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Southward Bound
  • Holly and Karl

Southward Bound

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Going Our Separate Ways

    2 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    After a great couple of days spent together, on January 2 most of the cyclists packed up to leave La Ventana. Esteban, Joaquin and Pablo, three Mexicans from Guadalajara, were heading to Todos Santos then south, Sara and Sean were cycling down the Sea of Cortez coast to San Jose del Cabo, and ourselves, Safia from France (who we had met in San Quintin), Robert from England (who we had met in Big Sur), Mike from Austria (who we had met in Teslin on day 3 of our trip!), Basti from Germany (who we had met just the day before) were headed back to La Paz to take the ferry to Mazatlan the following day. Max, and Hattie from Germany (who we had met the day before also) were both planning to connect with sailboats heading to the mainland and then sail south in the New Year. Finally Antoine, a fellow Canadian, was staying in La Ventana for a while longer to kite surf to his heart's content. What fun to connect with all of them!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Last Sights and Visits in La Paz

    2 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    The ride back over the hill to La Paz was less mentally challenging since we knew what we were in for and the 20 km descent to La Paz was fast and fun. We made a quick stop at our Warmshowers host Tuly's place, then joined a tour to swim with whale sharks just outside the harbour. It was an amazing experience to see such a gentle giant up close, but it was a little wierd to be one of so many tourists in their space. After our refreshing swim we rode out to Marina Palimar to meet Alan and Lindy on their boat Enchante. Two weeks earlier we had found their camera at Agua Verde and managed to return it to them via the Club Crusaros (the La Paz sailing club). They were thrilled and invited us to meet them on their boat, where we enjoyed getting to know them and comparing travel stories. We topped off our great last day in La Paz with an Italian dinner at Tuly's with two Italian cyclists Davide and Luca, Tuly's husband Jesus and their daugther. A giant feed of spaghetti and a huge tub of ice cream helped to ensure that all were full and happy!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Bye Bye Baja

    3 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    We finally said goodbye to La Paz and the Baja on January 3rd, as we rode out of town to the confusing ferry terminal (not at all like the well-signed and controlled ferry terminals we are used to back home!). We were lucky to have the company of 6 other cyclists (4 friends from New Years in La Ventana, and Francios and Helen, a French couple also from Whitehorse!) for the 22 hour ride across to Mazatlan. We didn't get a lot of sleep since none of us paid for a cabin, and so had to find a spot in the movie theatre to make a bed for the night. Regardless, it was a nice cruise complete with sunsets and whale sightings, movies and fun chats.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl
    2

    Cyclist Party in Mazatlan

    4 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    Many of us cyclists had written to the one Warmshowers host in Mazatlan, Abel. He came to the ferry terminal expecting to collect 4 people that he would host, but was surprised to find 8 cyclists all in need of a place to stay. In true Mexican can-do style, he collected his wits after counting how many there were of us, and launched into finding a solution to host all of us in his tiny appartment. "You can all fit, but it will be tight! If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother me" he said. So we rode through the city like a critical mass bike ride, and along the Malecon to his place in the centre of the city. His appartment was on the 4th floor, so while some of us carried our bikes and gear up the stairs, Karl rigged up a hoisting system (i.e. him and our bear hang rope) to pull bags up to the appartment. With bags and bikes strewn around the appartment and patio next door, we shared food, beer and laughs in good company. We really enjoyed our short stay with Abel, and were sad to leave so soon the next day, but the Pacific coast of Mexico was calling us to come explore it...Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Living the Tropical High Life

    5 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    We left Mazatlan with Basti and Robert. After 30 km we got off the highway on the first possible detour to the coast. We rode by farm fields, then coconut plantations and long stretches of beach. We started looking for a place to camp hidden from the road, but found the options limited, so we embarked on a new era of asking at restaurants. The first place we tried welcomed us to set up our tents on the beach. We went for our first swim in the Pacific since San Diego and found the water surprisingly warm. To make the day even better Hector - home for the holidays from the US to visit family, and celebrating his last night in Mexico - insisted on buying the 4 of us drinks and a huge platter of ceviche. The next morning we rode to El Rosario on quiet roads lined with lagoons full of fish and a plethora of birds. This is the Mexico we had heard cyclists describe so lovingly: beautiful, full of delicious food and surrounded by amazingly friendly and generous people!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Acaponeta

