Sunday, October 29, 2006

Panajachel


wow! guatemala is so awsome! these last couple days have been some of my favorite from the whole trip. we crossed the border into guatemala and like just started climbing straight up. it was crazy. it was so steep i almost couldn't do. peter was hanging out with me, and we'd go for a little bit, then stop and take pictures, then climb a little more, and then stop again. i'm not sure, but peter thinks we were climbing for like 5 hours. just straight up. sometimes i couldn't believe how steep the road was. i was in my granny gear and standing up. also, the condition of the road was horrible. we weren't on a major highway, but more of a country road that connects up with the interamericana highway. you couldn't ever take your eyes off the rode because it was just totally filled with potholes. we had no idea how steep the road was going to be, and we were aiming for this town san marcos, but we never made it. i saw a soccer field, and peter and i camped there, erik ended up sleeping in this woman's house, and gary hitched a ride in a pick up. we stopped just in time too, because this thick, thick, fog rolled in and you couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of you, and then it started to pour down rain. seriously finding a spot to camp on a super steep mountain is hard to do, so it was really lucky we got to that soccer field. the next day we all found each other in san marcos.
after san marcos we has some downhill, but also a lot more climbing. this is a picture of erik at the top of this pass after it had stopped raining. it totally hailed that day too. it's been really cool up here, which is so nice after all that insane heat. there's this town called quetzaltenango in spanish and xela (pronounced "shay-la") in mayan, and we wanted to spend some time there. it was about 15 k from where we stopped the night before, and so we figured with all the intense climbing we'd been doing it would take us about half a day to get there. but it was all downhill! it was totally nuts! like we just cruised down there in 15 minutes. it was a crazy downhill too becuase there was so much to see, but then if you took your eyes off the rode, you'd die. like we're flying down this mountain and there are all these indigenous women in hand woven skirts and embroidered blouses balancing jugs of water on their heads, and crazy mud huts, and wildly decorated buses churning out black smoke, but if you turned your head to check them out, you'd fall off the side of the mountain.
after quezaltenango/xela we met up with the interamericana, you can see that the road is in much better condition and there's even a shoulder. the riding was great. unfortunately i got really, really sick the night before we left. like i was up puking and was so nausious i couldn't sleep. in the morning i had diarhea. when we stopped for breakfast, but i was so messed up and ill i couldn't even drink a cup of coffee. i wanted to die. everyone's eating, i felt so bad i just pulled up the coller of my shirt over my head and started crying. getting out of town was a nightmare. the road was terrible, potholes everywhere, buses blasting you in the face with black smoke, dust and sand flying everywhere, street venders hawding crap from all sides. i felt like i was in hell. every bump in the road made my stomach lurch. i didn't think i was going to make it. then the road mellowed out after we got out of town. we had a lot of climbing, but it was an easy grade. we summited the highest point in the central american ineramericana highway, and it seemed like we were higher up than the clouds.
then we had this awesome downhill into this crazy town, where everyone was indigenous, dressed up in these wild outfits, didn't speak spanish, and like a lot of the old people didn't have any teath. we wanted to get lunch, but it was too crazy. all these indigenous kids and old folk surrounded us and like started talking in an indigenous language. i can't even describe how insane this experience was. like i almost felt like we were surrouned by space aliens. i'm sure they felt the same way about us. the guys ended up eating lunch in a cafe later on in the day.
we finished the day with another screaming downhill to this lake called lago de atitlan that is totally surrounded by volcanoes. this was one of the most awesome downhills of my whole life. i bet we were flying downhill for at least 15 minutes. at one point peter turns around and screams at me, "oh my god! what f*cking grade do you think this is?" it was so steap, and the sun was setting, and we're flying past waterfalls, and huge volcanoes. it was really amazing. the crazy thing is, we biked about 50 miles, had a huge climb, and i totally didn't eat the whole day and was really sick. i think if you'd asked me before this stip if it was possible to be up all night puking, and then be violently ill the next day and bike up and down mountains for 50 miles without eating, i'd probably tell you no way. but i totally did it. sometimes i think if you set your mind to something and are just really stuborn about it, you can do it no matter what. i'm still really sick though. we took a day off today to cruise around the lake in boats, and i still haven't really eaten. i kind of feel like there is a midget army in my stomach and like they're all wrestling, or maybe knife fighting. i'm back on the ciphro though...
clyde flew back to the U.S. he left tapachula mexico, but then had a bleeding sore on his lip and was worried it was skin cancer, so he flew home. i feel bad. also, he said he was lost with out me to translate for him. i really wish we could have said goodbye in person. so now we are a group of three...
-jessie

