Following the hwy #15 from hills behind Carapan to village El Pueblito some 15 km uphill and from there some 15 km downhill to Zacapú. The road was of good quality, not much traffic and hills were not very steep.
Learning:
20th December - Carapan to Zacapú, 29,85 km
Cycling:
Following the hwy #15 from hills behind Carapan to village El Pueblito some 15 km uphill and from there some 15 km downhill to Zacapú. The road was of good quality, not much traffic and hills were not very steep.
Learning:
Following the hwy #15 from hills behind Carapan to village El Pueblito some 15 km uphill and from there some 15 km downhill to Zacapú. The road was of good quality, not much traffic and hills were not very steep.
Learning:
19th December - Chilchota to Ichán, 7,99 km
Cycling:
Today was “charging” day, so we pedal only to the nearest village which was Ichán, and then a little bit further to find a place to sleep. All the pedalling was uphill today. Nice oak forests are welcoming us after we left “civilization”.
Learning:
– that even very small village has a main square with some electric socket which we can use for charging our laptop and cell phone
– that people in Ichán aren't Mexicans but descendants of some aboriginal tribe and their women still wear beautiful colorful scarfs and skirts
– that adults in Ichán didn't pay much attention to us, but we were very interesting for local kids
– that the food markets in small places like this close around noon
Living:
~ we woke up when locals started walking around our tent (we hadn't found better place last night, so we put it almost in the middle of footpath, but nobody seemed to by annoyed by that)
~ we had a little argument about time for packing and time for writing the diary, but we solved it in peace
~ our goal for today was to charge batteries in our laptop and cell phone, so we stopped in the closest village Ichán; it was small but nice and we found there everything we needed - an electric socked on the main square, small market with fruit and vegetable, water in local purificadora (it was closed already but they were so nice and opened it only for us, but it also cost us something … 10 pesos :-))
~ around the noon small tornado came, covered everything in dust and twisted banners
~ while Baška was shopping and looking for water, I was writing the blog until kids came from school or church - some of them were interested in what I was doing on computer, I showed them our presentation about Slovakia; very soon I was surrounded by at least 20 kids, so this was my first presentation on public in “very-bad” Spanish. Kids were very interested in our bicycles too, but we felt we didn't have to be afraid of them stealing anything from us (it seems that this kind of behavior hasn't arrived here yet)
~ after we left this village, we found nice place to camp in oak forest on the top of the hill (at least we thought we were on the top, later we found out how big our mistake was...)
Today was “charging” day, so we pedal only to the nearest village which was Ichán, and then a little bit further to find a place to sleep. All the pedalling was uphill today. Nice oak forests are welcoming us after we left “civilization”.
Learning:
– that even very small village has a main square with some electric socket which we can use for charging our laptop and cell phone
– that people in Ichán aren't Mexicans but descendants of some aboriginal tribe and their women still wear beautiful colorful scarfs and skirts
– that adults in Ichán didn't pay much attention to us, but we were very interesting for local kids
– that the food markets in small places like this close around noon
Living:
~ we woke up when locals started walking around our tent (we hadn't found better place last night, so we put it almost in the middle of footpath, but nobody seemed to by annoyed by that)
~ we had a little argument about time for packing and time for writing the diary, but we solved it in peace
~ our goal for today was to charge batteries in our laptop and cell phone, so we stopped in the closest village Ichán; it was small but nice and we found there everything we needed - an electric socked on the main square, small market with fruit and vegetable, water in local purificadora (it was closed already but they were so nice and opened it only for us, but it also cost us something … 10 pesos :-))
~ around the noon small tornado came, covered everything in dust and twisted banners
~ while Baška was shopping and looking for water, I was writing the blog until kids came from school or church - some of them were interested in what I was doing on computer, I showed them our presentation about Slovakia; very soon I was surrounded by at least 20 kids, so this was my first presentation on public in “very-bad” Spanish. Kids were very interested in our bicycles too, but we felt we didn't have to be afraid of them stealing anything from us (it seems that this kind of behavior hasn't arrived here yet)
~ after we left this village, we found nice place to camp in oak forest on the top of the hill (at least we thought we were on the top, later we found out how big our mistake was...)
18th December - Zamora to Chilchota, 60,41 km
Cycling:
From Zamora we took wrong turn and went to Jacona, therefore we did small detour and had to return back to Zamora. Finally we continued on the road #15 to Chilchota. The road was without shoulder and traffic was quite high but it wasn't very hilly.
Learning:
- that an intuition isn't always enough and you have to check the map too
- that the only and the biggest gothic cathedral in Latin America is in Zamora (information from locals :-))
- that some kind of Swifts live around Zamora's cathedral (and peregrine falcon too)
- that we can go with our bicycles also downstairs
- that it is hard to pedal when your brakes are too tight
- that this region is good for planting strawberries and cabbage and for making the bricks
- that sometimes is very hard to find purificadora
- that Mexicans are obsessed with their speed bumps (called topes here), today we had to cross more-less 200 topes
- one pick up car can carry about 20 to 30 workers + tools or material
Living:
~ in the morning we find out, how people here water their strawberries fields - they just flood them
~ morning atmosphere on the streets of Zamora
~ gothic cathedral in Zamora was the highlight of the day; it had been abandoned for very long time, but after ten years of reconstructions it is opened forth year already, and it's vitrages are amazing
~ we stopped for lunch in some street stand which sells tortas (different kind of burgers, here it costs 25 pesos and 10 pesos for drink), people here were very friendly and they told us about history of Zamora's cathedral
~ our detour to Jacona was a little fiasco, but we found out that we can go downstairs with our bicycles (but not sitting on them :-))
~ Baška needed to tight her rear brakes, I did too good job, because after a few kilometers when Baška was complaining about hard pedaling, we found out that her brakes had been on all the time
~ this land is land of strawberries and cabbage fields and bricks - they are made with only as sophisticated tools as shovels and sun dried
~ to find purificadora in small town of Chilchota was impossible; but why do we need purificadora if they have this amazing, strong and probably clean spring which supply whole town with water? (But we filter it anyway).
~ little bit of night riding in the dark again; fortunately cars couldn't go very fast, because there were one village after another and many, many topes (this time we were glad)
From Zamora we took wrong turn and went to Jacona, therefore we did small detour and had to return back to Zamora. Finally we continued on the road #15 to Chilchota. The road was without shoulder and traffic was quite high but it wasn't very hilly.
Learning:
- that an intuition isn't always enough and you have to check the map too
- that the only and the biggest gothic cathedral in Latin America is in Zamora (information from locals :-))
- that some kind of Swifts live around Zamora's cathedral (and peregrine falcon too)
- that we can go with our bicycles also downstairs
- that it is hard to pedal when your brakes are too tight
- that this region is good for planting strawberries and cabbage and for making the bricks
- that sometimes is very hard to find purificadora
- that Mexicans are obsessed with their speed bumps (called topes here), today we had to cross more-less 200 topes
- one pick up car can carry about 20 to 30 workers + tools or material
Living:
~ in the morning we find out, how people here water their strawberries fields - they just flood them
~ morning atmosphere on the streets of Zamora
~ gothic cathedral in Zamora was the highlight of the day; it had been abandoned for very long time, but after ten years of reconstructions it is opened forth year already, and it's vitrages are amazing
~ we stopped for lunch in some street stand which sells tortas (different kind of burgers, here it costs 25 pesos and 10 pesos for drink), people here were very friendly and they told us about history of Zamora's cathedral
~ our detour to Jacona was a little fiasco, but we found out that we can go downstairs with our bicycles (but not sitting on them :-))
~ Baška needed to tight her rear brakes, I did too good job, because after a few kilometers when Baška was complaining about hard pedaling, we found out that her brakes had been on all the time
~ this land is land of strawberries and cabbage fields and bricks - they are made with only as sophisticated tools as shovels and sun dried
~ to find purificadora in small town of Chilchota was impossible; but why do we need purificadora if they have this amazing, strong and probably clean spring which supply whole town with water? (But we filter it anyway).
~ little bit of night riding in the dark again; fortunately cars couldn't go very fast, because there were one village after another and many, many topes (this time we were glad)
17th December - Jamay to Zamora, 81,23 km
Cycling:
From Jamay to La Barca was straight and flat road, unfortunately we had strong head wind. From La Barca we took old road to Zamora, quite hilly, no shoulder and not in the best condition, but not too much traffic and the hills were not very steep. Mostly agricultural countryside, for a while we went through valley with a small river. We are almost in 1600 m above the sea level.
Learning:
- that when I am first, Baška is always far behind me, no matter how fast or slow I am cycling
- that crushed pumice can be used in cement, instead of sand
- that landscape in this height looks almost like in Slovakia
- that there are idiots on the roads everywhere
- that to rely on students during the time of final exams is not the best idea
- that just to know location coordinates is not enough
Living:
~ cleaning the tent after night "shower"
~ we had to pay for water in La Barca - it's for the second time on the mainland of Mexico
~ many times we'd heard that it wasn'tgood to stick on the side of narrow roads, because then drivers are trying to pass us even with cars passing in opposite lane, and there isn't much space, which is very dangerous for us. It is better to take the whole lane instead, so the cars have to slow down and wait until there is enough space on the road to pass us. Anyway, usually we ride as close to the side of a road as possible. So Piatok tried to take the whole lane this time. It worked very well until one car almost hit him; after that we decided it was better to stick on the side of the road :-). Later that day some crazy driver in opposite direction was passing the truck and didn't bother to think about us - he missed us only about centimeters. Well, another day on the road...
~ our warmshowers host in Zamora didn't send us directions to her house; when we came to Zamora, even though we had her location on GPS, we couldn't find her, GPS just lead us into a part of the town with many houses, all looking absolutely the same, and there were nor door bells, either name tags. So we rode out of Zamora and camped in a strawberry field :-)
16th December - San Pedro Itzicán to Jamay, 44,92 km
Cycling:
After we climbed the hill from San Pedro and left the bad rocky road behind, there was a perfect downhill ride to Poncitlan. From Poncitlan we were on the road # 35 to Ocotlan. This road was almost like the freeway, with good shoulder but also with high traffic. From Ocotlan to Jamay is good bike path.
Learning:
- that Ocotlan is the town of furniture and Jamay is town of liquors
- that people in Ocotlan are friendly - that our national flag is really useful
- that even we can get full
- that cell phones are more powerful than religion
- that sleeping under the trees can have some disadvantages
Living:
~ in the morning we had 800 more metres on local horrible road from rocks to go, until we got on asphalt - what a relief...
~ downhill ride to Poncitlan was like a reward and dream after all that suffering, but when we got onto the road to Ocotlan, reality hit us again – busy traffic and a lot of trucks
~ We just passed Ocotlan, our only stop was in local supermarket (Bodega Aurrera) to buy some food for lunch and dinner, it is still quite expensive here, it is almost impossible to spend less than 100 pesos per day.
~ when we were finishing our lunch in front of supermarket, some guy came and gave us two bottles of water, saying “you are traveling far, you gonna need it” and then he left without another word :-)
~ another surprise waited for us on our way from Ocotlan, some driver showed me to stop - he wanted to tell us that he was owner of a restaurant and would like to invite us for lunch. We didn't take it very seriously and even didn't bother to remember name of his restaurant (and there were many of them anyway). But when we passed the right one, he came again and took us back, even though we were just after the lunch and full and we told him about it, but he insisted we should have a drink at least. So we followed him to his beautiful restaurant (quite noble one, but still family owned), it was on the lake shore with nice views and with many water birds in front of it. We ordered juice and he brought us also pineapple filled with shrimps (camarones) in coconut covered with coconut sauce for Barbora, and roasted beef (carne asados de rancheros) for Martin. It looked so good and tasted so delicious that we couldn't refuse. But to finish it, was hard, we were so full. We asked that guy why he had invited us and he told us that he had seen our flag (actually he had thought it was British, so we corrected his mistake), and he had never had guests from Slovakia. As the surprise at the end, he packed us two cakes for dessert and didn't want any money. So the least we can do to pay him back is to make a advertisement about his restaurant, so, please, if you ever go through Ocotlan, stop there, its name is Luminarias and you can find it on 7th km between Ocotlan and Jamay. We really recommend it :-). ~ to get to Jamay on paved bike path would be easy if we weren't so full
~ main road in Jamay was full of shops selling different liquors from fruit or sugar cane and people on the streets were selling a lot of food too, especially coconuts and roasted vegetable which looks and tastes a little bit like peas (but we don't know its name)
~ on the top of a small volcano above Jamay is nice church with huge statue of Christ, in the evening sun it could be nice picture, but cell phone antennas would spoil the picture anyway, as they are built right behind that church and are twice as high
~ huge flocks of some small birds were seen on the horizon, they looked like dark clouds, (we have something similar in Europe - Starlings, but we don't know the name of these birds here)
~ Piatok found a perfect camping spot in a corn field on the way to La Barca – dry, flat and under big fig trees; only disadvantage was, as we found later, that these trees were roosting place for birds who spent entire night eating the figs and shitting on our tent
15th December - Chapala – San Pedro Itzicán, 36,54 km
Cycling:
From Chapala to San Pedro on the road along the Chapala lake. To the village Mescala it was good asphalt road even with shoulder, not very hilly (about two steep but not very long hills). Almost no traffic. From Mescala to San Pedro is road made from rocks but with two concrete stripes for cars so it is still very good for biking and it is built on a steep slope with “Chayote-yards” on the right and rocks with Cardons on the left, and with nice San Pedro village at the end. This road was a little bit more hilly (small but very steep hills). From San Pedro to interception to Poncitlan was awful, horrible, nasty, ugly, bad, very, very bad and very steep road made from rocks and holes – not really suitable for any mean of transportation we know of :-). Luckily it was so bad only for 3 - 4 km.
