Driving along the Nogales highway one day, my neighbor Jorge Monroy spotted a bicycle rider off in the distance. To his friend in the seat next to him, he remarked, “See that cyclist? I bet you he’s traveled here from far, far, away.”
“I’ll take that bet,” said his companion. “How could you possibly know such a thing?”
“Let’s find out,” said the artist, making a quick U-turn in order to intercept the approaching rider.“I won that bet,” Monroy told me later. The cyclist turned out to be Pierre Beaudelin, a Frenchman who was in the middle of a very long bike ride from Canada to Argentina. “It wasn’t hard for me to guess he was a long-distance traveler with such fat saddlebags over his back wheel.”
Upon hearing this, Monroy offered to take Beaudelin out for a meal – to his favorite fast food restaurant, Pollo Pepe.
“It’s not that I’m a cheapskate,” the artist later told me with a sheepish grin. “I just imagined a long-distance cyclist would not have time for more than a really quick meal.”
In fact, after a delicious chicken dinner, Beaudelin was ready to stop and camp – which he ended up doing in Monroy’s back yard, which just happens to be adjacent to mine. Now, when my wife Susy heard about Pollo Pepe, she quipped, “You could at least have invited Pierre to Pollo Feliz, which is much tastier, but please give me a chance to cook my favorite French dish for this weary traveler: poullet al orange.
So it was that I had a chance not only to enjoy chicken with oranges once again, but also to meet a true “Vagabond on two wheels,” who, I discovered, was from Merignac, France, quite close to Cognac – “et maintenant je suis ici dans le pays de tequila,” announced Beaudelin with a great smile. Yes, we discovered that this world traveler speaks nothing but French and, in fact, had never tried even a drop of tequila before visiting my home – but don’t worry, he’s been properly baptized, Mexican style.
Over Rancho Pint margaritas, I asked Pierre Beaudelin a few questions about his odyssey.
When and where did you start?
“I set out from Quebec on April 24, crossed the United States and here I am in Guadalajara. I’m doing about 100 kilometers a day, so before long I hope to find myself in Pategonia, which is my final destination.”
What inspired you to take on such a challenge?
“Some time ago, I thought I’d try crossing Europe by bike. I rode from France to Romany and really enjoyed the experience. So, I figured next I should try crossing the Americas – you know, while I’m still young.”
What sort of problems and dangers have you encountered?
“If you mean the sort of things about which the U.S. State Department is always warnng travelers, I’ve seen absolutely none of it. My biggest problem on the whole trip was getting a tire full of thorns (in the United States, not Mexico). On this side of the border, my worst problem was eating some bad nachos in northern Mexico and the only thing I could call danger has been from Mexican semi-trailers which just love to ‘dust’ bicycle riders as they pass by, only centimeters away.”
Perhaps the best way to gauge Beaudelin’s feelings about Mexico is to take a page from his journal. Upon arrival in Baja California, he writes:
“The days get hotter and hotter. Cacti are omnipresent. It seems every tree is trying to defend itself against the menace of hungry animals. It’s beautiful; I’m overwhelmed ... We come to a beach: white sand, turquoise, transparent water. We jump straight into the water because the going has been difficult. Oh mon dieu, it’s so hot! But when the sun sets, the beach changes color and in the night we discover phosphorescent algae which glow brightly when the water is moved. We are literally in another world ...”
So pleased was the cyclist with what he found in Guadalajara that, instead of staying here two days as he originally planned, Beaudelin decided to spent a full two weeks in the City of Roses for rest, relaxation and taking some Spanish lessons. “Downtown Guadalajara is full of people and full of life,” he told me. “I love it.”
Pierre Beaudelin enjoys photography and you can follow the progress of his long journey through the Americas via the pictures on his website, www.notre-monde-a-velos.com. And if you read French, you can also enjoy his comments on the people and places he has visited along the way.