    6 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    After a great lunch break in the plazuela in El Rosario, we got on the toll highway out of town. Unlike the Baja, where we had to sneak on and off toll highways, we have been welcomed on toll highways on the mainland, we just generally have to bypass the toll collection booth by lugging our bikes onto the adjacent sidewalk at the suggestion of the guards - a small price to pay to ride on well-paved roads with large shoulders! With the road fairly flat and more people for drafting we made good time. Robert wanted to head to Acaponeta for a hotel with some wifi, so we pushed there - our longest day on the trip so far, at 128.5 km. When we arrived in Acaponeta we stumbled on the plaza mayor packed with people and kids playing all kinds of games - jumping on trampolines, in bouncy castles, etc... that's when we realized it was January 6th, which is part of Christmas celebrations in Mexico. Apart from the fiesta, the town itself was pretty neat - not touristy at all, but really colourful and full of shops along a labyrinth of streets. After some looking, we found a cheap pension (less than $15, thankfully cheaper than on the Baja), then headed out for some gorditas for dinner. The next morning we wandered around the mercado central finding all the veg and octopus (?!) we could use, then loaded up and headed out of town. We tried the free highway for a while, but really didn't enjoy the lack of shoulder, so found a road back toward the toll highway, and with the advantage of being on bikes, followed a dirt path back onto the otherwise inaccessible highway.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    El Capomal Hospitality

    8 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We had a long, hot day chugging along the toll highway before we decided to turn off and look for a place to camp. We arrived in El Capomal with the sun about to set and asked if we could stay at a church, but the pastor wasn't there so the people we asked sent us across town to the other church. It too was unoccupied, and it was starting to look like we might have to camp in the town square, but we were quickly becoming well-known in town and were soon welcomed to set up our tents by Alejo and Malena in their yard. We visited with their kids Adan, Misac and Jesus, as well as Malena's niece Jennifer from across the road as we cooked our dinners. The next morning Alejo set to work repairing a broken tuning peg on Robert's guitar, while Malena started making an authentic Mexican breakfast to share with us. Not only did we have fresh salsa, chorizo, eggs and beans, but Malena handmade flour tortillas and cooked them over the fire. Then the neighbors arrived and set to work making corn tortillas so we could try both styles - Holly even got to try her hand at pressing and most importantly laying the tortillas out to cook. We then sat around the table talking and laughing (about the aphrodeisiac qualities of yaca, among other things) until we sadly had to take off again down the road. It was yet another amazing display of the unparalleled generosity we have experienced in Mexico!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Seafood & Sand Flies in San Blas

    8 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We followed a flat quiet road from El Capomal to the ocean that had been recommended by our hosts. We arrived in San Blas in the early afternoon and continued our search for one of the infamous Centro Botaneros that we'd heard about from a friend who had previously cycled in Mexico. After following a few sets of directions we finally found a dirty/sleezy looking one off an alley and decided we had to give it a try. The concept is that as long as you keep buying beer they keep bringing you food, and sure enough we got a full 3 plates of ceviche/machaca/shrimp to go with our 6 miniature (210 mL) beers all for 90 pesos (around $7.50 CAD). Satisfied with our first Centro Botanero experience we worked our way toward the beach in search of a place to camp. Robert was excited to get a picture with a random plane wreck near the beach, and we soon found a restaurant that was happy to have us set up our tents under their palapa roof. We had another refreshing swim then bought dinner as a way to pay for an otherwise free campsite on the beach. We watched the beautiful sunset, then experienced the only downside of camping on the beach in San Blas: the torture of thousands of sand flies biting any exposed piece of skin!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Tropical Fruit... and Animals

    9 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    The sand flies were terrible again in the morning as we packed up to leave San Blas, but we managed to escape without loosing our minds, although Karl looked like he had chicken pox for over a week after. We rode past a lagoon full of lazy crocodiles, which confirmed another warning we had been given - time to start thinking twice before jumping into fresh water! Soon we started seeing banana, yaca (jack fruit) and starfruit plantations along the road and stopped at a road side stand to stock up on these delicacies for just a few pesos. The day just kept getting better...Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Topes Wreck and our Swiss Rescue