Thursday, October 26, 2006

san juan

we're finally in guatemala! yay! i'm so, so happy to be in guatemala! i forgot to bring the camera so i'll update more when i can post photos, but it's totally freezing cold, and like all we've been doing is climbing up these steap, steap mountins. like peter thinks that yesterday we rode uphill for 5 hours! ok, hope everyone's good. love,
-jessie

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Dengue Fever - Yawza!


so we still haven't left tapachula. clyde's been sick for a while, which is why we've taken so many zero days lately. before he wouldn't let me take him to the doctor, but then yesterday he wanted to go. this is a photo on the wall of the laboratory. i asked the lab technician what it was, and she told me that it is jesus assisting a surgeon. it's good to know that jesus is on board with the mexican doctors. it was funny translating for clyde, because it was sort of like the opposite of my job 2 summers ago where i translated for migrant farm workers when they went to the doctor. anyways, it ends up that clyde has dengue fever. i'm totally getting paranoid that i'm going to get it. the doctor said we are all at increased risk becuase we've been sharing hotel rooms. like if a mosquito bites clyde and then bites me, i'll get dengue. i'm covered in mosquito bites. for some reason i have more bites than anyone else. also, there are 4 types of dengue, once you get one type, you can't get it again, but you can still get the other 3. the doctor said that there is one were blood come out of your eyes, ears, nose, ect... you get the picture. aaaaaaaaaaah! i'm so freaked out about dengue. anyways, we're going to leave clyde here, and he's going to catch up with us later. he's going to take a bus.
last night peter and erik and i came back to the hotel and realized that gary and clyde had the room key. so i figured we should go get a beer. we are kinda in this shady neighborhood, and after asking around ended up in this place called el gallito (the little rooster). it was kinda sketchy and erik didn't want to stay. he wanted to buy the beer and drink in the hotel room. but i wanted to stay, and peter said he'd do whatever i wanted, so we stayed. it was like this room with bikini girls on the wall, and a juke box and plastic tables. the owner came over and started talking to us, and kept giving us more free beer every time we tried to tell him we wanted to leave. he was really funny. i kept going back and forth between english and spanish translating what he said. the owner, mario fabio really wanted a photo of us, but he said he didn't use the internet, so today i got two photos developed and we went back and gave them to him. he was so happy about it, that he gave me this rediculous wooden plaque with a an eagle eating a snake on a cactus carved into it. i didn't really want to bike around with it, so i gave it to the guy working at the hotel.
Everyday it pours down rain in the afternoon. like crazy, crazy amounts of rain. this photo doesn't really do it justice. the other day peter and i got caught out in it, and it was insane! anyways, hopefully tomorrow we'll leave for guatemala. i was going to have everyone take a week off in antigua and take spanish classes cuz i'm getting tired of being everyone's translater, but now i'm not sure we should because we've taken so many days off with clyde being sick.
-jessie

