Nuevo Horizontes, Puebla to Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca

Andy:



After getting a good start this morning and stocking up (and posting) in Acatlan do Osorio. We headed down the road -- or rather up(hill) the road. There is little that is level here. The landscape tends to be scubby, with an interesting mixture of giant cactuses like saguaros (or cardon)and senitas, palmettos, giant agave, mesquite and big trees. Geologically we passed today from largely volcanic ash deposits to a lot of metamorphic schist to simple limestone. The climbs weren´t more than a few kilometers but they took a long time. The road is in good condition and the traffic is reasonably light. For the main road in this area it is a great deal for us. Towards the afternoon we began to get relief from the hot sun when the clouds started to get thicker. As we came down a huge descent into this town thunderstorms began crashing around us. We stopped in a bike shop because my 35 peso chain was becoming difficult to shift. We found the first decent bike shop of the trip and promptly replaced my cheap chain with a good quality Shimano chain and bought a backup thin 9-speed chain for Ted as a backup. Since he started using mine he has had one break and I don´t trust his bike to not break more. My chain probably has 2500 miles on it already. The prices were right and it´s great to have the insurance against further problems. The people at the shop were great and even brought a repair stand out so I could change the chain in the shop.

This town surprises me. We really are in the middle of nowhere here, it seems, but this is a hopping place teeming with shops of all sorts, narrow streets and an active night life. It is still raining so that tones things down a bit but we had a nice time walking around taking in the town. I like it here. As you can see from the pictures we are now in the state of Oaxaca, home of the Abraham Lincoln of Mexico -- Benito Juarez. I have been trying one way or another to get here for years so I´m glad that I finally made it. The riding is quite pleasant but it seems like we´ll be going for about one and a half to 2 more days until we get to the city of Oaxaca.

Ted: Not too much to talk about today. Lots of climbing. Lots of rocks. Lots of sun and sweat, and other things. Lizards, too. I find myself thinking in spanglish, saying in english the words I don´t know. We´ve got a nice hotel. I´m happy.

distance today: 83 km
riding time: roughly 5 or 6 hours
total distance: over 700 km

Izucar de Matamoros to Nuevas Horizantes, Puebla

Ted: Today we began our descent into southern Mexico. We finally got to the road we were aiming for, which leads without a doubt to Oaxaca. That means no more tricky navigating and debating which route to take. After about two hours of mucking about in a town looking for a decent internet cafe, we finally got on the road. And what a road it was. We rode through scenic mountains with wild shrubbery all day. Nearing the end, I was getting tired, and hoping for a place to camp. We had deducted that we´d probably be camping , as there were no town big enough to have a hotel along the way. My bike seems to have developed an appetite for chains. It broke its chain again today, and haven´t the foggiest idea of why. Anyway, we were fixing our chain and an older looking campesino comes walking along, and began talking to us, after a while of conversing, we told him what we were doing, and when we mentioned we were going to camp, he offered his yard to us. Coincidentally, his yard is full of dogs and goats, and donkeys and the like, so now we´re staying in what I believe is his son (or daughter)´s room. all his children moved out long ago, with two in Maryland, and two in Tijuana. He lives with his wife in a house made of cinder block and concrete. The shower comes in the form of a brick structure off the side of a tool shed with a bucket of water and a coffee can for pouring. it was one of the finest showers Ive ever had, if perhaps a little bracing. For the rest of the night, we ate our respective dinners, and realized just how little spanish dad and I knew. We are now in a room sleeping on the floor, and I´m overflowing with gratitude to the man, and his wife. Now, these mosquitoes are bugging me. Bed time.

Andy: now we are in the thriving town of Acatalan de Osorio, almost to the state of Oaxaco. After leaving the area around Mexico City things have become much more tranquil and beautiful. There is even less trash by the roadsides. I too am grateful for our hosts last night.

