From Mexico, With Love and Squalor

Linares, Nuevos Leon – Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, Mexico

First off, we are doing just fine, thank you very much.

Yes, the evening arrival at the hotel a few nights ago was not ideal. But that had very little to do with Mexico. That was more about general poor planning on our part. We just didn’t think our day through very well and ended up leaving Monterrey much later than we should have. Missed a blog post that evening – and ended up overpaying for the hotel. But life goes on . . .

All the other adventures with the streams and such . . . again, pretty amusing, really. The campsite quest: about 45 minutes of riding around – with a few sprinkles of squalor thrown in. But we intentionally came to Mexico – at least partially because we wanted to see Mexico – and not just the glamorous parts . . . We just decided that we didn’t want our “seeing” of Mexico to become a full immersion in the most desperate parts of the country. 

Our one foray onto Google Maps for Bikes – in order to avoid the busy highway – lasted about 45 minutes and, again, was kind of amusing, really. And definitely not our worst experience with such mapping endeavors. We had a far worse day of it in Canada last year. Which, by the way, from the perspective of today, was also one of our favorite days on that trip. 

Oh, and a few more comments on camping in Mexico. Before we left we had perused some biker blogs and there certainly are through-bikers like us who camp here. But my impression is that they camp in ways that don’t really match how Diana and I do things. 

The French folks? Apparently they stay under bridges and stuff. Not really our speed. Or they ask folks to camp in their yards. Might work – but maybe too real for us . . .

And here’s the other thing. My sense is that someone could bike pack – more dirt- and gravel-road based riding – in Mexico and probably find some nice campsites. For instance, the place that we crossed that stream yesterday was really pretty and would have worked well. And the place we swam this afternoon would have worked too. Not necessarily easy to string it all together – but maybe just follow Google Maps for Bikes – and there would probably have to be a fairly high squalor tolerance at times, but it could be done. 

Finally, there are definitely people that camp at churches and fire stations and police stations. Our friend Dan from Monterrey does that when he bicycle tours through Mexico. We could do that in a pinch – but no showers or toilets puts that type of camping kind of on our own pit toilet list (see yesterday’s post) . . . 

Still, I’m kind of sad about it. I like having the reassurance of our own space and I love our occasional home cooked meals together. Hotel life is just not the same. Every night in a new bed. Never really feeling like you have a home. That’s hard for me.

More learning today . . . 

We started out on what looked like a fairly straightforward bike route. That lasted about two kilometers before we turned onto a dirt road. We went about a kilometer down this road before the squalor, the garbage, the mud, and the dogs combined to drive us back to where we had come from. 

So we backtracked to the main road and the regular driving-without-highways directions. Which was good – because on the way to the dirt road I saw a guy wearing a Minnesota Vikings shirt selling sweet corn, and I didn’t think quickly enough and missed the chance for a connection. With all the additional time riding down Squalor Road I had plenty of time to figure this out . . . So when we re-passed him going the other direction I hailed him and made the connection. Not sure he followed the Vikings – but he did know where Minnesota is and was impressed with our trip. 

What we think we have figured out now is that once you get out of the towns and cities there basically are no secondary roads. You either take the main highway – which, so far, have all been super well maintained – or you are on a cart path – which probably has generous servings of garbage and squalor scattered about. And maybe a stream crossing to boot . . .

Most of the time – like today – the main roads have great shoulders. But occasionally – like yesterday, when we ended up on the cart path with the stream crossing – the shoulder gets pretty narrow. Fortunately for Diana and I, on the scale of comfort with busier roads, we tend to land more on the comfortable side than your average American rider these days. (This is especially true of Diana – who would bike on a German autobahn if that provided a slightly shorter route to where she wanted to go . . .) 

But, like I say, we are still figuring it out. Probably tomorrow we will reach some new conclusion . . .

Today’s ride was super nice. Rolling. Fun. With a big mountain range – the Sierra Madre Oriental – to our right as we rode. Sadly, we have basically no good pictures because the range has been mostly shrouded in mist the last few days. 

Following our recent pattern we started early and rode pretty steadily once we departed from Garbage Way. We left Nuevo León behind and entered the state (is that the right word?) of Tamaulipas half way through the ride. Our idea was to get to our destination – Hidalgo – in time to see if we could go swimming in the Rio Panuco – which we knew nothing about – but it looked pretty wide on the map . . . (I don’t think the problem is language. My sense is that there just isn’t the same amount of intelligence on every little thing here in Mexico . . .)

Success. Well, our quest started out a lot like our campsite adventure yesterday. Dirt road. Tons of rocks. Mud. Dogs. You’ve heard it all before . . . Fortunately, this time there was some added spice. Pigs and piglets. In their full muddy, oinky glory. 

Diana’s tolerance for all this is much higher when there is a swimming reward at the end of the road – so she didn’t complain . . . And we eventually found a half-way decent path to get to the river. 

For some reason that I cannot comprehend given that it is a pretty hot place, Mexican people apparently don’t swim much. So there was no one else around. Just Diana and I in a paradise of mountain purity. Swiftly moving current with beautiful clear water. Sandy/round rocky bottom – not Missouri muck or weeds or algae. And little waterfalls perfect for us to enjoy together. 

As for Hidalgo, it’s not a Mexico Magic City, but it has a nice central square, a beautiful river (that no one seems to care about), and it seems to be a great truck stop – in the Mexican truck stop type of way. That is, along the highway there are about twenty little restaurants/stores/food trucks/carts – and the semis all line up to enjoy . . .

Which brings me to my last little observation of the day. The past few days I’ve been thinking about the apparently complete lack of regulation in Mexico. Want to run a food truck or a restaurant? Go for it. Do I need a bathroom or a sink? Absolutely not. Do I need to meet any hygiene standards? What does that word mean? Can I operate out of my house? Why not. Any requirements for where I store meat or how I wash dishes? Whatever your heart desires . . . It seems to be the Wild West – at least from what we see . . .

With the presidential race going on I thought Mexico might be a good prism to look through. Trump hates regulation. Maybe he likes what he sees in Mexico? I’m not trying to be totally flippant here. I mean, there are positives. 

If you want to see lots of small entrepreneurial activity maybe you like this approach. But if the goal is to increase the overall wealth of a place – and to hopefully have the tide raise all the boats – maybe it is better to provide a little bit more predictability – so that people are willing to make some necessary investments. 

Just a little taste to get you thinking . . .