April 7, 2006 — The other day, we drove from our home in San Juan Cosala through Ajijic, San Antonio Tlayacapan, and Riberas del Pilar, to the small city of Chapala. The highway, or carretera, goes through all these towns. We left our place about 6 PM, and on a whim I decided to start counting the bikes and buses I saw. (I wasn’t driving.)

One of the things we like about Mexico is the widespread bus service everywhere. Bikes are particularly popular along this highway, as for most of its distance there is a bike trail next to the road. The bike trail is also heavily used by pedestrians, but they’d better watch out for the bikes!

It was a warm evening after a hot day, and lots of people were going home. It must be less than 15 miles from our town to Chapala, and in that distance I saw 67 bikes with people riding them… well, I also counted a couple where the guys were standing by the bike, waiting for a chance to cross the busy highway.

Almost all the long-distance bike riders were men on their way home from work, but here and there I did see a few women, who tended to look like they were out more for fun, as they wore track-suit type clothing or other leisure fashions. By and large, the bikes weren’t real fancy.

In that same distance, I saw 10 buses. Most were local, while maybe two were long-distance from Guadalajara.

Of course, there were hundreds of cars on the same route. Kelly suggested I count them on the way back, but I skipped that pleasure.