Before I resume storytelling, suffer me a spiel.
I’d like to explain a frame adjustment for our community of followers:
Up to this point my objective in blogging has been to create beautiful posts which are pleasing to readers and paint a picture of a life of travel. Over the past 15,000 miles and 6 years of walking, paddling, pedaling, and in the last two years of uncomfortable reflection, I have realized that a rosy narrative does not serve the long term interests of any parties involved. It misaligns your expectations of long distance slow travel, does not do justice to the challenges faced by lives and landscapes we cross, and misrepresents my experience.
Emboldened by your response to ‘On Finding my Way Back‘ my gears and pedals have been turning on how to tell the story more comprehensively. This shift is also part of how I am answering the call, as I’ve understood it, from minority groups: that we, as the most fortunate people on the planet, must consider the toll our actions and lifestyles take on others and weigh their perspectives when making decisions or telling a story.
This sort of ‘Eat Pray Love Colonialism’ is not our aim and it has taken years of extractive travel for me to even begin to grapple with the extent of it. So, know that any judgment you hear in my tone, is frustration with my own slow learning curve. With this hard earned growth, much of it at the expense of others, I want to reorient my voice to offer more on the ground examples.
You will hear more about efforts and expectations to give back. I’ve long glossed over this because no one likes to brag and I was raised not to talk about one’s own ‘good deeds’. I have also come to realize that writing like this leaves the impression that it is okay, as a privileged, foreign traveler, to come scooting through other countries, receiving heaps of generosity, without giving back besides gracing this planet with our presence. Also, honestly, there is no question of ‘good deeds’ because there is nothing we could do to balance all which has been given so freely and much we have taken unknowingly.
Reallocating money is only one piece of that. If you can afford to travel, you can afford to give in the communities to which you travel. While maintaining our 10% Pay if Forward practice is one of my favorite uses of our funds (besides eating, of course), one does not want to reduce herself and the effects of her travel to money alone. I am saddened when I hear fellow travelers say, “well, they need our money, after all.” Then turn around and complain of being seen as “cash cows” or dealing with beggars. It’s a chicken or the egg debate where that relationship stems from.
There are so many other illuminating ways to connect, share, and exchange and I hope to do better work of exploring some of the myriad ways we have picked up over the miles. I do so in the hopes that it will spark ideas on how you can find ways to give back to the people and places you get to visit and I invite you to drop these notes in the comments!
May we, as a community by such efforts, and each in our own way, do what we can to stitch the rended fabric of relationships into a patchwork of healing and progress.
Not for expectations of outcome but because of love.
A few context notes for fellow and aspiring international riders:
Across Mexico we are piecing together a route with a combination of plotted options between Pueblo Mágicos. Translated from the Gobierno de Mexico website, a Pueblo Mágico is “a town that has symbolic attributes, legends, history, transcendent events, everyday life, in short, magic that emanates from each of its socio-cultural manifestations, and that today mean a great opportunity for tourism.” In short, they are towns that have stories and where travelers are welcome. We are also enjoying visiting public archaeological sites to learn more about the pre-Columbian cultures who inhabited the continent.
To do this we combine data from various apps such as: Explorer (Garmin, partners), Gaia (partners. Affiliate Link- you get a discount!), Maps.me, and Google Maps. Each app has its benefits and deficits but after years of working between them we have figured out a balance which works to our satisfaction. We then alter these plans based on the day. Factors such as elevation, wind, wear, etc. make pivoting critical.
One of our primary safety measures is to avoid getting into situations where we have only one option. Even if this means turning around on an uphill. We recently made such a decision when 3 fully armed and alarmed military convoys went flying by with weapons at the ready in the direction we had been headed. We did not wait around for more information, we did not hope they would turn a different direction, we just climbed up to the highway and dealt with the headwind and vehicles.
As women riding ‘solas‘ we are treated differently by the locals and our safety measures differ from most bikepackers who are, by and large: highly equipped and experienced athletic, white men. Their partners often move under the auspicious umbrella of his presence.
On the front end, we compliment routes we have downloaded with reading the associated blogs and learn from their mistakes and blind spots. We also read and discuss news reports and State Department notices, listen to a few Spanish language and Latin perspective podcasts (such as El Hilo), read historical documents and university studies (mostly when I’m getting excited about archaeological sites), as well as on the ground beta collected from locals. We collate this information and discuss it regularly to inform safety and plausibility factors while making decisions en route.
