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Sunshine, riding Bikes, and Camping = Good Times
MEXICO by BICYCLE

With this parting advice from my lawyer, “Deseo llamar a mi abogado, o en el alternativa, me llevo a la embajada canadiense”, I logged off the internet and threw my ziplock bags of clothing into my Subaru. First stop, 5 miles away, Action Sports to borrow Zippy’s Kiddie trailer for my gear.

I’ve been talking smack about doing bike tours for ages, and now I’m heading off on one. A guy here in Bakersfield had said he was interested in coming, so Thursday I left a message on his mothers machine saying that if he wanted to ride around Mexico for 5-10 days I’d be heading down there. I’d be leaving Friday at 4pm.

So when I get to the bike shop Friday at 3, there’s Jarrett with his carbon Merkx and backpack ready to go riding- his mother had told him since he didn’t have anything else to do - he’d better go! While J-Rad converted a steel Lemond into his new touring bike, I headed to the train station to pick up J Crookham. At 5:30 pm we where loaded in the Subie and on the road.

Driving south from Bakersfield none of the people I randomly called where able to take us in, so when we rolled into San Diego we drove towards the ocean and parked our sleeping-bags atop the bluffs by UCSD. By 10:30 we were asleep.

Waking up to sunshine, on top of a cliff the over looks the Pacific, watching porpoises surf the waves, and pelicans scan them for fish is bitchin’.

After more phone calls and breakfast, we hooked up a place to park my car on Coronado Island at Classen’s Grandpa Tom’s place. From Coronado Island Jason, Jarrett and I rode 5 days and 400 miles south on the Mexican Baja.

Every other day on our trip we would be setting up camp by 6 when it got dark and in our sleeping bags in some field, or on the beach front by 6:30, and Watching the moon rise up over the mountains an hour later and asleep no later than 8. The heat of the sun would wake us around 0.01 seconds after that orb rose above the mountains, and we’d be packing up, and doing what ever else we did in the morning.

Somehow we never managed to get riding before 9 am, and would stop within an hour for breakfast, which was either market stand snacks, taco’s at a restaurant, (with awesome Mexican coffee), or taco’s at a taco stand on the road.

A few hours of riding and lunch would be jug of water, snacks from a general store, and off riding again. As darkness approached we’d start looking for somewhere to spend the night. The rest of our meals and days followed similar patterns.

TRUE or FALSE Quiz: Mexican Bike Touring

-You will be robbed- FALSE - use you common sense the same as you would here. Don’t pick up on other dude’s chicks, don’t leave your bicycle outside unattended, and don’t pee into the wind. You’ll be fine.

-You won’t feel safe- Also FALSE. We didn’t do much riding at night, but after we passed through Tijuana where little kids where attempting to paw through our gear as we read the map (yes we did get lost and rode around TJ for 90 minutes in a giant circle.) Cars slowed behind us and waited until it was clear to pass. We whooped and sang every morning as we rode.

-Youth Hostels will be filled with female European Hotties- FALSE. The only people at the youth hostel consisted of the Weiner-roast of yours truly and co.

-You will get sick from the food/ water- Possibly TRUE. I’ve had a sore throat and swollen glands the last 3 days.

-Mexico has a very clean, and efficient bus system- TRUE. The bus covered in 7h what it took us 4.5 days to ride. The bus hauled balls through the mountains

-Quattro Casa’s cooking is superior to Taco Stand cooking- FALSE. The taco stands are much better and marginally cheaper. Our Taco stand record was 22 taco’s in 15 minutes- “uno mas taco!”

-There is a sliding scale on prices- TRUE On one occasion Jason bought a little cake at a market for 35 cents. Having liked it, he got another of the same. The second identical cake cost him a dollar.

-Mexico is so cheap you don’t have to budget your money - FALSE. This is compounded by the fact that the Ba-Jah doesn’t have any ATM’s in it’s southern 900 miles. When you get to the point where you have bus fair home plus $8 extra, even if you want to stay 3 more days, it’s time to head home.

-It’s easy to buy good porn in Mexico- FALSE. We ended up with a Spanish Maxim-type rag. 3 guys alone for 5 days, we decided to buy porn on the “Hell Day”. This was like salt in the wounds. The only plus is that is had free deodorant in the bag with the mag- but the deodorant smelled identical to bug spray, no wonder they have to give it away.

