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I am as amazed as you guys are that I am actually getting up the report which I predicted. So here are the words…

Ha Ha. I have been hanging out at the operations headquarters of Sea Kunga. Today we where hoping to take a boat trip out to the Keyes (spelled differently, but that’s how it’s pronounced, and will possibly get a chance to check out the worlds largest non-Aussie barrier reef. But the weather has turned a little stormy, so we will be pounding pavement again

Otherwise the 1 day that ballooned into 3 day visit here has been a great success. I managed to solve the mystery of where the missing liter of milk went, and why all my cycling clothing coming out of a waterproof pannier bag smelled really rank at the same time! Wow, not that the tent, sleeping bag, bicycle, as well as everything else did not need a good washing.

Yesterday I woke up 30 feet from the Caribbean, climbed up a coconut palm, tossed some down onto the beach, hacked them open with a machete, drank the milk, and ate the meet with some hot sauce, fresh lime, and a little salt. Then I went for a swim.

Very quick summary of the trip so far:

-Tijuana: hole, but still nice than other boarder towns such as D-Troit.

-Baja California, hot, dry, I was sleeping outside until I got a LOT of cactus holes in my thermarest. We did not manage to camp all that often, and sometimes spent 4 days without towns just crossing one desert.

-We spent New Years in La Paz, and then headed down to Cabo, which was kinda Los Angeles of the Tropics, with Block Busters, sprawl, and white people throwing garbage out of their SUV’s at us.

-The ferry transfer over to Mazatlan was overnight, and went smoothly, and as we had been warned things were hotter over here on the coast. Well, just more humid. Until Puerto Vallarta the roads were very busy, and full of Canadians in RV’s.

-South of PV things were much quieter, and I though that we were in the ‘real Mexico’. Ha. Campgrounds were almost non existent, and when I would ask people where to camp, they would point at the beach. So for 5 days, I woke up to the crashing pacific. Shower? The Ocean.

-For the most part traveling by bicycle has only offered us amazing opportunities; days are filled with unexpected adventures, and cool random encounters. For the most part the down times are a result of poor judgment. This was the case when we arrived in the slums north of Acapulco after dark. The result was a really shitty night, and bad feelings that ran on into the next morning.

-However, south of Acapulco, still on the coast, we were in the ‘real Mexico’. We actually went a few days with out seeing any other ‘Gringo’s’ which was cool.

-The disadvantage of not having done any research, and being on a tight schedule (must average 112km per day) is that when we turned inland at Puerto Angeles we found that we had missed out on seeing giant sea turtles come beachside to lay their eggs. However the road through the mountains, bumping along at 8000’ elevation, was amazing. We spent 2 nights camping with Native Mexican families, and I was subject to catcalls, and shunning based on my skin color. Though about 1/3 of the population would ignore us when we walked into stores, or leave us hanging when we waved, and ‘Hola’d’ to them. We met people like the Glorious Gloria, who was just a beautiful person, and made me realize that you can not paint groups of people with the same brush.

-Oaxaca was a really cool city, and we found a campground. As usually seems the case, some the Canadians/ Americans at a campground, have almost instantly taken us under their wing, and there are really too many people to thank them all individually, but we’re super appreciative of all our ‘Big Brothers’ out there on the road who have been great friends. From here we toured the city on foot, and took a bus up to the ancient ruins of Monte Alban.

-Some smaller mountains heading towards the Pacific coast saw us come around the end of the Rocky Mountains. As you might suspect when the air from the Atlantic, first is able to pass freely to the Pacific through a narrow channel, there will be some serious wind. And there was. I don’t have specific wind speeds readings, but I was blown off the road no less than 4 times, and as the end of the second day, my arms were cramping from having gripped the handlebars so tightly.

-Since we went south of Playa Azul, the sun/ heat has been so intense that even though I was putting sunscreen on twice a day, I was still getting burnt. The solution, was wearing my thermal arm warmers, socks up to my knees, and strapping some cloth to the back of my helmet to shelter my neck from the sun.

-Soon we headed inland again, and were surrounded by the Native Mayans on our way to San Cristobal, the city briefly held by EZLN freedom fighters (or terrorists depending on your perspective). El Che is hero here, and in the market you can buy dolls of gun toting fighters, under the watchful presence of the Mexican army. I was truly amazed by the natives in the Mountains. Hard work and long hour’s beyond belief, wearing traditional colorful costume, and carrying loads of sticks (& logs) from ropes around their foreheads. I stop to buy tortillas from a lady, who gives them to me - free. After talking to her a little (only 1/3 of the population even speaks Spanish, and most seem to have little understanding of Math) she is weaving drink coasters by hand, I buy the fruits of her last 3 days labor for $6! On the coast skilled workers were getting paid around $10 a day, while goods like Coke are actually more expensive than you would buy them in the supermarket back home.

-Hanging out at the Youth Hostel with some cool people we find that we are doing the inverse tour of them. After spending 5 days doing day tours out of a town, they take a night bus to the next center. After 5 days riding through the country, we spend half a day touring the town and 5 more days riding.

-This riding includes that spectacular waterfalls of Playa Azul (parts of Predator were filmed here; the jungle scenes were filmed south of PV, which we also rode by, before our ‘Tequila Tour’.

-Palenque, is also cool, though the ruins are almost too big and overwhelming to really appreciate. Of course this is another time where having read a book about the ways of the ancient Mayans would have enriched my experience many times.

-We now have to cross the Yucatan Peninsula in order to get to Belize, we have been warned about how hot it will be and are looking forward to making good time over the flat roads here… Brutal winds, turn 2 days riding into 4, and we over exert ourselves, when I give myself heat exhaustion.

-All told we rode around one fifth of the paved roads in Mexico over the 50 days that we were riding there, and Belize is the only ‘English’ speaking country of the trip. The country is made up of a very diverse group of peoples, and has a long running feud with the neighboring Guatemalans. The Caribbean accents are so thick, that I often understand less, rather than more. Though the locals are so chill that it does not really matter.

On tap next 6 more countries in 30 days.

Due to the fact that I will be ’sucking eggs’ broke rather shortly, I will be postponing the South America part of the leg until further notice.