When it rains, it pours!

Every Englishman knows there is nothing better to talk about than the weather and I am like any other Englishman and love a good chinwag with the locals about what the weather up to; after all, it is the most exciting thing to talk about, right? So in this episode of "A 15 month adventure of an intrepid Norfolkian", I am going to share a few stories about the weather here in the magical Mexico.

Tropical climate between Mazátlan and Tepic

Laguna Ciutzeo just before a big storm came rolling in

Cerca Guadalahara...

If you have been reading my other posts, you already know that it was absolutely scorching in the Baja Penisula to the point of blistering the skin; but surprising, just by crossing the Sea of Cortez (about 150miles east) the weather has changed dramatically and the scenery has followed it. What I am confronted with now, is a tropical/rainforest climate and now I finally understand why they call it a rainforest. When the heavens open; jeez does it rain! If you are lucky, along with raindrops the size of chicken nuggets you may also encounter marble-sized hail and lightening bolts every other score of seconds.

Lucky photo of some lightening over the valley near Jocotitlan

There´d be a storm a coming

On one particular occasion I took cover under a bridge ready for another 2 hour downpour, when it just so happens that 6 other Mexican workers fancied a little picnic with me. Like all the other Mexicans I have had the pleasure of meeting, these guys were super friendly and hospitable. We collated our food together, of which I contributed some pinched mangos and crackers, and low-and-behold we had ourselves a feast fit for kings, containing various tacos, tortillas, beer, vege, salsa and more (not forgetting my mangos and crackers obviously). We sat around with our little picnic, watching the storm of all storms open up before us. Everybody remembers counting the seconds in between the flash and the bang, right? Well, at one point the count inbetween the flash and crack must have been less than the blink of an eye, so it could have been no more than 100 metres away. Hail thundered down onto motorway for about 15 minutes and even the cars had to take cover under the bridge in fear that it would dent the body panels, because these little bastards were bigúns! After our picnic, we parted our ways; them, going back to chopping the bushes with machetes and me trotting up a fuck off big hill! End of.

Mexican workers and a jolly picnic...

Fuck off large hail stones!

More hail. Hail Mary!

The boundary of a storm near Tepic

The mainland Mexicans have also made me feel kind of famous. On a number of occasions I have had cars and trucks pull over to get that infamous photo of themselves with Ingrid and I... Normally, I charge a small fee for the pleasure, either of a pack of biscuits, a taco or some fluids. But in one instance a guy had obviously took a fancy to me and had various photos of myself cycling on a range of roads 400km a part. When on the 3rd time he plucked up the courage to show me his espionage work and to get that infamous photo of him, Ingrid and I: on that occasion the guy gave me some tamanos filled with chili and meat (not entirely sure what they are, but think they are mushed up sweetcorn). Good lad.The temperature has ranged from close to 40C to below 7C at nights and it is the first time I have had to snuggle up in my sleeping bag and it has been super hilly, on some days climbing close to 7000ft and altitude ranging from 4000-8750ft (or close to 3 times the height of Snowdon).

Mangos the size of footballs and juicy like no other. one Ranch owner gave us a bag full of em

Since coming over to the mainland Mexico I have been wild camping a lot,which means I pitch a tent just about anywhere (haha I know what you are thinking), but I have also taken the liberty of the odd ranch stay and WS host. The camping here is fantastic and I cannot really put it into words the picturesque places I have camped, so instead here are a few photos of heaven...

Washing in bins like a boss/tramp

Wild camp near El Rosario

Cracking spot just north of Mazátlan near old stone carvings

This bad boy is at an altitude of around 2500m and it gets chilly at night

To add to that, after nearly 2 months I actually paid for a nights accomodation in Tepic. Not entirely sure why to be honest; maybe the camping had taken its toll and I was in need of a shower. But anyway I spent 7 or 8 quid on my own room in this Hotel Economíc; so you can only imagine how grotty it was. Although, it was luxurious in comparison to spending a night in a tent and I definitely got my moneys worth by pinching a couple of rolls of toilet paper and bars of soap (was tempted by the towel, but got detered by the extra weight); I know the Whitlams would be proud!

Cosy lil´ bed sit for a small fee

It is nearing the 2 month mark, so thought I would bore your brains with a few interesting stats.

