It has been a while since my last post. To be honest, I was dealing with a lot of mental challenges this past section that made riding very hard. I will share more about these challenges later in this post.
I knew that traveling for this long of time would be full of up’s and downs, but this was the first real down of the trip so I had to learn how to work with it and push through it. I have come out if it feeling much stronger and ready to see and share what is ahead.
Right as I was planning to leave Mazatlán, I had come down with an illness that caused me to delay a few more days to recover. The route I was taking to Durango wasn’t going to be easy. It would involve a couple days of riding nothing but uphill. The first few days before the climb were short and slow as I was still recovering.
I was really enjoying experiencing these small Mexicans towns so I would often get a cheap hotel room and walk around the towns for the afternoon. These small towns felt so lively because most residents spend a lot of time outside.
Pretty much every town would have some beautiful old church building that was the center of town.
I climbed up on my hotel roof to catch this wonderful sunset. I was riding inland from the coast so the mountains were getting closer and closer.
One of the towns featured a place called “El famoso de Pay”, which means The Famous Pie. With pie being one of my favorite treats I had to stop in. I was surprised to find out that the owner was American so I spent a lot of time talking with him and enjoying his pie.
He was from New York but lived for a while in California. He ran a catering company that had the Rose Bowl as a client, which allowed him to be the caterer for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. This ball here was signed by Pele, famous celebrities, and lots of other interesting people.
The finished product. I was able to watch him assemble the pie right in front of me while learning about him.
It was delicious. It was a banana custard pie that is very popular in Mexico. I prefer a nice baked fruit pie, but it was nice to get to try a style of pie I have never had before. I had purchased a whole pie so it would last me another day.
His shop had a wonderful view of the town church, said to be built around the 1500s.
I found a wonderful wild campsite after riding a few more hours with a tummy full of pie. Sadly this would be one of the very few times I slept in my tent this section. I really enjoy finding places like this to sleep for free, but I would spend lots of nights in hotel beds as I wanted to spend time exploring Mexican towns and cities.
The highway I was riding was incredible. It was an old highway that has been replaced with a more direct toll road so almost all of the traffic takes the new road. That meant I had this old highway to myself most of the time. The riding was extremely tough as it was almost entirely all uphill all day. Some days doing as few as 35km in 6 hours of riding.
The fuel that keeps me going.
I was somewhere waaaaay down there just a few days ago. I had finished the nonstop uphill section as I had reached 2500m (8000ft), and the rest would be a better mix of up and downhill as well.
The views from this high up made the tough climbing worth it.
Leaving the state of Sinola and into Durango! I usually like breaking my blogs into regional sections such as states, but I would be crossing so many states in a short period of time. This post will contain photos from about 6 states.
The road was now following a cliff edge the winded it’s way along.
The view from a famous point know as “El Espinazo del Diablo.
This area was all pine forest, one of my favorite trees. It felt like I was in Colorado almost.
After a stay at a hostel in La Cuidad, I took off to head through Mexiquillo, a National park in Mexico. The first sections he all these wild rock structure the had the landscape of another planet.
The main draw of the park is this cool waterfall.
The road from the park to the next city was some much missed gravel that was an old railroad. It was a fantastic section.
Pine forests and rivers. I felt very at home out here.
The road cut through a lot of rock which made for some really cool ravines.
An old tunnel from the railroad. I stopped here to enjoy some bean tortillas because this spot felt really nice.
I reached the town of El Salto and decided to stay the night here. This town was the first time where I felt really out of place. A lot of places I go I’m usually the only gringo, but here I really felt different. Pretty much everyone was staring at me as if I was a different creature. I didn’t feel threatened by any means, but people seemed very confused why I was there. My waitress from where I ate dinner even asked me to take a selfie with her on my way out which I found rather funny. I really enjoyed the town and spent a few hours walking up and down the main streets and observing everything.
From El Salto I was heading towards the capital city Durango.
On the road this little pup followed me as soon as he saw me. I had to stop and then I fed him about half a tub of peanut butter and the rest of my tortillas. He clearly had never had a spoon of peanut butter before because instead of licking the peanut butter, he would bite the whole spoon at once haha.
