When one travels for a living, she can often find herself in situations and places that she would have never imagined no matter how much she planned. That pretty sums up the last month of my life. Looking back at the month of March, it went by incredibly fast and was filled with so much joy and happiness of seeing familiar faces as well as a lot of down time relaxing and sampling local cuisine.
When I got off the ferry and landed in Mazatlán, had finally made it to the tropics and I could definitely feel the heat and slightly more humid air. The following day I lounged around the beaches and rode the bike path along the sea wall, exploring and filling my time until my bus to Nueva Vallarta leaves at 8 that night. While I was sitting in the shade of a palm tree reading my book, I see a large peloton of woman cyclists riding in the street. I start cheering and clapping for them, wanting to share my love and support for women and one woman towards the back waves at me to join. I instantly threw my Kindle in my open pannier and hopped on Yonder and dropped off the sidewalk into the 
street on a fully loaded touring bike and joined the ride. I rode next to Monikita, the woman who invited me, for the rest of the time chatting and learning about what they were doing. This ride was meant to inspire women and girls to ride bicycles and to feel free and confident while doing it. The ride ended at the statue La Mujer Mazatleca where I won a new set of cycling gloves in a raffle! Biking with those women is one of the many highlights of this trip, seeing a community of women sharing the love and joys of bicycling with a group often felt ignored by the cycling community as a whole.
I arrived in Nueva Vallarta the next morning, after an overnight bus ride to the resort that my dad and his girlfriend booked for us. I have never once in my life ever thought I would experience all-inclusive but when one is offered to you, you don’t say no! I can honestly say it’s nice. Eating and drinking to your stomach’s content is really a bike tourers dream. It was so nice to hang out with my dad and Shelley for five days, we walked on the beach, went on a eco tour snorkeling, whale watching, and drinking. We even saw a Manta Ray swimming near the boat on the way back to port! We spent hours just lying by the pool reading, chatting, and relaxing; letting my body recover from a month of hard cycling in Baja was wonderful. When our time at the resort was over, it was an emotional goodbye. But at least we had five days to hang out and catch up on our lives.
I intended on only spending a night or two in Puerto Vallarta before continuing my ride south, but when I rolled up to the El Sunset Hostel and was greeting by a familiar smoke smell and a dog named Vikingo I knew I was going to linger around longer. I had originally planned on following the coast south but when I found out that Snackybear and Matt were going to be in Guadalajara I changed my mind and my route immediately! I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to hang with my VanFam again! Getting to Guadalajara was going to be difficult, heading straight into the mountains, in the heat of the tropical sun was going to be no easy ride. The first 30 km were mostly flat and easy but then you just start going up with really no break in it. I had to hop from shade to shade to just try to stay cool. I knew it was getting bad when I stopped sweating and had goosebumps. About 6 km before La Estancia there is a large bridge with a covered tienda, I leaned my bike against the wall and just laid down in the cool shade for around five minutes before buying some sugary beverages. I stayed there for probably thirty minutes just trying to get my core temperature down enough where it would be safe to travel the last bit into town. Heat exhaustion is no joke.
I was invited to stay in the courtyard at Hacienda Don Lalín Distillery by the owner Eduardo. He gave me fresh water, access to a washroom, and free samples of his liquor. His wife Neli and son came with their new puppy who was just adorable that night before I went to bed. In the morning, they make me a delicious breakfast and don’t take no for an answer when I say I don’t want coffee, so I had my first café con leche in Latin America. The first 10 km outside of La Estancia saw the road climb over 1000 meters to the summit afterwards I was treated with many kilometers of downhill.
I rolled into Guadalajara on a Sunday and got to experience my first ever Ciclovías when I was looking for a hostel to stay at during my time in town. Ciclovías here are no joke and it crosses from one end of town to the other on multiple streets putting Minneapolis’s Open Streets to shame, hint hint Minneapolis get your shit together! I spent the next days just exploring town, using their extensive cycling infrastructure, checking out museums, restaurants, and parks. Finally, a week after arriving in GDL Snackybear and Matt message me that they’re here!!!! I bike over to their van so quickly and it was just like old times! We swapped stories of the past month, drank, went out to dinner; sadly El Conejito wasn’t there to make us some fish tacos. On our second night we were planning on watching a movie at their van after dinner, and on our way back decided to pick up a bottle of wine. On our way to find a liquor store, we walk by a place that looks like it’s decorated for Halloween. This piqued Matt’s interest and made the decision to go in. Upon entering there is a motion activated skeleton that emitted smoke and this startled
Claire. It turns out it’s a Harry Potter themed bar called Punto Mágico, and on our way out with posed for a picture with the Sorting Hat and Dobby!
Tomorrow, we plan on seeing Chivas play at their home soccer stadium here and then trekking up to Tequila for a personalized tour of a distillery. Then we will part ways again until our paths undoubtedly again.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that I would be drinking Bohemia in a Harry Potter bar on a Monday night in Guadalajara with friends I met in Baja California Sur, but I wouldn’t change any of that for the world!