Flea The Race

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So here it is, Forty-Nine days to get from Vancouver to Tijuana by bicycle, I’ve been semi trapped in San Diego the last three days trying to complete the cycle.  This first night I arrived I was celebrating prematurely and had drinks with some of the hostel staff so was not up to the task the next day.  The following day I couldn’t go as I lost my keys and the bike was locked up outside the hostel.  I decided to give the keys a day to resurface before getting the lock cut off and luckily they turned up that night.  Then the next day I ended up out with the hostel gang again so skipped making the trip yesterday.  Today though the last leg of the trip was completed.  It sure has been one amazing adventure over the last 7 weeks, it feels like forever ago since I started out in Vancouver.

The cycle down to the border is short and not very interesting, going from the US side into Mexico you walk  in via a turnstile, there were no customs officials or passport checks what so ever.  As soon as you get out into the Mexican side the place looks like a human cattle mart, there is a queue of people the best part of a kilometre long all waiting to be processed to get into the US, the immediate border area is pretty shitty and as I wasn’t planning to stay the night I only hung about for an hour before joining the queue to get back to the US.

I met three other cyclists in the line that were doing the same thing, they were just there for an hour also to put an end to their trip that also started out in Canada.  Joining the back of the queue we asked some people how long it would take to get through, over two hours was the estimate.  We were then hustled by some minibus drivers that would drive us to the border for $6.00 per head saving 90 minutes or so off the pedestrian line wait time so we went for that.

Once back on US soil I went straight for the Tram back to San Diego which accepts bicycles, a much easier option altogether over cycling!  Now I’m off to sit back, relax and enjoy my last two nights in San Diego before getting the train up to LA, spending one night there before boxing up my bike and flying over to Wellington, NZ for a month.

Many thanks to all the interesting, accommodating, helpful & generous people I met along the route that made a mundane cycle the epic journey!