I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

It took about five months, but last month I finally borrowed a bike.  Originally I was going to buy a bike for transport around the city, but Oaxaca is very hilly and the traffic is a little crazy.  There also are lots of diesel-spewing buses with exhaust pipes at ground level.  And so much happens on those same buses – like clowns telling jokes or itinerant musicians crooning out-of-tune-ballads for spare change – it would be a shame to miss it all by going solo on a bike.  So I decided to rely on buses, walking, and taxis instead.  I have not regretted that decision.

But as with so many other aspects of our trip that have turned into highlights, a fantastic biking opportunity presented itself at the farm across the street.  One night while making pizza and drinking mezcal with Gabrielle and her friends, I met Miguel, who is married to Gabrielle’s cousin.  Miguel is an avid road biker and mountain biker.  We got to talking, and he offered to take me on a ride.  He also lent me a bike, helmet, and gloves.  That is all I needed.

Me and Miguel at Monte Alban.

Oaxaca is located at the intersection of three wide valleys surrounded by spectacular mountains.  The valleys and the mountains are criss-crossed with paved and dirt roads that connect the hundreds of villages and communities.  This geography makes for ideal bike rides, and Miguel knows a lot of them.  We set out “early” (i.e., about 8:00 a.m., which really is early in a city where most things open at about 10:00 a.m.), then spend a couple of hours riding dirt roads through hills and up mountains to the villages, where we do a little sight-seeing before turning back.

Do not get me wrong.  In the Bay Area we are blessed with some of the best bike rides in the world.  While I love the rides here, riding through the Oakland hills or over Mt. Tamalpais is equally as spectacular.  But there are a few things I have done on rides here that I could not (or would not) do at home.  Such as...

Visiting the site of a city that was abandoned 800 years before Europeans arrived in the Americas.

Riding through a natural tunnel formed by cane-like shrubs.

The tunnel was about a half mile long.

Weaving through a group of bulls on their way to market.

One of the bulls.

Posing in front of a 450-year-old convent where General Vicente Guerrero, who briefly served as president in 1829, was executed.  The convent is in Cuilapam de Guerrero, near Oaxaca. 

Stopping at a market on my way back from a ride in the San Felipe hills, above our house, to pick up some fried pork skin.

Ok, I stand corrected.  I could do several of these at home.  In fact, I already have ridden through a herd of cattle at Inspiration Point in the Berkeley hills, and they sell pork rinds at plenty of stores in the Bay Area. Maybe one day I will stumble upon some ancient ruins there, too.  --Harrison