Monday, October 23, 2006

Tapachula


i think tapacula can best be described as tiajuana's southern cousin. it's a major border city with guatemala, and it's super crazy and intense. almost anything you could want to purchase is on sale here. wedding dresses, motorcycles, plastic toys, soccer shirts, washing machines... there are a ton of indigenous women from guatemala here too. you can tell because they are wearing those handwoven skirts and the embroidered shirts. appearently everyone just sneaks across the border because to cross legally is $10 US. this is a photo of me that peter took. i am petting a snow tiger in parque migel hidalgo in tapachula. check out my super hot tan lines from my t-shirt. yawza! i talked to my mom and dad last night and they wanted a picture of me on the blog. here's to you mom and dad!
i think probably i make the worse decisions ever when i'm hungry. so erik and peter ran out of money in esciuntla and there were no atms, so i shared mine with them, but it ended up that we all left escuintla broke with out snack food. we should have waited for clyde and gary where the road split off for tapachula, but we were all so hungry that we decided to go into the city a little bit and eat lunch near the highway and catch them as they came in. we stopped at this sandwhich place, and i was so hungry i didn't feel like asking the guy what kind of sandwhiches he made, so i just told him i'd have two of whatever this other lady was eating at the counter. so my sandwhich was like a meat orgy. it had bacon, hotdog, hamburger and sliced ham all chopped up and friend together. then he put it in this bun with some cheese, a big smear of mayonessa and some raw onions and hot sauce. then he smeared mayonessa on the outside of the bun and fried the sandwich on the grill. i ate both sandwiches. i didn't feel good afterwards. also, clyde and garry took a different route into the city and we didn't end up seeing them so we rode into the center and found them there. then it started pouring down rain. all the guys sat at one table of this cafe and i ended up hanging out with this guy Ruben who bought me a lot of beers and some tequila. sometimes i really wish the other guys could speak spanish. there was a slight break in the rain and i went to try and find us a hotel room. the streets were flooded like rivers. it was crazy. people selling cds and cassete tapes under plastic tarps. bicycle taxis waiting to take you across the river streets. i ended up in a bad neighborhood with guys laying in puddles of water huffing paint out of empty coke bottles and then this morning i saw kids doing it. i did end up finding a good hotel room though.
this is a picture of this snack that peter really likes. peter's totally obsessed with bimbo baked goods. this one cracks me up though because it's like a chocolate doughnut called "negrito", which means "blackie" in english and has a picture of this dude with a 'fro on the front. there are no black people in mexico. anyways... hope everyone is good. clyde's sick so we're hanging out waiting for him to get better before going to guatemala. love,
-jessie

Friday, October 20, 2006

Esquintla


i've been hanging out with peter a bunch, and it's been really awesome. everyone keeps asking me if he's my brother, which is cool. today we were biking along, and this truck piled high with watermelons passed us, and peter was all, "man, it be awesome if that truck stopped and gave us a watermelon." and they totally did. it was so great. we each ate half a watermelon, and it was just the best watermelon ever. sweet, crisp, juicy... then we went swimming in the river. our next plan is to buy cheap plastic rafts and try to raft down the river. the current is pretty strong. sometimes bike touring just seems like the best thing ever because it doesn't matter what you do. if you want to stop and eat watermelon under a bridge and swim in your stupid spandex bike shorts, you totally can.
tomorrow we're going to be in tapachula and then the next day guatemala. i'm really excited to get to another country. it seems like we've been in mexico forever! right now we're in this town called escuintla, and right before we got to the hotel, i saw this guy who had a three wheeled tricycle taxi and he had a flat. i helped him fix it, and he was super happy because there isn't a bike repair place in escuintla and he didn't have a patch kit or anything. he had never seen tire irons before. the wheels were bolted on and he just tipped the whole thing over in the street to fix the flat. anyways, he said he wanted to give me a tour of the town, and so i got a ride in the bike taxi. it was pretty sweet. he said it weighs a lot and sometimes really fat ladies want rides and that sucks. anyways, hope everyone's doing good. i'm not sick anymore and am totally biking at a reasonable pace. love,
-jessie

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Tehuantepec

I'm so, so, so, so tired! as my parents always say to me, i've been "burning the candle at both ends". i left puerto vallarta three days after gary and clyde and two days after erik and peter. i caught up with them in acapulco when they took their zero day, but i didn't take one, so when we got to puerto escondido, i was totally tired. then instead of resting i stayed out all night and got up early everyday to make pancakes and go surfing and what not. i probably shouldn't have gone out the night before we left, but it was just so, so nice to hang out with girls, that i figured it'd be worth it. but then i got sick. so now i still haven't rested and my throat hurts. I can't keep up with erik, peter and clyde at all. i have like zero energy. maybe next rest day i'll "rest". It just seems like if you're going to go into a new place, might as well hang out with people and see the town, otherwise what's the point? i really miss all those girls i was hanging out with. i can't even tell you how awesome it was to have girlfriends. they were super, super awesome.

these are photos of what the road looks like. i think erik, clyde, and i are all bored of it. peter still likes it. but it just looks the same everday. soon we will get into guatemala, and i think things will be different and more awesome. lately i've been listening to the ipod during the day while i ride because i'm hoping that listening to music will give me some more energy. erik peter and clyde were getting more water at this store, and i was hanging out with these kids. this is a picture of them listening rocking out to the ramones. they said they liked the music. anyways... hope everyone is good. love,
-jessie

