A Bike Ride to Moca

I’ll start this off by saying that the longest bike ride I’ve ever been on is about 10 miles. Usually I just ride my bike to get from point A to point B and that’s rarely more than 5 miles in each direction. So when I heard that most of the avid bike riders here in La Vega go to Moca and back a few times a week, roughly 30 miles, I thought they were crazy. I was a little intrigued by the challenge, so when I found out that a father and son from my barrio regularly made that bike ride to Moca I made plans to join them. Just before 6am I met up with Miguel and his 12 year old son, Luis Miguel, at their house. From there we headed through La Vega and then on a nicely paved country rode. I rode in the middle because they had lights on their bikes and I didn’t. At first they were going at a leisurely pace and I felt confident that I could keep up. Little did I know that they were waiting to hit the hills before they went full speed. Luis Miguel left me in the dust, but his dad patiently rode with me. The scenery that early in the morning was amazing! I took lots of mental pictures but didn’t want to slow everyone down even more by stopping to use my camera.
It took us a little over an hour but we made it to Moca! I really couldn’t believe it. Moca used to seem like such a far away town…. but not anymore!On the way back to La Vega my foot started to go to sleep and almost all my leg muscles ached.When we got to Santo Cerro I was happy that the boys decided to go on a four kilometer loop up a very big hill while I rested at the bottom. I took advantage of that little break: stretching, drinking water, and buying donuts for the boys. The last five miles back went smoothly and once back in the barrio I quickly started bragging to all my friends about what I’d done that morning.