Hydrate or Die...or at least cramp up and feel like crap for a few days

It's sizzling hot out there. You find yourself craving sickly sweet drinks. For the distance you've gone, and the terrain you're riding, you're unusually tired. Your brain feels sluggish and your legs feel like lead weights. You're dehydrated!

In Mexico the fridge is always full of Coca Cola, and often you can find some brand of sport or energy drink, but there is also a much more natural alternative to help you stay hydrated while on the go in Mexico. Basil (my beau) promotes it as "Basilade" to our riders who join us every year for a little bit of riding in the sun...

Suero Oral - (unflavoured electrolytes in powder form) are available for free at all public health centres (Centro de Salud) and artificially flavoured ones are available at some pharmacies. It comes in little envelopes (see photo above) filled with the correct balance of electrolytes to rehydrate an infant suffering from severe diarrhea. We use it as a preventative measure adding one or two ice cream taster spoonfuls to a bicycle water bottle. Now an important and often overlooked step in our home made gatorade is to add in a little sweetness to assist in absorption. Some people add a little juice, or a little world class Mayan honey (the brown stuff in the bottle in front of my water bottles), or a little sugar, and a little something else for flavour...I went through a little Matcha phase (that's what is in the circular tin in front of the water bottles featured above), but a truly local choice is Jamaica or Hibiscus flowers. I've posted about this fantastic little flower before, but above is another picture I took of some drying by the side of the road. A few of these flowers along with some honey and some salts is DeeLish and good like cranberry juice is for a ladies pee parts which is always helpful for when your chamois is smooshed up against a saddle all day! While this beverage is traditionally served cold here in Mexico, as your bottles heat up throughout the day you can pretend you have been invited into an Egyptian home for some hot hibiscus tea. Hot or cold you can't lose with tasty sweet-tart hibiscus.

In pharmacies you will also see plastic bottles of liquid Pedialite which is also used for rehydration, but it has a terrible artificial taste and once opened must be kept cold which is a problem while bike touring. The powder works well because you can mix as you go. This brings me to another important point, you really don't want to over do it with the salts too many can cramp you up and make you feel as bad as if you cycled around in 37 C heat all day without any salts at all. You just need a little bit. Experiment - it is a very personal balance. Some people need half a taster spoon and a ton of sugar, some people need two heaping taster spoons and a little bit of sugar - we're all different! Listen to your body and you'll learn your own recipe.

And two last things about keeping those muscles feeling good by staying hydrated in the heat:
1. Do not keep your Basilade drink longer than 24hrs. It will go bad. Mix as you go...
2. Rinse your bottles and let them dry EVERY night! The tropics are a breeding ground for bacteria and fungus. If you do not rinse your bottles then you will be ingesting a jungle full of bad guys.

Tejate!

So there is chilate from the costa chica made of rice, cacao beans, cinnamon, and sugar and then there is the cool cacao based Oaxacan beverage that out cools the coolest of all cacao based beverages: tejate.

What makes tejate so special?

For me, it's the fluffy, foamy, goodness that floats on top. Basil says it's cacao butter, but I say it is the truly unique ingredient - cacahuaxochitl, or rosita de cacao, which is a flower that comes from a tree found only in San Andres Huayapam. The subtle details of this beverage making process is a culinary art form whose proud tradition has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.

The cacahuaxochitl flower is ground up on the metate along with toasted cacao, cinnamon, and mamey seeds. This is mixed in with previously boiled and ground down corn and wood ash. A doughy mass is formed to which water is slowly added. The masa is laboriously blended by hand, wrist, and forearm into a liquid with a slightly earthy and amazingly rich and creamy, all-natural, non-dairy foam. Served chilled, with a little sugar water, in a lively painted gourd cup, one taste makes it easy to understand why it was considered a pre-Hispanic drink of the gods.

Sold in markets all over Oaxaca City and in close neighbouring towns, it is difficult to walk past the giant seductively foamy ceramic bowls without having a gourdful.

Chilate Goddess Guadalupe

For years I thought Zihuatanejo had one of the most pitiful markets for a city its size. That was until I discovered the REAL market in the farthest reaches of Zihua's sprawling web of market streets. The real market is where all the bits and pieces of what's in season or being freshly prepared in the hills of Guerrero are gathered to sell. What took us there and continues to bring us back to this special street is Guadalupe the Goddess of Chilate.

There are countless ancient beverages prepared all over Mexico and bit by bit we are learning about the subtle nuances of each one. Chilate is a popular refreshing beverage prepared along Mexico's Costa Chica which lies to the south of Acapulco. Thanks to Guadalupe we became acquainted with this rich and nourishing drink in the back alleys of Zihuatanejo. Her chilate is made of ground rice, cacao beans, cinnamon, and sugar. The key to a good chilate is producing a lovely fatty foam of the cocoa butter which really comes out when repeatedly pouring it from on high. The end result: icy cold and dee-lish!

Gracias Guadalupe Goddess of Chilate!