Today has just been hot and nasty and just full on mountain climbing all morning. I stopped at this little place to get some breakfast now. My coffee, bananas, greensfirst, and panaderia only last me 3 hours. I'm already famished. It is so hot and humid it is just nuts. I have been dripping since i started this morning. I've drank 4 bottles already and when I pee it's bright yellow. That's not a good sign. My life at this point has been reduced to my cycling bib, shoes, and socks when I ride and boardshorts and my flip flops when I'm done. It's to hot to wear a shirt on or off the bike.
I simply can't drink enough water. I'm drinking and drinking and drinking and I'm still thirsty.
This breakfast tastes delicious.
I'm still totally shocked at how loud the people here blare there sounds systems. I mean this one guy right now has music so loud there is no way the whole village can't hear it. It's like the dude assumes he is the village DJ and he just has it cranked up.
The kid behind me is watching TV on his cell phone and everybody here has television to watch their telenovas at night. We truly live in a small world now where technology seems to keep us all connected and aware. I've been surprised to see how the remotest places here have access and use the same technology.
So I'm riding 92 miles today. I have 58 left and this local kid told me it's flat to Salina Cruz now. I can only hope because the first parting this ride was a cruciried. That's when you get crucified during a part or the whole ride.
I just rode another hour. I'm 76 kilometers away now. It is Africa hot dude. And the headwind is just ridiculous. I drank 2 bottles of water and I just downed a cold powerade and I'm still way thirsty.
It's 3:19pm. I've ridden 80 grueling miles. It's been close to 100 degrees today. Almost 5000ft of climbing. I am just totally trashed. The last 35 miles have had the worst headwind since I left San Diego. Just terrible. I mean BAAD! I'm pulling the plug here. A local told me about an Internet place so I can get ahold of Dane.
Update-well the Internet place didn't have wi-fi so I got a ride with a guy the last 12 miles to Salina Cruz. The headwind was a real JOKE. I mean just insane. I already fir totally destroyed from today's ride. By that I mean I can't string together a sentence. I'm stumbling around and every part of my body is barking at me.
So this guy dropped me off at a $20 hotel. I got cleaned up. I walked to the bank. Then to this GREAT little italian coffee company. I'm drinking an amazing caramel coffee something or another.
The longer and more grueling your bike ride is the better everything taste and feels later on. Your clothes never felt so good. A shower never felt so good. And food never tasted so good. Life gets reduced to enjoying the heck out of the simplest things. This perhaps is one of the greatest things cycling does for me. It reminds me over and over again that it's the little things in life that bring so much joy.
I have also been reminded lately of the dramatic economic disparity that exists in our world. Most of the world lives off maybe a few hundred dollars a month. So many people are fiscally poor here yet give me a smile and a wave as I ride by. Many even give me a thumbs up. I'm humbled by this and it often keeps me going for miles and it makes me wonder who the rich people really are. The guy who grows his own food, rides a horse, and smiles at strangers or all those other people I know back home chasing their tails.
Less is more. Sadly everyone I know seems to be running the other direction. In fact sprinting towards accumulating things. Material things continue to be the dominate way people define themselves in the culture I grew up in. Rare is the person who finds a way to exist beyond this myopic way of going through life. Such a person to me is the enlightened one. The one who sees not with the eyes but with faith.
Ride4water via Iphone4