Just Riding Along

Today I did a good ride despite my creaking bottom bracket. Kind of the same as putting electrical tape over a warning light, the sound of crushing gravel masks the creaking noise. Taking the Merlin to the shop tomorrow.

From a new section of "La Falla" trail. This section goes along the rim for ways and gives a pretty good view. 

Had a pinch flat shortly afterwards. I knew I had too little air in the rear tire. 

I was riding on a flat section and evaluating my position on the bike (I do that still) and thought this would make a neat photo. In my left hand in the camera case. Also I've discovered that same thing that ranchers have; long sleeves keep you cooler. 

Finally, lately I've been wrapping up my rides at Panino's bakery where I get a post-ride coffee and breakfast pastry. Today's pastry was a 'cachito', which is a bread roll with ham and cheese baked inside. Cheap! About a $1.00 USD.

Unusual Sightings Today

First day of Spring Break so I went for a bike ride with my friend Daniel. Right out of the gate, just riding along, I broke a spoke. We rode up the hill, down the Acuario Trail, and we rode around El Morro to get to The Rails. We were blocked by a large organized group of young walkers on some kind of event. We turned around and headed back to the Acuario Trail. As I ride, I always glance at the sea to see if anything unusual is going on out there. I saw a ship that didn't look like an oil tanker. We kept riding around the island.

We hike a bike up the Acuario Trail and saw this Uruguayan warship steam past while we were taking a short break. A rare sight for sure. Note; according to Wikipedia, this is ROU 04 (see the 4 on the bow), the General Artigas.

We pedaled up the remainder of the Acuario then up the Falla Trail, across the top and down the Fausto and The Rails. We wrap up the ride fairly early.

Later in the afternoon I head to the bicycle shop to get the broken spoke replaced. When I got back to my building, the watchman was feeding his turtle. Venezuelans call this a morrocoy. Very cool!

Carnival 2010

Enjoying a 4-day weekend of Carnival.

Did a fun bike ride this morning with a couple of teacher friends. We rode around for about 3 hours. I am enjoying the gears back on the Merlin. I am able to climb faster and easier. I think I proved my point with the single speed. Someday I'll do it some more, probably get a bike that is a dedicated single speed, but for now I like this 1 x 9 set up.

Tania and I went for a walk on the beach this evening. We found a nice rock for smashing garlic.

Then we walked to the main street of town and saw a little parade today. Kind of fun.

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice!
Saw these kids petting an iguana in Plaza Bolivar. Very cool!

Now we are decorating the apartment and listening to Venezuelan Christmas songs.

Vacation: Recreation, Projects, and Leisure (winter break 2009)

Currently on winter break and taking advantage of the days off...

First off, went fishing (see post below) and been riding my bike nearly every morning. When I worked here in Lecheria, I was able to ride my bike everyday, but now working in El Tigre, my bike is left here, and is only ridden on weekends (arrgh!).

Friend/colleague, Daniel, also lives in Lecheria. We car pool during the week. His wife has to give up on riding her bike because of back problems so he has inherited her bike. The frame is a little small for him, it looks like a 17 inch and he probably needs a 19 inch. I gave him a long 150 mm stem to compensate for the short top-tube. Anyway, Daniel is getting into it.

Here he is climbing "The Acuario" trail. He dabbed the first try, but cleaned it on his second attempt and cleaned it again the following day.
A triumphant Daniel.
Ran into Fabricio today on his new Yeti AS-R.
He made a special trip to California to buy this bike and bring it down. A bit too much bike for me, but he's into the free-ride full-suspension thing.

Seeing the word Gila down here in Venezuela is always a bit strange.
I try to explain to people that I am from the Gila...a region in New Mexico. They never get it.

As far as projects go...

We finally pulled the trigger on some Roman shades. We've been pricing them at speciality shops and the quotes we were getting were way high...about $600 per window! One lady recommended we go to EPA (our equivalant to Home Depot) . We found some cloth shades for about $45 each. We bought two for the master bedroom to see how we liked it. The installation was straightforward. I had to drill through brick and use inserts, but other than that it was fairly simple.
We really like the shades. It seems to be helping with the air conditioning.

Yesterday we went back to EPA and bought two more for the other bedroom and I installed them today. We will probably use a similiar window treatment for the living room.

Payara Fishing on the Orinoco River

After school on Friday, Daniel, Matthew, Michael, and I headed to the river village of Mapire (Venezuela). Here is a pictoral essay of the trip.

Our guide Rafael arrives with his boat.

On our way, about 8:00 AM. Beer me!

Mike (F.M.) Beer him!

Daniel was the expert net handler.

My second payara.

Teeth

My catch for Saturday; 5 payara.

Matthew hooked a monster which he fought for about 20 minutes. We were unable to land it.

Rafael, our skipper.

My lure is beat-up and a battle scarred. It has teeth embedded in it.

The tropical sun cooked us.

Exotic birds...the place was thick with birds, including at least one pair of osprey. I hooked a cormorant when it ran into my line. Fortunately it was able to work itself free. The interesting thing was that its mate and other friends flew back to help it.
We don't give animals much credit when it comes to some kinds of intelligence.

Our final count (minus 2 we ate): 9 payara; Me - 8, Daniel - 2; 3 sardinata; Daniel - 2, Matthew - 1.

Outside Magazine, November 2009 issue

Hey I'm in Outside magazine! Finally Mark Levine's article got published. Here's a link: http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200911/biking-in-scotland-1.html Here's some additional pics from that trip.

