It’s our last day before reaching La Paz. We’re camping about 38km outside of La Paz so we can cruise on in to town in the late morning. The first thing we’ll be doing is hitting up the Walmart they have in town. I’m quite excited about that as it’ll be the first we’ve seen of Walmart since the first day we entered Mexico. Baja is very unpopulated, even the large “cities” (between Ensenada and La Paz) are just one road with mechanic shops littered on either side. So a wide selection of refreshments hasn’t really been forthcoming. This should change on the mainland though. – Oh, hold on some people have stopped on the road near our camp spot. Got to be quiet for a little while. … Okay they’ve left. – As I was saying, at Walmart I’m getting a 3L bottle of some cold drink and Kevin’s getting a chocolate milk. I’ll probably get a chocolate milk too. If we can find a slushy then I’ll get one of those too (that might be pushing it though). Anyway that’s tomorrow. Today we didn’t have those luxuries. Instead what we thought would be a nice easy ride with lots of mini-marts situated every 20km didn’t pan out. Funny every time we think there will be plenty of eateries ahead it never happens, then on the days we think there’ll be nothing something pops up when you least expect it.
The morning got off to a good start. The air was cool, there was no wind, the road was good, the terrain was relatively flat and there were several unexpected mini-marts. Then 12 o’clock rolled around and the sun turned it up a whole lot of notches. It got hot, rolling hills appeared (I was expecting hills but not this rolling), and the mini-marts ceased. The wind felt like getting in on the fun too. It threw hot air at us from all directions (except from the back where we could have used it). In these situations we just buck up and power through it all; nothing much else you can do. Eventually I call for a water break at the top of a hill at the 80km (to La Paz) mark. The mark that Kevin said we’d take a break. Unbeknownst to me he’d changed the goal posts to the 75km mark and by the tone of his answer, “All right”, I think he was a little annoyed. I jump off my bike and get hit by a sudden need to go “number 2”. There isn’t a good place to go. The road side is in plane site of any passing vehicle. Kevin suggests holding it in. I point out that it’ll just get more and more urgent the further we go. We end up going a little further but I really need to go so Kevin points out a sign post I can prop my bike up against (turns out he just didn’t want to hold my bike while he waited—lazy bum). I quickly grab the toilet paper, scramble up the embankment and head for the small tree. The tree isn’t enough to hide me from the view of passing cars so I decide to delve further. I scuttle under the barbwire fence being extra careful not to get my shirt caught on the barbs. I’m successful, but only for a moment. After making it out from under the fence I head straight into a cactus. Up to this point in our travels I’ve never had experienced getting pricked by a cactus. Up to this point I thought were just sharp needles and not a big deal. I was wrong. The cactus breaks apart and just sticks to my shorts. Upon noticing that something is scraping my leg I hurriedly try to pull the chunks of cactus off of my shorts. This turns out to be quite tricky since those needles have very tiny barbs at the ends of them. So now I have my shorts stuck to cactus which is in turn stuck to my fingers. I try to pull my hand free and eventually tear it loose only to end up with remnants of needles stuck in my skin and some bloody fingers. With my good hand I pull out the needles from the barbless ends and carefully dislodge the cactus from my shorts. Finally I go about my business. After I’m through I find that I’ve managed to step in a whole boat load more of the cactus chunks. Did you know cactus needs can pierce the hard plastic of a cycling shoe. This time I get a large stick and scrape the things off. I make it back to the road and pull the rest of the needles out by hand. Lesson learned, don’t mess with cacti. Even at the end of the day as I write this I still have cactus needles stuck to the outside of my shoes and my thumb is still a little numb.
With my business done and me, for the most part, cleansed of cacti we cycle on. Kevin says we’ll stop at the 75km mark. Well the 75km mark passes by. Turns out the goal posts have changed once again and we’re headed for the 70km mark now. The 70km mark passes by, but we’re going up a hill and we rarely stop on a hill. We eventually make it to the 69km mark at the top of the hill. We finally have our break. Kevin pulls out the cookies and we dig in.
I slowly eat my share of the cookies. I’m down to four cookies remaining and a bee starts crawling up inside my shorts. Annoyed I shake the bee out and continue on to my third last cookie. The bee returns and again it tries to crawl up my shorts at my right knee. What’s this bee finding so interesting up there? This time I jump up and run around. I return to my seat on the side of the road. Again the bee returns and again it attempts to crawl up my shorts. I’m angry now and start cursing at this bee and running around like a mad man. This bee just won’t give up and I see it try crawling up Kevin’s shorts at the right knee. What is it with this bee and the right thigh? If there’s one thing I hate it is stubborn insects doing stupid things. THERE’S NOTHING FOR YOU THERE YOU DUMB BEE. GET LOST. Now I don’t bother sitting down and just keep pacing back and forth. This bee just won’t let up; it keeps trailing me buzzing around the backside of my knee. What’s with this bee? And what is this bee doing out in the middle of the desert? It must be one of those bees that got cut loose from the hive because it didn’t have its head screwed on right. I hurriedly eat my last two cookies so we can get a move on. We eventually hop on our bikes and pedal onwards. I leave fuming because I was trying to savor those cookies and the dumb bee made me gobble up those last two. Dumb bee.
We eventually find a camping spot and setup our tents before sitting down for dinner. Again Kevin prepares tortillas. I thought I was getting tired of eating them but I’m not and I’m ready to dig in. My insect problems are not over yet: the flies come out. I can handle flies as they just crawl around on your legs, arms and food. No big deal. The things I can’t handle are their little cousins that made their first appearance today. I don’t know what they are but these little insects are like tiny versions of flies. But rather than go after food and whatnot these little things go after the ears. If there’s one thing I hate (aside from getting pricked by cacti and dump bees) are insects buzzing near my ears. I can’t stand that loud buzzing sound. So all through dinner these little guys go after my ears (luckily they don’t sting, they just annoy). What’s the fascination with my ears? There’s nothing there but dirt and ear wax! How is that of any interest? Why not go after the food that’s strewn about like the other larger flies are doing? At least they’re making some logical sense. I’m too lazy to get the bug spray so I just sit there and take it. Finally I give up and just let them buzz around my ears hoping that they get trapped in some ear wax and die. Eventually the sun sets and they retreat to leave me in peace.
High on my todo list:
- Avoid cacti.
- Invent something which will rid this world of dumb insects.
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