Pilgrimage update

Well as it turns out the bike pilgrimage wasn't as long as I mentioned before. Instead of a grueling 150 kilometers we rode a bit under half of that—70 kilometers. But this was probably a good thing, since as I would later realize, not only were we not sleeping the whole night, but we were not sleeping the whole night while exercising for several hours... and that's not mentioning that we had to stay awake for another span of time once we arrived at the shrine.

I must admit I've been really bad at taking pictures while here, and it's quite a shame since everything is so vibrant at this time of year, but except for a brief daily stroll through the city center on Mondays, I dare say we don't get out much. And along those same lines, I didn't take many pictures during the ride, but I did take quite a few videos with my camera. Unfortunately, since it was dark for the majority of the ride, most of the videos look like a lot of nothing. However, I have two videos that may or may not be interesting.

 

That annoying creaking noise is my left pedal without sufficient lubrication. No more than ten minutes after we began our journey it started to creak, and it didn't stop until the day we got home from the ride and I liberally applied WD-40 to the pedal's bearings. It was an unfortunate occurrence, but in contrast it accentuated my metronomic-like cadence. I bet Lance would have been proud... or maybe just bothered like all the rest of my fellow bikers.

Here's the second video I took that's more or less viewable. It's the same tunnel as above.

I was fairly proud of my "doggin" joke when I cracked it, impromptu, at 4 AM, to myself. But now that I review it in a normal environment with a fully functional brain, it appears I would have been better off just omitting it and all the other comments that follow. I would tell you that I was simply tired to the core at that point in time, but I've been known to tell terrible jokes at any moment of the day and on any amount of sleep... so I'll just hope you get a good laugh at my expense.


And here are some pictures from after we finished the pilgrimage.

My ride. Could have done without the full suspension and pedal fiasco, but she got me there!

Trafi (Cristobal Garcia) looking haggard.

The redcoat, Chris Dobson, fancying a yawn.

Well that's all for now. Peace and Merry Christmas!

Andrew