Overall, the trip was awesome. I met tons of people, saw many places. I loved Mexico. The people, the food, the weather. I even had a few girlfriends. One girlfriend in particular lasts to this day. She lives in Veracruz, is thirty years old, and I had some great times with her.
Other things that stand out on the trip were the sheer freedom and impressiveness of being able to bike so far so that I could see my progess on a world map. It is really fun, really cool. Real freedom and really amazing. It is just great to be able to travel on a bicycle. Navigating roads, gaining confidence on the road, learning to tackle larger and larger roads. Meeting incredibly helpful and wonderful people. Eating lots of wonderful food. Getting in touch with the cycling community, the traveling community. Seeing new places. Seeing Mexico. Mexico was the thing that impresses me most of this entire journey. I love Mexico now. The culture. More laid back than the US. In Mexico, the law is not overbearing, ever-present, and intrusive in nearly all aspects of life. When we say we are "free" in the US, I need to take a step back and think about that. There are many things the law prevents us from doing, but the main thing the law does is to make us fearful of breaking the law to the point where we are not free. We don't know everything in the law, we don't always know what is and what is not against the law, so we play it safe and keep to ourselves, our own confines.
In Mexico, I did not feel like the law would stop me from going a certain place, crossing a certain line, or reproach me for this or that. People's focus was not always on the law, what is lawful. People were not afraid that someone was going to bear down upon them for this or that. And this did not make them savage or uncivilized. It made them more open, relaxed, more apt to be with other people, to have a good time. To be more spontaneous. People were not as rigid about prices, about officiality, legality, safety standards. Just about every other person sold something or other. It didn't matter if that person had a permit to sell; they needed money so they sold food, or handicrafts, or watches, or pirated cds and dvds. Watch vendors would proudly announce that their merchandise was 100% pirated.
A different view on life. People had an understanding of where they came from--a mixture of the indigious groups of Mexico and the Spaniards who invaded and conquered the indigeonous. Traditions are strong, and people are very family oriented. The food is wonderful, and people say, "provecho" to you if they see you eating, which means, "may it nourish you".
