In sports, as in business, strength of mind, character and the ability to overcome oneself and one's weaknesses play an important role. Setting goals correctly, achieving them, and then going to the next ones again and again is the quality that unites professional athletes and business representatives. The general director of the online service told us about how to ride a bicycle 700 km under the scorching sun, not to lose your head from the heat and have a great time Moneyman.ru Boris Batin, who made a week-long bike tour of sunny Mexico in October this year.
«One of my colleagues and a good friend, Evgeny Pochaev, is currently in the process of a very exciting bike trip taking place in South and North America. At the beginning of the summer, he started in Alaska, and within a year he plans to finish his journey in Argentina, having traveled two continents using only a bicycle. It seemed to me an interesting and exciting sports adventure, and I also wanted to get to know cycling more closely. In October, I chose a week to fly across the ocean and join my friend on one of the segments of the route. Mexico was chosen by us not by chance, I have long wanted to see this country with a rich ancient history and high rates of modern economic growth.
So, we have laid out a route starting in Acapulco. At first, about 300 km along the coast, then 200 km in the mountains, then another 200 km on the plain. The final destination was the city of Oaxaca, where the ancient pyramids of Monte Alban are located nearby.
Before the start of my trip, Mexico was hit by a weather element in the form of a hurricane and a flood. After reading that Acapulco was washed away, and the city itself was literally filled with crocodiles, I bought a ticket and flew in search of adventures. It wasn't that bad. Indeed, some roads were destroyed, and we even had to make a rather big detour of 50 km to be able to get through somehow. After arriving and spending one day in Acapulco, we started, and for the first three days we drove along the coast, where it became very interesting to get acquainted with small towns on the way.
I especially want to mention the weather conditions — heat, sun and off-scale temperature. At first it was unusual, but in the end, more or less the body acclimatized. And it was getting easier every day. On the first day it was quite difficult, we had to adjust the route due to blurred roads, and in the morning we drove twice as much instead of 60 km, making a detour. As a result, the first day turned out to be the most difficult of the whole week. After that, I thought that cycling was probably not my thing.
But when I got to the surf town of Puerto Escondido, I changed my point of view. As local surfers say, this is one of the 10 best places to ride the waves in the world. There are big waves, sandy bottom and you can combine riding big waves with a low probability of being smashed against rocks. This town became one of the most vivid impressions of the whole trip, a kind of oasis in the middle of Mexico. Very beautiful coast, delicious food, nice restaurants, interesting bars. We decided to stay in this city for one day, which is a lot for a week-long trip. After three days on the road, it was a day of rest on the beach.
Then we went from the coast to the mountains. Due to the fact that we stayed for one day to rest in Puerto Escondido, we now lacked one day to visit the pyramids. We did not despair, and decided to overtake — two mountains that we planned to overcome in two days, we attacked in one day.
We started early in the morning, before dawn, and stopped only for the night, after 150 km and 12 hours of travel through the mountains. While we were driving, I realized one very important thing. As soon as it became hard, difficult, boring, and the road got boring, the factor of the company chosen for the trip began to play its role. It's nice to travel with a good friend when you can discuss something, tell something, and thereby distract yourself from fatigue and muscle pain. Therefore, it is always necessary to select an interesting team for traveling.
Now we were ahead of schedule, which meant that on the last day we had to drive only 100 km across the plain. We arrived in Oaxaco by one or two in the afternoon, and after we found a hotel, we went to see the pyramids and the city of Monte Alban itself. It became a very interesting finishing point of the whole route. A historic colonial town, very beautiful, neat and clean. I was surprised that in the middle of Mexico such a clean, neat and not very famous city. Plus the pyramids themselves were very interesting. A very large and ancient complex.
I was lucky that there were jungles, coast, and mountains on this route. Accordingly, in just six days of the trip I had the opportunity to look at a very diverse landscape. Every day everything changed, new positive impressions appeared.
After a week of cycling, the difficulties of the first day were erased and only positive emotions and impressions remained. Cycling will probably be included in the list of my favorite ways to spend a vacation. And while my friend Eugene is traveling in America, I would like to join him again. I guess I'm not ready to travel all over America yet. What Zhenya does, crossing tens of thousands of kilometers, of course, is admirable!
What I would like to say in conclusion. Since this is tourism, not competitions, everyone has their own speed, so such trips are suitable for people of any physical fitness. The only question is how many kilometers a person will drive in a day. Everyone has their own comfortable pace, but at any pace you can enjoy the trip. The set is small for traveling. Bike, sneakers, T-shirt, shorts and some money to buy food and drinks.
Sometimes it is very useful to dilute a vacation on the beach or in a party town with similar trips. Not necessarily by bike, if someone likes to drive - great, someone might want to get on a motorcycle. The main thing is not to sit in one place and travel, spend your holidays actively. I think it's very useful and interesting. New people, landscapes, cities. This is what makes our life interesting and adds new colors to it.
