Archive "Steve`s World Bike Trip - Mexico"

Mexico Updates

#17 Texas and Mexico

March 11, 2007

Hola Amigos

So, I survived America and made it out before my VISA expired, but I cut it pretty close. Here´s the story: After the wonderful meal of Crawfish, a southern delicacy I suggest you try if your ever in Louisiana, Art drove me into Laffeyette where we found a bike shop, then he drove me to the texas border. I realize I cheated here, but worse is yet to come. I rode a few miles into Texas then stopped for the night in a yard full of mosquitos. They weren´t the smartest bugs though, none of them bit me.

The bike problems continued the next day as I pedalled down HWY 87. I got to the end of the road and it disappeared, turning into sand. I turned around preparing for a 20 km back track on a dwindling time frame. All of a sudden I heard that all too familiar hiss sound of a flat tire. I groaned but had no choice but to fix it. As I was pumping it up matters got worse. The tire exploded, leaving me stranded. I gave up at this point and stuck out my thumb again. A truck already loaded with people, inside and out picked me up and through my gear in the back, dropping me off at a gas station where a mexican man drove me a little farther down the road. He dropped me off at another gas station where I stayed the night, pitched behind the building. I made some money that night as well, playing my drum. I managed to pull 100$ out of my hat. I was pretty happy with that.

At this point I had 5 days left on my visa, and at least a 10 day ride ahead of me, so I was in a hurry. I am not a religious person, but what happened next made me think twice. I was pedalling hard, in the beating sun, fighting the wind praying; praying for someone to stop and help me out. And someone did. An RV pulled up in front of me and a man got out. He had white hair, a white beard and was dressed in very plain clothes. i was sure he was Jesus, and asked if he was. He said no, but asked me if I wanted a ride. It was a miracle. I through everything inside the RV and he drove me to Galvaston where I found some wonderful tubes in the bike shop. they are very thick and supposedly prevent flats very well. So far so good. I biked till almost midnight after being dropped off and pitched my tent in a church yard, far too tired to eat more than a few hand fulls of peanuts.

I started thumbing rides at 8 AM. The first ride got me 9 miles, the second about 200 miles into Corpus Christi. The man said I had a kind face, which is why he picked me up. I got back on the bike after he took me out for lunch in Corpus and headed down the road. And I didn ´t stop. At all. I biked all night through the desert under the almost full moon. trucks roared down the road all night, but most of the traffic ceased after 11 ish.

I made it to Progresso, Texas, right on the border by the next night and went to the 3 diamonds hotel. A little smooth talking and I managed to get the room for free, which I was thouroughly grateful for. I ate a pile of food and crashed. 24 hours on a hard bike seat will do that to you.

I left the hotel late in the morning of march 1st, bound for Brownsville, texas, where I stayed in another cheap hotel. That day I tried to cross the border at Progresso and Los Indios, but was turned around both times because I didn´t have my visa forms, which I needed to get in Brownsville at the Mexican Consulate. I also met 2 cyclists that day, snowbirds from up north on a day tour from thier RV camp. It was neat to bike with someone again.

March 2nd, the day of reckoning, I got to the consulate early, only to find out that It didn´t open till 9...So i waited 2 hours. I got my 6 month visa without a hitch and headed to the border and crossed the Rio Grande for the last time into Matamoros, Mexico just in the nick of time. I got myself a hotel room. 80 pesos (8$ USD) a night got me a faded pink 8X12 room, 1 bed (1 sheet and 1 pillow included), a table, a sink with brown water, a fan but no plug in, a burnt out light bulb and just enough room for me and my bike. I was in heaven. I sat there, on the bed near the open window in the breeze during the hottest part of the day, reading a book, surveyor of all that is mine. I crashed early that night instead of going out for beer.

The next day was a day off. I slept in, hung out, had a shower, walked around town, played my drum for the tourists ate lots of cheap street food and went to bed early again. Life was good.

After 2 days of chilling in Matamoros I decided I wanted to head into Mexico. I left town and was greeted 20 km in by a checkpoint, at which I flashed my passport, showed off my visa and was waved through without even saying a word. That night I camped off to the side of the road, hidden in the cactuses. It got cold enough that night to freeze my water bottles.

In San Fernando the next day I was flagged down by some students. They gave me the message that I shouldn´t go south. they made many hand signals to me depicting guns and shooting and they ran thier hands across thier necks several times, but I kept going.

When you can´t speak the language it makes it difficult for things to happen on the road. most of my experiences so far have had to do with meeting people and talking and doing things with them, but so far, I haven´t met anyone on the road worth noting. It´s been a very lonely time biking. Most of my conversations happen at gas stations when i buy water or at road side food stands buying fruit. Im not complaining by any stretch of the imagination though, this is great. I am slowly learning a few more spanish words every day and increasing my vocabulary. I keep my Spanish-English Dictionary in my pocket all the time and pull it out at every chance. the locals think its the funniest thing when I do, but that´s OK, im glad I can make them laugh.

I have gotten into a new schedule here in Mexico. I get up around 630 AM when the sun comes out, make food, pack up and hit the road around 8 or so. My watch beeps for 10 AM and the wind slaps me in the face, every day, never failing. Around 2 or so it is too hot for a northern Gringo like me bike, so I find a tree and pull off to the side of the road, have lunch, read, nap, work on things, or do whatever I feel like until the clouds come out around 3 PM. Then I bike till 6 and camp. It´s very simple. Life is good.

So anyways, March 7th, around 6 Pm I wandered down a back road trying to find a spot to camp. i went through a gate, down a path, down another path, through a forest and came upon a house. It was a huge house randomly placed in the back woods. It had banana trees growing in its yard as well as oranges, which I indulged in. The house itself was amazing. set in almost solid marble, it was very beautiful, and completely abandoned. I asked a man the next day as he rode his horse passed if it was for sale and he told me to inquire in Tampico, which is where I am now. I would stop biking if I could buy that house for a cheap proice and fix it. Im truely in love with that building. But, alas, I probably wont get it.

So yesterday I made it into Tampico. I milled around town most of the day trying to find a hotel and ended up at one for 150 pesos a night. I´ll be moving to a cheaper one tomorow downtown in the market. I am looking forward to the rest of Mexico, and with a 6 month visa in hand, i´ll be taking my time, so expect many adventures in the coming months.

In my next update Ill add some final words about the USA, but for now, i have 1 minute on my time at this computer, so I must go.

A message for Will in Virginia Beach: You bet your sweet ass I am.

Paz y Amor Amigos

Steve Fox

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#18 Tampico and some thoughts on America

¡Hola Amigos!

I have not left Tamipco yet. I had to cut the last update short as my our on the computer ran out, but I have time now.
America Stats:
Total Kilometers in USA: 6378.55
Total Kilometers: 17579.10
Spent: 787.42$ USD
Days spent in America: 90
KM hitch-hiked: About 700, give or take
Top 5 Cities: Boston Mass, Spartanburg SC, Mobile AB, Galvaston TX, Talahassee FL
Top 5 Scenic spots: Delaware Water Gap, Catskill Mountains, Outer Banks, The Live Oak trees from Virginia south, The beach in Destin, FL
# of Flats: way to many, somewhere in the area or 30.
Fav state: toss up for Conneticut, South Carolina and Florida.

As I have said before, america met none of my expectations. Any image I had in my head about what it would be like was chopped up, mashed and rearranged into something completley different an unexpected. I met some amazing people there. I would like to tip me hat to the Fort Family especially, you guys were amazing to me and you wont be soon forgotten. The same goes to everyone who helped me ( and Paul) out along the way. there are so many out there I wouldnt know where to start naming you off. you know who you are.

Overall I enjoyed America. Some of the people there were a little more disagreeable than others, but i got along with most people. I did meet a few nasty people and had some bad run ins, but that is to be expected in my line of work. People are nice, they just some times dont know how to show it. It´s forgivable. I do look forward to cycling up the west coast through California in the future.

The plan...:
Since the last time I wrote I managed to find a family to stay with that wants me to stay with them in thier house forever and marry thier daughter. Life is good, the food is amazing and I am learning a huge amount of Spanish. I plan on staying here a few more days, possibly weeks, but seeing as i have 6 months to bike mexico and a strong urge to use all 6 of those months exploring and having adventures, i will be taking my time. If you dont hear from me for several weeks, dont be alarmed. Nothing will happen in Mexico. the people here rival the freindliness of Newfoundlanders, and that is huge. They are so very patient with a Gringo like me talking like a baby, I am so grateful for that. The adventures have begun already though...:

3 nights ago, round 1130 pm, I was laying in bed, writing in my journal after walking around town, exploring the downtown area when I heard someone bang loudly on my door yelling ´FUEGO, FUEGO´ and going on in spanish I understood fuego as fire. i opened my door, 3/4 naked and sure nough, thick smoke billowed into my room. It stung my eyes so i got low, light in hand and ran down the steep stairs. they guy yelling followed me down and as we passed the reception desk the smoke thickened into a black haze. Someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran at the door, but upon grabbing the door handle of the enflamed room, he burnt his hand and jumped back. Someone managed to open the door and exposed the flames, a mere electrical fire in the power box, a small flame, but spewing black smoke into the air. they came out of the building a few minutes later as the fire truck was pulling in covered in the yellow fire extinguisher chemicals. someone forgot to aim. No one was serisouly hurt and there was very little damage done.

