Mexico - the true story

Day 1 – The Flight 12/19

It was an early morning. Alex and I were up until 2 am and woke up at 5 am the catch the bus to the airport. I’m surprised at how awake I’ve been all day considering that I got 3 hours of sleep last night.

As I’m writing this, I’m kinda freaking out. Jung and Grinch missed their flight this morning and I have no idea where they are or when they’ll arrive in Mexico. I’m starting to think of all the unknowns and trying not to dwell on them too much. First of all, I need to figure out where those guys are… but will I be able to do
that? What if the people working for my airline company don’t speak English? My Spanish sucks. I also have no Idea where the Airport is in relation to anything else in Puerto Vallarta… What if I ride through the ghetto and get mugged? I guess I can try to ask for directions, but what if no one speaks English. I made a stupid mistake of leaving my cell phone behind, thinking that I wouldn’t need it. I also forgot to write any important phone numbers down from its directory. So, the only phone numbers that that I still have memorized are my parents and my ex-girl-friends… I still haven’t memorized my current girlfriends (who needs to anyway, when your cell phone will do it for you). The Ex and parents won’t be a whole lot of help though, neither would the phone numbers of my traveling partners. This trip is so short notice, I’m leaving only 2 days after my last final and plans were made to come down here only a week ago… that didn’t leave me much time to prepare. I think all the other guys are in the same boat. Jung didn’t start packing until 10:30 pm last night (it took me a couple of days) which probably explains why he missed his flight.

This trip is already off to a crazy start with those guys missing their flights. I have a feeling that trip is going to be non-stop adventure.

Day 1 (continued) – Well I made it to Puerto Vallarta still not knowing where the hell Jung and Grinch were. I got completely hassled while going through customs. They were trying to get me to pay some sort of Mexican tax for bringing a bike into their country… I’m pretty sure they were just trying to scam another Gringo. That put a pretty bad taste into my mouth as my first experience of Mexico, so for the next few hours the stress and adrenaline were high as I had a feeling like all the Mexicans were out to take advantage of me. Building my bike was pretty stressful… I was getting the stare-down by every person that walked past me… I felt like they all wanted to steal my sweet bike and trailer… still feeling pretty uncomfortable. I started talking to more people at the airport, and that definitely helped me feel more comfortable. Well after I finally worked up the balls to leave the airport. I rode my trailer over a walking bridge across from the airport which was my first experience riding with the BOB. I think the guy at the bike shop was right, the American Classic wheels were probably a bad choice… the road bike in general was probably a bad choice. My wheels felt like wet noodles. I found an internet café on the other side of the bridge that had super cheap internet. I was there that I found an e-mail from Rolf (who is flying in separately tomorrow) saying that Jung and Grinch missed their flight and they were catching the later flight… phew. So now all I have to do is wait. So I hit up a little restaurant next door to the internet café for damn tasty tacos and had a few beers, which helped with the anxiety, and that’s what you’re supposed to do in Mexico right? Now I’m waiting at the airport again… I hope those guys make through customs without any hassles.

Day 2 - 12/20 – After the hectic day with the missed flights, I finally met up with Jung and Grinch at about 11 pm.

We build up bikes and trailers and rolled though Puerto Vallarta at night, and found a beach to camp at pretty quickly. We slept next to the bums and listened to Mariachi music all night… thank God for earplugs. Today we spent most of our time riding around looking for a wheel for Grinch’s BOB (he forgot his), and battery for my camera (I forgot mine). Grinch found his wheel, I couldn’t find my battery.



Rolf finally arrived; we built up his bike, and had to do some custumizing...

We finally got on the road, stopped for some tacos...

and rode to Sayulita...


This place is incredibly beautiful.




We decided to get a room so we could go out at night and not worry about all our stuff. We went out and got trashed on a bottle of Sauza and various drinks at the bars.

