Tuesday 1st July 2025 Santo Dominigo Zanatepec to Matlas Romero
Went to a lovely restaurant next door again last night, unfortunately they were closed, though she did have our change waiting for us, so here we go further down into Santo Domingo Zanatepec, what does that mean Saint Dominic of shoes I thought, but shoes are zapatos, that was close enough for my hyperactive brain, who needs an editor, Think I do. So I ended up with fish head soup, how did that happen, I ‘ll tell you why, the guy doing the translation seemed so helpful, stitched me up, only wanted egg and chips!, I needed to eat, nothing can go wrong.

Great news in the morning, it’s not all about me, but my stomach was fine so, Steve is recovering well, bit of a restless night, but looks like he will be transferred back down to William Harvey this afternoon, very good news indeed. breakfast all sorted out of the door, by five and twenty to six, love that, that’s how my Mum says the time, it was to teach the thick ones in the family, namely Bingo and I how to add up, I ended up never asking the time, its only an abstract principle anyway, preferred my Dads way if it’s light you need to be up and working.

So heading out of St Dominic shoes, still up the coast for about 35 miles or so then head North / East towards the Caribbean coast or more accurately Matías Romero, now all I can think off is the cheap Portuguese wine Mateus Rose, thats what happens when you have an overactive dyslexic mind, its fine, just get used to mixing up words, actually comes in handy when trying to talk in another language, can’t even understand my first tongue.

Well that sorted the first 25 miles or so out, not even a song on the lips, just me giggling at my own little mispronunciations, never met her but wonder what her first name is, there we go again. best get on with this riding thing, heading up the coast, the wind turbines ominously turned into the wind, which will be against us when we go inland, get that thought away from my mind, it will be fine, it’s really good to see a vast array of wind turbines nestled along the coast, must have been over 500 plus of them great stuff, will not get into the plastic waste stuff, will leave that for the final overview, but really not good in Mexico so far. I have a few wild and wonderful ideas to send to the major plastic waste contributors just from our little tour, they will also be acknowledged in the credits, for major contributions to spoiling this lovely planet, watch this space.

Still not getting into the riding today, well I am doing fine, it’s just my brain in overdrive, might even be the fish soup who knows, not sure I can keep up with it though. We stop just before we turn East at a little service station just outside La Venta, nice coffee and soft drink, then do the hattrick and have an ice cream, living the dream, have a chat about the next stage, nothing major, couple of little climbs, but the wind could be a major factor, well just ride see what happens.

All good, yes the wind is in are face a bit, but not too much problem if anything it is keeping us cool, well cool just not so hot, lovely road now as the we start to see the famous cactus plants again, sure we will see enough of them, but as we steadily climb up, heading East now the landscape changes, Bingo says back into snake country, more like lizard at the moment, loads of the little and sometimes not so little things darting about. Nice climb though steady away is always good, when the engineer tells the power plant only a 3 mile climb just relax, when I tell them it is 25 mile plus they have a hissy fit.

Few nice little spots today on the bird front namely:

Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Not sure how the color blind bingo knew it was green, it was not white, I will give him that.

Limpkin (Aramus guarauna)
First climb out of the way, few pictures then little decline then up for the second climb, same nothing to worry about, but need to feed the power plant so stop at a little shack for a cold drink, all fuelled up off we go, same as steady away gears just rocking, bikes gliding up the little hill, feels good, soon hit the top, then a so called little 8 mile descent into Matías Romero, not the cheap wine.

We stop about 4 mile outside at a little service station, with the idea of getting some WIFI and booking a place, no WIFI, but a fridge full of beer, seems a shame to let that go to waste, on the 2nd can, when the boss turned up, sorry you are not allowed to drink on the premises, the girl behind the till had already told Bingo, we both profusely apologised, with a smile finished the drink and left, hope we did not get the girl into trouble.

Just a couple of miles into Matías Romero, booked into a slightly dodgy hostel, but not a lot to choose from, beggars can’t be choosers, at least its a bit clean. Nice cold shower, wash the kit, then escape to the excellent restaurant next door, lunch and a rest is in order. No WIFI in the hostel, so back down into the restaurant a few cheeky beers and write the blog.