Merry Christmas! (is it time to shave?)

Current Locations: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Distance cycled to date: 6343 km
Photos taken to date: 4332
Days since we left home: 112

It's been 11 days since our last entry, and it seems like in those 11 days we haven't really done anything. We know that can't be true though, so we thought we'd write something here anyway.

Jeff's birthday turned out to be quite a success – we stayed at a campground for two nights full of Canadian RVs, and they turned out to be a very welcoming, generous crowd. We were treated to free drinks, coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice to start our days, taken out for lunch, and to finish off the day Jeff was presented with a birthday cake, a card, two small gifts and everybody singing Happy Birthday. We also met a German couple who invited us along on a jungle river cruise, so we spent part of our day touring some really cool mangrove swamps and spotted lots of birds that we had never heard of before (and still couldn't tell you what they are), turtles, iguanas, and even a few crocodiles. Considering the circumstances, I don't think he could have asked for a better birthday. Thanks to everybody who sent in an email as well – he was very surprised when we finally got to check our email and our inbox was full of so many well-wishes from so many people. Thank you.

From our campground we made our way slowly to Puerto Vallarta, taking some short days cycling up and down the steep hills, in a hot and humid jungle that was so different from anything we saw on the Baja. We've started to see lots of squished lizards, snakes (some a whole lot bigger than we'd like to see), and iguanas on the road. The closer we got to Puerto Vallarta the crazier traffic became, and on our last day coming into the city while very slowly making our way up a steep hill with constant traffic beside us on the shoulderless road, a mini-van decided to pass the truck and boat that was passing me. While there was oncoming traffic coming down the hill. The boat was pretty much touching me as I tried not to fall down the steep ditch, the oncoming traffic was partly in their ditch, and the van scraped along between both the vehicles. Literally. Four of us, side by side, all touching, on that skinny 2 lane road. There was lots of shouting out of windows, but nobody seemed to think it was that big of a deal, and eventually traffic got moving again. We stopped for a break in the ditch to let our heart-rate slow down a little.

Before leaving Canada, our family had decided to meet us for Christmas in Mexico. We had no idea where we'd be, so they finally decided on Puerto Vallarta, because we could be close to there, and it's a fairly cheap place to get to from Canada. With the good time that we made going down the Baja we thought that we would be long past Puerto Vallarta and have to catch a bus back, but when a family friend heard this he decided to go ahead and book us in a very nice hotel here for the 13th-20^th. And so, we graciously accepted and slowed down to make it here for the 13^th. We got here that day, and spent the week taking full advantage of having a room, indoors. We showered daily, often twice a day, and cooked our meals in our kitchenette, and stored food in a fridge. We sat around and watched tv, and enjoyed an air-conditioned room. All in all, it was a great week. Our string of amazing people from Oregon continued, and a retired couple that was vacationing here took us out for a delicious steak dinner, and then brought us a Pizza Hut pizza the next evening. We've been pretty spoiled.

Our family isn't arriving for a couple more days, so we have 3 days of our old style living – camping for free on the beach and eating our meals on the curb outside the grocery store. It's good to have this break from luxury, in order to appreciate it again on the 23^rd. We're very, very excited about spending Christmas with our family and getting a chance to show them all our pictures, tell them all those stories that we forget to email, and of course, show off our nice beards for them. There have been many complaints about them throughout the trip, and we are fairly certain that our mom is going to force us to become clean-shaven again. We're not sure what the public opinion is on this, so we're going to put up a poll asking what you think. We know it's only 4 days until Christmas and probably you have something better to do than vote whether we should keep our beards or not. But if you have a few minutes to spare visit our blog site and vote. (Just one vote, everybody. Especially you, mom). We want to know what you think. And who knows? Maybe you can even convince our mom to let us keep them. Or maybe we'll find out overwhelmingly that everybody wants us to shave. We thought we'd include a picture of ourselves taken fairly recently, with our beards, camping in an informal Mexican dump. (A great place to camp, by the way)

With 30 degree Celsius heat, palm trees everywhere and bright sunshine it hardly seems like Christmas here – but it's not really something we can complain about, because I'm sure there are a few of you out there who would trade us your snow for this. We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Hopefully wherever in the world you find yourself you're able to have a great holiday season.

Now just let us know about these beards – canadatoargentina.blogspot.com.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Tomorrow, December 10th will be Jeff's 21st birthday. Now, in many parts of the world this is a decent cause for celebration. Here in Mexico, however, Jeff will be somewhere in a small fishing town most likely, swatting the mosquitos and sand flies that we have been fighting for the past few days since getting to the mainland. He doesn't know that I am writing this entry right now, but I have not had much of a chance to work up any sort of birthday surprise for him, seeing as we are together 24 hours a day.

I don't have too much to tell right now regarding our travels on the mainland - we have been sleeping in the ditch every night since leaving Mazatlan, and now we've finally reached the coast, where we're able to sleep on beaches once again - only to find that these hot, humid beaches are covered in bugs as well. So, it will likely not be the most exciting birthday for Jeff. So I wanted to ask you, and to encourage you to send him an email, and wish him a happy birthday. Because it's always nice to get an email on your birthday, especially your 21st.