Learning:
- that a plant which grows on the branches of trees or eletric wires (locals call it “eno”) is used for Christmas decorations and it grows only during this season.
- that Chapala lake is much nicer from this side than from Jocotepec side
- that Chayote plants look a little bit like grape vine
- that cycling is sometimes difficult and tiring not only for legs but also for arms (pushing our bikes up that horrible road from San Pedro Itzicán)
Living:
~ Piatok cooked scrambled eggs on the water (we didn't have oil)
~ at Valentin's house we updated our blog and pictures on Picasa
~ one more stop in Chapala was in the ice cream shop :-)
~ we saw a huge water plant which pumps water from Chapala lake for Guadalajara
~ there were nice views of Chapala's islands and the road lead us bellow some nice rock walls with Cardons
~ we went to Mezcala for water, which was a mistake, firstly it was far off the road, secondly local purificadora was closed and thirdly we found purificadora right next to the road in San Pedro Itzicán
~ to San Pedro we arrived in the evening during the “golden hour” and it was really golden
~ we didn't stop in San Pedro because the night was getting close and there was still this big hill to climb, but it would be probably worthy because they have some hot springs here
~ our last climb was hard not only for our legs and arms (we had to push our bikes, that horrible road was absolutely not possible to bike on) but for our nerves too, that road seemed to be climbing that hill forever
13-14th December - Chapala, 7,6 km
On Saturday Valentin invited us to a Christmas party with his friends. (About two weeks before Christmas "Posadas" start in Mexico - Christmas parties with friends, families... which means party almost every day - not a problem for a Mexican... :-)). Because it was in the evening, we had some extra time, so we went to town for lunch. Valentino showed us local marketplace, tiny one but nice. We had very good lunch - quite expensive, well, maybe it wasn't too much for that amount of food, for 70 pesos each of us had fried fish with rise, beans, salad, tortillas and salsa); for drink we had fresh juice from carrots and oranges, prepared right in front of us, a full glass costs 12 pesos. Then we were looking for some ingredients because Baška wanted to make yogees (our famous spread made from yoghurt, garlic and cheese) for the party. The rest of the day we spent writing blog and emails. It was raining almost whole afternoon.
The Christmas party was in Valentin's friend house (probably very rich friend, his house was very modern and completely not-Mexican), everybody brought something so there was plenty of food and drinks. In the beginning we were singing a carol. One group was singing outside and the second inside (playing Maria and Joseph looking for a place to stay and give a birth to baby Jesus). For us it was fun to sing carol and not knowing the melody (carols here are something different than in USA) and lyrics(well, we had paper with text but anyway...), but the others were singing so much out of tune that it was absolutely ok. Then was a feast (they liked our yogees) and then they were giving presents to each other but it wasn't just that easy. Before this party they drew papers with names so they knew for which one their present should be. The others had to guess the name of person (there was always some clue given by the giver) who the present is for. This year the theme for presents was something edible and everyone got something sweet or from chocolate, wrapped usually in very sophisticated wrappers. At the end everybody said a wish for everyone for the next year. It was nice celebration with a group of very friendly people (they've known each other since childhood and we could say they were really good friends) and we came home very late, about tree o' clock in the morning.
"Surprisingly" we woke up very late the next morning, so we decided to stay here one more day. We didn't do much, except writing the blog and emails.
The Christmas party was in Valentin's friend house (probably very rich friend, his house was very modern and completely not-Mexican), everybody brought something so there was plenty of food and drinks. In the beginning we were singing a carol. One group was singing outside and the second inside (playing Maria and Joseph looking for a place to stay and give a birth to baby Jesus). For us it was fun to sing carol and not knowing the melody (carols here are something different than in USA) and lyrics(well, we had paper with text but anyway...), but the others were singing so much out of tune that it was absolutely ok. Then was a feast (they liked our yogees) and then they were giving presents to each other but it wasn't just that easy. Before this party they drew papers with names so they knew for which one their present should be. The others had to guess the name of person (there was always some clue given by the giver) who the present is for. This year the theme for presents was something edible and everyone got something sweet or from chocolate, wrapped usually in very sophisticated wrappers. At the end everybody said a wish for everyone for the next year. It was nice celebration with a group of very friendly people (they've known each other since childhood and we could say they were really good friends) and we came home very late, about tree o' clock in the morning.
"Surprisingly" we woke up very late the next morning, so we decided to stay here one more day. We didn't do much, except writing the blog and emails.
12th December - San Juan Cosalá to Chapala, 27, 79 km
Cycling:
From San Juan Cosalá to Chapala, following the lake shore. Easy ride, just some small hills, the biggest problem was traffic.
Learning:
- that when I think that Baška thinks something which she doesn't think, and she thinks that I think something which I don't think, then we both get hungry
- that the best and the cheapest food is in small streets in small family owned restaurants
- that water in laguna Chapala, the biggest lake in Mexico, is disappearing because Guadalajara is sucking it up, and nowadays the water is so polluted that you really don't want to eat any fish from it
Living:
~ we were lazy today, our host Valentino in Chapala will be home at 7 pm so we had a lot of time
~ riding to Chapala we realised how lucky we actually were to find that nice camping spot, the rest of the lake shore seemed to be built up
~ I was waiting for Baška to decide where to go eat (we wanted to try the famous "tortas ahogadas") but she awaited the same from me, and we came to Chapala quite hungry
~ we did the mistake of looking for food on the main street. We found it and torta ahogada was good (but we had expected a little bit more, this one was just bun with meat, onion and salsa and it cost about 30 pesos); if we looked on the small back streets, we could find nice small restaurants with better options and prices (as we found out later with Valentino)
~ the celebration of Saint Mary of Guadalupe was today, the parade was just a small one, but pretty noisy
~ until we met with Valentino's brother who took us to Valentino's house (Valentino got stuck in traffic from Guadalajara), we were on the malecon and wondering why the water level in the lake is so low. Later Valentino told us the reason - Guadalajara used too much water from it. Who knows how long this third biggest lake in Latin America will be the third biggest...
From San Juan Cosalá to Chapala, following the lake shore. Easy ride, just some small hills, the biggest problem was traffic.
Learning:
- that when I think that Baška thinks something which she doesn't think, and she thinks that I think something which I don't think, then we both get hungry
- that the best and the cheapest food is in small streets in small family owned restaurants
- that water in laguna Chapala, the biggest lake in Mexico, is disappearing because Guadalajara is sucking it up, and nowadays the water is so polluted that you really don't want to eat any fish from it
Living:
~ we were lazy today, our host Valentino in Chapala will be home at 7 pm so we had a lot of time
~ riding to Chapala we realised how lucky we actually were to find that nice camping spot, the rest of the lake shore seemed to be built up
~ I was waiting for Baška to decide where to go eat (we wanted to try the famous "tortas ahogadas") but she awaited the same from me, and we came to Chapala quite hungry
~ we did the mistake of looking for food on the main street. We found it and torta ahogada was good (but we had expected a little bit more, this one was just bun with meat, onion and salsa and it cost about 30 pesos); if we looked on the small back streets, we could find nice small restaurants with better options and prices (as we found out later with Valentino)
~ the celebration of Saint Mary of Guadalupe was today, the parade was just a small one, but pretty noisy
~ until we met with Valentino's brother who took us to Valentino's house (Valentino got stuck in traffic from Guadalajara), we were on the malecon and wondering why the water level in the lake is so low. Later Valentino told us the reason - Guadalajara used too much water from it. Who knows how long this third biggest lake in Latin America will be the third biggest...
11th December - San Isidro Mazatepec to San Juan Cosalá, 55,64 km
Cycling:
From San Isidro to hwy 80 heading to Colima. The road is pretty much down hill untill village Buenavista where is one hill. Then continuing on hwy 15 till the town Jocotepec where we turn left to laguna Chapala heading to the town with the same name. There were just small hills.
Learning:
- that the best and easiest cycling is early in the morning
- that you cannot buy lighter on the gas station
- that even I can speak some Spanish
- that laguna Chapala is surrounded by residences for retired Americans and Canadians
Living:
~ started very early because we didn't want to pay for another day in aqua park, but it was cool because then we rode the first 30 km without even noticing that we were cycling and should be tired
~ cooking breakfast at the corner of a street - we are attraction for the locals again
~ we stopped on a gas station to use their toilets and I found out two things, they don't sell lighters and I can quite speak Spanish too :-)
~ to get to laguna Chapala we had to bike up only one steep hill, otherwise we were biking mostly downhills
~ on the way to Jocotepec it looked like local volcano was smoking but it was just one cloud, the closest active volcano is about 200 km south-west, near Colima city
~ from San Juan Cosalá we felt like back in USA, so many residences and houses for rich people and almost no access to the water
~ but finally we were lucky and found nice place hidden from sights and right next to the lake, for the rest of the day we were accompanied only by pelicans (which are white with pink beaks and yellow legs), herons (also white and tiny with black beaks and legs), cormorants, gulls, ibises and sterns
~ in the evening we heard fireworks and music from the town across the lake, it's time to celebrate Saint Mary Guadalupe. But why were they cracking fireworks till the midnight and then since six o'clock in the morning?
From San Isidro to hwy 80 heading to Colima. The road is pretty much down hill untill village Buenavista where is one hill. Then continuing on hwy 15 till the town Jocotepec where we turn left to laguna Chapala heading to the town with the same name. There were just small hills.
Learning:
- that the best and easiest cycling is early in the morning
- that you cannot buy lighter on the gas station
- that even I can speak some Spanish
- that laguna Chapala is surrounded by residences for retired Americans and Canadians
Living:
~ started very early because we didn't want to pay for another day in aqua park, but it was cool because then we rode the first 30 km without even noticing that we were cycling and should be tired
~ cooking breakfast at the corner of a street - we are attraction for the locals again
~ we stopped on a gas station to use their toilets and I found out two things, they don't sell lighters and I can quite speak Spanish too :-)
~ to get to laguna Chapala we had to bike up only one steep hill, otherwise we were biking mostly downhills
~ on the way to Jocotepec it looked like local volcano was smoking but it was just one cloud, the closest active volcano is about 200 km south-west, near Colima city
~ from San Juan Cosalá we felt like back in USA, so many residences and houses for rich people and almost no access to the water
~ but finally we were lucky and found nice place hidden from sights and right next to the lake, for the rest of the day we were accompanied only by pelicans (which are white with pink beaks and yellow legs), herons (also white and tiny with black beaks and legs), cormorants, gulls, ibises and sterns
~ in the evening we heard fireworks and music from the town across the lake, it's time to celebrate Saint Mary Guadalupe. But why were they cracking fireworks till the midnight and then since six o'clock in the morning?
10th December - Guadalajara to San Isidro Mazatepec
Today we were ready to go
and Jenaro offered he'd take us with bicycles out of Guadalajara so
we won't have to ride through the city. Finally Jenaro and Griselda
suggested they would take us to village San Isidro Mazatepec where
hot springs are, now changed into small aqua park, and we agreed,
bath in thermal pool sounded good :-). For 40 pesos / person we could
even camp here. It was in the middle of the week and out of season,
so we were here almost by ourselves, only a few people and families
came to swim during the day, but in the evening and night we had the
whole place just for ourselves. So we were working on our blog again,
swimming and relaxing. We really enjoyed the night swimming in hot
water, when the air was cold already. A small problem was to get out
of the of water :-).
Even though we'd known
Jenaro and Griselda and their two sons only for three days, saying
good bye was difficult. Such great people, ready to share everything,
including their hearth, who taught us so much, not only about
Guadalajara and Mexico...
7th - 9th December - Guadalajara
On our first day in Gudalajara we
visited historical downtown with Jenaro and his family. After we got
through busy Sunday traffic (it seemed that traffic in Guadalajara
was always crazy and too busy) and got some refreshment in the
chocolate shop, our first stop was in cathedral. The highlight of
this church was mummy of small girl which was brought here from
Vatican in 18th century and even though it looked pretty
dead and plastic to us, it's hair were still growing (at least that's
what they told us).
Another attraction was quite
unexpected, we came to the main street just in the time when huge
parade of motorcyclists was getting ready to go. In front were some
crazy custom motorbikes (for example: in shape of a dragon which
belched out real fire and smoke) and then hundreds of other
motorbikes of all different shapes and types and drivers came. The
parade seemed to be endless and so noisy that we left before the end.
