Well, I left Cholula, Puebla, finally, after eight pleasant days of eatin' and chillin'. I will miss my favorite quesadilla lady, who made the most perfect huitlacoche and chicharrone quesadillas with extra jalapenos and cheerfully answered all my culinary queries (note the hand made blue corn tortillas). But i gotta get out of Mexico one of these days.- Matt Kelly and I agreed on a nice crack of noon start with the excuse that we would let the day clear. Matt, a Chicago boy, that has been on the road for over seven months starting in Alaska. Matt's site, pedalpanam.com, is worth the visit. I was pleased to have some ride company for the first time in my travels and it is nice to share notes with someone who has as much crap piled on his bike as i do. I admit that i let Matt do most of the navigation and relegated myself to moral support - anyone who has ridden with me, Dave and Todd . . . is not going to believe that but honest, as long as we're headed in the right direction. Additionally, Matt's dual citizenship made him a good cultural translator.
We spent most of the afternoon trying to get Puebla out of sight and both realized we could have been more efficient about it but the riding was nice through rolling hills and small towns with light traffic around a good sized reservoir.
We wanted to ride around the reservoir but Mexicans are not any better with directions than Americans and we got directed down to a ferry across the reservoir that meant we just spent the day in a scenic detour but it was scenic and folks were pleasant. The rest of that afternoon we rode through hot dry country with quite a bit of rock debris on the road from local marble and 
onyx quarries. We shared a hotel room in Tecali de Herrera, the only hotel, i have never seen so much onyx in one place.The next day was a fantastic day of riding winding along level farming valleys and riding along dirt roads that had more bike and burro cart traffic than motor vehicles. We stopped at a small market for lunch and i had the best taco ever! Double tortilla wrapped potatoes, pork, and jalapenos with a cervesa fria all for . . . 22 pesos! (13 pesos=$1). Did i mention that i really love Mexico?! We checked out the local church that was in the process of reapplying gold leaf and were overwhelmed by the perfume of flowers. The church was packed with fresh flowers of every type. We asked if it was related to Lent we were told it is always like this. . .wow. . .you would need a wholesale warehouse to supply this place for a week. We, also, checked the tiles, Matt is a tile aficionado and now he has me always looking down, but that is a good thing to do in Mexico. Eventually, we arrived in the city of Tehuacan by mid- afternoon courtesy of a stiff tailwind and stayed in friendly pension. Tehuacan is a nice city with a really pleasant plaza and good food that i did not take a single picture of . . . oh well. Appeared to have an obvious middle class and would be an easy place to spend a few days.
The next morning Matt and i parted ways for our respective climbs - his to Oaxaca City, mine over the mountains to Tuxtepec. We will be running into each other again further down the line. I rode out of Tehuacan averaging better than 32kph, leaving the city was downhill so i was faster than traffic. I like that. I would prefer to avoid the cars than have the cars avoid me and i can take my own lane - i know the little boy in the back of a truck was impressed when i blew by them - grins all around. My bike feels really good and solid cruising at 50 to 70kph - all 40 
kilos of the beast. I finished up a hot fast day at the base of what promised to be a long steep climb and rested in the small town of Teotilan. I woke up and got out by 8 am to provision and begin my climb before the sun came around to beat down on me for the afternoon. I was looking up the street at my climb, everyone smiled knowingly in some version of "you go man," or "you poor bastard." I smiled and waved.The road was steep and continually curved as it snaked its way up the slope. Within the first hour i came upon a large truck that had stalled in the middle of a switchback corner. I swung wide because he kept rolling back trying to get the truck into gear. Coming along aside the driver looked desperate and asked me to block a wheel. I dumped my bike off, dug up a big wedge rock for a big truck, and stuck it behind the wheel. No sooner than putting the truck into gear and giving the gas there was an explosion of bolts, "CLANK!," the drive shaft hit the pavement. The poor guy was screwed. Stuck on a steep corner on a steep slope with no transmission. I said i was sorry, wished him the best of luck, and continued my grind for the next few hours.
His was not the last distressed truck i saw but his situation was by far the worst. The road had lots of nuts and bolts laying around and was a truly wicked 30+ km ascent of continual turns minor landslide debris and a precipitous edge. The climb reminded me of the Andes to come but those climbs will be dirt and those slopes will be lightly scattered with the remains of buses and trucks too difficult to remove - no matter how precious scrap metal becomes.
I topped out in the early afternoon and the cacti were gone replaced by small scale farming and trees, ah trees, trees mean shade but the temperature was noticeably cooler. I enjoyed a beer 
and coke while taking in the view before a blistering descent that sent me screaming by jake breaking dump trucks and railing through endless s turns as everything became greener and greener and denser and flowers appeared in profusion. Towns passed with a blink trailed by hollers and whistles. I doubled my distance in a fraction of the time and wound up having a couple beers in a steep little valley with these two amiable characters that made for a nice welcome to Oaxaca.
We chatted and they directed me over to a set of cascades a short distance up the valley. I was tempted to stay longer but i still had a climb up to Huatla and the day was getting late.
And a climb it was! The road itself was fine but accessing Huatla was akin to Lombardi in San Francisco minus the turns or for you Binghamton folks - think Sherwood times four - a beastly push on foot past locals watching kids play soccer. All the sympathy did not make it hurt any less.
Huatla was having a carnival of sorts in the main plaza but i was too beat to pay much attention beyond the food stalls. The next morning i shopped in the market and was approached by a curandero. The area is famous for mushrooms edible and other wise (also great local mescal!). He offered spiritual healing but my spirit is good and i was not in the mood to trip my ass off with strangers. The region grows coffee, and trees are scattered about in small plots and is a good indicator of the higher altitude. When i
departed in the late morning i was climbing again for several hours through little villages of men dressed all in white and women in colorful embroidered clothing. I started to really notice the altitude and was pleased to finally top out and gaze down into the cloud covered low lands.
Within the next couple hours i would be in the far distance well below those clouds. Humidity rose 
as i descended the coastal side of the mountains and once again everything began to bloom. Epiphytes abounded in trees and reminded me that i may finally see orchids blooming outside of a green house. I went from high altitude coffee growing to bananas to sugar cane, corn, and rubber trees within a matter of cyclicious moments. The air was alternately sweet with ripening corn, as tassels browned, and the sweet browness of harvesting sugar cane. We must consume lots of sugar to grow so much cane. I noted that Mexican sugar cane harvest seems less wasteful than US harvest simply based on how much was not in the road. In Mexico the cane is cut by hand then loaded onto trucks mechanically.By 6pm i waded along a fence line into the midst of a corn field to camp, stringing my hammock 'tween a couple slender trees. I was a couple hundred meters off the road to be private. After dinner and fiddling with my new harmonica, it started to mist so i strung my tent fly over my hammock - good idea. The rain lasted the night and thru the next day but i was comfortable and well fed.
Later the next morning, pedaling along through the misting rain, i realized the slender trees were rubber trees and noticed large groves scattered across the broad valleys and climbing the rocky hillsides. People were obviously surprised to see me and very friendly. I crossed a large reservoir and crossed over the hills bordering it before coming into Tuxtepec, Oaxaca - a largely commercial and administrative city. I have noticed lots of chains saws and other forestry equipment for sale, as well as, an inordinate number of people missing limbs and other body parts . . . no coincidence there. Strangely, for a landscape seemingly so rich people seem noticeably poorer.
No comments:
Post a Comment