At the start in Strontian: Guenter, John, and me. The author: Mark Levine The infamous: Guenter The Brazilian: Andres in the lead on a road section leading towards the monro. The Crocodile Run: Guenter and John.

Venezuelan Holiday

Unless you like crowds, which I don't, I don't recommend going anywhere popular during a Venezuelan holiday. Check out this crowd...and they kept coming.
Friend Daniel invited me to go sailing, and we went out with his wife, daughter and his wife's mother and 3 sisters. It made for a crowded boat, so I spent the entire time up on the bow. We "sailed" to Playa Punare (5 nautical miles) with the main sail up, but motored across the bay with the diesel.
Once at the island, we found a spot, I went for a short swim to try my hand at underwater photography...which I found very difficult and frustrating. I really need to learn how to take a good underwater photo.
The sail back was real sailing. We put up the main and unfurled the jib and took off! We made it across the bay in about an hour so we were averaging about 6 knots which isn't too bad considering our angle of attack (a broad reach in following winds). When we turned upwind to lower the sails, Daniel lost his Gila Cliff Dwellings horny toad hat in the sea. It must have sunk because we never saw it (plus it was a dusky olive color, so it blended with the sea pretty good). Will have to try to get him a new one.

Navel of the Universe (part II)

Got up this morning and rode the Continental Divide Trail again. Still struggling with altitude here, but gawd, do I love riding in the Gila! The trails were in perfect condition after our light rain yesterday.
Took a few pics with my "back-up camera", a Canon A530.

After pedaling out from town (5 miles of steady climbing), I started out on the Gomez Peak Trail system.

This is a typical trail in the Gomez Peak system. Nice swoopy turns, and rock outcroppings to make it interesting.

Fresh coyote (?) scat. Probably shat in the last 12 hours or so.

Prickly pear flower providing food and moisture for all sorts of critters.

This is an interesting patch of ground approaching the "finger gate" On the right side of the pic the ground is covered with lichen. Usually lichen grows on rocks. This patch has been there since I first rode this trail back in the early 90's.

The Gila! Looking north-northwest toward the wilderness area. The knob in the center is a Preacher's Point. It is a waypoint when riding "Horseshoe Bend" on Bear Creek. It is a mini-epic jeep road type ride that I haven't done in 15 years. I first explored that area with my old Jeep CJ-5 when in high school. I used to drive all around that country alone...without telling anyone where I was going...of course that back-in-the-days before cell phones. There is some wild country out there!

Right about here, I scared up two mule deer, then a little further down the trail, I came across 5 adult wild turkey and 3 "turklets".

Cholla are in bloom as well.

Typical trail conditions for the "Hill of Death" part of the CDT. Lots of golf ball-sized rocks.

Large critters spotted:
- mule deer
- raven
- wild turkey
- turkey vulture
- numerous pinon jays
- javelina

The CDT "South" is always great ride!

"Navel of the Universe: this place and Easter Island"

Sliding back into Silver City, the Navel of the Universe. This place is such a surreal place. Growing up here, you kind of take things for granted but when you grow up and move away, see other parts of the world, you realized how unique of place it really is. Sure, places like Sedona, Durango, and Santa Fe get all the press, but the Gila is the true Navel of the Universe...this place and Easter Island.

Yesterday did a euphoric ride on the trail system on the north side of Gomez Peak and then finished up by riding back into town via the Continental Divide Trail "South". Its really an interesting thing to straddle the continental divide. For portions of the ride we are on the Pacific drainage and on other parts of the ride were are on the Atlantic side. I've done these trails dozens of times, but I've never gotten tired or bored of them. They are so fun to ride. (sorry no pics right now...waiting for a new camera.) Total distance ridden was about 25 miles with 15 of it on genuine single track!!! Nice!

Today I milled around town on my trusty Univega Gran Turismo (1981). This is the bicycle I rode from Mexico to Canada in 1981. It is still a great riding bike. In the afternoon I ended up at Dave's were we walked down to the brew-pub and quaffed 3 pints each. I.P.A....aaaaaah! Tasty!

Dave, the Swami.

More later...

R.I.P. SD 1000

I took my Canon SD1000 scuba diving on Thursday. I used a vinyl waterproof camera bag that was rated to 33 ft (10 m) which is 1 additional atmosphere. Everything was fine to that depth, we we soon swam down to 40 ft and hit somewhere around 49 ft at our low point. At this point, I noticed the bag taking on water. Soon the camera was immersed in sea water and was fried. This is really unfortunate because I was getting some spectacular shots underwater. We saw all sorts of cool sea creatures.

I've decided I am finally going to invest in a real underwater housing unit for the next camera...probably a SD1200IS.

PS: Posting this from the USA. I arrived today. Tania is very upset that I came.

Iguana Pics

I've been on vacation since Saturday afternoon. Mainly just getting up, riding my bike, vegging out. No Internet connection at home, so I had to come down to a local coffee house with WiFi to make this post. I will be posting more when I get to the USA.

I've taken a few interesting photos of iguanas I took yesterday while out on the bike. This guy was bold and didn't mind me hanging around to take his pic. The other two hid in the rocks. After owning a parrot, I am sure that wild animals are just like dogs and other domestic animals. They all have distinct personalities...bold, shy, smart, dumb, whatever. This guy was pretty bold.