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