• 5150km ridden
• Highest altitude 8763ft
• Weight of bike (laden) - a shade over 50kg or 110 pounds
• Weight lost - 4.5kg or 9.5 pounds
• Most amount of climbing in one day: a shade over 8000ft
• Top speed: 75km/hr
• Most amount of Coke drunk in a day: 5 litres (yes, Coke is an integral source of my daily calories)
• Accidents to date: 1 (ripped my ear open on a barbed wire fence; thanks mum for packing them steristrips)
• Number of times I have used the fishing rod: 1 (for pinching a joblot of mangos from a tall tree, they are incredibly large and juicy here in Mexico)

Before my handy work

After my handy work. Thanks Mum for the steristrips

Wildlife update (O my lordy, it has been incredible): Lizards (tens of species, but they are too hard to take a picture of), chameleons, geckos, fireflys, unusually large frogs (I am talking the size of a small cat...) tortoises, terapins, armadillos, snakes, thousands of butterflys, skunks, crazy large rodent thingy-me-bobs (the technical name), a super large spider (this bastard was the side of my hand and he definitely was not a web type of spider, he was a hunter) and much more!

I thought it looked nice, muchos insectos aquí

I must have seen over 20 types of butterflys in Mexico

The Fake Coral Snake - the other one that looks very similar is deadly

Chilling...

I wanted to skin this cretin and give Ingrid a new look.

 

Thought I would also add a new section and am going to call it "Toms Cool Facts" (creative name, I know), so in this episode of TCF I have:

1. Did you know that Tequila can only be called Tequila if it comes from one of the 5 states in Mexico that make it. It is made of Agave (type of cactus) and it requires an unusual composition of soil containing volcanic rock with a the right amount of rain and sun. I actually took an awesome trip around Tequila, where it originated from and got pretty pissed up on tequila - it is ridulously cheap and premium quality. Got a couple of bottles for the road, like you do.
2. In certain parts of Mexico it is not uncommon to find locals chopping the head off an Iguana and drinking the sangre (blood), according to a ranch owner I stayed with. He told me I had to do this before I left in the morning, because it would make me strong; unfortunatly though we did not catch one...

Beware Iguanas! I will have your head...

That is all for this time folks.

 

Love from your adventurous duo

Tom and Ingrid x

 

PS: If you are interested in the route I have taken so far you can find my day-by-day mileage here: http://www.strava.com/athletes/347433

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The GOOD, the BAD and the MEXICAN

Hola todos, I am going to try and make this post reasonably short and sweet and tell a few stories of what has happened over the past week or so. I am going to do this in 3 parts: the first part - the GOOD, the second part - the BAD and finally - the MEXICAN...

A little quiet beach on the coast of the Sea of Cortez

I prefer the "good news" first of all so I am will go over a few of the pleasant memories I have had while cycling along one of the world´s longest penisulas - Baja California.

The GOOD

1. One name. Bill. This guy is one of the craziest, unorthodox and astonishiing hosts I have had the pleasure of staying with. So I was cycling into the tranquil town of Mulegé and was greeted by a plump ol´ American ex-pat in his 60s by the name of Bill. This man clearly had a soft spot for rum and by the time I had met him (4:00 PM) he was on his way. He insisted on giving me a tour of the tropical town and did so by taking me in his battered Land Rover (clearly from his driving in the pas) at this point I knew I was in for a ride. The town was stunning and Bill seem to achknowledge everybody in the town, despite the perplexed faces that were returned and this included the army and police. After my tour was over, Bill had forced down copious amounts of tequila and rum down my gullet hole and we went to meet some of his mates: Tim and Scotty. Now these guys were interesting characters; between them they shared stories of running from the law in the deep south of America and were telling me some infamous stories of their younger days of drug raids and interesting border crossing. We must have returned no later than 9:00PM, when we crawled back to the house; as Bill said, "it is ok as long as you don´t hit anything", but I was skeptical to his logic and when he kept slurring out words like the ¨the bastard road is moving¨ and ¨I am too drunk¨, I buckled up and prepared for the worst. We rustled somet drunken meal of rice with sweetcorn and some random salad sauce, clonked out on the sofa ready for a long days cycling the next day. Which did not happen.
2. Raul. Or maybe I should say the Saint of La Paz. This guy found me struggling on the road about 100km from La Paz with little water about to prep up for a saucy wild camping session. Apart from offereing us a lift to La Paz, which I kindly refused. He filled up my bottles of water and shared some good information on the ferries in La Paz. Not only that, but from the jist of what he was saying, I think he said he would drive out to me in the morning and sort me out some desayuno (breakfast); I was hopeful, but knew it was unlikely. However, in the morning sun, this god of a man came all the way out (50 miles) to meet me with 3 huge burritos packed with succulent meat and fresh vege. Delicioso.
3. Glenda: If you chaps are keeping up to date with my FB page too, you probably have witnessed the platter of food I got presented being in this woman´s prencese for a matter of minutes. I apologise for the food photo. Nobody likes a picture of food. Who cares? Anyway it was a welcoming treat for tired legs. She also kindly showed me all over La Paz, BCS, went snorkelling and out for dinner multiple times and coffee in the morning. This woman has a heart of gold and she has let me stay for 3 nights, until I can get a ferry over to mainland Mexico.

