Cycling with Kevin (2025)

06/05/2024

We finally made it to Guatemala!!

After what seemed like years in Mexico, we are finally in Guatemala. Not that I'm happy to leave Mexico. I am going to miss it so much. But I am excited to move on.

In these 10 pictures, about 3 weeks elapses. I haven't posted much lately, and I haven't really been taking a lot of pictures. If I'm being honest, it's been a tough few weeks. The heat is absolutely killer. Any hill is enough to just bake you. We got over to the coast after leaving oaxaca to try to have as flat of a route as possible.

As if battling off heat stroke daily wasn't enough, Tess got Dengue fever on top of that. So what we planned to be 1 night in the border town of Tapachula ended up being a week. While she was in bed dying/recovering, I got out and walked about every block of that town. It got to the point that a few people around town started to recognize me. Not surprising as i was one of the two gringos in that town...and the other was in bed sweating out a fever.

After about a week of resting, and a blood test to make sure she was all good to go, Tess finally felt ready to ride some. Some. Maybe not necessarily how far we went.

We crossed the boarder into Guatemala in Ciudad Hidalgo. At the river there were a bunch of migrants crossing. We walked up to the National Guard and asked where we were supposed to cross and he just kind of motioned over to the sand bar and innertubes saying we should cross where everyone else was. After walking around confused a bit, we went back and asked where immigration was, and he gave directions to the bridge and the official crossing. Aside from that, and not having the receipt for our visa and having to pay again, it was pretty smooth and we were in Guatemala.

We probably pushed it a little too hard the first day, so we are going to be taking it slow the next few days while Tess builds strength back. But that's not really a bad thing. It will give us more time to enjoy Guatemala. What was originally planned for 4 days may turn into a week or so now.

18/04/2024

The only thing hotter than the road into Oaxaca is the road out of Oaxaca.

Between Mexico City and Oaxaca, we passed through a bunch of small towns. This area has the highest indigenous population in Mexico. With that comes a more traditional way of life, including dress and food. When we crossed into the state of Oaxaca, it seemed like a switch flipped, and all of a sudden, things were quite different.

We started having more interactions with random people at gas stations or restaurants. We noticed the predominant political parties changed their marketing considerably. Probably the most notable is the style of dress.

Not different is the church in the main square of every town. I feel like everyone is probably getting retired of pictures of churches and letters, lol. But oh well. I'm going to keep taking them.

The big game of thrones looking building is actually a convent. It is open to tours, but unfortunately, it was closed the day we passed through.

The riding in this section seemed uncannily easy the first few days. I thought I was just really well rested. Tess was saying I seemed a lot faster than usual. After racking my brain for a while, I finally realized I'd switch out of my generating hub. My hub pooped the bed getting into Mexico City, so I had to get a new one. A normal hub. Numbers on the internet vary, but this is about a 10% change in efficiency. So no. It wasn't actually me. Just my bike got a little easier to push.

11/04/2024

Oh, what do I say about Mexico City.

It is a place I dreamed about for a long time. I have imagined going to Teotihuacan for ages, Mexico City for probably a decade or more, and riding my hike there for a few years. And it all came true. Best of all, I got to enjoy it for a short time with my parents.

While they were there, we went to Teotihuacan, got a driving tour from a super cool Uber driver, explored around the ruins of Tenochitlan, and, yes, ate some ice cream. It was so good to see them and explore with them.

After they left, Tess and I pretty much put our noses in the book, trying to learn some Spanish. We took 3 weeks of Spanish lessons with a school there, and I personally think we go a little better. Maybe not as much as we'd hoped, but it's definitely better. I am still struggling to understand people when they speak full speed to me, but generally, if they slow down a little, I can catch on.

There are so many museums. So much history. Such beautiful architecture. SO MANY PEOPLE. Some serious pollution hanging around the whole time. But all in all, one of my favorite cities I've ever been to. I am definitely looking forward to being in a rural area again. Maybe somewhere a little lower elevation with less pollution too...but whos complaining.

Pues, hasta próximo CDMX, voy a volver algo día.

10/04/2024

Morelia to CDMX - another catch-up.