Anyways, it is time to go learn more spanish with my lovely Familia de Mexico.

Peace and love

Steve Fox

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#19 The Road to Veracruz

April 12th, 2007

Buenos Dias. I am coming to you from Veracruz, Ver., Mexico. I have been here for 2 weeks now and have not had a chance to send anything out as I have been having too good or a time here. This city is amazing. There is music all the time on every corner, at times almost too much music. The people are friendly, the night life is pretty good on a weekend and it’s always hot. The beaches here leave something to be desired, but it is worth the bus ride to some of the more distant beaches for a swim, and the Zocalo and other parks in town, surrounded with architecture from days gone by make up for them. It is a big tourist hub for the locals, but you can often see some random gringo, backpack towering high above their heads and laden with camping supplies, glancing about in awe of the visual overload in the colorful squares.

I stayed in Tampico for about 5 days more after the last update with the DeLeon Family. I enjoyed my time there, although it was very different to what I was used to. On the road I have no worries, no cares, to routine (not a rigid one at least), and no one telling me what I can and cannot do. It was definatly strange for me to be around people who cared about me enough to enforce rules. Not that I really cared, but for a free bird like myself, that can get suffocating after a while. Leaving Tampico was filled with tears and when I got half way up the large bridge that over looked the whole city, I saw most of the family gathered below it, flagging me down. I stopped and waited for Miguel to walk up the bridge to give me a watch. The first day I stayed with them we went to the beach and when I went in the water without taking off my watch, it stopped working. I bid one last goodbye towering above the city and headed back out onto the road.

I got searched for the first time at the police check stop just outside of the city. It went down without a hitch, but they broke a bolt on my bike when they set it down. I fixed it there and shared stories and maps with them before leaving. I started out on a paved road, but my map told me of a smaller road to the East. I thought there would be less traffic there, so I took a scenic and winding perfectly paved road to the coast. I found the road, but it turned out to be gravel. There was no traffic aside from the odd VW and a few nearly empty buses and some farm trucks. The road soon turned to finer gravel and then sand and went this way, with patches of pavement in some of the villages, and large pieces of pounded rock. It was not a good road, and my bike told me so with a bent rim at the end of that ordeal.

I made it back onto pavement in 2 days and made my way back to the coast in Tamaihua, a little river port town where I found a cheap hotel for 80 pesos. Getting there was entertaining though, as the road was patchy and there was a bridge over a river missing. I stopped there for a bath and lunch before wading across. The water only came up to the bottom of my bags though.

The next day I made it to Tux pan. It was a cute little city, but seemed to be lacking bike shops. I left in the afternoon and shortly after broke a spoke which sent my wheel grossly out of true. It was almost dark at this point to I hobbled up a hill and pitched my tent at the top in an orange grove. I have been eating very well so far in Mexico. The food is very cheap and always fresh. It is much easier than I thought to not eat meat here, especially when I am alone as there is a huge abundance of different fruits and vegetables. Right now is the beginning of spring here. The banana trees are hanging low, laden down with bunches of green fruits, the oranges are falling off the trees, the mangoes are turning red, and the coconuts are filled with delicious water. It is easy enough to find any of these things and much more wild. Often times cycling along the coast I can find a grove of cocos. I usually have to climb the tree, which is easy enough and chop them down. It’s much more difficult to get them in real life than you see in the movies, believe me. They are tough and fibrous and it takes a lot of hacking to get a bunch on the ground. When you do though, you are rewarded with several liters of liquid. It is well worth the effort on a hot day. I have also discovered tortillas. They go well with anything to make a meal a little more substantial, and coupled with beans and rice, and some chopped up vegetables, they make the perfect meal.

I dodged back inland from the coast and headed into Poza Rica to see some ruins, but got horribly lost and ended up on the wrong road, which wound its way up and up into the mountains. For several hours I climbed and pushed and just when I thought I had come to the top there would be more hills. Eventually near dark I pulled up on the top of a ridge as the sun was sinking below the mountains in the West. I got off the road at that point in an old farm yard and enjoyed the beer which I had just bought and listened to the night. The beer here is amazing. It goes down just like water, especially when it is hot out. It is also nice to be able to drink it again. I have been caught in a strange limbo of adulthood in the last year. I turned 18 only 5 days before I left last May, and when I got to British Columbia, the drinking age turned into 19. Most of Canada was 19, and all of America was 21. Not that I drink that much when I am on my bike, but the odd weekend would have been nice. Not here in Mexico though, where the beer is cheap and the night clubs are hoppin.

