This Mexican portion of my journey eventually became part of my 90,000-word memoir, From Scrubbing Toilets to Living in the Jungles of Belize, One Kilometre at a Time.
I spent almost five and a half months bike touring Mexico from June 9, 2021, to November 23, 2021, from the scorching heat of Mexicali to Chetumal on the Yucatán.
Mexico was such an experience that I could never have anticipated; I don’t even know where to start.
As you can imagine, I received many warnings of danger, death, and doom before entering Mexico. I was really only concerned about the Mexico-US border city of Mexicali. After that, I figured I would deal with everything else as I needed to.
It would turn out that I never had a moment of concern and felt exceptionally safe in Mexico. In fact, I felt safer in Mexico than in the United States, even though I never had any problems in the US.
Probably the biggest surprise about Mexico was that I never anticipated creating so many lifetime memories. My expectation was simple: bike through Mexico until I reached my next country. That would not be the case.
I would have so many experiences that what I expected to be a straightforward trip through Mexico would eventually take me 160 days to bike 6,020 kilometres, from Mexicali to Chetumal at the Belize border. Most of my memorable memories and experiences happened as I made my way through the northern and central parts of the country. There were so many of them that I eventually wrote a separate blog about my experiences in Mexico.
If you have any interest in biking through or visiting Mexico, or reading about a country that welcomed a simple bike tourist, I strongly recommend reading Mexico: My Truth.
I should mention that I speak no Spanish. And even after spending almost six months in Mexico, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of understanding and knowing this country.
6,020 km’s over 161 days
My Mexican Bike Touring Route
I have split my Mexican bike route into four geographical sections:
- Baja California
- Copper Canyon
- North Central Mexico
- Southern Mexico
Baja California
I entered Mexicali, Mexico, on June 9, experiencing temperatures of 46°C (115°F). The next 28 days would represent the hardest section of my entire bike ride, including biking through the Canadian winter in 2019-20. It felt like I was going to die almost every day until I reached La Paz, 28 days later, after biking 1,488 kilometres to get there.
I did not enjoy the Baja like most people who visit in the winter. I had one interest and one priority: get the hell out of there before the heat killed me. Because of that, I didn’t take the time to explore the region as one typically would. Baja California became an exercise in survival rather than exploration.
The feeling of death and beauty in the Baja
Copper Canyon
The full length of the Copper Canyon railway is 656 kilometres. I biked about 80 kilometres toward the end of the line. The reality is that from Los Mochis, you have to take the train for a good part of the journey as there are no roads.
Copper Canyon was an awesome relief from the heat of the Baja, and it was probably the most beautiful part of Mexico that I experienced. Copper Canyon is 100% recommended.
I also had no problems bringing my bike onto the train, even though the website said bikes were not allowed.
Copper Canyon beauty
North Central Mexico
Truth be told, not much changes when biking from Chihuahua to as far south as Puebla. The weather was mostly perfect. I would come across a few hilly or mountainous areas, but for the most part, nothing was too extreme. Running down the centre of the country, the terrain seemed fairly flat.
From Chihuahua, I mainly followed the centre of Mexico to the major cities:
Chihuahua → Torreón → Durango → Fresnillo → Zacatecas → Aguascalientes → León → Guanajuato → Santiago de Querétaro → Mexico City → Puebla
Guanajuato – my favorite city
While geographically not accurate, for the purposes of this post, I am referring to everything south of Puebla as the southern part of Mexico.
From a terrain, vegetation, and weather perspective, the changes were relatively subtle until I continued beyond Puebla. Probably the number one attraction while biking through the cities in central Mexico was the cathedrals. During my time in Mexico, I would visit and photograph more than 200 cathedrals and churches, with roughly 90% of them located in the cities and northern part of my route.
My favourite cities were probably Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Puebla. At the same time, it was hard not to like all of them in one way or another. It was quite an experience biking into Mexico City, as big as it is.
Cathedrals everywhere in Mexico
Southern Mexico
From Puebla, my plan was to head south to Oaxaca. But in Puebla, I realized that my tourist visa would not give me enough time to do that. So, I made a beeline straight for the Belize border.
My original plans were also to head to Guatemala, but after so many amazing experiences and memories in Mexico, I saw no point in heading towards Guatemala either. I have never been to Oaxaca, but I understand it to be one of the most beautiful parts of Mexico.
Biking south toward Belize would become some of my most enjoyable riding. All of it reminded me and felt like I was already biking through Belize – where I longed to be by then.
One of my favorite days on a bike was along the Gulf of Mexico, geographically between Coatzacoalcos and north of Villahermosa. The road brought me along the ocean through coconut forests.
In the last 12 days of my 161 days biking in Mexico, I biked 1,118 km’s of my 6,020 Mexican kilometers, which is almost 20% of my total Mexico route.
My Routing
Because I am a fussy eater and could no longer cook for myself in Mexico, I relied 100% on restaurants for my meals. That influenced my route considerably. I followed main roads and highways between cities because I needed regular access to food.
Heading south from Chihuahua, I was virtually never in wilderness or isolated areas. The main physical and geographical highlights of my Mexican bike tour were surviving the Baja, visiting Copper Canyon, biking into Mexico City, and eventually reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
Safety
As you can imagine, I received a lot of warnings about Mexico before entering the country. I never felt unsafe for a moment. Only once did the police stop me, and that was simply to warn me about the highway ahead. I never had an issue. What more can I add?
Hosts & Meeting Mexicans
I would eventually have 20 hosts in Mexico, even though I only reached out twice for hosting. Of course, I never anticipated having this many hosts. One of my hosts was even a follower who had been following my bike ride from the beginning – 22 months up to that point. He didn’t reveal that fact until I was sitting in his living room.
