The Maiden Voyage of Boogie Bike to La Bocana, Huatulco

Sunday, I took the boogie board bicycle rack out for the first excursion to La Bocana.  It worked like a charm.  The board didn't shake at all and, once I was on the saddle, it didn't feel like I was carrying any extra burden.  I learned that, when mounting the bike, the rack side pedal has to be down so I can adjust my foot to pedal from the heel with the first thrust.

First portage from taking the shortcut the sector of empty streets for future residential development.  People can enter by the Fonatur recycling depot but all other exits are blocked, which probably saves a lot of unnecessary accidents from commuters racing the clock and trying to avoid traffic lights.

 

 

Next obstacle was at the top of the hill descending to Tangolunda.  Traffic had been diverted to an older 2 lane road half a kilometer back that I hoped to avoid because of my extra width and the blind turns plus increased traffic.  I just kept going and hoped for the best.  Sometimes a bicycle can squeeze through where normal traffic can't.

 

Approaching the moment of truth.

 

 

Whee.  No problem.

 





 

This video is clearly staged.  I saw Marbella waving to me from EcoSpa as I cruised through Tangolunda so I spun around and asked her to capture Boogie Bike in motion to show it off better.  That's the name for the contraption from here on in courtesy of Francisco.  It works for me.

 

                    

 

Random photo from the journey.

 

 

 

La Bocana just ahead at the bottom of the next hill.  I didn't even notice at the time that the front pipe had been shaken free.  It was the one spot I hadn't glued because the reduction sleeve had been jammed in so tightly, I couldn't free it.  I thought if it was that tight, it wouldn't need glue anyways.  No problem when I pushed it back in but it freed itself one more time before I made it home.  Maybe it was the constant vibrations of the tarmac that worked it out.  It's glued tightly now and it won't happen again.  

 



Ta-dah.  Beautiful Bocana.  I caught a few little waves and had some fun.  Mostly it was a fishing day.  An enormous school of fish had landed and fishermen and seagulls were everywhere.  People were taking home buckets of fish.  I grabbed my space in the water whenever a fishermen carried his haul back to shore and made room again when he returned.

 

 

 

New teacher - New tour- Huatulco 2013

It seems to have become a rite of passage for new teachers to take a quick tour on the back of the old Italika scooter. Each tour is a little different. Much as I'd like to take them everywhere, there isn't enough time in a single day.

Here is our newest recruit, Carmen, all the way from Virginia, the original home of John Carter from Mars, sporting the Sony Action Cam at the Tangolunda overlook.

The idea was that the person on the back of the scoot could get a better view of points of interest than the driver, who has to stare straight ahead for traffic and curves. It worked too but we had condensation problems and almost all of our footage looked like it had been taken on a foggy day.

The rainy season is almost all over. While it rained steadily in the mountains for most of the season, we didn't get much here in Huatulco until a few weeks ago. When it came, it came down hard for a full week. The canals gushed. Mud slid across roads and trees came down. A hard rain always causes potholes. We expect that but there are potholes and then there are potholes.



Drivers beware.



Our first stop was beautiful Bocana. Sadly this beach received some heavy damage. The seawall, which I believe is made of strong materials, had been battered to pieces during the hard rain.











Fallen trees from the hills, washed away with the soil that had sustained them, were everywhere.







I wasn't there when it happened but I suspect these trees battered the blazes out of the seawall when the water was much higher. La Bocana has periods every year when there is no beach to speak of, just brown wáter rushing against the wall over clattering rocks. But when it is good, this beach is pure gold. I have never seen it as wide as it was that day. A student tipped me off about the recent conditions but I couldn't have imagined just how vast it was. It is definitely worth the trip if you're in the area any time over the next few months.

There were only a few people when we arrived. There's a young woman reading a book under an umbrella.


Hey, wait a minute. She looks familiar. It's Yulma!



It was such a great chance for Carmen to start meeting some of her new colleagues. Plus I had Yulma to take care of the camera. I wanted to get wet too. Most of the upcoming pictures were taken by her.

This was Carmen's 3rd or 4th day in our town. She finally got wet.


We're already quite far out at this point.

Looking back.


Woo hoo! Body surfing!









Back at the shore, the water is a lot cooler in this little river channel. It's waist high on me at the deepest spots. If you lie down, the current whisks you away like a natural water slide park ride. Whee.





The tour continued but there are no more pictures.