By the time I made it back to the coast to bad roads had taken their toll on my bike. As I was riding along I felt that the weight was a little off. When you are on the bike this much, you notice every single change, no matter how minute. I leaned my bike over to check out the back, thinking another bolt had broken. Then I noticed a gaping crack in the frame where the rack attaches just below the seat post. It turns out that both spots that hold the weight there were almost off. I fixed it temporarily with some random bits of wire I found on the road, a stick of cane, and some zip ties.

It was hot when I woke up in the morning, and got hotter as they day progressed. I didn’t make it very far before spotting a summer home with no one around, plus there were several low coco trees and a beach. I ended up staying there most of the day, but put on a few more kilometers as the sun was going down.

I ended up in Cardel the next day. I had hoped to bike up to some ruins in a town just north of there, but the road was very steep and very bumpy and completely absent of wind, so I began to overheat in a hurry. With the sweat pouring off my body, I turned around and headed back to the highway where I quickly drank a 2 liter bottle of water to replenish what I had just lost. Near Cardel that night I camped in a football pitch. I talked to several people there, and one of them returned later with a bag of beans.

The next day I made it into Veracruz. Not to make the same mistake as in Tampico, I made sure I found the perfect place to stay, which meant about 3 hours of touring around the streets looking for a hotel. I managed to find the Hotel Buenas Aires for 80 pesos a night. I think it is the cheapest hotel in town, and I looked at a lot of hotels. It is the cheapest for good reason, too. That day I met a man from Colorado who said he was jokingly going to send a picture of the outside of the Hotel to all his friends saying that he stayed there. I didn’t think it looked that bad from the outside. I found out that night that there were bed bugs as well. Those are not fun.

I met a very cool guy within the next few days. By the way, I have lost all track of time here in Veracruz. I never where the watch I was given in Tampico, and because I have not written in my journal all that much, I don’t know the date. His name is Ulises and he hand makes jewelry out of seeds which he collects himself from the local trees. He was some beautiful pieces. I followed him around for the next few days, learning the ways of the local artisans. I also moved into his house with his family to sleep on their roof. It is the most amazing place to sleep. It is cool at night in the wind, although sometimes it rains which is not bad. You just wake up a little wet.

After a few days of walking, playing my drum and hanging out all over town with Ulises I met Alex and Amber, 2 GAP girls from Britain. I was sitting with some other travelers, who coincidentally played music and sold bracelets, when two white girls sat down beside me and listened to our music. They talked to me in Spanish and I tried talking to them as well, but quickly let them know I was from Canada and didn’t speak much. ``Oh, well you must speak English then`` they said. Ulises left a day or so after that and I concentrated on hanging out with my new found British friends. We went to several clubs and drank a lot of beer. I had a great time with them. They are both English teachers in the mountains here on for Semana Santa, so they were out to have a good time after several weeks in a tiny village. I chilled with them for about 8 days, give or take. They left yesterday for another town, and will return to the mountains in a few days. I have had an amazing time in Veracruz so far. I have walked a long ways here as Ulises` house is a 40 minute walk from the Centro, and I do that at least once a day. There are so many people here to meet and interact with that I have never been bored. There really have been no breaks in the adventures, aside from a little yesterday when I slept all day, a detox thanks to Alex and Amber. I have gone to the beach, gone to the clubs, or just walked around playing my drum and meeting people in the Zocalo. There is always something to do in this beautiful town. I also had an entertaining time getting my bike fixed yesterday. In Mexico, if you want something, all you have to do is put out the ``I want something vibe`` and someone will approach you. In this way I found a bike shop where I was led to a welder. Instead of fixing the problem however, they just covered it up with slag. The guy didn’t weld my frame, but welded the rack, which was not broken, so I could attach it to the frame without bolts. I think it will get me to Orizaba, but I will get something permanent done about it there before I head into the mountains on some nasty roads again.

So, I will be leaving Veracruz today, after it cools off in the afternoon. Right now it is 1pm and I am sitting in an internet cafe between 2 outrageously perfumed men. There is only one fan and every time it passes them, I can catch a thick smell. I will make my way west to Orizaba, which is where Pico de Orizaba is, the tallest mountain in Mexico. I happen to be renting a house there at the moment with my friend Ulises, so I will go there and ditch some equipment, get my bike really fixed, then head into the mountains to visit Alex and Amber in their town. From there I have heard of a large festival of some kind on Mexico City in 3 weeks, so I will make my way there for that. After that all I know is I will be going south on the coast. Who knows what will happen.

Paz y Amor mi familia y amigos.

Steve Fox in Veracruz, México

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