Mexico City and south on a bike
My Diary – Mexico City to Oaxaca
14/01/07 Mexico City
Arrived in Mexico City airport late at night. Stayed the night in Hotel Aeropuerto, within half a mile of the airport.
15/01/07 Mexico City
Cycled to the Zocalo (main square of the city) and found a hotel within a few blocks. I mainly rested today, but took in a few sights around the Zocalo including the Cathedral and the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.
16/01/07 Mexico City
Visited a big park in the city called Chapultepec via the metro, went to see the house of Maximillian which is perched on a hill in the park.
17/01/07 Mexico City
Took the metro up to Indios Verdes and then took a bus to Teotehuacan which is a huge ancient city which predates the Aztecs. Had a chat with a girl from Argentina and agreed to meet up with her in a couple of days.
18/01/07 Mexico City
Took the metro out to Chapultepec park again and walked through it to get to the National museum of archaeology - huge place.
19/01/07 Mexico City
Had a bit of a crisis when my debit card failed to work in a cash machine, and then another and another. The banks did want to help so I phoned my own bank. They said that they had deliberately stopped my card working because a withdrawal had been made from Mexico which they class as high risk, even though they acknowledged that I had told them beforehand that I was going to Mexico - Twats. Anyway they fixed it.
Met up with the Argentinian girl. We went to the Palacio Nacional to have a look at some of Diego Rivera´s murals, then had a few beers and then went on a tour bus around the city, which was not much fun for me as the guide was speaking rapid fire Spanish and so I hardly understood anything he said. By this time I had run out of conversation (I think I did pretty well as I managed to hold a conversation in Spanish for more than an hour which is a record for me) so I left the Argentinean girl (Note Moira: nothing else happened) and went to read the book I had bought earlier in a market stall: The teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castańˇ¤ˇ.
20/01/07 Mexico City to Amecameca (50 miles approx)
Today I started the journey. It took about an hour to get out of Mexico City and the traffic was not all that bad. I did find it a pain in the arse that at junctions without traffic lights there does not seem to be any rule as to who has right of way. Found my way onto a fairly quiet road to the town of Milpa Alta and soon afterwards took an even smaller road to a village called Juchitepec (big downhill) and then onto Amecameca where I could see the volcanoes Ixtacihatl and Popocatapetl. The latter is active and smokes constantly. A few years ago it had an eruption which sent clouds of ash over Mexico City and closed the Airport.
21/01/07 Amecameca to Cholula via Paso de Cortes between two volcanoes (45 miles approx)
Big old climb up to 3800m (Mexico City is at 2400m) over Paso de Cortes (Cortes was the conqistador who led the Spanish invasion of Mexico). Good views of the Volcanoes Ixtacihatl and Popocatapetl and at higher altitudes I was riding through ancient pine forests. At the top of the pass there were soldiers blocking access to roads leading to paths up Popocatapetl because of the danger of an eruption. The descent to Cholula was via a very rough dirt track for 15 miles and then a tarmac road
22/01/07 Cholula (Rest day)
Visited the great pyramid of Cholula which is so ruined that it looks like a natural hill. The Spanish built a church on top of it. There is a network of tunnels which have been excavated inside the pyramid where it is possible to see some of the different phases of construction (These pyramids were typically built over many times preserving the older structures). On the way back to my hotel I saw a group of people trying to free a small van from under a low bridge under which the driver had managed to wedge it - a couple of them were jumping up and down on the bonnet and others levering with pieces of wood. I don´t think the driver appreciated me taking a few photos.
23/01/07 Cholula to Tepexi
Big main road to the city of Puebla, then onto secondary roads through village of Tomehuacan and the towns of Tecali and Santa Cruz Huitziltepec and on to the town of Tepexi. Relatively flat.
24/01/07 Tepexi to Santiago Chazumba
Lots of nice dirt roads today, riding through a cactus forest. Camped about 10 miles south of Santiago Chazumba just off a main road. While putting up the tent I managed to walk into an aloevera plant which stabbed me in the armpit. My route took me through the town of Ixcaquixtla and the village of San Martin Atexcal.
25/01/07 Santiago Chazumba to Tamazalupan
Big main road all day. Had a chicken taco at a roadside stall: Bad move....
26/01/07 Tamazalupan (Ill)
On the toilet all night and feeling like the contents of the toilet. A bad case of food poisoning. I did not eat anything all day.
27/01/07 Tamazalupan (Ill)
Poor John, desperately ill and I had to change hotel because my room had been booked by somebody else. Moving all my stuff nearly killed me. I boiled some eggs on my petrol stove on the balcony and eat them.
28/01/07 Tamazalupan (Ill)
Still bad
29/01/07 Tamazalupan (Ill)
A bit better today.
30/01/07 Tamazalupan to Coixtlahuaca
Still feeling very weak today so I only did about 20 miles to the town of Coixtlahuaca.
31/01/07 Coixtlahuaca to Santiago Apoala
Dirt roads all day today - very nice scenery. Quite a bit of climbing and then a big descent to the Indian village of Santiago Apoala. Along the way I started seeing the first signs of Indigenous buildings. Got to Apoala in the early afternoon and then went for a walk up the gorge upstream of the village (photo was taken here).
1/02/07 Santiago Apoala to Nochixtlan
Dirt roads all day today again and more nice scenery. Up and down most of the day then a big descent into the Oaxaca valley to Nochixtlan which is a big town beside the main road to the city of Oaxaca. Stayed in a hotel which was an old colonial building: very different to the accommodation I have stayed in so far, it run by a man who must have been in his 80s and it was like stepping back in time. Note the mirror frame in the photo.
2/02/07 Nochixtlan to Oaxaca
Big toll road all the way to Oaxaca. fairly flat. When I was only a few meters away from my hotel one of the plastic catches securing one of my front panniers to the rack broke. I spent the evening working out what to do about the problem and found that one of the rear catches was also cracked.