[jimmyadkins]

It is that time of the year again when we have to look back, think about the last couple of months and write a funny blog-post! What a ride it has been to get through to Mexico City and pretty much closing the door on Latin America. It was hot, it was hot and it was hot.

 

After all I am not quite sure if the 5 o'clock morning rides are my cup of tea. But to be honest my idea of riding a bike ist not dragging yourself to 1 pm and then spending the rest of the day just contemplating over the eventual distance you could have made IF you didn't take a lunch break or stop for toilet before the inferno strikes again! But in all this baking-oven-moments there was plenty of brightside too. Maybe not the day when news broke out about the murder of fellow traveler Catherine Johannet on Bastimentos island and I was just a stone throw away sweating my brain out.

 

I have always looked at this trip as a bit of lottery and in the end I was always hoping to come home with the big check. Namely just walking away from it alive! But what makes you think on days like these ... is just in the end we might be riding our bikes or hiking on a trail but on THAT particular day I really wished I was hiking on that trail and could have helped that girl.

 

 

 

 

In the end I didn't and I walked away from this whole experience quite drained in general. And it wasn't for the excruciating heat. Overall the entire Panama City - Tegucigalpa ride was a bit on the heels of what was left of my Colombia form as well. But as it seemed it was just enough to get the job done and ride that baby home. Nicaragua was a bit of a surprise as I saw backpackers roaming around and families climbing up volcanos. It was so much not like Honduras where hardly any tourists pass through.

 

 

 

In Tegucigalpa I had a chance to catch up with some friends from my stint as a volunteer and also take some time off to process what has been going on in last 7,000 km. Still time flew by pretty fast and I could wrap up the photography and filming for the upcoming cyclingtips article which is due in May - hopefully! The chance to tell some of my story on local television for various sports programs - was also something I wanted to give a shot and it turned out to be a lof of fun altogether! Riding into Mexico City was definitely as hard as getting to Mexico City. That is for sure. I never really looked at the map - but what I definitely underestimated was the flat long drag from Guatemala to Mexico City. It was one baking oven out there and riding in this sort of heat with a full gear is for sure something I can't see those boyfriends with their girlfriends doing when setting off for an EPIC BIKE TRIP . Maybe that's why in the end there was none of them and I hardly doubt they ride in this sort of conditions at all ... but that is another story in the endless chapters of the Panamerican Highway encyclopedia which I probably write one day ...

 

A little bit of a bummer was also when news broke out that Michele Scarponi was struck by a truck and I was pretty much just on the verge of cycling into the most congested/biggest city of this planet. Anyway somehow it seems we kind of digest these kind of stories and move on with our own lives but still having the balls to cycle into Mexico City on a morning like this is character building for sure.

 

So as I keep building my character around minor and bigger setbacks one thing is pretty impressive for me so far: How well I have managed to get through Central America in the midst of the entire paranoia that sourrounds these countries.

Bearbeitet 5. Mai 2017 von jimmyadkins

[jimmyadkins]

Riding out of Mexico City on a sunny morning I could never really imagine what my ride to the coast would hold for me! Am I gonna get robbed, shot or both of them. Well in the end apart from that one valley where the temperature was beyond 40 degrees Celsius I never had the impression I was in any sort of trouble. My freewheel hub was making some funny noises but that was just about it! The day I eventually left mainland Mexico and got onto the boat to Baja California, I knew my trip was going to take a drastic change. I was about to come back to the civilised WESTERN WORLD.

Getting off the ferry in La Paz a cold headwind would instantly say hello and it did so for the remaining 14 days I was trying to make my way to the US border. Sometimes it almost felt like Mexico didn't want to let me go, but anyway even the 1600 km of straight headwind and the mind numbing landscapes couldn't stop me heading NORTH. With only one word on my mind - TIJUANA.

 

 

The last day in Mexico was the one I probably remember the most out of almost two months spending in this incredible country. Riding out of Ensenada which sits about 120 km from Tijuana, I thought it would be a nice coastal ride with a quick jump across the border. In the end I had to climb up a cliff to get past the first toll station, ride on the wrong side of the Highway at the second one and cross into the US two times. A piece of cake as usual. I was glad not to bring any other cyclist with me on that day - because that really was a mess! After having my first big sandwich across the border I found an amazing campsite next to Interstate 5.

 

Riding into San Diego the streets were pretty empty on Memorial Day apart from hundreds of homeless roaming around aimlessly. Welcome to the United States. The land of incredible opportunities, where everyone steps on each other and waits for you being stranded in the street. And that was exactly what happened to me. Not illegally but crossing into US from Mexico trying to make my way through this relentless country at times I felt like an immigrant.

 

Back in L.A. I had my fist diarrhea in month. And that AFTER crossing over from Mexico. Well the odd "Gracias" would still come off my lips at times but it didn't really matter half of the staff would be Mexican anyway. So after slowly adapting to US lifestyle, crossing L.A. and riding a Granfondo - it was time to get some work done. So I rode 260 km to San Fran in a day, meeting up with Vlogger Plantriotic on the way. I even got a cameo in one of his videos.

 

 

 

After spending a couple days in San Fran it was time to get my Hollywood career going as well. So flying to Utah was the logical step and filming the sequel of "Endurance" with Genesis Film. It was tough and especially getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning filming in Arches National Park trying to find the trail to the eponymous Arch! After some pretty rough days and a ton of luck we got our shit together and I was back on the road again!

 

 

Cycling over the Golden Gate after coming back from this little shooting, was an absolute highlight if it wasn't for the hundreds of Mark Cavendishs and Grandmas who were trying to do the same in a 80 km/h crosswind...

 

And here we are writing the last chapter before heading towards Canada. All stoked about being soooo far into this trip and still being healthy and alive.

Bearbeitet 27. Juni 2017 von jimmyadkins