Photos from Mexico City

The hotel room!

A nice family place to stay and spend quality time together!

Oh boy sheesh it sure has been a while since we last wrote. Two things have hindered us greatly in writing. 1) Eric ate bad tacos (maybe) and was sick 2) Merilee ate bad tacos (maybe) and was sick

Really it is pretty amazing that this is the first time either of us has been sick enough to take a day off. We are fairly careful about what we eat and we either drink bottled water or use good old iodine to purify the water. But, all good things must come to an end, and our hopes of never puking on this trip have been dashed.

We have been spending a lot of time doing the tourist thing recently because we are going through kinda the heart of Mexico right now. We stopped in Aguascalientes for a couple of days. The city was in preparation for a giant Feria, which is a famous celebration for the patron Saint of the City. It was nice to see the prep, because the real celebration sounded crazy with over a million people pouring into the city to see it. From Aguascalientes we went and stayed the night at a Pemex station again. Lovely grass Pemex has! But, the next day Merilee became quite ill, and instead of going to Guanajuato, we had to go to Leon (a city about 15 km away from the Pemex).

Leon: A city famous for shoes, giant outlet stores, and as we found out Auto hotels. We are riding down the main street into Leon and all we keep seeing are these Auto hotels. At first we think, maybe they are like sex hotels, but some look so fancy and there are so many of them that they couldn't be. They must be for travelers to stop and have a safe place to rest. We find one that looks nice, and head in to ask the price. Well, we can pay by the hour. Hmmm, that is interesting. So Merilee asks a hotel maid what kind of hotel is this. The lady responds that it is a place where partners can have a paseo. Merilee asks a little more directly; Is this a sex hotel. The woman responds, "Andale!!!" So, Merilee is sick and there are nothing but Auto hotels to stay in, what is a brother and sister to do? Pay for a full nights rest upon a circular bed with a mirror above it, discover 24 hour porn playing on the TV, and ignore the viewing window into the shower from the bedroom.

The next day Merilee is feeling much better so we head to Guanajuato; our first destination that we decided we would go before we started the trip!! Guanajuato is a nice university type town kind of tucked into some big foothills. It has narrow cobblestone streets that large buses try to edge their way through. There are old churches and plazas around every other corner that are kept in immaculate condition. I really wonder when they trim all the hedges because they are always perfect looking, but the plazas always so full of people. We stayed on the rooftop terrace of a hostal right in downtown. There we listened to all sorts of American Indie rock and spoke English with native English speakers. We even did a short hike up to the top of a big hill behind the city and could see all around the area.

It seems as though we go through certain food obsessions here in Mexico. For example, when we first crossed we could not eat enough flour tortillas. And for a while we ate tons and tons of Polvorones, which are delicious orange flavored cookies. Now we can't seem to eat enough guava. Why this delicious little yellow fruit is almost obsolete in the United States (at least the Northwest) I do not know, but the food recommendation for the day is go eat some guava. Eat the whole thing, only maybe cut off the little spot where it attaches to the tree.

Pictures : Scenes from the Market, Eric and a German dude hiking, stairwell in Museum of death, and Merilee's favorite sculpture ever!!! (the cows and cowboy)

Just because it's funny

If you recall a couple of posts back we slept in the men's bathroom at an RV park to escape dusty, pollen-filled wind. Luckily for all y'all we immortalized the moment by documenting it on video. On a side note, my hands have been more or less numb for about a month now. It turns out that if you want to go on a crazy long bike tour you should get a bike that fits you (aka isn't too small!). Daily tasks are, therefore, often rather difficult to complete, but today brought something I couldn't do on my own - Eric had to cut my nails for me.

Well, we did not spend the night in the jail cell! Yaya! Bueno, no pasamos la noche en la celda!

Instead we spent the night in a Casa de Hogar. It is essentially a home where they send people with disabilities to live if their families cannot care for them. The home is sponsored by the government. Carmen, the women working the night shift, greeted us with enthusiasm and prepared us some fried potatoes with corn tortillas. We appear to have passed the great tortilla divide in Mexico. The northern part of the country tends to eat flour tortillas, while the Southern part eats corn. Anyhow, we ate lots of food, (same old same old) went to bed, and left for Rio Grande in the morning.

