MEXICO NEWSLETTER #1 Dear Friends, We are still enroute to Ejido La Esperanza. At the last minute, we decided to take the bikes instead of the car so we could travel the back roads. We want to get a better understanding of the people and culture of Mexico before settling into our community experience. We tell people we meet about George's 9000 mile bicycle adventure of last year and explain that we are returning to Ejido La Esperanza to learn Spanish, teach English and make art for the new church. Everyone we meet also wants to learn English, so we could have settled in several other communities just this week. But this man and woman traveling on bikes from the town of "Help" in the United States (Socorro, NM) to the town of "Hope" in Mexico (Ejido La Esperanza) were touched by the Mexican grandparents that wanted to learn to communicate with their American grandchildren. We wish that all of you could experience what we see and learn each day. The "high" we get from the strenuous physical exertion of riding the bikes combined with the new sights, sounds and the friendly people of Mexico is indescribable. Holly (referred to as "H" or "H'er") has been busy passing out drawings to new friends (over 20 to date), and writing stories and poems. This Newsletter comes from George's daily log. There is no way we can fully share with you the impact of this journey on our lives, but we hope to spark your interest along the way. We thank you for your support in this project. George & Holly "It's really great to be back on our bikes." GETTING ON THE ROAD (1-12-94) Well, we got away from Socorro 3 or 4 days later than planned - no matter to adventuresome travelers who don't care to work by a schedule. Holly and George's houses are rented. Mail, personal business and Holly's latest projects are all continuing through key people and volunteers. We left Socorro on 1-12-94 hitching a ride with George's daughter, Amy, and friend, Angela, to Deming, NM. We were dropped off in the parking lot of a Food Market at about 3 PM. After goodbys and hugs to Amy and Angela, we strolled through the supermarket picking out supplies for the next day and our "Last American Meal." We found tuna fish in spring water for 57 cents on sale. Since we camp every night and don't carry a stove, tuna is one of our staples. In Mexico we only find tuna in oil and it costs about 2.50 pesos (about 65 cents US). For our last meal we thought a pasta salad would be nice, but settled for mashed potatoes. On our last trip we found french fries were very popular in Mexico, but never saw baked or mashed potatoes. Finally on the road at 4 PM, we got 6 miles south of Deming when George recognized an old friend from Socorro, Shawn Reynolds. We visited awhile and ended up returning to Deming for a beer or two at the local watering hole, followed by pizza and dancing (2-step). We stayed at Shawn's house in a warm bed on our first night and enjoyed good conversation. After a farewell breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and blueberry waffles for H, we were on our way again to the Mexican border. CROSSING THE BORDER (1-13-94) We arrived at the American border town of Columbus at noon and lunched on our cold mashed potatoes at the scenic historical park of Pancho Villa. We were amazed at the popularity of the park and large number of trailers from all over the United States. It is 4 miles from Columbus to the Mexican border town of Palomas. Here we were waved on by a young Mexican guard who was surprised to see our bicycles. As we crossed the border there was an immediate change in atmosphere. We first noticed the poor condition of the streets. They were cracked with lots of potholes and littered with trash. On one curb was a rusty trash can with smoke coming out of it. Across from us a crowd of men wearing old looking clothes, leaning against a 1962 yellow Ford pick-up, chatted and watched our every move. We were told visitors' passes were given at the simple white trailer next to the guard station. Inside we were greeted by an official who thought he would try to get paid for the free Mexican Visitor's Pass. We recognized the ploy and waited him out until we won. There were 2 pieces of carbon paper with the paperwork that H tried to nab before they were trashed. She uses them to make copies of the sketches she gives away. But the guard didn't seem to care or understand, so she was lucky to get away with just one. By now we were glad to have the passes, and it was late in the day. FIRST NIGHT IN MEXICO "You have to wallow your toothpaste in your mouth to thaw it out." We breezed through Palomas as border towns are not our favorite places in Mexico. Back on the road, the trash and dead animals were familiar sites. Strangely, they made us feel good, reminding us of our most enjoyable adventure through this country last year. Six miles south of Palomas we turned off the two lane highway to look for a campsite among the greasewood bushes. We were discovered right away by three Mexican cowboys who gave us permission to camp wherever we liked. It was a pleasant evening with wine cocktails to complement our canned tuna and bananas with peanut butter for dessert. We discussed the days events until 6 PM when the temperature dropped to 40 degrees. We then decided to continue our conversation from inside our sleeping bags. We woke to temperatures in the low 20's. We guess we need to get further south to find warmer weather. We hadn't planned on these cold temperatures. They will really cut