Then we passed through main plaza and from Spanish part of town to
natives' part (in the time of Spanish colonization
these two parts were strictly separated with something like Berlin
wall). Small difference in architecture and much more stands
with Huicholes' crafts and cheep plastic stuff from China. One guy
stopped us and asked what was more important for us, technology or
nature? Than he gave us small pack of sunflower seeds and told us
that we should plant it somewhere. And then he showed us his palm,
awaiting some “donation”. :-)
We also visited one
of Guadalajara's main cultural attractions
- “Hospicio Cabanas” - former hospital, now gallery. We
liked how locals can use their old buildings. In Tepic they changed
old prison to residence of local government. Here in Guadalajara they
changed old hospital to gallery (and quite expensive to visit, the
ticket costs 70 pesos if you are not resident). The main attraction
is big hall, with walls and ceiling painted by some famous (and
probably deeply depressed) artist Jose Clemente Orozco. The guide
told us that this painting represented
history and reality of Mexicans. Dark, but
very interesting and quite true, and the optical illusions were
amazing (which is another reason what makes this piece of art so
important and valuable).
Our last stop was
on the local market place called San Juan
de Dios. It was already late, but various
stands were still open. It's incredible how many different kinds of
fruit are here that we've had no idea they existed. Jenaro patiently
answered all of our questions like “what is this?”, “how do you
eat this?”, we tried some exotic fruits and fruit candy, of which
they offer huge diversity. We also
tried “Tepache” - local drink, served in plastic bag with straw.
Local markets are amazing, you can buy there literally everything.
Christmas is coming, in some parts of the markets you must turn crazy
if spending there longer period of time – all that blinking,
flashing, 'jingle bells' and 'Rudolf the reindeer' melodies played by
cheep plastic Chinese stuff all over again and again... We liked a
stand where old woman was selling dried herbs of all different kinds,
it was like medieval pharmacy :-). The sad and quite noisy part of
the market was where small cages with almost all kinds of singing and
/ or colorful birds of Mexico were. Kids running, screaming and
jumping over the piles of garbage in front of closed stands etched in
the atmosphere of the place.
On the way home we
stopped to eat dinner in restaurant which sells specialty of Ciudad
Guzman - tostada as big as plate (and the plate was much bigger than
an ordinary plate) with mountain of meat, cheese and vegetable on it.
Our choice was mix of all ingredients, so we had a lot of meat and
cheese and also some more exotic stuff like pork legs and skin, which
was a surprise for us (but with a lot of salt and lime it wasn't too
bad). For 60 pesos it was very rich meal and we had some troubles to
finish it :-).
The evening we spent
talking about Mexico and Slovakia. Jenaro and Griselda were very
interested in hearing about history and life in Slovakia, so we told
them everything we could in Barbora's Spanish :-).
The next day (Monday) we
went to the town with Griselda to do some shopping. We needed to buy
brake pads, spokes and pump. So our first steps led to the bike shop
and then to a local marketplace. This marketplace was something
spectacular. So big and full of fresh products of all kinds. We came
there to buy some fruits and vegetables and found a huge hall only
for that. Life in the marketplace was fascinating, so many people,
but we felt safe and it was really interesting just to observe what
was going on. There was a lot of wisdom in it. I think, you can learn
more about country and people from marketplaces than from any museum
or gallery. This place showed art of living right here and right now
:-).
Another amazing
experience was local shop selling everything in bulks, from dried
fruit, vegetables, grains, seeds, spices, nuts, candy,
chocolates or pasta to dog and bird food.
We bought so many things that I was really worried if we were going
to be able to fit it in our panniers and if we had enough money. But
it was very cheap, comparing to similar stores in US, we paid about
ten times less (just my opinion), for full shopping bag of dried
fruit and seeds (we also got cocoa beans which taste like 100% dark
chocolate) we paid 200 pesos. We really fell in love with this shop,
it was good example how unnecessary all those products sold in
supermarkets and wrapped in several plastic packages are. If they can
sell everything in bulks here, then it must be possible everywhere.
And you pay only for what you really want to buy, no hidden surprises
behind colorful wrapper.
In the evening we
showed to Jenaro and his family some pictures of Slovakia. They were
impressed and said they would like to visit it one day :-). We
continued with inspiring eye-
and hearth-opening conversation until late night (or early morning?
:-)) hours.
The last day with
Jenaro and his family we were mostly working on internet and on
bikes. Martin had to repair our flat tires and clean the chains. We
also got the tube protectors so maybe it will help to prevent
punctures. Griselda cooked amazing Aztec soup for lunch. In the
evening Baška
went with Jenaro and Griselda to the town to visit another
interesting part of the city, called Tlaquepaque. The street with
colorful art shops and coffee shops reminded me of some streets in
Europe. This clean rich part of Guadalajara is quite in contrary with
typical Mexican streets. Jenaro explained us all the important
aspects of Mexicans and Mexican history on the Mosaic with painting
by Diego Rivera (it's copy, the original is in Mexico city). And we
had a chance to see a local traditional dance, in which the dancers
dance around a high wooden column, then they climb it, tide their
legs to the top part, which spins around and then they slowly “fly”
down head down, while still spinning around the column. The first
bungee jumping :-).
6th December - El Arenal to Guadalajara, 41,97 km
Cycling:
From El Arenal on the old hwy 15 to Guadalajara, and then to South-western part of the city.
Learning:
- that the worst think of the big cities is to get in and out
- that Guadalajara is quite unique city with vibrant life
Living:
~ to get to Guadalajara was really an experience; the beginning was good, the old hwy had shoulder and the traffic was low, but as we got closer to the city and joined the new hwy, the traffic became terrible.
~ Baška got flat tire too, from wire from old broken truck tire; locals very often drive even when one tire on their vehicle is broken, literally until it is not possible to drive it anymore. Why do we need so many trucks on the roads, anyway?
~ luckily we didn't have to go through the city, Martin found good alternative, we got off the main street just at the beginning of Guadalajara
~ after some zigzagging and passing big modern round-shaped soccer stadium, we somehow ended up at probably the highest point of the city (with nice view of Guadalajara hidden in smog); and then found the house (Casa de Cyclista) of our warmshowers host Jenaro.
~ evening visit of Guadalajara, with Jenaro, his wife Griselda and one of the students, they host too. Every Saturday night this one street changes into an art gallery, local artists sell their products, like Huichol bracelets and necklaces, toys, clothes, paintings, books, statutes and more. There were also some musicians playing - our favourites were drummers playing on pans, old buckets and water bottles
From El Arenal on the old hwy 15 to Guadalajara, and then to South-western part of the city.
Learning:
- that the worst think of the big cities is to get in and out
- that Guadalajara is quite unique city with vibrant life
Living:
~ to get to Guadalajara was really an experience; the beginning was good, the old hwy had shoulder and the traffic was low, but as we got closer to the city and joined the new hwy, the traffic became terrible.
~ Baška got flat tire too, from wire from old broken truck tire; locals very often drive even when one tire on their vehicle is broken, literally until it is not possible to drive it anymore. Why do we need so many trucks on the roads, anyway?
~ luckily we didn't have to go through the city, Martin found good alternative, we got off the main street just at the beginning of Guadalajara
~ after some zigzagging and passing big modern round-shaped soccer stadium, we somehow ended up at probably the highest point of the city (with nice view of Guadalajara hidden in smog); and then found the house (Casa de Cyclista) of our warmshowers host Jenaro.
~ evening visit of Guadalajara, with Jenaro, his wife Griselda and one of the students, they host too. Every Saturday night this one street changes into an art gallery, local artists sell their products, like Huichol bracelets and necklaces, toys, clothes, paintings, books, statutes and more. There were also some musicians playing - our favourites were drummers playing on pans, old buckets and water bottles
5th December - Ixtlán del Rio to El Arenal, 70,52 km
Cycling:
Down to the plains nearby Magdalena, then around volcano Tequila and town with the same name, to the village El Arenal where hwy 15D played dirty trick on us.
Learning:
- that Mexico isn't only hills but also some plains, like this one near Magdalena
- that Tequila is also name of a volcano, and where origin of this alcohol is
- that there are no more turkey vultures
- that volcanic glass is very common here and locals sell it as opal
- that to change broken spoke on the rear wheel took me almost an one hour (together with unloading and loading up the bike and truing the wheel)
- that the biggest danger can come at the end of the day
Living:
~ two old ranchers passed by on mules while we where doing our morning Tai chi exercise
~ some crazy birds were yelling at each other from one side of the valley to the other
~ our first flat tire since Mazatlán
~ Magdalena is small but long town with central plaza surrounded by crazy semi-trucks traffic, and stands selling polished volcanic glass
~ agave fields as far as you can see are found around Magdalena - we are close to Tequila, the place where tequila origins
~ after Tequila the hwy played dirty trick on us, one side of it was under the construction and all the traffic was in our lane. So with no shoulder and trucks passing us just by centimeters (although only in slow speed) this was very stressful end of the day
Down to the plains nearby Magdalena, then around volcano Tequila and town with the same name, to the village El Arenal where hwy 15D played dirty trick on us.
Learning:
- that Mexico isn't only hills but also some plains, like this one near Magdalena
- that Tequila is also name of a volcano, and where origin of this alcohol is
- that there are no more turkey vultures
- that volcanic glass is very common here and locals sell it as opal
- that to change broken spoke on the rear wheel took me almost an one hour (together with unloading and loading up the bike and truing the wheel)
- that the biggest danger can come at the end of the day
Living:
~ two old ranchers passed by on mules while we where doing our morning Tai chi exercise
~ some crazy birds were yelling at each other from one side of the valley to the other
~ our first flat tire since Mazatlán
~ Magdalena is small but long town with central plaza surrounded by crazy semi-trucks traffic, and stands selling polished volcanic glass
~ agave fields as far as you can see are found around Magdalena - we are close to Tequila, the place where tequila origins
~ after Tequila the hwy played dirty trick on us, one side of it was under the construction and all the traffic was in our lane. So with no shoulder and trucks passing us just by centimeters (although only in slow speed) this was very stressful end of the day
4th December - Jala to curvas peligrosas approx 24 km after Ixtlán del Rio, 59,65 km
Cycling:
From our sugar cane crater, through lava fields from volcano Ceboruco on hwy 15D, nice downhill ride to Jala (almost 10 km) and then uphill again to Ixtlán del Rio. More uphills until we reached another volcano, which the road is winding around in sharp curves.Steep downhill ride (in our direction).
Learning:
- that what goes up must go down
- that it is hard to find purificadora in Ixtlán del Rio, as well as some marketplace; but when you need water, people just give it to you for free
- that when you are not sure if you have enough water till the next day, you find a full bottle of water on the next rest stop
- that sugar cane can be good even after whole day in pannier facing the sun
Living:
~ we left our campsite with our stomachs full of sugar from sugar cane (and with full box of cut cane)
~ after we got through lava fields and some small hills, there was amazing downhill, but slalom between broken truck tires
~ Ixtlán del Rio was one big chaos and confusion for us, we couldn't find any marketplace and finally had to go far from centre to find one supermarket; then we wanted to get some water from purificadora, which we found your was on the other side of the town, but when we got there, it was closed. Luckily there were guys who sell bottles with water and they were so nice and gave us water for free (by the way, guys working in purificadora almost never asked for money for water which they gave us)
~ from Ixtlán we were sweating through more uphills until we got to "curvas peligrosas" ("dangerous curves" but translated in Slovak it means "dangerous whores" :-)), where another amazing downhill ride with beautiful views started(if you are suicidal enough to look around instead of on the road in front of you)
~ for tonight we found small valley with gravel dumping site, but otherwise it was beautiful, with small clear stream, and completely for us. What more could we wish more after the hot day, than bath in fresh stream, and then cooking dinner (rise with nopal - cactus opuntia found here, great ingredient for the meals, we'd learned how to use it in Cabo Pulmo) on a camp fire, accompanied by scorpions and bats, flying in the light of full moon?
From our sugar cane crater, through lava fields from volcano Ceboruco on hwy 15D, nice downhill ride to Jala (almost 10 km) and then uphill again to Ixtlán del Rio. More uphills until we reached another volcano, which the road is winding around in sharp curves.Steep downhill ride (in our direction).
Learning:
- that what goes up must go down
- that it is hard to find purificadora in Ixtlán del Rio, as well as some marketplace; but when you need water, people just give it to you for free
- that when you are not sure if you have enough water till the next day, you find a full bottle of water on the next rest stop
- that sugar cane can be good even after whole day in pannier facing the sun
Living:
~ we left our campsite with our stomachs full of sugar from sugar cane (and with full box of cut cane)
~ after we got through lava fields and some small hills, there was amazing downhill, but slalom between broken truck tires
~ Ixtlán del Rio was one big chaos and confusion for us, we couldn't find any marketplace and finally had to go far from centre to find one supermarket; then we wanted to get some water from purificadora, which we found your was on the other side of the town, but when we got there, it was closed. Luckily there were guys who sell bottles with water and they were so nice and gave us water for free (by the way, guys working in purificadora almost never asked for money for water which they gave us)
~ from Ixtlán we were sweating through more uphills until we got to "curvas peligrosas" ("dangerous curves" but translated in Slovak it means "dangerous whores" :-)), where another amazing downhill ride with beautiful views started(if you are suicidal enough to look around instead of on the road in front of you)
~ for tonight we found small valley with gravel dumping site, but otherwise it was beautiful, with small clear stream, and completely for us. What more could we wish more after the hot day, than bath in fresh stream, and then cooking dinner (rise with nopal - cactus opuntia found here, great ingredient for the meals, we'd learned how to use it in Cabo Pulmo) on a camp fire, accompanied by scorpions and bats, flying in the light of full moon?
