Dos Bicicletas

Sunday morning, we woke up late in a Tequila-soaked daze. The weather was beautiful so we decided to sweat out the alcohol and take a bike ride around Guada using the Hostel's bikes free of charge. Every Sunday, for the past 7 years, the city of Guadalajara shuts down it's two largest and busiest avenues, Vallarta and Chapultepec and allows pedestrians, cyclists, and skateboarders to ride all around the city without worrying about traffic from 8am-2pm. It was amazing how many people were out on their bikes and walking their dogs. There were volunteers every block controlling the crossing traffic. I'm sure it costs the city a lot of money to shut traffic down like that, but you could tell all of the citizens really enjoy it.

approaching Minerva, the street paint is left over from the Pan-American Games that took place in Guada this past fall

We set out from our place at 10:30 in the morning, biked all the way up Vallarta to Minerva and then back down to Chapultepec. By the time we arrived at Parque Metropolitano around 12:30, I had done an intense amount of whining and complaining. The hills were tough and I hadn't been on a bike in...quite awhile. We rested at the park and had lunch while we watched the kids jump on trampolines and roll down the hill in giant clear plastic balls that tumbled them around like tennis shoes in a dryer.

 By 1pm, though it was time to head back and neither Danny nor I were looking forward to the return trip. Somehow, we got a little turned around and ended up at a busy intersection with no friendly traffic-controlling volunteers in sight. It was at this point that we decided to abort the mission and take a cab home. The first cab we stopped said "No dice", because he didn't have a rack to put the bikes on. The second guy, however, loaded the bikes up and said it would be 700 pesos to take us home. Fine by me. At that point we would have paid 10,000. We made it home, took the longest and most appreciated nap of our lives, and then limped around the entire next day.

Hasta la Proxima!