I'm starting this page on Wed evening after my move to Cozumel. I got up real early this morning to discover that the chest cold I had been fighting off for a week had finally won the fight. Despite that, I took the tricyclo to a blacksmith shop to have the handlebars raised. The bike is designed for a 5' tall rider and it actually took a special seat post just to fit me to the pedals. What that did was lean me over and put quite a bit of weight on my hands. They get pretty tired and sore before very long. I pissed off the welding shop owner right a way by insisting he make the modification MY WAY !! He threw down his tools and stomped off, telling one of the kids to do the job. Lucky me, as it turned out, he is an excellent welder and understood exactly what I wanted. After the cutting and welding, he ground off some rough spots to dress it up a little.
All of a sudden he lays down the grinder, pulls out his wallet while he walks over to his kid brother and hands him a nice white business card to use to fish a bit of grit out of his eye. Safety glasses have got to be expensive as hell down here.
Then he calmly walks back to finish the grinding.
The job turned out just fine and I can now ride in an Edwardian posture. (bolt upright)
(this is a reflection in a mirrored store window)
I said good by to some PDC friends, loaded up my gear and checked out of Elephante. After some joking and teasing they offered me 2 days free next winter to make up for my leaving two days short of the 30 I paid for. With all of that fooling around I forgot to turn in my room key. Maybe someone from here can drop it off for me. Maybe I'll take the ferry back for the AA Christmas party and drop it off then.
Moving to Cozumel
The ferry company, Ultra-Mar,
charged me ~$3 extra for the bike and the PDC baggage handler's co-op wanted
an extra $3 also. The ticket was $9 and then the baggage handler's co-op
on Cozumel wanted another $2 to unload it all. I'd been through this last
year and knew what to expect. When they loaded the bike they lashed it
down to the railing on the rear deck. Did I mention that both the departure
and arrival ports are closed to small craft today because of the high winds
and rough seas? It was such a rough passage that I stayed outside with
the bike to keep from getting sea sick. I took a picture of the bike with
all the water washing over it from the decks above. In the upper left hand
corner you can see the competing ferry company's boat falling behind. Ultra-Mar
is consistently faster.
Then we hit one hell of a
wave and made a radical roll to the side which allowed 3 full oil drums
to come crashing down toward my bike. I was almost knocked off my feet
and tore part of one thumbnail off on something. I still had the camera
out and when I looked again I found this:
What a tough bike ! When they
unloaded it on Cozumel there was almost no damage, and what little there
was I repaired with a crowbar I borrowed from a street repair guy. Amazing.
When I got to the apartment I thoroughly washed the bike with fresh water
to prevent corrosion.
My room had just been painted
and was ready for me. They took the refrigerator out to paint and will
bring it back tomorrow. I got all my gear moved in and slept for a while.
The room can be seen at the top of my diving
page, you may have looked at earlier.
I went to the local English
language AA group at a little after 5 because I couldn't remember when
the meetings started. The Clubhouse is above a residence and you go up
a 12 step spiral staircase to get there. =)
Well, 5:30 rolls around and
no one shows. I find a notice showing that it starts at 6. Then six o'clock
passes and NO ONE shows up. I AM SHOOK !! Was there a group implosion?
I'm immediately considering returning to PDC tomorrow if there is no English
AA here. A little after 6 they start showing up. MAN, what a relief! Lots
of familiar faces, many stories to tell. Excellent meeting (they always
are).
On the way home I stopped
by a couple restaurants and a dive shop to see who was still here. It was
like old home week. Lots of smiles and questions, etc etc.