3rd December - Santa Maria del Oro to approx 15m before Jala, 44,31 km
Cycling:
From La Laguna on the bottom of the volcano to Santa Maria del Oro it was 7 km uphill. From Santa Maria del Oro to hwy 15D it was another uphill ride (with one nice downhill) and the rest of the day was almost all the time uphill too.
Learning:
- that fear from 7 km steep uphill ride is worse than to actually climb up that hill (actually it was quite easy)
- that our water filter (Katydin) works very well even after all those kilometres (about 12 500 km so far)
- that you are never alone
- that coral snakes live here
- that sugar cane is the best candy
Living:
~ woke up early just to start late (as often happens to us)
~ found dead coral snake on the road, some locals passing by in a car stopped and said in terrified voice: "coralillo" (they thought it was still alive)
~ from Huichol Indians we bought massage oil made from peyote & cannabis, maybe it will help to our sore legs muscles :-)
~ after we left Santa Maria del Oro (where we had lunch break) and got on hwy, we just rode uphill till the evening ~ met two other cyclists (from Spain and Singapore), they met at Gabino's place in San Quintín in Baja California and since that they travel together - destination South America, same as ours :-). It was funny that they had already known about us from Gabino - people on warmshowers are like one family...
~ nice evening ride with even a few downhill moments
~ our campsite was under a small volcano and beautiful crater, in the field of sugar cane, we had sweet dreams :-)
From La Laguna on the bottom of the volcano to Santa Maria del Oro it was 7 km uphill. From Santa Maria del Oro to hwy 15D it was another uphill ride (with one nice downhill) and the rest of the day was almost all the time uphill too.
Learning:
- that fear from 7 km steep uphill ride is worse than to actually climb up that hill (actually it was quite easy)
- that our water filter (Katydin) works very well even after all those kilometres (about 12 500 km so far)
- that you are never alone
- that coral snakes live here
- that sugar cane is the best candy
Living:
~ woke up early just to start late (as often happens to us)
~ found dead coral snake on the road, some locals passing by in a car stopped and said in terrified voice: "coralillo" (they thought it was still alive)
~ from Huichol Indians we bought massage oil made from peyote & cannabis, maybe it will help to our sore legs muscles :-)
~ after we left Santa Maria del Oro (where we had lunch break) and got on hwy, we just rode uphill till the evening ~ met two other cyclists (from Spain and Singapore), they met at Gabino's place in San Quintín in Baja California and since that they travel together - destination South America, same as ours :-). It was funny that they had already known about us from Gabino - people on warmshowers are like one family...
~ nice evening ride with even a few downhill moments
~ our campsite was under a small volcano and beautiful crater, in the field of sugar cane, we had sweet dreams :-)
1st December - Tepic to Santa Maria del Oro, 52,87 Km
Cycling:
From Tepic to the exit to Santa Maria del Oro on hwy 15D (even though bicycles are prohibited here), then on the asphalt road through village Santa Maria del Oro, down into the crater with lake. Easy to find, just follow the signs. You need to have very good brakes to get down to the lake, the road is very crooked, goes down steeply and it's 7 km long.
Learning:
- that there are more steep hills in Mexico than we have imagined
- that the tomatoe farm located near Santa Maria del Oro, belonging to Nature Sweet company, looks like chemical factory
- that even a tourist trap like Santa Maria del Oro can provide small, calm and beautiful place to camp for free, with amazing skin dipping swimming in clear water :-)
Living:
Another day on the road. Jose has this tradition that if he can, he rides a little on his hosts' bikes, so I let him ride my bike. They both survived :-). To get out from Tepic wasn't much easier than to get in. Steep hills which didn't look steep and strong head wind. But we didn't go too far, only to Santa Maria del Oro and then down to La Laguna, which is small village on the shore of crater lake. To get down was amazing 7 km long downhill ride. First impression of the lake wasn't the best one, there were houses all around and horrible road paved by boulders. But after a while of searching we got lucky and found perfect camping place for us. It was on the flat rock right above the water and far from all houses and noise (well, we could still hear banda music from the restaurants, sound travels far on the water). We had whole lake just for us :-).
From Tepic to the exit to Santa Maria del Oro on hwy 15D (even though bicycles are prohibited here), then on the asphalt road through village Santa Maria del Oro, down into the crater with lake. Easy to find, just follow the signs. You need to have very good brakes to get down to the lake, the road is very crooked, goes down steeply and it's 7 km long.
Learning:
- that there are more steep hills in Mexico than we have imagined
- that the tomatoe farm located near Santa Maria del Oro, belonging to Nature Sweet company, looks like chemical factory
- that even a tourist trap like Santa Maria del Oro can provide small, calm and beautiful place to camp for free, with amazing skin dipping swimming in clear water :-)
Living:
Another day on the road. Jose has this tradition that if he can, he rides a little on his hosts' bikes, so I let him ride my bike. They both survived :-). To get out from Tepic wasn't much easier than to get in. Steep hills which didn't look steep and strong head wind. But we didn't go too far, only to Santa Maria del Oro and then down to La Laguna, which is small village on the shore of crater lake. To get down was amazing 7 km long downhill ride. First impression of the lake wasn't the best one, there were houses all around and horrible road paved by boulders. But after a while of searching we got lucky and found perfect camping place for us. It was on the flat rock right above the water and far from all houses and noise (well, we could still hear banda music from the restaurants, sound travels far on the water). We had whole lake just for us :-).
30th November - Tepic
Today we were exploring the city. Our host Jose took us to the centre (bus ticket costs 5 pesos, in Baja it was 10) and our first steps led us to the central market - noisy, full of people and scents, the best place where to be right here and right now. And the best place if you want a good breakfast. Then Jose invited us for sightseeingto tour through Tepic. For a while we tasted how it was to be "just" ordinary tourists. Actually it wasn't bad, we saw big part of the city (local government is in the building which was originally prison), we saw sun dial hidden in forest (originally there was a farm field) and stopped at a nice viewpoint with panorama of whole Tepic below and with stands where Huichol Indians sell amazing bracelets and necklaces from small (unfortunately plastic) beads. Location of Tepic is quite unique. In the language of natives 'Tepic' means town between mountains, and it really is, partly because it is in volcano and partly because it is surrounded by volcanoes, too. There is whole mythology about them.
At the end of day we showed Jose and his father (he was really enjoying that he could speak with us - most of the travellers who had stopped here didn't speak Spanish -and asked as a lot about Slovakia), pictures from our travels and also from Slovakia. Jose wants to do a big bike tour in Europe so we gave him a lot of tips and probably changed his plans, originally he wanted to travel more in the west part of Europe, but we did pretty good advertisement for central and eastern Europe :-) (I don't know why, people in America, when talking about Europe, they usually mean just western Europe, like if Europe east from Germany doesn't exist; they don't know how much they miss...)
29th November - Yago to Tepic, 63,19 km
Cycling:
From Yago back to hwy 15D and then to Tepic. Although the signs on the road showed something more than 40 km to Tepic, by the end of the day we did more than 60 km. Tepic is quite long town. Another challenge was the elevation from 30 meters above the sea level to more than 900, so we were biking uphill almost whole day (with two nice downhill rides).
Learning:
- don't forget to count with elevation because then even 40 km can be pretty far, especially if you want to climb into the volcano :-)
- that even to ride downhill can be actually the ride uphill
- that sunny day can be worse than rainy day
- that even right next to the beautiful waterfall can be dumping site for gravel and building materials
- that we can survive the night ride on the main roads in the crazy Tepic traffic
Living:
~ we took it pretty easy in the morning, somehow we forgot to count how many steep hills are between us and Tepic
~ near by Yago another tarantula crossed our way, this time the big one
~ the first hills were easy, but after we realised that even hills which look like they are heading down, are going up; and after we climbed to the top of the hills and find out that there is still more uphill to go, it started to be a little harder. The sun and temperatures about 30°C and smoke from semi-trucks and cars (engines of some of them probably remembered Spanish king), didn't help either
~ there are two old men sitting in the shade under the trees on the edge of the road. One looks like Carl Marx and the second one like Gandhí :-).
~ we arrived to Tepic after the sun set, tired, covered in dust, sweat and salt and just realised that to our warmshowers host Jose we had about 15 km more to go ~ night ride through Tepic traffic was dangerous but exotic too: scents of different kinds of food from small restaurants and stands was mixing with emissions from cars and smell of dark corners, people were laughing, yelling, banda music was roaring from speakers and sometimes from local bands, automobiles were honking, small cars were trying to get in front of the big ones, buses were trying to get in front of everybody just to stop immediately, motorcycles weaved between all that chaos, sometimes the traffic lights didn't work; and then there were us, trying to avoid holes, missing bars on sewage screens and cars and checking the map often to make sure we didn't get lost. But finally we made it, maybe a little bit deaf and almost poisoned from exhaust fumes but more less ok. Our host Jose is very nice young guy, he took us for taco dinner (after we took shower -one of the best moments of this day :-)).
From Yago back to hwy 15D and then to Tepic. Although the signs on the road showed something more than 40 km to Tepic, by the end of the day we did more than 60 km. Tepic is quite long town. Another challenge was the elevation from 30 meters above the sea level to more than 900, so we were biking uphill almost whole day (with two nice downhill rides).
Learning:
- don't forget to count with elevation because then even 40 km can be pretty far, especially if you want to climb into the volcano :-)
- that even to ride downhill can be actually the ride uphill
- that sunny day can be worse than rainy day
- that even right next to the beautiful waterfall can be dumping site for gravel and building materials
- that we can survive the night ride on the main roads in the crazy Tepic traffic
Living:
~ we took it pretty easy in the morning, somehow we forgot to count how many steep hills are between us and Tepic
~ near by Yago another tarantula crossed our way, this time the big one
~ the first hills were easy, but after we realised that even hills which look like they are heading down, are going up; and after we climbed to the top of the hills and find out that there is still more uphill to go, it started to be a little harder. The sun and temperatures about 30°C and smoke from semi-trucks and cars (engines of some of them probably remembered Spanish king), didn't help either
~ there are two old men sitting in the shade under the trees on the edge of the road. One looks like Carl Marx and the second one like Gandhí :-).
~ we arrived to Tepic after the sun set, tired, covered in dust, sweat and salt and just realised that to our warmshowers host Jose we had about 15 km more to go ~ night ride through Tepic traffic was dangerous but exotic too: scents of different kinds of food from small restaurants and stands was mixing with emissions from cars and smell of dark corners, people were laughing, yelling, banda music was roaring from speakers and sometimes from local bands, automobiles were honking, small cars were trying to get in front of the big ones, buses were trying to get in front of everybody just to stop immediately, motorcycles weaved between all that chaos, sometimes the traffic lights didn't work; and then there were us, trying to avoid holes, missing bars on sewage screens and cars and checking the map often to make sure we didn't get lost. But finally we made it, maybe a little bit deaf and almost poisoned from exhaust fumes but more less ok. Our host Jose is very nice young guy, he took us for taco dinner (after we took shower -one of the best moments of this day :-)).
28th November - Ruiz to Yago, 24,5 km
Cycling:
From Ruiz to Yago on hwy 15D.
Learning:
- that about 0,5 kg of fresh cheese in Ruiz can cost only 25 pesos
- that 5 kg of oranges in Yago can cost 20 pesos
- that even though motorcycles (and Ruiz was almost as full of them as roads in India) and cars are dominating the world, there are still old rancheros using horses to bring their products to the market (which is not only romantic but maybe also practical with that horrible pavement)
- that hospital can be also in a train - that people in Yago are hospitable too
- that two Slovaks with fully loaded bicycles in the village where tourists don't usually stop are quite an attraction
Living:
~ left Ruiz after saying goodbye to our new friends (we traded our hand made key chains from cactus wood for beaded bracelets made by local Indians called Huicholes), with full belly after amazing breakfast and full panniers (after we did some grocery shopping, cheese and vegetable are significantly cheaper here than on Baja)
~ saw another tarantula on the road (we didn't know they were active during the day)
~ on the road to Yago (not very far from the exit from 15D) is purificadora which gets it's water from strong spring which springs (isn't this English funny?) under lime rocks and is guarded by Saint Mary. Now it's little spoiled by all that concrete around, but in the past this must have been magical place
~ we were surprised how busy Yago was. People and cars were swarming in the main street full of merchants and small shops
~ during the lunch break on central plaza we were surrounded by local junior baseball team, all the kids were very curious about our bikes. Few people stopped and asked us about our travels, always shocked when we told them where we came from and where we go. In one moment there were maybe 10 people around us, they probably don't see people like us very often here.
~ one man offered us room in his house where we can stay overnight if we want. Later we met him again passing mango orchard on the horseback. This time he told us that next time we should come in summer and we would have as many mangoes as we want :-)
~ rest of the day we spent on the bank of local river, close to the railroad bridge. Here we realised how cool the healthcare in Mexico was, when Dr. Wagon passed by - something like hospital in the train :-).
