life @ 13

it's always something. fortunately it's not everything at once

i think i'm through the worst of it here. yesterday i started around 10:30, biked about 15k to get out of the worst of the traffic, stopped at a mall and had a cinnabon (because the rain at 8000 feet is cold), biked about 2k before the rain got bad again, hid under an overpass with a few local kids for an hour, started biking again but got caught in sleet, was forced onto the non-toll road (more traffic, no shoulder) by the attendant, had my crank arm fall off 3 times (no bike shops on the highway), and then enjoyed a breezy descent (first 35k all uphill) through mexico's largest industrial district (sans roger moore) into toluca, where the cheapest hotel i could find was $20 a night. 73k, about 15km/hr average.
but today was much better. the roads leading out of toluca were flat and straight, and at some point i snuck onto the toll autopista (highway), which is well graded and has a nice fat curb lane. about 90k into the day i was feeling a little tired and out of shape and had about 60k to go until the next town, so i'm stopped here, except i don't know where here is. but they do have a couple of hotels ($8/night) and internet. i think i'm about three days away from guanajunto, the nearest town on the gringo trail, which is supposed to be a cool mexican university town.
i'm getting much more comfortable speaking spanish even though it's really not improving at all. but it's good enough to make really basic conversations, which is a long way from where it was 6 weeks ago. at this point i figure that if i really want to learn spanish the best way would be in an exchange for teaching someone english. which would be cool to do here, but i could do it almost anywhere in the US for free (while i'm making not hemmoraging money).
i think i'm going to like mexico. i'm just starting to get away from the heavily populated and industralized areas, and the people are changing pretty rapidly as well. mexico seems much less distant from the west at large, mexicans seem to have the greatest understanding of the US and the american way of life, and tequilla is cheap. and i might even try and drink some tonight for my 3 month aniversery. complemeses feliz