into our riding time and might give us sleeping bag sores. After a frozen banana for breakfast, we were on the road again. We soon came to a crossroad with food stands. Our hunger was fulfilled with Gorditas and cafe complemented by Spanish conversation with a mother and her daughter. It turns out they remembered us from last August, as we stopped her on our way home. Maria and Magdelena were friendly, warm-hearted and curious about our travels. This encounter was typical of many we have had since. NUEVO CASES GRANDES (1-16-94) Over the next three days the weather continued cold. We pedaled through rolling hills of dry, colorful desert very similar to what we are familiar with in New Mexico. The road was bordered with fence lines and locked gates. We could always see the mountains in the distance with the plains between us dotted with herds of cattle and small ranch buildings. We averaged 40-some miles per day and looked forward to Nuevo Cases Grandes where we would finally turn on to a secondary road. Arriving at Nuevo Cases Grandes early in the afternoon, we checked the price of the first hotel we saw. It was about $65.00 US so we decided to continue on. After an excellent lunch (see Kitchen Notes) we checked another hotel. It was only $15.00 US, but was dirty and full of drunks. We decided to visit an art gallery and worry about where to sleep later. The art gallery was in a residential district, and the couple ended up inviting us to stay in their spare room. The gallery sold pots made in the mountain village close to where we were headed. The story of this village is told in a book named "The Miracle of Mata Ortiz." Reading the book that night, we learned about an artist named Juan Quesada. He was born in 1940, one of eleven children. Juan grew up gathering firewood and herbs in the mountains to sell at market. While doing these chores, he found many colorful pieces of broken pottery that fascinated him. He wondered about the ancient people that made the pots and figured all the necessary ingredients must be right there in the mountains. In short, by watching, wondering and much experimenting, he discovered the entire process. Eventually he taught his family and neighbors. Now there are about 300 potters in Mata Ortiz, and Juan has become famous traveling to the United States every year to give workshops. As we slept on the floor of the gallery, with the pots all around us, we decided to take a detour to visit Mata Ortiz and meet Juan Quesada. GETTING OUT OF NUEVO CASAS GRANDES The plan was simple: Ride into town, go to the bank, go to the post office, get on the road for Mata Ortiz. Here's how it went: 10:00 AM - Arrive in town, decide to have a cup of coffee which turned into two coffees and an order of pancakes (split). H decides to write a letter. 11:00 AM - Left cafe enroute to bank. Automatic teller ate George's VISA card. The MasterCard worked OK, but it took ½ hour to resolve the VISA card problem. So much for automatic. 11:45 AM - Went to the post office, where everything went perfect. 12 Noon - Decided to go to the food store for extra supplies, since we were not sure if food would be available for the next few days travel. When two people shop it takes longer than one, and this store didn't have all that we needed. 12:30 PM - Ride to next store. Found all we needed plus more. 1:00 PM - Decided we better buy an extra tire tube for the 100 miles or so of dirt road we would be traveling. Enroute to a bike store that didn't exist, H found a place to buy some elastic to fix George's pants and George found a Panederia for Pan dulce. H decided to have a mineral water, which was frozen and took half an hour to drink. 1:45 PM - Found out about another bike store that was back by the post office. Got our tube and finally headed out of town at 2:30 PM (4½ hours later). Vocabulary Notes: Gorditas - thick corn tortillas, about 6" round, slit open on the side and filled with meat, potatoes, chile and seasoning mixture. Pan dulce - fresh sweet bread from a bakery Panederia - bakery shop Pan Tostada - pretoasted white bread COLONIAL JUAREZ (1-17-94) We rode a total of 20 miles from Nuevo Casas Grandes to Colonial Juarez, which would start our back country excursion. This town sounded familiar to George as the place that Jay McCellan and family had moved to, from Socorro, in 1988. We stopped the first person we saw and asked about Jay. This gentleman, also named George, happened to know that Jay had moved on to California. However, he was friends with Jay's parents who did live in Colonial Juarez and would love to meet us. We followed George to Jasper and Rula's house where we all talked for awhile and were invited to spend the night. We enjoyed an American style dinner, including mashed potatoes, and learned about their Mormon town. We also asked and learned about the Mormon ways. That night as we listened to their stories, H spent two hours sewing the new elastic in George's pants. George looked at lots of photos of the missions Jasper had built throughout Mexico, teaching young people the trade of carpentry. We were thankful for the good food, warm shelter and an unexpected glimpse of yet another way of life in Mexico. The next morning we got a tour of Colonial Juarez, which has about 3000 residents, mostly Mormons, half Americans and half Mexican. A visit to the cemetery warned us we were heading into rocky country. When a grave is dug, it is the Mexican tradition to stack all the rocks from the hole onto the grave and cover it with