Here I am in Todos Santos. Todos Santos is on the Pacific Ocean in Baja California Sur. When I told people I was going to Todos Santos, the normal reaction was this: Hey, whoa! That's where the Hotel California is, like the real one from the song! Indeed, I knew that already, and this is the reason I'm here. It was only a two day ride away from La Paz in the opposite direction, but I could I leave such a monument unseen? The REAL Hotel California, where "some dance to remember, some dance to forget". I HAD to see this "such a lovely place"!
Above is a picture I took yesterday at sunset of the Hotel.
And this picture is my antihotel. Here it is in absolutely all its glory in Guanajuato State in Central Mexico. Surrounded by nopales and under the yucca tree, this was a fine site. I had about a week of riding from Querétaro through the states of Guanajuato, Jalisco and Aguascalientes to Zacatecas. Vast open plains flanked by toothy mountains. That is, mountains that are sharp like teeth with the plains driving up like tongues in between. This the whale's mouth and me Jonah driving hard against the wind breathing in until finally I breach the mouth and am spit out in Zacatecas.
If you look closely into the foreground here you will see my victory celebration. A torta milanesa and Victoria with Negro Modelo for dessert.
And Zacatecas was good. Zacatecas was, in fact, my favorite place in Mexico. It's built on a pass in the mountains. All the streets on either side of the main one are steep and windy. The main street is straight and graded. The people who built Zacatecas were silver barons who cut overhead costs by employing slaves to dig for silver and gold and other necessary goods from their mine which they called "Eden". They turned this wealth into fancy details on their cathedrals and houses. Then Pancho Villa came and conquered and the city built a gondola spanning the two hills. It's a beautiful city. More importantly, there are amazing tacos and hardly any tourists. The one tourist who was in my room at the hostel was a man named Robert, from Sioux City, Iowa. Robert and I had a great night out at a cantina. There was the mariachi band and its shouting and sobbing and dancing fans; the old guys at the bar; the trucker who just stopped in; the couple in tears who sat in silence for most of the night then got up only to fall down onto the table and knock it over before being escorted out. The best part of the bar though was the 5 inch channel that ran all around the bar, which according to legend was so that people (men) could pee from their barstools without having to get up to interrupt the conversation. According to the bartender, this ended 20 years ago when by law they had to install a urinal.
How times do change.
I spent my first night at sea and here is the full moon taken from port astern to prove it. This was on the ferry from Mazatlán to La Paz, across the Sea of Cortez. Sleeping was the only hurdle. Many had warned me that the bedding situation on the ferry was a predicament. You have the option of getting a cabin or a seat, or of getting general admission. The nautical term for general admission is steerage, for all you naut vocab buffs. Jaco. Anyway, not being a chump, I bought the cheapest ticket in steerage. Then, being a chump, I left my sleeping bag and camping pad in my bike which was locked up and battened down in the hold. So all I had was my thin little shirt and my Shaquille O'Neal jersey under that. I was slightly worried about getting cold. Luckily, ships in the 21st century are powered by combustion engines, which produce a lot of heat. By the time the full moon had reached its apex, I was tired and ready to get a good night's sleep asea. I made my way to the engines abaft. To my delight, it was full of people (men) sleeping like emperors on the deck. Being humans, everyone had found a special and unique place to sleep. There were men sleeping on the bed-sized boxes that contained the life vests. There were men sleeping under the life boats where two beams came together in A-frames and were about a bed length apart. There was no one, however, sleeping completely exposed on the deck. I guess we like to feel as if our backs are protected when we sleep. Seeing this I decided everyone had their backs sufficiently protected to not try to rob them, and I found a place between an electrical box and a life vest box to sleep. I used my bag of dates and peanuts as a pillow. I woke up one sleep cycle later with a dry and acrid throat from my proximity to the engines, source of warmth, power, and mercy. I moved further aft to the bed-sized A-frame base under the life boat. One sleep cycle later, I awoke, cold and exposed. I moved afore and made my den simply aside a wall sure and solid. I awoke at dawn surrounded by cabin dwellers adeck to see the sunrise. I turned over onto my back, bent my knees to my chest, grabbed my date and peanut pillow and wrapped my arms around my knees, rolled backward along my curved spine then rolled forward and sprang up onto my feet. I was awake, and had spent the night at sea. I felt great. I sighted land before the watchman yelled out ¡Land Ho! and climbed to the second deck. I looked down and saw none other than a giant tortoise cruising south in the Sea of Cortez.
A day's ride from La Paz later, I am in Todos Santos. I couldn't afford a room at the Hotel California, so I called up my cousin and got his girlfriend's mother's email address. I emailed her and here I am, staying with the magnanimous Petra Hauptmann and her family in a beautiful house where I can see the Pacific stretching towards Hong Kong.
