Oaxaca and the Bad Side

Oaxaca

Pxl and I have made it into the state of Oaxaca – a beautiful, diverse and politically charged state in southern Mexico. Taking a rest day in Pinotepa, we experienced a religious procession, a protest to free a disappeared professor and a beautiful city center. We will soon be at Puerto Escondido, a beach town with a surf culture and much to do. However, after this port the future is uncertain. Could the Brigada Mariposa be disbanding completely? Will we all seek out our own adventure and manifest our own future reality separately? Obviously a stressful decision, but the forces that draw us together also draw us apart. It feels like an impending breakup, like when Andy left us in the Zocalo in Colima with that song playing in the background: “I don’t want to leave without you…” or some sad shit like that. Now I feel the call of the mountains, the cool air, the jungle, the ruins, the chocolate, the culture and the political atmosphere calling me away from the coast, the state of Chiapas (for now) and my cycling companion, Pxl. I am looking forward to cycling solo, adventuring onward without compromise, like Andy has finally started doing (I think he just left Colima today).

Thanks to all of those who continue to write me and keep in touch. I’m not homesick really, but I do miss my friends. So, if you haven’t written lately – let me know what you’re doing!

And now, the dark side of cycling through Mexico, the stuff we deal with that causes great discomfort, stress or other bad feelings and thoughts.

The bad list:

· Climbing up a huge mountain stuck in heavy traffic, breathing almost pure exhaust.
· That greasy spot on your tire from that roadkill you didn’t see.
· The smell of death from the “fresh” roadkill
· The smell of my gloves
· Riding through a thick cloud of burning plastic and other garbage
· The massive piles of unburned garbage that litter almost every landscape.
· Blowing out a tire on a fast downhill with lots of traffic.
· Rack failures (we’ve all experienced this – most common problem)
· Sand in your chain
· More guns than I’ve ever seen. Seems like the army and police are ready for war.
· Missing friends and family
· waiting for hours in an internet café to post those pictures for you on a super slow connection

(There is a longer list in my journal, I’ll update this post with an edit later on)

Hot times in Guerrero

Well, the first few hours of biking through Guerrero we found an awesome hotspring. We were just stopping for a cold coconut, enjoying them in the heat of the afternoon, when I decided to ask if there were any hot springs nearby. Yep, about a half hour bike in the direction we were headed. Nice adventure finding the place, well worth the effort. Great hot water and free camping too! Now we're in Zihuantenejo, a gringolandia town designed by the Mexican government to become a tourist hotspot in the '80s. I guess the effort was a success. Nice to go out and dance, but we are back on the road today, headed south toward Alcapulco, a few days ride from here. ¡Hasta luego!

Making headlines

My favorite sign

My favorite sign
Originally uploaded by SpokenWorld.

we agree - our favorite sign by far

Mi playita

Mi playita
Originally uploaded by SpokenWorld.

If you look really closely, you can see where we camped for over a week. Right there in the middle of the beach.

Life is a Beach

Have you ever been told to relax and picture a place in your mind that is serene and tranquil, like at a psychologist or something? Well, if that ever happens to me I’ll know what to picture. We came across the best little beach I’ve ever known or even dared to imagine. It was a small beach, surrounded on two sides by large rock outcroppings. The one on the right (Western) side was full of caves and tunnels that were full of ocean. You could explore these scary caves with massive waves crashing around in them or you could wait for the one time a day when the tide hits just right and a spray shoots out of a little hole and reaches 20 meters into the air. Or you could snorkel in the “alberca,” the pool like piece of ocean that laps at the little beach and is full of neat looking fish. Or you could spend 80 percent of your week sitting in a hammock. That’s what I did last week. Sure we pushed up some massive sea-side cliffs with our weighted bikes, against the wind, for days, just to get there. That just makes it that much sweeter. Leaving was hard, but actually riding away was even harder. These cliffs in Michoacan make Northern California on HW 1 look tame.

Still, living life slowly is something that I never really experienced before. I still needed to cook food, but we did this in groups (of course). Otherwise, I would try not to make more than one thing to do each day, to fill my “docket”. One day I did laundry in the river, like the women in the village. Another day I tried (unsuccessfully) to patch my therma-rest knockoff from REI. I think I did that one thing four days, maybe. It’s okay though, I sleep in my hammock most of the time anyway. Meanwhile, it was great to pass so many hours chatting with other travellers, Mexican hippies, villagers, and, of course, pxl. Otherwise I would read, swim, or just chill out. Many days I didn’t leave that little beach at all.
Leisure seems to be something that is viewed as wasted time in the north, few people actually sit down and relax for any significant portion of their days. They say here that in the north, people live to work, while here in Mexico, they work to live. International travellers always express surprise or shock when they realize how little vacation people get in the USA. Also, from what I hear, we work the most hours per week. Get a life, I say. Or even better, get a hammock.