Dear Mexico,
It will soon be a year since we started pedaling on your roads. A year that we have been exploring your immensity, your coasts, your mountains, your lakes, your forests.
We cycled around 7000kms, crossed through 14 of your 32 States.
From Tijuana to La Paz, from Mazatlan to Oaxaca and the Yucatan Peninsula, we learned, discovered, and challenged ourselves.
Desert landscape of the Baja Divide – Baja California
The global pandemic has not spared us, and it was also on your soil that we spent four months in quarantine and experienced moments of doubt, fear and reflection. Our journey has since taken on a new dimension, we are no longer advancing in the same way and we have chosen to be cautious and to plan our route according to the health situation in each region, fleeing from the big cities, respecting the wearing of masks, safe distance and never before have had such clean hands. Our bikes carried us on isolated paths sometimes, we had to adapt ourselves.
To those who will want to know what it is like to pedal your territory, who will be worried about your dangers, and ask us about it, we will answer from now on this:
“Mexico is above all its chocolate, the smell of cut grass and the discreet smoke of the copal that burns its acclaimed aroma;
It is the smile of its inhabitants, the doors wide open, their life and music in the streets, mariachis and its love songs;
Mexico is its rich and diverse culture, native peoples, strong communities, Maya culture, Purepechas, Choles, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Lacandones, Afromexicans and its hundreds of different languages and dialects;
Mexico is its extraordinary archaeological sites, Palenque, Edzna, Uxmal, and so many more…
Archeological site – Palenque, Chiapas
Mexico is its pine forests, its fields of blue agave, its avocados, its mangoes, its nopal, its chili;
Mexico is its dented country roads, colonial architecture, colorful houses, palapas and wooden chalets;
Mexico is its markets, shoe-shiners, street vendors, vans passing from street to street singing “El gaaaaaaas”, bikes shouting “paaaan”;
Woman selling fresh veggies on the street – Valladolid, Yucatan
Mexico is its small churches and ancestral rituals, witches and traditional herbs;
It is its food, enchiladas, chilaquiles, sopes, gorditas, panuchos, birrias, fajitas, mole, tamales, cochinita or pollo pibil, huaraches, tlayudas, atoles, pozoles…
Mexico is its Mezcal, Tequila, Pulque, Pajarete, artisanal beers, horchatas, different agua frescas made from Jamaica, orange, pinapple, lemon, etc;
Mexico is its islands, Sea of Cortez, the waves of the Pacific Ocean and the coral reefs of the Caribbean, the blue ocean, the turquoise sea;
Mexico is its rivers, lakes, mountains, tropical jungles and pine forests, heavenly beaches and deserts;
Mexico is its diverse fauna, jaguars, tarantulas, crocodiles, monkeys, turtles, snakes, whales, fireflies, flamingos, birds of all sizes and colors;
Spider monkey – Chiapas
Mexico is its cactus, its donkeys and horses, its rancheros who lead the herds, its fishermen on their lanchas and its talented mechanics who can weld almost anything even your luggage carrier;
Mexico is its crazy buses and its respectful truckers who can offer you a coffee when you take a brake at the same place;
Mexico is its alebrijes, embroidered blouses, its woven wicker baskets;
Jaiba (blue crab) fisherman – Sisal, Yucatan
It’s its craftsmen, its artists, known and unknown; it’s Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Pedro Infante;
It’s her silver jewelry, her opal of fire, and all the different jewel artisans;
Mexico is its celebrations, the independancia, el Dia de los Muertos, Quinceanera…
Mexico is finally and over all the kindness and warmth of its people.
This is it. This is Mexico. The Mexico that we have been lucky enough to discover, to learn, to smell, to taste.”
Artisans market – Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Mexico, you have opened our eyes to an incredible richness. We fell under the spell of your people, your culture, your gastronomy, your history.
Mexico, you are so much, much more than your cartels, Mexico, you deserve so much better than this image of constant danger that we have fun dissecting without getting tired of in our European media.
It is time to say goodbye, but thanks to you, we are ready to cross a new border.
STATES CROSSED
– Baja California
– Baja California Sur
– Sinaloa
– Nayarit
– Jalisco
– Michoacán
– Estado de Mexico
– Guerrero
– Oaxaca
– Chiapas
– Tabasco
– Campeche
– Yucatan
– Quintana Roo