    9 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    As we descended into a tiny village among the fruit plantations, we were greeted by our least favorite Mexican road feature. "Topes" is the term used to describe speed bumps; these are made of a variety of materials from old marine rope, to steel domes, or eroded concrete. Not wanting to lose precious momentum Karl weaved towards a gap in the topes that Holly already had lined up and we had a minor collision. Holly managed to stay her course but Karl couldn't recover and ditched his bike. Luckily Karl came out of it with only some minor bruises and road rash, but after tending to those injuries we found his front wheel to be irreparably damaged. Having had a hard time finding tubes for our 700C wheels in La Paz we were not sure where we were going to find a replacement wheel, but when a kind Swiss family rolled up in their world travel RV and offered us a ride south we decided our best bet was to hitch with them the ~130 km south to Puerto Vallarta and work from there. Cedric, Anna and their 3 kids Camille, Emilie and Theo welcomed us into their lives on the road and we enjoyed sharing travel stories and good food as we camped with them in Los de Marcos before continuing to Puerto Vallarta the next day. They not only haggled for a campsite where we could put up our tent alongside their RV, but cooked a delicious dinner, with fresh fish bought especially for Holly the pescatarian, and shared their delicious bread breakfast - even making sure to buy peanut butter for us Canadians (mmmm, bread with PB & H, so much better than oats!). As a result, we were able to make the most of the situation, and Holly even got to check out the beach while Karl relaxed to recover from the crash, before we chatted the evening away with Anna and Cedric, comparing our respective travel stories.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Hospitality and a Quick Fix in PV

    11 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Anna and Cedric did our homework for us (while we struggled with a bit of motion sickness in the RV, not being used to being passengers!) and dropped us off right at a bike shop that was luckily open on Sunday afternoon. We later found out that of the 3 bike shops in Puerto Vallarta, Velo Bikes (in the mall by the marina) was the only one that had quality bike parts for touring bikes. They assured us in the shop that they could use the hub to rebuild the wheel with a new rim and new spokes, but later offered Karl a deal on a new set of wheels that was only marginally more than the cost of the wheel rebuild. The only catch was that we had to wait two days for the work, but luckily, while we were in the shop Todd, a fellow Canadian and biking enthusiast, showed up to get a tube changed and offered to host us at his place in Bucerias. We gladly accepted, and after stocking up on food, separated for one of the first times on the trip as Karl took the bus and Holly rode the 17 km to the Flamingo Golf and Country Club - Todd rented a house there on the 10th fairway. After settling in, we shared a potluck dinner with Todd and some of the neighbors and talked about cycling and golf, spear fishing and water torture. Todd recently retired from a military career that took him all over the world and now splits his time between Canada, Mexico and Europe. In Europe he helps to organize cycling battlefield tours to support returning soldiers with health costs. We loved hearing about the tours to historic places from WWI, WWII and more recent wars, how touched Canadians (veterans and their families) were to experience these special sites, and the great riding that they do to get there. We spent our 'rest' day relaxing and dealing with more bike decisions, but made sure to have a swim in the pool before heading to Velo Bikes to pick up Karl's new wheels and fixed up bike - and we didn't forget to snap a photo with Ernesto, Hugo and Pepe who helped with the fix. Thanks guys!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Puerto Vallarta

    12 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We enjoyed a day off the bikes in and around Puerto Vallarta and continued our string of coincidental encounters as we heard that Holly's old coworker Andrew and his girlfriend Aryn were enjoying a break from winter in Whitehorse and shared a drink and travel stories with them along the Malecon. The next morning Holly rode the 17 km back into Puerto Vallarta (a section she described as one of the more harrowing rides of the trip after her bus-dodging ride out to Bucerias the first day) while Karl took the bus in to pick up his fixed-up ride. Once we had Karl's bike out of the shop we put the new wheels straight to the test riding the bumpy coblestone streets (definitely not designed with cyclists in mind) to the Malecon, where we saw a circus display, and through the old town centre before we waved goodbye and rode out of town past a smattering of high-end resort hotels.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl
    2