Saturday, October 14, 2006

puerto escondido 3

these are the three girls from puerto escondido that i've been hanging out with today, laura, yuli, and claudia. they want us to go out tonight, but i think i should sleep. laura is a teacher, and i asked her about the barricade across the highway that said carlos is a represor of teachers. she said that carlos is the secretary to the state of oaxaca. in spanish it's secretario de gobernación. i'm not sure what that means in english. anyways, she said that initially the teachers were on strike because they wanted a salary increase. but that it got really politcal, and now there are teachers who were politically active who have been "disappeared". in spanish it's called "desaparecidos".
everyone at hostel shalom is so, so nice. i really like it here. maybe one day i'll come back. yuli says that if i stayed here for three months, i could get really good at surfing.
-jessie

puerto escondido 2


i'm so tired. i need to sleep. i've been hanging out with this girl yuli who works at the hostel. yesterday she took peter and i surfing. we left the hostel on her moto. so it was yuli, peter and i plus a surf board and a boogie board. it was so super fun, but we were all to heavy for the moto. my brain is all confused right now and it's awkward to speak english because i've been speaking mostly spanish for the past 24h. i can't remember how to say moto in english, but it's like a small motorcycle. after we were done surfing we went to the supermarket and made everyone a super good pasta dinner. then yuli, peter, her friend laura and pretty much everyone else at the hostel (except erik) went out to this bikini fashion show, and bar. and it was so crazy. we all drank a lot, and we were dancing in the rain. we didn't get back till super late, and then i woke up early to make everyone pancakes, except we didn't end up leaving today because peter is really hung over and it's pouring rain. so i guess i could have slept more. i'm hanging out with yuli and laura and this other girl claudia right now. it's cool to hang out in a city with people who live there because they know were all the cheep stuff is. they took me to this restaurant where it's only US $1.80 for a big breakfast and a cup of coffee. also, it's nice to meet cool people and be able to hang out for a little bit instead of just leaving right away like we usually do. yuli's been laughing at all my crazy tan lines, and she says she has an extra bikini that she's going to give me so that i can get an even tan at the beach. i'm a little embarrassed to show off my white, white stomach, and white, white thighs. we'll see.... i feel really out of it though, sometimes i think maybe i push the envelope too far or whatever. also, today yuli got fired because she slept in too late. i hope she can get her job back... i feel bad.
-jessie

Friday, October 13, 2006

Puerto Escondido


Lot's of animals wandering around in mexico. pigs, horses, donkeys... all walk along the road and also die along it. i have seen more dead dogs in mexico. i guess in the US there are people payed to clean up roadkill. not here. i wonder what would happen if like there was a giant decapitated horse in front of my apartment. probably i wouldn't clean it up. how do you clean up a dead horse? you can't bike it away, so you'd need to borrow someone's car. but would anyone loan you their car to put a dead horse into? and would anyone help you lift up the dead horse? i think probably i'd just leave it to rot like everyone does here. also, there's no trash pick-up. people just through it along the highway. there are a lot of giant scarey looking vultures. they eat trash and dead animals along the highway. what do you think everyone at home would do with no trash pick-up. would people burn it, or just throw it one the street? some garbage doesn't really burn though.
I tried a new fruit yesterday called "tuna" in spanish. i think it's from a cactus. you peel off the skin and then eat the inside. there were a lot of hard seeds, which i spit out, but later learned you just swallow. the fruit was really good though. super juicy and tasted kinda like melon. it's really exciting to eat a new kind of fruit because it's always a totally new unimaginable flavor, almost like discovering a wild color you've never seen before.
Erik's hair grows in leaps and bounds. it's kinda cool being back with the guys, but also kinda a bummer. probably is a lot safer though, and maybe my mom can stop worrying a little bit. the thing that's awkward for me, is that none of the guys really speak spanish. so i can hang out with other people but they can't. i try and talk and translate for them. but it doens't really work that well. also, they're really into staying in hotels, but you don't get to meet new people when you stay in a hotel. erik says he feels like he's trapped in that movie groundhog's day, where everyday is the same. but i think it's just because that's the way they travel, only talking to each other and sleeping in hotels instead of asking people if they can camp on their property. Peter still looks the same as when we started i think. this morning we woke up before everyone else and made pancakes for everyone. i think the other guys liked it. we're staying in this super rad hostel. everyone went to bed last night, but i stayed up till like 3:30am drinking beer and playing cards with these guys from spain, switzerland and mexico. i totally lost, but had a great time and learned a new card game. also i met this girl yesterday who's going to take Peter and I surfing and boogie bording after lunch. it's raining right now though, which sucks.
There's supposed to be a lot of political unrest right now in mexico because a lot of people think that the election votes were not counted correctly. this is a picture of this barracade that stretched across the highway. it says "carlos is a represor of teachers." i don't know who carlos is, but someone told me that the teachers took over the radio station in Oaxaca. Anyways.... hope everyone is good. i'm doing good, except i'm hardly sleeping at all right now. not sure why.
-Jessie

