Biking West 2015 ‐ Up and Down the Mountain

2015-12-02

tl;dr: I peddled all the way up to 2733 meters and descended down the mountains to stay in the worst motel ever.

You know what is really great? Having brakes on your bicycle in the mountains.

I was told that once I reached the top of the pass from Miahuatlan to Puerto Angel it would be all downhill. Of course I was misinformed, but I am well used to that. People driving cars judge mountain roads differently. There were actually at least three passes I needed to climb to, the highest at 2733 meters (which is a literal high point for this trip). But I am tougher now. I can still breath, and I had no need to walk.

I strapped my camera to the front of my bicycle and took some video as I went down the mountain. The video goes on and on (and on). Watch until you get bored or skip around to see how the forest changes to jungle as I descend.

I knew I was over the final pass when the air turned humid. Oh humidity; how I did not miss you.

The jungle here is different than the Yucatan side. There seems to be more of a canopy, and in some places the ground looks almost clear. There are also more birds, or at least they are bigger and noisier.

As the sun started to set I began looking for a place to camp, but every time I thought I found a spot there was a Mexican. Biking through several towns revealed no hotels. Finally it was good and dark and traffic had increased when I spotted a "motel" sign. I eagerly pulled over. I've stayed in a lot of hotels. I can say with some certainty that this is by far the worst hotel I've ever seen. I don't know what surprised the ladies running it more, that a gringo appeared out of the night on a strange bicycle, or that the gringo would actually stay here. I've slept in abandoned buildings that were cleaner. The stench! Absolutely the only things it had going for it was I didn't have to camp in some Mexican's yard, and I didn't have to get run down in the dark by a taxi. The sheets seemed clean, but I think there were bad humors wafting from the mattress beneath, so I simply laid my tent over the bed like a tarp to trap the smell in. The room has no air conditioning, but there is a ceiling fan that is permanently set to "helicopter". There was a window facing the hall. I left that open to let air in. I decided I would get some sleep and would leave first thing in the morning.

The power went out. The room immediately started heating up. After much yelling in the hall the power came back on again. I was just drifting to sleep when something landed on my tent-tarp by my face. I turned around to see the curtain over the hall window was loose (I had fastened it by leaning one of my bags against it). I attempted to fix it when somebody stuck their face in to look at me. I yelled at them and closed the window. For some reason they had tossed a wet wad of paper at me. I can only speculate that they were testing my soberness. Not sure if the window would latch I pulled out my sleeping mat and set up on the cobblestone floor away from the window. Not trusting the door I pulled the mattress in front of it. I opened the back window, which faced a dog yard, which smelled even worse. After a really long time watching the hall window for more faces I finally fell asleep.