Mexico-City – Parque Nacial Izta-Popo – Puebla – Xochitlan Todos Santos – Coxcatlan – Cuicatlan – Cieneguilla – Oaxaca – Mitla – Oaxaca
9 days | 693 kilometers
Jacko decides to take the bus back to Guadalajara from Puebla. That means we have two more days of cycling together. We’ve already laid both pairs of eyes on two very distinct volcanos that stick out of the highlands south-east of Mexico-City. It seems like a nice route that can be divided into two days. The first day we’ll be climbing up the Paso de Cortes to the highest point right in between the volconoes with the impronunciable names of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. With the pass going up to 3700 meters it will be a tough day. The second day we descend into Puebla.
We’ve seen some nice campgrounds on top of the Paso and we imagine ourselves camping there with a beautiful view of the two volcanoes and the valley, eating ‘pepernoten’ (Dutch seasonal snack) that we got as a present from Josh and Maartje, friends of Jacko, that we bumped into in Mexico-City. Anyway, our dreams were rosy and our spirits high.
How could we be so wrong?



The day started off slow. We said our goodbyes to Daniel 1 and 2, checked three times if we didn’t leave anything behind in the house, closed the door and made our way into the urban jungle of Mexico-City. It took us nearly 40 kilometers before we were truly out of the bustling city. A new record (the old record was Las Vegas with 30km to get into the city). We hit a lot of traffic lights and we constantly have to de- and accelerate. After we’ve escaped the city we stumble upon greenhouses farming flowers. After 70km we have a small break and look at our phones: after our break the climbing will start with 25km to go and a dazzling 1200 elevation meters still to gain. It’s 16:30 and already at 2500m elevation. We better get going!
The climbing is tough, steep. Slowly it’s getting colder and darker. “What time does the sun set?”. “I don’t know man, I think around 18:30?” We make some calculations and the conclusion is that we are not going to make it before dark. Fuck. We have to keep going. By now it’s pitch dark and have to put on our lights. We’re hungry and cycle past some roadside food stalls but decide to keep going and eat at the top. The altitude is making everything two times more exhausting now. We have to stop way more often than we normally do, but stopping means the cold can get to our bodies, so we try to make short breaks. We have to put on long sleeves and sweaters because it’s seriously cold now. I cannot feel my hands anymore so changing gears became almost imposible. Damn why is this so hard?
In the end it takes us 3h18m to do 22.6km which gives an average of 6.8km/h, which is insane. When we finally make it to the top we are absolutely drained. Completely exhausted we sit down. I’m nauseous and Jacko feels the same. I want to put on a sweater but the little effort that it takes to look for my sweater in my bag and to put it over my head makes me go out of breath and I need to sit down again. What the hell is happening?? Altitude sickness is our quick and easy diagnosis. We are cold to the bone but everything we have to do to get warm takes too much energy from us. In the end we manage to put on some dry and warm clothes. We have to be careful not to puke. When we try to make a fire a ranger comes to us and tells us we cannot make a fire here. We’ve seen some other campsites with other campers and we stumble towards their campsite. With pale faces and slurred speech we ask them if they have a campfire going somewhere. “Nah, it’s been raining all day, so all the wood is wet”. So no fire. Then we take drastic measures, we walk over to the building where the rangers are located. A weak knock on the door follows. The door opens and a breeze of warmthness escapes from the door. In our best spanglish we try to tell them that we have been cycling but underestimated and that we’re cold and sick. After a brief consultation with the head chief they decide that for 100 pesos we can sleep inside. Yes! Here! Have all our money. We crash on the floor around 8PM without having had dinner and we wake up the next day.