From Ruiz to Yago on hwy 15D.
Learning:
- that about 0,5 kg of fresh cheese in Ruiz can cost only 25 pesos
- that 5 kg of oranges in Yago can cost 20 pesos
- that even though motorcycles (and Ruiz was almost as full of them as roads in India) and cars are dominating the world, there are still old rancheros using horses to bring their products to the market (which is not only romantic but maybe also practical with that horrible pavement)
- that hospital can be also in a train - that people in Yago are hospitable too
- that two Slovaks with fully loaded bicycles in the village where tourists don't usually stop are quite an attraction
Living:
~ left Ruiz after saying goodbye to our new friends (we traded our hand made key chains from cactus wood for beaded bracelets made by local Indians called Huicholes), with full belly after amazing breakfast and full panniers (after we did some grocery shopping, cheese and vegetable are significantly cheaper here than on Baja)
~ saw another tarantula on the road (we didn't know they were active during the day)
~ on the road to Yago (not very far from the exit from 15D) is purificadora which gets it's water from strong spring which springs (isn't this English funny?) under lime rocks and is guarded by Saint Mary. Now it's little spoiled by all that concrete around, but in the past this must have been magical place
~ we were surprised how busy Yago was. People and cars were swarming in the main street full of merchants and small shops
~ during the lunch break on central plaza we were surrounded by local junior baseball team, all the kids were very curious about our bikes. Few people stopped and asked us about our travels, always shocked when we told them where we came from and where we go. In one moment there were maybe 10 people around us, they probably don't see people like us very often here.
~ one man offered us room in his house where we can stay overnight if we want. Later we met him again passing mango orchard on the horseback. This time he told us that next time we should come in summer and we would have as many mangoes as we want :-)
~ rest of the day we spent on the bank of local river, close to the railroad bridge. Here we realised how cool the healthcare in Mexico was, when Dr. Wagon passed by - something like hospital in the train :-).
27th November - San Felipe Aztatàn to Ruiz, 66,4 km
Cycling :
On hwy 15D to Ruiz through first "serious" hills since we started from Mazatlán. Almost all roads in Ruiz, except the main street, are paved with small rocks and boulders which make them the worst nightmare for bicyclists.
Learning:
- that tarantulas and coral snakes live here (we saw one tarantula alive and many coral snakes flat on the road)
- that there is many kinds of green (especially after 9 months in Cabo Pulmo with it's desert around) - that there is more motorcycles (brand Italica) than flies in Ruiz
- that five years old boy with his younger brother can drive the four wheeler motorcycle on the main road in full traffic
- that even though you are looking only for water, you can get dinner, bed and warm shower (but you must be charming, communicative and fluent in Spanish like Barbora :-))
- that rock (music) is not dead in Mexico
Living:
~ since morning we were cycling between hills
~ one moment the road is empty and in a second it is full of semi-trucks (convoy with maybe 10 semi-trucks in the row)
~ we passed through first real forest after more than 10 months, enjoying all those trees, vines, leaves and all different kinds of green
~ in Ruiz we were looking for "purificadora de agua" and met one family of mother and two daughters who were very exited when they found out that we aren't gringos, but from Slovakia. Later that day we met them again, this time in park after we had lunch (street food - whole grilled chicken with tortillas, salad, pasta and tree different kinds of salsa, all for 60 pesos) and they were so amazing and invited us to their home, later took us to small rock concert of local music school, and gave us a tour of Ruiz with climbing the hill above Ruiz where we had beautiful view of the night city. And then they took us for dinner. We'll never forget the "gorditas" from Ruiz. Thank you very much Alma, Rachel and Milashaska.
On hwy 15D to Ruiz through first "serious" hills since we started from Mazatlán. Almost all roads in Ruiz, except the main street, are paved with small rocks and boulders which make them the worst nightmare for bicyclists.
Learning:
- that tarantulas and coral snakes live here (we saw one tarantula alive and many coral snakes flat on the road)
- that there is many kinds of green (especially after 9 months in Cabo Pulmo with it's desert around) - that there is more motorcycles (brand Italica) than flies in Ruiz
- that five years old boy with his younger brother can drive the four wheeler motorcycle on the main road in full traffic
- that even though you are looking only for water, you can get dinner, bed and warm shower (but you must be charming, communicative and fluent in Spanish like Barbora :-))
- that rock (music) is not dead in Mexico
Living:
~ since morning we were cycling between hills
~ one moment the road is empty and in a second it is full of semi-trucks (convoy with maybe 10 semi-trucks in the row)
~ we passed through first real forest after more than 10 months, enjoying all those trees, vines, leaves and all different kinds of green
~ in Ruiz we were looking for "purificadora de agua" and met one family of mother and two daughters who were very exited when they found out that we aren't gringos, but from Slovakia. Later that day we met them again, this time in park after we had lunch (street food - whole grilled chicken with tortillas, salad, pasta and tree different kinds of salsa, all for 60 pesos) and they were so amazing and invited us to their home, later took us to small rock concert of local music school, and gave us a tour of Ruiz with climbing the hill above Ruiz where we had beautiful view of the night city. And then they took us for dinner. We'll never forget the "gorditas" from Ruiz. Thank you very much Alma, Rachel and Milashaska.
26th November - Escuinapa to San Felipe Aztatán (más o menos), 77,5 km
Cycling :
From Escuinapa to fields near San Felipe Aztatán on the new hwy 15D with nice wide shoulder. Land was quite flat, mountains of Sierra Madre Occidental on the left and lagoons on the right.
Learning:
- that camarones secos (dried shrimps) cost 10 pesos for bag and you can buy them everywhere around and in Escuinapa
- that there are still places where there is less traffic on a freeway than on an ordinary highway (because it is free?)
- that local lagoons must be paradise for birdwatchers
- that there are lot of snakes here, the road is paved with them :-(
- that even a farm field can look like masterpiece painting or as we use to say in Czech: “políčka řádně obdělána, holt Mexiko!“
Living:
~ woke up early (about six) with local "bomberos" (firemen), even though they were volunteers, they worked since sunrise.
~ got lost a little in Escuinapa
~ saved one turtle from getting truck-tire imprint on it's back
~ spent whole day on the freeway, barely passed any village, but saw many birds in lagoons and beautiful volcanic rocks and cliffs in the mountains
~ got water from people working at one "caseta de cobro" (turnpike)
~ found perfect place for our tent in the farm fields near San Felipe Aztatán, it was calm, far from highway, right next to the river and open to the east, with the view of small hills and lake underneath
From Escuinapa to fields near San Felipe Aztatán on the new hwy 15D with nice wide shoulder. Land was quite flat, mountains of Sierra Madre Occidental on the left and lagoons on the right.
Learning:
- that camarones secos (dried shrimps) cost 10 pesos for bag and you can buy them everywhere around and in Escuinapa
- that there are still places where there is less traffic on a freeway than on an ordinary highway (because it is free?)
- that local lagoons must be paradise for birdwatchers
- that there are lot of snakes here, the road is paved with them :-(
- that even a farm field can look like masterpiece painting or as we use to say in Czech: “políčka řádně obdělána, holt Mexiko!“
Living:
~ woke up early (about six) with local "bomberos" (firemen), even though they were volunteers, they worked since sunrise.
~ got lost a little in Escuinapa
~ saved one turtle from getting truck-tire imprint on it's back
~ spent whole day on the freeway, barely passed any village, but saw many birds in lagoons and beautiful volcanic rocks and cliffs in the mountains
~ got water from people working at one "caseta de cobro" (turnpike)
~ found perfect place for our tent in the farm fields near San Felipe Aztatán, it was calm, far from highway, right next to the river and open to the east, with the view of small hills and lake underneath
25th November - El Rosario to Escuinapa, 10,2 km
Very hot day again. We climbed one big hill and we entered wide and flat land and left hills further on the East. After a good downhill ride we came to the town called Escuinapa. Our cell phone battery was almost empty so it was easy decision to stay here, especially when Baška found stand with friendly Mexicans and an outlet which we could use. The main square with ugly looking cathedral was full of life, streets full of cars and smoke, from local market place one could hear mix of mariachi records and cover versions of American bands. Suddenly one guy, sitting in the nearby shoe cleaner stand, asked us about our journey. It turned out that he was from fire department and invited us to stay overnight in local firemen station. We still needed to charge our laptop and possibility of shower was attractive as well, so we agreed. I had headache since yesterday evening (probably too much sun and too little water) so this opportunity to rest was timed perfectly.
The firemen station turn out to be nothing fancy, just small building with workroom and bathroom, outdoor "something-like" kitchen. Communication centre with radios and internet (still playing mariachies on YouTube) was in big trailer. The firemen were friendly and invited us for lunch. We could leave all our stuff there with no worries, while doing some grocery shopping in the town. And even though it had been only two days on the road, it was nice to take a shower :-).
The firemen station turn out to be nothing fancy, just small building with workroom and bathroom, outdoor "something-like" kitchen. Communication centre with radios and internet (still playing mariachies on YouTube) was in big trailer. The firemen were friendly and invited us for lunch. We could leave all our stuff there with no worries, while doing some grocery shopping in the town. And even though it had been only two days on the road, it was nice to take a shower :-).
24th November - Aqua Caliente to El Rosario, 40,8 km
Started late today. It was very hot, we thought November was cooler, but we were probably wrong. The road goes through many hills, luckily not very steep. We are not in the shape yet. Highway is still narrow and the amount of trucks is much higher than we would like. Today the most abundant roadkills were opossums and snakes, many snakes. Hills were very close now and we went through some mountain ranges, hills were all around us.
El Rosario was small town, sitting on the bank of some big river and under beautiful mountain and with nice old cathedral - in it's shade we ate lunch. To refill our bottles (about 2 gallons)with water cost us 10 pesos in local water "purificadora" (it was little bit cheaper than in a shop).
We spent night in mango orchard.
El Rosario was small town, sitting on the bank of some big river and under beautiful mountain and with nice old cathedral - in it's shade we ate lunch. To refill our bottles (about 2 gallons)with water cost us 10 pesos in local water "purificadora" (it was little bit cheaper than in a shop).
We spent night in mango orchard.
23rd November - Mazatlàn to Aqua Caliente, 57,51 km
Well, so finally it wasn't tomorrow but tomorrow after tomorrow after tomorrow when we left from Mazatlàn. Bob introduced us to one of his sailor friend which was from Czech republic. Honza (John) emigrated from Czech republic in 68`s (right in the time before Russian army came and occupied Czechoslovakia for next 21 years). He and his wife Alenka invited us to their sailboat after Bob left. And they cooked for us "Vepřo-knedlo-zelo“ traditional national Czech dish. It was like to be home again :-).
So we stayed with them for one more day but when we were finally ready to go (after very long packing) it was too late and Honza with Alenka convinced us to stay one more night.
Ok, the next day we were packed early in the morning, but again we found it hard to leave and again when we were finally ready to go, it was too late. Honza and Alenka were ok with that, I think they liked our company. So to not feel like we completely wasted this day (as if you can waste any of your days...), we drove to the Walmart and back to find out if our bicycles are ok and if we still can keep a balance :-). We still can :-) And Alenka cooked another "home" meal for us :-).
Next day, next morning we were as ready as possible... And finally it worked out, after many good byes and thanks to Honza and Alenka we left Mazatlán Marina. Our first trip was to Home Depot to buy machete. Than we had to find our way through crooked and full streets of Mazatlán to highway 15. After maybe one thousand speed bumps (called "tope" here, very common, very high and usually invisible) we became a part of traffic on highway 15, with all the benefits of company of noisy, smoky cars, motorcycles, trucks or buses and smell of burnt gasoline and horrible smell of roadkills (this day we saw mainly dogs and snakes). For about 16 km we were in crazy Mazatlán`s traffic. The highway was good, new with shoulder and with only small hills (which was good for us and our super heavy bikes). Landscape around us was so green, quite change to Baja. More trees; cardons could be seen very occasionally. Where it was possible, corn fields or mango orchards or fields with agave. Banana trees grow in the gardens. On our left side (the East) were mountain ranges like huge waves, slowly getting closer. The mountains were covered by green carpet of trees but unity of green was interrupted by many trees in pink blossom.
In front of town called Villa Union, young guy from South Korea caught up with us, he was also touring on bicycle, from Alaska to Argentina, so far he's been on the road about one year. His name was Yun.
In Villa Union the highway 15 splits into old and new highway. We decided to stay on the old one, thinking that there is less traffic. Well, probably it wasn't and it was without shoulder. After our lunch, when ready to go, police car suddenly stopped by us. The police guy asked us if everything was ok, if we'd had any troubles with Mexicans.
Later that day, after we got drinking water in small village Aqua Caliente (10 pesos for gallon) we found a place for camping between farm fields. It wasn't so easy to find a spot because of barbed wires which are everywhere. We enjoyed beautiful evening and saw"the leaves ants" for the first time.
So we stayed with them for one more day but when we were finally ready to go (after very long packing) it was too late and Honza with Alenka convinced us to stay one more night.
Ok, the next day we were packed early in the morning, but again we found it hard to leave and again when we were finally ready to go, it was too late. Honza and Alenka were ok with that, I think they liked our company. So to not feel like we completely wasted this day (as if you can waste any of your days...), we drove to the Walmart and back to find out if our bicycles are ok and if we still can keep a balance :-). We still can :-) And Alenka cooked another "home" meal for us :-).
Next day, next morning we were as ready as possible... And finally it worked out, after many good byes and thanks to Honza and Alenka we left Mazatlán Marina. Our first trip was to Home Depot to buy machete. Than we had to find our way through crooked and full streets of Mazatlán to highway 15. After maybe one thousand speed bumps (called "tope" here, very common, very high and usually invisible) we became a part of traffic on highway 15, with all the benefits of company of noisy, smoky cars, motorcycles, trucks or buses and smell of burnt gasoline and horrible smell of roadkills (this day we saw mainly dogs and snakes). For about 16 km we were in crazy Mazatlán`s traffic. The highway was good, new with shoulder and with only small hills (which was good for us and our super heavy bikes). Landscape around us was so green, quite change to Baja. More trees; cardons could be seen very occasionally. Where it was possible, corn fields or mango orchards or fields with agave. Banana trees grow in the gardens. On our left side (the East) were mountain ranges like huge waves, slowly getting closer. The mountains were covered by green carpet of trees but unity of green was interrupted by many trees in pink blossom.
In front of town called Villa Union, young guy from South Korea caught up with us, he was also touring on bicycle, from Alaska to Argentina, so far he's been on the road about one year. His name was Yun.
In Villa Union the highway 15 splits into old and new highway. We decided to stay on the old one, thinking that there is less traffic. Well, probably it wasn't and it was without shoulder. After our lunch, when ready to go, police car suddenly stopped by us. The police guy asked us if everything was ok, if we'd had any troubles with Mexicans.
Later that day, after we got drinking water in small village Aqua Caliente (10 pesos for gallon) we found a place for camping between farm fields. It wasn't so easy to find a spot because of barbed wires which are everywhere. We enjoyed beautiful evening and saw"the leaves ants" for the first time.
Mainland Mexico
Two days ago we arrived to Mazatlan on the mainland of Mexico. We left Cabo Pulmo in the beginning of November and after a week in La Paz with Jonn and Maria, we found the sailboat to Mazatlan. The captain Bob was a great guy and sailing was fine (maybe for us a little bit adventure). It took us four days to get to Mazatlan. Tomorrow we are going to be on the road again :-)
Some pictures from our life in Cabo Pulmo and La Paz
and pictures from sailing to Mazatlan and our progress on the mainland
Also here you can see some older pictures:
Across the USA
West Coast
Some pictures from our life in Cabo Pulmo and La Paz
and pictures from sailing to Mazatlan and our progress on the mainland
Also here you can see some older pictures:
Across the USA
West Coast
Cabo Pulmo after the hurricane
Hola hola.
So we are back in Cabo Pulmo. Gordon (the owner of the house we are staying in) had arrived two hours before us. He knew about the hurricane, but couldn't get any detailed news, he couldn't reach any of his friends from the area (due to no phone and internet service in the hurricane area), so he decided to come and see what had happened to his house. In nine days he drove from south-eastern coast of Canada to southern Baja California.
Cabo Pulmo was lucky, didn't get direct hit of hurricane, everybody agrees, that they had expected stronger wind. But besides that the opinions of witnesses differ. According to some, the wind speed was 'only' in category 2, around 150 km (90 miles)/hour, other say, that it was stronger here than in La Paz and everybody had some damage. Based on what we've seen we think it was stronger and more damage in La Paz. Some palapas (roofs made of palm leaves) were little destroyed, the sea took a wall which was on the beach, trees lost many branches and leaves. On the beach Las Barracas next to Cabo Pulmo they even lost the whole beach. But otherwise everything seems ok, just some cleaning is needed. The biggest lost for them now is that there are very few tourists coming, so all the businesses are struggling (except palaperos and carpenters). First few days after the hurricane they were cut off the rest of the world, not having the phone service and arroyos (riverbeds) being full of running water, some of them across the road to La Ribera. They started to run out of drinking water and food, but the helicopters founded by government came and brought some supplies. The cob-houses we had helped to build, had some troubles too; parts of the plaster of the first one were washed away (we knew it needed more lime), the second one doesn't have roof yet and some parts of not plastered walls collapsed.
Gordon's palapa needs some repairs too, some of the palm leaves are broken (because the net covering the roof to protect the leaves, was old and torn) and the pergola in front of the house, made from wooden sticks, was blown down and now it's just pile of wooden sticks and splinters. Some parts of the inside walls are dirty because of water trickling through the holes in the roof. And some parts of leaves, which were supposed to be outside, are inside now. But in spite of that the roof is still holding pretty well, we've had some rain again and the water almost didn't get inside. These palapas are more durable than they look (and also more expensive, repair will cost almost 2,000 dollars.)
So now we are cleaning and working on the outside oven for Gordon (building this oven is our payment for the opportunity to live in his house). But working here now is not easy at all – it's too hot during the day and in the morning and evening the insects go crazy – mosquitos and “nosee'ems” - flies so small you can hardly see them, but smaller they are, more they bite. And, of course, “bobos” - small flies which like to go inside your eyes, ears and nose. And now this place looks like green jungle. Apparently the fastest growing plants on the Earth are the dessert ones – as soon as they get water.
On October 15thwe'll go back to La Paz, to take care of Jonn's house and dog once again.
All the best,
Barbora and Martin.
P.S.: While writing this e-mail I suddenly feel floor moving a little – probably small earthquake just happened. So many new things that we've never experienced in Europe :-)
After the Hurricane
Have you ever woken up on a strange place which definitely wasn't your bed? And then you found out it was actually a bathroom floor? I hadn't, this was very new experience for me. I don't know what you do in this situation after a party night. But the first thing you do after the hurricane night is going to look out of the window. The curiosity is great, so you don't even mind standing barefoot in the paddle of water and the pieces of leaves stuck on the windows blocking your view (in fact, you are lucky that the window is still holding together and you are not standing in the broken glass.). The next thing you need to do is letting your family know that you are alive and absolutely fine (have never experienced anything like hurricane, they can't even imagine it, so they'll appreciate to hear from you). We have no electricity, but the phone service works now and then, so luckily the message is finally sent before we lost service completely. Next few days we are going to be without any contact with the outside world.
The morning is peaceful and calm – how relative everything is! Two days ago I wouldn't have called this peaceful and calm: the trees bent in the direction of the wind, the sky is dark and the clouds moving so fast... But people in La Paz are not moving anywhere. They are staying in their warm (which is not really different from outside) and dry (well, not all of them) houses and knowing there is going to be a lot of work needed to be done during the next days...
One of our jobs while staying at Jonn's place is to keep his yard nice and clean. Which is going to require more time and energy than we originally thought. Our first task is to clear the way out, we are trapped here. One of the two big trees on Jonn's property, yucca tree, which used to be a home for birds, reptiles and insects and Jonn's favorite plant, broke (that explains one of the “boom” we heard last night). Now the fallen trunk is blocking our exit. The shape of metal railing and big plastic box were changed under the weight of the trunk. The ground is covered with leaves, broken twigs and branches, some of the plants are completely “bald” now. Broken flowerpots to be found and the harvest of tomatoes and peppers will be smaller than Jonn had expected. Two big shading tarps are ripped of and laying tangled on the ground. Pieces of broken cinder blocks and things blown from the whole property are laying on a pile, it's just a mess. But it looks like we have no damage except of those two tarps and the tree. Even the barbecue grill which tried to fly last night, seems to be ok.
In the evening we went for a walk to see what had happened in the town. First we had to truckle the fallen electric wire, right in front of our gate. Looks like we won't have electricity for a while. The greatest damage is done on trees, some streets are blocked with fallen trees and broken branches. Some parts of the downtown are little flooded. While crossing them we try not to think about the fact, that it's not only the rainwater coming from the full sewage canals... There are some fallen lamps - looking closer we can see that it's because of “mexican style” of attaching them to the ground – the screw is smaller than a hole where it's supposed to hold. All the restaurants are closed, sunshades and umbrellas are torn in pieces. The tape is apparently favorite window-protecting tool and seems to be working really well – only few windows, all of them without tape, are broken. Heavy metal cross fell from the church roof, it is arrow-shaped now. Metal sheets are bent, wooden boards blown down, signs and billboards blown away, some metal constructions ended up in pile of bent metal sticks and sheets. But overall we are well surprised, we were expecting more damage. A few days of cleaning and everything will be back to normal...
Cleaning and sweeping is our main job during the next days. Martin proved to be good “liberator”, he cut across the fallen tree and knew how to open and close the electric garage gate without the “magic button” which usually does the trick. Our dinners are rich – there is a lot of food in the freezer which has to be eaten (even though we tried hard, we couldn't eat everything in time and had to throw some food away anyway) and romantic – with the candlelight. Having nice view of La Paz, every night we watch another part of the city having the light again, and every night we hope that it will be our turn tomorrow... It's too hot inside without the air-condition, so we sleep on the porch, what is greatly appreciated by mosquitos, whose annoying “bzzzzzzzzzzzzz” is our “music” all night...
The fifth day after the hurricane, Maria went to CFE (electric company) office to ask them when we would have the power again. “Nobody knows, but thank you for letting us know about your problem” was the answer. Two days later she was there again and she was told that they couldn't have repaired it yet, because nobody had told them that we still didn't have power.
The eight day after the hurricane, electricians were working close by our house. Maria went to ask them if they would fix our problem. They said they'd had no idea we were still without power, because nobody had told them that... But since they were already here, they were going to look at it. So it happened we ate our dinner not with the twinkling candlelight, but with the blinking light of our lamps. We have power, but it's unstable and anything else but light turns it off. No fridge, neither air-condition yet. And as we found out later – the wire hanging about 5 feet above the ground, is under the high voltage, the safety standards are not met yet. Not sooner than three days later, after Jonn arrived, we finally have the full and safe power.
Based on our view – we were the first ones without power and the last ones with it. But it's still not that bad, some households were even without water. Each house has it's own water tank on the roof, which is filled by pump. The problem is that the pumps run on electric power. Therefore those people whose tank wasn't big and full enough lack water now. Some tanks were even blown down from the roofs. One our friend told us her story, how she wanted to go out during the hurricane, but her family convinced her it wasn't a good idea. Just at that moment the big tank fell from the roof, exactly at the same place where she would have been standing... (By the way: in 2001 she lived in New York and worked in the building of World Trade Center. On September 11thshe had a stomach ache, so she didn't go to work... Somebody has a good guardian angel :-)).
A week after the hurricane we visited Todos Santos – the village 50 miles southwest of La Paz, visited much by tourists for its nice atmosphere and typical art shops and galleries. Nothing like that to be found there now. Instead of tourists walking on the streets, local people cleaning fallen trees, broken branches, pieces of glass and bricks and other hurricane mess. Everything is closed except for Hotel California (do you know the song by Eagles? This is the hotel they sing about), because it's powered by their own generator. Based on what we have seen on the way here – all the broken electric poles (like they were just stalks of straw instead of concrete) and torn wires – we estimate they are not going to have power until Christmas! We saw many CFE cars and poor electricians who look like they have no idea where to start with repairing of all that damage. We feel sorry for them and don't blame them anymore that we have been without power for so long...
All the road signs along the highway are bent and folded like they were made of paper. That made me to start calling them “origami signs” :-). And now we see what we were taught in ecology classes: the local plants are well adapted to the local conditions, as opposed to the introduced ones: most of the palm trees survived, cacti seem to be without any damage, but big eucalyptus trees are uprooted...
On our way back we have to go through the military control. All the cars coming from Los Cabos are checked, the electric appliances or suspiciously big amount of beer is what the soldiers look for. Los Cabos got the strongest wind and therefore there was the most damage. The airport, sport stadium, some hotels and shopping centers were ruined. But even more damage than by hurricane was made by people. The stores are closed, there is no power, and even the ATM doesn't want to work without the electricity... But the family is hungry, where to get food? Of course, in the store. Is it closed? No problem, it's easy to break in without those annoying alarms... Seeing there is no way to stop it, police decided to control it: everybody can go in once and take what they can carry in their hands. The idea wasn't bad, just one detail ruined it: there are too many customers and too few policemen. The situation got out of hands of policemen soon, more than one store were emptied by well organized groups of “carriers” and “car loaders”. The first taken things were beer and TVs. In some parts of the city, houses were robbed too.
There was no robbing in La Paz, but some panic happened here as well. Gasoline, drinking water, candles and batteries were lacking soon. And guess what the first missing goods in grocery stores were – candy and canned soups.
Non-working infrastructure = no tourists = problem (this area depends on tourism). Mexicans showed that they can work hard and quickly if they want to. Workers, especially electricians, from whole Mexico came to help. The airport “rose from the ashes” and it's functioning again. Tourists are coming back. La Paz almost looks like there has never been any hurricane. In Los Cabos, however, you can see that Odile wasn't much fun here – ruined hotels (some of them were built of dry wall, which I think is not exactly the right hurricane-resistant material...), fallen billboards and signs and many missing trees is what you still can see there.
