Cuernavaca and Mexico City!

So on our last day in Guadalajara we took 2 separate buses from Guadalajara to Cuernavaca. All of our bikes wouldn't fit on one bus so we split up into two groups of four. I went with Corey, Dave, and Andrea. It was a 10 hour bus ride from 12 am to 10 am. I slept for the majority of it but I hurt my knee from climbing some hills in Guadalajara so it was kind of uncomfortable. So when we arrived to Cuernavaca, I realized that the whole city was on one big hill. We met Enyo( I dont know how to spell it). He has been setting up the band with all the shows in Mexico. He rode his moped through the city while the 8 of us followed by bicycles up one big 15 hilly city to his house. On the way there up the big hills we saw a bunch of mexican military men with big guns and hummers flagging random cars over. There were also a lot of fruit stands and the usual taco,torta stands. There was barely any pollution in Cuernavaca compared to Guadalajara. There were some times when I had to put my handkerchief of my nose and mouth because the pollution was bad in some parts. Enyo's house was really nice and his mom was really friendly and accommodating. We had beans and eggs made in a pan with handmade tortillas and the best coffee I ever had in my life. It had cinnamon in it and it was definitely local and delicious. Enyo told us that the every tortilla taste unique because some of the natural salt from the makers hands is put into ever tortilla. They were amazing tortillas, they were really soft and warm and semi sweet. It was like paradise staying at his house. His dog Jack was a tough boxer kind of looking dog who was in love with everyone legs or back. And he kept attacking my toes. Then later on that night we rode all the way back down the huge hill we originally came up to a blog past the bus station to a universidad where we played a show. The show was fun and we had a couple of technical problems but everything went well. The crowd was large and really fun and into the whole project. People instantly lined up to pedal the bikes once we started.

I started having stomach cramps and deadly gas. Last night we went back to the house and I let a small but powerful flatulent out which made everyone cover their noses and clear the room. They also decided that I should sleep alone outside in my tent. I enjoyed sleeping by myself outside in the beautiful yard. I was surrounded my beautiful flowers, papayas, huge agova plants and other exotic plants and trees. So I decided I will be vegetarian for a couple of weeks to clean out my system. I enjoy eating vegetarian and vegan dishes anyways since I have a lot of friends who are vegan and vegetarian so hopefully that will make my system nice and cleaned out. I decided that I shouldn't trust the meat from every taco and torta stand I go to. Even though they have basically all been delicious and yummy.

So we had quesadillas with more extravagant coffee and left to go downtown to catch another bus that was only 50 pesos to go to the outskirts of Mexico City. We are currently at Dante the engineers shop. He is working on fixing some of the generators and we are doing some minor work on some of the bikes. The plan is to stay in Mexico City for 2 weeks and play a lot of shows. Tomorrow night we will joining in on the weekly sunday night critical mass ride in Mexico City. There are going to be about 500 to 1000 people, maybe even more. Then after the ride we will play show. I am not sure where we are going after Mexico City, but I do know that I am thinking about living in Guadalajara for about 4 or 6 months after the tour. I have been telling a lot people who live here about the Earn A Bike program, and I have been thinking about helping start a couple of different programs in different locations. I would like to collaborate with recycled bicycle programs such as Bike Not Bombs or Worcester Earn A Bike or other programs closer to Mexico like in Texas or California in the United States. The idea would be to raise money to get a container shipment of donated bicycles that are in fixable condition shipped to Mexico where we would restore, fix and teach people how to fix a bicycle while earning one for themselves for free.

There are more people who ride bicycles and there are way more bicycle advocacy groups then I imagined when I first thought about traveling through Mexico. I have met a lot of great people and keep more and more who are really passionate about bicycles and using a bicycle as their only source of transportation. The culture is really interesting and intriguing and I am curious and would like to know more. That is why I would like to live here for a while so I can help clean this planet up one minute at a time.

Oh yea when we were in Guadalajara we rode our bicycles with the mayor for the opening of the ciclo pista, which is a bike path that is built on the side walk on a lot of main streets.

I am just having a great time and my mind is just filled with marvelous sights and unbelievable stories. I wish I could write down everything but I can't, so maybe the next time I see you we can exchange stories of our lives.

So until next time. Hasta Luego!