Sunday, 31. August 2008.
I wake up just in time for breakfast, which is actually next to the front desk. The internet connection is down, so I can't use the PC in the lobby, but the receptionist kindly prints out a local map for me.
I'm still having breakfast in the lobby when my phone rings. It's Kyle. He's going home to Santa Cruz and wondering if I'd like to visit him there this evening. I explain to him that I'm a bit behind the schedule and that I should get to Monterrey today if I want to make it to LA on time. He understands and gives me a few tips for crossing the Santa Cruz mountains and getting over to the coast. He's biked in this area a lot and knows the roads.
My Tom Tom has been dead (battery) since yesterday evening so the directions are really useful.
I finish my breakfast and get on the road. The first part of the trip is a bike path. It takes me up to a reservoir (a very dry one, I must add) and then I get on a road that I hope will get me around it and onto Summit Road. I somehow manage to get there, figure out the right direction and in about an hour I'm on Summit Road.
The mountains are pretty and they have a lot of houses owned by, I'd imagine, rich people. There's not much traffic here, but I meet odd bikers every now and then.
Shortly after I hit Summit Road I see a nice supermarket on the left hand side. It's probably the only supermarket in miles, so I park my bike and do some shopping there.
There are tables in front of the supermarket, so I take the lunch break there.
Recharged and refueled I face the road again, but it turns out it's pretty much downhill from there on. In fact, I get to the town called Soquel, just south of Santa Cruz, in about 45 minutes of an easy downhill ride first on Summit Road and then on the Old San Jose Road. Nice!
It's one of the nicest rides of the trip as it's not steep at all and you get to make almost 20 kilometers in about 45 minutes.
Kyle mentioned a cafè in Soquel called Broken Mug, so I stop there for hot chocolate and internet. Some people in the cafè point me to a nearby bike shop to get directions to Monterrey.
The owner or the bike shop is really nice and he prints out the directions for me. However, after just a few miles I get a bit uncertain about the way to proceed and a fellow biker draws me a map and points me to a shorter route to Monterrey.
The ride is nice and the weather is perfect. I pass next to immense strawberry fields. For miles and miles there's only strawberries. Nothing else, I swear. They literally grow them all the way to the road, so I jump off my bike and get a few strawberries. You bet they taste better than from the supermarket. : )
I've been biking a lot today and it's already late afternoon when I get to Castroville. It looks very "Mexican" in a way, but despite all the Mexican options I end up getting a sandwich at Subway. Cheap, I know. But the good thing is that they have free refills, so I can fill my water bottles with Sprite or else. ; )
From Castroville there's a bike path all the way to Monterrey and that's a considerable distance. The path itself is about 25 kilometers long. The temperature has dropped down a bit and I'm having the wind against me.
I ride next to the Dole plant (I wonder if it's their headquarters) and from the town of Marina the path gets pretty nice. It goes along the sand dunes and it's really pretty.


Monterrey at sunset. The lights to the left are very low streetlights set along the bike path. Nice!


When I get to Monterrey it's already dark. I see people having bonfires on the beach and partying. I check my mobile phone and there's message from Xana, my host. There's a barbecue with lots of veggie options and she's inviting me to join.
I find the hostel she works at and we invade the kitchen. There's plenty of vegetarian food and a dessert as well.
I have a chat with her colleagues David and Mark until it's time to go home.
Xana's couch is the smallest couch I've slept on. Actually, I have to correct myself. I've tried to sleep on it, but I ended up sleeping on the floor. The couch was just way too small.