And one more “gift” Odile and rainy season left for us – clouds of hungry mosquitos! Local mosquitos saw your ears (metaphorically) and suck your blood (literally) and on a top of that some of them transmit Dengue. Dengue is an endemic virus in Carribean area and some parts of Asia. Symptoms are: high fever, strong headache, muscle and bones ache, digestive problems, rash. It usually takes about two weeks, some days you feel better and the next day it comes back. There is no pill for it, you just have to wait till your body wins the fight. The good news is, after that you have at least one year immunity. And you won't die of dengue unless you are baby, too old or too ill. There was the epidemic of Dengue in La Paz and a few dengue cases were found in Cabo Pulmo as well. Martin got it too, so it's another new experience for him. Dengue is also called “break-bone disease”, because during the first days of dengue you feel like all the bones in your body are broken. Luckily Martin had this phase only for two days and then he was just exhausted for the next two weeks (which is also typical for dengue). Martin is back to normal and healthy again now and he doesn't need every-day-a-few-hours-nap anymore.
Jonn and Maria got dengue too, which changed the plans. They didn't fly to Mexico city and therefore we weren't needed in La Paz for house and dog sitting. We finished our projects in Cabo Pulmo (the cob oven and bench made for Gordon). We met our good friends Sally and Wilkie and their son Luke, who returned from Colorado on November 1st. And during rainy and cold (not really, but it's below 75 °F, which is cold for here :-)) day - caused by another hurricane, unusually late, but this time land-friendly one – we got a ride to La Paz with Wilkie and Luke, who had a dentist appointment there (in Mexico it's about ten times cheaper than in USA). We said good bye to Cabo Pulmo – the place we had come to visit for a weekend and ended up staying here for nine months.
P.S.: So we found out that Odile is female name. The destructive hurricanes usually have female names (for example Katrina). I don't know who and how decides the names for hurricanes, the only rule I know is that the names of hurricanes in one season are in alphabetic order (there was hurricane Maria and then Norbert before Odile). And for some reason the “female hurricanes” are usually more destructive ones. But every rule has an exception – the most destructive hurricane for Cabo Pulmo, in 2006, was called John.
Po hurikáne
Už sa vám niekedy stalo, že ste sa ráno zobudili na nejakom zvláštnom mieste, ktoré určite nebolo vaša posteľ? A keď ste si trocha pretreli oči, tak ste zistili že ležíte v kúpeľni na zemi? Mne doteraz ešte nie, toto bola pre mňa nová skúsenosť. Neviem, čo spravíte ako prvé, keď sa takto prebudíte po preflámovanej noci. Ale keď sa takto zobudíte po hurikánovej noci, tak prvé vaše kroky vedú k oknu. Zvedavosť, aké sú následky nočného vystrájania Odile je taká veľká, že neriešite ani to, že stojíte bosými nohami v kaluži vody, ani to, že sa musíte pozerať cez clonu kúsočkov listov prilepených na oknách a dverách (a ste radi, že to tie okná a dvere prežili bez ujmy, to že v tej kaluži, v ktorej stojíte, neplávajú aj črepy, je dobré znamenie – nie vždy črepy znamenajú šťastie). Ďalšia vec, ktorá Vám príde na um je, že by ste mali dať vedieť svetu a hlavne rodine na opačnom konci sveta, ktorá nikdy nezažila hurikán a nevie si ho poriadne ani predstaviť, že ste nažive a v absolútnom poriadku. Piatok sa hneď zhostil tejto úlohy a poslal domov túto správu:
Ahojte, tak zdá sa, že to najhoršie z hurikánu Odile už máme za sebou, vonku je síce ešte stále vietor že by jednému aj spodky odfúklo, ale v porovnaní s tým čo bolo v noci je to už iba slabý vánok. To sme mali o zvukové a svetelné efekty celkom postarané. Ale prežili sme bez ujmy na zdraví, iba náš dom má trocha “pocuchanú fasádu“ a záhrada vyzerá ako keby sa cez ňu prehnal šialený holič s úchylkou na listy, ale inak sme zatiaľ nezaznamenali vážnejšie škody (zdá sa, že tá lepiaca páska na okná nie je až tak zlý nápad). Celé La Paz je ešte bez elektriny, mobilný signál je ako tak, píšem vám teraz z mobilu. Našťastie vodu a plyn máme vlastný tak až na ten plný mrazák nemáme problémy. Keď začnú veci opäť fungovať dáme vám vedieť.
Elektrina samozrejme nejde, ale telefónny signál chvíľami naskočí, takže na tretí pokus sa ju podarilo poslať. Neskôr však sa nám aj telefónny signál vytratil a sme na pár dní bez spojenia so svetom...
Ráno je veľmi pokojné – pri použití tohto slova si však uvedomujem, aké je všetko relatívne. Predvčerom by som toto určite pokojným dňom nenazvala – palmy v La Paz sú stále zohnuté v smere vetra, nebo je temné, mračná sa rýchlo presúvajú... Ale obyvatelia La Paz sa nikam nepresúvajú, všetci sú zalezení, zatiaľ všetko pozorujú z tepla (ale to je aj vonku) a sucha (to je tu ale veľmi relatívny pojem, nie všetci majú teraz v domoch to, čo by sme nazvali suchom) svojich príbytkov. A vedia, že čoskoro ich čaká veľa roboty – rovnako ako nás.
Našou náplňou práce počas Jonnovej neprítomnosti bolo aj starať sa o záhradu a udržiavať je peknú čistú. V svetle nových udalostí sa zdá, že splnenie tejto úlohy bude vyžadovať viac času a energie, ako sme si pôvodne mysleli. Úloha číslo jeden bude presekať si cestu von, momentálne sme tu totiž uväznení. Jeden z dvoch vysokých stromov, juka, ktorá bývala domovom pre vtáky, plazy aj hmyz a Jonnovou obľúbenou rastlinou na jeho pozemku, to neustála (jedno z nočných „tresk!“ je vysvetlené). Pod jej spadnutým kmeňom je teraz pochovaný náš východ von. Železné zábradlie, ktoré ho lemovalo z obidvoch strán, pod váhou spadnutého stromu zmenilo tvar, rovnako ako plastová bedňa, ktorú sme zabudli schovať a vietor ju presunul práve do cesty padajúcemu stromu... Všade po zemi sa váľajú kúsky listov a konáre, niektoré rastliny „oplešateli“ celkom, niektoré čiastočne. Nejaký ten rozbitý kvetináč a úroda paradajok a paprík bude menšia, ako si Jonn predstavoval. Dve z tieňových cielt sa váľajú na zemi, jedna bola vytrhnutá zo steny, takže až na zopár dier je stále ešte použiteľná, druhej železné rohy zostali na svojom mieste, ale zvyšok celty, spolu s oceľovými lankami, sa odtrhol, teraz leží na zemi celá zamotaná, rozmotať ju bude celkom hlavolam. Betónové kvádre, z ktorých sa tu stavajú domy a z ktorých tu mal Jonn spravené nízke oplôtky, sú pováľané a polámané na zemi. Váľajú sa po zemi spolu s inými vecami, ktoré sem vietor nafúkal z celého pozemku. No na pár dní máme o zábavu postarané, ale zdá sa, že až na ten strom a dve potrhané celty žiadne vážnejšie škody nemáme. Dokonca aj gril, ktorý si v noci vyskúšal skok z výšky (sfúklo ho to z vrchnej terasy), to prežil len s odlomenou plastovou priečkou, ktorá nevyzerá, že má vplyv na jeho fungovanie.
V podvečer, keď Piatok troška presekal cestu k východu, sme sa išli prejsť mestom. Hneď na začiatok na našej ulici musíme podliezť elektrický kábel. Keď sa tak pozeráme na tie potrhané drôty, tak to vyzerá, že elektrinu ešte pár dní mať nebudeme... Najväčšie škody sú na stromoch, niektoré ulice sú vyvrátenými a polámanými stromami a ich časťami celkom zablokované. Zopár častí mesta je mierne zaplavených vodou (pri ich prechádzaní sa snažíme nemyslieť na to, že okrem dažďovej vody je to aj to, čo sa už nezmestilo do preplnenej kanalizácie...).Všetko to steká rovno do mora. Turistami najvyhľadávanejšia časť La Paz - „malecón“ (- keďže nemáme more, neviem ani, či na to máme v slovenčine slovo, skrátka promenáda po nábreží),je okrem popadaných stromov a konárov plná aj pováľaných lámp – čo ale, ako sme pri bližšom preskúmaní zistili, nie je až tak chyba Odile, ako mexických robotníkov, ktorí lampy priskrutkovali skrutkami menšími, ako boli diery na ne, takže celá lampa držala len na tenkej kovovej podložke, čiže by ju zhodil aj vietor slabší, ako 200 km za hodinu. Všetky reštaurácie sú zavreté, pokiaľ mali vonku slnečníky alebo plátené prístrešky, teraz z nich majú len franforce. Lepiaca páska je tu obľúbeným ochranným opatrením, skoro všetky okná a výklady obchodov sú nimi polepené. A zdá sa, že to aj funguje, zopár sklenených plôch lepiacou páskou nepolepených je vybitých. Z jedného kostola spadol zo strechy kovový kríž, teraz sa váľa na zemi a už nemá tvar kríža, ale šípky. Plechy sú poprehýbané, drevené dosky sfúknuté, tabule pozhadzované. Podaktoré železné konštrukcie, ktoré boli postavené špeciálnym „mexickým spôsobom“, sa zosypali ako domčeky z karát. A v celom meste neostal ani jeden billboard*. Celkovo sme však milo prekvapení, očakávali sme oveľa väčšie škody. Stačí pár dní upratovania a všetko bude zasa v normále...
Nasledujúcich pár dní sa venujeme najmä upratovaniu, čisteniu a zametaniu. (Aby nám nebolo málo, tak ešte María omylom spravila menšiu potopu v dome po tom, čo nechala tiecť vodu v umývadle v kúpeľni). Piatok sa osvedčil ako „osloboditeľ“, prerezal nám cestu cez spadnutý strom a overil si, že vie, ako otvoriť a zatvoriť elektrické garážové dvere (za normálnych okolností na to stačí len stlačiť tlačidlo). Večere máme bohaté – treba rýchlo zjesť zásoby z mrazničky, (aj tak sme to nestihli všetko a nejaké to jedlo sme museli aj vyhodiť) a romantické – pri sviečkach. Každý večer pozorujeme, ako v La Paz pribúdajú svetielka a každý deň dúfame, že teraz sme na rade my... Po večeri si s Piatkom stelieme posteľ na terase, keďže vnútri sa bez klimatizácie spať nedá. Čo je dobrou správou pre komáre, ktorých je tu teraz po dažďoch viac, než je nám príjemné. Radostne si na nás „pochutnávajú“ a ich tenké bzučanie nám robí neustálu zvukovú kulisu...
Piaty deň to Maríu už prestalo baviť a vybrala sa do centrály CFE (miestna elektrická spoločnosť, zatiaľ ešte štátna, ale onedlho vraj prejde do súkromných rúk, z čoho tu však nikto nie je nadšený, keďže to bude pravdepodobne znamenať zvýšenie cien a menšiu kvalitu služieb). Poďakovali jej za nahlásenie závady, nikam si to však nezapísali, ani jej nedali žiadne potvrdenie. Na otázku, kedy asi budeme mať elektrinu povedali, že vôbec netušia. Keď sa María o dva dni bola opäť spýtať, dostalo sa jej rovnakej odpovede a poučenia, že nikto to nepríde opraviť, keď o tom nevedia, závadu treba nahlásiť... O tom, že tam bola María pred dvoma dňami, nič nevedeli. A rovnako ako minule, ani tentokrát si to nikam nezapísali...
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* Nepredstavujte si ale naše „prebilbordované“ mestá, v celom La Paz je billboardov len zopár. Počas našich ciest, nielen po americkom kontinente, sme došli k záveru, že Slovensko a Česko držia svetové prvenstvo v počte billboardov. Ešte nikde inde sme ich nevideli toľko, ako u nás...
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Ôsmy deň po hurikáne, keď sme sa večer vrátili z mesta, tak na „našom“ kopci práve elektrikári pilne pracovali. María sa bola uistiť, či opravia aj náš stĺp. Vraj to nemali v pláne ani v popise, keďže o tom nevedeli, ale vraj keď už sú tu, tak sa na to pozrú. Tak sa stalo, že ten večer nevečeriame pri blikajúcom svetle sviečok, ale pri blikaní lámp. Elektrinu síce máme, ale je veľmi nestabilná. Ako sme čoskoro zistili, okrem svetla a wi-fi nič ďalšie neutiahne, ak zapneme čokoľvek iné, všetko sa vypne. Tak to ešte pár dní budeme musieť vydržať bez chladničky a klimatizácie... A ako sme sa neskôr dozvedeli, tak ten kábel, čo nám tu tak visí zo stĺpu pred domom necelé dva metre nad zemou, má byť uzemnenie, teraz je však pod napätím, takže bezpečnostné štandardy tiež zatiaľ nespĺňame... Naplno nám všetko začalo fungovať až o ďalšie tri dni, po tom, čo sa vrátil Jonn – tieto dve udalosti spolu síce nesúvisia, ale Jonnovi to nahráva, aby si z nás mohol uťahovať... :-).