It was pretty tough after this because the dog followed me for about 30 minutes and it was really hard to ride away from him.
The rest of the riding into Durango was easy and peaceful.
Durango was the first real big Mexican city I had experienced so far. Immediately after getting there I decided to stay two days instead of one to get to experience the most of it.
I found a hotel, took a shower, and then quickly went out to walk around and see the city.
I personally would not like a side of scorpion with my tequila.
The city center was absolutely fantastic. Mexican Christmas celebration is truly something else. The city is full of life and color.
The center was covered with cool arts and crafts stalls and plenty of delicious and cheap street food.
I managed to catch a showing of Grinch on Ice also.
After two days in Durango I had decided to take a bus to Guadalajara. I had recently been talking with my parents who were going to Playa Mujeres, near Cancun, for the holidays. I realized I could fly very cheaply from Guadalajara (Second largest city in MX) to Cancun to see them. The only way to get there in time was to take a 9hr bus.
Even though I was skipping on riding a large section, I didn’t mind too much. This would give me more time to experience the city and travel side of Mexico instead of spending a lot of time biking.
Also the buses in Mexico are AMAZING. There are buses going pretty much from everywhere to everywhere all day everyday. This bus had such nice comforts such as a tv, wifi, and very comfortable seats. I’ve heard other travelers say Mexican buses are some of the best in the world.
It definitely made me a bit envious being from America, a country that heavily ignores public transit.
Guadalajara was nothing short of amazing. I was staying in a travelers hostel here which I love to do so much. Hostels are amazing ways to meet lots of other travelers. This hostel also held many weekly events to bring everyone together.
I had a few days here before flying to Cancun that I spent making some great friendships and exploring the massive and wonderful city.
I didn’t take many pictures of my time here and none of these photos really give a great representation of how great the city is. It is definitely worth traveling to if you ever get the chance.
This is Dany, a good friend I made who is from the French side of Switzerland.
She really likes to eat crickets, a popular snack here in Mexico. I tried them and while I didn’t hate them, I also didn’t love them.
After a few days in Guadalajara it was time to fly to see my parents. I was really excited since we weren’t originally sure when we would see each other again and this plan to see them came together in the week before.
My parents resort had set up a ride for me from the airport and inside the car was a cooler full of beer to which I helped myself.
My two days with my parents was really really nice. Getting to spend this time catching up with my parents was definitely the best part, but the food and drink wasn’t bad either. The resort was all inclusive so we enjoyed lots of amazing food together and even more delicious wine. It was quite a dramatic change of pace compared to my traveling before.
The two days with my parents went by quick and before I knew it I was back in Guadalajara. Here I spent NYE with an amazing group of travelers from the hostel where we partied and danced until the sun came up.
Leaving Guadalajara was when things started to get really hard for me. I had made some great friendships and really was enjoying a different side of traveling as opposed to biking all day. I was also really starting to feel the loneliness of traveling alone in another country.
I was heading towards the coast but it would end up taking me a long time. I would be spending more days in hotels in cities instead of biking. I kept telling myself I would ride the next day only to wake up and decide to stay another day. I was still enjoying my time being in Mexico a lot, I just wasn’t wanting to bike and I didn’t want to push myself too much.
During this time I was heavily thinking about if I even wanted to continue with the bicycle or not. Every time I would ride it would be a mental battle with these negative thoughts telling me to stop and take a bus. I was feeling really weak and wanted things to be easy. It’s not that I didn’t want to bike anymore, but that my mental attitude was making it very very difficult to enjoy the biking, which was a large portion of my traveling. I was beginning to think if I was even strong enough or capable of biking all the way to Ushuaia.
I hoped that these feelings would pass and I kept pedaling on. I shared these feelings on my Instagram story one day and received a ton of positive messages from my friends and family following along. It did a lot help me keep going, I don’t think I could do this without the support of you all.
In one of the towns I stayed in I walked past a nice lady who talked to me in English. It turns out she was the Mayor of the town! She was extremely nice and gave me some homemade soup for dinner.
With my struggling mindset and not very scenic riding, I decided to take a day off but also make some forward progress so I hopped on a bus to Colima. I spent a few days here before I started the ride that would take me back to the coast.