Day 3 – 12/21

This is so beautiful and the waves are amazing, so we decided to spend most of the day here. I clogged the toilet causing a major overflow of sewage into our room… no one told not to put toilet paper in the toilet (you’re supposed to throw it in the trash can). Our ability to work as a team was display magnificently as we worked in unison to clean up the retched toilet water. We then checked out and slipped out as silently as possible and headed down to the beach to catch some killer waves. I tried surfing for the first time... It was hard, and a little sketchy with the freshly repaired shoulder. After that we rode an entire 10 miles that evening and camped out on the beach of De Los Marcos.






Day 4 – 12/22

I finally got about 8-9 hours of sleep last night. That felt good… I haven’t slept that long in over a week. We were a bit more ambitious today. WE rode about 65 miles to San Blas.








When we arrived, it was getting dark and this friendly restaurant owner offered to let us camp next to his restaurant on the beach where it’d be a little safer. It seemed like a good idea, so we decided to stay. We ate dinner at his restaurant and I ordered pescado al Ajo. It’s an entire fish, and was probably one of the best tasting things ever.



After dinner we walked downtown (about 10 minutes), bought a .75 L of rum and coke and started the night off right.


Lot's of stray dogs everywhere in Mexico.


We also celebrated my graduation ceremony since I missed the real one to come down here.



We then walked around town and lots of people were out. We ended up at this 50s themed bar for a while and got to know the owner of the place. Next we walked over to the town fiesta where there were free drinks and a pretty decent punk/ska/regae band was playing (anything resembling rock begins to sound great when all you here is Mariachi everywhere you go).






Day 5 - 12/23

We finally got to bed around 2:00am last night and woke up at 8:00. The first thing we did was jump in the ocean… it was a great way to kick the hangover. Packing up our gear was miserable… there were these things called sandflys that were swarming us and they biting like crazy… it was driving all of us insane. It took us a while to finally get going on the bikes again.

We ate breakfast, and helped the restaraunt owners kid learn how to ride a bike...

We had coffee (first time in days) and bought some really good tortillas. We finally started pedaling and roads were really nice for a while. There were a few towns that we went through that were pretty rough though… lots of cobbles.

At some point in the day we had to make a decision on whether to take the coastal, and possibly dirt route and suffer through the sandflys, or take the potentially busier inland route. Rolf and I settled the disputeas any real men would - rock, paper, scissors. Rolf won, we'de ride the inland route.




Stopping to refill the bottles.

We got to Santiago and had lunch. We sat around for about an hour trying to figure out where we should go (there were a couple of options for making it to Mazatlan).

Jung asking directions from a local...

We finally decided to and took hwy 15. This was an extremely frightening experience. It would be like riding down Hwy 93 to Golden from Boulder without a shoulder, only 10 times sketchier. We were only on it for about 15 km though and finally made it to Ruiz where we got a hotel room.

There are a lot of festivities happening tonight due to Navidad, so we went out to check the night life out in rural Mexico.

Nothing too fun was going on for a bunch of young Gringos… but we did eat a ton of fantastic tacos.

Day 6 – 12/24

Today we weren’t sure if we could find and ride an unfinished toll-road that would take us north for about 100 miles without any traffic. We lucked out; the toll-road was right outside Ruiz. We had the longest bike path ever… all day, it was sweet.


Like idiots, we rode all day with our shirts off, so now we’re all roasted and red.



Stopping and parking in the middle of the road...




We had lunch in the middle of the road...


About 45 miles into the day we crossed paths with 3 other bike tourists who were heading south from Tucson.

They already had been on the road for 2 months. It was pretty cool to se see some like minded fools out there. They busted out some speakers and blasted some Bob Marley and we all tossed the Frisbee around a little before continuing onward.


Some sections of the road weren't finished, so we had to do some off-roadin' with the BOBs - Here's "roadie" Rolf showing us MTBers whats up.


The road didn’t go through any towns along the way, so we had to conserve our food and water. As night fall approached we finally passed a small town. All of us waited next to the rotting dog carcass, while Jung rode in to get some water and food.



While we were waiting we were getting eaten alive by sand flies. We decided that it’d be miserable to try to camp so we decided to ride for another 1-1.5 hours to Esquinopa. We had to do this in the dark, which wasn’t too bad since the road was closed to cars (there was still the occasional car, breakin’ tha law). This was a pretty cool experience, since among all of us, the only light we had was Jung’s camping headlamp and Rolfs red blinking taillight (unprepared).


