More photos

I have a smattering of photos from the last day that I wanted to post.

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

(Andy)

Since yesterday morning we have been in the city of San Cristabol de las Casas in the southernmost state of Chiapas. SC is situated pretty high in the mountains and it is cool and pleasant here. It is the rainy season so it has been raining in the afternoons as well (but not today). Yesterday, after riding all night in a surprisingly easy 11 hour bus ride from the beach, we met up with Dan Cummings of Bosque School fame. Dan has been a great guide and showed us around the city yesterday, including catching a music act in the evening. This is a seems a different place from the north -- very liberal and artistic. The music last night, for instance included and accordian, drums, guitar and bass playing a wandering but very tight gypsy style of music. The vocalist somehow incorporated throat singing, Louis Armstrong style scat and many other types of wild vocal improvisations. It brought a smile to our faces through their whole set. I describe the music in a way to describe the town -- you never know what your are going to come across.

Today we dropped off Dan´s wife Kristen in the town where she was doing her Anthropology work and we headed off to a Zapatista village. A very short background... indigenous people in southern Mexico have been on the fringes of society for a very, very long time. In 1994 a movement led indiginous leaders and University intellectuals took over this city in a coordinated and well publicized movement the day that NAFTA was enacted. They had general support from the population here. Since then they have succeeded in many ways towards self-governence, land reform and general public awareness. In many ways it is a community based movement that makes perfect sense. The Zapatista army, EZLN, is still alive more in spirit than actuality. Zapatistas still adopt the black ski-mask look and are alive and well in a number of areas in the highlands here. We came to the gate of the town, our ID´s were checked, we were signed in and then we headed to the Council for Good Governance where we met with 2 or 3 members of the council and we had the opportunity to ask eachother questions. After that we were allowed in the town. We checked out the clinic and school and took photos of all of the murals on the side of the building. It was a good place.

The next stop was a church in Chomula unlike any church I have every seen. It was a fully Catholic church but there were no pews, just about 50,000 candles on the table and floor, pine needles all over the concrete floor, boxes for about 50 saint, groups of traditionally dressed folks praying with candles, bottles of soda and alcohol, incense, etc. Outside, as the groups left, they would set off big skyrockets and huge explosions that you felt in your chest. It was a happening place.

Following that Ted and I went shopping and got a few gifts, some great honey and some food for tommorrow.

Tomorrow we leave early with Dan for the ruins at Tonala. Following that we hop a night bus for Mexico City, where we will take a bus to Cd. Juarez, cross the border and take another bus from El Paso to Albuquerque. Since we are practically in Guatamala that will be a long trip of about 2 days. A gallon of jungle honey and a machete will follow us home next month with Dan and Kristin.

Ted: We´ve been busy since we arrived here. Doing things which are cool, touristy, geeky, or just weird. we´ve seen great live music, eaten great sandwiches, seen wild markets; the definition of foreign. We´ve walked around the city, traveled to villages governed by masked men, and had great coffee. Life is really great down here. Well paced, and calm. I like it, but I do kind of miss home. I´m tired, and cannot explain all that we´ve seen and done in these past few days.

Ted: We're here in SC del casas, and it's a pretty cool town. Here on Dan Cummings' computer, we finally have the hardware to upload some photos, so without further ado:

San Jose del Pacifico to Puerto Angel

Ted:
from Sj del P, the ride really was lagely downhill, and would´ve been the best descent we´ve ever been on had it not been for the rain. During the whole afternoon, it was a warm rain keeping us from really going the speed we wanted to. The rain wasn´t altogether unpleasent, just limiting. My speedometer broke, keeping me from knowing just how fast I was going. We made it to Pto Angel by the evening, and found a place to stay. Afterwards, we had a bit of a time looking for a resturant called Beto´s that was suposed to have great food. We found it, and it did have great food. It it smotheringly hot here, like awful, horrible humid sticky heat, yet another reason why we´re taking the bus from here to Sc de las Casas. I kind of wish we didn´t have to, but we don´t have the time, nor the sweat wicking technology to ride there. It´s just too darn hot.

Andy:
Another epic day today... We left our lovely hotel at about ten am and
promptly found an internet place down the hill where we could post the
day's post. We couldn't get the pictures to go thru though so those
will be coming. It seemed like we would have one huge downhill but
that turned out not to be the case. We continued climbing after a
short downhill teaser. Very soon we were hungry again and we ate once
along the road and another time in a restaurant perched on the side of
a cliff. During lunch number two the thunder started booming and the
raindrops fell hard on the metal roof of the building we were in. We
suited up in pants and jackets and, shortly afterwards, in fleece
jackets too. We also descended seriously for hours afterwards with
occassional climbs that were just as steep. We went from cold and
rainy in pine trees to warm and rainy in thick tropical foliage --
bananas, big leafy houseplant like things, epiphytes growing in trees,
vines, etc, etc. No soil was to be seen short of the immediate ditch.
We also saw a crowd along the side of a road looking down at a truck
that fell off of the edge. It didn't look good, especially since we
saw the ambulance coming about fourty five minutes later. It was a
helpless feeling knowing that there was nothing that we could do
except watch so we went on our way. Eventually we reached the ocean
after a long long while. We are in a huesped now and I can hear the
waves in the little bay we are in. It's also quite hot and the
mosquitoes are biting. I am ready to head to bed under my mosquito
net. By the time we reached the sea it stopped raining...

distance today: 115 km
Riding time: 6.5 hours
Total distance: 1129 km

Oaxaca to San Jose del Pacifico, Oax.