Luckily we feel better when we wake up. The nausea and tiredness have disappeared, but I do still feel a pain in my chest when breathing. During the night there had been some uproar and we think it was a shift change, because we saw some rangers leave with thick jackets and pickaxes and some other came in and laid down their head to rest. When we wake up the rangers are preparing to receive all the hikers that will climb one of the volcanoes today. The mist has disappeared and now we can clearly see the two giants sticking out into the sky. It’s dead cold outside.
The rangers tell us that we have to scram, because their boss is about to start his working day and they don’t want him to see us. With long pants, jackets and beanies we start our descend. The gravel road is in bad shape and we have to take it very easy. After 15km the road turns into asphalt, the temperature rises quickly when we get lower, we see other cyclists going for their sunday-ride. Yesterday’s nightmare is over. We make it to our WarmShowers host in Puebla, have a shower and check out town. Later that night Ignacio joins us for a couple beers into city and have some night taco’s.













Then it’s time to say goodbye to Jacko. I’m not the guy who gets very emotional with goodbyes. However this time I’m having a harder time saying goodbye then I would have imagined. I invite him to have one last nice breakfast in a restaurant together and I have a tough time leaving the place. All morning there is this strange feeling in my stomach. It sounds strange, but it felt like saying goodbye to a girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong, I was really looking forward to embrace the solo adventure, but that doesn’t mean this goodbye leaves me untouched.
A big hug and then it’s time to fly away. All alone. Solo. Chasing my dream to cycle to the southernmost point of the Americas. It will take a couple of days before the sad feeling in my stomach is away.
Heavy headwind on my first day alone. But being alone does also mean I can cycle my own pace, so I take it easy today. Together with Jacko we always made a plan about where we wanted to end the day. I myself am trying to leave things more open, see where we’ll get day by day. That means there is no haste, because there is no plan. You get me? I can end the day wherever I want, because I have a tent and food. So I take it easy. I buy chicken and fries in a village just before I dive into the fields to find a nice camp spot. The fields are super nice, but I cannot find a flat spot. An hour later I decide to hide from spectators and the wind behind an electricity house. I notice it is getting dark earlier than I’ve been used to. The camping is a bit more boring than with two. Also a lot more scary by the way.
The chicken that I bought almost certainly is the head and the spine of the chicken. I am pretty hungry so I decide to nibble the meat off of it and try not to think too hard about what exactly I am eating. I write in my diary, I read a book, but after two hours in the dark I decide to go to bed early.
An Ode to Jacque
I will miss him. I will miss the first “Moh!” in the morning and the “Loop ut?!” as a greeting. I will miss his morning routine that is carved in marble (coffee, cigarette than poo). I will miss him in front of me, battling against the wind. I will miss the little nod when I take over to battle that same wind. I will miss his burps when he clearly is unsettled with something or is having a hard time. I will miss the “bon!”, meaning we have reached consensus about something. Our communication over the past half year has optimized in such a way that with a simple look or gesture we know exactly what we mean. Off the bike, but also on the bike: a pointing finger meaning a crack in the road, a wiggling hand meaning a bump in the road, a slight movement with the head meaning we go a little bit left or right and a waving hand behind the back meaning obstacle on the road. We became completely symbiotic with each other in such a short time. I will miss his intelligence and his views on politics and literature. I will miss his cooking. I will miss his soft hearted soul. I will never forget our adventures together.



Yesterday before I went to find a camping spot I bought water in a little shop. I got to talk to the owner because she was interested about what this güero (blondie) was doing here. Than she goes on and tells me I shouldn’t camp here because it is dangerous. Than this morning. I’m all packed up, I walk towards the road and there is a guy doing some work at the little electricity house I was camping behind. Same thing. A small talk and then he goes on and says it’s too dangerous to camp here. This is not good for my state of mind, especially not because it is already a bit harder to camp alone and to reassure yourself that nothing is going to happen to you.
Another day collecting dust and black smoke from the trucks. Another day with the kind of headwind that tries to push you back from where you came from. All this makes me not fully enjoy todays slightly descending profile. I spend my last money on taking a hotel in Coxcatlan. There is no ATM in this town, so breakfast and dinner are at stake. Luckily I find a restaurant (dinner) and a gas station (breakfast) where I can pay with card.



