- Woke up at 4:30am
- Got out of bed at 5:30am
- Left at 6am
- Biked to La Ribera
- Went to a grocery store and got a banana + some electrolytes
- Met a group of four bikers
- Biked to Los Barriles
- Went to a small cafe to eat and charge up
- They lost power – Came back on ~30min later
- Huevos rancheros
- Yogurt
- Made it to camp at 2pm
- Put out the solar panel: 37% battery
- Charger to 100%! I think the other cord I have is bad
- Read my book for a while, had my feet in the water
- Watched manta rays jump out of the water
- Met Larry – has lived down here out of his casita + friends houses for a while now. He used to be a fly fishing guide in Alaska!
- Dogs Archie and Davy
- Offered me El Dorado fish + everything that I needed to cook it
- It’s a new moon tonight and I’ve decided to sleep out under the stars – cowboy camping
What Happened
Today was a long day. I woke up at 4:30 AM, laid in bed for a while, and eventually got up at 5:30 AM. Took me about half an hour to pack up my things and start biking. My legs right off the bat are feeling pretty sore, so is my butt. Most of the morning was nice and cool, which made for some more pleasant miles.
It took me a minute, but I made it to La Ribera around nine something a.m. I went into a small Tienda to look for some food, but really didn’t find many options. Trying to find good quality food to eat on this trip has been challenging. Most of the food is very sugary and or processed. I settled for banana, some new tortillas, and some electrolytes.
I pretty quickly left town and started making my way towards Los Barriles. On the way there, I met a group of four bikers who are heading south. We chatted for a little bit about campsites and snorkeling, then parted ways. It didn’t take me too much longer to make it into the city. It was quite noticeable how much more “gringo“ this city is compared to the other places that I’ve been thus far. I went to a small café per the groups recommendation and ordered some huevos rancheros and a smoothie. Not long after I had placed my order the town lost power. They were still able to make my food, minus the smoothie. After eating my plate of food, I realized that I would need more to eat. Because the power was still out, I ended up getting a bowl of yogurt, which was honestly such a treat because I haven’t been able to have any refrigerated food. Eventually, the power came back on, and I was able to charge up some of my devices a little bit. After the café, I headed to a local tackle shop to try and find some snorkeling gear.
After getting the snorkeling gear, it was time to head out of town. Both the ladies that I camped with last night and the people that I met today mentioned camping just outside of the city. When I got there and looked around, it was absolutely packed most people seem to be using it as a base camp for kite surfing. I decided to pedal on In hopes of a better campsite. Much to my own agony, it was the heat of the day, there were no campsites for almost 8 more miles. I’m glad I pushed on however, I ended up finding a nice spot with decent beach pretty much all to myself. I really wanted to get Into the water but being low tide, it felt too risky to try and navigate the rocks and coral so I decided to save that for tomorrow. I instead spent my time reading my book and just observing. I got to see manta rays breaching the water, which is something that I had heard about, but I’ve never seen.
After watching the manta rays, I met Larry and his wonderful dogs. Larry has been living out here for the last four years after which started as a quick vacation. We chatted for a little bit, exchange some stories, and I got to pet his dogs. At the end of our conversation, he offered me some El Dorado fillets that he had recently caught. Initially, I was turning them down because I had no way to cook or prepare them. Larry really helped me out and gave me a grill, spatula, and even charcoal with wood to help cook the fish. It was such a treat to have a hot meal and one that was so tasty
The rest of my evening was spent cleaning up, eating the rest of my beans and tortillas and reading. I decided to cowboy camp tonight and we will see how that goes. So far there has been a very heavy dew That has set into the Arroyo, which is making me a little bit worried. We will have to see how that goes in the morning!
Pics
Originally recorded on 2025-12-19.