Juchitan de Zaragoza to San Pedro Tapanatepec, Mexico

Posted on August 5, 2015

This time I’m going to have to eat my words saying that camping at a gas station is a good time as last night was trying for sure. I set up my tent in front of a semi truck and as I was sleeping, around midnight I heard footsteps and someone get into the semi truck. A few cranks of the engine and it was started up. Oh snap! I had my bike locked to the wheel, my tent was in front of it and I had a clothes line attached to the mirror. Luckily the truck didn’t move but remained idling while the driver slept in the cab for the remainder of the night. I thought that it was going to be for a short period but turns out that wasn’t the case as the engine was grumbling about 5 feet from my head. What else was I supposed to do? Break camp at 1 am and try to find something else to sleep for a couple of hours? I swallowed the pill and lay down in my tent and got a few hours of restless sleep. Just after 5 am I woke up to take down my camp and get the hell out of there.
After a quick breakfast of granola, yogurt and juice I was gone by 6:45 and it was still dark. The wind was still blowing and I made my way north towards highway 190 through a huge wind turbine farm. Getting on the highway and going east through what seemed like 1000 wind turbines I was fighting with a 20+ km/h cross wind that was coming off the mountains. The road had a shoulder which was good as I was compensating to make sure I didn’t get blown into the ditch which almost happened on a few occasions. Trucks would whizz by and the air they pushed caused me to sway as well. It was definitely challenging and I swore a few times at the circumstances. I just wanted to get through this section and then take a rest as I wasn’t hungry or very tired. At 54 km in I stopped just after 9 am for another meal and a good rest in Santiago Niltepec. The meal was good, chilaquiles and eggs with chorizo. I set up my stove outside to make a moka while I ate as I needed the caffeine and missed the taste of coffee. It definitely hit the spot. Also I called my dad to chat with him as I was craving some conversation with a familiar voice. It really made a difference.
Leaving Niltepec there was about 50-60 km to my final destination and o could probably make it there by 1 or 2 pm which was a bonus to beat the afternoon heat. A short way out of town I crosses over a river that looked like it was clean and without second guessing I made my way down. Quickly stripping off everything and wading into the running water was amazing! There were other people bathing upstream but I didn’t care if I was nude and neither did they. I stayed on the cool water soaking it up for a good half hour then jumped back onto my bike to continue on feeling very refreshed.
At this point I must add that I’m debating whether or not I’ll go all the way down to Argentina. Riding my bike on the road is stimulating for only so long. Most of the time I just put my head down and crank out the kilometers. The scenery is good and the people are alright and I miss Canada. My thoughts are to finish up in Panama although it’s still up in the air. I have self consciousness that I won’t do what I said I’d set out to do and I’m the one who’s hardest on myself about finishing what I started even though I may not really enjoy what I’m doing.
In any case I was making good progress averaging close to 23 km/h coming into San Pedro Tapanatepec and made it into town just after 2 pm. In a small town what the hell am I supposed to do until it gets dark? I rode around to scope out some camping spots and then got some chicken at a family joint. I sat and ate while watching Mexican soap operas. Wow are they dramatic and entertaining even though I don’t fully comprehend what’s going on. Passing a few hours there I didn’t want to go out into the sun as it was getting hotter. In that moment I said screw my budget and went to check into a hotel to lie in a room with a fan in my underwear while I drank a beer and ate guacamole. It was glorious. A bit of rain passed through for half an hour and then it was back to heat with some mugginess added into the mix. Another cold shower and I was off to bed to do it all over again.

LYV

Distance: 107.08 km