pedalpanam

I left Comitan, Chiapas, where I spent my last night in Mexico and began a long descent into a valley.  At the bottom there was lots of agriculture and a few irrigation canals with rather clean looking water, even kids swimming.  It was hot and I was tempted to go swimming, but I wanted to get to the Guatemala border and make it as far past it before nightfall.

I was getting closer to the border, and I knew it from other cyclists’ accounts.  Huge hills, not so much mountain ridges, but rather steep shaped cones towered in front of me, unlike anything I had seen so far on this trip.  There was a steep climb up to the border.  Along the way I passed two roadside dumps, one was a hole on the left side, uphill, the other, down the steep ridge, was a drop off where people came and tossed stuff.  Both dumps were smoldering and spewing out rancid smoke.  Buzzards picked apart garbage.  It seemed like a post apocalyptic movie, surely at any second now Bruce Willis would jump out of the bushes.

I crossed the border, got my passport stamped, and kept on climbing through the town of La Mesilla.  The highway was clogged with parked cars and stores overflowing with all sorts of wares.  I was in Guatemala but this was less than exhilarating.   At the moment all I wanted was to find somewhere to spend the night.
Continue reading Huehuetenango, Guatemala

I got to Mexico over four months ago, but have been off of the bike for at least two of those months. A week in the Copper Canyons, a couple days in Mazatlan, 3 and a half weeks in Mexico City and Veracruz, 10 days in Guadalajara, a week in Morelia, a week in Cholula, a week in Oaxaca City, a week in San Cristobal. It has been slow going at times, and once in a while I’ve questioned my decisions to be off the bike so long. But the sights I’ve seen and the people I’ve met are a reminder that I’m making the most of the trip only when I don’t feel rushed. A difficulty of the trip is feeling content in a place and wondering what is the point of biking to somewhere unfamiliar down the road.

I was quite behind on uploading pictures from Mexico, but they are all up on my flickr site now. The descriptions of the pictures are still lacking, and I’ll be telling some more stories about them later. But for now I’ll let them speak for themselves.  A few new albums (click on thumbnail to see pictures).  Pictures have also been added to the albums listed on the Gallery page (food, signs, campsites, touring cyclists, etc).

Urique Canyon

Guadalajara

Michoacan

Muchos Mexicanos

Puebla

Oaxaca

Chiapas

Mexico Mosaico

I’m only 50 miles away from the Guatemala border, and should be crossing it tomorrow.

All throughout the night I could hear the wind, it was to the point where I closed the windows so the curtains would stop flapping about.  I got up this morning not quite enthusiastic about leaving, but didn’t really want to take a day off yet.

The first 10 miles were difficult, but doable.  I was headed north from Juchitan and had mostly a headwind.  When I got to the main highway I started heading east, and this is where the fun started.  There now was a side wind.  I rode without my feet strapped in, as I frequently had to stop the bike suddenly as to not tip over.

Then it got rough.  The terrain changed a little and the gusts became even stronger.  I would bike a little and be blown onto the shoulder.  I tried to do this for a mile or so, trying to convince myself that I’d be able to make it.  But I looked behind me to see how little progress I had made in the last hour, and the reality was I was going to have to hitch a ride.

I tried for a few minutes, and gave up, figuring I was not on the right spot on the highway.  I made it half a mile more when I got blown into the gravel shoulder again, and then as I was loosing my balance, jumped off the bike into the ditch right as a gust of wind rolled the bike once over.  Thankfully me and the bike were just fine.

I sat there for a minute, then dragged my bike back up to the road and held my thumb when pickups came by.  It was not long before a family pulled over and took me 40 miles down the road, where there wasn’t nearly as much wind.  Kind of a tough decision, as I know other cyclists have been able to bike through this stretch, but today it was just looking too impossible.

