¿En Vaso o Bolsa?

It is a very common question in Mexico. Have you ever had drink in a bag? It's delicious and surprisingly effective using a straw and a plastic baggie as a to-go cup. Anyways, if you are bored today try it out.

After leaving Morelia we continued riding back on the coast.

Andy couch surfing like a pro. Acapulco was the first place we couch surfed and it was a great and free way to find a place to sleep.

Sunset in Acapulco

Dolphins and Mermaids are the oldest lovers in the world

We had just enough time to snap a photo for andy's senior portrait before the sun went down.

This is the autopista or quota (toll roads). They had awesome shoulders and good road conditions, but seeing these signs was an added bonus.

Delicious grilled chicken (i think it was for breakfast) in a little town called Las Vigas.

Maraton Guadalupano

In Mexico a major day of celebration is Dec. 12th. This is the day for La Virgen de Guadalupe. It is a big deal and people celebrate for weeks beforehand throughout Mexico. This truck was one of many we saw on the road that was carrying truck loads of people. The people would line up on the side of the road and run a relay with a torch. Each person would run about 100 yds with the torch to the next person and then wait for the truck to pick them up again to take them farther up the road. This particular group was doing this all the way from Mexico City to Oaxaca (over 600 km or 375 mi). Pretty intense! There were also smaller treks in each town we passed through as well as groups on bikes.

After a long day of riding Yoli was there to quench our thirst.

Do you remember the Sprite commercials where basketball players would drink sprite and then jump into the basketball court but it turned into swimming pools? It's like that but more delicious.

Jumping into the wonderful pacific ocean in Puerto Escondido after a long days ride.

We met some fellow bike tourers (Matt, Lolic, and Finn) in Puerto Escondido and did some riding with them

Sunrise from Agama Yoga Center in Mazunte, where we couch surfed/camped. A very beautiful space with some very nice people.

Matt and Lolic.
Matt is a canadian who has been riding for 6 months all the way from the artic ocean in Alaska. He met Lolic, from france, in Vancouver and have been riding together for four months. Pretty cool guys.

Finn just graduated from high school in Victoria Canada and decided to ride his bike. He has been on the bike for 4 months and met up with Matt and Lolic in Zihuatanejo. He has his surfboard attached to his bike. Also a cool dude. It was great to ride and hang out with them for a few days.

My last Mexican sunrise for a while.

I decided to make some travel plan changes. I surprised my family in Boulder by flying home for a few days at Christmas and I will fly to India/Southeast Asia to travel with my girlfriend Stephanie. Pretty excited about it. I will continue to post on the blog, although the focus of my travels will not be on the bike for a while.

I scrounged the city of Huatulco in Oaxaca to find a bike box, but had to make due with 10 or so small boxes taped together. Luckily all my stuff was pretty compact when taken apart.

Sunset on the way to denver via houston

Such A Very Tiny Baby in Morelia

Morelia is the capital of the state of Michoacan located in the mountains in Central Mexico. We arrived on a bus from Lazaro Cardenas on the coast a little after sundown. I had talked to Nena and Andy about potentially visiting them but didn't have the chance to call them before we caught the bus because it was leaving right after we rode into the station. So when I called Nena and told her we were in Morelia she was quite surprised. She invited us to their home and suggested we take a taxi because her house was on the opposite side of the fairly large city.

When Andy and I went to the taxi line outside we quickly realized we wouldn't be able to fit our bikes into the relatively small taxis without having to significantly take them apart. We decided to be adventurous and ride across the big city in the dark. The route was relatively simple because there is a main 3 or 4 lane road/highway that loops around the city. We just needed to stay on that road and ride to the opposite side of the loop. The night riding made it a little more exciting and it is somewhat harder to see in the darkness than daytime in case you were wondering. But we had a relatively uneventful hour long ride to Nena's house.

Andy, Nena and Danny

The local market had many delicious foods and interesting characters. This lovely lady was selling nopales (cactus) either cooked or raw.

Andy and Señora Nena choosing some delicious veggies. There is so much fresh food here it is wonderful

Andy checks out a map of mexico in the centro area of Morelia

Morelia is a very beautiful city with a large colonial influence. Here is a beautiful fountain with the aqueduct in the background.

The kitchen in Nena's house is a common hangout place. Señora Nena's cooking is incredible and we were constantly full.

Los dos Nenas.
Mother and daughter. Two wonderful people. Señora Nena was pretty pissed i took this picture


Cristina!!!!

Baby Daniel was pretty amazing. I wanted to keep him....until he started wailing. Much nicer to hand him back to mom and dad then.

Tacos Al Pastor
I ended up getting pretty sick in Morelia which delayed our departure by a few days. It was really nice to have a home to stay in when i was running to the bathroom every 20 minutes. Here i am enjoying my awful "suero" as andy eats delicious tacos.

Here is my little pig/cow mascot i found in a little market. He was ready to go as we headed out of Morelia.

We had a great time in Morelia. Andy, Nena and Family were very gracious and generous to host us. It was very nice to meet Danny before they headed back to the US after christmas.