In the morning I install myself on the little square of this town. Everybody seems to be taking a collectivo to places with better employment opportunities. The food vendor with coffee and juices is left behind when everybody has finally found their way out of town. Suddenly I notice that my calf muscles are aching, after almost half a year of cycling I am surprised that I can still have muscle strain in my legs.
Why is it always that when you are ready to go that you notice that you have a flat? A little delayed I set off. The surroundings are beautiful with hills dotted with cacti. All around me mountains appear and they’ve wrapped a green carpet around them.
Then I start seeing a kind of procession of pick-ups with complete altars of Marys and Jesuses in the tailgate. Sometimes the pickups drive at walking pace and dozens of people follow behind. I enter a beautiful area, super hilly and winding, cacti everywhere, red rocks and green mountains. Seems like a combination of Baja California and Utah.
A cycling holiday is stress-free except for three things: water, food and a place to sleep. When you have completed that triangle, you honestly have nothing left to worry about.
Today I’d like to sleep by the river, because it looks beautiful down there and I can take a shower in it. But I need to find somewhere to eat first. So I cycle on to Cuicatlan and eat something at a ‘restaurant’. With restaurants in Mexico you never really know if you walk into someone’s home or an establishment, often it’s both. The Mexican mother that owns the ‘restaurant’ gives me a real meal that I would also get from my mother at home. Piece of meat, vegetables and soup. Now that I’ve covered food and water it’s time to cycle towards the river when I suddenly see a kind of open-air swimming pool / recreation area. I cycle in and ask if I can camp there. The family is very nice, I can camp and also they don’t want me to pay. Good nights rest.







If my trip would’ve been a Tour de France, today would have been the Queen Stage. We’re going to climb today! The surroundings are of the same beauty as yesterday, a beautiful road winds up into the mountains. Again, the whole day I’ve been seeing trucks and cars that are part of some religious procession. I decide to ask somebody what’s going on. “Pilgrimage on foot”, is his simple answer. Turns out 400 people walk from Puebla to another religious town, a total of 600km within 11 days! I’m shocked, that’s a bit over 50km a day!
The pilgrimage comes with a big organization that is supporting the pilgrims: trucks that they sleep in at night, a team of cooks, trucks with water, trucks with gasoline. As I climb my way up on the mountain I see another organisation truck and they wave me over. They are preparing fruit for the pilgrims and urge me to have some as well. Later I see the same group again preparing lunch and again I’m ordered to eat something as well. They make me feel like I’m a part of this group, although I’m working myself up a sweat on two wheels. Also, I’ve been worried about food for this stretch because there were not a lot of food opportunities on this mountain. But that worry is taken away by these nice people.
During lunch I decide to ask where they are going to sleep tonight. I want to sleep at the same place because it makes me feel safer. They are going to sleep with the whole bunch on top of the mountain. My original plan was to maybe do half the climbing today and half the climbing tomorrow, but this makes me decide I will go to the top as well. This also means I eventually break my old ‘elevation gain record’: today I’ve climbed 2050m, the most I’ve done this trip.
When I arrive in the encampment on top of the mountain, the kitchen crew is already busy setting up big kettles and big pots and pans for dinner for 400 people. It’s cozy in the encampment and everybody is up for a small chat. However I’m the only non-Mexican around and I attract a lot of attention. Groups of woman from the kitchen want to make pictures with me, everybody wants some attention from me. It is quite exhausting after an already exhausting day on the bike. I put up my tent flanked by the pick-up trucks with the altars and I don’t think I’ve ever camped in such a strange setting. What a day.









I did not bet an eye last night. The night’s watch was sitting next to a campfire next to my tent, chatting all night. Around 03:00 the sirens went off because the pilgrims had to wake up to start walking again. I decided to watch the bunch walk off. It took two hours before peace returned to the camp, so that gave me a couple more hours to sleep. In the morning I sit around with the morning crew for coffee and breakfast tacos. I’m on the bike around 09:00. The first kilometers are filled with seeing familiar faces, again they wave me down to have drinks etc. I’m a bit done with the same conversations over and over (“Where are you from? Where are you going?” etc.). So I decide to wave friendly to them but cycle on. It hurts my heart a little bit, because they’ve just been so friendly.
After that it’s not long before I reach Oaxaca, the capital of the province carrying the same name. I check into a hostel and meet some friendly travellers from France, Spain and Palestine. In the evening I meet Bitia (from our cycling trip in Italy) that is here on vacation with a friend, we catch up and have dinner with friends of her. They have an early bus to catch so head back to their hotel. I feel like I deserved a beer, so go to a pub. I order a beer, sit down and have a chat with a middle-aged couple sitting next to me. That is so great about traveling alone! Super easy to make new friends. Five minutes later I’m in their car driving to the next bar. His name is Uriel, her name Estrella and they are from this city. We have more beers, I meet their son that is going out in the city with friends and they drive me back to my hostel.