Bill and his bashed-up-mobile

Raùl and the burritos. Mexican food is pretty damn good.

Glenda and the Banquet of Mexican food

Again it comes down to the people that have made this adventure so wonderful this week. It is not only the unknown, the beautiful scenery I cycle through that excites me, the smells of road kill the spots of rain being enveloped by the hot asphalt road (nothing better) and the crackles and blasts of engine braking and tyre squeeling as I come close to death when wild camping in the middle of a desert and that feeling of splashback on your toes - from the rain; not from piss. But it is the hospitality of the people is what has made this adventure great so far and I hope a few of them people are achknowledging that right now if they are reading my blog.

P.S: that was my attempt to be imaginitive. Go easy on me.

It looks so surreal. I think I hit 45mph going doing this hill

Little bearded dragon. These little cretins have a fantastic defence mechanism of rolling over and playing dead...

Casual land slide on the main highway

Enough about the soppy good times, over to the bad times. I know for a fact that everybody is a bit sadistic at heart and love a good crackle at somebody else´s misfortune. So I hope these bad boys float your boat and put a smile on your faces.

The BAD

1. Probably the funniest story I have is of being severely dehydrated in the middle of the desert with the next town a mere 25miles away. I had pretty much ran dry of liquids and it was getting late - 7:00PM (which is the usual time to set up camp). I knew I would be in trouble if I didn´t find water, but luckily I came across a nice stagnant pool of green liquid. First and foremost, I had bathed myself to cool down and then filled up a couple of 2 litre bottles for camping and purifying. This was the first time I actually had a chance to test out the Steripen, which is meant to use UV waves to kill all bacteria and viruses in water. I was sceptical for one reason and that is there is no obvious change to the water all you see is a little glowing light for 48 seconds and then it is meant to be pure. Anyway, I drunk it all the same. Along with the green stagnant water, I emptied the drained water from my canned tuna, which was pretty tasty (take note peeps), the drained sweetcorn water, which was ok and the left over water from boiling pasta - which wasn´t so good. Looking back at the situation, if any passer-by would have seen me (highly unlikely because there was nobody around) scrapping for the last drips of water from the tuna can, only God knows what they would have thought of me. However, I felt surprisingly refreshed after the banquet of different coloured liquids and crawled into my tent. In the morning, I made it to the next town in good time and necked a 3 litre bottle of cold Coke, like you do.
2. On one particular day, the heat was way too much (as per usual) and there was literally no shade cover in sight. In the end I had to crawl in the flood pipes under to the road to take cover; to say these pipes were accomodating, would be a lie: I just about squeezed in and drifted off to sleep in the dirt and darkness for a few hours... I was awoken by an extremely loud clatter, I remember thinking what the hell is that. I peered out of my pipe and the sky was black and about 5 miles west of me there was a storm a brewing, and it was a big one. I thought better of letting it pass in my little pipe, so instead I hopped on the bike quick and sprinted away. The bastard was catching me though and at one point, I nearly jumped out of my skin when a bolt of lightning flashed in my mirror and must have been less than half a mile away. Then came the small tornados, I was quite pleased actually because I actually cycled through a small one and it was pretty cool. Anyway I got about 10 miles down the road and had enough of running and was getting thirsty, so migrated to a cosy roadside bar and got myself a Tecate. It is all they had. I could have murdered a refreshing Coke. Plus I ate some cheese. And salami. Good story. Poor ending I fear. Apologies, I didn't get a picture of the pipe, I was in a bit of a rush.
3. Among other things, My rack bolt snapped and had to do a Petrol Station repair, which was pretty lucky; bearing in mind I got a good dose of the trots (as a guy from Norfolk would put it), it was probably from that tasty stagnant water I had a few days before. On the bright side, I had the luxury of a toilet, albeit without toilet roll; in the end I had to use the Spanish Science book I had been reading for some supplies (I found that gem on the road).
4. Along with the broken rack, another camera broke. Yippee, hence the shitty photos.

