03/08 Two things of great importance to me died today. The first to go was the water immersion heater I picked up in Guadalajara. I’d heard they can have a short lifespan so I wasn’t too surprised. Fortunately I have another one. That thing saved me a fortune.

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.

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03/03 Poverty really sucks. It’s been getting worse as I travel south and in one of the towns it was pretty bad. As soon as I pulled up to a store to buy some water about a half dozen women came over trying to get me to buy something. I ended up buying 3 tortilla shell things with chili (and chicken?) inside but I didn’t really like the taste so I ate the first one there and then gave the other ones to a woman and her kid a little ways down the road.

I discovered what kind of traffic the trails in the area get that the kid with the slingshot was trying to tell me. At 7am this morning I heard something walking outside my tent so I sat up and looked out. Apparently the very few trails alongside the road are used by cattle ranchers to move their herd up and down the canyon. About 20 (big) cattle proceeded to walk within a foot of my tent as they lumbered past. Fortunately none of them stepped on me or my bike that was laying next to the tent. The rancher came up last and didn’t seem to care that I was camped there which was good.

Awesome scenery again today. I’ve never loved and hated anything in my life as much as I’ve loved and hated this highway. The constant up and downs can be brutal but damn is the view nice at the top. I’d probably do it again even knowing how hard its been. I did a little number crunching and in the last 10 days I’ve climbed almost 30,000 feet–a little higher than Mount Everest.

The weather has been phenomenal for days. It’s hot but there’s usually a nice breeze. The night got pretty cold (no frost) and the stars were out in force. It took me 5 seconds to spot Mars.

Staying in a kind of expensive (US $35) resort/motel but I was going through internet withdrawal so it’s worth it. The other couple places were almost the same price and they had no net access (OK, one place did but the manager didn’t know what the password was for the wireless). More dumb teenage girls thought my attempts to ask for a menu at the restaurant here were pretty funny. There must be a thing with teenage girls in this part of Mexico because I’ve never had anyone actually laugh before. I should have walked up to them and gave them a big freaking hug because my shirt smells like death.

One of the housekeepers just decided to peek in front window that was open with the curtains closed. She got a treat because its warm in here and I just got out of the shower.

Pictures on the way tonight (unrelated to last paragraph). Need to go eat.

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02/27 Found a nice spot to pitch the tent tonight down along a huge dry river bed. Apparently the land is used for grazing given the large amount of dung, the donkey that I can hear but can’t see and the flock of sheep that are grazing on the other side of the river. The clanging bells should let me know if the come by my tent tonight.

Lucked out twice today. The second time was when I lost the liter of water I’d bought so I’d have enough for the night. Fortunately it fell off when I pulled off the highway so I just had to walk back a little ways to get it. It kind of sucked that it fell off right next to a rotting donkey carcass though. I guessed it fell there because I swerved hard to get upwind.

The first lucky thing happened when I found a bike shop the same day that I noticed a 1 inch gash in my front tire. The same front tire that lasted almost 12,000 miles. It was time to part with it though. The guy at the bike shop spoke a little English and I found out he was from Fort Myers. He was pretty impressed that I rode all this way so he’s going to hang the tire up on his wall. I bought a US $10 replacement with a sweet red pin stripe on it. The make is Winsor (never heard of it). I was going to have him adjust my derailleur but he scared me a little when he started talking about popping links off the chain. I declined that fix for now.

Update: OK make that 3 things. The sheep were being herded by Alfredo. I saw him walking up the creek bed so I went over and asked if I could camp here for the night. He was cool with it after a little reassurance. I don’t think he would have seen me but he had a rather large machete and I didn’t want to surprise him. He said something about policia like maybe he thought I was one. Somehow I think drugs were a concern of his because he made some kind of motion like he was injecting something into his arm. I could see this area being pretty good for growing cocoa (did I spell that right?) so maybe the police have raided this place before? The craziest part was we actually had some semblance of a conversation. He didn’t understand when I tried to say acampar (camp) and when I showed him the word in a phrase book he still didn’t understand but I think he might not be able to read.

Had a great ride on Mex-95 today. There was one little climb but a couple wicked downhills that had me hugging the curves. A headwind kept me from breaking any speed records though. Nice shoulder the whole way. Hope it lasts. The scenery was gorgeous. Riding down canyons with huge hills on both sides can’t bee beat.

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12/28 I knew this would happen sooner or later but my Spanglishareds is failing me. That’s Spanish-English-Charades which is what I’ve been using to communicate with people here. The further south I go the more people have no idea what I’m saying. It’s getting to be very frustrating and of course it’s my fault for not learning Spanish before I got here. I’ll have to check my Visa and see how long I had left because I may stop for a couple weeks and take a Spanish Immersion course. Guadalajara probably has something so I’ll check next time I get Internet access.

The seat change made a big difference. My miles were low for the day but even if I’d ridden longer I think the discomfort would have been tolerable. The skinnier seat is the way to go it looks like.

The highway is still horrible for riding on. Further north it wasn’t as bad because there wasn’t drop if you did run off the road. All day today I had to ride with a shoulder drop and fairly busy traffic (car/truck passes at least every 20 seconds). The toll road, with its wide shoulder, would be nice but I don’t think the scenery would be nearly as good. It also skips a lot of the little towns that I like riding through.

Rosamorada is another town that only has one main road leading from the highway down into the town center. Navigating in smaller towns like this is so easy because the tallest building is always the church and it always sits next to the town square which is where all the stores and most of the motels are. The motel I found was only US $7.75. No hot water but the room is much bigger than the place last night. This place doesn’t have a toilet seat either. I might have to start packing my own.

You get tell not a lot of Americans visit this place because the entire time I was walking around people stared like I was from another planet. A few people tried to ask me things but I have no idea what they were saying. Sucks for both of us because I always have a bunch of questions from things I’ve seen during the day and there’s no one to ask.

In one of he outdoor bars I dropped in for a beer. The bartender and 2 customers were up at the counter (guy and girl). The guy kept trying to pimp out the girl to me which made for an uncomfortable drink because he kept using the p word to describe her and the group at the far table probably heard him (a kid was sitting at the table too). Needless to say I didn’t hang around.

I was going to have PB&J for dinner but this guy set up a hot dog stand right below my window and boy does it smell good.

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