Bienvenido a mis amigos mexicanos querido! Gracias por cuidar de mí tan grande aquí en México.
Mi sitio web tiene una traducción al español la posibilidad!
Por favor, sólo tiene que desplazarse hacia abajo y seleccione el idioma español en la herramienta de TRANSLATE en el lado derecho de mi página de blog. Espero verte en el camino!  Tony

I got a nice early start this morning , 4.35am. Sergio drove his police patrol truck behind me. He had commutted me back the 14ks to km marker 80 from Villa Jesus Maria. It was a nice morning running along at this early hour. Oh if only all running in hot climates could be run during the night! It is not always possible due to dangers, traffic etc not to mention little local interaction. Still it’s nice when I can do it.

SERGIO

On the road to Guerrero Negro today I noticed that the landscape is slowly changing from the almost barren land to more and more green. I never realized there were so many different species of cactus plants.

Jesus took over from Sergio and Pablo, a Green Angel made an appearance. Nice one I am now being looked after by Jesus and an Angel!

After about 50 of todays 55km we approached the Baja Sur or Baja South state line. I could see it a long way off as  a gigantic Mexican flag flew from a tall pole.

I had been told that state lines here in Mexico were like crossing international borders. I think I will have 9 Mexican states on my route but here I was just waved through by the millitary when I pointed to Pablo just behind.

” He is my amigo ” I said to the guard in Spanish.

So over into South Baja and a new time zone which is mountain standard time -7 hours gmt. I never experienced a time zone change going from north to south, as I had always experienced time changes from east to west or v.v.

On I ran the final 5km or so to Guerrero Negro where I was met by a police officer who whisked me through the town at a faster pace than I wanted after 55km! I stayed in the Commandancia as they call the police stations in this part. This one was a compound of sorts and even had a chance to shower!

Out on the road on my own at 6am making tracks for Viscano. The traffic is much heavier now. As I continue south everyone tells me it’s going to get hotter and hotter but I just tell them I have no choice, I just gotta keep on running. If I was cycling I would be able to put in 3,000km in a month and `escape `oppresive weather but the trans-contintential runner does not have much choice as it is so hard to get everywhere on the route the way I would wish.

THERE ARE MANY ROADSIDE SHRINES TO LOVED ONES KILLED ON THE ROADS

This week I seem to managing the heat better than last week. It was a long hot day. A motorist called Edgar stopped to check on as the American cops would say `welfare` Edgar then drove to the next town and brought me back a coke and a bag of crisps, thanks Edgar!

I trundeled on, it was a long day and made only brief stops. My progress was slow but when I arrived in Viscaino around 8pm I had clocked up a new record for the trip, 75.1km

The next day I got a late start, around 8.30 and to be honest it was because I was shattered! Eventually I got going and ran over 46km to a restaurant called Campo Fisher out in the middle of nowhere, like a little oasis.

I had a fish dinner for a change. I already had my eyes on the foyer as a place to sleep tonight. I waited till about 9pm to ask, knowing well the people would be so agreeable as they always are to long distance hikers and cyclists. I was told I could sleep on a hammock. I heard a couple of sniggers as they watched el Gringo through their window getting in to the hammock. A couple of sways but I managed. I don`t know how good hammock sleeping is for ones back as mine was a bit sore for a while.

Next day 10th July (Happy birthday to my brother Brian!) I was planning on a similar location in a small town called Bonfil.

It was Sunday but hordes of farm workers were still being transported to the fields to work. They are often transported in old yellow American school busses. The bus waits there for the day till its time to go home.

Just short of halfway I spotted a Green Angels truck parked outside a restaurant, went inside, introduced my self with my Baja North letter of introduction and a newspaper cutting. Rorlando and Juan Alberto were most agreeable to helping me.

I asked them would the mind waiting till I got something to eat and was amazed it took an hour to get my omelet. Evertime the waitress brought out something to a customers table she wheeled out a trolley, even for 2 milk shakes at the next table, handing them one at a time. As an American lady who lives here told me, everything is so laidback, muy tranquillo!

Eventually we got going, it was very hot but I managed to run a fairly decent pace for the last 30km of todays 45.7km. I was glad the boys had Nirvana in their truck and what a slice of luck spotting them back there as most of the afternoon was mountainous.

I had just been thinking of how when I ran through the deserts in Arizona and California how so many people had stopped to give me water and here it rare. Then within 2km 3 times people stopped! First was a woman that handed me an ice cold litre and a half bottle of water and a bunch of flowers! I dont know if I was supposed to stick the flowers in the bottle but I had different ideas!

I gave the flowers to the boys and stuck the water in my mouth

200 meters up the road a man out for a picnic with his family stopped, gave me a coke and water for the lads.

And then minutes later two californians from San Diego stopped, shot some video, gave me a couple of powerbars and more water for us all.

So all watered up I ran into the dusty town of Boniface with its friendly locals. As I said I had been thinking of camping around the back of a restaurant and the Angels said they knew a likely place called Restaurant Tuxpan. Just then a police officer arrived and I reckoned there was no plan here, he just happened to be passing and stopped to investigate. I asked him could I sleep in their station, which as far as I could see unless they got another building, was a one room office with an adjoining jail cell.

So after dinner in the Restaurant Tuxpan the owner’s husband, Juan Angel,gave me batteries for my Spot when he saw me changing them! He also gave me a much needed shower opportunity!

This is a problem I got now as I run through more and more desolate areas. My clothes are constantly drenched from perspiration. It just ends up drying in very quickly, I don’t know what else to do as I cant carry a suitcase around with me. I find if I wash clothes they are not fully dried out the next morning anyway and its not as simple as it sounds when I got so much to do.

Tonight I just took off my pants and went around the town in my underpants as they looked like trendy lack shorts, what the Hell!

Anyway the Angels had taken Nirvana away in their truck and said they would meet up with me on the road around 8.30 in the morning. I just kept my 3 liter Camelback, daypack with a small light-weight  sleeping bag. I would run on on my own till I saw them.

Eventually I went around to the police stations small room. I slept on the table.There was an adjoining prison cell.

In the middle of the night 2 off duty officers came in for a document. I was relieved I could explain that I had permission!

Next morning I was leaving in the dark and just about every dog barked, I was glad I had my dog detterent device!

On the way I passed a grey Cascabele snake,which I am told is venemous. I blended in with the roads tarmac and I just saw it in the nick of time. Not sure if it was alive or dead, I didn`t wait to ask!

A CASCABEL SNAKE

I was glad I had Rorlando and Juan Albertos help today as it was very hilly and hot.

I was told today was up around 40 C. It was slow progress but we made it to Santa Rosalina.

One again, you guessed it I was directed to the police station.

Last week I averaged 53km per day. The 9,000th km was clocked up today!

I am just getting

The tourism secretary emailed  me to say he was delighted that the Mexican peoples warmth towards me was as warm as the suns warmth!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 at 3:06 am and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.