Playa del Carmen. More and more folks are arriving for the Christmas and New Year holiday. The weather is quite nice. I am enjoying riding my bike around the town. The bike continues to get high compliments. Also, I have been using it to give rides to friends and acquaintances here. Playa, as Playa del Carmen is known for short, is definitely a bike town. Bikes abound everywhere. Pedicabs--the kind with two wheels in front and one drive wheel in the back, the same bikes as cargo bikes for carrying and selling 5-gallon containers of water, fruit, food stands; regular bikes are prevalent throughout the town. Thus, everyone is very bike-aware. And when they see my bike, they immediately recognize its novelty, beauty and utility. The Surly Big Dummy would certainly be an excellent design to proliferate here, a place where it is not uncommon to see a family of four or sometimes five transported on one scooter, and normal bicycles frequently have two people on them.
I have been playing lots of beach soccer recently, everyday at 4:30pm. Mexican locals, French, Canandian, German, Argentinian young adults gather for pick-up soccer in the sand. It is more challenging than on grass or pavement as one's feet sink into the sand and the ball rolls unpredictably. Nevertheless, it is a great workout and good training, making easier subsequent play on firmer, more predictable surfaces.
I am looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my housemates here. We began planning our meal to include mole, rice and chicken, and perhaps turkey soup. I am hoping for tamales and toritos.
Cheers and Happy Holidays!

One of the original motivations for taking a long bike trip was to travel far without the emissions, with a focus on climate-changing carbon emissions. However, while it stands as a superb technology with the distinction as the most energy-efficient form of transportation known to man, the bicycle does not solve our energy challenges. And while there may not be a silver bullet to solving the energy-economy-climate challenge, some emerging technologies have the potential to address the core of the challenge: to create a base-load energy supply that is cheaper than fossil fuels and carbon-free. In this post, I will highlight two of those technologies: TerraPower and Enhanced Geothermal Systems.
TerraPower is a next-generation nuclear technology that overcomes many of the limitations of existing nuclear technology. Bill Gates, who is a major financial and intellectual supporter of this project, introduces this technology in a recent TED talk, Innovating to Zero, which does a superb job of clearly and concisely defining our challenge and this potential solution. It takes a waste product, depleted uranium, and turns it into the fuel source. From TerraPower's website, "TerraPower’s traveling wave reactor (TWR) will offer a path to zero-emission, proliferation-resistant energy that produces significantly smaller amounts of nuclear waste than conventional nuclear reactors. After an initial start-up with with a small amount of low-enriched material, this innovative reactor design can run for decades on depleted uranium – currently a waste byproduct of the enrichment process. An established fleet of TWRs could operate without enrichment or reprocessing for millennia. TerraPower has explored the advanced physics of this concept in detail with 21st-century computational tools and is moving forward with the overall plant design."

The other potential solution I will highlight, Enhanced Geothermal Systems, is promoted and financially supported by Google as part of its RE < C, or Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal project. This technology will use heat of the Earth's core to generate electricity not just in those locations of the Earth where the magma naturally comes close to the Earth's surface, but virtually anywhere by drilling deep enough to access it. If this technology can be made affordable and the process reliable, then it, too, could provide a base-load supply of electrical and thermal energy virtually anywhere in world. More on Google's Enhanced Geothermal Systems project here.
Both of these technologies are examples of the type of projects promoted by the think tank The Breakthrough Institute, which promotes significant and increased public-private investment in breakthrough energy technologies. They support an integrated, directed public-private program to speed the development of technologies such as these.

Playa del Carmen.  Today I gave three little brothers a ride on the back of my bike (see the photo show below and to the right); met some clowns preparing for a circus; headed downtown and spent the afternoon and evening playing beach soccer.  Now at the BK catching up with work--some of the best free wi-fi in town is here.  Lots of people are out, the weather is warm and pleasant, the mariachis are playing their music.  Christmas time is approaching and more and more vacationers are arriving.  The soccer games shall get larger and more frequent.
Goodness gracious, my bike gets so many admiring looks and comments.  It is nearly all black, and hence very appealing to the eye, and in addition, it is a novelty as it is longer than normal with the rear capacity for passengers.  Several folks have asked me today how they can get one and how much it would cost.  I have been encouraging folks to go to Xtracycle to purchase the extension so they can make their current bike into a long-tail cargo bike.  I usually am quite hesitant to say the full-on price of the bike; instead I give a ridiculously low-ball figure, like somewhere between $200 and $800, the poorer the person looks, the lower the figure so as not to inspire jealousy, or I tell them how much I got the frame for, and say that many of the other parts I already had. If someone in Mexico really wanted to get the same bike I have, they should contact Xtracycle or go to the best bike shop they know of and see if they have an account with QBP where their bike shop can order the frame and specify all of the parts they want.  The complete bike that Surly builds is quite different than the one I have; it is easier to get the complete bike, but if you know what you want, get the frame and specify to your bike shop all the parts you want.

Playa del Carmen; Bike Shop Experience; Route Reflections

I am in Playa del Carmen now, a very pleasant place, cozy with a very nice beach and some pedestrian exclusive streets. Yesterday, I went out to find some work. I went to a bike shop and they asked me if I knew how to build a wheel. I said yes. They gave me the materials and I went to work. I knew the basic idea and technique, but I had never built a wheel from start to finish. In about an hour to an hour and half, I had built my first wheel, with a bit of guidance looking on as a co-worker built a similar wheel. They inspected my product and offered me a job starting the next morning! The terms were: 8am to 8pm M-Sat, and 8am-1pm Sunday, payday. 1200 pesos/week plus one meal daily. That is 77 hours/week for $100, or $1.30/hour! Wow. Even though it was a paltry sum, I decided to try it for the experience. I came in this morning, and the boss said that after speaking with the owner, he could not hire another worker. Oh, well. So today I turn to the web to try to make some money--via this blog, and also through writing articles for eHow.com. Any other ideas?
At this point I plan to stay in Playa through Christmas to celebrate with some friends, and then continue the journey. Last night I met with old friend David Kroodsma and his co-Stanford alum friend Kate Larsen, who both work in the climate field--David as a blogger for the Huffington Post and Kate as a climate negotiator for the US Department of State. Both were in Cancun at the climate summit and hung around afterwards for some touring and relaxing. David did "Ride for Climate" 5 years ago, which was a self-supported bike tour from California to Tierra del Fuego, educating about impending local impacts of climate change. At the end of our visit last night, David suggested I take the island hopping route of Cuba, Haiti, DR, Jamaica, etc. instead of Central America, which he said is probably the least desirable place in Latin America to bike through. I am considering it; food for thought. I have a couple weeks to think about that. I have considered the island route before and this would probably be the best place to switch tracks. Or perhaps in Belize. I am not decided yet if I still want to do Central America, the "Island-hopping route", or skip straight to Colombia, which by all accounts of recent visitors--cyclers and backpackers alike--is one of the most wonderful and exciting places on my route. Any comments or suggestions from folks who have recently traveled to Central America, Cuba, Haiti, DR, Jamaica, Colombia? What have you seen and experienced? What do you like? I have been looking forward to Central America, but I am open to route variations. I am not married to using the bike exclusively--all modes of travel are on the table. What about Venezuela? I hear it is a bit tumultuous, but I always take fear-mongering with a grain of salt; some first hand reports would be instructive.