We ended our day in Mazamitla camping in a horse pasture with horses grazing
around us. As we ate our rice and vegetables for dinner watching the sun change the colors of the sky and the live music from the village festival drift past us, I knew we were in the heart of Mexico where people work hard and enjoy what life has to offer.

The second day we climbed and climbed and climbed some more. We just did about 30 miles but it was steep, narrow and the hardest bike climbing I have done. I have a helmet mirror which helps figure out when I have to dive off the road. I actual slipped once on the gravel trying to move over for the traffic and slipped off my bike but I caught myself. My pannier came off. And this was all in front of a bus which was coming up the steep incline. But the driver was a very good driver and was watching out. He was a just barely moving when this happened. (I don't like these Mexican bus drivers -- they cut too close -- but for this one I'll make an exception. Thanks for your good driving!)

We've had so many kind people already. We stopped to ask a lady named Benita who we'd ask about camping in the soccer field at Tepehuache - and she took us into the village and found the right people to ask and took us to the soccer field!

The next day, when we got to the village of Manzanillas, a boy named Manuel immediately asked us if we wanted him to escort us to the plaza. Later, he took me to a bike mechanic (who jammed my pedal into the stripped crank so it will probably stay for awhile) and took us to a hotel where we could get a shower. He was great!

We´re here! We made it with no incident - flew into Guadalajara yesterday, took a taxi to the town of Chapala on the north shore of Lake Chapala. Wow, did we have stuff. Those 2 bike boxes, a huge box for the Bob trailer, and Nancy´s box full of panniers and stuff - and Mexicana handled our stuff wonderfully. It was all perfect.

We spent the evening assembling the bikes, and everything looks good. Today we took a little test ride along the lake to the village of Ajijic (Ah - hee - HEEK) and visited with some wonderful friends-of-friends Jim and Rhoda. They treated us to coffee in their beautiful home and explained why the lake is so shrivelled. Amazingly, Lake Chapala is at only 20% of its normal size. The pier at Chapala is possibly miles from the water. Reminds us of some of the water problems back home.

This afternoon was a bus trip down to the wonderful city of Guadalajara, wandering in the beautiful sunshine, sitting in cool green plazas, and exploring a huge market. Nancy´s eyes were as big as watermelons seeing how big that market was. And we found a wonderful bowl of posole (a soup of hominy and chicken) at one of the stores.

Tomorrow we start actually riding! We´ll ride along the shore toward Jocotepec, which is at the very east end of the lake, then come around on the north shore. Tomorrow´s a test-it-out day, so we don´t expect to get too far, and we hope to camp for the first time. That will have some challenges!  read more here... lee mas aquí... »