Nut that sheared off that connects the rack to Ingrid. An integral part I have been told...

Stagnant water that I had the pleasure of consuming (along with the Steripen)

Storm and Tornados

So there it is peeps a few more stories from an intrepid Norfolkian and his beloved Ingrid the On-One Inbred. The one month mark has been hit and I suppose it is only fair that I give you a little beard shot (you should be familiar with this if you read my other blog).

A little treat for the ladies ;)

To finish up, I was reminded by my Mum and by the hundreds of people uploading pictures on FB that graduation day had been and gone, therefore II thought it was only fair that I did my own rendition of the special day - Mexican style...

The MEXICAN

A proud moment... (Certificate presented by some Mexican on the side of the road)

Not so short in the end. Lo siento chaps y chapettes. Till next time

Love Tomàs y Ingrid

 

 

 

 

 

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Tortillas, Tacos and Espinas

Mexico. What can I say. This first week has been a mixture of emotions. The scenery has been out of this world: going between the hustle and bustle of the urban environment in Tijuana, to the dry and blisteringly heat of the desert between San Quintin and Guerrero Negro (literally and metaphorically) and then tropical oasis planted in the middleof deserts and giant magnesium chloride salt fields - this place has a lot of character.

A typical sight in Baja California, these things shoot up to 3 stories tall... Cactus (Cardon)

Blistered skin... (this is with SPF30 on)

But less about the place and more about some entertaining stories. Since leaving USA things definitely have got a bit more adventurous. I was surprised at just how easy it was to get into Mexico, I literally walked straight through the border and I genuinely had to ask somebody if I was in Mexico when I got to the other side. I have been told wicked stories about getting into the US from Mexico and cars being dismantled to get to the condensed mass of marijuana and cocaine concealed in the body of the cars. Therefore I was expecting the worst, but I found myself in Mexico without a leaving stamp from the US and without an entry stamp into Mexico and I was kind of suspicous. Speaking to a number of officials, I finally gathered from a few spanish words that I could pick out, that I had to make my way 5 miles up a hideous looking hill to a get a visa stamp. To cut a long story short, the Mexicans are not the most competent of drivers, the roads are ridiled with potholes to the point where you are lucky to find a line whereby your coccyx does not take an absolute beating; however, on the other hand, everyone was more than happy to encourage me on with a friendly peace sign and an acknowledgment in the form of a blast of the horn! All in all a nice welcome to Mexico, with a friendly feel to place; contradicting what most Americans had told me.

Some of the roads are a sore sight for a sore arse

But some are too good to be true, without any traffic

I have met some very interesting characters since entering Mexico and the person or people that top this list are those who I have met in ranches (similar to an English farm but in a desert with no greenery). These are normally tripped upon in the middle of desert with nobody within miles around, so a welcoming sight for tired legs. However (maybe I shouldn´t use this word), these people are slightly unorthodox. One of the funniest chaps I met was a fella called Santiago, whose response to ¨¿Puedo poner mi tienda de campaña en su jardin?" which roughly translates to "Can I pitch a tent in your garden?¨, was "Are you are friend of Bin Laden?", I am not entirely sure why he said this, maybe it was my uncanny resemblence or that fact that I had a dirty beard and was absolutely filthy down to the bone; it most probably appeared to him that I have just crawled out of a cave: anyways he invited me in warmly and made me a brisk coffee. It did not take me long to realise this chap was completely trolleyed and he persisted in calling me Bin Laden and laughing hysterically at every single word I said. 5 minutes later he was lighting up a spliff with his amigos and continued to drink a Tecate a local beer and he offered me both. I kindly picked the Tecate. Just as I thought this night could not get any stranger, what I could only describe as a farmyard of animals came to join us - including a chickens and roosters, multiple cats and kittens, dogs and puppys and I think at some point a fellow horse jumped in on the party (that last one was a lie). So I found myself in a room of Mexicans smoking and getting trolleyed with a farmyard of animals. The conversation was interesting and normally ending in everyone laughing for about 5 minutes, but hey ho. When I did eventually crawl into my tent, I drifted off feeling slightly strange: uncertain whether it was the fumes of the pot, the Tecate or what I had just witnessed...

