Meztitlan

Yesterday I did a straight drop from Atotonilco down towards Meztitlan, a tiny little town in a valley between a ton of mountains.  I was headed to see La Laguna San Cristobal, but I never got there.  After riding down a dirt road for what seemed like an eternity, I came upon some dogs.  Not very nice ones.  The one dog chased after me while her pups ran in front of my bike, and in an attempt not to run them over, I hit a ditch and took a spill.  My camera flew off my bike but it´s just fine thank god, and I flew off it too, right into a bunch of dust and rocks.  Keeping my wits about me I spun around so I could kick the dog if it came by to bite me, but luckily it just ran away.  The bummer part about all this is that I snapped my front rim and I´m stuck in Meztitlan for a minute while I get a new rim.  I found a bike shop that has one the same size as mine, which is completely lucky, and I´m having them put the hub and spokes from my old rim onto the new one.  It might be done today, but it might not be done until monday.  If that´s the case then I get to pay for a few more nights at the hotel.  It´s a really beautiful place with extremely nice people that are feeding me, driving me around to get bike parts, and being very helpful.  It´s 200 pesos a night to stay there, which is somewhere around 18 dollars, so it´s not the end of the world at all.  I went to a really old convent this morning that´s on top of a mountain.  It´s the most goreous place i´ve been in a long time, maybe ever. 
    The convent sits on top of a mountain overlooking the town of Meztitlan where it was built in the 16th century.  It´s made of rocks and cement and all of the archways are painted with intricate designs.  I steped into the plaza and looked out over the mountains covered in clouds and the valley filled with farm land.  Mass was in session and the chanting spilled out into the air around me and gave me the chills.  Inside, there´s a large courtyard and staricases that rise up into the second level of the convent where there are corredors, archways, and paintings on every wall.  The music kept going and I completely forgot about my bike problems.  I could spend all day up there just watching the mountains.  What amazing luck to be here in this beautiful place.  There couldn´t be a better place to be stuck.

 Here are some photos of the descent and of the valley and the convent.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

DF a Pachuca a Atotonilco

Yesterday morning I hit the road to pachuca, some 55 or so miles from Mexico city.  There was a lot of stopping for directions, a lot of chatting, a lot of wrong directions, and a whole lot of riding.  I got two flat tires within the span of 10 minutes, which drove me a litle crazy, but gave me an opportunity to rest in the shade.  Right now I´m in an internet cafe where two small boys are play fighting and the decibles are reaching uncomfortable levels.  Pachuca is a pretty fresa city where everything costs a whole bunch and there are a lot of snazzy looking things to buy.  There were, however, some awesome earrings that were cheap that I wish i had bought.  There will be more.  There are so many places to visit.  I find myself wishing I could write my blog entries as I was riding my bike because in that mindset I have so many great things to say.  Tomorrow I´ll start recording my thoughts with my nifty voice recorder.  I have an awesome collection of Mexican noises to sare with you all when I get back.  I didn´t bring the cord for transferring my sounds t the computer.  Should have thought of that.  This morning I woke up, had some breakfast, and stretched a bit.  I got a pretty late start, somewhere around 9:30 is when I left.  I think I needed to just take my time though.   I got a pretty silly sunburn on the outsides of my calves and on the backs of my arms.  Somehow I forgot those places existed.  I did use sunscreen, and oh man am I glad I brought it.  I hit the first section of mountains today and it was awesome.  Super super super awesome.  And beautiful.  And exhausting.  I climbed from 6562 feet in Pachuca, to 8727 feet in Mineral del Monte in about 2 and a half hours.  I hung out in town for a while, and then got on to a really sweet descent down into Atotonilco.  Good thing I´ve got sun glasses, I must have been hit by a hundred bugs.  That´s the story of te last 2 days.  I´ll conjur up some more inspirational and ethereal words for the next post.  And now for the photos.

to Pachuca

In the mountains to Mineral del Monte

Cactus

At a rest stop where you can pray to the virgin Guadalupe

Alley way in Mineral del Monte

An unusual house outside of Mineral del Monte

Omitlan

Borregos

My 10 dollar hotel room...the light actually makes it look nice. It´s really quite terrible.

plant.  Como se llama esta planta?

Last free post

Oooooook.  So I head out tomorrow and I went on some great adventures today with Sol. Gracias chica, gracias.  We went to the Castillo de Chapultepec where there are really really great things to see.  I bought a cell phone (because everyone, and I mean everyone has been trying to convince me to).  So, I did it.  It was only 25 dollars, and i have 100 pesos ,which is a lot of text messages, on it.  It will be nice to be contactable by people that I meet and whatnot for sure. Que mas? That´s pretty much it for now word wise,  but I have un chingo de fotos to upload.  So enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on this journey

