Thermarest for the new mattress and the discount
on the fitted sheets
Breakdowns: what
do you think?
Tip
of the month: the bag bucket
Doing the laundry piece
by piece under the shower is okay for a
few washes, but sometimes, clothes just
need a good old soaking in soapy water.
Most camping cyclists will have some sort
of foldable kitchen sink or bucket with
them for this purpose, but what if you haven't?
Basically, a couple of
strong plastic shopping bags will suffice.
Only catch is you have to have somewhere
to lean the bags up against. They do tend
to be a bit unstable.
Hotel
Morelos, San Blas , Mexico, 01-03-09 San Blas to the San Blas Mercado
and back again several times each week (0 cycle days;
0km; 0m) Paying for it
We have watched the days whiz past this month and we
are now feeling a little guilty for having sat put for
yet another 30 days. It hasn't been a boring time at
all: San Blas has had enough festivities throughout
the month to last most people a full year. Besides,
we have been ticking very hard away at the keyboard:
fixing up our website; altering a couple of others;
building a new one; and generally researching into how
we can make travelling around the world on the bike
pay just a little bit of its own way.
This means the extend of our exercise
has been strolling round the town shopping, walking
to the bakery, going out to the pizza restaurant once
a week, getting up and down to make coffee, grab a beer
or go to the bathroom. And the result of that is an
expanded waistline, yep even on Ali, and the nagging
urge to start cycling again. It is really time to go.
And the circus came to
town
We know it isn't PC to support the old-style circus
institution, but when the big top arrived in San Blas,
we couldn't resist the opportunity to see what a Mexican
version would entail. We were very excited about our
ringside seats for 40 pesos each (about 2 euros), though
the show had a few routines and costumes in need of
a little repair. Still, with all the unprofessionalism,
the clown was really cool and all the kids just loved
the show.
It was a strange feeling in the red
and gold spot-lit ambience: felt like we were in one
of those lands at the top of the Magic Faraway tree
in Enid Blyton's children's book. There were camels
eating carrots out of peoples mouths, tigers jumping
through flaming hoops, motorcycles riding inside metal
balls, clowns throwing popcorn over you, and as a grand
finale a giant air-filled King Kong to scare us back
through the hole in the cloud, down the tree and into
reality. Yes, it was another world. And definitely a
world that would only survive in countries like Mexico.
February Festival: boy
do they love it!
Honestly, we couldn't have picked a more lively month
to spend in San Blas. Sure, January tempted us with
a few special events during the Bird Migration Week,
but February laid out a feast of festivities not only
to be enjoyed but also heard for miles around. The most
important of them all being Dia de San Blas: a religious
event taking place on the third; and where the patron
saint is ceremoniously carried from the town church
to the docks and sent on a wee boat trip to consecrate
a rock and back again. Also know as the Blessing of
Sea Festival, it ensures that locals have another year
of fruitful fishing.
Everyone piles into boats to follow
the holy vessel's journey and then it is back to the
town plaza to hang around eating fairy floss until the
big fireworks display, which finishes off the celebrations
with whole lot more banging and hissing than anything
else. But boy, do they love it!
You'll be woken the next morning to
the beating of drums and the Mexican National Anthem
on Constitution Day and a week later you won't be able
to find a single Ferrero Rocher or anything with a love
heart on it in the whole of San Blas. Roses are bought
in especially for Dia de San Valentin and it is for
everyone and not just your secret sweetheart. What certainly
is; is the provocative dance they are crazy about here.
This dance floor jaunt could be described a bit like
this: the girl straddles the guy's slightly bent right
leg and leans against his chest. He remains macho straight
with one hand dangling nonchalant free and the other
around her waist. She grips his shoulder as they move
a sort of a fast rhythmic waltz and gets more or less
carted around on his leg with her feet dragging like
a marionette. Sounds bizarre, well it is. But boy, do
they love it!