distance yesterday: 82 km
riding time: 5 hr 13 min
total distance: 758 km

Cuernavaca, Morelos to Izucar de Matamoras, Puebla

Cuernavaca, Morelos to near Izucar de Matamoras, Puebla

After a leisurely departure from Cuernavaca we promptly got lost trying to find our way out of the city. I had been looking at the route between there and Cuatla and thinking that it might be a good time to take a bus since we were right near the station and the route looked busy. Basically it turned out that way. Our recommendation for anyone riding a bike between those two cities is to take the bus. The road had four lanes and often had a shoulder but there was too much traffic. We did pull into a town trying to find a bus but we couldn't figure it out since all of the transport was in the form of little vans. It wasn't particularly dangerous but just loud and stinky with exhaust. Once we cleared Cuatla it rained, so we waited out some of the storm under the overhanging roof of a closed shop. Eventually, afar the toll road to Puebla we had the road to ourselves. We descended and climbed through scrubby rich green emptiness cut with deep canyons with water running at the bottoms. We were aiming for Izucar de Matamoras but knew it was a stretch if we hit more big ups than downs. As we got closer the land got richer with sugar cane and corn. Ancient ruins appeared along the road and, even if we were running late, we explored. Finally, as we were nearing our destination a bright apricot colored hotel appeared along the road. It advertised spacious rooms, hot water and bathrooms. We checked it out and, for two-hundred pesos we have got a great place to stay. I think we may be the only guests. Everything is particularly sparkling clean and the black tiled stairway certainly makes an impression. After showers we walked down the road to a roadside stand with trucks parked alongside (always a good sign) and ate very well for sixty pesos, drinks included. We are tired, stairs are a chore, our stomachs are full, we're happy and it's time for bed!

Ted: Those ruins along the side of the road dad mentioned; they were awesome. The ruins we checked out were of a fortified mission, we think. There were a couple of big structures that were I think the church, and the dining hall, and a number of smaller rooms which I assume were living quarters. I explored much more than dad did, due to a small cut on his ankle, and discovered a good deal. The ruins seemed to be 1600-1700 -ish and were clearly fortified. It was built on top of a hill, and had large walls surrounding it (now just lines of stones piled up). I discovered a room which while intact, was buried and didn't appear too structurally sound; the rear wall had collapsed inwards, and I didn't trust the three remaining walls to hold up their payload of stone and mortar. Needless to say, I didn't venture further in. Inspecting the rest of the ruins yielded pleasing results, such as an enormous auditorium which I believe was the mess hall, filled with banana trees, and a wall with a fichus tree that looked like it had oozed over the edge. There was more to explore and the photos I took only manage to portray a fraction of the once colossal structure. There were also a number of things I couldn't take pictures of, due to time constraints, like a great wall holding back tons of dirt, creating a cliff overlooking fields of corn and sugar cane. Yeah, today was great except for the cities, and the busy highways. The place we're spending the night is a hotel in it's infancy painted a beautiful kumquat shade. We're spending the night here for a steal. The room is spacious, and spotless and the bikes are stowed safe and sound. I need to sleep. Peace.

Note: we are heading south towards Oaxaca into an areas without many towns with internet access (only 1). We may be out of touch for a few days... Oh, and the chain is working ok for now. Also, thank you all for your comments. We appreciate hearing from you.

Distance today: 110 km
Riding time: 5 hr 30 min
Total trip distance: 680 km

Toluca, Edo. Mexico to Cuernavaca, Morelos

Andy:
Leaving the big city this morning was fairly effortless but busy at the industrious hour of 7:45 am. The low clouds looked foreboding even at that hour but never lived up to their promise. Leaving the big three lane road out of town we entered a number of small but busy pueblos in a very rich farming area. The names bear mentioning because they are such a mouthful: Mexicaltzingo, Tianguistensco and Xalatlaco were three of the memorable ones. Shortly afterwards we began climbing again in earnest. Somehow we just took it all in stride even though we probably were on some of the steepest pavement yet. The scenery just kept getting more and more beautiful with very tall moss covered pines, big rocks, cliffs and a lake all mixed in with misty clouds but no rain. We don't really know how high up we were but we would guess ten to eleven thousand feet. We were breathing hard but not overly so. Coming into Cuernavaca rates as the best ever descent for either of us. The payback for all of that climbing came in a very long and sinuous descent right into ther very heart of Cuernavaca. We had a place picked out to stay only to find out that it no longer existed so we found another rather lovely place to say. Cuernavaca is a very old city dating way back. Montezuma II's (of Hernan Cortez fame) grandmother came from here and Cortez built his HQ here in the 1520's. You can still see his midieval place in the middle of town. This is a hopping city that hosts a lot of tourists and students very clearly. On another note Ted's chain broke for the second and third time today. The first time was as we left the bus station in Guanajuato last week, literally on his first pedal stroke. With two breaks today I figured it was a pretty clear sign to replace it. The trouble is that, with his nine-speed rear cassette, his chain has to be pretty narrow so I didn't think we would be in luck. I hunted around for a bike shop (usually they are everywhere) and could only find one in the municipal market, cramped low and narrow. The old woman running the shop has two types of chains -- wide and narrow, so I took a narrow one and paid 35 pesos for it. It almost fit Ted's bike but was giving a few problems. I felt particularly brilliant when I realized that the new chain would do fine on my 7-speed freewheel and my chain would do well on Ted's bike. Time will tell if the 35 peso chain is up to the job so stay tuned.

