From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

Sunday, December 14, 2008

1 o’clock – On route 15, about 15 km south of Escuinapa de Hidalgo, headed towards Acaponeta, Sinaloa.

A plastic table covered in bags of dried shrimp, two white plastic chairs, one couple. I decide to stop and check out the scene.

I discover three cyclo-tourists, stopped by the side of the road, taking shelter in the shade of the bridge. Travel bags cover the ground, a bicycle pump lies on the ground beside an inner tube. It looks like a flat tire. In the end, it’s not the shrimp spread that interests me, and I wonder if a short story about this encounter might not brighten up the pages of our newspaper, more often than not filled with somber and gloomy accounts of the global economy.

I watch these three travelers from afar: one is sitting on the ground, leaning against her trailer. Another is having a snack, while the third is changing the inner tube. I make up my mind to go up to them and ask them a few questions. I learn that they are all European, that they started out from Alaska and are heading South. The air is a bit tense at first: the villagers have crowded around the three “gringos” who are keeping a careful eye on their loaded bikes. I watch some Mexicans walk around the bikes, pointing out all the little details. I understand why they don’t feel entirely at ease.

But I ask them a few questions anyway. I start in Spanish, and the cyclo-tourists manage pretty well, and answer as best they can – entirely comprehensible. We switch to English, and I learn that the couple has traveled almost 8000 km so far, and has been gone seven and a half months. I jokingly ask if they need a hand to change the tire, and they tell me that it’s actually the first flat time they’ve had since leaving! I’m totally aghast…

In the end, I’ll write an article on Schwalbe, the professional tire, that only had one flat over 8000 km! (And think, that’s four tires in total and still only one flat!).

AFP

* “Gringos” is used usually to refer to foreigners, particularly North American English speaking foreigners. It is often, but not always, pejorative.