We made it within 3 miles of Esquinopa where we decided to find a good (hidden) place to camp. There was a dirt road off to our left, so we hit it. We rode down that a little ways and pulled off into a mango grove. We ate dinner, set up camp, and went to bed.

Christmas Eve dinner...


Day 7 – 12/25

Sleep kinda sucked last night, and was cold, damp and the ground was really lumpy. Woke up Christmas morning, loaded up the BOBs and rode 3 miles to Esquinopa. We had x-mas breakfast at a little trucker’s restaurant on the outskirts of town. All of us had Huevos Rancheros (fried eggs, beans and sometimes rice). We then loaded up on food in town and met the to mountain biker in the area at the grocery store. We then began our final push to Mazatlan. We set a good pace the whole way, with one stop under a bridge, one of the few shady spots we could find.



We made it about 60 miles in four hours to Mazatlan where we got a hotel room...


then went to the beach...



That night we decided to splurge for Christmas dinner and went to a fancy restaurant.

Day 8 - 12/26

Jung and I went out on the town last night…it was kinda dead since it was Christmas day, hopefully it’ll be better tonight. I got up and was craving coffee, so I walked around for a while and struggle to find it… most people only drink the instant crap down here. I finally found a place and breakfast and coffee for $2. It was pretty greasy. I then got a pastry at the bakery to wash it down… the pastries are great down here. I’ve been consuming so much grease while I’ve been here… I’m expecting to gain a few pounds. After breakfast we took a boat out to an island for $8 each.


The island was really cool. I snorkeled for my first time and saw a bunch of exotic fishies. We also hiked to the top of the island, the view was spectacular.




The native tribes on the island will attack you if you're not careful...

After playing on the island for a few hours, we took a boat back and lounged around on the beach with all the rich white gringos staying in their all-inclusive beach side hotels. We were all pretty tired and bonking so we took a bus back to El Centro, where we were staying and made some killer burritos, then took about a 2-3 hour nap. After that we went for some shopping and internet and found some of the best street tacos yet. We’re heading out on the town again tonight… I think there should be a lot of people out this time.

Day 9 - 12/27

Last night was a lot of fun.

We started out at La Botera, the top strip club in town. We didn’t stay there long and caught a taxi to Oscars Bar.


Bang, Bang!!





Oscars was fun, there were a lot of people dancing, and there weren’t too many gringos.





Grinch and Rolf managed to get kicked out on separate occasions. I left with Rolf and we walked about 3 miles back to our hotel… ouch. I finally got to bed at 4:30 am. Jung stayed out, he was getting’ lucky with a local.

Today we had to decide how and where we were going to spend the rest of our trip. We went to the bus station and decided to take to 20 hour bus ride to Larzaro Cadenas which is pretty far south of Puerto Vallarta.

Taking up a parking spot at the bus station.

Our new plan is to ride north to Puerto Vallarta to catch our flight in time, and we’ll try to make to Manzanillo for new years.


Day 11 – 12/29

I’m 17 hours into the 20 hour bus ride. It went by pretty quickly. I slept (like shit) through the night, but froze my ass off. I’ll have to remember to bring warm clothes or my sleeping bag on the bus next time. Looking out the window there are a lot of banana and coconut groves.




We stopped at one of the best restuaraunts of the whole trip during the bus ride...


Hooray for coffee!!


The Bus ride ended up lasting about 23 hours. The ride was rough; I froze my ass off the entire time until 3pm when we finally got off. When we arrived in Larzaro Cardenas we quickly got onto the bikes and started pedaling. Our plan was to make it Playa Azul to camp for the night. We ended up stopping along the way to do laundry. It took us a while to convince them to do our laundry for the next day so we had to ride the final 5 km in the dark. We rode straight to the beach where there were a lot of people. We tried to find a place to camp that was secluded. WE finally found a spot and set up. WE did the usual swim in the ocean (which is pretty crazy at night), make a fire, and eat burritos.

