Week 135. Crossed the Tropic of Cancer (and got attacked by bees)! It is a huge milestone for us (the tropic, not the bees): it is one of five mayor circles of latitude. During this trip we have already crossed three of them, the fourth – the Arctic Circle – is waiting for us in Alaska. This week we’ve been cycling through an exceptionally beautiful landscape and we’re loving every minute of cycling more than we ever did. Up next: Saltillo.
P.S. To put things into perspective: we are now at the same level as Sahara desert.

Week 134. Change of course. This week we have finished cycling Queretero state, crossed Guanajuato state and entered San Luis Potosi state and now we are heading straight north! Our original plan was to continue west via Gualadajara and cycle on the west coast. After lots of careful consideration followed by a quick second glance to the map, the wise words ‘What about that road?’ have been said. We never considered this route and we’re not sure why – it fits us perfectly! So we’ve turned the steering wheel and now we’re heading towards Texas. The scenery is changing and we will be entering the desert very soon. We cycle through once rich mining region. We got a chance to smell the gold rush this week too: we visited a ghost town and climbed 40 meters under ground in an old mine!

Week 133. Headwinds. Our already slow tempo was slowed even more by strong headwinds. Once again we talked with local people, once again they told us ‘it’s never windy here’. Either that global climate change thing is very real, or we’re just very unlucky and always appear to be in places where ‘it never rains’ and ‘it’s never windy’… Up next: change of course.

Week 132. Mexico City is behind us! There were 3 main ways to deal with Mexico City:
1. Go around on the west side via Toluca, which includes crossing the most dangerous state in Mexico;
2. Go straight through Mexico City, which is a megalopolis with 9 million inhabitants and chaotic city traffic;
3. Go around on the east side via Arco Norte, which is a brand new motorway that is very strict about ‘No cyclists allowed’ rule.
None of the options were favorable for us, so we started digging deeper and at the end we had plans A, B, C, D up to X, Y, Z as well as couple of numbers too. Take these oh-so-many options mix them with things that don’t go as planned every single step and you get… Well, Mexico City is behind us, but please don’t ask us how we got here.

Puebla!!! We reached Puebla! When we left Oaxaca we thought we will reach Puebla in less than a week. But then the valley turned into mountains, sunshine turned into rain and hail and we started to doubt that we will ever make it to Puebla. But we did! And Puebla is great! And we love it! Also, new video about sightseeing in Puebla: https://youtu.be/kXFLNFi_JEU

Week 130. Not as planned. In last two weeks there wasn’t a single thing that went as planned. It was overwhelming and brought both good and bad things. The bad thing – we’re still haven’t reached Puebla. Seriously, how hard can it be to cycle 300 km? Too hard, apparently. The good thing is that all the unexpectedness lead us to discover incredible things, like eating cactus, playing with tumbleweed, exploring rooftops of old monasteries and meeting a girl who travels with a cat!

Week 128. Leaving Oaxaca Valley. The first part of the week felt like running a marathon, even though we haven’t cycled. We were busy in Oaxaca with running errands, from 7am to 10pm. All of us – Sven, Kira, Tulku and our bikes – had check ups. We fixed our teeth, Tulku got medicine for her infected ear and our bikes got a lot of new parts. Luckily, we sneaked in some sightseeing and visited couple of UNESCO sites. Now we are in Mexican Highlands, on our way to Puebla.

Week 127. Busy week: cycling, sightseeing and check ups! We finally finished cycling the last big mountain and reached Mexican Altiplano. Here we already visited many sights like Hierve el Agua, Mitla and the biggest tree in the world (by grith). We set a base camp in Oaxaca as it’s time for medical and dental check ups as well as mechanical check up for our bikes. Also, we started making videos! One is already online and another one is still being edited.

Week 126. Climbing to the mountains. In order to reach Mexican Altiplano we have to cross 11 mountains. We have already climbed over 10 mountains, so there is only one left. It is the highest, the steepest and with the longest climb. Sven is excited, Kira not so much and Tulku is just happy, because she had her 8th birthday yesterday!

Week 125. Off to the mountains! We’re still not ready (not at slightest), but oh well… On the bright side, the landscape here is very different. Jungles are truly over for a while now, and we are surrounded by blue mountains, yellow grass fields and brown leave-less trees. The air is dry, it’s not that hot anymore and all plants have thorns. Also – cacti! Plenty of them all over the place. We haven’t seen them since Argentina and we are very happy to see them again.