Big climb today after the longest downhill. The views going up the mountain were pretty amazing thanks to mostly sunny skies. The temperature is much cooler but the sun is incredibly strong. Road conditions were OK. No shoulder but the lanes are wide. Truck traffic was non-stop. The worst is when they get in a convoy so five or six pass you all at once. The noise is incredible when that happens. I should try to take a video of it.

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The other thing that happened was at a church/graveyard in town. I think it was Santa Domingo. Anyway, there were a line of benches right before you enter the graveyard area and of course there were a bunch of old men sitting there staring at me as I walked past them. One of them gets up and says hi, wants a handshake (which I hate because people get me sick more than anything) and goes into the where are you from, blah, blah. I could tell he was wasted so I kind of brushed him off, went in and took some pictures, told another guy no I wasn’t giving him money and then went to leave. The drunk guy didn’t like that I wasn’t handing over cash to his buddy so he says in English, “I feel sorry for you.” I just left but it annoyed me more than it should have. I tried to remember this was coming from guy who has nothing better to do than get wasted next to a graveyard on a Saturday morning (it wasn’t even noon yet) and harass tourists.

Today was just crazy. The flooding continued but for the most part the road was above water. That changed quickly in one area. Water was rushing over the road waist deep and the only dry way to cross was using some raised planks that the locals had fashioned. Trucks sat there unable to get through. Even motorcycles had to be walked across the planks while the driver waded through the water holding on to the bike. 2 guys took my bike and walked it fully loaded across. I walked behind them hoping my bike wouldn’t fall in. They were very sure footed and made it across. Of course I fell and soaked my shorts and shirt. That’s twice in as many days I’ve fallen in rivers.

At the next section of flooded road there were no planks so I had to unpack everything and carry my bike across. The whole time I’m thinking there are caimans, huge boa constrictors and anacondas living in the area. At some point I met a more agreeable resident of Colombia: a senorita. Alexandria is a chemistry teacher who rode like hell to catch up to me because I was moving so fast and didn’t see her. We rode for a few miles chatting away. She knew about as much English as I do Spanish which worked out surprisingly well.

This area of Colombia is very isolated even without the roads being impassible. This has actually been one of the most memorable parts of my entire trip. There was a section today where it was incredibly thick jungle/swamp on both sides of the road for a couple miles. Colorful birds and huge lizards were all over the place. The people living in the area were forced to build shacks next to the road since their homes were flooded. They were so friendly even though I probably gave some of them heart attacks when they saw me trucking down the road. You also really feel like you are in a not-so-traveled area when all day you see little bare brown butts running around outside playing.

At a certain point I realized that the road was leading me way further south than I expected so I asked a guy on a motorcycle and he said keep going. This ITMB map is way off or they changed the road big time. I finally came to a T crossing at San Martin de Loba and asked someone else how to get to El Banco. A guy pointed me to a dock and said take a boat– no roads. $5 later I was in the city. Taking the small river boats is about the scariest thing I’ve had to do. Everytime I get out I expect my bike or a bag to be missing. Dozens of Colombian Army guys in full gear were at the dock. Their stuff was laying all over the place and I had to ask one guy to move his backpack. He said go ahead so I went to slide it over with one hand. It wouldn’t freaking budge. It must have weighed at least 80/90 lbs. He moved it (two hands) but I don’t know how those guys lug those packs around.

El Banco is flooded pretty bad along the waterfront but the land rises once you go in a block and there are some decent hotels. Not sure how I’m leaving tomorrow. I think I might be on another boat.

My necklace is in my pocket now. It wasn’t the threat of theft. I put it away because it’s just too much for the area.

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The last town didn’t have a motel but one of the guys on the street said this town did. It doesn’t. I was beat so I rode over to the policia and asked if I could camp next to the church. No problemo. The only thing that made me a little nervous was a Friday night baseball game going on in the nearby field. A homerun down the 1st base line would have had a good chance of smacking my tent. Fortunately nothing flew my way.

I did turn out to be a bit of a curiosity for the people who saw me setting up camp. Moms actually walked their kids over to the fence between the church and the baseball field so they could watch me. Some kids were short so they were lifted up so they could see too. I finished my camp stuff, bought some water and sat down to watch the game with them.

WARNING: there’s a picture of a big, dead snake below.

GPX Track

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.

GPX Track

I spotted them after a couple minutes. They are Marten and Karin from the Netherlands. They are on their way from Alaska to Bolivia. I knew they’d been in Alaska because they have a big old thing of bear spray attached to one of their bikes. They had already gotten an OK to camp up here right next to the museum so I went off to explore the ruins since they’d be here for the night.