We made our usual beeline for the Ayuntamiento in Rio Grande and were greeted by the Chief of the Fire Deptarment, el Profe. He quickly listed off many options of places for us to stay; a trailer by the Pemex, the fire station parking lot, his offices floor and his home. Needless to say we chose his house. He drove us to his house (this is a luxury dear reader, and pure and simple luxury). Then his wife and sons prepared us hamburgers! Not missing an American flavor, we also had bacon, cheese slices, and potato chips. I ate three burgers, just saying, but hey that's the American way too. But we kept things Mexican...lots of chiles on the burgers! YUM!! Anyhow, the Profe and his upbeat energy and conversation had us laughing and smiling all afternoon. We also learned three lies about Rio Grande, and they are as follows; There is no River, there is no grande, and there is no city. The next morning we had our usual goodbyes, which never get much easier, but are part of our life currently. With the usual understanding and a loud ANDALES! the profe sent us off for Zacatecas.

Here in Zacatecas we are spending some quality time off the bike. Yes, sometimes time apart from our loved ones makes us appreciate them more. Although, we do not know if this holds true for our bikes. The saddle continues to be a pain in the ass no matter how much time apart we spend. Zacatecas is a bit of a culture shock. The population appears to be over 1,000 people, there are paved streets everywhere, and the stores and shops line the streets. There is an abundance of stores selling shoes, shirts, jewelry, and other touristy knicknacks. There is a stunning lack of ranch animals here and not every person stares at us as though we are arriving on bicycles from who knows where. But, we also find ourselves reflecting on the trip so here are a few thoughts, facts and ideas about Mexico, life and bicycling a long way.

1. Number of flats to date: Eric - 13 Merilee - 6
2. Semi Trucks are very similar to bike tourists...think about it both smell, spend hours and hours on the road, we are slow and in the way... EXCEPT semis run us off the road, we run nothing but donkeys off the road or on come to think of it
3. Number of gringos spotted before Zacatecas - 0. After 4 (maybe)
4. Mexico celebrates the great holiday known as Daylights Savings Time
5. Almost every person we have met has a family member or has personally lived in the United States to work
6. Nurse Jackie (said with a Spanish accent) is an addicting TV show
7. You will never know true anger until you try and bicycle into a direct head wind for days on end
8. There is a generosity that exists in Mexico that is hard to describe. They give to people who seek a small hand like us. We need a quiet place to sleep, a shower perhaps, and maybe a little food - this is given with no thought of 'repayment' just to carry this feeling into our future life endeavors.
9. There is nothing like falling sleep on a quiet Mexican night only to have it shattered by burros, stray dogs, roosters, or even peacocks.
10. Jumex is the most amazing brand of juice!!!
11. Pigeons dancing to music = pretty funny

Pictures: Eric with El Profe, and our true rebellious side coming out as we bike where we're not suppose to.

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Que te parece la gasolinera?

Ya es hora de escribir un poquito en español...disculpeme por todos los errores de la gramatica y la ortografia :c)

Pues despues de salir de los alrededores de Chihuahua fuimos por el sur en la autopista. Llegamos hasta 130 kilometros al dia para recuperar un poquito de tiempo que perdimos por la sierra por culpa de tanta subida! La autopista es una chulada - no hay ollos, hay espacio amplio para las bicicletas, y es de dos carriles por un solo rumbo - perfecto!


Paramos en un pueblito que se llama Estacion Conchos para pasar la noche. Fuimos a una tienda de abarrotes para hacer la compra y preguntar por donde pudieramos poner la casita. Resulto que nos ofrecieron un cuarto en su casa para descansar! Tambien nos dejaron bañarnos a gusto con agua calientita y nos preparo un plato de frijoles con queso, huevos y tortillas. Habia tambien pan recien horneado riquisimo! Me dijo la receta - a ver como me sale cuando regrese a EEUU. En total, fue genial pasar la noche con la familia, y de verdad pasamos la noche comodos y a gusto. Muchisimas gracias a Ronaldo, Flora y toda la familia!