Fuego, Fuego!!!


We all crashed out pretty early just to be woken up an hour or two later by a couple of guys with some big guns (I think they were AK-47s). Rolf was the first one to wake up, and greeted then as any typical Gringo with bad Spanish would “Hola. ?Como Estas?” (Hi. How are you? - informal). The scary men ended up being police and they told us that we should move somewhere more hidden because there were a lot of bad people in the area. After the cops left, we all got up and scouted the place out for a “really hidden” spot to camp. We finally found it, put our tents back up and passed out.

Day 12

We got to do some amazing riding today. We rode north on very beautiful roads, with the jungle to right and the ocean to our left.



The terrain was a lot hillier and tended to become hillier as we continued north. We ended the day at around 60 miles where we found a beautiful virgin beach.



We set up camp and hung up our wet clothes...






We swam...



made a fire...




and ate burritos…





then hit the sack.





Day 13

Today was a long 35 miles for everyone.



However, the riding was amazing...


We made it to Marujata and nobody wanted to leave.





We decided to stay here for the night, and tomorrow night for New Years Eve. This place is incredibly beautiful. By far the prettiest beach I’ve seen yet.













Pushing bikes through the sand is hard work...


Unfortunately I came down with a cold, so I feel like complete shit right now, which is a major bummer.

Day 14 – New Years Eve

Sick, on the beautiful beaches of Marujata. I think I’m going to do absolutely nothing today. I want to get rid of this cold quickly.

On a lighter note, there was a scorpian crawling over my tent today...


Day 15 – New Years Day 1/1/07

I spent all New Years eve with a horrible headache and sick, barely able to move. I went to bed at nine on New Years Eve… lame. But, I need to get better quick so I can make it back to Puerto Vallarta and not hold any of these other guys back.

We put in a big day today. I was still sick, but feeling way better, and the other guys were all tired and hung over, so that kinda evened it out a little. We ended up pushing to Tecoman (about 105km).


Found a cool bone along the way...




We stopped for ice cream bars, which soon became our favorite ride food to eat along the way. I think this girl wanted to marry Grinch... it must be the blue eyes...


While we were getting ice cream we met one of the local hardcores...



we invited him to put in some kilometers with us...




We decided to get a hotel room because we’d been camping for days and could all use a shower, bed and a good night sleep.


Day 16

We all slept great in the hotel so today we were all feeling strong and ambitious. We had a huge Huevos breakfast and hit the road. We rode another 120 km today and rolled through some beautiful towns.

Oops, we're just stupid Americans... we can't read spanish... our bad...


Manzanillo was one of the towns we passed...




We finally stopped in one of the best towns yet, Barra Navidad. Unfortunately we’re strapped for time so we don’t get to stay here long. I was able to spend a few hours at night checking out the local scene… I like this place a lot; it’s very unique compared to many of the other towns we’ve been to so far.

We set up camp on the beach yet again...


Day 17

Going big on breakfast again… it’s starting to become routine. The food here is so great though, you get tons of amazing food for $3-5 (lots of eggs, beans rice, coffee, fresh squeezed OJ… yummy).




Riding today started very slow. Ryan felt like shit, wasn’t sure if he was going to make it, Jung flatted, and other random stops were occurring…




It seemed like we weren’t moving anywhere. Everyone started becoming more motivated and we were able to set a steadier pace. At about 70 clicks, we had the option of sleeping there on the beach, and making it to P.V. in 2 more days (leaving us with very little time to get boxes and pack for our return flight), or we could continue pushing for a couple more hours so that we could roll into P.V. tomorrow night. After much deliberating and motivational speaking, we decided to keep going. We almost ended up sleeping in a mango grove again, but instead, we slept next to one. This wasn’t too bad of a campsite, except we saw multiple scorpions crawling around after we began setting up.


