rfay's blog
Zacatecas band winding through the streets
In Zacatecas there is a tradition (I think especially on Saturday nights) of bands winding their way through the streets - kind of a roving party. People follow them around and drink mezcal. We heard one on Saturday night and followed it all over the city - it seemed like we went though every little alley. They were amazing entertainers. They always had something new going. The funniest thing was when we were going through a narrow alley and a dog was barking at us from a balcony above. The whole party stopped, and the band started a piece that involved barking. Every so often they'd stop and we (the whole crowd) would bark back at the dog!
Update: New Pictures and a Podcast (Audio)
- Our location: We're in Parral, about 200 miles south of Chihuahua, having exited the southeast end of the Copper Canyon region. Nancy did up a wonderful new map of our route (below) so you can see our route.
- New pictures: There are a lot of new pictures on the photos page.
- Podcast: We have started an experimental podcast (audio listen) for you. Click the Podcast button on the top of the page.
Candelario Viniegra Chavez in his 6th grade classroom
Tarahumara girl at Curarare falls
We're now in Copper Canyon, the land of the Tarahumara. In Mexico they call this the Sierra Tarahumara (the Tarahumara mountains). [We tend to agree with the Mexicans about the perspective - it's *mountains*. ]
The Tarahumara people who have lived here for centuries are a fascinating people. The women are brightly dressed and the men have a special skirt that seems specially adapted to running, for which they are world famous.
The Tarahumara speak Spanish generally only as a second language (if at all) and live dispersed all over this region. They might live many, many hours on a winding mountain path from the nearest town or road. They seem quite shy, but this little girl gave Nancy a very pretty smile.
Efrén and his family in Humirá
A couple of nights ago we stayed in Humirá with some of the most impressive people we've met on the trip. Humirá is right before the really big climb out of the second canyon out of Creel, and we got there about 4:30, knowing we had about 25K and more than 2000 feet of climbing ahead of us. We stopped to chat with a farmer out working with his whole family on clearing trimmed wood from their apple orchard. When we decided to bail for the night we rode back and asked them if we could stay at their place. That's how we met Efrén. We helped with the wood-hauling until dusk, and then set up the tent. They fed us beautiful blue corn tortillas in the evening (we got to see the whole process). read more here... lee mas aquí... »
Luis Alfonso Valencia - Bicycle commuter near Navojoa
Do you notice the wonderful reflectors he has for safety on the back of the bike? They're discarded CDs. So why do we use anything else? We're going to try to get some for our bikes.
In the flat agricultural region from Navojoa to the sea we saw many, many cyclists, mostly on bikes like Luís's. In one small city we saw three bike shops in one small region of the downtown. And we've seen bike shops in several towns we've been in. We're just hoping they have some of the parts we need when the time comes.
Website Updates - Hope you like it
We re-did the website - Hope you like it! You can now get to lots of things on the links up on top. Some of the changes:
- Info from all of the trips is available in order if you want it that way. It's kind of hard to read everything backwards! So for example, you can choose "Canada" from the top of the screen and read about our Canadian adventures in order.
- Buttons on the top lead you to the most-commonly-requested articles.
- I added a "Contact" page in case people want to get in touch with us.
Big Trip Photos: Latin America 2006-2009
- Nancy's Art or (as a slideshow).
- We also have our favorites from the trip here.
- Canada Photos - Starting from Inuvik
- USA West Coast Photos
- Mexico: