Jono's Travel Blog

08/10/2010 Day 38 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Davenport to 3 Miles from Seaside 60Miles (96km)

Money Spent: $10 for Groceries, $22 for electrical stuff I need to build something, $7 for more fuel for my stove and $3.50 for some fruit and veg at a market

Time cycling: 4 hours 45 min

Total Distance Traveled: 2217 km

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Last night a Raccoon tried to claw through my tent to get to my food, fortunately I woke up just in time to scare the bastard away. Using some duct tape I was able to patch up the holes and change the colour of my duct tape watch that broke years ago.

I headed off before Pedro and Hejon and hit the road at about 9am.

I stopped off at Santa Cruz to buy some groceries and other goodies then cruzed about downtown. Santa Cruz I found to be a pretty cool small city that had pretty much everything. It was easy enough to get around although I tried to rejoin the hwy but cyclists were now prohibited from getting back on. I had to find the pacific coast bike route that annoyingly took quite a bit of time.

When I finally made it to the route, it took me into farm land where the roads were terrible, almost rivaling the worst of the roads in Vietnam so I had to take it easy to not break my bike.

The crops that were getting grown were, from what I could see were cabbages and strawberries, and the sweet aroma that the strawberries gave off made my mouth water. I would have dismounted my bike to pick some quickly but that’s stealing!... yes, I do have some boundaries. Besides there were a lot of Mexicans in the area doing all the harvesting and I didn’t want to make an issue with them. Its funny I say this though, because a lot of the American’s I’ve met have told me to be careful around Mexico and Mexicans and I always take what they say with a pinch of salt or ignore what they say, but perhaps its rubbed off a little bit on me because I was a little frightened as I passed groups of them as I cycled by. Hmm.

Finally I made it to the part of the Hwy that I could enter and I gunned it for a while before stopping at a market where they had a special on avacodoes: 7 for $1… so cheap and so good, I also picked up some other fruit and veg for dinner too.

Again the bike route took me on another goose chase for the day as there again was another section of the highway that was restricted to cyclists and on some more dodgy roads was a considerable amount of headwind.

I was trying to make it to Monterey but somewhere between Marina and Seaside I became all lightheaded and fatigued and thought it was time to set up camp for the evening.

I found a spot under a tree beside a railroad track a bike path and the highway, which is very loud, but I’m very tired so I reckon ill be able to sleep through it.

I made a delicious dinner which was another clam chowder concoction with pasta and Vegetables with Strawberries for desert. Yum yum.

The evidence, thats a raccoons paw print

One of the beaches around Santa Cruz

That sign was an understatement