life @ 13
Sunday, January 18, 2004
It's amazing how easily one rest day becomes two
101km on thursday, 115 on friday, and my ass is really sore. But my legs feel good, and my knees are intact, a good sign.
Thursday night I got a taste of a more authentic mexican city (felipe carrillo puerto), one that is almost always skipped by tourists. Maybe this is too obvious to state, but this is possibly the best reason to travel by bicycle -- you meet more local people when you get off the tourist trail.
Friday night we wound up in a townie bar (in Bacalar, where I am now) where the locals insisted on buying us drinks -- actually they didn't ask -- in exchange for english lessons and good gringo company. Another reason to travel by bicycle, free alcohol.
The weather here in Bacalar is almost perfect. Being about 20 miles inland, the sometimes chilly costal winds diminish to a light breeze, right now it is 79 degrees, sunny, with moderate humidity (type "chetumal" into weather.com for full details).
Tomorrow we will head to belize stopping in Orange Walk about 30km south of the boarder. We will hit Belize city on tuesday, then probably take a boat out to one of the islands off the coast (caye caulker). From then it's foggy. We will probably cycle to the belize-guatemala boarder together, but I'm probably going to catch a bus in northern guatemala, as the distances may be a little too far between towns to cycle without camping gear. From there I'll probably be cycling on my own, and I'm looking forward to it.
Monday and tuesday nights I slept in the top bunk of a dorm bed, wednesday in a rope-suspended bed outside on the beach, thursday on a hammoc strung across a hotel room and friday on a matress on the floor.
This week I was eating 4500-5000 calories a day. We buy water 18 litres (5 gallons) at a time, and it doesn't last much more than a day.
My spanish has been upgraded to one notch above survival-grade. FYI, most of the learning takes place at some sort of bar.
Anyway, that's all I can type for now. One day I will get used to these keyboards. Be like me, stay warm and safe. Adios.
101km on thursday, 115 on friday, and my ass is really sore. But my legs feel good, and my knees are intact, a good sign.
Thursday night I got a taste of a more authentic mexican city (felipe carrillo puerto), one that is almost always skipped by tourists. Maybe this is too obvious to state, but this is possibly the best reason to travel by bicycle -- you meet more local people when you get off the tourist trail.
Friday night we wound up in a townie bar (in Bacalar, where I am now) where the locals insisted on buying us drinks -- actually they didn't ask -- in exchange for english lessons and good gringo company. Another reason to travel by bicycle, free alcohol.
The weather here in Bacalar is almost perfect. Being about 20 miles inland, the sometimes chilly costal winds diminish to a light breeze, right now it is 79 degrees, sunny, with moderate humidity (type "chetumal" into weather.com for full details).
Tomorrow we will head to belize stopping in Orange Walk about 30km south of the boarder. We will hit Belize city on tuesday, then probably take a boat out to one of the islands off the coast (caye caulker). From then it's foggy. We will probably cycle to the belize-guatemala boarder together, but I'm probably going to catch a bus in northern guatemala, as the distances may be a little too far between towns to cycle without camping gear. From there I'll probably be cycling on my own, and I'm looking forward to it.
Monday and tuesday nights I slept in the top bunk of a dorm bed, wednesday in a rope-suspended bed outside on the beach, thursday on a hammoc strung across a hotel room and friday on a matress on the floor.
This week I was eating 4500-5000 calories a day. We buy water 18 litres (5 gallons) at a time, and it doesn't last much more than a day.
My spanish has been upgraded to one notch above survival-grade. FYI, most of the learning takes place at some sort of bar.
Anyway, that's all I can type for now. One day I will get used to these keyboards. Be like me, stay warm and safe. Adios.
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