- Cactus scanctusry
- Petting cactus
What Happened
I woke up early this morning to try and get out of La Paz before the city woke up in traffic got bad. That meant a 5 AM wake up time. It took me a little bit over an hour to actually just get out of the city. Most of the city is built up behind the waterfront, which is where I was staying. I’m very glad that I got up early and didn’t encounter too much traffic. Being up before most of the cars meant that I got to ride on some of the main roads versus taking side streets.
The main objective of the day was to make it up and over the mountain before it got too hot. What I did not account for is that there is a high amount of humidity in this region. So even with starting the climb in the dark, I was completely soaked with sweat right off the beginning. Things on the climb went well and it was dark for the first bit. The road going up is nothing special – it is two lanes side-by-side with no shoulder. Most people gave me enough space to feel safe, but some did not. I only stopped a few times to eat some food and drink some water. I wanted to make sure that I had the food in me necessary to not bonk. The climb took me a little oner an hour according to my Garmin – curious if that includes my stops. This is about 50% faster than it took me going the other way – goes to show how a few days of rest really makes a difference.
When I got to the top, it was not even 9 AM yet and I had already done half the mileage I wanted to do for the day. The rest of my morning was spent going to a small town – El Trufino. I highly debated coming to the town, as it was up a 500 foot hill. I almost debated continuing on with the 3 L of water that I had to make it all the way to Todos Santos. Ultimately I think I could have found water in El Rosario, but I really needed the break.
In El Trufino I went to a “café “which really was more of a fancy restaurant. I had the best food while I was there. I ordered a mango smoothie and a yellowfin tuna burger. The mangoes movie was made in house with fresh mangoes, and the yellowfin tuna burger was charcoal on a grill that I could see. Hunger is the best sauce, but that food was absolutely incredible. After some time at the café, I put around town and got more water and electrolytes. I ended up drinking a little bit too much electrolytes and could feel my stomach not being too happy. I spent maybe four hours at the town total.
I decided to keep biking after the town, knowing that there was a small stop at a cactus sanctuary that I wanted to see. It took me about an hour to make it to the cactus sanctuary and I spent maybe an hour and a half there as well. The cactus sanctuary is very beautiful and the man who runs it is quite the talker. He showed me how to pet the different cactuses, which felt amazing on my tired hands. The sanctuary has all of these beautiful cacti and Mesquite trees growing everywhere. After a long chat with Lou I decided to keep going a little bit further.
It was already 4 o’clock when I started biking again and I knew I didn’t have much more in me for the day. I’ve already biked over 50 miles and over 5000 feet of elevation with most of that being done before noon. It took me quite a while to find a good camp, there are a lot of cows in this region, and I did not want to camp on a spot they traveled through. At quite literally the last second before a 500ft climb (which I was quite upset about having to do at 5:30pm) I found a small wash and cozied up in it. I forced myself to eat some dinner: bad tortillas with honey, peanut butter, and Nutella. Then I called it a night at ~7:15pm and fell asleep.
Pics
Originally recorded on 2025-12-26.