PowerCycle

Worst rest days ever. I don’t know what I have or who I got it from but I think I’ve almost kicked this thing. What started out as a headache has worked its way down my poor body in a rather systematic manner: headache, runny nose, sore throat, coughing and then stomach problems (won’t go into details). I tried walking around today to get some fresh air and didn’t do too bad. There’s a church at the top of a huge hill that I wanted to see but I gave up half way. Didn’t have the energy for it.

Lot’s of people out enjoying the nice weather. The market was crazy. Not a good place for tall people though. Glad I was wearing my bike helmet. Just kidding.

There are a lot of people struggling to survive here which is sobering when you’re strolling around with a nice camera and a full stomach. There was a guy sitting in one of the aisles at the market with his leg extended out. He had a really bad case of elephantiasis on it and I doubt he could even walk. The indigenous people, mostly of Mayan descent, have tonnes of sidewalk booths set up where they sell everything from blankets to jewelry. There are just so many you have to wonder if entire days go by where they don’t sell anything.

The hippy/dreadlocks people here are a bit wacko. I can’t tell where they’re from but I don’t think it’s the States. One pair was playing a set of drums outside a church while a hippy girl spun around some rope or something. Really? It seems a bit tacky to me to travel to a developing country and try to hit people up for loose change so you can keep traveling the world. Maybe its just me though. Besides the hippies the other foreigners here, of which there are quite a few, seem to stay pretty low key.

Tourism has definitely left its mark on the people that live in the main historical area of the city though. For the first time someone made a snide comment when I couldn’t explain in Spanish what I wanted. It was a guy in a bike shop and after spending all of 15 seconds trying to tell him I wanted a bike tube he walked over to get it and muttered “Spanish” under his breath. Fair enough–not speaking the language very well sucks but give me a break. It’s not like I was being demanding about it and it was kind of obvious I’d traveled a long way so there shouldn’t be an expectation that I know every word in the language. If I encountered a foreigner traveler in the States or Canada and they couldn’t speak English it wouldn’t even cross my mind to be anything but helpful. If I was living here totally different story. Of course you never really know what experiences he’s had with people before me so I’m sure that played into it. Pete had a similar experience with some seemingly anti-gringo sentiment and that guy speaks Spanish better then anyone I know. On a positive note, one good thing about this place is that almost no one stares at me (except the ladies). I kind of miss the small towns now.

I also haven’t seen anyone since I got here. I had to bail on seeing Roland/Belinda and Karin/Marten this morning and Pete left this morning and I didn’t get to see him either. If I got any of them sick I’d feel horrible.

01/03 I can’t believe my first day of class is tomorrow. I hope I manage to stay out of trouble unlike every other time I’ve been in school. Sleep better come quick tonight because I was up until 5am writing back to some guy on reddit.com who annoyed me. People are so narrow-minded sometimes.

Tlaquepaque is a city right next to Guadalajara so it was a short ride today. The first thing I checked for when I woke up was the sun. It was out. So long rain. Guadalajara has lots of sights to see being the 2nd biggest city in Mexico (3 million people). Riding around wasn’t bad at all but I think it being Sunday had a lot to do with it. There were a lot of people walking around the central cathedral district. Can’t say I blame them because it turned out to be a beautiful day and there was so much to see and do.

Turns out I make a good tourist attraction too. 2 police officers on bicycles rode up to where I was taking a picture and started asking all kinds of questions about my gear. They were just curious though–it wasn’t a shakedown or anything. The racks drew the most questions. They didn’t have any and I bet they thought have bags mounted right on the bike was pretty sweet. While they were still standing there more and more people kept coming over to ask questions. Next thing you know there are 20 people standing around me in the plaza. It was pretty cool. The family in the picture below gave me their number and invited me to stay at their place in Mexico City if I get down that way.

Next stop was to track down my Mexican hosts for the next three weeks. It was only a 3 mile ride from Guadalajara so I took my time riding over. Off one of the side streets I saw a bicycle shop so I headed over. Ever since the rain day yesterday one of the gear shift cables has felt really tight. The dad runs the place with his wife/kids so he had them get my bike on a stand and bring him some tools. He spent the next 45 minutes cleaning the cables, the chain and the derailleurs like they’ve never been cleaned before. Then when I went to pay him he wouldn’t take any money! Wow. I’ll stop back over when I find something cool I can bring them.

Next stop was the plaza and market streets in Tlaquepaque. Took lots more pictures and then left. I’ll be spending a lot of time there because it’s only 2 blocks from where I’m staying. Met a gorgeous girl outside one of the stores. I think I’m keeping her.

I’m liking the Olympus camera. It tends to wash out parts of the picture if the lighting is bad but the Pentax did that too. The shutter lag and start up time, things some other people complained about, didn’t bother me at all. I kept the box just in case but its looking good so far. This morning I taxied over to Best Buy and exchanged the SD card. Left my hotel room key in the hotel room and couldn’t remember the name of it so I walked back. Glad it was only a mile (and a $2 cab ride).

The house I’m staying in is very luxurious. It’s not just one house; it’s kind of like a mini compound because there are 2 separate houses sharing the same fenced-in property. The private 3 car underground garage and only entrance, is protected by a wrought iron gate so my bike should be safe and sound outside. I stuck the rain cover on it and it’s out of sight from the street. The mom, Grace and her 2 sons and daughter live here. The daughter lives in the 2nd house. Both places are used to house people going to the Spanish school. The room is the one complaint I have. The bed is short and isn’t up against a wall at the head or foot so parts of me are going to be hanging off the end. The worst part is that it sits on the 2nd floor right over a fairly busy street and the window lets a lot of noise through. There’s either bar or a party a couple doors down too. I can almost see having to move to another place if sleep becomes an issue.

GPX Track