Happy New Year (a little late)!

Current location: Melaque, Jalisco
Distance cycled to date: 6620 km
Number of times we could have summited Mt. Everest with the amount of elevation we've gained to date: 6
Number of times we've shaved since we left Alberta: 1

First off - a beard update. We got the results, and were a little surprised by them. Only 50% said to keep them? I would have thought all you people out there with no real stake in it at all would have voted to keep them, just for fun. The fact that so many said to shave makes me think that we must really have looked awful. With the results in, and the added (very) extreme pressure from our family to shave, we took up some razors, and tried to clean ourselves up a bit. We thought we would shave off about 50% of our hair, going with the results of the poll.



That however didn't fly very well with our family, and we didn't make it out of the hotel room. So, we are back to our clean-shaven, very dashing looking selves.

Our Christmas "holiday" from our holiday passed far too quickly. We thought it would be strange to be staying in a resort for a week after the way we've lived out the past 4 months, however it didn't take long at all to become accustomed to all-you-can-eat buffet dinners, and margaritas by the pool. In fact, when it came time to go it was very difficult- maybe even more so than when we left home. Saying our goodbyes again created a very emotional morning. It was strange to be playing cards with our family one minute, and only a few later be back on our bikes, heading south once again.

We spent New Years Eve in Puerto Vallarta, even though our family had left the day before. With the amount of drinking and driving we witness, we thought that it would be a good day to stay off the roads. We were lucky enough to be invited into the home of a Canadian expatriot who now lives in Puerto Vallarta, and as it turned out she was gone for New Years, and so she offered us her apartment to ourselves (after only meeting us for a few minutes!). We thought that we should take advantage of being in a cool city for New Years, so we went downtown to walk around and soak in the atmosphere. We walked around and lost ourselves in the crowds of people, seeing the fireworks set up and ready to be shot off at midnight, and enjoyed seeing a number of tents set up on the beach right downtown - we liked their style. However, by 9:30 we felt like we had experienced the atmosphere enough, and with our eyelids having trouble staying open, we made our way back to our apartment for the night. Jeff hadn't quite fallen asleep when the fireworks first began, and I woke up when I heard them (there were a lot - and they were loud). So we both got up and watched out the window for a few minutes before going back to bed. Happy New Year. We were both ready to get back on our bikes and start getting somewhere - it felt like we hadn't done anything for the past month.

So, January 1st, 2009, we got back on our bikes and made our way out of Puerto Vallarta, 4 months after starting our trip in Rocky. We should make a note that Puerto Vallarta is surrounded by mountains. Not just little hills, but mountains. Our first day on our bikes, after nearly 3 weeks of no riding, we had an unrelenting 750 metre climb over a mountain pass. We made 50 km, and could hardly pedal anymore. What happened to our legs? Well, it seems that 3 weeks of eating and drinking, and not exercising, and you might as well be starting the trip from scratch. It felt just like our first day leaving home, except replacing the frost with heat and humidity. It seems like the kilometres are going by so much slower than they used to, so we find ourselves stopping for lots of breaks. Along the edge of the highway there usually isn't much room to stop and sit, but sometimes you find great spots like bus stops with good benches and shade, or a jackpot spot like this gas station that wasn't open yet. A great place to stop for a nap in the shade.

We've cycled 3 days now, each day a little more than the last. We reached Melaque, a nice little town on the coast, and decided that it was time for a rest day. Back in Canada, rest days were like magic to us. You could be so exhausted, but after a rest day bike like the wind. That's how I remember it at least. So we'll try for that, and relax here on the beach or in the plaza, and tomorrow head off, past Manzanillo and make our way along the coast. From what we've read, it looks like these mountains just keep on coming - but for all the uphill that we face, we get a lot of pretty sweet downhill. Flying down the the few kilometres into Melaque, never going under 50 km/h, we both had decent sized grins on our faces.

We hope that everybody had a good holiday season - while it probably wasn't hot and on the beach like ours, hopefully it was with family or some loved ones, because that's what really made ours special. Now that we're on the road again we'll try to update this a little more frequently! Hopefully we can get back into shape soon!