Coastal Coasting

Before I begin this blog post I wanted to update on the timeline of my trip. Since the beginning I was planning to get down to Ushuaia by this upcoming winter. This was a plausible timeline, but it was causing me a lot of stress with being in certain places by certain times. It was keeping me from doing what I really wanted to do which was go slow, take in the new culture, and form deep connections with people along the way. In order to make the original plan I would have to be biking most of the time and not allow myself time to be in new places.

I finally decided that there really is no timeline for this trip now. I want to spend a couple years slowly working my way down Latin America. I want to stay in certain places for weeks at a time. I want to volunteer and explore regions deeper. After realizing I could do this I felt a massive weight off my shoulders.

The real limiter of this trip is money. Thankfully I have a car sitting at home doing nothing that I’m planning to sell that will be enough to last me for a while. I’ll miss my Jeep, but I’ll enjoy life out here much more.

In my last post, I was leaving Troncones. I had been in contact with a friend of a friend who was cycling right behind me and we decided to ride together. My new friend is Kassia and she has been riding from Vancouver with a goal to get to Chiapas, Mexico.

I was excited to have a buddy again as I was really enjoying forming connections with people, and when you spend all day together cycling through a new country, you really get to know someone.

Our first day riding together was great and we found a nice beach to wild camp on. We were planning to follow the coastal road for the next week as we headed to Chacahua.

Kassia likes to cook and I still enjoy eating my bag of beans and tortillas.

After dinner we walked down the beach to enjoy the sunset.

This section was exceptionally pretty coastal riding.

We stopped at a restaurant overlooking the ocean for some ceviche. We realized it was already about noon and we had only done 10km and had a good laugh about it.

We kept biking and the road went inland from the ocean and was a little less scenic. I spotted a cute little town by a river on our map and we decided to go there to try and find a place to camp.

We got to the river just in time for sunset.

There was a tiny restaurant on the river and the owners kindly let us set up camp there for the night. Kassia had spent a year in Ecuador and had a decent grasp on Spanish, which was a huge help as I was still learning.

There were a couple locals by the river going for a swim.

No showers out here so we end our day with a dip in the river.

The mountains were always just behind us inland.

As the sun went down, all the locals left and we had the whole area to ourselves for the night (along with so many mosquitoes)

Earlier in the day, a truck full of workers going home passed us and stopped. They handed us two fresh coconuts from the farm they worked at. The restaurant owner where we were camping was kind enough to cut them open for us to enjoy. Fresh coconuts are delicious.

It was nice to be back camping again. I hadn’t really been camping so much since Baja.

We wouldn’t be seeing the ocean much for the next few days. The main road was a couple kilometers inland. Thankfully there would be plenty of rivers and lagoons instead.

A big town we passed that was very colorful.

We rode into a small town that was on a massive lagoon in the hopes of finding somewhere to camp. As we got into town, a local who spoke great English introduced himself to us. He was a great host and helped us find plenty of options for good places to camp in town. He knew everyone in town and introduced us to a lot of people.

We had dinner at this restaurant that is just in the lagoon. The water is very shallow here and the restaurant is kind of on an island.

Kassia is quite a talented artist. She draws, paints, and sews a lot. I liked this one she painted.

Lots of birds in this lagoon.

The view back from the restaurant. We would setup camp in the alley of the building right in front here. The owners of the house were very friendly and showed us around town for ice cream later.

It wouldn’t be a good day without a couple sunset photos.

One of the last fisherman coming in with the outskirts of the city Acapulco right behind him.

We woke up ready to take on another day.

These paletas are great treats during the day. Kassia loves them and got me hooked on them also. They can be as cheap as $8 pesos ($0.50 USD) sometimes.

We found another good spot to camp along a passing river. We always had great luck talking to locals about where it was okay to camp.

A roaming donkey in the evening.

The typical cute town we would bike through multiple times a day. They were full of fresh fruit, juices, and other yummy snacks and treats.

A cute little baby cow.

Finally we were camping on the ocean. We had to ride a bit out of the way to come down here but it’s always worth it. The ocean down here in Mexico is some of my favorite. The water is nice and warm.

Here my dinner is some delicious roasted chicken tacos. Another very easy no cook dinner. I bought the chicken in a recent town and it was still warm for dinner.

Kassia enjoying dinner and a sunset.

A cute local cat that was very friendly. He even climbed into my hammock with me for a while.

My main diet for breakfast and lunch is fruit. There are beautiful fruit stands everywhere with tons of fresh fruit for very cheap.

