Cobblers!!

Cobbles. To the average tourist they may be charming, signifying a pretty and well preserved colonial town. To the cycle tourist…they are hell. Even the most laid back cyclist will start to sweat and swear at the sight of yet another cobble stone street stretching into the distance. It would seem that most Mexican towns love them and take time to preserve these small slick stones, I am of the opinion that they shouldn’t bother, to simply tarmac the roads would be simpler and would save much anguish for travellers on two wheels. And don’t even get me started on Mexican Topes (speed bumps)….

Full of hope for smooth roads we left San Miguel de Allende, being forced to haul the bikes up steep cobbled streets before reaching the sanctuary of the smooth main road…turns out this road was closed, but it was ok because there was a really nice cobbled diversion, followed by a dirt track which kicked up clouds of dust before returning to the road. Good way to start the day! We arrived in the early afternoon at our warm showers host in Queretero, David lives in an eco community with 10 others, he welcomed us into the fold and very kindly let us sleep in his shed. Little did I know that the shed would become my sanctuary for the next 3 days as I hid out nursing a bad stomach again. Sam had a nice time – he learnt some Spanish, visited the brewery where David works, did a little gardening and learnt how to drink Mezcal, while waiting for his girlfriend to return to the world.

After rather longer than anticipated, and a cold night of rain and thunder storms, we left Queretero (now armed with our own bottle of magic Mezcal) and headed to Tequisquiapan. Unfortunately, to reach the house of our warm showers host, the last two miles were on…you guessed it…more cobbles. This was an especially unpleasant experience after being ill, but was all worth it to stay with Luis in a beautiful quiet house in a private estate, not only did we have our own bedroom and bathroom but an adorable Collie called Nina to entertain us. We were both a little besotted! It was hard to leave this sanctuary the next day but dragged ourselves out the door at midday for the short hop to Huichapan, over a quiet mountain road with awesome views. Unfortunately all Huichapan had to offer was cobbles, speed bumps, a plaza and a grotty hotel.

The next day produced what we both agree to be the best riding of the mainland so far. After a small hitch in road choice (we discovered that the route we wanted to take was all cobbled (?!) and had to turn around) we climbed steadily up a thousand feet or so and were greeted by quiet and beautiful countryside, mountains as far as the eye could see in every direction and a smooth road stretching into the distance. Bliss. We could see our destination far below us and happily descended towards Tula, over taking trucks as they crawled down the mountain.