Monday, October 09, 2006

San Marcos

So acapulco was a huge city. i really had no idea that it was so big. when i last updated, i stopped at the edge of the city to take a break from the traffic cuz i felt like i was kinda freaking out. so the highway just ended and dumped you out onto surface streets, and all i wanted to do was get outa acapulco and back into the coutryside. i keep winding deeper and deeper into the city, crazy traffic, noise, skyscrapers. i'm looking for a sign or some street that looks like it will take me outa town, and i am at this one corner, i look over and see peter. what are the odds right? it'd be like running into someone randomly in the middle of san francisco or something. so i end up meeting up with everyone and we go out for dinner. i was so excited to speak in english that all these english words just kept running outa me and i kept giggling and drinking beer and didn't eat much of my dinner. we went out to see some clif divers, which is supposed to be a big deal in acapulco, and then today we rode out. so i'm back with the group right now. i slept on the floor of their hotel room. i didn't sleep very much though.
so today we're stopped at this little tienda drinking sodas and taking a break from the heat. this coke delivery truck stops to drop off/pick up bottles and there are two armed guards. clyde thinks this is insane and starts taking pictures. i end up talking to the one guy and he says that all these roadside stops pay in cash and that the truck carries like $100,000 pesos ($10,000 usd) so they need to armed guards. clyde wants to know if he's ever used the gun, and the guy says he used to be part of the mexican arm. then he wants the guys to take a picture of me and him together.
it was totally insane, it was taking peter for ever to take this picture! and the guy was totally groping me. what's funny though, is like in mexico, i'm a tall person. i am 5'3'', and i'm totally bigger than the guy with the gun! he's like simultaneously groping me and puting my finger on the trigger. awesome. not sure about staying with the group, but i'm gonna ride with them a little bit, might take off later. hope everyone is good!
-jessie

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Acapulco


this is a photo of this really nice family i stayed with in Zijuantenejo. they were super into my bike trip and gave me this little toy wrestler, which i now have mounted on my handlebars. People have been so, so nice to me - it's crazy. like i feel overwhelmed by kindness. today i was drinking a coke at this little tienda by the side of the road. i ended up talking to this guy and his kids for a little bit, and he was all, "doesn't your water get hot?" and i said i was always drinking hot water. he took his machete and cut down some little branches for me and then strapped them onto the back of my bike over the galon jug of water i have on the back rack, so it was in the shade. so nice, huh?
yesterday as i left Zijuantenejo, there was this crazy party down by the river. i guess they have a kind of boat race, and at the half way point are bands, and food, and everyone is hanging out chearing on the rafts. i threw caution to the wind and ate a whole buch of street food, and i didn't get sick! i think i have a stomach of steel now. i ate a big cup of sliced up jicama, cucumber, papaya, watermelon and oranges with hot sauce. fruit and hot sauce is a really awesome combination. all these people kept coming up and talking to me, and these two guys Rene and Fernando were super nice, and Fernando is going to put me in his magazine. pretty cool, huh?
It's still super, super hot. yesterday i drank 5 liters of water, most of which i think i sweat out. all day long i'm sweating. this is a picture i tried taking of my face so you can see all the sweat. gross, huh?
I'm in Acapulco right now, but i think i might not stay here tonight. it looks like a huge crazy big city, and i kind of just want some place chill. i sort of feel overwhelmed sometimes. like i just get into city and have sensory overload.
-jessie
p.s. thanks so, so much to everyone who's sent me emails and commented on the blog and what not. i miss everyone a bunch, and it's so great to hear from everyone.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Zihuantenejo