colorful flowers (real, plastic or ribbon). These graves all had about a 3 foot mound of rocks. After visiting the apple and peach orchards, we loaded up and headed south out of town. We were on our first dirt road headed towards Mata Ortiz. "How much water do you have left?" MATA ORTIZ (1-18-94) Thoroughly enjoying the 13 mile ride from Colonial Juarez to Mata Ortiz, we arrived early in the afternoon. We first met an American artist named Debbie who makes corn cob dolls to sell to the tourists who come to buy the pottery. Debbie has been there eight years and is now married to a Mexican, has an eight month old daughter and goes deeper in debt each year. She finds the cultural differences very difficult but keeps sticking it out because she can't afford to do anything else. She recently acquired an old 15' x 15' x 10' loom and was anxious to learn how it worked. The previous owner had died and she knew no one else in town that had a loom. H was able to teach her how to thread it and how it should work. Debbie also had a ten foot stack of bags of wool that she intended to spin into yarn to use on the loom. She had an old spinning wheel made from a bicycle rim, but here H's knowledge ran out. So we went on to meet Juan Quesada. Juan welcomed us into his home. The front room had a glass case with his work and a wide variety of books and magazine articles about him. He and Holly hit it off well as two true artists would. He took us through the house to the studio where he was working. This was a simple 10' x 15' room with a dirt floor and one window. Juan was in the process of painting lines on a pot with a handmade brush of human hair. He also showed us the lower part of a deer leg which he used the hoof to burnish the finished pots. We were touched by this man's creativity, and impressed at how he shared his talents and chose to remain in Mata Ortiz living a simple lifestyle of no electricity or indoor plumbing ONWARD AND UPWARD (1-19-94) While in Mata Ortiz we learned that our next leg of travel would take us up and over the Sierra Madre Mountains. This sounded exciting to us, but the directions we got were not easy to follow. The name of the first town on the road we wanted was Willie. That night was spent on a beautiful hillside against the bottom of the mountains with no idea how to get to the road we could see high up on the side of the mountain. The next morning we met three cowboys who thought we were loco out in this country on bicycles. One of the cowboys knew a short cut to the road where we wanted to go. This short cut turned out to be a series of cow paths over very rocky terrain. For a mile or two he put his lasso over Holly's handle bars and pulled her bike up the hill while she walked alongside to hold it up. It was a short cut, but it was still 5 miles of pushing our bikes uphill. It was going to be a very long road to Willie. "I don't believe that nobody has been all the way through on the road we want to take." "Maybe the road isn't there like the map shows." H REMEMBERS A TYPICAL COLD NIGHT "There must be a cold front, as cold as it is." Each night seems colder than the night before, and we try different ways to keep warm. We usually do not light fires because we camp close to the road and do not want to attract attention. So we get in the tent as the sun sets. Once inside we light a candle to take the chill off, but we are using a summer net tent so the warmth doesn't last long once we put it out. Each night I add more layers to my sleeping attire and wrap my head in a woolen scarf. One night I put the bottom of my sleeping bag inside the plastic liner of my bicycle pannier to keep my feet warm. It seemed like a good idea but in the morning my sleeping bag was sopping wet. Tonight I will try just laying it on top. George and I both use sleeping sheets inside our sleeping bags for an extra layer of warmth. They are like giant, extra long pillow cases. They help a lot, but delete the benefits we might get from snuggling. So we zip the sleeping bags to the top and pull the drawstrings closed so only our noses stick out. In the morning when we are waiting for the sun to warm the air, I look over at George and see one big blue eye looking back at me. We laugh and check the temperature. Inside the tent it is 35 degrees. When we get up we find the water bottles left on the bikes have frozen solid as have the bananas we had planned to eat for breakfast HOW'S OUR HEALTH? No problems. Being back in the saddle of our bikes and achieving an aerobic level of exercise for 4-5 hours a day feels great. Even though George rode his bike every day in and around Socorro, since our last trip he felt his lungs were not working at full capacity. However, after a week we both feel that our lungs are able to do their thing (which is supply our blood with the oxygen our muscles ask for). In other words, we feel strong and capable without being in agony. Soreness this week came in two places. Holly's shoulder muscles were sore which comes from uphill riding and pulling with your arms. This is a technique we learned last year that increases riding efficiency and strengthens the upper body. George started the trip with a new style slim seat. This will require a week or two of breaking in the seat and George's butt. FINAL NOTE: Next week we travel to a remote area where the towns have no electricity or indoor plumbing. Holly draws a lot of caricatures, so look forward to more pictures. ADVENTURES OF GEORGE & HOLLY PO BOX 1866 SOCORRO, NM 87801 USA