We departed from the beautiful beach in Santa Ana quite late today because the crabs were keepin us up all night. They beach was filled with these tiny baby crabs that snuck into the little tears still in our tent from Milo the terror and crawled on my legs and my face and my arms all night. Luckily they hadn't developed enough pinching power to really be a nusence. So we got up late and totally SCORED when we found all these beautiful green limes beside the road. So we grabbed all we could carry and headed into the next town were we sold them for a very reasonable $10/bag which would be 2 or 3kgs. So if that wasn't enough our first customers gave us each a beer so we could relax and watch a bit of the Mexico vs holland World Cup game then they cut us off a giant hunk of the most delicious cheese ever so we thanked them and headed down the road another minute and scored a pop and free lunch along with the sale of more limes! But that's not it, a minute later and we were gifted another 2 pops and a pineapple! So after making $80pesos in lime sales we bike some more, overflowing with joy from our fellow man. scored some road side mangos. Shortly after Casita, Veracruz we stopped at a Pemex station (gas station) and were given permission to camp for the night under a roof!!! I then scored free Internet (which I am now using) and electricity which is powering this upload. So sitting here a family asked if I would like to share their sandwich. Yes I would! We got to talking, super nice family. I really enjoy meeting interesting, educated people and just enjoying coming up with common interests and that. We parted ways and they handed me $200pesos with their business card!! I am overflowing with love from my fellow man! You guys make life worth living. So show a little love today because who knows, that scruffy traveller just might be ou one day! It's bed time for us. We will try to bike to Papantla tomorrow. Hope you are livig your dreams. Xo H
At times we thought we would never make it out of here but it appears that there are no more excuses to stay so, we're off! First stop a beach somewhere along the way. I guess we will get in around 80kms today but as always we will see how it goes. Hope that you spend some time today to do the things that you love. Xo H,D,M My Kona Jake looking almost new again with new Schwable Marathon Mundial kicks, tubes, cables, brake pads, Shimano Tiagra rear derailleur and so many fancy bags!! Jandd frame pack, cannondale slice top tube bag and Sunlite bartender handle bar bag. Bike touring storage problems solved! Thank you Huntington Cycle and Sport. In anticipation of a departure from Veracruz as early as tomorrow we have created a facebook page to enable us to more easily upload updates, photos and videos on the road. Like our official page to travel along with us another time across North America.
All this preperation for touring has us thinking about other bike trips that we have made. We have spent much of our time trying to capture the moment while we meet new people and visit new places. All this while wrestling the technological beast, trying to have him work for us but we are coming out sprawled across the mat weeping like little children. Can´t it be easier? Since departing Canada oh I dont know how long ago, we have seen die an olympus water proof camera, a sony bloggy, a blackberry and an external HD. We have had multiple problems with losing all of our data on an ipod, as well as battery failure. Now I find that a worm, probably contracted from a Mexican internet cafe has eaten gigabytes off of a USB drive of photos and videos that I have no other back up of. So.. I thought I had better upload some old photos to the blog because who knows if this other USB drive will work tomorrow. To show you the other side of the camera, here are some of my photos from the same time period as the gallery above. We have left Playa Hermosa and arrived by car in 'El Puerto' Veracruz. Just before we left we gathered as many vegetables, fruits and herbs as we could. We figured since we were getting a ride we might as well load up as much as we can. So we left the coast with over a hundred avocados, a few kilos of dried fish, taro root, papaya, epazote, oregano, pumpkin, chili and what more thinking we might be able to sell at least some of it in the course of the day. The friend that hosts us in the city told us to go to the park at two minutes walking from his house.The friend was right, about ten minutes after arrival in the park came in the first ladies for their Zumba class. An hour and a half later we had sold over mex. $400 worth of fruits, veggies and herbs and we decided to call it a day. Our conclusion is that it indeed was a good idea to carry these 'free' items to the city to sell them and it surely motivates us to look for more things we can pick up and sell along the way. If it was up to us we would or could have been in Sinaloa by now. Just to name a state, far and exotic. 20 days and counting. That is the price of a box full of, for us unaffordable gear and gadgets, part of it essential and very hard to acquire where we are. As an example hereof: a year ago, I bought a cassette/bottom bracket from a shop in San Andres Tuxtlas. This after a week long search in various towns even in the second hand market, which works by word of mouth in these parts so you'll probably have to work with something like: " go to town X and find shop A ( shop A has of course nothing to do with bikes) ask for the owner. And he has a bike with that bottom bracket you need and he might be willing to sell it to you".
After roaming little villages, looking for the wanted price and not finding it, I decided to consult Saint Google on the matter and he told me that in San Andres Tuxtlas I would find what I needed. Turned out that none of the three listed shops had the part, for one of them didn't exist, the other one wasn't a bike shop and the last one, well they just didn't have it. Too fancy. You can imagine my joy and excitement when I by pure coincidence walked into bike shop number 4 where they presented me the so sought after bottom bracket. I paid the $270(pesos) happily and installed without problems. This I can do because I have been carrying the somewhat bulky tool for the job since Canada. Anyway, half a year later we figured since they so swiftly provided me with something that had the word Shimano on it and even in the box, we would also be able to buy 35c tubes from the same unnamed bike shop. Turned out to be a bridge to far. Hannah threw in all her charms and buddy promised he would order them, that was half a year ago. The first three months buddy said they're not in yet. Next Wednesday, Friday, next week. After three months and biweekly visits to bikeshop-without-a-name buddy confessed, he never ordered them. But now her would, he probably didn't. And if he did, he's shit out of luck because by now my actual buddy from bikeshop-with-a-name Huntington Cycle and Sports in West Virginia is sending them to us, probably out of pity that we have become victims of mañana syndrome. To stay civil here: I don't want buddies tubes anymore and if you're looking for bike parts in San Andres Tuxtlas, either keep biking or find a place to rent. What for the time it will take, you're better off buying. That's only one item in the box that yesterday cleared Mexican customs and now wheels somewhere in the republic. Tyres, of a quality unseen, at less for us chronically ill equipt: rode on dirt tires in the states, switched to road tyres just before Mexico, are also in the box. A working pump, bar tape and a bunch of stuff that will be a surprise for us when said box finally arrives, three weeks later than intended courtesy of customs Mexico. People do the greatest things for us and we depend on them. I just can't wait to get on the road. I just don't know how because I blew out the last usable tube of my front wheel. |
AuthorDavid and Hannah - cyclists extraordinaire Archives
October 2015
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