Ocean ho!

The last two days have both been tough. Yesterday was tough and despairing. Today was tough and hopeful. A strange dichotomy where the mood can swing up and down just like the climbs and descents of the trail.

I'll start with yesterday. The initial 10 miles were, once again, mostly pleasant and quick with the exception of the steep and sandy climb out of Santo Tomás. After a bit of hike-a-biking, the ride became more predictable as I passed through more abandoned and somewhat abandoned cattle ranches (saw some cows with tagged ears so someone must be watching for them?). While the road was a mix of compacted dirt and corrugated rock, I moved fairly quickly across the farmland and between some peaks I was happy to not be climbing. Sooner than I thought, I got my first sight of the Pacific since leaving San Diego! I had a nice lunch of cookies and crackers. Little did I know how dour the mood was to become.

Descending down was, once again, a challenge I'd rather not of had to take. More technical descents of which I do not have the capability or the courage to aggressively tackle meant that I had to walk the bike more than I wanted to. While I was ecstatic to make it down to the ocean and wash off my dusty arms in the water, the slow pace and my aching butt from the constant riding over rock was demoralizing, and it became more so as I went on towards Ejido Erendiría. After about 6.5 hours worth of riding (of a total of nearly 8 hours traveling, to include stops to push the bike and eat lunch, drink water, etc.) I had only made it about 30 miles; fortunately, it was all I needed to make as I was able to rest my head at Coyote Cal's, a pit stop run by an ex-pat for cyclists and motocross enthusiasts. A good dinner, a good sleep, and a good breakfast and I was ready to tackle the next day.

Today was also a difficult day but one in which I felt a bit more enthusiastic during and at the end of the ride. I linked up again with Andre, and we rode out of Ejido Erendiría with fantastic views of the ocean on rocky but relatively flat dirt road. A few difficult rolling climbs and descents eventually landed us on mesa just out of view of the ocean, but with good compact dirt to ride on. Here we saw rows of wild mountain cactus and a few cows on some more seemingly vacant ranch land. A mostly pleasant descent into Punto Colonet preluded an excellent lunch of shrimp and birria tacos at a local eatery. We then decided to forgo another torturous climb into the mountains and instead take the highway straight to Vicente Guerro. We were still about an hour out when we decided to call it a night in Camalú and rest up for the days ahead!

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