life @ 13

poor mexico. too close to the united states and too far from god

last time i checked in i think i was somewhere in the middle of my 9-day tenure in zacatecas. somewhere around day seven things started to get interesting. the whole week consisted of drinking (cantinas, corona factories), shooting the shit on the terrace, and generally enjoying the really cool hostel there. tons of people to meet from everywhere including a couple of guys from wisconsin out on a "spiritual mission" in the mexican desert. to keep the story short i'll just say that i was just about ready to take myself and the bike on a bus to laredo tx and hop on the greyhound bus i'd booked for monday the 26th. but that didn't happen, mostly because i was convinced that going home early was a bad idea. which i'm now really certain turned out to be incredibly true. i decided that me and biking in latin america had been worn out by that time, so out of good will and getting rid of dead weight i gave my bike to the hostel and got a few free nights and free internet in return.
so sunday afternoon me and zack, a quietly kerouackian type guy from new mexico, hopped a bus to fresnillo, the next town north, with the intent of wandering through the mountains and backroads to mazatlan. our plan was to hitchhike from fresnillo to mazatlan, which was almost entirely successful, and in almost every way exceded my expectations. the next 4 days can be drawn out into a really long story but i'll carve out the highlights
1. we took about 13 rides in 4 days, most of which were in the backs of pickup trucks
2. the first night we slept (froze our asses off) outside under the stars in somebody's ranch near fresnillo
3. discovered how ridiculously easy it is to hitchhike back roads in mexico (everyone stops)
4. were treated to some spectacular scenery in the sierra madres (desert to forrest in less than an hour), climbing from about 4000 to 12000 feet no less than three times in three days
5. i got to drive someone's truck for 5 hours
6. shared some beers and conversation in spanish with some guys at a little store in the middle of nowhere
7. hitched a ride with the general store delivery truck and got to experience and be stared at in a tiny huichol (indingenous people) village.
8. got lots of briuses from being thrown around on the really nasty roads
9. survived off quesadillas

and that's just the shit i can remember right now, sitting in a really slow internet cafe on an island near mazatlan. but the last few days were easily the best, roughist and most rewarding part of the trip so far. people were incredibly friendly, especially considering that they never see travellers there.
so we actually managed to meet our friends from zacatecas in mazatlan, which was really cool since we had a lot to talk about. life moves very slowly here, with tourists visiting from mazatlan during the day and the island being almost entirely deserted at night. but i'm pretty much ready to get moving again, probably back to laredo where my ticket is still good for another 9 days.