Day 110 - 121: Hard to leave the conforts behind and get on the road again
Ok. Am very far behind again. But in my defense I haven’t been cycling much the last week or so and this is a cycling journal. So I will get this up to date now and then continue with my cycle trip tomorrow.
The last time I checked in, I was in Puerto Vallarta. Despite the warnings from the army guys, this seems like a nice place. Lots of gringos around with prices that reflect this.
I had planned on taking a rest day here. However, I really wasn’t sure what to do after that. To continue along the coast which would be nice but rumors of some the roads back towards Guadalajara and CDMX (Mexico City) being unsafe. The second option is to go back the way I came and potentially meet up with some local friends I had made back near Mazatlan for a couple of days before continuing on an inland route.
On the morning of the rest day I met up with Jan for coffee. I had thought he was quite far ahead of me but I somehow managed to catch-up. Was great to catch-up and discuss logistics. I ended up deciding on option 2.
I decided I didn’t want to cycle back the way I came so decided it wasn’t cheating to get a bus backwards. So instead of spending the night in Puerto Vallarta, I decided to get a night bus back to Mazatlan.
I arrived at 5am and could tell the hotel staff thought I was being very cheeky trying to check in this early. They told me to come back at 8am. So I spent a couple of hours snoozing on the malecon.
Met with the friends for too many drinks and was invited to a nearby town called Escuinapa for a few days. This is where I have spent the last week. In fairness I did cycle to Escuinapa which is about 90 km.
I have rethought how I am trying and failing to learn Spanish. I don’t feel I am making progress, I guess mainly because I am not putting effort in, but that is mainly because I am finding the style of the online lessons I was doing boring. I have come across another Spanish learning site/method called “Dreaming Spanish” and quite like the rationale behind the idea. The idea is you acquire languages by listening to content you mostly (80% - 95%) understand. Even if the understanding comes from slow speaking with the aid of gestures and drawings and pictures etc. They argue that you do not learn a language by speaking it and even said speaking can be harmful to learning if done too early. Similarly to speaking, they recommend not reading or learning grammar too early. They advocate only listening too comprehensible input. This is how we all picked up our native languages. This makes intuitive sense to me so I will try this for the next while. I find the Spanish I hear around me is far too fast and far above my level so is effectively useless. I find the super beginner Dreaming Spanish videos to be quite comprehensible and I think they will be quite doable while cycling.
Slipped into a comfortable routine in Escuinapa. Get up, go get a coffee, do some dreaming Spanish videos, and then meet up with friends in the afternoon, then decide to extend the stay by “just one more day”. Rinse and repeat the next day.
One of the highlights of the week here was 4 of us taking a road trip along the coast, staying in a house there and having great food with many drinks. Homemade ceviche for lunch, barbecue carne asada tacos for dinner and barbecue fish tacos for lunch the following day. Flew the drone quite a bit too and only ran out of battery mid flight once, tho found it quite quickly after a mild panic.
It is really hard to leave the comforts of here. But I have been off the road for too much this last month. The road is calling and needs to make progress again.
I left Escuinapa today. Because I have already cycled the road between here and Tepic, I decided to get the bus to Tepic and save myself a huge climb. Since I have already cycled this road, I decided that this isn’t cheating. So I am now in Tepic. The plan is now to head to Guadalajara along 15/15D road which means passing through Tequila (the place… Not the drinks but the drink comes from here). Once in Guadalajara in a few days, then I will need to figure out a route to CDMX.