Resulta que la carretera entre Chihuahua y Gomez Palacio es muy solo. Fue tan solo que tuvimos que pasar la noche antes de llegar a GP en un Pemex! Los muchachos de la gasolinera nos ayudaron y pasamos la noche seguros y a gusto (pues, sino que los doble semi remolques que iban volando cerquita a la casita en el camino!). Siempre nos llevamos comida, pero aquel noche teniamos que comprar un poquito para cocinar la cena. Tuvimos que usarla bien la imaginacion porque la JV estaba casi vacia por culpa de las vacaciones! Incluso habia un yogurth que estabamos a punto de comprar, pero resulto que ya habia caducado - en 2009!

El dia siguiente pasamos la noche en Gomez Palacio. Fue un dia largo en bicicleta, y estabamos hecho polvo cuando llegamos. Nos alojamos en un hotel puesto - sin tele pero con cucarachas :c)


Por la mañana seguimos la ruta por el sur. Despues de pasar la ciudad intentamos entrar en la autopista, pero no nos dejaron. Nos aseguraron que habrara espacio en la libre, pero resulto que no habia espacio pero en absoluto. El trafico fue horroroso - tenia que tirarnos fuera del carril unos cuantos veces porque los camiones no pararon ni nos dejaron sito y una vez me caye. Lo mejor del dia fue cuando llegamos a Las Torrecillas. En principio paramos alla para preguntar por el rumbo de un pueblo donde pensamos en pasar la noche, pero cambiamos lo que hubimos planeado y descansamos alla con Rafa y su familia. Nos ofrecieron unos refrescos de sabor de manzana y al beberlos nos sentimos mucho mejor. Mas adelante probamos el sotol que se producen alla con trocitos de naranja - que bueno despues de un dia a tope!


Ayer llegamos a un pueblito que se llama 12 de Diciembre por la fecha del dia que partaron el area. Segun el consejo de unos señores del pueblo fuimos a la casa del juez para averiguar donde podriamos poner la casita de campaña. Generosamente el juez, Abraham, nos ofrecio un cuarto desocupado en su casa para descansar! Despues de guardar las cosas, descansamos un ratito y hablamos con la familia. Antes de acostarnos cocinamos unas patatas con arroz y zanahoria, pero tambien sus hijas Melissa y Vanessa nos preparon nopales con chile rojo, frijoles y tortillas - que rico! Incluso nos probamos jugo de papaya y jugo de maguey natural y un trocito de pastel de coco. Despues de tanta comida riquisima ya teniamos ganas de dormir! Dormimos a gusto y almanecemos bien descansados y listos para seguir la ruta pero sin ganas de despedirnos - siempre me resulta dificil :c( Muchas gracias a Dola, Abraham, Melissa, Vanessa, Abraham Jr. y Paola!

Ahora mismo estamos en Juan Aldama, y parece que vamos a pasar la noche en una celda de la policia - seria la primera vez! Bueno, puede que sea una historia interesante...ya les avisaremos!

To Bike or Not to Bike?.

Well, if the wind is blowing at about 30-40 MPH the answer is probably no. On the plus side we get to post a bunch of photos and videos. AND!!!! We are at an RV Park! How cool is that? We went to Mexico to stay at an RV park! In fact, (no sarcasm here) we also went to Wal-Mart because we missed it soo much. We were hoping to find large size peanut butter, but no luck. It appears we are doomed to small jars of this wonderous food for the duration of our trip.

The RV Park is a bit dead, we are the only patrons and we, of course, are not RV's. So they are letting us stay for free, which is nice especially because we have all of our stuff holed up in the guys bathroom. I.E we are also going to be sleeping inside the bathroom, YAY! There is logic to this, the wind is so ridiculous all of our stuff was covered in dust, pollen, and whatever else this morning. So we are seeking shelter where we can. It will also be quiet from the free range RV Park horses. e

Pictures: Arturo and family, Our one night Ranchito cabin (fire included), Apple trees (world famous Chiuhuahuan apples), Abdias and Maria Ester

Video: A little clip showing our true colors

Video #2: What to do when your face keeps getting burned and someone has given you a hat you unfortunately cannot wear....