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. 

So ready to go

Everything is in order.  Tonight is my last night of work and I'm almost done packing.  Somehow my ipod miraculously decided to start working again, so I'll be bringing that with me on my trip.  Yay for music!  There are all sorts of places around the cities where you can bring your mp3 music devices and the place will upload new music to them.  i should have a pretty good collection of funky music by the time I leave.  My plan for the spot device is to press the ok button in the morning and in the evening, so you should see  where I'm at twice a day.  I might run it on continuous track for a little while to see how long it lasts, but I'm not sure how many batteries I really want to buy.  So, with everything ready I'll let you know how things are when I get to DF (Distrito Federal). 

Plan Updates and general good news

I have purchased another ticket to Mexico City for January 19th. This will put me in Mexico for approximately 3 months, which even though is half of what I originally dreamed of, is still a long time. I'm still in the process of trying to make some dollars for this trip since I have another 4 weeks around here. I've put up ads around the gym as a house cleaner/errand runner/baby sitter/general stuff doer. I'm hoping that I get some calls in the next few days. I also have a couple of jobs that are probably going to call me sometime soon, and a random job cleaning a sub shop in the center of town (but it's totally unreliable). The other thing that I'm spending my time doing, besides job hunting, is going to a cycling class every morning at the gym. It's been really really really awesome. There's nothing like sweating buckets every morning to wake you up. Besides making me feel really awesome and productive, the cycling class is going to ensure that when I do get back on my bike and start hauling me and my 35 pounds of gear around I won't just fall over panting and cursing myself for ever thinking that biking across Mexico was a good idea. Oh I'll be ready all right, at least for the physical part. I've been reading all sorts of bike forums and blogs and looking at photos of other Mexican bike tours and I'm just getting more and more excited. I've been thinking lately that I would also really like to visit Colombia, preferably on bike, sometime in the future. I'll think about this one for some other year. For this year I have plans to return to Star Island (hopefully) and then continue on to some other room and board job for the winter. I figure two back to back jobs with room and board over a year will let me be able to stack up a pretty decent amount of money. Who knows what's in the future for real though, but I have enough dreams to fill up a world of futures.

Wrenches are for fixing bikes, not throwing in your plans!

This morning I headed out to Gear Works, the awesome local bike shop, to get my bike all boxed up and ready to fly. Everything went totally awesome and I couldn't be more impressed or happy with the people over there. I've been able to watch my bike come out of a box, get set up, get heavier and heavier with all of it's gear, and then broken back down again with care for transportation. I have planned, researched, learned, contemplated, day-dreamed, and pined after this trip wholeheartedly every minute of every day for the last 3 months. It's been quite the emotional and financial investment, and I haven't even thought twice about it.
After the bike was packed up I headed home where my carefully packed panniers and lists of things not to forget sat waiting to arrive in Mexico. I decided to double check the package dimensions and regulations on american airlines, which I guarantee I already did, just to make sure I wasn't going to get hit with any extra fines. Well shit, guess what I found out? Between Nov. 21 and Jan. 10 you can't check a box, anything overweight, or any extra luggage. All there is left to do is cancel my flight, kick around and get another weird job for yet another month, and try again in January. Tenemos una cita, tu y yo, Mexico. No te preocupes que no es por un mes mas. Nos vemos pronto, es una promesa.

Always ride in style

There is one week left before I depart this country for the next long while. I've been collecting all the extraneous things that I need and really looking forward to being on the plane so that I can stop thinking about what I should and shouldn't bring. It's a lot easier to deal with what you have than to anticipate what you will need I think. Tomorrow is my last day of chauffeuring, for which I am extremely grateful, and I believe that I will do some work around my house for a few extra dollars before I head out. I tested my spot satellite transmitter today and found it to be slightly annoying to figure out, but not impossible to use. I've sent my first "ok" message with it which is now conveniently located on a map for public viewing. You can see the exact global coordinates of my parent's house if you go here: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0RceZhbklfpIYKS5Hs5M9BzqHEZONhM5K

I think that is the link to see all of my future locations. I'm trying to get this all set up so that it's super easy to navigate (which it really isn't by design). Perhaps someday I will make maps. I have very specific desires when it comes to maps, and no map has ever satisfied.

So, below are a few pictures of a bike ride a took maybe a week ago. The weather has been incredible for this time of year. It's really been the perfect training weather. Of course I train in style, but I'll be riding dirty soon enough.