December 9

Tomorrow I will ride on to San Fernando. In checking her email, Sasha learned that she is not supposed to be out of Canada while drawing E.I.. So she is going home. And I will continue, alone. Having found someone to travel with who is fluent in Spanish, and is a good companion, and then to lose that companion after two days, is heart wrenching, and scary. But I have been able to buy groceries and a new inner tube for the BOB, and get a new tire pump, and get air in the tire, and buy beer. As soon as I finish this I'll try getting some lunch in the café across the street.

Valle Hermoso is full of small shops that are full of things I don't need or want. And its sidewalks are full of people who don't pay me any but minimal and polite attention. No hostility toward the gringo in their midst. There were three guys in the small, dark and dirty bike shop where I bought the tube, and they treated me well, asking where I was from and did I speak French. I should have told them I rode a bike down here.

The weather is supposed to clear this afternoon and stay clear and warm the next four days. I'm thinking of staying two nights in San Fernando, if there is a hotel as cheap and good as this one, and taking a side trip to Carboneras, on the Gulf. Then two days to Cd. Victoria, spending a night in Santander Jimenez.