Andy: We finally made it out on the road at a sensible hour.
Following our rest day in Oaxaca we were fresh and ready to get up
early. We managed to roll out of our hostel at about 7:20 am and
spent the next 45 minutes not getting lost as we headed out of town.
While we were on busy 4 lane highways they had wide and fairly good
shoulders without too many busses and taxis bllocking the way as they
stopped along the roadside. Soon we were on relatively untrafficked
roads as we headed down a valley for about 60 miles. We knew we had a
big climb coming and had figured that we would stay the night in a
town before the climb but we got there so early that we thought that
we would just see how far we could get. We figured that if we were in
the mountains the camping would be easy if nothing else came
available. We had also just eaten a great bbq chicken lunch and one
of the other customers said that there was a nice hotel in the
mountains that was reasonably priced so we figured that we might find
it. We started our climb at about 4 pm and it continued for a long
time for probably over one-thousand meters. Early on in the climb we
came upon a long string of traffic backed up behind a roadblock so,
having bikes, we just rode to the front. We asked what was going on
and were told that the local indigenous people were blocking the road
until somebody came to talk to them about their demands. There was a
big crowd of folks at the roadblock and big rocks in the road. I
asked very politely if we could pass and the man smiled and waved us
by. Out of respect we walked our bikes over the hundred yards between
the two roadblocks (in each direction) then we simply rode on. The
good part about it is that we had practically no traffic coming behind
us since the road was blocked to all except locals. We climbed from
scrubby desert up into piney forests over th course of 6 or 7 miles.
When we got the the top there were many small communities of craftsmen
and exceptionally clean roadsides. Many people cheered us on or gave
us big thumbs up. As a sidenote you may have noticed a lot of trash in
the pictures we have taken on the road. Usually the worst places have
signs that say, "Don't throw trash." We saw new levels of that,
complete with lots of slogans and pictures of pigs. It didn't seem to
make any difference in the beginning but, by the time we reached the
top, things were exceptionally clean. As we reached the top we saw
clouds pouring over the crest. Soon we were in the clouds and we rode
in and out of them for a while. Eventually, as we were pretty tired
but totally jazzed about the beauty and serenity of the misty
mountains, we came upon a sign for the hotel the man at lunch told us
about. The place was beautiful and offered quite reasonable cabins
and food (http://www.sanjosedelpacifico.com). It is still extremely
foggy outside but we are dry and comfortable in our little wooden (not
concrete!) room. Our neigbors are a pair of young lawyers on their
way back to Oaxaca from the beach. They waited at the roadblock and
eventually turned around and came back here to spend the night. Our
elevation here, it turns out, is 2700 meters (8850 feet) above seal
level. We should have a nice go of it tomorrow on our way to the
ocean. No chain or derailleur problems today.

distance today: 132 km
total: 1014 km

Rest Day in Oaxaca

(Andy)

We are in the biggest city in Southern Mexico (pop approx 700,000). This is a town of artists, activists and bright colors. We are staying in a funky hostel near the downtown. The place is comfortable, has free wifi that doesn´t work today, a lovely roof and a variety of colorful travelers from around the world. Ted and I bracket the group in terms of age. I feel like I´m a little old for the place but we were tired when we arrived at 7:30 last night and didn´t feel like looking elsewhere and at this point it doesn´t make any sense to switch places since we are settled in. Ted confided to me that he doesn´t feel like he fits in either. Really though, it´s okay that neither of us join some of the other guests for nighttime revelry so I suppose it isn´t such a bad thing!

We found Ted a new front derailleur and it works like a charm. With a new chain he should be good for another few thousand miles. My new chain works much better too. The 35 peso chain always took a while to switch gears and at times didn´t or just fell off. It worked great as long as I didn´t change gears. I also went two blocks down the street and finally met Noel Chilton, a friend of Bosque School teacher Lisa O´Grady. I first contacted Noel about five years ago when I thought I was going to make a trip to Oaxaca. In conversation we realized that her dad and I very likely have been passing each other while biking to work for years.

It´s hot outside and may rain this afternoon, as it has been during most afternoons and evenings. I just looked outside and saw a very short traditionally dressed woman walking by with a bucket on her head as I type on my computer. What a world.

I feel rested and ready to go from here down towards the Pacific Ocean. It appears that in order to get to Chiapas and be home in 7 or 8 days we are going to have to do some more busing. That´s fine though. I find that when I am in the city I am ready to leave and ride through the countryside. About now would be nice but I should wait until the morning. Oaxaca has a lot of famous sights to see -- big trees, big old ruins, museums but I don´t feel really moved to go there now. Just sitting in the Zocolo watching the world pass by is enough.

Ted: I don't have too much time, as I don't want to pay too much, but Oaxaca is a new city. Different, too. It seems to have a large population of pretty radical graffiti artists, drawing things like a peace sign and an anarchy sign holding hands, and writings telling somebody to step out of power, and to take down the imperialist police chief. Its a different city. Huge central square. Hopping place it is. Gonna go check out the rest of the town. Peace.

Huajuapan to Tamazulapan to (via bus) Oaxaca, Oaxaca

We are killing about half an hour until we can catch the bus to Oaxaca. Ted´s chain has been giving him problems and today it ate the front derailleur twice, really wrecking it the second time (in this town) so we walked across the street and have paid 8 dollars for two tickets to Oaxaca on the bus. There was another great bike shop here and they gave us the name of a place there that would have what we need in the big city. Didn´t want to take the bus, oh well. Serious hills today. Beautiful terrain. We met a very kind biker (lycra, helmet and all) who brought us to the bike shop here. He´s the third rider we´ve seen here. We´ll be in Oaxaca in 140 km or in about 3 hours.

Distance today: 41 km

Time: 3 hr 10 min

Total distance: 882 km

Ted: If beaking chains was like smoking, my bike just switched to crack. It totally bent out the derailluer. The picture really doesn´t capture how gristly the scene is. Swallowed pride taking bus to Oxaca.