I leave behind 3 out of 6 bags in the hostel and check out. Light packed I’m heading out to Mitla. I plan two days to see some sights, but eventually will return to Oaxaca again tomorrow. On my way to Mitla I am accompanied by several road bikers that are going about their Sunday ride. In Mitla I have lunch, find a hotel and leave behind another 2 bags. Even lighter I make my way to Hierve el Agua, a beautiful ride in the mountains follows with beautiful vistas. Suddenly there are two cones on the road: please pay to see the nature you are coming to see. It strikes me, isn’t nature just for everyone to enjoy? I tell him. He is not in for the argument and lets me through.
I arrive at the petrified waterfall and the natural infinity pool with a beautiful backdrop over the valley. I cannot enjoy for long, because it’s getting late and I don’t want to get back in the dark. Like always I’m racing against the setting sun and a smile appears on my face, because I’ve raced this race many times and I’ve always lost. Today turns out to be not different. Luckily I brought my lights with me.
Back from Mitla to Oaxaca is fairly flat and this time I have a tailwind so it doesn’t take long before I’m back in the hostel. In the afternoon I drink traditional Oaxacan chocolate milk with the boys from the hostel and in the night I have dinner with Maartje and Josh that me and Jacko met in Mexico-City.








Today I chill hard in Oaxaca, walk around town, read a book. In the night I’m preparing for my trip back to Mexico-City and my subsequent flight to Cuba. Uriel and Estrella, the couple that I met in the bar earlier, have offered me to store my bike with them whilst I’m away. So at night I make my way over to their house and leave my bike behind. I meet all their kids but everybody is so shy that it gets a bit awkward. Uriel drops me off back into the city for my night bus to Mexico-City. Suddenly I’m a backpacker! Feels weird to travel with a bag instead of my bike, I feel naked.
Maartje has given me some sleep pills for the bus ride. They knock me out good and the next morning I wake up in Mexico’s capital.
I came back to Mexico City a day earlier, because I have a date with Diana. I met her in Mexico City when me and Jacko were here the first time. We walk around in the beautiful Chapultepec park and have dinner. The next day I still have time to visit Mexico City’s famous Museo Nacional de Antropologia and learn a lot about all the folks that have lived in Mexico before the present-day people. In the night I make my way over to the airport. I have a flight early in the morning and decide to go through customs early and just sleep a bit in the terminal. Saves me one nights worth of accommodation. I’m on a budget, remember?
Next up: meeting my brother and sister in Havana and traveling two weeks around the island!


Geweldig om weer al die avontuurlijke verhalen te lezen. Zal wel vreemd zijn om zonder Jacko verder te fietsen, maar daar ga jij ook zeker van genieten. Wij wensen jou alvast hele fijne feestdagen en ga nog maar heel veel mooie verhalen maken.
Mooie ode aan jacko! Blijf mooie avonturen beleven en je belevenissen te blijven schrijven! Er zullen veel mensen van genieten! Ik zeker!
Mooi verhaal phlippie! Stay pedalling!
Met Jacko prachtige avonturen gemaakt en nu alleen verder om daar gewoon mee verder te gaan Hoe krijg jij het toch iedere keer voor elkaar om zoveel leuke gastvrije mensen te ontmoeten, daar word ik heel blij van
Weer super genoten van jouw verhaal en van de prachtige foto’s , hoop dat het goed blijft gaan en wens je alvast een gezellige kerst bij weer nieuwe vrienden We spreken elkaar snel xxx