Huautla to Ejido San Juan Tilapa: Wet and cold to hot and dry


Statistics for today
Distance 73.12 kms 45.36 miles
Climbed 1,512 meters 4,961 feet
Ride time (hours) 5.42 -
Avg speed 13.4 kph -
Avg climb 4% -
Max grade 12% -
Statistics for trip to date
Distance 20,595.93 kms 12,797.76 miles
Climbed 229,371 meters 752,530 feet
Ride time (hours) 1,503.77 -
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Thursday, December 12th, 2013

Someone set off fireworks at 6:30 am. It didn’t get me out of bed though. I finally hit the road at 9.

A cold morning at this higher altitude. Light rain as well. The ride started with a 500 meter descent then a seemingly interminable climb in the cold rain. A guy who came walking down in the other direction implored me not to tell anyone that I had seen him. Okay…no one ever asked. I wasn’t expecting to go this high but the road just kept going up, 1500 meters, 1700, 2000, by the time I hit 2,200 I was getting seriously cranky. Then I got a flat… a pinch flat, I figured this might happen because this tube is too big. I can’t remember where I got it. Most likely somewhere in Central America where I couldn’t find 700c stuff. I changed it as fast as I could while shivering in the rain. Then the good news: a big downhill from 2,200 meters to 900. With the lower altitude came dramatically warmer temperatures and no rain. Sun even.

The first town I came to, Teotitlán, didn’t look too interesting so I kept going. About 10k later I saw a sign for an ejido (public land), it looked deserted so I poked around and found a nice place to camp. On this side of the mountains it’s a desert landscape with lots of cactus and scrub brush. Made a spartan dinner and was in the tent early.

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Guilty.
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Cliff road descending to Téotitlan.
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Dramatic change in flora.
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Campsite
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