Until I met Marco, I had no idea he had been following my ride for 22 months
I feel like I met hundreds of Mexicans who would come up to talk to me. I know I had hundreds and hundreds of cars and trucks give me friendly honks and waves. When I would visit the centre of towns or cities, I would often start moving through more quickly because as soon as one person started talking to me or wanted a photo, there would very quickly be a line-up.
I also lost track of how many Mexicans bought me cold drinks or invited me out for dinner. I was given well over 2,000 pesos by at least half a dozen Mexicans. Imagine Mexicans giving a Canadian money? Mexicans are probably the most generous people I have ever met.
Once again, I strongly recommend checking out my other blog post about my Mexican experiences and the generosity I encountered: Mexico: My Truth.
Stealth Camping in Mexico
Stealth camping on the Baja and the true north of Mexico was not too difficult. The further south I went, however, the more difficult it became. Mexico has a lot of people, and those people are everywhere. And I mean everywhere. With so many cities along my route, the further south I travelled, the less stealth camping I was able to do.
If I spoke Spanish, I would have been much more comfortable asking people if I could camp in their yards. But I found the inability to communicate exhausting and frustrating at times, particularly because of the number of questions people naturally had about me and my bike ride. I was also becoming embarrassed by the level of generosity I was experiencing in Mexico. I feared locals would end up giving beyond their means.
Stealth camping also became difficult because it was almost impossible not to be discovered. And once someone found me, not being able to communicate with a stranger in the dark didn’t sound like much fun. I was also surprised by how much land is fenced off in Mexico.
I had initially thought stealth camping in the jungle areas would be possible, but the vegetation was often simply impenetrable.
I have written a post about stealth camping in general: Stealth Camping on Bike Tour.
Bike Touring Mexico Without Speaking Spanish
I don’t speak Spanish, and for the most part, I had no trouble bike touring through Mexico. I always seemed to find people who spoke English. I had constantly been warned that English would be much more difficult to come across. I never really found that to be the case.
That being said, over time I realized that not speaking Spanish definitely took something away from my Mexican experience. I must have said, “Lo siento, no hablar español” – I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish a million times.
I was able to communicate with most people as I generally knew what they were asking, or I had enough context to understand the conversation. Generally, you only have a problem when you have a problem. Then you just use your Google Translate app.
Poking Friendly Fun at Mexico
There are a few things that make Mexico… well, Mexico.
- There are three potholes and one speed bump for every person in the country
- Mexicans can’t seem to park
- Toilet paper rollers are always missing (???)
- Motels are NOT the same as hotels
- Their hamburgers are not real hamburgers, and their hot dogs are just gross
- Assume the shower has no hot water
- Mexico’s favorite pastime is sweeping their sidewalks in front of their homes and businesses
- Sidewalks are often a foot high off the road
- The toilet seat at most hotels is likely missing (???)
Some of these observations are obviously tongue-in-cheek.
After spending months riding through a country, however, you start noticing the little things that would never stand out to someone simply passing through as a tourist.
Where has virtually every toilet paper hanger in the entire country gone?
Almost never a toilet seat??? And how to fix that
Who gets a room for only 4 hours?
The Elephant in the Room: Garbage
Mexico has more roadside garbage than I could have imagined possible. I thought the US was bad. The amount of garbage along some roads was beyond anything I had experienced before. It was genuinely shocking to me. What bothered me most was seeing how normalized roadside dumping appeared to be in many of the places I travelled through. Very, very sad.
Also, this country could use, and has the land to plant a few billion trees.
Roadside garbage – everywhere!!!
By the Numbers – Expensive!
Towards the end of my US experience, all I wanted was to get into Mexico so I could start living off pesos instead of US dollars. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that Mexico is actually pretty expensive. I know that sounds impossible, right? Well, this is what happened when I entered Mexico.
In Canada and the US, I did all my own cooking. In Mexico, I realized that I could no longer cook for myself. I generally stick to four main foods while biking – fried eggs, Kraft Dinner, Chunky Soup, and hot dogs. I hadn’t been able to eat fried eggs again since getting sick in Nevada. There is no such thing as Chunky Soup in Mexico. You can only get Kraft Dinner at Walmart in Mexico. And Mexican hot dogs are gross.
So suddenly, all my food became restaurant food. In Canada and the US, 99% of my water was free. In Mexico, 100% of my water was purchased.
In Canada and the US, I only rarely stayed at a hostel. I mostly stealth camped or stayed with hosts. Mexico was different. The country is full of cities, and I would often find myself in a city in the evening because I needed to eat supper. The hotels in Mexico are a fraction of the cost of hotels in Canada or the US, but I was now staying in hotels fairly regularly. That was another expense that had been virtually nonexistent in Canada and the US.
In the end, my average daily cost of living was basically the same as bike touring through Canada and the US, give or take a few dollars.
My Final Thoughts on Bike Touring Mexico
Many bike tour bloggers have mentioned that Mexico is one of their all-time favourite countries to bike tour. I am in their boat now.
While I had many lifetime memories in Canada and the US, I never imagined that I would create so many lifetime memories in Mexico. At the same time, there was a lot that I could imagine about biking through Canada and the United States. When I entered Mexico, I had no expectations. My plan was to bike from north to south until I reached the next country. That’s it. I wasn’t expecting lifetime memories. Boy, did I get that wrong.
Mexico ended up being one of the most memorable parts of my entire 26,000-kilometre journey from Canada to Belize. I entered Mexico expecting to ride through it. I left Mexico having experienced it.
With Mexico’s future
Additional Reading
A few memories