What an amazing place. Basically the entire top of the (huge) hill was leveled and a city built on top of it. The area where the ruins are is much larger than I thought it would be. I grabbed some pics and then headed back to the museum.

I didn’t want to impose so I was going to head back downhill to a motel but Marten/Karin were cool with me camping up here too so I stayed. The people that run the site let us pitch our tents in the parking lot on a grassy section so that’s where we are–camped next to some old Mayan ruins.

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The weather was great although riding at 8000+ feet makes for so cold wind on the downhills. Lots of sunny sky to warm me back up though.

The best part about the day was getting into the city of Tula and trying to find the thing I came here to see– the 16 foot tall basalt statues sitting atop the Pyramid of Tlahuizcalpantechuli. Well the road I was on happened to drop me off right next to the entrance to the site. It was only US $3 to get into the site which was a lot less than I thought it would be. I was allowed to leave my bike right next to the museum guard which was nice because it was about a 1/2 mile walk to the statues. I guess they weren’t really statutes either. They were columns that supported a roof back in the day.

GPX Track

I sort of expected that I’d be riding with a guide down the hill so I felt a little bit silly when the guy handed the tether over to a kid that couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9. Instead of riding his own horse (or pony), he took the tether and started walking down the hill with the horse and I in tow. No child labor laws here. I got over the oddity of the situation once we started going down the hill and I realized that I wouldn’t have to climb back up.

Now I would have walked if the story I’d heard about the horses had been true. Someone wrote on a web site that they were malnourished but these ones looked pretty healthy. There were quite a few other people getting guided tours so maybe business has been picking up and they can take better care of the horses?

The ride down the rocky trail went OK; only one minor slip. After getting through the trees we rode along a trail that had been cut into the lava field. Nature has made a pretty good comeback and there were lots of cacti, trees and plants growing up out of the rocks. We reached the base area where vendors had set up a half-dozen tents selling everything from crafts to food. After hopping off my ride I was told to come back whenever I was ready to leave.

There’s a “trail” leading to the base that takes you up and over some rocks for a few hundred feet. Good hiking shoes are definitely recommended. The ruins of the old church looked amazing. The lava flowed from almost a mile away and destroyed everything but the front facade and what I think was the rear wall. You are pretty much free to go anywhere so I jumped from rock to rock checking out the area.

On the way out I stopped for a couple tacos that were made using some kind of green flour. They tasted great. Then it was over to where the horses were waiting. The same kid that walked me down the trail brought my horse over and once mounted up I followed along behind as he climbed back up the hill. That 8 year old must be in great shape.

Everything past here is just me bitching.

I have to rant about the thing I hate more than anything else on Earth– loud noise. I understand that the Mexican culture embraces music, especially loud music, but for the life of me I can’t figure why any sane person would tolerate having to listen to the other crap that goes on here. For example, right next door to me kids(?) are shooting off rockets (not fireworks) that do nothing except explode with a bang that’s as loud as a thunder crack. They set one off every 20 seconds or so. They’ve been doing this for almost 2 hours now. Yet no one will do anything. Not quite true though. The block parties have been going on all day and I noticed that when the rocket frequency increased the loudspeaker-driven music volume increased exponentially. The closest party is 5 blocks away and I can easily hear it over my iTouch cranked up to 90% max volume. I gave that up at the risk of going deaf.

It’s not just the music and the amateur space cadets next door either. Dogs are allowed to bark incessantly all day and night, trucks with massive speakers mounted on the back drive up and down the streets blaring out tape recorded advertisements all day, car alarms go off for hours and freaking roosters run around town making noise day and night (mostly night). In this town the roads are bad so instead of trucks with speakers some enterprising chap mounted loudspeakers on top of at least 2 houses. These pump out advertisements from 8am until 8pm or so. Enjoying things that symbolize your culture is one thing but don’t people get annoyed at some point???

The plan was for me to ride my bike to Guadalajara and meet up with Beata, Diana and Isaac at the place that loans bicycles to people. Unfortunately by the time they got to the bike place there were no more bikes left. We just ended up just walking along the sidewalk checking out all the bikes and people. After a couple miles we made it to a mall at which point Isaac went home and the girls went shopping. I jumped on my bike and rode along with the other cyclists. I ended up riding about 14 miles through the city until hunger set in and it was time to head home.

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.