Súdiac podľa nášho výhľadu to vyzerá, že sme boli prví bez elektriny a poslední opäť s elektrinou. Ale stále sme na tom neboli zasa až tak zle. Niektoré domácnosti boli napríklad aj bez vody. S vodou to tu funguje tak, že každý má na streche veľkú cisternu, do ktorej je pumpovaná voda z mestského systému každé dva až tri dni. Lenže na aký pohon funguje taká pumpa? No predsa na elektrický. Takže ten, kto nemal cisternu dostatočne plnú či dostatočne veľkú, sa ocitol bez vody (Jonn má na streche takéto cisterny tri a v čase hurikánu boli na naše šťastie všetky takmer plné). Boli aj takí, ktorým cisternu zo strechy sfúklo. Jedna naša známa nám rozprávala, ako videla počas hurikánu vonku niečo, čo chcela zachrániť, rodina ju však prehovorila, že teraz vychádzať z domu nie je bezpečné. Práve v tej chvíli, presne na to miesto, kde by stála, dopadla veľká cisterna... (Len tak pre zaujímavosť: v roku 2001 bývala v New Yorku a pracovala v jednej zo slávnych dvojičiek. 11.9. ju ráno bolelo brucho, tak nešla do práce. Niekto má skrátka dobrého anjela strážneho...)
Spomínaná voda sa nepovažuje za pitnú. Pitnú vodu si treba kupovať vo fľašiach. Tie boli načas nedostatkovým tovarom a keď zasa začali fungovať tzv. „agua purificadora“- „filtrárne“, kde si prídete s vlastnou fľašou, či kanistrom do ktorého vám načapujú (to je tu najlacnejší spôsob, ako získať pitnú vodu**), tak pred nimi stáli dlhé rady ľudí.
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** Najbežnejšie majú ľudia pitnú vodu doma v tzv. „garafónoch“ - 19 litrových fľašiach. Tieto sú každý deň rozvážané chlapíkom, na ktorého len zamávate, keď ide okolo a on vám vymení prázdne garafóny za plné, bežná cena je 17 pesos (=približne 1 euro) za garafón. Keď si však prídete do „purificadory“ sami, tak za takúto výmenu zaplatíte iba 10 pesos. V obchode či na pumpe najlacnejšie kúpite balenú vodu 15 pesos za galón (3,6 litra). Väčšinou vám všade povedia, že v Mexiku si pitnú vodu treba kupovať, tá z kohútika vraj nie je pitná. Stretli sme sa však už aj s ľuďmi, ktorí „kohútikovú“ vodu normálne pijú a tvrdia, že to je reklamný ťah, aby boli ľudia nútení si vodu kupovať. V niektorých oblastiach sme aj my „kohútikovú“ vodu pili a žiadne ťažkosti sme nemali. Problém je väčšinou asi nie v tom, že by voda bola nepitná, ale že jej prívodnému systému nie je venovaná dostatočná starostlivosť. Čo ale často vraj nie je ani v prípade filtrov v „purificadorách“ (či je to pravda, neviem posúdiť, tak sme počuli). A keď vidíme tie plastové garafóny, ako sa často vyhrievajú na priamom slnku (napr. na korbe auta, čo ich rozváža), tak je otázka, ktorá voda je tu vlastne „pitnejšia“...Faktom ostáva, že sme v Mexiku už jedenásty mesiac a žiadne žalúdočné ťažkosti v súvislosti s vodou sme ešte nemali.
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La Paz na tom zďaleka nebolo najhoršie. Asi týždeň po hurikáne sme si spravili výlet do Todos Santos***– turisticky obľúbená dedinka na západnom pobreží, 80 km od La Paz. Obyčajne tu býva veľmi živo, toto miesto je známe najmä svojimi galériami a umeleckými obchodíkmi. Teraz sme tam však nič také nenašli, všetko je pozatvárané, na uliciach namiesto prechádzajúcich sa turistov miestni upratujúci polámané stromy, črepy, kúsky fasády a iný vetrom spôsobený neporiadok. Jediný otvorený podnik je Hotel California (poznáte tú pesničku od Eagles? Toto je ten hotel, o ktorom spievajú), pretože má vlastný generátor. Inak súdiac podľa množstva pováľaných elektrických stĺpov, polámaných ako keby to boli steblá slamy, ktoré lemujú cestu sem, máme pocit, že tu nebudú mať elektrinu ani do Vianoc. Kolóny opravárskych elektrikárskych áut vyzerajú, ako keby sa len bezradne rozhodovali, kde vlastne majú začať... Rozhodne im ich situáciu nezávidíme a už chápeme, že nejaká ulica na kopci, kde zopár rodín nemá elektrinu, nie je pre nich prioritou, keď nevedia, kam skôr skočiť...
Dopravné značky a smerovníky sú pováľané a pozohýbané do všakovakých tvarov, pri pohľade na ne mi príde na um origami (japonské umenie skladania z papiera), od tejto chvíle všetky takéto značky nazývame „origami signs“. A ešte environmentálne okienko: teraz v praxi krásne vidíme, ako sú pôvodné druhy pekne adaptované na miestne podmienky, čo sa o tých introdukovaných povedať nedá – väčšina paliem to ustála, kaktusy tiež nevyzerajú, že by ich hurikán nejak poznamenal, zato obrovské ….................................................................................................................................................................................
*** Todos Santos v preklade znamená všetci svätí. Veľa miest a dedín sa tu volá po nejakom svätcovi, tu si asi nevedeli vybrať, tak si povedali, že to budú všetci a basta :-).
…..................................................................................................................................................................................eukalypty sú vyvrátené z koreňov...
Cestou späť musíme prejsť cez vojenskú kontrolu. Autá idúce od Los Cabos sú kontrolované, či neprevážajú podozrivé množstvo elektrických spotrebičov či bední piva... V Los Cabos, ako sa aj predpokladalo, to „schytali“ najhoršie. Odile tu vystrájala a napáchala veľa škôd na majetku (napr. letisko, štadión, zopár hotelov a jedno z obchodných centier skončili v troskách), ešte viac však vystrájali ľudia v nasledujúcich dňoch. Nie je elektrina, obchody sú pozatvárané a peňazí tiež nieto (keďže bol akurát deň výplaty, lenže nie je ako sa k nej dostať, keďže aj tie bankomaty odmietajú bez elektriny pracovať.) Lenže rodinu nakŕmiť treba a odkiaľ zobrať jedlo, než z obchodu? Že je zavretý, to nevadí, sklo sa ľahko rozbije a bez elektriny ani ten otravný alarm nebude bliakať na celé kolo. Bolo jasné, že sa rabovaniu obchodov nedá zabrániť a že treba doma nakŕmiť hladné krky je tiež pochopiteľné, policajné a vojenské orgány sa teda rozhodli vyriešiť situáciu takto: vchod do obchodu je povolený, každému však len raz a zobrať si môžete toľko, koľko odnesiete v rukách. Plán to nebol úplne zlý, mal však jednu muchu: „nakupujúci“ boli vo veľkej presile, takže strážcovia poriadku sa márne snažili strážiť poriadok, situácia sa čoskoro vymkla kontrole a organizované skupiny v krátkom čase „vybielili“ nejeden obchod, systémom dokonale skoordinovaných „nosičov“ a „nakladačov do áut“. Ako prvé vraj išli na odbyt pivo a televízory. V niektorých častiach sa vraj rabovali aj domy.
V La Paz sa nič nerabovalo, ale menšia panika prebehla aj tu – z obavy pred nedostatkom sa veľmi rýchlo vypredali zásoby benzínu, pitnej vody, sviečok, batérií a niektoré regály v obchodoch s potravinami tiež zívali prázdnotou. Tak schválne, či uhádnete, ktoré to boli... Na naše prekvapenie to boli najmä sladkosti a polievky v konzerve.
Nefungujúca infraštruktúra = žiadni turisti = pre túto oblasť, na turistickom ruchu závislú, problém. Mexičania ukázali, že ak treba, tak vedia aj rýchlo pracovať. Na pomoc prišli robotníci – najmä elektrikári - z celého Mexika, aby sa všetko dalo čo najskôr zasa „do normálu“. Letisko v Cabo San Lucas „povstalo z popola“ a už zasa funguje, teda až na eskalátory. A turisti sa pomaličky vracajú. Zatiaľ čo v La Paz už by ste ani nehádali, že tu niekedy bol nejaký hurikán, v Los Cabos je ešte aj dnes vidieť, že Odile tu nebola žiadna sranda – ruiny hotelov (ktoré ale boli postavené z tak nevhodného materiálu, že pre Odile nepredstavovali vôbec žiadnu prekážku – školy na to síce nemám, ale myslím, že sadrokartón nie je práve najvhodnejší stavebný materiál do hurikánovej oblasti), pováľané tabule a palmové aleje zmenené na palmové solitéry... Toľko sme sa dopočuli od očitých svedkov.
A ešte jeden „darček“ nám tu Odile a dažďová sezóna zanechali – mračná čerstvo vyliahnutých hladných komárov. Miestne komáre však majú okrem toho, že pília uši (obrazne) a pijú krv (doslovne), ešte jednu nepríjemnú vlastnosť – niektoré z nich prenášajú vírus Dengue – endemický vírus, ktorý sa nachádza iba v karibskej oblasti a niektorých častiach Ázie. Vyznačuje sa vysokými horúčkami a silnou bolesťou hlavy, svalov, kĺbov, kostí, skrátka celého tela, žalúdočnými problémami, vyrážkou a tým, že to trvá obyčajne tak dva týždne, pričom ale v priebehu prídu dni, kedy si chorý myslí, že už to má za sebou, aby sa to potom ďalší deň zasa vrátilo. Nie je na to žiadny liek, treba to doslovne len pretrpieť, odmenou je to, že potom má človek minimálne rok imunitu. Ak nie ste batoľa, starec, či s veľmi podlomeným zdravím, tak sa na to nezomiera. (V prípade ľahšej formy, existuje aj ťažšia, komplikovanejšia, ktorá môže byť sprevádzaná napr. aj vnútorným krvácaním, táto je však oveľa zriedkavejšia). No a v La Paz mali tento rok epidémiu, aj v Cabo Pulme zopár prípadov dengue zaznamenali. Piatkovi sa tiež jeden taký dengue štípanec ušiel, takže si môže pripísať ďalší nový zážitok a ďalší nový endemit do zbierky. Dengue sa občas hovorí aj „choroba polámaných kostí“, keďže sa človek cíti ako by mal polámané všetky kosti v tele. Piatkovi táto fáza trvala našťastie len asi dva dni a dva týždne sa cítil veľmi vyčerpaný – táto únava je tiež pre dengue typická. Dnes už je Piatok zasa ako rybička a už si ani nemusí dať každý deň niekoľkohodinového „šlofíka“.
Ani Jonnovi a Márii sa dengue nevyhlo, tiež si „užili“ svoje, čo spôsobilo zmeny plánov – museli odložiť svoju cestu do Mexico city a tým pádom sme nešli do La Paz postarať sa opäť o dom a o Krima. Dokončili sme teda v Cabo Pulme rozrobené projekty (hlinená pec a lavička pre Gordona), stretli sa s našimi dobrými kamarátmi Sally a Wilkie-m a ich synom Luke-om, ktorí 1.11. dorazili z Colorada; a za daživého a na miestne pomery chladného dňa (rozumej teplota pod 25°C) – toto počasie je spôsobené ďalším hurikánom, nezvyčajne neskorým, ale k pevnine tentoraz milosrdným – sme využili ponuku Wilkie-ho, že nás zoberie do La Paz, (kam idú s Luke-om k zubárovi****) a rozlúčili sme sa s Cabo Pumom – miestom, ktoré sme vo februári prišli navštíviť na víkend a stalo sa naším pôsobiskom na celých 9 mesiacov...
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**** Zubári v Mexiku sú asi tak desaťnásobne lacnejší, než ich kolegovia v USA – byť zubárom v Mexiku v blízkosti hranice s USA teda znamená nemať núdzu o pacientov.
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P.S.: Tak nakoniec sme sa dozvedeli, že Odile je vraj žena. Ako doteraz všetky ničivé hurikány. Neviem, kto a ako vyberá meno pre hurikán, jediné pravidlo, ktoré je mi známe je, že každý rok od začiatku sezóny sa jednotlivé hurikány pomenúvajú postupne podľa abecedy – pred Odile sme tu mali Norberta a predtým Máriu (predchádzajúce hurikány tejto sezóny sa nás netýkali, takže ich mená sme nezachytili). Ale z nejakého dôvodu to vraj vždy vyjde tak, že hurikán s ničivejšími následkami zhodou okolností nesie ženské meno (určite si ešte spomeniete napr. na Katrinu). Aj tomuto pravidlu sme však našli výnimku: zatiaľ najničivejší hurikán, ktorý postihol Cabo Pulmo sa volal John (v roku 2006).
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