moving piem

Climbing to Espinoza del Diablo

It took a good five days to climb from the harbour of Mazatlan to Durango. Everyone wanted to support and help me on the way, and I was offered hugs, coffee, or food, almost every time I stopped on the way up!

At Llano Grande, I was hosted at the wonderful house of Maria del Carmen, the grand mother of Jorge. From the picture taken of his screen in Mazatlan, I could find the house of Carmelita! We had a great night in their beautiful house.

This stretch in the mountains is gorgeous, and tough too. It took me a full to climb from 200m to 1550m, cycling only 40km. Speed record broken, 60.3km/h. With a 40kg+ bicycle, it moves and shakes, a lot! And cold at night up there, I found frost on my tent. It was well worth every bit of it though, with landscapes changing from semi tropical forest to pine trees, lush green valleys, all the way to the large plains of Durango. ... more

Saying Adios to Miguel on the Malecón

I had an amazing time in La Paz, but now after more than four weeks here, it was time for me to keep moving. So I went back to the Club de Cruceros, and spoke to look for a ride.

I made a lot of friends: Miguel, Arturo, Maurizio, Ricardo, Julio, Zoydeth. Networked with many, many cyclistas: Rodrigo, the two French Families, Éveil nomade and À Chacun son Chemin, Dominic Poggi, Chris from Switzerland, Pedal across the Americas, Steve from Birmingham. Connected with many couch surfers, Eduardo, Matthew, Jesse, Cristian. Visited Zulu, Bryan and Marlene's beautiful wooden boat. And I also had the time to pass my PADI with Josiane, thank you Josiane!

As a bonus, the morning after I got back from Cabo Pulmo, I received my fixed camera, two months after it broke down in the Grand Canyon, and just in time for Isla Espiritu Santo. Thank you Lauren!

Morning after the rain

I had planned to stop for a week or two to get some work done, working remotely as a freelance developer. For the first few nights, I was camping in Miguel's garden, but Miguel soon proposed me to stay at his shop. So I had my couch in a room full of bicycles, roller skates, and ... longboards! And of course all the tools I could ever need to tune my bike. All of that at twenty meters from the beach. A dream!

So for the next two weeks, I would be opening the shop in the morning, attending the early clients to rent them bicycles or some other wheels. And in the afternoon, I would go get some more work done, connected from some café on the Malecón.

Brewing freshly grounded coffee, chatting with Miguel and his friends, sharing lunch at the market, swimming in the sunset, skateboarding at dusk on the Malecón, star gazing from the desert... After eight months travelling, working my eight or ten daily hours was not hard in such conditions. ... more

Going down towards the Sea of Cortez

I woke up in a beautiful field of date palms and went to get breakfast in the center of San Ignacio. Here I met Rodrigo, a cyclist from Mexico City. Rodrigo has been cycling from Ushuaia to Mexico, then flew to Alaska and started cycling South. After only 8 months on the road, he was just a few weeks away from getting back home and completing a 30,000km journey.

I left one hour after him, towards Santa Rosalia. After a few hours across the desert, I was looking down over the Sea of Cortez, on the East coast of Baja California, for the first time. In Santa Rosalia I went to check the church designed by Gustave Eiffel and met Rodrigo again. We installed our camp and shared diner next to the beach.

After a solid breakfast, we took the road. South of Santa Rosalia, the road goes by the village of Mulege before reaching reaches Bahia Concepción, a large and well protected bay in the Sea of Cortez where whales like to stay. Rodrigo went faster than me. After going pass a few beautiful beaches, I could find no sign of him and decided to sleep on the beach right at the end of the bay. ... more

Cirios y cardones

November 2nd is el Dia de los Muertos, All Saints' Day. There is not a lot of celebrations in this part of Mexico, but flowers were everywhere in the village and on the tombs along the road — there are many of them. I went for a coffee along the road and talked a bit with a couple from Tijuana. They were in their 40s, and wondered what I was doing here with my bicycle. After I explained them that it was my house, they invited me for coffee, and as they were walking off, I heard them talking: "Imagine we buy two bicycles ..."

As I was entering the Valle de los Cirios, the weather was getting hotter and the air drier. At one point I got afraid of running low on water and stopped near a group of trucks to ask for a water refill and have a chat. We laughed when we realised that when each of their truck needs about one liter of gasoline to do 4 kilometers, I use a bit less than half a liter to cook for a week.

One trucker told me: "Your friend is not far ahead". My friend?! A few kilometers later I spotted a touring bike outside a small restaurant and met Dominic, a cyclist from UK, inside. Dominic had been touring in the States for several months already, and he was making his way to Mexico City. ... more