We found another small riverside town to camp at. The locals were all very nice and curious why we were there. They don’t have travelers come through here ever.

This river had alligators in it so we joined the locals at the safe spot to swim in.

This river was very wide but they never get very deep here.

Kassia cooking some dinner at our campsite.

On our way out the next day a family stopped us and talked to us for a while. They were so nice and friendly and happy to see some tourist come through. They had a sweet head of an alligator from the river. They were corn farmers in the area and gave us a ton of freshly cooked corn.

They also had a cat who was looking very comfy.

Leaving Guerrero for Oaxaca! I had heard lots of good things about Oaxaca so I was happy to finally get to see this state.

We crossed this river which looked really pretty so we decided to try and camp on it.

We followed a gravel road to a worksite were we asked the overseer if we could camp here and they said of course! We found a nice big table right by the river.

River means post ride dip of course.

There was also some cute sheep along the river.

We went for a little walk up the river with our extra time in the sun.

Finished up the evening with some hammock time.

The corn the farmers had given to us this morning. It was delicious!

The next day riding would end us in Chacahua. I place I knew little of but had heard so much about.

These cows are pretty funny looking and I like them.

The final section to Chacahua was on some nice gravel road.

The main part of Chacahua is kind of an island that you have to cross a lagoon on a boat.

Waiting for the boat.

It was hard to get a good photo of my bike on the boat as it was a very quick ride, this was the best I could do.

I didn’t know how long I was going to spend here but I knew right away I loved it here.

There were a couple of these spots right on the beach where you can camp with a bunch of other people. I picked this place because all you had to do to camp was spend $100 pesos ($5 USD) per day at the restaurant to camp.

The sunsets here aren’t as good as the beach is facing east.

The Chacahua beach from the jetty.

A lot of people come here for the surf. I would try to learn, but I never got very good. I really enjoyed watching people surf, though.

The sunset may have been worse but the sunrise was absolutely incredible. It rising right over the ocean here and is the first time on my trip to see it like this. I loved it because the sunrise would wake me up every single day. It was a great way to start the day.

Birds here are very active in the morning. There were plenty of fish in this water to feed a lot of birds.

I’d end up spending way more time in Chacahua than I though. Nearly three weeks to be exact. It’s hard to describe what makes this place so amazing but it was one of my favorite stops on this trip yet. I was so relaxed all day everyday. The place was full of other people who I got along with so well and it felt like a nice little community. I didn’t take too many photos during my time here but I have a few more to share.

Of course most of them will be sunrise / sunset photos, they are my favorite.

Going out for a sunrise surf.

I was sleeping in my tent the first few days but quickly switched to my hammock and never looked back. The temperature here was perfect for hammock camping as it never got very cold.

Dylan, my cyclist friend who I sailed with, was here now also. We finally got to catch up after nearly two months. Kassia was here also but would leave only after a few days to head to Oaxaca.

One of the days we got to help release a bunch of baby sea turtles. I love love love baby animals and sea turtles especially. Here are way too many photos of them.

Go little fellas go.

Walking back from the sea turtles with some friends. I formed some amazing friendships here. I’m so glad I now how the time to be able to stay at places like this for a few weeks. If I just stayed a few days my experience would have been a fraction of what it was.

One of my favorite local dogs, frijola. I started playing chess a lot here, as well. I’m not good by any means but I love to play.

One of my buddies, Micah, going for a surf. I was taking some photos for him.

Some of the people here were really good. This guy was doing a headstand on his longboard.

Sadly my phone was stolen during my time here. Theft is very rare here but someone took it from my bike. It was quite a bummer as I knew years of photos on my phone would be lost forever. My parents were able to help my get my phone replaced with insurance at a cheap price and then ship it to Oaxaca, my next destination.

And just like that my time in Chacahua was coming to end. I was heading to Puerto Escondido and then taking a bus up to Oaxaca to get there for my phone. One of my really good buddies, Logan, on the right side In this picture, had planned to come meet me in Oaxaca for a week long motorcycle trip. That trip was amazing and I’ll have a blog post about it soon after this one.

Puerto Escondido was just okay. It’s a big party place and after my time in Chacahua I wasn’t feeling that energy very much. I was only here for a day waiting for my bus the next day.

There was an incredible sunset, at least.

The next day I rode a night bus to Oaxaca which was super fast and windy and hard to sleep in. Here I would spend a week seeing some old friends and meeting more new ones before taking off with Logan on our motorcycles.

Thank you all for reading along still.