01/30 Today ended up being kind of brutal. Two things did me in fairly quickly. Number one was the climbing. I didn’t think I’d be going up quite so high. Broke 8000 feet which is the 3rd highest I’ve been on this trip. Made for some great views of the valley.

The weather wasn’t on my side either. The wind was strong and got stronger as I climbed up into the hills. It was also a little cold with the sky being mostly overcast. At the 20 mile mark I was about done. At mile 35 a trail leading up alongside a mountain looked like it could be home for the night but there wasn’t a good place to pitch the tent. Angahuan was only another 10 miles so I just kept going.

Passing through the small towns offered something new for me. Purepecha Indians live in the small, mountainside villages in this area and the differences between their culture and those of the Spanish population I’ve seen so far is striking. Women of all ages wear very colorful dresses and usually have their heads covered with a scarf. I haven’t seen any outright signs of poverty but the houses and condition of the streets makes it pretty clear that money is a lot harder to come by. Other than the main road running through the town most of the streets are either rough cobblestone or dirt.

In Angahuan I stopped at a visitor information center and asked if there was a motel in town. The answer was no but there was a place with cabanas. That worked so I asked for directions which I didn’t understand. The streets are all cobblestone so after a bumpy five minutes I was very surprised to see a hotel. The sign even said English speaking, internet and hot showers included. I pulled up to see how much it was and found out they wanted $31 US. Too rich for my blood. The sign was also misleading. No one spoke English and there was no internet. The English I normally don’t care about but it would have been nice to ask about getting a guide to visit the volcano. I’ll just wing it tomorrow.

Finding the cabanas was just dumb luck. I’d asked a few people where they were and the last guy pointed behind him– he was standing in front of them. There wasn’t a sign so I would have ridden right by considering the place didn’t look any different from any other building (it’s at N19 32.908 W102 13.661). It looks like there are two cabins. They are up on a hill so I have a nice view of the city. The door doesn’t lock but there’s a big stone fence surrounding the property so my stuff should be fine. The cabana is one of the best places I’ve stayed for the price. It was only $18 for 2 nights, there’s hot water, 2 beds, a table and a fireplace! I asked the lady about buying some firewood and when I came back she’d stacked a pile of it outside my door.

The big attraction here is the Paricutin volcano. In 1943 it erupted sending lava pouring down into the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro. Today only the church’s twin towers are visible. The lava completely covered everything else. My guide book says the church is accessible from town via foot or horseback but I’ll try hiking it tomorrow since my butt needs a rest.

Today must be a holiday because in the last town I rode through about ten teenagers were walking up the street in what looked like Halloween costumes. I was too tired to take a picture so I kept going. In Angahuan there’s a lot going on. The streets are filled with roving groups of musicians and street dancers. While eating some tacos at a street stand I asked the guy across from me, an English speaking drug dealer with silver front teeth, what the party was for. He made it sound like this happens here every weekend but I kind of doubt it.

Oh yeah… this morning as I was riding along the highway two guys in a pickup stopped ahead of me and when I got close and asked if they could get a picture. Kind of a funny thing to have happen. Also, when I was climbing up the mountain another pickup stopped and the guy driving asked if I wanted a lift to the top. It was tempting but I passed. Nice of him to stop and ask though.

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School is over! Finished my last class on Friday. I’m still in town and will hang out here for another couple days. Need some time for all my new Spanish knowledge to sink in. The apartment I was staying in wasn’t available past today so I had to get a motel room. Overall I’m glad that I stopped to take the classes but I am kind of disappointed that my vocabulary is still pretty weak. Not knowing words kind of hinders ones ability to form sentences. I’ll keep practicing using some online courses I found and hopefully get better. I definitely know about hundred times more than what I started with so that’s good at least.

Went to a place called Isla de Mezcala today with Beata, Sarah and a guide from the school (and one of his friends). The island is about a 15 minute boat ride onto Lake Chapala, the largest fresh water lake in Mexico. The structures on the island consisted of some old officer’s quarters, a church, an infirmary and a prison. The island was abandoned for a long time so a lot of the original structures fell into disrepair. It didn’t help that people kept stealing the doors and windows either. Restoration didn’t begin on the island until 2004 so there’s still lot’s of work to do.

Little update since its been a few days. Still in school although I changed my classes a little. For the first week I was the only student in both my morning and afternoon classes. Then on week two some more people joined in the class. The new people actually knew a little Spanish so it was kind of awkward for me to have to go through the lessons using my halting, child-like Spanish skills. I switched over to private classes so I can cram more learning time in. Picking up everything has been hard. Learning a new language is 100% all about memorizing things and there’s a lot to remember. My sentences are starting to take shape a little and my vocabulary is a lot better. I doubt I’m going to be able to have constructive 2 way conversations with anyone when I leave but if I can get the basics down I can always practice on the road.

The place I was staying didn’t work out so I moved into a school-owned private apartment. The people there were awesome but the room was too loud and I had to sit outside to get internet access. The new place is a 15 minute walk from school but its 100x quieter and it has wireless.

One of the 2 things I ordered from the States via eBay arrived after just a week. It was a GE 26695 VoIP In-Ear Headset/Earphone & Inline Microphone. Got it for when I’m using Skype. It’s crap. The headphone part is fine but the microphone is terrible. Even with the PC mic volume all the way up recorded sounds are barely audible (Skype’s software even warns about it when making a call). The background hissing is also distracting.

The other thing I ordered, the immersion heater, hasn’t arrived but I saw one in a store and bought it since it was only US $2.65. Some of them don’t have a long life expectancy so I’ll hang on to both if the other one gets here before I leave.

Oh, I tried grasshoppers for the first time yesterday. A friend of mine, Beata ordered something off the menu called Delicious Crepe. Well on the English section of the menu it had the real name of the dish: Grasshopper Crepe. She went ahead and ordered it and we all tried some. The little hoppers had been fried up and seasoned with various things. I had 3 and thought they were pretty good. Will I start riding with my mouth open now? No.

After the grasshopper dinner we took a taxi to Guadalajara and watched Sherlock Holmes (in English–good movie too). I’ve had a cold for the last few days so the 40 F rainy weather was kind of brutal but I had a great time. They had a Dairy Queen at the mall too. First one I’ve seen in Mexico.

The pics below are just random ones from different days last week.

My brain hurts. Why does everything have to be masculine or feminine? How would I know a street is feminine? I think they are loud and bumpy. Not how I like my ladies. Day 1 of Spanish class went pretty well. I think I mentioned that it’s 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon? I have separate teachers for each class and the classes are split up into beginner, advanced and virtually fluent. My skills are so awesome that I’m in a class by myself. Really. In both classes it’s just me and the teacher.

This morning was the alphabet and the afternoon numbers. I have managed to remember translations for 95% of the numbers between 1 and 100 which is good I suppose. Who came up with quince is what I want to know. Of course when I went to buy some snacks a while ago she said the total so fast I couldn’t understand her.

Since I only have 2 shirts suitable for wearing around town I also went and bought 2 nice sweatshirts and a t-shirt for US $14. What a deal.

12/31 Happy New Year! I’ll be ringing in 2010 in style with some sugar cane, apples, yogurt and a big bottle of Tecate. I suppose I could wander around town and join in on the celebrations but I have to be in Guadalajara in a couple days and staying out drinking won’t help. Can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

The last day of the year started out on a sour note. I lost my camera. I think it bounced out of the bag I keep it in while I was riding down the first hill out of Tepic. I noticed it was gone at mile 9 but there was no way I was going to ride back uphill for 9 miles looking for a probably broken camera. Hopefully I find a place to buy a new one tomorrow because I missed out on some good pictures today. Saw 2 volcano, a huge lava field and lots of incredible views of the valley I rode down into.

Skipped the toll road today and took 15 all the way. I guess it wasn’t that bad but it was very busy. No shoulder for 90% of the way of course. To add to the craziness more than a hundred car/truck loads of New Year’s party goers were driving in huge caravans to some unknown destination. I got plenty of waves from everyone passing by.

Had an amazing BBQ lunch at a place called La Sierra. Met my very first cocaine drug dealer there. His name was Eddie and he lived in California for 25 years so his English was very good. He’s not in the business anymore and unfortunately his time as a millionaire drug dealer cost him 4 years in state prison, his marriage and he can’t visit his kids because they are in the US and he’s not allowed back. He didn’t blame anyone but himself but we both agreed that the “war on drugs” is a joke. I left a good impression when I told him the big news.

The big news is that I’m going to take a Spanish class in Guadalajara for 3 weeks. I spent the day in Tepic yesterday trying to find a good school and get registered (on short notice). Classes start 01/04 and I’ll be in the “intensive” course for four hours a day, five days a week. They had a number of housing options available so I decided to try to get the most out of this so I’m going to be staying with a Mexican family associated with the school the entire time. The cost of staying there also includes 3 meals a day. Hopefully after this I’ll be able to carry on somewhat of a conversation with the people I meet. The class and housing cost a bit of money so I have to skip the side trip to Cuba that I was planning. Maybe some other time.

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