-A good way to clean out your road rash is to swim in the Ocean- FALSE. It may work in Horatio Hornblower, but in Mexico, if you run quickly post-flush, you can see your little men seabound.

-“Hell Day” included 2 trailer rolls, 3 flat tires, one crash, finally finding a Euro hottie -married with 2 kids, and sand so deep on the “road” that we where forced to walk our bikes for around 1 km. TRUE Despite the same sun-screen habits as all the other days we all managed to get sun burned on Hell day as well. Because we where pissed off in general we all attacked each other and sulked alone all day.

-Mexico is Dirty- TRUE. There is only one paved road going north south on the Ba-jah. All towns have dirt roads, and all the side roads down to beaches and Youth Hostels are (on the decent map I looked up in Barns & Nobel yesterday) “dirt roads” and “dirt tracks”.

-Jarrett can go 48 plus hours with out taking his shammy off, or changing his clothing- TRUE. Jason and I wondered how Jarrett got in his sleeping bag so quickly. It was because all he did was take off his cycling shoes off, put on leg and arm warmers and fall asleep. J-Rad also spent most days in a skin suit.

-Attaching a kiddie trailer to your race bike is a great way to bike tour- FALSE Touring with a kiddy trailer blows. PROBLEMS WITH TRAILERS: heavy (you carry an extra 20 lbs up the hill), extra set of tires and tubes, the things are very un aerodynamic. The layer of dirt on my hands protected them from becoming ground beef, but my hip was not so fortunate when my trailer dragged me down in a spectacular solo crash. I then had to scurry around on the road to gather up my gear which had spilled out. The drivers where really cool about stopping and waiting though.

-Mexico really is a free country- TRUE You can do anything you want, here’s an example: There is a law which states only Mexican people can own property within 5 km of the ocean. That’s why most of the Baja peninsula is still untouched, coastline with beautiful beaches. The free country part is that among other loop holes, you can just pay a local Doctor to say that your child was born in Mexico and put your ocean front lot in his name.

-It is possible to make a lot of fresh tortilla shells very quickly from scratch by hand- This is TRUE, you’ll just have to trust me on this or drive south and see for yourself.

-The Ba-Jah is a Third world country - FALSE. After 100 miles they don’t have any more ATM’s but they still have a paved road with 18 wheeler’s, running water, flush toilets, Video rental places, cell phone service (but not AT&T) running cars, ferry and bus services, with gas stations.

-There are a lot of un-fixed dogs running around Mexico- TRUE, and 90 % of them only have 3 working legs (it’s always one of the rear ones that’s gimpy).

-When you go to a country in which they speak a foreign language, that you don’t understand, bring a Spanish English dictionary- TRUE. And yet none of us though of this one! One day we ate Baaa Baaa!

-Even if the Baja only has one paved road, you still need a decent map- TRUE. This does NOT the one that you find plastic wrapped at 7-11, as it doesn’t show any of the dirt roads, or most of the villages located in the Ba-Jah.

-Riding through the desert, 30 km from any house you will come across someone sleeping roadside under a cotton blanket- TRUE. We never figured this out, but Mexicana are tough people.

-Touring with your Red-Carbon-Nike road shoes and SPD-R pedals is OK- FALSE They will get thrashed, what where you thinking? Hell day I was changing into my Nike sneakers for the walking sections (as my other shoes where locked into the pedals).

The Bottom line (synonym for conclusion)

-I have traveled with Spanish-Anglo’s, and team-mates who spoke only Spanish (a.k.a. the package) and preferred the latter. I have to say that I honestly never had any desire to learn Spanish until around my 3rd day two boarders south of Canada. Why is this? Well fortunately I’ve been spending lots of time out riding with the sun beating down on my helmet pondering this. The Spanish people are really cool: Laid back and fun loving. Most of the cars passing us cheered and flashed us a “V”. Also unlike the french, all the locals where very encouraging and helpful with our attempts to learn more of their language. I didn’t realize this before - California Mexicans are a different breed.

-Going Touring? Get a steel frame and clamp on panniers, or a Bob Trailer. Better yet a touring bike and balance your load between smaller front and rear panniers.

Conclusion

We all had a great time and would have stayed longer had we not run out of money. We’re all planning to be better organized and head south for a month long tour next spring. It’s more fun, and cheaper than training in So-Cal. I had a great time and if you have a holiday coming due, load up your bike and go for a tour.