    Fiesta in El Tuito

    12 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Ernesto from Velo Bikes had recommended that we aim to make it to El Tuito for the night of January 12, as they were celebrating the Fiesta of our Lady of Guadeloupe - delayed by a month due to the proximity of the huge celebrations held in Puerto Vallarta - with music and rides and street vendors. With our errands, the hilly section along the coast out of Puerto Vallarta, and a big climb up to El Tuito from the coast, we quickly realized that we had no hope of making it by dark, so stopped short in Las Juntas y Los Veranos, only to meet Jorge who offered to take us along with his family who were heading up to El Tuito by van to the festivities for the evening. And we are lucky, because we had such a great night sampling fried bananas, salchipulpos (deep fried hot dog tacos), calientes (hot chocoloate spiked with Kalua and moonshine), gorditas de nata (thick breads made from cream and flour) and sweets - with Jorge's cultural translations of the origin or the contents of each specialty -, watching kids on rides and playing festival games, taking in the fireworks and trying to stay as energized as Jorge's 3 year-old son Raphael until well past our bedtime. After the festivities, around 11 pm, we had a delicious traditional Mexican dinner at a restaurant owned by a relative of the family along with Jorge, his wife Rosario and their mothers. We crawled into our tent, pitched on Jorge's back deck, before 1 am, tired, but happy with an evening spent celebrating in good company.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Las Juntas y Los Veranos

    13 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    We stopped in La Juntas y Los Veranos to find a place to camp on our first night out of Puerto Vallarta. Lucky for us, the person we asked for information or a place to camp was Jorge. In excellent English he excitedly explained that we could camp close to the river in a few spots and even have a swim, then invited us to come to El Tuito for the Fiesta of the Lady of Guadaloupe with his family when he learned that we were interested in doing that. As a result, we slept in our tent on his back deck, and got to meet his wife Rosario and boy Raphael, along with more of the family. Jorge and the family take care of a refuge for birds, in particular, a local variety of macaw. He explained all about their work to protect the macaws from poachers, and to increase the population by building giant nests that they hang in pine trees. Jorge was a kind of cultural translator for us: in the short time we spent with him he explained many things about the local food and culture that we had been wondering about. One of these things was the name of their town. Las Juntas means two female things that are together, in this case refering to two giant boulders that we had noticed in the river going through town, and Los Veranos can mean summers, but in this case means productive land along a river's edge. After sharing breakfast and tea with the family we continued pedalling up and up to El Tuito.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Pastries for Climbing

    13 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Jorge recommended that we stop at a particular panaderia on the long climb to El Tuito. In the tiny village of Columpia this family produces delicious pastries from their wood fired oven and sells them for a whopping 5 pesos a piece (less than 50 cents CAD). Needless to say, we bought a bunch, and enjoyed watching the family in action rolling and baking the pastries and even pressing sugar cane into juice. Fueled by our bread break we rode over a 730 m summit to El Tuito and found our way onto the hilly road towards Mayto Beach. Karl got a kick out of riding by two bulls as they butted heads through a two strand barbed wire fence.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Mayto Beach and Tehualmixtle

    13 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We had a long gradual descent in mind when we left El Tuito at 600 m in elevation heading for the beach, but ended up climbing and descending numerous shorter steeper hills. The road was surprisingly good for the first 20 km (given that it didn't appear on our maps) so when it deteriorated to washboard and sand for ~10 km we were not that surprised or upset. Once down in the valley we got back onto pavement and made our way to the stunning Mayto Beach. Apparently you can regularly take part in the release of newly hatched turtles on this beach in the evening but we were turned off by the 200 peso camping fee that was being asked, so made our way around the headland to Tehualmixtle. This sheltered bay is better for swimming and boasts some massive oysters for sale at the beachside restaurants, and we managed to set up our tent for free under a palapa on the beach and enjoy another beautiful sunset swim.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Challenging Road Conditions

