I am pretty proud of what I have done so far. I have slept here 7 nights. I have taken 5 rides. 2 out on the hotel road, starting at 6am with a group from my bike shop. I have avoided falling, being knocked over by traffic. I don’t think there are a lot of 77 year olds involved in quite such an activity. The HUGH challenge for 2024 is that I have cut way back on the drinking. It may be a false alarm but doctor tests point to my liver trying to get cirrhosis. I stated this new less drinking regiment in October. I’ll talk lots about what has worked and what has not. A great deal of my travel, especially biking in Cancun and Lagos is organized around bars. So far, I seem to be finding a balance that is not too unpleasant for me.
The other three non-bike-shop rides I did were Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Monday especially I was able to go further on a road that I have explored before but never got to the end of in past trips. Years ago a fellow rider on the bar stool next to me pointed out that it could be ideal and that his wife used the middle lane walkway to bike. It is called Ave Huayacan. I am very proud of having been on it for a couple years and as I say just made it to the end for the first time Monday.
Turns out that the actual riding of Huayacan is fairly easy. It is well maintained. I had to go slow to spot any potholes and there are innumerable speed bumps. But one sees the cars go up and down and knows what is coming. Looks as if it is about 10K, at least 25K for a round trip from my airbnb. The crux of the ride is getting to the actual road. I need to cross at least 2 fairly busy highways. I have a lot of the route worked out. Exploring a route like this and making it my own is something I have really enjoyed here and in Lagos Portugal. I will have to ask Karen at the bike shop about it the next time I see her.
The other non-hotel road ride that I have developed is an actual bike path that used to be part of my return from the Hotel Road. Years go I would go all the way to the end of the hotel road, 30K? and then come home on the mainland side of the loop instead of returning down the hotel road. One of the main reason I did this was that I hated passing parked busses on the hotel road as I returned about 8am. Now, due to many changes, riding this mainland road all the way from the end of the hotel road is really difficult. So what I do now as a poor short imitation is to ride it in reverse. I leave form the Bike shop and head out along the mainland toward the far end of the hotel road. I am even on bike paths, but there are a NUMBER of breaks in the path where I am really riding on dirt. I have done this route twice now. Easy ride. I do not have to start until like 8AM instead of the 5:45 AM start time of the Bike shop Hotel Road rides. It is about 17K, takes me a little over an hour. As I said, there are some dicy dirt/rocks where I really have to be on my guard!