03/09 2 new tires are on the way. I emailed every US distributor in California listed on Schwalbe’s web site and most wrote back pretty fast. No one had the model that Schwalbe recommended though: the Marathon Plus Tour. Schwalbe did offer to send me the tires but shipping would have cost $100. I settled on the same model I have on the rear wheel now, the Marathon Plus. Rivendell Bicycle Works is sending them and I should have them Friday; maybe Monday. Shipping was $40.

I’m having them shipped to a bike shop that I found online. It was my first stop where I got here. The owner speaks English/Spanish but had no motivation whatsoever to help me order the tires. I’ll name names after I pick them up from his store. Bike shop people are either really nice or really dickish. There doesn’t seem to be a middleground.

I cheated and jumped on the toll road today. My GPS showed all kinds of tight, winding turns on the free road and that’s not good sign with all the hills. My legs were starting to feel it and another day of heavy climbing would have hurt. There were some long climbs on the toll road but these roads were designed to nearly identical standards as the US Interstate Highways System so cutouts were made to avoid really steep grades. There are also bridges. There are virtually none on the free roads. If a valley is in the way you are going down it and then right back up.

My friends Marten and Karin are a couple days behind me but we talked tonight and I should have some company for the weekend.

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03/07 Today was all about the animals. In the courtyard of the motel I stayed in last night there were about a dozen birds of various types in cages and just walking around. One of the birds would make this God-awful screeching noise every 20 minutes. Luckily it went to bed about the time I did. In the morning I walked by a huge peacock sitting on top of a swing set. It was pretty cool looking and seemed pleased with itself for getting up there. I guess they can fly but only for short distances. News to me (thanks Wiki).

Next up were 3 dogs that decided to chase after me. I got to bust out my new bamboo stick but it was just for show. They act tough until you stop and give them a piece of your mind. The Dazzer failed on all three and I just changed the battery too. There was a guy standing in a house off the road and I thought the dogs might have been his but its hard to tell who owns what dogs in Mexico. Personally I think all sales of dogs (as pets) should be banned and existing pet owners should have to get their dogs registered (with tags). If someone wants a dog and can demonstrate that they can actually take care of it then they can adopt one. I’m not sure if the police do anything here but enforce drug laws but maybe they could ticket people for keeping dogs in abusive situations (maybe enforce traffic regulations too)?

Anyway, the situation is way out of control and a lot of the “domestic” dogs are kept in horrible living conditions (like on the roof of someone’s house with no shade or chained up to a tree). You never see anyone walking their pet dog around the cities (OK technically I saw this once but I think it was a gringo). Every dog I’ve seen is some combination of the following or dead: underfed, pregnant, overly aggressive, chained up outside, barking incessantly (aka ignored) or running around the streets. If there’s a secret underground society of people that take care of their dogs I’d love to hear about it.

Then there was the donkey (burro). It was standing at the side of the road when I rode up. It was scared of me and tried to walk away but some jackass had tied its 2 front legs together so it couldn’t even hobble 2 inches. I was so pissed off when I saw that. I rode by it at first but then turned around to take a picture. There wasn’t a house nearby so I don’t know who it belonged to. It’s very common to see donkeys tied up to trees/fences so they can graze in a small area but I’ve never seen one with its front legs tied together. I’m sure it loves it when an 18-wheeler blasts by within a few feet. Keep in mind this was in the middle of the day, it’s in the 90’s and there’s zero shade. There’s no water nearby either. 1/4 mile up the road I saw another one with a freaking ribbon tied around its front legs so it couldn’t move. Must be a local thing.

In Huajuapan I was riding down the street minding my own business when I happened to look over and saw a bull about 10 feet away and closing fast. It was being led up a side street by a bunch of guys holding ropes. I booked it over to the other side of the street and watched. The bull was not very happy and I suspect its future is bleak. Behind the bull there was a mini-parade with people in costumes dancing and music playing.

On the bright side there were no issues with teenage girls today.

The terrain is getting more desert-like the further south I go which is almost the opposite of what I expected. There’s not sand but cacti are very common and the only green spots are near rivers. It’s very hilly and I’ve been getting up earlier and earlier to get the miles in before the afternoon heat kicks up. Even just riding 40 miles with these hills is tough. Tomorrow I’m going to get up at 6am and try to be on the road by 7am.

PS: Government people and the police…I’ve been ragging on you a fair bit lately… please don’t run me over. I know Mexico has some big fish to fry but there are some easy wins here.

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02/28 I think I’m ready for a new country. There are a lot of great things about Mexico but I can’t stand the garbage anymore. It’s disgusting. Imagine driving through a place like Yellowstone and seeing rotting, stinking piles of garbage everywhere. The canyon I was in today wasn’t Yellowstone by any means but it was one of the nicest looking places I’ve ridden through so far. But everywhere I looked there was crap people had tossed out or dumped. The worst places were areas that cars could pull off the road. It’s like people stopped to eat or whatever and just tossed everything out the window. Or they drove there to specifically dump their household garbage that had been building up.

