It is Sunday, the twelfth day of July – midway through the summer of 2020. Mexico is still in the grip of the coronavirus crisis, with thousands of new cases of Covid-19 being reported every day. But it has been four full months since restrictive measures were put in place to slow the spread of the pandemic, and people are weary of staying home and desperate to get back to work. So now many stores and restaurants are reopening and lots of street vendors have once again set up stands to sell their merchandise. People are walking a tightrope, torn between social distancing and getting the economy back in gear. Through these past several precarious months the ability to go mountain biking each week has been a lifeline, a welcome antidote to pandemic funk.
Four bikers showed up for today’s group ride. Two of them are new to the area and had never ridden to Santo Domingo Tomaltepec and the two presas not far up a nearby mountain valley. So that was voted the day’s destination. Ours was not the only group pedaling around the countryside on this bright, sunny morning. We encountered lots of other cyclists along the way, some riding alone but most in groups of from four to eight bikers. There were also several family groups hiking along country roads. We moved at a leisurely pace, taking almost six hours to cover the round-trip distance of almost 24 miles (38.6 kms), counting a lunch stop at the market in Tlalixtac on the way back to Oaxaca.
