Days 35 And 36: San Javier To 25 Km Before Highway 52 To Ciudad Constitución

I awoke to a chorus of birds and chickens letting me know the sun had risen, followed shortly by a warm wriggling dog jumping into my hammock and licking my face.  We contemplated kidnapping our awesome watchdog, but she seemed well fed, so we said goodbye and hoped she would not follow us too far out of camp.  Back in town, we stocked up on water and Gonzalo satisfied his craving for pancakes, which were not on the menu, but we noticed that the community store had pancake mix on its meager shelves.

The road to get back to Highway 1 via Highway 52 is a compacted sand and gravel road that passes through town.  It was much more rideable than some of the previous sand and gravel roads we ridden before, in part because it was pretty well compacted, and in part because it's mostly flat or slightly downhill.

Whee, more flooded roads!  We were accosted by a friendly group of Argentine guys in a huge truck here... they were gawking and taking pictures of me walking my bike, then pulled over to ask for proper pictures with each one of them.  We obliged and then as quick as they came, they left (photo credit: Gonzalo).

Some parts of this road get pretty rocky.  This section of road was an awesome test of our Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires... no flats!

Just one climb... but loved it because of the blissfully empty roads.

There is another cave painting site here... the woman who tends the registry is lovely and let Gonzalo use the bathroom.  She invited us to sit in the shade and rest, and we chatted about the flora and fauna of this area.

Some hills were quite steep and unrideable fully loaded... Gonzalo pushes his steed to the top.

More flooding from the rains in October.

The silver lining was a dip in the water to cool down.

After over seven hours of battling about 47 km of sand and gravel road, we were exhausted.  We had both resigned ourselves to desert camping among the cacti, until Gonzalo spotted some palm trees off the road and a small cattle trail leading off the road.  Gonzalo has a sixth sense about wild camping spots, as we have never had a bad campsite yet, and he hoped the palm trees signified that there would be a spring and some shade.  Sure enough, he was right... we made a beeline for the spring (a bit murky but we didn't care) and jumped in.  We would find out the next day that this was the last little oasis before we would return to pure desert terrain.

A perfect spot near the spring... while the palm trees were too far away for us to throw up our hammocks, we had some nice shade not too far from where we pitched our tents.

Palm trees at sunset.

The next day we had a 25 km bumpy sandy ride, often requiring us to walk our bikes, until we finally got to the glorious pavement of Highway 52.  It was neat to see the landscape change from desert to flat farmland, a bit like going from Colorado to Nebraska.  We took a minute to re-inflate our tires and off we went towards Ciudad Insurgentes and ultimately Ciudad Constitución, where Gonzalo wanted to spend the night in a motel to do a little work.

Sweet sweet pavement.

Sunflower fields off of Highway 52... reminds me so much of Tanzania where sunflowers are prolific due to the popularity of sunflower seed oil.

After checking a few places and asking around, we found that the Hotel Quinta San Jose was the economical hotel of choice, with hot water, air conditioning, and ground level rooms that bike tourists love so much.  It also happened to be right up the street from the best seafood place in town, La Palapa Sinoalense, gorgeous seafood albeit a little pricey.  Be warned that the tostada de ceviche was meal-sized and not appetizer sized like most places.

A few travel notes for cyclists:

• We were informed by Luis that while there is nothing but small ranches on the 72 km ride to Highway 52, the ranchers are quite friendly and can help, in particular the ranch called Las Palmas is American-owned and receptive to travelers.  Once you get to Highway 52, it's only about 10-15 km to the first little town, where there are plenty of markets.  The highway also opens up to become a 4-lane highway all the way to Ciudad Constitución.  The only place to get prepared food is at the Pemex, which had excellent burritos with machaca and potatoes.  After that, there are plenty of places along the way. 

• Ciudad Constitución is quite large and it's outskirts are quite exposed, so plan on biking at least 30 minutes beyond the city in order to be able to find decent wild camping.  Gonzalo recalls the last time he went through this section, they ended up camping amongst quite a bit of trash because he couldn't get out far enough before dark.

• I know some folks don't consider the wrenches used for hub adjustments an essential part of their repair kit, but I've now had both my front and rear hubs need a quick adjustment and am thankful they are a part of my kit.

A quick note about managing a economical bike tour:

Unlike Gonzalo, who has a somewhat steady flow of income, I have a fixed amount saved.  It takes some discipline traveling with someone like Gonzalo, who tends to splurge a lot on food and drink, but I've found a good balance of knowing when it's worth it to splurge and knowing when I won't really feel like I've missed anything.  For example, I opted not to order breakfast in San Javier because I wasn't that hungry and their menu items were things I could get everywhere.  Instead, I ate a banana from our food stash, then bought a bag homemade mango empanadas from Luis and Erika for 20 pesos instead.  For me, it was worth it to splurge on the empanadas to help support Luis and Erika and for a cheap snack for the road, but I didn't want to spend 70 or 80 pesos on a full breakfast with juice.

These little things add up and over the span of a month, doing this saves me at least 1500 pesos (about US$120) and oftentimes more, which gives me what I need to do a nice snorkeling / kayaking / scuba / seafood extravaganza.  I try to stay true to a couple simple rules to keep my costs down.  I only buy a cold drink at a small tienda after we've cycled through the hottest part of the day when I know it will taste like unicorn tears, and try to limit myself to one per day.  I rarely, if ever, buy junk food snacks and try to carry my own... a tortilla smeared with peanut butter or refried beans keeps me going for a long time.  If I do buy snacks, it's usually in the form of a burrito stuffed with homemade goodness.  And each day, I do like to order one meal at a lonchería or restaurant, often a comida corrida which runs around 50 pesos (about US$4) and make that my biggest meal of the day.  Produce is cheap so it's easy to make my own fruit or veggie salads...

I've found that over time, I'm starting to appreciate the little things more.  Splurging on local clams or a lunch out makes each meal feel more satisfying.  I often crave nothing but fruit and veggies anyway after several days on the road, where we are eating mostly canned tuna and pasta dressed up with canned mushrooms.  A simple coffee tastes amazing because I only get it every so often when I've decided to eat breakfast out.