We took the risk of being spotted and built a campfire. This turned out to be very advantageous for us though because as we were sitting and eating the standard beans and tuna burritos, a farmer rolled up in his pickup truck and greeted us with two freshly vine ripened papayas that he had just picked. I think that it could have been the best tasting fruit I’ve ever had. It was a pretty entertaining night… constant laughter. We went to bed pretty early, as usual when camping. I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time… my mind was racing… thinking about my life and what I’m going to do when I get back. I was also thinking about how important this trip was for me to take. It reminded how important it is to live by the popular phrase which is thrown around so much, “step outside the box”. I only have one life to live, so I should never let petty excuses hold me back from experiencing something new. This trip was definitely me “stepping outside the box”. I have experienced so many new things on this trip, and I’m a whole lot wiser now because of it.

Day 18 – 1/4/07

Today was another long epic day, we spent about 12 hours chamiosed. It felt like we just rode endlessly.

As usual, there were plenty of stops...



The terrain was beautiful, as usual, and continually changed. The final 30 km was a long climb and a long decent. We stopped at the top of the climb at a restaurant for food… everyone was completely wasted from the long day.

Jung tried to fix a broken spoke, but all his spokes were too long...


At one point, Jung just couldn't handle anymore and collapsed on the side of the road...
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We continued on and stopped at Chico’s Paradise which is a tourist attraction restaurant, mainly for Gringos.


Behind the restaurant are some beautiful waterfalls and cliffs to jump off. We did some cliff jumping...




and then continued pedaling onward. In the last few kilometers before hitting Puerto Vallarta we bumped into this guy who had been touring for 6.5 months on a 200 lb. tandem filming a documentary. He’s riding a tandem because he is picking up random people as he moves along. His website is takeaseat.org.


After talking with him, we hammered and made it to P.V. just as the sun set. WOOHOO, WE MADE IT!!!

Day 19 - 1/5/07

All of us passed out early last night; we were all totally spent from the long day. This morning we woke up and headed over to the local grocer and loaded up on pastries… these have become a staple of my diet since I’ve come down here… I never eat this kind of shit in the states. After eating, we rode though horrendous traffic in P.V. for about a half hour in search of boxes. We found some good ones for me at Wal-Mart and continued to where everyone else’s boxes were stashed. When we got to place where Jung had stashed them, all were gone except Jung’s and had been used as the homeless peoples new homes. This led to about 3 hours of riding around town finding refrigerator and TV boxes and finding a good place to hide them near the airport.
Jung gave some kids a ride in his BOB...


After that we all passed out for a nap. I’ve been eating all day, can’t seem to quench the hunger.

Day 20 – 1/6/07 - The final day

Last night we walked around looking for dinner and the best street tacos yet, we all had about 5-8 each. These were made with pork, which was a little different than the typical steak tacos that we usually get.



We then pre-gamed in the room...





After wards we headed out to the clubs.


There were quite a few Gringos out this time, and lots of Gringo music… the drinks were super expensive too. I ordered a beer, and the bartender gave me two and asked for 90 pesos (9 dollars). She said it was 2 for one night, but who the hell pays 9 bucks for a beer. I stopped buying drinks after that. I went home at about 2:30, Jung and Rolf stayed out, and I guess Jung took the grenade for Rolf. This morning I felt like I was the first to wake up and had to rip everyone out of bed… Jung took the longest, about 45 minutes. We then ate breakfast at the restaurant next door. I ordered one of my favorites; Huevos con Chorizo, and 2 coffees… I was going to need those today. The day became more hectic as it went on, with packing our stuff, riding through crazy traffic for 45 minutes to our box hiding place, and carrying all of boxes to the airport strapped to the BOBs. At the airport we boxed everything up and checked in. We all got charged $50 for our bikes. I finally got everything checked in and can relax.

The trip was a huge success. We essentially rode from Larzaro Cardenas to Mazatlan which was around 750 miles. I stayed at an incredibly beautiful beach almost every night. And, I lived in a culture that is similar in many ways to the US, but there are so many amazing things about Mexico and its people that I would never had experienced or learned without seeing it the way I did. Bike touring allowed me to see and experience the culture and the landscape better than any other way. I think I’ve caught the bike touring bug too. I’m already thinking about the next place too explore.