This is a picture of what i ate for lunch. what could it be? who knows... i stopped at this roadside cafe, and i asked what they had for lunch, and i didn't recognize any of the words they said. so i just told them i'd take the last thing they'd mentioned, and this is what came out. i think the tortillas are blue corn tortillas, and i think there was maybe some kind of red meat and chiles in there, but as to what those white blob-y things are, i have no clue.
-jessie

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Lazaro Cardenas

biking by myself is going really awesome! i feel a lot better about everything and i´m sleeping a lot better too. i´m not sure what was going on before, but i was having a really hard time sleeping through the night, which i think contributed to the exhaustion.
it's funny, i think before this trip i was thinking that i'd find "the real mexico" by biking through here. but i`m beginning to realize that there's no such thing as "the real mexico" because everywhere is so different. the other night i ended up camping with this family in cerro de ortega just outside of tecoman. both the mom and the dad worked in the banana fields. the dad invited me home (i think he was a little drunk) and then when i got there, his wife (or as he refered to her his "mujer") was like, "what are you doing? who is this? why have you been drinking?" it was a little awkward, and so i just told them that i´d set up the tent in the yard.
their two little girls were super cute, and were totally mezmerized by my bike, tent and sleeping gear. they were amazed that the sleeping bag could fit into the little stuff sack, and then i told them it was filled with feathers and pulled one out for them. they thought it was magic. i guess sleeping bags are kind of magic.
then the neighbor kids came over and showed me this tree. there are these little yellow fruits you can eat off of it called "nancy". they were really good. i don't think we have them in the US. So the house was like a one room cinderblock thing with no running water or electicity. they lit the place with candles at night, and then if you check out the photo of the mom, that big cement thing she's standing next to is filled with water. it's crazy cuz these people were only two years older than i am, but already they had a family. the evening was kinda awkward for me though, because the mom got upset that i could cross the border so easily, but mexicans had to "run across". i didn't really know what to say, and just told her that it totally wasn't fair. it's crazy to think how my american passport let's me go wherever i want, but if i was poor and mexican there's no way i could do my bike trip. in comparison with that family, my trip seems rediculously extravagant. Then i told them i was going to sleep, and they really wanted me to sleep in the house, but i felt like i'd be imposing, so i told them i was going out to my tent. then the mom, dad and kids came out, and the mom was like, "aren't you scared? come inside. vampires will come and carry your little house away in the night." and i was like, "no really, i'm fine." and then the mom was all, "wolves will come out of the hills and eat you. drunk men will walk into the yard in the middle of the night and bother you." it was totally insane. like they would not leave me alone. so finally we compromised, and i moved the tent into the back of the house so that it couldn't be seen from the street. but then the dad and mom got in a fight and i could hear him hitting her and her screaming, "don't hit me! don't hit me! you're drunk!" it was wierd....
i keep trying to take pictures of all the crazy wildlife i'm seeing but all the birds fly away from me and the iguanas slither away into the jungle plants. i have seen a lot of this flower though. anyways, here's one animal that moved slow enough for me to get a picture. giant tarantula!
Last night i stayed in this indigenous village called Tizupan. I ended up hanging out with these guys and eating watermelon that they chopped up with a machete and put hot sauce and chile-lime salt on. water melon is surprisingly good with hot sauce. these guys were so, so nice, and we all hung out for a while, but i was super tired and ended up telling them that i wanted to go to sleep. one of the guys, was like, "here, i want you to have this watermelon for your trip." if you think about it, a watermelon is probably like the worst present you can give a touring cyclist. it's huge, weighs a ton, and in order to eat it, you need a pretty big knife to chop it up (the blade of my knife is probably an inch and a half). so i told him that it was too much for me to eat by myself, but they gave it to me anyways. ha ha... i gave it away to this guy i saw in the town the next morning. here's a picture of one of the guys chopping up the watermelon with a machete. anyways, the sun's setting and i'm going to get a hotel room tonight and take a shower! yay showers! i love being clean! love,
-jessie