That's all that I have to say. Just asking you to email Jeff on his birthday. Wish him the best. It may not be a big party, but it's not really a bad way to turn 21 - having biked nearly 6000 km to the central coast of Mexico. We'll take the day off tomorrow and try to relax, and hopefully the bugs will die down.

Hopefully you're all doing well, and hopefully you will fill our inbox with some well wishes! Thanks for the help!

Our time in the Baja comes to an end - for real this time.

Current location: Mazatlan, Mexico
Distance cycled to date: 5865km
Days since we last shaved: 89
Number of times we have eaten pig's feet soup for breakfast: 1

We are now over 3 months into our journey to Argentina, and Keenan has finally moved over and given me (Jeff that is) a chance to fill you in.

Having enjoyed the Baja so much, we decided why not spend more time on the peninsula and ride all the way to the southern tip - to the city of Cabo San Lucas. Having seen so many Canadians flocking south to Cabo for the winter we thought we would see for ourselves what the place was all about. After an unforeseen day of cycling up and down steep hill after steep hill, we arrived in the sprawling city late in the afternoon. We were immediately drawn into the large supermarket for some supper. (We simply can't resist these massive stores filled with food.) After gorging on fresh buns filled with salami and cheese, yogurt drinks and churros for desert, we now rushed towards the city in hopes of finding somewhere to sleep. With sunset an hour away we began our search for a bargain hotel. We went up and down the streets, back against traffic on one way streets and yet couldn't find a reasonable place. So with no real options, we headed to the beach, because you can always camp on a beach...

We followed the signs to the beach only to find hotel after hotel lining the ocean front with people milling around on the sand and in and out of restaurants. We quickly contemplated our options and thought, why not? We headed a little further down the beach, finding a somewhat quieter spot and then pushing our bikes onto the sand settled into our spot for the night. Not wanting to create a scene of any sort we waited as long as we could and then around 8:00pm with our eyes half closed already, proceeded to pull our bright orange sleeping mats and bags onto the sand. I'm sure we were quite the sight for all the people out for walks that evening but we didn't let that bother us as we had a great nights sleep.

We spent the following day in Cabo San Lucas and were generally disappointed with the city and the sights. So we got back on our bikes and headed back out of the city up and down steep hill after steep hill. We timed our cycling days so we could spend a day at the beach, near El Pescadero on the way back to La Paz. We stopped in to say hi to a couple whom we had met on the way south, and we were again greeted with generosity. They invited us along to a neighbourhood pot-luck, and of course we thought why not? They didn't need to convince us and after feeding us some tacos, we headed to the pot-luck. Everyone we met there was very enthusiastic and although we clearly didn't belong, they didn't seem to mind.

We ate and ate, with a seemingly endless supply of free food, until we realized looking around we were the only guests left. The lady who hosted the pot-luck then proceeded to bag as much food as she could for us to take along on our bikes. She insisted that instead of setting up our tent we should spend the night indoors in her house, and have a hot shower, with no good reason not to we thought why not? We had a great night talking with her and her good friend who also was spending the night.

After one of the best sleeps of the trip we were treated to another hot shower and even managed to fit in a load of laundry in the morning. Later on two ladies from the night before stopped in and couldn't resist giving us all the food they could as well. So with space the only limiting factor we loaded our bikes down with all the food we were given. Having decided the night before the latest we could leave was noon we somehow managed to leave by 1:00pm. We then rode for about half-an-hour before stopping yet again at one of the guests house for yet another meal. We were amazed at the generosity of so many individuals and had a great time around El Pescadero, making the trip to Cabo San Lucas very worthwhile.

We remained on schedule and arrived back in La Paz on Tuesday to catch the ferry across to Mazatlan. Our timing was great and we waited only a short while before loading our bikes next to all of the semi-trucks lining the ship. We boarded not knowing how long the voyage would be or really where to sleep, but quickly found the small cabin with blankets and pillows spread over the chairs. We quickly found some seats, and staked our territory as well.

We received tickets for two meals with our fare, however being the smart cyclists we are still brought our bag full of food, because at this point we eat a lot. However supper was a delicious plate of some sort of meat, beans and rice. The following morning imagining a plate of eggs or pancakes, we were surprised by this bowl of soup placed before us. With the Mexican truck drivers looking our way, and no option but to try we thought why not? Still not sure of what was before us, with a carefully selected scoop, (avoiding the fleshy, white spongy stuff) we gave it a try. Not so bad. We continued to slowly eat, while continuing to eat as many tortilla chips on the side as possible. Halfway through the bowl I managed to ask the man beside me what it was, and with his actions and the look of it, we now realized we were eating pig's foot soup. Keenan being more adventurous than I ate the whole bowl, pig's foot and all. I didn't.

Despite being the odd ones out on the ferry it went fairly smoothly and we arrived shortly after 8:00am in Mazatlan. We made it to mainland Mexico! It's hard to believe at times we have been on the road so long, but it has been a lot of fun. We are both looking forward to getting back on our bikes and on route, as we make our way towards Puerta Vallarta for Christmas.

We finally put up our Baja South photo album as well. We were a bit disappointed with our Baja North, but both feel this may be our best yet. So check it out, let us know what you think.