This first picture was something I read about and was really excited to go see. It doesn't look like much on first glimpse, but that black circle I the middle is an "obsidian mirror." This cross that the Spanish put up adopted a bunch of indigenous symbols, including the mirror. The mirror was the symbol of the Aztec God of the night. The cross has a few other Aztec symbols around it. It was really interesting to see firsthand how the early church adopted native symbols in trying to make their religion more approachable.

These pyramids were outside of Ziatcuaro. Finally, some we could climb on. Though some people had a little bit easier time than others. The steps were very narrow and quite steep. But the climb up and view from the top was quite nice. These pyramids are way out of the way and not visited much. I assume that is why you can climb these.

At this point in the approach to CDMX, we were well and truly in the thick of it. Our quiet roads (relatively speaking) had turned into bustling highways. We spent our last night in Toluca at warmshowers before making the final climb into Mexico City.

Mexico City is in a valley. But to get there, we had to climb up over 10,000 feet. This was the first time since Tahoe I could really feel the altitude working on me. But much like every hill I've climbed, the downhill was sweet. Then boy, did we get into some traffic. I'd bet we were twice as fast as the cars around. It was our first exposure to the traffic in the city. But after being here for a month, we have become experts.

08/04/2024

Well... check this out. I'm not dead. Way behind yes...but still alive. I can't really explain why this is true, but as I get close to a big destination, somehow instagram gets harder. Anyway. Heres a catch-up. Probably will be 2 catch-up posts, then 1 of our time in CDMX.

We left off in Zamora. Out of Zamora, we took a little detour down south to see this church. It is outside the town of Angahuan. This church and the surroundings town of San Juan was destroyed by a volcano in 1943. We had a fun little time crawling around the rocks and basically climbing the church.

From there, we went through Uruapan, where we planned to stay with a warmshowers host for 1 day. We ended up being there almost a week as I got food poisoning, then tess followed right behind me. I can not say enough about the hospitality we received. Never were rushed to leave. They made us soup. And sent us off with some fruit. There are no pictures above from being sick... you're welcome

Next was the colonial town of Patzcuaro and the prehispanic ruins of Tzintzuntzan. We toured around Patzcuaro. I was a cute little town, but we didn't really spend a ton of time there. A quick little tour through town to hit the highlights then on the ruins. These ruins are a little hard to see/take pictures of. They are like a pyramid on one side and a round base on the other. Apparently, on the round portion, there were fires that basically never went out.

Finally was Morelia. Morelia is another very nice colonial town, this one much bigger, though. Several huge churches and big governmental buildings. I think this is where the rush to get to CDMX started. We toured around Morelia for half a day, then kept going. He probably didn't do it justice, but hey. That's life.

So one more to get us to CDMX, or maybe even a little of the first days here, then one to catch up on what we've been doing and maybe some future plans. Alright.

06/03/2024

Mexico Day 55 - Guadalajara to Zamora

I'm trying to catch up a bit here. I've been in Uruapan for a few days but knocked out with food poisoning, so I haven't had the energy to put anything together.

We did a whirlwind tour through Guadalajara. Part of me wishes I had stayed longer and seen a little more depth and beauty there. But I also felt the need to keep moving at the time, so we did. I'll just have to come back. We did get to see some amazing gothic churches, museums, and one beautiful library. We stayed with a warmshowers host and went for a night ride with his son and a few Hu died other folks. That was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace for us. Usually, we are locked up inside and maybe even in bed by dark.

On from GDL, we went from Jamay to Zamora. Jamay is situated right on Lake Chapala. It is currently Mexico's largest lake (since draining Texcoco). From our warmshowers host in Jamay, you get the feeling people like the lake but at the same time are a little wary about it. It has been shrinking significantly due to extracting water for GDL, erosion, and temperature rise. It is also apparently highly polluted with heavy metals from industry in the river upstream. While threatened, it is still beautiful and made for a wonderful walk around the city on the malecon.

Next was Zamora. Our warmshowers host took us to the Camecuaro National Park. Its name means "place of bathing" in the native Purépecha, and visiting you can see why. Still, kids are playing near naked in the fresh clean waters of the spring fed lake. Along the shore, and even on an island in the middle, there were huge old cypress tress casting shades over the area. To cap off the natural beauty our hosts' young son was with us so we got to get a dose of the childish glee out being out and exploring.

