03/17 The big hill ended up being bigger than I thought. The weather was favorable which helped. Cloudy with a nice cool breeze makes for good climbing weather. The ride back down was fun but the scenery wasn’t quite as nice as it was for the last couple days. Had 2 dogs run after me but a dirty look scared them off. I think my dog Dazzer is broken. I don’t even try to use it any more.

Tomorrow might be a short day because the Pacific Ocean is just a quick 30 miles away and I might not get to see it again for a long time. The city of Salina Cruz is a little out of the way but there might be a side road that gets me back onto the highway without having to ride back up the same way.

Saw K/M having lunch at the side of the road which was nice because they left an hour before I did so I didn’t think I’d see them all day. We met up again in town and looked for a place to stay. There’s a motel but we wanted to see if camping at the police station was possible. It was but the places available to pitch the tent were kind of exposed for my taste and the wind is brutal so I rode over to the motel and got a room. K/M were going to stay but the wind drove them over here too. It was so strong I saw it blow the tin roof off a shack. We had to ride into it for a little but luckily we were in town before it got too bad. There’s a big lake at the edge of town and I rode over to check it out but it doesn’t look like any of the land along it is developed. My dreams of staying in a lakeside cabin in Mexico might have to wait.

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03/16 Low miles today but it was intentional. There’s a big hill waiting outside town and 50 miles to the next stop. The weather has been perfect for so long now. I feel like I’m getting spoiled. It was 93 F today which wasn’t bad at all for riding. We were on the road by 7:30am but by 8:30am it was hot.

The only exciting event on the ride today was having 2 dogs come running after me. I had to bust out my bamboo stick but no contact was made. I found out later they came after K/M too. The long descent was down a canyon that provided some gorgeous scenery. It’s cool seeing a line of green grass/trees growing in an otherwise very arid place.

Staying in a motel that has something that no other motel has had so far–an air conditioner! There’s even a pool in the back. I passed on a swim because the water looked a bit too risky but the teenagers that came over are having a great time back there. K/M are here too. Riding with them is great because they are excellent cooks.

Sleep was hard to come by last night. If I got 2 hours rest I’d be surprised. The gas station had a lot more traffic than I thought it would and the 3 dogs that stay there barked all night. I think I’m going to set up my tent just a little further from anything prickly next time. The tent survived but I backed into a cactus getting inside and that does not feel good.

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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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02/12 What a perfect day. I have to give myself a little credit for picking a pretty sweet route. Once the curbs ended not too far outside town the road turned into a nice, quiet rural road that wound through the hills. The only thing I had to watch out for were marauding goats.

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.

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