Ted: Today was pretty cool. I must have finally gained enough muscle to keep up with dad on the hills. I've noticed a lot of shoe stores around in all the larger towns and cities. In Toluca, almost every third store was a shoe store, and I mean that quite literally. The interesting bit is that we probably couldn't buy new biking shoes anywhere short of Mexico City, or Guadalajara. We did see another biker today, dressed for riding, and pedaling something besides a rusted single speed. The sight of another guy in lycra and a helmet makes me feel slightly more normal, however with our blue eyes, 1.25 beards, and 6ft statures, I think we'll stick out no matter what we're wearing. The ride today was scenic, and super awesome. We broke records, and wishes became fact. By that I mean that we shattered our previous to p speed of 64.3km/h (?) with a brand new top speed of 82.4 km/h. It was awesome. However, at the end of that beautiful fast straight steep stretch was a terrifying corner, after which we thanked whatever god is up there that we had good brakes. Prior to this wild acceleration and deceleration was a different kind of downhill. We hung on to our slight metal frames, down a demented series of corners which would have satisfied the most knee dragging motorcyclists. We each tested the new tires on our bikes to their limits around corners which, had we been going just a little faster would have thrown us to the pavement. A few corners were taken too fast for comfort, and others were taken excruciatingly slowly, stuck behind a pickup truck creeeping along with its cargo of cement all in all, a most excellent day.

(editors note: we will be very careful in future descents, we really were not out of control as much as Ted says we were on the edge of it)

Distance today: 94 Km
Riding time: 5 hrs 18 min
Total trip dist. : 568 Km

A rest day in Toluca

Big cities are a mixed blessing. While, on one hand, Toluca isn't the most ideal place to spend a day it is very convenient. From our 300 Peso per night hotel room, reasonably appointed but short on charm, we can walk to a gigantic ancient church, the legislative building, several other old churches, museums, a number of large public squares, etc, etc. I can also find a Denny's-like restaurant with wifi to use Skype to talk home for free, Ted can buy a set of six contact lenses to replace the one he lost on the bus for the same price as he does in ABQ. I also found a reasonable pair of sunglasses to replace the ones I lost somewhere yesterday morning as well. All very convenient. This has been a good rest day. Probably one of the most interesting things we saw, beyond the 100 riot police guarding a government building while a group of campesino looking people sat on the curb outside with a sign or two, was the Cosmic Palace of Glass and Botanical Gardens -- the real name of an old renovated central marketplace. Pictures show the rest.

Valle Bravo to Toluca, Edo. Mexico

Today was a day of almost all climbing. This area of Central Mexico
is quite mountainous and we have had to pick our way from one town to
the next. By going to Valle de Bravo, which turned out to be a
beautiful place, we had two choices that would eventually lead us to
the road to Oaxaca and points south. This morning we decided to go
around the large city of Toluca, with its half a million inhabitants
we thought that it would be a bit much. After riding all day, much of
it light to ocassional heavy rain, we ended up asking a woman at a
roadside restaurant how far it was to Toluca and were shocked when she
told us twenty minutes on a bike. She was right and we were in our
hotel room in the center city within the hour. For such a large city
it was relatively easy to get around. Since leaving Valle de Bravo
this morning we climbed continually. We had one descent but went
right back up again. I would say that we climbed several thousand
meters over the eighty kilometers we rode. Of those eighty kms it
seemed like about fifty were steeply (first or second gear) up. Much
of the time we were in very thick pine and spruce forests covered with
spanish moss type stuff. At one point we stopped for lunch at a
roadside stand with three women coooking on an iron slab on a fire.
We were chilled so we put on our fleece jackets and continued to ride
with them after we ate. The good news is that we are largely
waterproof. I'm completely watertight in all of my five bags but Ted
leaked a little bit. Our rain pants and jackets seem to be working
well also, although rain does go down our necks since we aren't using
the hoods. Ted is voting for a rest day tomorrow but I don't
particularly want to stay here as it isn't all that appealing.
Cuernavaca is down the road a day's ride from here and I think that
might be a nicer place. I'll get up tomorrow morning and explore some
more and also will find a place to post this. In the meantime I'm
happy to be in a dry bed instead of a dripping pine forest as I was
figuring we might be doing before we found out how close Toluca was.
Today we rest in Toluca.