I had finally made it to the coast again. It was another real mental struggle of a day, paired with some hot and humid riding that my body had not adapted to yet. I made it to a cute little tourist town and decided to stay at a hotel because I was exhausted. I found an awesome place with American owners who cut me a really good deal on a bed.
Some dogs playing on the beach. Sadly they didn’t let me get close enough to pet them :(.
This sunset on the beach was just what I needed to give me motivation and energy. I was beginning to be reminded of the reasons I loved bicycle travel.
A new day began and I felt strong again.
These next few days I would be riding towards Troncones, Guerrero. I had a friend living there who I met on my first bicycle trip across America. These days riding involved a lot of relaxing on the beach, just how it should be.
This coastline of Michoacán was incredible. It was hilly and dramatic which are my favorite coastlines. It makes for harder riding but it was worth it. My mental barriers had broken and I was no longer holding myself back with negative thoughts. I was enjoying and loving every moment as I once had. My body had adapted to this different climate pretty quick and it made me very appreciative of how adaptable the human body can be.
The coastline road involed many bridges over rivers which fed water back into the ocean.
Some nice smooth paved cobble.
I made it to a small town called Maruata that some friends mentioned was worth visiting.
This cute little kid of the owners of the campground was showing me all of his toys and loved playing with me.
I had no idea what to expect for this beach but I was absolutely blown away. It was one of the most dramatic beaches I’ve ever visited and I luckily got here right as the sun was setting.
I hiked up some of the rocks to watch the sunset and it was so beautiful. The water was so blue and the colors of the sky contrasted so nicely.
I met some Mexican tourists who invited me to their campsite for some tequila. We drank and talked late into the night before I returned to my tent for some sleep.
Back to dramatic coastal riding the next day.
A motorcyclist in a small town showed me a spot on my map that was a local fisherman spot on the beach that would be a good place to camp. I found the dirt track to the cove and followed it to see how the spot was.
Looks like it’s going to be a good spot.
It was a wonderful little spot that I had entirely to myself. I explored the small cover, swam, ate some bean tostadas, and then relaxed and slept in my hammock.
The next day I stopped and enjoyed a breakfast beer on the beach. I was really enjoying my time on the Mexican coastline so far.
I found a campsite on the beach that had a friendly dog to keep my company.
The sunset was fantastic. I never get tired of watching the sky change.
The final day riding to Troncones where I would be staying about a week with some friends.
I had met Matteo on my first bike tour at a WarmShowers host as we were both on our first bike trips across the USA. After his trip, Matteo found his way to Troncones where he works as a nature guide. He and his girlfriend Tia had recently driven a van down which is were I slept during my time here.
Troncones is a more upscale hippie-ish tourist town with lots of yoga retreats and the like. While it’s not exactly my type of town I did meet a lot of amazing people and made some really good friendships. My time here was mostly spent relaxing and spending time with friends.
One of the friends I made was Zoe. She’s a surfer girl from Canada who lives here and makes a living tattooing and shaping surfboards. We took a nice little bike and hike to some nearby caves one day.
The hike was steep and we were covered in sweat by the end of it.
We finally reached the entrance and it was so cool. It looked massive from up here.
Hiking down into the cave.
Zoe next to some mineral tower. As we went deeper into the cave it only made the cave feel bigger and deeper.
We stood in here in silence for a while taking in the beauty of the cave. This cave has petroglyphs from an ancient Mexican tribe so there is a lot of history here. Sadly the petroglyphs have been vandalized and are hard to find.
We got done just in time to catch a nice sunset in the ride back.
This is Madam, Zoe’s cute little dog. She was such a sweetie and I already miss her.
This ends my time in Troncones and ends this blog post. Thank you again all for following along and providing the much needed words of support. It really does a lot to help give me strength in the hard times. Future blog posts should not be this sporadic and spread out.
I’m currently in Zihuatanejo, a town just outside of Troncones where I finished this blog post. Another cyclist named Kassia who is a friend of Erica (who I cycled in Baja with), has connected with me and reached the same town also as we plan to ride together for the next bit. We just met today and had an awesome time getting to know each other so I’m looking forward to traveling with a friend again.