.

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02/23 Today was perfect. Great weather, nice roads and beautiful scenery. I’m fighting off a saddle sore so I kept the miles down a little. Lowering the seat back down helped but now I’ll have to watch my knees because they get sore when the seat is too low. It’s not easy.

When I arrived in Cuautla is was about 3pm so I found a motel and took a taxi over to the Walmart. I was hoping they’d have a better selection of cameras. They did but the one I wanted wasn’t there. There was an Office Depot next door but they didn’t have very many cameras. I need a Best Buy but I don’t think there’ll be one until Oaxaca, if there’s even one there.

Across the street there’s a restaurant called California Buffet so I headed over for dinner. For US $10 you get the dinner/salad/dessert buffet and all the beer (Corona) you can handle. What a deal.

I decided to stick to my original plans and skip dropping down to Acapulco. It’s a lot warmer now and once I get past Oaxaca I’ll be in lower elevations anyway.

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