After getting back on the road on the bike, a little ways on I noticed a person on the highway walking quickly, running at times.  I’ve seen plenty of folks out on the highway, but most seem like they know what they are doing (often out herding animals or whatnot).  As I biked by I could tell he was exerting himself, so I shouted out asking if he wanted water.  He said yes and crossed the highway.  The guy couldn’t have been older than 20, and had a swollen and bloody lip.  He gulped down the bottle of water I gave him, and I picked up just a little of his story.  He said he had gotten robbed (though he didn’t explain where, or how he had ended up alone on the highway, or where he was trying to get to today), and he was from Guatemala and was trying to make his way to Mexico City and beyond to ‘el otro lado’, the other side.  He didn’t really want to talk,  and kept walking on.  A grim reminder the migrant’s struggle can start thousands of miles south of the USA border.

I’m now in Tapanatepec, where the highway splits, either continuing down the coast to Tapachula and Guatemala, or back inland to Tuxtla Gutierrez and San Cristobal, which is what I’ll be doing.

Its been many weeks since my last update, but I hope you’ve been checking in once in a while to see my progress on the map and my Twitter updates which show up in the right column on the homepage.

Thank you all for the birthday messages! I have fond memories of birthdays in years past with family and friends, and this year was a little different but I was still able to celebrate and be thankful for another year of life. I think it was a year ago on my birthday that I decided to give my ‘three months’ notice at work, which pretty much sealed the deal that I’d be going on this trip. It is crazy to think of everything that has happened in the last year.

For the past many months I’ve been in the mountains of Mexico, pretty much since the long climb from the coast to Tepic in December. The past few days were a climb out of the Oaxaca City valley which was ridiculously curvy, but with very little traffic which was nice. Here is a satellite view of part of the road, with the line Google has used to represent the road. Usually Google has pretty accurate representations of roads, but it looks like they just gave up on this one:
[EDIT July 21st, 2011. It looks like the Google map has been updated and now shows all the curves in the road]

View Larger Map

Once I got to Tehuantepec, I had 15 miles of perfectly straight and flat road to Juchitan. Juchitan is marked on the map below. I came out of the mountains today, and will be heading along the coast for a couple days.

This is the narrowest part of Mexico, only about 125 miles, and the lack of tall mountain ranges (the lowest point crossing from one ocean to the other is only 750 feet) means that all sorts of weather makes its way through here from both the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. I’ll be going through a town tomorrow called La Ventosa, or “The Windy”. I got a taste of that wind today, and know it is just a little of what is to come as I head east. Supposedly trucks get blown over!

Cyclists will tell you that they would much prefer a hill than headwind, but worse than those two is side winds with gusts. With hills you can find a rhythm while pedaling and you know that you’ll get to the top eventually. With headwinds you just have to pedal through it and hope that the next day treats you better. But side winds can make biking impossible. But many cyclists have survived the isthmus. It’ll be challenging!

I should be in Chiapas in a few days, and then will head up to San Cristobal de las Casas, which is up in the mountains. Its a 6,000 foot climb in about 40 miles!

[HID stands for Hidalgo, the 7th Mexican state on bike.  Maybe I should just spell states out, especially if I may only be writing one post from them?]

Today was a day of contrasts.  I left Atlacomluco with an idea that it was going to be hectic.  I had spend time online looking for information about a brand new highway that goes from Atlacomulco to Texmelucan, near Puebla.  It was built so traffic could go around Mexico City, which is exactly what I want to do.  However, the part from Atlacomulco to Jilotepec hasn’t been finished, and what I had read is that the opening of this segment is being eagerly anticipated because the tiny country highway that is the only other option is terrible.  And I agree.  Potholes, idiot drivers, absolutely no shoulder, barking dogs running after me.  Awful architecture to boot (then again I was probably just looking for more reasons to hate this road).

Continue reading Tula, HID

[MEX stands for Estado de Mexico, or the State of Mexico.  For clarification on the difference between Mexico City, the State of Mexico and the Federal District (the country of Mexico's capital), click here].

I set out today from the old cobblestoned town of Tlalpujahua, famous for its nearby mine that operated for many centuries.  I had used satellite pictures to find a long way to Atlacomulco.  I found a route that would take me up to 10,100 feet, and down into the valley I would have come through had I gone through Angangueo to see the butterflies as I had originally hoped for.  But the recent flooding and mudslides have devastated the area, the worst disaster the town remembers.  I had my heart set on going there, and I will be back one day.  Unfortunately it seems as though assistance to this community is severely lacking at the moment.

Continue reading Atlacomulco, MEX