- Up at 4:30am
- Off by 5:10am
- Took 1:45 to climb up and over mountain pass
- Didn’t stop a lot – pushed to make it into town before things got crazy
What Happened
Today was another early day trying to beat the heat. I got up at 4:30 AM again and was out on my bike by around 5:10 AM. Today I had one of the climbs that I’ve been thinking about the most: a long, steep mountain road that is completely paved and highly trafficked. I really wanted to get up and over the climb before the sun got too hot and traffic got too bad. Heading into La Paz had me worried about the amount of traffic that I would encounter.
The climb took me a little bit less than two hours to do in total. I stopped a few times to eat a peanut butter and honey tortilla, along with some of the snacks that I still had. I’ve been careful the day before to not have too much water. I think I had a total of 3 1/2 L to make it into town. All in all the climb wasn’t the worst, I was pretty happy with the efficiency of the pavement and most people gave me enough space to feel safe.
The descent into town was also quite nice – has me thinking about my climb out. The city took me quite a long time to actually get into. There were a lot of zig zags that I had to make and some less ideal street riding – being pushed between two cars is not super fun. I also got my first injury of the trip: someone was on their phone while I was riding and I scared the crap out of them which caused me to try and get over a little and I smashed into a metal pole with my right hand, which then sent my bike in all directions. The entire impact hit my pinky and it felt broken there for a minute – luckily it’s just cut and badly bruised.
I made it into town around 10 AM and began looking for some food. I ended up finding a small café that was highly rated on Google and stopped in. I was a little bit worried at first because I was one of the only people there, but by the time I was having my order taken, the place was almost full. I had a really delicious breakfast – only one serving this time.
After breakfast, I still had a few hours until I needed to check into my Airbnb. I got some water and a Gatorade then I headed down to the main area of La Paz. Here I set up on a beach and talked to Grace for almost 2 hours which was such a treat!
After the phone call, I wanted to explore a little bit more before checking in and potentially try to find some soap and a brush to help clean my bike. I went up and down the waterfront, taking in the views and noting some places that I would be able to hang out in the coming days. With about 30 minutes before checking in, I headed out to try and find the soap and brush. I had a much harder time than I thought locating any of these things. The stores in Mexico are a lot harder to judge so I ended up not getting anything at all.
The Airbnb that I booked was less than $50 total and it seems like it. There isn’t a lot that’s nice about it and it leaves you wanting quite a bit – especially in the shower department. It was a very sad example of a shower, especially when you haven’t had one in a week. With that being said – I hadn’t been drinking the water at this Airbnb – I’m s buying bottles and drinking from what I already had.
Around sunset, I headed back down to the beach and made a few calls to family: Dad and Ryan, and then Josh. It was nice to spend a little bit of time catching up with people today.
For dinner I looked on google for some of the best tacos, and found a small “cafe” which served them. I walked in and there was only one family there and the vibe was definitely not very local. I decided to stay because I didn’t want to find another place. I got two shrimp tacos, a fish of the day, and a marlin taco. The shrimp tacos were great, the fish was okay, and the marlin was amazing.
Pics
Originally recorded on 2025-12-23.