Every sunday they close off the Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main roads in the city, so that people on bikes, roller blades, segways, or anything else with wheels can hang out and enjoy moving with the rest of the active city members.  So yesterday I rode my bike from the house where I´m staying to the center of the city for the fun of riding with everyone else.  All in all it ended up being a 6 hour ride for me.  It took me about 2 hours to get to Reforma because without a map And with a somewhat terrible sense of direction, it´s hard to navigate the tiny streets, alleys, and giant expressways that wind all over the city.  I stopped for a lot of directions, hauled my bike over a lot of pedestrian bridges, and went through a few tunnels but I finally got there.  I have to keep reminding myself that I´m not lost, there´s no possible way for me to be lost because I have nowhere in particular to be really.  It´s ok to wander the city all day wondering where I am, because really what else would I be doing?  This is a really strange way to go about living.  No matter where you go or how you live your life there are some things that tie living and reality together:  a routine of some sort, a goal or desire, and a home of one kind or another.  I think that one of my favorite things about travelling, and I don´t really mean travelling to a different country or even really far away but maybe more like shaking up your routine, is the kind of perspective it gives you on your own life and the nature of humanity.  So, in riding the streets of Mexico City, I think about my own routine, my own desires and goals, and my own reality.  Here I am, working to blend together the things that I want in my life, working hard to keep going, working to create something worth doing.  I´m not on vacation, I´m working.  I´m not making money, but I am making a living.  Work doesn´t have to look like a 9-5 sort of thing.   I contemplate the differnece between a prescribed lifestyle with set duties and obligations that come with choosing that kind of life, and the work and restlessness of making a different kind of life.  Both have their virtues and both have their downfalls.  Balance. It´s a good thing to think about while riding a bike.  And then, there´s the good old dilemma of privalege and ability to contemplate on top of it all.  I am privaleged and I am grateful.  I do the things that I do because of where I come from, because of the support that people offer me, and because I want to do them.  Everything is a big web where one piece is connected to all pieces and cannot be singled out completely.  Borders are imaginary.  Definitions are incomplete.  All of this is visible while I pedal through the streets, navigating the web of the city and contemplating the web of reality.  It´s easy to forget that it´s there.  I do the things that I do so that I don´t forget.


Here are some photos from these last couple of days.  I think tomorrow morning I´m going to get an early start and head for Pachuca de Soto.

 rojo

 

 botones!!!

 

 cafe tacuba

fiesta alguien?

 

enfrente de bellas artes

Photos while I can

Since I´m staying with my friend and she has a computer and the internet, I think I´ll drop some fotos on this blog while I can.  I went for a ride just now as the sun was setting, which I think is one of the most beautiful times to ride a bike, and it wasn´t anywhere near as stressful as my ride the other day.  I think if you want to ride a bike in Mexico city in an enjoyable way you need to pick a neighborhood to ride in and stay away from trying to traverse the entire city.  It´s much nicer.  I took some pictures, ate some tacos,had another paleta  (una de agua y fresa), and went to Coyoacan.  Favorite place in Mexico City? Coyoacan.  Fo sho.  What do I like about it you ask?  It has trees!!!  And it´s pretty, calm, sassy, and has a park where you can walk around for a long time eating fruit and watching people work out.  Oh, and there´s good coffee all over the place.  Best thing to get on a hot day: un capuchimoka frio.   Mmmmm.  Generally I had a pretty rocking day and I´m beginning to be less and less tired from all of the travelling, walking around at a high altitute, and getting my spanish brain back.  This means that I´m almost ready to get on my bike and hit the mountains. Whoooo!!!  And now, without further adieu, las fotos.

 

 oops.  you can´t put eggs in your bag and expect them to hold up.

 

 Viveros de Coyoacan

 

 

4 inch black poly.  This is the city water supply.

Finalmente, estoy aqui

So, I´m having some issues with the map at the top of the page because it´s not updating itself at all.  Boo.  I´ll see what I can do about fixing it (Matt, that means you) but for now if you´d like to see where I´ve been, which is´t very far, then check out this link: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0RceZhbklfpIYKS5Hs5M9BzqHEZONhM5K

it´s a long one.  Coming back to Mexico has been as easy as going home.  I dont feel like a stranger, Im not nervous, and Im super excited about everything around me.  As I was putting my bike back together yesterday someone started playing the trumpet in the street outside my window.  This is what I love about mexico.  Ive eaten probably 5 paletas since I got here, which are the most awesome popsicles in the world.  Im staying with my friend Sol here in the city and shes probably the best person to hang out with after not speaking spanish for a few months.  Shes super nice and really talkative which makes me want to tell her all sorts of stories.  Perfect for practicing.  Today we went to the nacional palace and to the huge cathedral in the zocalo, which is the main square.  I ate some ricos enchiladas jarochos and I had a really delicious cafe con leche which they serve by pouring a little bit of espresso in a cup and then pouring hot milk in from a high distance which mixes is and makes it a little foamy.  Its like the best latte youve ever had.  I think Ill stay here for a few days, maybe a week, and then head north on my bike.  I might have packed too much cold weather gear, but I couldnt help it because its been snowing the whole time Ive been planning.  Its pretty great temperature wise around here, maybe 70 and sunny sunny sunny.