When last we updated we were in the charmingly named town of Tamazunchale, where we took the laziest rest day ever.  Mostly, we laid in bed and read novels, only venturing outside once to buy food supplies.  It was great!  Since then, we have climbed back up and over the beautiful Sierra Gorda mountains and into the arid Mexican highlands surrounding Mexico City.  We spent an amazing night in a tiny town church celebrating the villages patron’s saint day and learning their traditional dance.  Back in the highlands we stayed with another welcoming host and then did some fast riding to visit ancient ruins – including the third largest pyramid on the planet!

Now, some pictures and highlights.   

Climbing over the Sierra Gorda again took us three days of effort.  On the first day we enjoyed the climbing and felt good, but the clouds rolled in around 2pm and visibility was so bad that we decided to call it a day.  We got a hotel in a little hill town and I (Daisy) managed to sleep from 7pm until 7am the next day.  This was after I ate most of a large papaya and a big dinner of mole chicken with lentils.  I was stuffed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we hoped to make a lot of miles (70?), but then reality hit us hard.  There was still about 5,000′ of climbing to do that day, and there was no way.  We did stop for ice cream in a little town after the one bit of downhill for the day.  After that it was up, up, up to about 8,000′.  We entered the high altitude pine forest, which was beautiful, but we were very tired well before our intended stop.

That is when something amazing happened!

The next little town we came to was called Nogales, and seemed to consist of a few houses, some unfinished, and a tiny little church with a nice flat yard.  We decided to try and get permission to stay in the yard of the church. We couldn’t find anyone, but a couple of teenagers told us that the whole town was at a party up the road. Following their directions, we took a little road a mile into the hills where sure enough, the whole town was having a party.  They had a big tent set up outside a church, with music playing, big pots of tea and punch, and steaming plates of food. Apparently, it is the day of the patron saint of the town, so there was a big fiesta!

As we rolled up, all the ladies in the food line looked at us curiously, and by the time we parked our bikes and walked over to say hi they had already dished up two plates and sent them over! We were made to sit down with the young folks crowding around us to eat. As we ate they kept bringing us more things to drink – soda, black tea, fruit tea. This whole time we chatted with a growing group of village kids. Eventually we finally got to asking about where we could camp. We got permission to camp “anywhere”, but the food ladies insisted that we sleep in the church kitchen, where it would be warmer.

At this point the party was winding down. Jason and I helped put the chairs away, and Jason helped carry a heavy table back to someone’s house. The matron of the house insisted I go along with him, and then she sat us down in her kitchen to share some spiced Mexican coffee and a crazy fruit that they like to eat with coffee. We spent a while there, and then returned with her and her family to the church. Once there, we were roped into dancing with a small group of the local folks. We learned the traditional dance of that area and had a fun time. Of course, we were really tired by the end of this! We laid down in the church kitchen and were asleep before the dancing was even over. What a night!

The next day we finally emerged from the lush mountains and re-entered the arid Mexican highlands.  Not too much to remark about this day except that we finally were able to do decent mileage again.  Also, it was my birthday!  Not that we really remembered or did much to celebrate except for getting a nice(r) hotel room in the next bustling town.  Oh!  We did each eat an entire bag of potato chips in celebration.

 

We entered the city of Pachuca on another festival day (aren’t we lucky?), and found the central plaza swarming with police and workers setting up stages for musicians.  Apparently it was exactly a month before Christmas and time to light the giant bizarre looking Christmas tree in the central square.  As we later saw, there were even fireworks.  We spent the night with Enrique and his family.  His mother really took us under her wing and insisted we eat, eat, eat.  She also spoke very slowly and clearly so that Jason could understand everything.  His Spanish skills are getting so much better.

Finally, our last highlight for this section was the ruins of Teotihuacan.   We spent the morning visiting the archaeological ruins, which were visually stunning. It was strange to realize, however, that the pyramids and other buildings were mostly just lumps in the field until the Mexican government got to rebuilding it with concrete. We weren’t sure how authentic the rebuild was, but it was still fun to imagine what the site was like a thousand years ago.

Also, the on-site museum was excellent. We particularly enjoyed watching the school field trip groups walking through. The little kids oohed and ahed at the human remains section.

Now, we are heading off into the countryside again to explore some backroads and head south towards Oaxaca.  This upcoming area promises more mountains (no surprise) and also more jungle.  Finally, there are few more random photos I would like to share that didn’t fit anywhere else:

 

This past week, we struck out eastward into the Sierra Gorda mountains. We saw a green spot on our map marking the Reserve, looked it up in our Lonely Planet guide, and learned that the area was “not to be missed.” And that was true! We had several days of stunning scenery as we climbed up to 9000 feet and back down to nearly sea level. This detour, of sorts, replaced our trip to see the butterfly reserve since it was not open yet.

The first night out of Guanajuato we stayed in a hostel in San Miguel de Allende. This town is extremely touristy, and was described to us as the Mexican version of Disneyland. It was bizarre to see so many English-specking tourists, we were disappointed that everything was so expensive, and we were happy to leave the next morning. However, I must admit that our hostel was one of the cleanest places that we’ve stayed at in Mexico.

From there we rode on less-busy roads through an agricultural area to the entrance to the Sierra Gorda Reserve. We entered the area by dropping off the edge of a plateau into a massive valley. Every few miles there would be little towns. Eventually we made it to the town of Santa Catarina where we planned to spend the night. We stayed in a barely-marked hotel which seemed almost new – for $12 US. The family running it lived in the front, and allowed us in their kitchen to use the big gas stove to cook. We ate our meal while the neighbor kids watched TV at the other end of the room. After dinner, the matron insisted on doing our dishes!