Just in case anyone cares as much as I do about ancient Mexican languages....the name of these trees is Ahuehuete which rough translates to "old man of the water" in Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica(Aztec)

29/02/2024

Mexico Day 49 - El Camino de Arqueologica

This past week has been filled with some amazing visits to prehispanic archeological sites. An absolute dream come true. But first, before I get to that. A huge thank you to for helping me out in a pinch. A few kilometers out of Tepic, my rear derailleur cable broke leaving me in a bit of a pickle. We rolled back in to town and a few minutes later I had a new cable, and they were working on replacing my busted bottom bracket. Thanks so much for the help and warmth. I can't say how much I appreciate it.

Out of Tepic we we camped at Laguna Santa Maria del Oro. It is a crater lake perched in the top of a dormant volcano. It was nice to swim in a lake again. I miss that. The desert is truly behind us now. Only drawback was it was a 400m descent down the the lake. So first thing the next morning we had a big climb. But that's life.

Alrighty, so on to the ruins. First up was Los Toriles, outside on Itzlan del Rio. The site was occupied from around 300BCE to 600CE. It was a big palace and market complex with this really unique round structure. This was likely a temple to the Toltec god Quetzalcoatl. There were several other structures in pristine shape that were really marvelous to see, but pictures don't do the site justice.

Next up was Magdalena where we watch a men's league basketball game. That was a nice change of pace to just sit and watch other people sweat. Next we went the Oconahua to see the Palacio de Ocomo ruins. Here the caretaker showed us around and gave us a history of the site. He was present for the digs and found some remains and artifacts. It was really cool to hear the strategies and tactics used. This site however is reburied. They didn't have the funds to keep the dig going and needed to protect the site so they returned it.

Last and certainly not least is Guachimontones. This place was awesome. Probably a highlight of the trip so far. Beautiful circular pyramids. Stunning layout of the site in concentric circles. Near pristine altars and house pedestals. And probably the best museum we have been too yet. I could've spent 2 more days there wandering around.

21/02/2024

Mexico Day 41 - Mazatlan to Tepic - just hot boring rides on the toll road

This section wasn't much for ideal riding. The surroundings were pretty. But nothing amazing. Just open expanses to the west and distant ridge lines to our east. We have just kind of been town hopping on our way to start climbing the mountains. And boy did the climbing start.

The first stop was El Rosario. It was a tiny little town with a big church and cemetery in the center. Probably the most exciting thing for us there was our dinner adventure. Just when you're feeling good about your ability to understand and communicate in another language, something happens to make you feel good and stupid. We went to dinner, and it took 3 people to finally get our order. I'm still confused from that... but that's life.

Next up was Acaponeta. We got into town pretty early to shelter from the heat. Then, he went out to find some food to find that 90% of the town was shut down for what I assume is Sunday night church service. We ended up having some pizza and then calling it a night.

Ruiz was a more lively and interesting place. It seemed like a sudden change from a more European Mexico to a more indigenous Mexico. More people in traditional garb and a lot of handmade goods. Wandering around the market brought a lot of glances for us. I don't think they get many tourists.

Finally was the grueling climb up to Tepic. All of these rides so far had been incredibly flat. Then the last 30 km up to Tepic was suddenly up a 90° slope. Ok, it wasn't 90° but still. Really, it wasn't that steep. Or even especially hard. The part that made it bad was the 30+° heat and 5km/hr tailwind. Tess and I were both exhausted from it and got to town, ate, and got in some cool.

We have been staying in the hotel. Somewhat a combination of the heat (and subsequent desire for shelter from it) and somewhat because there isn't much camping availability. We don't tend to wild camp much. But up to Tepic hotels have been very reasonably priced and well accommodated, so neither of us really mind. I am looking forward to being back in the tent and cooking more, but for now, I'll enjoy this.

18/02/2024

Mexico Day 38 - La Paz and Mazatlan. A bunch of hard riding involved here.

No, it was really a restful time off in La Paz and a bit of a chaotic overnight ferry right across the Gulf to the mainland.

It just so happened that we were in La Paz for Carnaval. It was a lot of fun seeing it from a different perspective. Growing up near New Orleans, all I really know is Mardi Gras. So this was a nice change. It was a lot the same, with some minor differences. The floats and costumes were amazing, though.

There was also a little bit of sightseeing in La Paz. Anthropology museum, telling the story of Baja Sur from indigenous all the way through to post revolutionary period and becoming a state. Mostly, it was just enjoying some rest with a few bike rides interspersed in there

Next up was the ferry. So it boards at 4 pm, and departs at 7pm. Thankfully, this gave us plenty of time to figure out we didn't have the right tickets and rectify the situation before having to stay in La Paz longer. The ferry itself was...nice enough. I called the room we were in the cattle car. The ferry ride itself was 14 hours. And after about 8 hours on there, it just smelled like BO and fart. Sleeping was a bit rough. Lots of snoring and talking and not quite enough room to ever be comfortable.

For all of these reasons, we decided to stay in Mazatlan a night before heading out. The day in Mazatlan was mostly filled with walking around biding our time until a reasonable time to go to bed.

Now begins the next major chapter of the trip. Mainland Mexico. It feels a little surreal. Riding through places I dreamt on a map all of those days locked in an office or an apartment somewhere. It's kind of like a dream come true. Enough of that, on to Mexico City!

10/02/2024

Mexico Day 31 - Baja Part the Last - what a ride it's been.

I plan on doing a future post to reflect back on some of my favorite parts, so I'll hold off on that for now. Right now, let's talk about the ride to La Paz.

So I suppose I last left you in Santa Rosalia. I can get a little tunnel vision when I get close to a major destination, and this time is no different. I'll try to quickly wrap up the last 550 km quickly.

First, the coast ride from Santa Rosalia was a beautiful blend of cliffs and horseshoe bays. A lot of it is in protected inlets or sheltered by islands, so there isn't much surf, which also leads to quite shallow water. We waded out some 100 feet and were still in knee-deep water. But it's all crystal clear and makes for some beautiful views from the cliffs above.

We ended up in Loreto longer than planned. We intended to overnight there, then take a short day the following day. My bike, however, wanted a day off. On the way into Loreto, I broke a spoke and rather than bodge it together, I brought it to the shop. While it only cost 100 peso, it did take quite some time. We got to the point where we either had to evacuate our campspot or pay another night, so we just bit the bullet. Loreto was a nice place to be though. A very walkable and lively. Chock full of tourists/expats but quite enjoyable place to spend an extra day.

Out of Loreto we but off the last bit of desert riding.for Baja. The ride from Loreto to La Paz is 350 km. We'd originally planned it for 4 days, but after our extra day off, we decided to tackle it in 3. The only cities between were Ciudad Insurgentes and Cuidad Constitución. Both quite close together around the first 3rd of the ride. The ride overall was quite flat and we had a tailwind for the majority. For doing 120+km per day for 3 days in a row, it really was quite easy.

Now we are in La Paz and will be taking some time off here for a bit. A little rest time. A little planning time. A little more rest time. We are thinking of taking the ferry the 15th, but not totally decided on that yet.

So this pup? Or wait....I'm out of space. Pup talk in yhe comment.

03/02/2024

Mexico Day 23 - San Ignacio to Santa Rosalia - Flat tires abound

Not for me, but can't seem to keep any air in her back tire. 3 patches yesterday and one today. Dude! What are you doing.

We did about 75km through mostly desert, but as we got closer to Santa Rosalia, it got a little more mountainous. We passed just south of Las Tres Virgenes. Three extremely prominent volcanoes sticking up out of the desert. We could see them coming all day and finally went around the southernmost one and got a view of them from the back side. They were stunning.

After we went over the pass, around the volcanoes, it was generally a descent down to the coast. The landscape changed from scrubby desert plants to more sandy and grassy. The rock formations seem to change the instant we crested the pass. It's always so amazing to me how two sides of a single hill can be so different.

From the pass we cruised another 10k or so down the coast to Santa Rosalia. Santa rosalia was build by the kiting company around the turn of the 19th/20th century. The architecture very much resembles a goal rush town. With the exception of a metal church. We had heard about this church a little ways back. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel (of tower fame). I expected something much more grandiose, but it is rather simple. Moderately decorative fascia and some stained glass windows are all that really sticks out. The steel arches give the inside a very open feels. Maybe the coolest thing about it is that it was built in Paris, moved to Brussels, then bought by the mine and moved to Baja. I don't think I've ever been in such q well traveled church.

Cycling with Kevin

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