Well, Nancy had the audacity to leave me for a week last week and fly to Las Vegas for a reunion with her dad, brother, and her son Kamm. She had a blast. (She didn't do a lot of bicycling in Las Vegas... But she did purchase some things we were hoping to get.)

So I had to ride for the week on my own. Since our plan was to miss the Veracruz coast, I decided to make a trip to Xalapa, Veracruz, and Tlacotalpan, all on the Gulf Coast, all beautiful places.

Ya estamos en Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, muy cerca de la ciudad de Puebla. Cholula es la ciudad de donde el conquistador Hernán Cortés empezó el final de su asalto contra los Azteca en Tenochtitlán (la Ciudad de México de hoy). El pasó por el mismo paso que subimos nosotros, que ya es conocido como el Paso de Cortés.

En la semana pasada Nancy hizo un vuelo a Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos para una reunión con su familia, y se hace muy felíz verlos. Durante la semana Randy hizo un recorrido de Cholula a Xalapa, Veracruz, Veracruz, y a Tlacotalpan, una ciudad muy pequeña pero bonita en el sur del estado de Veracruz.

Mañana pensamos empezar el camino a Oaxaca, que debe durar mas or menos una semana.

Hay muchas fotos nuevas en la página de fotos o puedes verlos diréctamente en Flickr:

So there we were walking down the street in Cholula after visiting the 2000-year-old pyramid. They're completely redoing all their streets so everything is completely torn up. But we noticed a different kind of pit in the middle of the street, with a woman working in it, which seemed strange. It turns out that all this street work is supervised by archaeologists, and they had discovered a whole house and a burial site underneath it. They invited us to come down into the pit and see their find - a grave with ceramic offerings from about 500 A.D., the "Classic" period of Mesoamerican cultures. So we got educated about real-life archeology right in the middle of the torn-up streets of Cholula!

(Cholula was founded about 620 B.C. and was a major center from about 100 A.D. clear up until the Conquest in the 16th century.)

We're in Cholula, Puebla, very close to the city of Puebla. Cholula is the city from which Cortes the Conquistador used as a launching point for his attack on the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan (today's Mexico City). He went over the very pass we did, now known as the Paso de Cortes.

There are many new photos on the Photos page or you can view them directly on Flickr:

• South from Zacatecas
• Mexico City and around

Arriving in Teotihuacan a cyclist chased us down. Raymundo escorted us to the pyramids and invited us to his home and said we could leave our bikes at his place while we went into the city. Raymundo and his wife Rosa Norma hosted us for a night before and a night after we got back. More wonderful people!

We spent a week visiting incredible Mexico City, probably the world's largest city with close to 20 million inhabitants. Despite the warnings of everyone (as is common for any large city) we didn't have any trouble. No trouble in the streets, no trouble in the subway, no trouble on the buses. We felt comfortable walking and using the subway returning home the last night even though it was after 11pm.

We have now arrived in the land of phenomenal Meso-American cultures, and will find can't-pass-it-by ruins for the next few months. Our final approach to the north of Mexico City took us right up to two major archaeological sites, Tula and Teotihuacan. Then, smack in the middle of Mexico City are the ruins of the main temple of the Aztecs. We visited Tula first, then Teotihuacan and the Templo Mayor, but I'll describe them in their order, rather than ours.

In Querétaro we visited with Dulce and Andrei, whom we'd heard about from our Dutch cycle-touring friends Dick and Els. We had a delightful evening and day with them enjoying the area and hearing their stories. They're now temporarily retired from bike touring - and have a delightful 18-month-old named Emiliano and are living the life of a young family. From 1998 to 2001, with nearly no resources, they traveled from Querétaro south through Mexico, Central America, and South America all the way to our destination, Ushuaia. Unlike us, they had scarce resources and had to earn money along the way. Click here to read their whole story in both English and Spanish and see their pictures.

Queretaro was yet another delightful, interesting, old city, with cultural events and music on every corner, and a 500-year-old church on every block. We spent a couple of days taking it in and hearing Andrei and Dulce's stories. And Andrei took us (along with new Belgian friends Lorenzo and Sarah) on a tour of the city.

(Esta historia es debajo en inglés y español).

In Querétaro we visited with Dulce and Andrei, whom we'd heard about from our Dutch cycle-touring friends Dick and Els. We had a delightful evening and day with them enjoying the area and hearing their stories. They're now temporarily retired from bike touring - and have a delightful 18-month-old named Emiliano and are living the life of a young family. Here is their story, in both English and Spanish.

 

The Story of the Cyclonauts of Mexico, from Dick and Els' Website. Translation to English in Blue.

La Historia de los Ciclonautas

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