So I left off the night before the Chivas played the New York Red Bulls, Chivas won mind you! It was a really fun night spent with Claire, Matt and friends. It was Matt’s first ever soccer game! I spent a decent amount of time explaining 
to him the rules of soccer and the one that tripped him up the most was the off sides rule. Being Canadian, he was well versed in hockey off sides and assumed it was the same here. Once we straightened that out the rest came pretty easily.
While in Baja, Claire and Matt helped a few travelers out who ran out of fuel since they carry an extra can on their van. It turns out that one of them was an owner of a tequila distillery in Tequila and offered them a free VIP tour of his distillery. One doesn’t say no to that, and that’s how I got invited along with them to tour the Tequila Orendain Distillery. They drove into town the day before and 
I planned on biking from Guadalajara to Tequila the morning of the tour, since it was pretty much all downhill and only sixty kilometers. I can totally make it there by the 11:00 AM start time. At 10:45 I roll up to their van which is parked out front of the distillery, exhausted, sweaty, and very hungry since I barely ate anything. We hugged and they apparently guessed I would arrive with no time to spare, I guess they know me too well! Claire handed me a banana and we went in. The tour was lovely and the woman leading it poured tall samples of the tequila. Who cares that it’s not even noon and I had practically nothing to eat yet, what could go wrong?
After the tour we decided it would be good to actually eat some food, we found a place for me to stay so I could stash my bike and finally change clothes. After a late lunch we went to La Cata, which Claire knows one of the bartenders I think? The connection is a bit blurry in my memory for some reason. There we sampled more tequila and some local brews while listen to the episode of MasterBeta Ladies I was on; check it out it’s a rad podcast. I was in much need of rest, Matt said he had never seen me look so tired so we parted ways until the morning when we would say farewell.
I took the bus back to GDL not wanting to bike the same route again, but this time all uphill and went to stay at Casa Ciclista planning on staying only two nights before getting back on the road. When I got there, a man standing behind the kitchen counter says “Hi Natalie, nice to see you again”. I am taken aback and thankfully he tells me we met on the Dalton Highway. That jogged my memory and it turns out he’s Tomás from Argentina! So two nights turned 
into two weeks and I made some really amazing friends. Two of whom are Agata and George, they convinced me to stay the first week to experience a Sweat Lodge Ceremony the next Sunday. In that time Maria came back and she convinced me to stay a while longer, just enough time for me to pick up the illness she had. Thanks Maria! But being sick gave me an excuse to just sit around and crochet so there are worse things in the world than that.
I finally left Guadalajara on the 24th of April, over a month after I first arrived. The city has a great cycling community, fun queer scene and just an all around good atmosphere. I will always treasure the time I had there and the friends I met. Since then I have biked through some pretty gorgeous country but you’ll have to wait until next time to read about that!