Back to Life from the Badlands
Leaving the cactus forest in the morning, I unfolded my two solar panels to recharge, having relied almost exclusively on Sungold solar panels to power my journey over the last few days, continuing southwest and back west to the Pacific coast, the road flat all the way. There was more and more greenery on both sides, and I saw a flowing river, the first time I had ever seen water flowing on this land.
We were getting closer to the Elpis Caynor Animal Sanctuary, where there is a lot of natural wildlife, and if we were lucky, we could see a lot of huge whales on the beach, so I was going to take my chances.
We headed down Highway 1 and camped for the night on a baseball field in a small village called Jesus Maria. I ate two tacos and three oysters at a seafood restaurant, which were really raw and the taste of lemon reminded me of what I had in France.
This is about 800 km from La Paz and we have 2200 pesos on us, so we can spend about 200 pesos a day to reach La Paz in ten days, and we have to be smart about food and water from tomorrow.
Looking at the map, we planned to go to a small village, but the closer we got to it, the worse the road became, the dust was flying. We once again felt the power of the scrub road, I, because of the dust, we could not see the road ahead and the oncoming traffic.
This section of the road is more than ten kilometers long, I was afraid of slowly moving forward. This side of the road in the widening has not yet been repaired, so a large number of vehicles on the side of the temporary lane to pass. I thought it was a village when I saw the name, but I didn’t expect it to be a big city. There are police stations, schools, and various public facilities. No wonder the road is getting wider, because there are many people in the city.
After consulting with the local police and getting permission, I originally planned to camp by the police station. After setting up the tent, I realized that there were thorny plant seeds in the small sandy area, which I couldn’t see with my eyes, but I found something sticking to my back when I laid down, haha. I was even more afraid of my bicycle tires being punctured.
So we had to move places, at first we wanted to go to the back of the park, but the police said it would be closed at night. The police suggested we go to the church across the street, which was very quiet, and walked in and turned around without finding anyone. I was ready to leave when I suddenly found a man lying in the church pews sleeping, half asleep. I whispered a greeting, and the man did not seem to react much.
Feeling a bit strange, I went back to the police station, and it was already dark. Talked to the police for a while. Seeing the lights on in the church, I went back to the church, and at this time there were already others in.
The pastor finally came back and the three pastors of the church were very helpful. There was a hot shower and a place to recharge. They were very interested in our stories from the ride and we had a great time chatting in our non-standard English and Spanish translators.
I really appreciate their help and I plan to take one more day off as I have to fix my bag and sort out my Gopro which is full of photos.
At the end of the week, there were children’s activities in the church and evening masses. During the day the kids were happy and curious and asked us a lot of questions, and the kids especially loved the dogs, Harry was their live boy.
In the evening there were activities for the older children, who sang and danced. In the evening, the adults brought the children to the church to listen to the priest’s mass and at the end of the day I interviewed one of the local children. It was a joy to learn about different children’s thoughts and cultures because the world of children is always simple and beautiful.
Your most sincere solar energy partner–Sungold Solar