Simply downloading and following a pre-plotted route across a foreign country is not advisable for you nor respectful to the locals. There are too many moving factors and individual variables. This is one of the primary reasons we do not make our route maps publicly available, though we are always happy to consult on your own big dreams and schemes. We mention many of the towns we stop through in our blogs, feel free to plot those points and then forge your own way. Much of the joy and growth in these journeys comes from planning, learning, and exercising independent thought!
Many of the bikepacking routes available for download are just app routing (they make no allowance for human or social factors) which have been ground-truthed by high caliber and exceptionally well equipped and experienced riders. This does not provide a rounded body of information or equitable experience base which meets any sort of safety and respect standards when traveling abroad. The thinking seems to be, “I made it through, so it must be fine.” Which is very much not the case if you exist in a different body or have lesser equipment or experience.
Certainly utilize their work to glean information but do not take it as a carte blanche that you are welcome where those lines go. They trespass and with the moving social and political aspects, you may be unwittingly pedaling into conflict zones. If the opportunistic perspective of poverty sees a stream of white people on expensive bikes threading along a predictable path, a number of foreseeable outcomes may arise.
Scrutinize your information and be always cognizant of your surroundings.
Regarding road traffic, Neon has commented several times that she has felt safer riding across Mexico than she did across Arizona on the Western Wildlands Route. Most drivers down here are much more accustomed to and courteous of sharing the road. I have seen a semi-truck stop on an uphill to let a pregnant dog waddle across. If I get smoked out here, it probably won’t be by a rural driver (they have slow vehicles and precious cargo of their own, be it humans or melons) or drunk driver (easy to avoid. Don’t ride late into the day, on weekend evenings, or Sunday afternoons). My bet would be on a sleek vehicle driven by a self absorbed, distracted city person used to being able to pay their way out of culpability, or a corporate owned semi-truck trying to make a deadline.
The collectivos are a wild card.
More often than not, vehicles give us as much berth as possible. Many times, if they cannot, they put on their flashers and drive behind until they can safely pass. In cases on windy roads, when you can see better around a bend than the driver waiting behind, if the road is clear, gesture for them to pass.
My rudimentary understanding of the language of their horns is:
One Beep means “I am here,” and they are probably going to pull a maneuver, so pay attention. We’ve been impressed by their courageous 40 point turns in the middle of the road, blocking all lanes of traffic.
Two beeps means, “I see you.”
More times than I can count, people beep encouragingly, flash their lights, give us thumbs up, or some even lean out their windows to cheer. I have spent a lot more time smiling and waving than giving the bird down here. Which is the opposite of my experience on the roads in the US.
Perspective and Travel points:
-If you plan to bikepack in Mexico and Central America, do so with great personal caution and cultural respect. You are not going to have a ‘wilderness’ or ‘path less traveled’ experience. You are a tourist traveling through people’s homes and yards (outdoor spaces are viewed as home by many who live here.)
-Always ask ‘permiso‘ if you see someone working on land you plan to cross. Or, at the very least, acknowledge and greet them (these are basic manners in Latin culture).
-Expect to hire lodging on a nearly nightly basis. Again, this is not remote wilderness. If you are permitted to camp on someone’s land, find a way to leave a small remuneration. Do not draw attention to your gift, just tuck it under the sugar dish or some such. 100-200 pesos is a fair sum.
-Bring gifts. I’ve had some people proudly show me a US dollar bill, or a Euro note left as a gift by another traveler. A friend who did Trail Magic while I was on the CDT still has the ribbon gifted to him by a Japanese thru-hiker. People love tangible evidence of their role in your journey. Find creative ways to interweave your stories instead of just taking theirs.
-If you take pictures of people, offer to share them. Most everyone has Whatsapp and many delight to have a photo of themselves or with you for their own collection as much as you like taking pictures of them for your media content. Also, ask their names when possible and include this information where you can. They are a human being, not a ‘subject.’
Next week should resume the more typical storytelling content you are used to seeing here. I just couldn’t keep writing publicly until I owned my errs and got this off my chest. Thank you for reading through.
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