Sierra de la Giganta

We ended upstaying a second night at Loreto despite the impending Christmas deadline to get south. This was for two reasons. Mostly because we were shopping for some needed bike and travel items like a replacement jersey for me since my white one seems to have permanent stains, as well as many replacement comfort parts for our bikes like bar tape, red tail light for erin (old one broke and fell off somewhere), maps for central america, replacement bike chains for when ours wear out, spanish lesson book, new gloves since ours are worn and splitting, some new bike chain cleaning tool, and probably a few other items. If you gave us money for Christmas you can feel assured that there will be some presents under our tree!  Speaking of which, on the way out of Loreto, a pretty funny choice for a Christmas tree in a cordon cactus was strung with lights.
The second reason we stayed, other than our online shopping extravaganza, was that Dave and Ushi were in town and staying another night since they had used a laundry machine and didn't have access to a dryer since the laundromats were closed on Sunday.  We met up with them for dinner and then icecream in the evening.  I was completely distracted by the sci-fi (men in black 2) on the movie channel at the ice cream parlour which just goes to show how exhausted I was in the evening.  Erin and I both benefited enormously from that nights sleep as the next day we put in over 80km including a severe up-hill climb for a good portion of it.  During the day in Loreto, I also patched Erin's rear rack which has broken.  Hopefully it is well anchored so it cannot bounce up and off of the supports that it is resting on near the rear hub.

a little ways after the top of the steep hill

We expected to ride out with Dave and Ushi, hence the waiting, but Dave ha been having trouble with importing the items he bought for Christmas (like new saddles) delivery and wrestling with the UPS and customs people by phone. When we left, we had not heard a definitive time when the issue would be resolved, but entirely expected Dave and Ushi to pass us on the long climbing hill.  They did not, so either we were faster than we thought or, more likely, Dave was having trouble with customs for quite a while.
During the ride, Erin hollared that there was a tarantula and asked if I wanted to see it.  She had ridden past it and it had been crossing the rode but when we rode back we could not find it.  On the plus side (I guess), Erin noticed another one at our camp when she went for a pee and was quite startled by it.  I proved my mousely worth by catching it in a jar... pet tarantula!?

Rigel named him Dexter :(

We hope to make the ferry to the mainland on Sundaythe 15th, though there is still some question about whether it is completly full or if we can still buy tickets.  Still, Tuesday to Sunday only leaves a very tight timeline to make it to La Paz. We'll need some good rides...