To me it seems like people just don’t care the same way they don’t care about following other kinds of normal regulations like speed limits, no passing zones, stop signs, driving in actual lanes (not side-by-side in a lane either) or red lights. Driving like a manic is one thing since its not a visible thing (if you don’t count the makeshift roadside memorials at every curve in the road) but tossing out your garbage is a pretty simple thing to not do unless you just don’t care.

The government is useless too. There are virtually no public garbage bins outside the main tourist areas in major cities. Stores owners sometimes leave cardboard boxes out for people to use. The highway through Baja and the toll roads are the only roads that have roadside stops with garbage bins. The ones on Baja were usually overflowing but its a start. There are no “chain gangs” cleaning up the roads. Why not? I’m sure there are prisoners here. I’d guess that having the police/guards outside would be dangerous since the drug cartels would have a field day so maybe that’s a bad idea. Thanks useless War on Drugs. And is there some reason why plastic isn’t recycled? At least 80% of the garbage lining the roads are plastic bottles. Maybe ban them? Oh that won’t work because then the US distributors would start crying. Thanks NAFTA.

I know there are bigger issues here but getting people to respect their country seems important. Haven’t people heard the phrase, “A clean home is a happy home?” It has to bother the people that live here. I know the horrible drivers do because I see other drivers get pissed off at them all the time. Next time I run into someone I can actually talk to I’m going to ask them about it.

Anyway, if I kept my eyes from looking at the side of the road or my nose from smelling all the freaking dead animals (thanks speeders) the ride today was awesome– hilly, but awesome. The canyon I mentioned before was beautiful. The road ran alongside a huge dry river bed that must look incredible during rainy season. Lots of big and small lizards running around too. I did have to avoid a lot of broken glass (litter/leftover from accidents) but for the most part the roads were in good shape.

The town I’m in is kind of rougher than the other ones of this size I’ve been in but it’s not too bad. What possessed me to stay in a motel right across the street from a church is beyond me. This one even plays little melodies every so often in addition to ringing every 15 minutes.

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02/11 I’m not really sure what town I’m in right now but it’s not Nopala de Villagran. That was the closest one and I’m too tired to get up and ask the motel manager. Wherever I am it’s not on the GPS or on the paper map. The town is a decent size so I’m kind of surprised it’s not at least on my GPS.

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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02/07 Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I lucked out and found a motel with a TV before the end of the 2nd quarter. Not sure what station I was watching but did I see a freaking SUV advertisement superimposed on the playing field? Is that new? How annoying. I changed the channel to another one that wasn’t doing that. It’s my first Super Bowl in Spanish. The commercials don’t seem like anything special. I guess that makes sense though.

The highway numbers were messing with me today. My map said I’d be on a toll road all day so I was all psyched up to sneak around toll booths. I ended up on a free highway (Mex-43) that was just fantastic. The road was in great condition and there was a huge shoulder. Couple little hils but nothing like a few days ago. I also had a strong tailwind from the SE all day. The wind is supposed to be even stronger over the next couple days so I’m glad I’m going north. All this made up for having to fix my front tire that I noticed was flat right when I was getting ready to leave. It gave me time to chat with one of the guys that works in the motel while I was fixing it so it worked out OK.

I think its time I started looking to replace my poor old front tire. Its not worn through enough to see the tube or anything but it has to be getting pretty thin. The Mr. Tuffy liner I have inside is probably the only thing keeping me from getting flats all day. Maybe I’ll hold out until Mexico City.

When I made it into Morelia I was surprised how big it was. Traffic was crazy. Riding wasn’t bad but I had to wait forever for cars to pass so I could take pictures of things. In the central plaza there were all these crazy looking people in costume tap dancing so I stopped and watched that for a while. After stopping for a beer I cruised around the historic area a bit but decided not to stay. Leaving was a little challenging. Someone had plastered stickers over the highway signs so I wasn’t sure what road I should be on. I ended up just heading north like my GPS said and it worked out.

The town I’m staying in is different from any other town I’ve been in. All the buildings along the main street are exactly the same and the name of the store is written in black letters on the building but there are no signs or anything. I rode right by the hotel. Had to stop and ask a cop for directions. When I was walking back that way to get some food I smelled pot for the first time in Mexico. A scruffy looking guy had lit one up in the plaza not 100 feet from the police officer who was directing traffic. Seemed very strange considering what I’d heard about drug enforcement down here.

When I came back to the hotel the door to my room was open a little. I would have locked it but the lady said they only had one key for it so she didn’t give me one. The main door is locked all the time so I wasn’t worried about it when I left. I’m the only one staying here too. There’s a little kid running around inside. Maybe she opened it. Nothing was missing.

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