August 25
Km’s Pedalled – 82 km’s
Destination – Vicente Guerrero
Some Notes – Today was another amazing day thanks to some of the residents of Durango. Today I am biking with 4 guys (and Adrian who joined us about halfway) from the NOPAL Bike Group on my way to Vicente Guerrero. It was a strong push biking with other cyclists and I think we made good time. The weather was virtually perfect and the winds weren’t too bad.
In Vicente Guerrero we met Ariel Randeles. Ariel has a bike shop called Multisport with a pizza parlour connected to the bike shop. So, at the end of the bike ride we had a pizza dinner and a beer. After all the good byes to the guys, Ariel brought me to a hotel that he and the local bike club had set me up in for the night. During the pizza dinner a young attractive girl came and gave me a piece of cake and I met a guy named Ben who has offered me a place at his apartment as long as I want to stay in Vicente Guerrero. The last few have been crazy. I am exhausted.
The YouTube video NOPAL did about the bike ride can be found HERE.
A gift waiting for me in Vicente Guerrero
August 26
Some Notes – I took my time getting out of bed this morning. After checking out of my hotel I connected with my next and new host Ben. I met Ben Rodriguez last night at the pizza restaurant and he offered me a place to stay as long as I wanted which is awesome because I have a crap load of work to do and I am mentally exhausted from the nonstop events of the last few days.
We ran a few errands and then I was actually able to get a few photos edited. In the evening Ben took me to a hacienda that is uncle owns. Apparently, the hacienda is about 500 years old with the remnants and ruins of a 700 year old church.
500 year old hacienda
700 year old remains of a church
Later in the evening we went to a bar Ben frequents. They let me play The Hu on the big screen.
At the bar
August 27
Some Notes – Most of my day was spent in front of the computer. I was able to edit and organize all my photos and get them in Dropbox. This evening Ben and I joined Ariel (from Multisport) and went on a bike ride out to the country and back.
August 28
Some Notes – I spent the day working on my jewellery in anticipation of setting up my table this evening. I haven’t worked on my jewellery since leaving Creel. Ben made a Facebook post about me selling jewelry in town to share with all his local contacts.
I hadn’t left the apartment all day until just before setting up. The sky looks like it wants to rain. And sure enough it started to rain. I don’t seem to have a lot of luck when the rare opportunity presents itself to sell jewelry. I was kicked out of the downtown of Chihuahua and now I was setting up in the rain.
Because of the rain I ended up setting my table outside Bens clothing store. My big sale at the table came at almost 9 pm for $500 pesos (5 items). At my table the whole evening I sold 8 pieces in total. I met a Luis Orozco who runs a local blog on Facebook called Muleros Blog. He took some photos and shared a post about my jewelry booth.
Where I started and where I ended up
After taking my table down I then had some good sales at Bens brother’s restaurant where I sold 10 pieces of jewelry. So overall I sold 18 pieces ($1,800 pesos in sales or $90 USD.)
Happy customers
August 29
Some Notes – I set up my jewelry booth up again from 11 am to 3 pm. I only sold 4 pendants with $100 pesos tip. During my time sitting at the booth, I was able to finish 45 pendants that had only been half finished.
I hadn’t eaten all day and I headed to a chicken restaurant Ben recommended. The people at the restaurant recognized me as the Canadian cyclists and gave me my meal for free. Perhaps from the Facebook blog post from last night? Craziness.
This afternoon Ben left for Durango for a few days. After he left, I became instantly absolutely exhausted and took a nap. Every night I have been up till 2-3 am at that bar Ben first took me to 4 days ago. This evening I wrote my Durango Mexico Part 2 blog post and this current post.
It’s rained all day and it looks like they are calling for over a week of rain thanks to a hurricane that I think is called Hurricane Nora.
August 30
Some Notes – I posted this morning to Facebook that I plan to do a YouTube Live this evening. I also posted my Durango Mexico Part 2 blog post. With so much happening during that post time frame there was a lot of photos to sort through. I also completed 5 (of 7) Friends & Hosts posts to my website.
So this evening I did my first YouTube Live video for 45 minutes. I don’t want to say it was a failure but it was a failure. Brandon came on and a friend from Ontario also joined and that was it. But unless you try new things you don’t know what will work and what won’t. (For the people that might think that the secret is to keep doing it and over time the results will improve, I would agree. But the secret to that success is consistency, and unfortunately that is something that I cannot offer on my current bike ride. It might 3 weeks or longer before I have an opportunity for a YouTube Live again. Therefore, no consistency.)
Afterwards I went looking for super. I first went looking for some chicken at that restaurant I visited the other day. But it was closed so I decided to go look for pizza. Walking towards the town center I remembered the pizza restaurant I had dinner in the evening I arrived in town. On my way down the street, I was recognized by a local as the Canadian on a bike. Arriving at the pizza restaurant I discovered it was closed. As I came to the pizza restaurant Ariel from Multisport came to his front door because he was closing for the evening.
Ariel invited me to his home for dinner. He also brought me back to the apartment to retrieve my jewelry for his wife and daughters to see. Between Ariel’s wife and 2 daughters they purchased 6 rings and 2 pendants.
August 31
Some Notes – I have spent the last 2 days trying to get one of my external drives fixed. Today I was informed that there is no way to fix it. Chinese crap.
I got my final 2 Friends and Hosts posts finished on my website. I then added and updated over 600 photos to Flickr. I then posted my bike trailer blog post to 19 Facebook bike groups and I shared my How to reach your dreams blog post to 20 other Facebook bike groups. And I finally shared my Hoh Rainforest YouTube video to my own timelines. And then I worked on posting this current blog post to my website.
For super I headed to Bambino’s Pizza the pizza place where I had had super the night I arrived in town. It’s Ariel’s brother that owns the pizza place and super was on the house along with the gift of a t-shirt.
Durango Mexico Part 2 (Aug 18 to 24)
Durango Mexico Part 1 (Aug 9 to 17)
