Laura Learns to Sweat Like a Man…

Where are we? Where have we been? Where were we yesterday…or a week ago? This conversation has become all too familiar, names of places, roads and hotels tend to blur when you are nomadic beings. For me the things that stand out the most are the people, small kind gestures and where we ate our lunch or laid our heads. I will use these things to try and remember a little of what has happened over the past couple of weeks…

With Oaxaca behind us we went over the mountains towards the Pacific coast. The ride was very picturesque and varied, but hilly and hot. We felt the temperature change as we descended to lower altitudes, the landscape also became much greener and thick with jungle like vegetation. We had a lot of fun enjoying sweeping downhill sections and I compared the feeling to that of skiing fast…but hotter and on wheels rather than skis, so in fact quite different.

On reaching the coast at Puerto Escondido we sweated…and I don’t think we have stopped since. Unbelievably hot, one day read 38degrees with something ridiculous like 80% humidity – so felt hotter. We stayed at Punta Zicatela where we lounged in hammocks, drank beer, ate lots and sweated for two days. The sand was too hot to walk on and the sea too dangerous for swimming. Craving a more satisfying beach experience we rolled along the coast to Mazunte, where we were able to swim lots and slept in a rather novel hanging bed…and sweated.

Then it was time to say adios to the coast and head in search of a cooler climate. The coast roads weren’t as flat as we expected and the first couple of days were very much up and down, these hills led me to discover that I can drip with moisture as efficiently as any man – something I had not experienced before. Sam spent the breaks wringing out his t-shirt and bandana-nice! Then we reached the flat which made for quicker progress. On our 4th night we stayed in the home of Rodrigo and his family (warm showers) We were immediately welcomed in, given a meal and made to feel at home. He hosts a huge amount of cyclists, despite not being a cyclist himself, and he and his family were incredibly hospitable and at ease with us as guests. This trip is all about meeting people like him and remembering how many kind people there are in the world, who expect nothing in return.

We were pleased to find that the kindness of Mexicans continued the next day. A man passed us a cold bottle of water out of the window of his moving car (fair play to Sam for retrieving the water and not falling off while we were all moving along) and later another car stopped to check we were OK. We have discovered such acts of kindness tend to come all at once or not at all. As we climbed, we were refreshed by the cold water and also started to feel a tiny drop in temperature which was a great relief, although very minor.

The final two days of our seven day riding streak were a little more relaxed. We hopped a short distance to Aguacero, a place with a river and waterfalls, where we had most of the morning and afternoon to walk down and up the 700steps, have a dunk in the water and relax in hammocks at the top before setting up camp for the night. A Transylvanian couple arrived and we had a nice evening, just the four of us, a bottle of wine and a couple of flee ridden dogs.

Our bodies had really had enough by the time we had covered the 30miles to Tuxtla Gutierez the following day, arriving tired and dirty…and still sweating. This will have been the most miles we have covered in 7days, so I think we are allowed to feel the need for a rest. And here I am, sat still, writing the blog, not sweating too much and dreaming of the cool mountain air of San Cristobal de las Casas, two days ride away.