03/20 Moderate winds again today which made for some easy riding. I’ll be in the mountains and hopefully out of this 90 degree heat with 80% humidity. I was used to it in Florida but when I was riding there it was on a 25 lb mountain bike; not on a 150 lb touring bike.

Nothing crazy on the ride today. You can tell the tropics are getting close. Lots of green trees everywhere. Great roads for almost the entire day. Wide shoulders are so much better to ride on. People have been very friendly for the last few days. Lots and lots of waves from people passing by. For the first time a police truck gave me a honk. That was kind of cool.

A little after I got here there was a knock on my door. Pete, a bicycle tourist riding from San Diego to Bolivia, heard from the front desk lady I was here. We’re heading the same way but I kind of want to hang out tomorrow and relax. Not 100% if I’ll do that. It’s hard leaving a room with an AC, Internet, cable TV and a place to buy beer next door.

GPX Track

01/29 Nice ride today although the wind was blowing pretty hard and I had it in my face most of the day. The shoulder that enjoyed so much yesterday disappeared after the city of La Barca so it was just me and the trucks. Traffic was fairly busy however only 2 vehicles honked when they were right beside me so I’m thankful for that. One advantage of riding on smaller highways is a noticeable drop in road debris. Scenery was limited to farm land and it wasn’t until later in the day that some big hills and (hopefully) dormant volcanoes.

A total of 3 people tried to talk to me when I was riding. This whole not being able to understand/speak to people really sucks.

Once in Zamora de Hidalgo I headed for the very large Our Lady of Guadalupe Unfinished Cathedral. It hard to miss being the 2nd tallest church in Mexico. About 128,000 people live in the city but riding on the streets is a lot easier than big cities in the States. I think it’s because people are so used to bicycles on the road. There were a couple times that someone almost opened a door on me but I keep a closer eye out for this since my accident in Ensenada.

GPX Track

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.