Thanks to our Tour Dad and most valuable member of the True Wheel Society now we have our package with my shoes and some more stuff we needed and we can get back on the road.
About a month ago, for some unknown reason my feet started to hurt way too much, so after riding over 5 thousand miles on my Sidi’s, I realized I needed new cycling shoes. Luckily we got a sponsorship deal with Keen Footwear, so I ordered the Commuter sandals. Matt took care of the shipping and after paying the stupid import duties (I call it theft) and a very long delay in Tijuana, finally the shoes arrived yesterday.
We love it here in Ensenada, we really do. Delia makes us feel at home in La Casa del Ciclista. But we need to keep going: in almost 3 weeks, we’ve watched over 26 movies (Julio from the DVD shop is our best friend now), we’ve eaten all the donas, fish tacos, adobada and asada tacos, tortas, enchiladas, tamales, ice cream and birrias; we’ve been to La Bufadora (a very nice ride to a rather disappointing tourist trap: a tidewater blowhole in a rock); we’ve read all our books and done a lot of drawing; and we’ve seen the big grey whales.
We’ve had a lot of time to think and reconsider what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. This is it. This is our lives now. This is what we do for a living: we ride our bicycles, we keep going. Because we do.
Now the Santa Ana wind has calmed down and my feet are very happy.
Joaquin and I have been pleasantly holed up in Ensenada for a number of days while waiting for some new Keen Commuter sandals for Joaquin to make their way south of the border. As we spend our days reading, writing, relaxing, and prepairing for our eventual departure we take pleasure in listnening to the sounds of the outside world drifting in through the metal grates of the Casa del Ciclista. So many sounds. Music from cars and neighbors. Children playing. Dogs. So many dogs. Chihuahua squeals that sound like screeching brakes. (There´s a wide variety of dog breeds here, but they’re all half chihuahua.) The most interesting sounds, to me, are the sounds of commerce:
The water delivery truck at 7:30 in the morning. Blows its air horn as it turns down every street announcing its presence. It’s blasting horn approaching closer and closer like a train fronted by a Mexican trumpet player.
The cucumber sales truck announcing its goods with a used car salesman’s zeal. Lots of exclamation points, sentences rising in volume towards the end, fast rhythms, and a lot of hyperbole.
Avocado truck utilizes the cucumber method. (Avocados are the only thing we´ve purchased from the vendors. Perhaps their pitch was the best. Perhaps we really like avocados.)
The bread salesman with his looping tape of droll sales pitch delivery. Prerecorded as well. Blaring out of similar PA speakers attached to a truck. However, the bread delivery pitch is delivered in a flat monotonous drone, as if to stand out against the other hyperactive pitchmen with their music blazing and carnival squawker announcements. No exclamation points. “Senoritas, we have the most amazing bread for only 20 pesos. Si, Senoritas, only 20 pesos will buy you this fantastic bread.”
The doughnut delivery guy has the most exciting product, in my opinion, but the saddest delivery. He carries around a plastic tub of donuts and wails like a drunk man crying the name of the love he has wronged “Dohnaaaas!” Dohnaaaas!” He knows she’s gone.
Then there’s the ice cream delivery guy. My favorite. He rides a tricycle around with a huge penguiin on the front of it. No internal combustion. No blaring muisc. Just a bike, bell, a sweet custom track-suit uniform, and a giant penguin. No beating the customers into submission with an audio assault. No pity sales for sad sellers. I’m sold.
It was Sunday, our new friends David and Maria gave us a lift in their van up the sandy hill out of the campsite in the beautiful Saldamando beach. When we arrived to the toll on the highway a guy wearing an orange vest waved to us and told us to get off the road. As we were walking our bikes on the sidewalk a policeman approached us. I told him we were really sorry and we didn’t know we could’t ride our bikes on the Autopista de Cobro, and luckily we got away with it.
It was lunch time when we rode into Ensenada, but we couldn’t really afford any of the tempting offers to stop at the numerous restaurants along the boulevard Lazaro Cardenas, so we continued the beautiful ride along the beach until we got to the traffic mess of La Reforma Ave. After asking for directions a few more times, we finally found Calle Paseo Pacifico and stopped at Mini Mercado Javi’s where the owner let us use his phone. La Señora Delia greeted us and showed us to La Casa del Ciclista. A few minutes after I had unpacked it felt like home.
We found out about this place on Warmshowers.com, like coachsurfing but for touring cyclists. Gerardo, a Doctor who now lives in Riverside CA. is an avid cyclist and loves to share his house in Ensenada with cycling nomads like us. There’s no way to express in words how thankful we are to Gerardo and specially to Delia.
Jose, Delia & Canica
La Señora Delia is a wonderful woman. Originally from Veracruz, she started working when she was 15, and became manager in a “curiosity store” where she got to meet Marilyn Monroe. She lives next door and looks after Gerardo’s house and the guests. Everytime we pass by to say Hola she offers us food. Last night we had Papas con Chorizo while Jose, her husband, listened to the Dodgers being beaten by the Phillies on his very loud radio, and Canica, the chihuaua dog, watched us eating away the cookies for desert.
A few days ago, we shared the house with Emi and Nicholas (http://grab-a-wheel.org). They’re riding from Vancouver all the way to Tierra del Fuego on their bikes loaded with home made panniers, plants, and plastic lunch boxes for handlebar bags. I cooked a spanish omelette (my Mum’s recipe) at Delia’s and had a very nice evening enjoying their company and stories from Japan. We hope we’ll catch up with them somewhere again along the road down south.
But in the meantime, we’re still here. Life goes slowly by in Ensenada while we wait for my new cycling shoes to arrive. We make the most of our off the bike time by using the slow internet cafe around the corner, reading our South America and Adventure Cycle-Touring books, cleaning and adjusting our bikes, eating fish tacos at Taco Bob’s (as in Sponge Bob Square Pants), becoming masters of the home made Burrito, daydreaming, siestas, and enjoying the lovely weather and the hospitality of La Señora Delia and his wonderful family.