Casually picking up a dozen hitch-hikers is a regular occurence in Mexico

I have stayed at a handful of these ranches now and all as much as an interesting scene as the others. At one, the children of the ranch owner where the most enthusiasic children to learn english and I spent countless hours talking attempting to communicate with them some words in English, including teaching them some times tables, addition and subtraction. In return they taught me a lot of words in Spanish that I did not already know. One thing I did notice was there was nearly an aggresion between the brothers and sisters to impress me with their knowledge of English, but also how cruel they were to the fellow farm animals; chucking small boulders at the kittens, kicking the dogs and punching and shoving eachother for my attention. Again. It was quite surreal.

This man is living the dream

The salt plains in Guerrero Negro at sunset

The WarmsShowers hosts have also been incredibly generous too, albeit not quite as animated and strange. The great thing about staying with these families is that they open up about their culture and what they think of Mexico and what should be improved. I found out that the average daily salary for a working class man in Mexico was equivolent to 4.50 pounds for a 8 hour day; my hosts explained that this was just enough to feed your family for a day... They also explained that if you get into trouble with the police in Mexico, all you have to do is bribe them with the equivolent of 10 quid and they do not take you to prison to await trail and this is all down to the corrupt government. I have been told that there are no areas in Mexico that could be deemed dangerous to tourists, unless you get on the wrong side of the law. The drug fields are all grown in mountains, so there is little risk of tourists getting involved. Again I have to accredit a few names: Gabino, Lupito and family and Sara, Adolfo and family - these guys would genuinely give their shirt off their own back to me without a question asked. Their hospitality cannot be matched.

The whole familia - Gabino, Lupita and Estephanie (WarmShowers host)

So now on to the bad things about Mexico; one of the bad things apart from the masses of dogs, I swear there is one queen dog churning out thousands of these things a day (similar to an ant colony) - they are literally on every corner of every street chasing me down. None of the bastards have got me yet, and slowly I feel this anger growing against them inside me; so watch this space, a new Mexican delicacy could be born. Another big problem is the addresses, houses numbers and street names in the place are completely omitted. I have no idea how mail seems to get to the receiver, because there is no way of knowing who lives where. So when I was looking for a host in Guerrero Negro I had to knock on about 5 doors to ask whether I was on the correct street, what makes this worse is I have got every dog swine barking my arse down from every other house. When I think I am on the correct street I am told to go three blocks across and take a left; and it goes round in a vicious cycle. People seem to know an address just looking at the name, correct me if I am wrong, but I am not sure this is the most effective method. After an hour and a half of hunting down every mud road within the proximity of Guerrero Negro, I was a broken man; fortunately an expat came out of his home and pointed me in the right direction and eventually I lay to rest in my tent in the garden. Bliss.

Another WS familia - Sara and her children at Guerrero Negro

One of my routine updates is the old wildlife ticklist, so here goes: I got a chance to swim with dolphins in the sea at San Diego (well within 10 metres or so) people pay money for that shit, just head down to San Diego and hit the small beaches up; I witnessed Humpback Whales on the Pacific Coast, Vultures, Humming birds courting, all sorts of crazy birds of prey, a few more dead snakes, wild ponies, crazy little rodent thingy-me-bobs (yes. that is the scientific name) and much much more. PS it is damn difficult to get pictures of these cr animals so be patient with me. I did see them. I swear.

Another small dead snake

Adultos - is the only decent photo I could get of any of the birds

Till next time amigos :)

 

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