Job Discussion Forums

[delacosta]

To get back on topic for gqsmoothie:
I think your idea of biking down here is a great idea, assuming of course that you're in good/verygood shape and just crazy enough to pull it off! Having the credentials,experience,spanish speaking ability,etc in order to find decent work is a whole 'nother story though...
I've been living down on the coast of Oaxaca for the last four years and have had some incredible biking experiences. If I ever do decide to return to British Columbia, and I'm not too old and decrepit at the time, I will ride a bike there.
I recently had a preview of the trip as I drove a van down in Febuary. I had to be in La Paz so went via Baja California and took the ferry to Mazatlan. Baja is something else, it has its own special beauty (of course avoiding all the areas where gringos are taking over, such as Cabo for example) and I saw quite a few bikers on the narrow road. However, I didn't see any the rest of the trip along highway 200 all the way down the coast to Zipolite. There were definitely some tough stretches, but doable.
One of your main considerations should be the time of year and the weather. A friend of mine, who biked from Patagonia to Fairbanks, hit the Baja in July. The three of them could only ride from 5 in the morning till 10, then had to set find shade and basically sweat all day till it became cool enough to continue a few hours till it got dark. He says it was the hardest part of the trip, which included crossing the Andes.
There are many people who say that biking is very dangerous in Mexico but you just have to keep your wits about you. I have very few and seem to do just fine( wits that is). A couple of years back I rode coast to coast-Zipolite to Veracruz- and everyone told me that I was insane, that it was too difficult, the roads were too narrow that drivers would smash into me and that I would get robbed or killed.
Well it was very difficult to cross both the Sierra Sur and the Sierra Madre. But to look down on what had just taken me 9 hours to climb and see a tiny old bus just starting up the winding road and the world and mountains and valleys of Mexico surrounding me...I must tell you it's the closest I've ever come to a God like experience.
And yes the roads are very narrow, but most everyone gave me a wide birth and encouraging shouts and toots of the horn. Trucks did their best, but yes I gave them a wide berth where possible. But there was very little traffic anyway.
And as for crime- nothing at all. But I'm friendly and speak Spanish like a Mexican and of course have a keen sense of where and who to avoid. That said my previously mentioned friend was held up in Oaxaca state. Of all the places they went through-Columbia, El Salvador... But the three of them had been drinking with locals in a small village cantina the night before. Thier new buddies met them on the road going out of town with their machetes the next morning.This of course doesn't mean that Oaxaca is particularly dangerous, but getting drunk with the wrong people in Oaxaca can be dangerous.
I do quite a lot of biking around where I live and there is somewhat of a local biking scene. Again, the weather (and my ridiculous work schedule) is a factor. It's early mornings or dusk, or my favourite, during rain.If you're hardcore there is some extreme mountain biking/goat trail fall off and you bounce down the cactus infested hill type stuff...I do all my riding on a mountain bike-the roads are too crappy and unpredicatable for a roadster. I think a hybrid might be a good bet.
Where I live good bikes are very hard to come by and very expensive. Whenever I go home I sell mine at a good profit and return with a new one, you could probably do the same with yours if you wanted to.

Hope this has been encouraging to you, and hey, hopefully I'd get to hear about your trip down! Good luck.

[MELEE]

GREAT MESSAGE!

[gqsmoothie]

I concur with Melee!!

[moonraven]

And I have heard "delacosta's" description of the Istmo trip before: welcome back!