Total distance today: 81km
Riding time: 6 hours

Zitacuaro, Mich to Valle Bravo, Ed. Mexico

Andy: After a slow wakeup this morning we left Zitacuaro and immediately climbed steeply for 2 straight hours. By the time we reached the top of the hill we had covered all of 18 km! Fortunately such long climbs don´t kill our legs because we both have great gears for climbing now. Instead we just go really slowly. Another good thing was that we were on a very unbusy road and we even got to ride side by side for a lot of the time. With such steep hills it is impossible for anything to sneak up on us since we can hear their motors working so hard! The whole time the weather was misty and cloudy, we used no sunscreen. We have been in pine and oak forests all day and the scenery is wonderful. The people we meet continue to be friendly and helpful.

What comes up also goes down and we enjoyed great descents during the day. The final descent into Valle Bravo occurred in the rain but lasted for miles. Our raingear and my drybags worked well and we stayed comfortable. When we got to town Ted told me to take off my yellow rainpants because he thought I looked too much like Ronald McDonald in my yellow and red outfit. At least I was visible if not cool.

We are staying in Valle Bravo in the state of Mexico (yes, it´s a little confusing). This is a neat old town with a lot of tile roofs, a big lake and nasty (to ride on) cobblestone streets. We are staying in a very funky posada way back away from the busy main street of town. I have yet to explore more since it has been raining on and off.

Ted: Today was hard. Annoying. Slow. Short. Long. Wet. Cloudy. Loaves of bread lending their flavor to the peanuts eaten afterwards. Showers without curtains, toilets without seats. Ceilings and rooves made of tin and wood. Internet cafes with a technological edge stick out like sore thumbs. Open air shops advertise their wares by yelling, not signs. Grown men eat ice cream with solemn looks on their faces, children carry chickens down the road, and teenagers laugh as we go by. Tired looking people stare at us through the windown of a bus, and everything is great.

distance today: 81 KM

total distance: ?

top speed:66.7 KM/h

Acambaro, GTO to Zinacuarto, Michoacan

Andy: We left Acambaro at about 8:30 this morning and easily found our way out of town by just following the signs to Zinapecuaro. For the life of me I could never remember that name if it weren't on the signs. Light traffic and slight hills were pretty much the norm. Zinapecuaro itself had terrible pavement leading into it and a lovely square at the middle of the place where we stopped for a few minutes to drink and afix our water bottles with bungee cords so we didn't break any more bottle cages (Ted broke one yesterday but we brought two extra). Speaking of water we have figured out a good water system. We carry on the bikes between four and five liters (about a gallon) each. Over the course of a day we drink it all in addition to a refresco of about a liter each at lunch. I brought our camping water filter and have discovered that it doesn't need to be pumped as long as it has a drop from the source to the destination gravity does the work very nicely. It's a little slower but we have the time and we really don't like the task of pumping. The wter tastes fine and it saves the world from a few more plastic bottles. From Zinapecuaro we started into a climb that lasted at least two hours. By the end we were in pine forests and small towns made of wood, instead of the ubiquitous concrete. When we finally descended we did it very slowly through the town of Cd. Hidalgo and finally to Zitecuaro, where I sit typing in our 150 peso hotel room a block from the center of town. The weather was relatively cool and very cloudy all day. We thought it would rain but it never did. This part of Michoacan is very hilly and there are jagged peaks in the distance. Very close to here is the monarch butterfly wintering place so there are monarch icons everywhere in town. We went out after showers to a rolicking festival in the civic central square and ate Oaxacan tomales wrapped in banana leaves. Our eleven year old waitress was very patient with us when I told her that I knew nothing about Oaxacan food. She helped.

Ted: It's different down here, yet underneath the skin, all blood runs red. I've told several people on each trip that dad and I are not brothers, nor friends traveling together, but that I am, in fact, his offspring. The western influence down here is incredible. I've seen people wearing pink floyd shirts, and today at 8:30 in the morning, I heard a very popular Rick Astley song in the central square of Acambaro. At the same time, this is the most alien world I've been in. You can see people herding goats, and cowboy hats and boots should usually match. Wearing shorts is frowned upon unless you're a child, or doing something physically demanding. Rockets go off for no apparent reason, and all buildings seem as though they were built to survive volcanic eruptions. Yet the Chinese food tastes just the same.

total distance today: 130 km (or so)

ride time: 7 hrs 45 min