    14 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    As usual, we wanted to make a loop out of our detour to the beach so headed off towards La Cruz de Loreto on a dirt road the next morning. It started off as hardpacked dirt, but over the next 40 km we encountered a lagoon we had to detour around, eroded hills and unrideable sand traps. A piece of Karl's front rack even broke on the washboard before we rolled into the first little town where we could buy water and attempt to rehydrate after a slow sweaty start to the day. We still had about 3 km of terrible cobble stone "paving" to ride before we reached La Cruz de Loreto and were once again on pavement - all the more greatful for this wonderful invention that allows us to roll along with such ease. Later in the day we rode through a long section of roadwork on the highway and laughed at the lack of signage, but as we continue to find in Mexico, these hazardous sections are so obvious that all users are fully engaged and manage to navigate them with relative ease.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    All You Can Eat!

    14 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Right when we got back to Mex 200 from our detour to the coast we saw two cyclists coming down the road. We tried to guess who it might be, but were at a loss, since most of our crew from the ferry to Mazatlan was behind us. It turned out to be Davide, who we had stayed with at Tuly's in La Paz and Angela a cyclist from Germany. They had taken the ferry two days after us, and had caught up with us. We pedalled another ~40 km with them, then started looking for a place to camp. We had told Davide about the great concept of the Centro Botaneros, and he was eager to try one, but in the end we stopped at restaurant to ask if we could camp there. They were happy to let us camp out back or even in the open air restaurant after they closed at 8 pm. So, to pass the time we ordered some beer, and it turned out that the special of 10 beers for 170 pesos included all you can eat snacks in the form of seafood tostadas, shrimp soup, spicy veggies and other delicious Mexican specialties. We had hit the jackpot! In the end, we went 'all in' as Davide said, and ordered another 10 beers, for a total of 5 each (these are small beers of 210 mL, but that is still a lot of beer!). After eating as much as we could fit in our bellies and listening to blaring mariachi music, the restaurant closed and we set up our beds for the night. The next morning we rode on down the highway to see what our next adventure together would bring.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Beaches in Paradise

    15 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Holly was set on having lunch on a beach, and with the help of our offline maps found a short detour to a beach at Xametla in Perula Bay. We were all a little skeptical as the road was a bit rough and sandy but it turned out to be one of our nicest lunch breaks of the trip. We pulled out our snorkels and swam with some little fish and rays before enjoying lunch in the sun. We all wondered about staying the night, but felt the pressure to make some more distance since there was still half a day to ride. A couple more big climbs in the mid-day heat, and another dirt road short cut got us to Boca de Iguanas in time to buy pineapple, shrimp and coconuts on the beach and swim in the shallow bay. The only warning we were given was to avoid going too far up the fresh water stream that flowed through the beach to the ocean as that was crocodile habitat - a little unnerving given that we set up our tents within 100 m of the stream!Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Malaque and Barra de Navidad

    16 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    We had a big climb over a headland from Boca de Iguanas before descending to San Patricio/Malaque where we parted ways with Davide and Angela and went into town to look around. We quite liked the little town full of friendly locals and gringos and managed to find a cheap hotel and a happy welder who quickly patched together Karl's broken front rack for about $12 (likely another victim of the crash that only broke days after on the bumpy dirt road to La Cruz). The next morning we did a quick tour through Barra de Navidad, another tourist town on the same bay, before breaking away from the beautiful bay to get some riding done.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Last Coastal Views

    17 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We rode through some huge coconut and banana plantations on the way to Manzanillo, where we met Angela and returned some keys she had left in a bathroom along the road the day before. We had no idea Manzanillo was such a big port town, so despite the beautiful beaches leading into town we didn't find the city itself very attractive, and just pushed on over a big hill and down the wide and flat cuota highway to Cuhuatlan for one last night on the beach. The powerful reflecting waves didn't make it a great swimming beach, but once again we camped for free behind a restaurant and savored the warm evening and beautiful sunset.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Colima State

