Villahermosa

Besieged by insects!

Day: 96

Miles: 138

Total Mileage: 5,476

Money Spent since last update: 6-12: 22.50, 6-13: 44.00

Mike and I have been feeling mother nature's wraith lately. We were getting rained on every day until yesterday when we finally crested the highest pass through the mountains and literally as we came over the last, brutal climb the sun came out and we were treated to a beautiful, long descent. We still had some rolling hills but the general trend was downhill, which was nice after all of the tough climbing.

We felt so good that we decided to ride late and were able to put down nearly ninety miles. As it started to get dark we decided to push through one more little town and boy what a bad move that was. We ended up coming down a hill into a huge marsh that just swarmed with bugs. We pedaled like mad but couldn't get through it before nightfall and we were forced to sleep in a little patch of dry land surrounded by what felt like the bog of eternal stench from the movie Labyrinth.

It smelled terrible and we were literally attacked by insects of every shape and size. We set a speed record for setting up our tents while still managing to swat ourselves every few seconds and cursing profusely, and jumped into them as fast as we could. Then we played the game: kill all the mosquitoes that managed to get into your tent before you go to bed. Its not as fun as it sounds, those little buggers are quick! And when you splat one on the wall of your tent he leaves behind a nice red blood stain which is gross enough and then you realize its your blood! Yuck. Considering that I am getting into malaria country, i really need to get my hands on some 100% DEET, which Mom is sending my way! Thanks mom, you rock =)

Laying there in our tents, sweating out butts off in the humidity, we felt like we were under attack as the insects were crawling on, over, and under our tents by the dozen. The mosquitoes were the worst, just sitting on the outside waiting for their chance to get you. The bugs are actually worse here than in Florida, which I didn't think was possible. Words are not adequate to describe how much i loathe mosquitoes. I wish i had a super power that made all the bitting, bloodsucking creepy crawlies of the world within one mile of me drop dead. I hate them that much.

At any rate, in my haste to get into my tent i made the rookie mistake of not closing my trailer bag that holds all of our food and since we cover the bikes with a tarp each night to protect them from the rain, i didn't notice the legion of ants that had crawled into the trailer and got into a bunch of our food. The next morning when we went to go i reached in to have a muffin and got an arm full of ants instead. Let me tell you how much fun that is at 6am. Not very. Those little buggers bight like fire!

We rode hard to Villahermosa and decided to get a hotel room to clean up and wash out clothes. Its nice to be able to split the cost of a room as it makes things so much cheaper. Plus, a shower after three nights of sweating your rear off in a tent is really nice. Villahermosa is a surprisingly beautiful city with rivers running through it and a nice, clean feeling. The people are friendly too and the food is very tasty and cheap. We gorged ourselves on tacos, which is something that just makes me happy. I will miss tacos once i get further south.

Mike and I have been having a great time and I am really glad to have the company. I will definitely have to pressure some more of my buddies into coming for sections of the trip! Mike says he want to come meet me again at some point which is great news to me.

No pictures this time as the connection here is terrible. I will post them as soon as i am able, but we are heading deep into the jungle tomorrow to visit the ruins of Palenque, so it may be a while till the next update.