Carnival follows, with less pizzazz,
but still a lot of noise and to finish off the month
in style, every drum, trumpet and horn from the region
join forces in a hootin' tootin' beatin' parade for
Flag Day. It is actually a good thing that Lent usually
falls in March, so everyone can rest up a bit. Well,
at least you would expect they'd want a bit of peace
and quiet by now. But in all sincerity, if the locals
of San Blas are not whopping and yahooing in party mode,
then the cars hooning past pumping rap, the loud speaker
advertisements bleating from automobiles and overhead
areoplanes alike, the full volume video game soundtracks,
and the guy drilling the brick wall next to your bedroom
means you are not going to have much of conversation
in hushed tones. And so the noise evolves until someone
like me has had enough. I might not like it, but boy
do they love it.
In the plaza there stands a plaque
with one verse of the famous poem The Bells of San
Blas, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The ode was
his last piece of work before dying in 1882 and strangely
enough, though he felt compelled to write this piece,
he never actually visited San Blas. Seeing as I have
visited and stayed two months in this quaint and authentic,
but somewhat raucous little Mexican village, I feel
it fitting to counterpoise with my own shorter version
of The Noise of San Blas.
The Bells of San Blasby Longfellow
The Noise of San Blas by
Sonya Spry
What say the Bells of San Blas
To the ships that southward pass
From the harbor of Mazatlan?
To them it is nothing more
Than the sound of surf on the shore,--
Nothing more to master or man.
But to me, a dreamer of dreams,
To whom what is and what seems
Are often one and the same,--
The Bells of San Blas to me
Have a strange, wild melody,
And are something more than a name.
For bells are the voice of the church;
They have tones that touch and search
The hearts of young and old;
One sound to all, yet each
Lends a meaning to their speech,
And the meaning is manifold.
What say the noise of San Blas
As traveller and tourist pass
Cobbled streets, cafe and plaza,--
To them it is nothing other
Than sound of rapping brother
From the young lads hotted-up car
But to me, a lover of tranquil,
To whom noise is and noise will
So distract to keep me awake,--
The noise of San Blas as I be
Only pierces and punctures me
Till my nerves, they nearly break.
For whine is but the voice of one;
Who may not deny frivol fun;
The noise, the heart of people here.
One sound advice, all who reach
A little town with jején beach,
Don't forget to plug the ear.
A word from
Ali about what we have done in San Blas the last
two months:
We have updated most of the pages
on this site (438!) and added new infomation
for nomads, cyclists and armchair travellers alike.
Also behind the scenes, we have done a lot of
work by improving our page titles, descriptions
and keywords for the so called Search Engine Optimization.
Tags have been added to buttons and pictures,
to be in line with the accessibility guidelines.
We have re-organised the site,
so it is easier to navigate as well as being easier
for us to find things: there were a lot of old,
unused pictures and buttons everywhere in our
folders, so it was a bit like a spring clean!
There are new buttons, a new
search possibility, a new feel, without loosing
the old; all our videos have been uploaded to
YouTube
and Vimeo,
and last but not least, we've made friends on
Facebook and several cycling forums as well...
And then there's the distance
tables, cost of living charts, vegetarian food
options, bike shops, a currency converter and
loads more to add to all our country-infomation
pages. This section is not complete yet, because
everything takes time. And now, time must come
to an end in San Blas: we really want to get back
on the bikes. So, over the next few weeks, maybe
even months, we will be updating the Country Information
pages regularly. Please keep coming back, because
it will be worth it! Great info, nowhere to be
found in one spot anywhere else on the world wide
web.
Besides this, we opened a bicycle
touring & outdoor shop with a lot of the
gear we use on our trip, for you to buy (not ours,
NEW stuff!). We reviewed ALL the gear we've used
in 31 months of travelling (and I can tell you
that is a lot: had to be split into three pages).
Further, we created a new
'about this site' page: very interesting stuff
for all the people who like numbers and of course
all this had to be uploaded in the local internet
café with it's slow connection... Hope
you appreciate it!
month