    18 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After much debate we finally decided to leave the comfortable coastal life to experience inland Mexico. We knew this would involve a lot of climbing as Guadalajara is at 1500 m, so tried to prepare ourselves for a couple of big uphill days. We also decided to take the toll road instead of some narrower, hillier options to get to Guadalajara in the hope of reducing the grade and number of hills we had to climb. Things started off well with plentiful sweet shops along the road where we sampled many of the different forms of sweet coconut bars. At one point we rode over a bridge and got a good look at all the stages of brick making - from digging sand out of the river with an excavator to mixing and firing the bricks. We were very excited when we reached a watermelon stand outside of Colima (City) as we were running low on water, so we sat and chatted with the owner for a while and each devoured half a watermelon. The Colima Volcano came into view, and then we were surprised to see it erupt; we thought we were really lucky to have witnessed this powerful force, but we soon discovered that this was nearly an hourly occurrence and none of the locals seemed to notice. At some point during our climbing we also entered sugar country - we rode by fields and fields of sugarcane and started being passed by many heavily laden trucks hauling the canes to be processed.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Up and Up

    19 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    On the outskirts of Cuauhtemoc we camped with yet another kind family who invited us in for tea and sweet bread and advised us to stay on the toll road toward Ciudad Guzman to avoid the many extra hills of the free highway. We started our day at 900 m, climbed to ~1100 m, then were sad to lose all of our elevation gain on the next downhill, but in the distance we could see the free highway dropping into each gully and climbing back out so we knew we had made the right choice. Maybe the free road will get better one day as it looks like a major bridge building project is underway to span many of the gullies. Regardless, we were happy with the giant bridges and road cuts on the toll road! As we continued climbing we got passed by our friends the Swiss world travelling family, and it was fun to check back in, and thank them again for helping us get back on the road so quickly after Karl's crash. We inched slowly upward toward our destination of Ciudad Guzman at ~1500 m, arriving in the early afternoon after only 65 km, but sure glad to get off the bikes and celebrate by eating some ice cream bars.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Ciudad Guzman

    20 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We asked Warmshowers host Santiago in Ciudad Guzman if we could stay with him for the night, but he wasn't home, so he hooked us up to stay with his friend Gerardo, what a champ! Gerardo met us at city hall after a mountain bike ride with a friend and toured us back to his place where we met his girlfriend Gina and their one and half year old son Matias. We were pretty pooped from the climbing so were glad to eat a late lunch with them and then relax for the evening, chatting about biking, hiking and climbing adventures. Gerardo guides people up the Nevado de Colima, a dormant volcano beside the Colima Volcano, and is really excited about mountain adventures. He and Gina really like living in Ciudad Guzman because of the great access to the outdoors. They hope to take an adventure road trip with Matias when he is a bit older through North and South America, and we hope they'll plan to come to Whitehorse during their travels. We joined Gerardo, Gina and Matias for a waffle breakfast in the morning, then we all hopped on our bikes (ours loaded for the road ahead, and Gina's with Matias in a seat in front of her) and toured the city, making sure to stop for frozen yogurt at Gina's family's ice cream shop before we headed back out on the road again.Leia mais

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  • Holly and KarlSouthward BoundHolly and Karl

    Sugarcane and Tortillas

    21 de janeiro de 2016, México ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    With bellies full of frozen yogurt and other street food we headed north from Ciudad Guzman. We enjoyed the first flat lake bed we rode across as we had a tailwind, but the second one got old quickly as the wind changed direction. We decided we had had enough for one day so pushed our bikes up a mule path to access the road into San Jose de los Pozos where we eventually met Rosa who accepted our request to camp in her yard. Rosa was a true Mexican mother and kept finding ways to make our stay more comfortable: first she said we could use a spare room instead of staying in our tent, then she insisted that we use the kitchen to cook our food, and finally she was appalled that we would eat cold tortillas so warmed up our tortillas in the oven for us. The whole family filtered through the kitchen as we cooked and ate our dinner, and we were able to have many of our questions about the sugarcane harvest answered by one of Rosa's sons who works in the sugarcane fields. José, Rosa's 17-year old grandson, was the one who acted on Rosa's many offers and also stayed up late telling us about life in Mexico despite his planned 5 am start to work at the tortillaria (tortilla making shop: there is at least one in every Mexican town, village or hamlet). The next morning José actually ended up starting work at 3 am when he got a call saying he needed to go get more flour for the tortillaria in the next town, but was still smiling when he arrived on a scooter around 8:30 am to deliver fresh-made corn tortillas just before we left town.Leia mais

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