The Sierra Gorda Reserve has some 14 different ecosystems. It was amazing to pass through so many in just a couple days! We started in a desert with cactus, and as we gained elevation we entered a thick forest. We enjoyed looking back on the valley we left far, far below. On the descent we entered a forest so thick and teeming with life that we decided it was indeed a jungle. We spent two nights in the town of Jalpan, and celebrated our 1-yr anniversary with local fruit nieves. We also enjoyed the hospitality of Rodrigo from WarmShowers. (Thanks Rodrigo!)

After our rest day in Jalpan we climbed out of the park on a wet, chilly day that didn’t get over 45°F. brrr. As we descended to the town of Xilitla our hands and feet got quite cold. We were shocked at the size and haphazard (even for Mexico) building practices of this town! And also the high hotel prices! Luckily we found a campground. The next day we made it to Tamazunchale, which is nearly at sea level. We are definitely in a lush jungle, and have seen more banana and mandarin trees than dogs.

It was tough to pry ourselves away from the many delights of Durango, but we did it.  Many miles of open plains, small towns, and windy days awaited us.  Our route south from Durango took us over a few small mountains, but mostly kept us at about 6,000′ and riding through agricultural ranch lands.  As we made it farther south we started to pass through rich colonial mining towns with centuries of history and hundreds of thousands of people.  Our time in this area has been highlighted by wonderful hosts that we met through luck or Warmshowers (a touring cyclists hospitality network).

Our first few days out of Durango were a bit challenging mentally.  It rained for at least a bit for the first four days, and the wide open vistas just made us realize how far we had to ride between towns.  Luckily, there were decently sized towns every 50 to 60 miles where we could stay the night and resupply.  These towns were really neat for us to visit because they were so obviously off the tourist track.  We were able to find incredibly cheap hotels and ride through their streets looking for food and water.  Sure, everyone stared at us like we were crazy, but they were all friendly and, well, maybe we are a little crazy.

In the small agricultural town of Sain Alto we stayed in a completely unmarked hotel that was actually a one-bedroom apartment for $16.  We also reached another major milestone: 7000 miles!    Jason and I made celebratory beef stew for dinner, spending close to an hour riding through town searching for a carniceria (butcher-shop).

 

 

 

 

 

It was a few more days of crippling headwinds and occasional thunderstorms before we came to our next big city: Zacatecas.  This city is a UNESCO world heritage site, and for good reason.  The rich silver mines in the area made many folks rich, and in turn they built opulent buildings and created an unforgettable city center.  We spent an afternoon here and then flew out of town on the main highway.

We spend a lot of time on the busy roads in these big cities, and feel surprisingly safe doing so.  There are usually at least three lanes, and the cars seem to accept that we can take a whole lane for ourselves.  There was a distinct moment I (Daisy) remember from leaving Zacatecas.  We were riding downhill on a three-lane highway and I felt perfectly safe.  Since when does riding on the highway in a major Mexican city feel safe to me?  Well, since now I guess!

The only downside to Zacatecas was that we lost Tyler there, although not permanently.  He lost track of us and decided to stay in town for an extra day to buy a map, and we continued on to the next small town.  Tyler doesn’t have a phone, and we didn’t have any internet, so neither party knew what happened to the other.  It turned out just fine though, since we met again at our host’s house in the next major city of Aguascalientes (Hotwaters).

MJ, our host for the night, is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in this lovely city.  He treated us to a downtown walking tour and introduced us to Cafe de Olla: Mexican Coffee that is sweetened and flavored with a variety of spices.  He also gifted us a list of important Mexican vocabulary and slang that he has gathered over the last months – very useful!

The next night we had some impromptu hosts in the form of Mexican Red Cross first responders.  We saw their ambulance depot and asked if there was a spot for us to camp there for the night.  After they had absorbed our story (and called the boss!) they welcomed us in and showered us with questions.  They encouraged us to visit the town center and the nearby county cemetery, which was surprisingly lovely and peaceful.

The very next day we rode into the roaring metropolis of Leon, which has over 2 million people living in the metropolitan area.  We stayed with Fernando and Frida, two fantastic young high school teachers.  They warmly welcomed us into the home, and the following day we commuted to work with Fernando and spoke with his chemistry class.  For an hour we were peppered with questions by excited and giggly high-schoolers that wanted to know everything about our trips, our studies, and our lives.  This was absolutely a highlight of our trip, and we felt so honored to be given the opportunity to meet so many young people!

Fernando also arranged one more night with another host: his little sister.  We stayed with her for a night in the stunningly beautiful town of Guanajuato, another world heritage site that earns its status.  Laura is a first-year chemistry student at the university here, and we had a great time chatting with her in her home near the college.  After we left her house the next morning we didn’t make it too far before being completely charmed by this city.  It is a city built into a deep ravine that is filled with tiny alleys, charming plazas, street venders, stairs, and colorful houses.  We decided to spend two days here to rest, wander, get lost, and plan our next couple weeks in Mexico.  This country just continues to charm us, and we are looking forward to what the next mountain range will bring.

In a day or two we’ll put up a post filled with pictures of Guanajuato, this stunning city.  This post is already long enough!!  Of course though, there are many more photos to share.  Here are some of them: