For eight winters, Camelia and Clifford Esser have left the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and numerous children and grandchildren to take up residence in a small rented house in Guadalajara’s Colonia Juan Manuel Vallarta.
A big part of the city’s charm for the couple has been getting around by bicycle. Almost daily, Cliff, 68, rides 12 minutes by back streets and sidewalks to the American Society and, after chitchat and duties, another 12 minutes back home.
“I’m very comfortable biking here, although there’s always a safety issue. Even the sidewalks aren’t safe in this part of the world. You have to be careful.”
Cliff says he started bicycling at home in Virginia in the 90s. “I thought I was too old, but once I started I felt so much better. I’m the cook in my house, and I have a real penchant for eating too much. I need the exercise.”
“We only bike in the day,” says Cam, 66. “At night, it’s not worth it. We bike to the Chapalita Circle regularly to hear the musicians play wonderful band style music in the gazebo (on Sundays) and we’re always careful to leave exactly at six, so we can be home before dark.”
The Essers say they do almost everything by bicycle. “We had our bikes outfitted with several big, flat baskets, so we do our grocery shopping in them,” Cam says. “We pile it up. It’s flat here.”
They don’t wear helmets, but do use a bell. “It took us two weeks to find one,” Cam says. They have developed an intricate etiquette too. “You ring the bell and say ‘con permiso’ when you come up behind someone on a sidewalk. You thank drivers who stop for you.”
Says Cliff: “If I was here year round, I might get a car. Or if I lived out in Chapala.”
Adds Cam: “We use buses and taxis too. For example, we go almost every Friday night to the symphony and we don’t bike there.”
The Essers say they bought basic bikes for only 1,000 pesos. “You can spend a lot of money on bikes here, just like in the States,” says Cliff. “I don’t know what brand ours are. They’re iron bikes with 15 gears. They have thick tires, which you need here where there are nails, glass and rubbish on the streets.”
For the occasional flat tire or annual maintenance, they use a bike dealer near their home. “We bought our bikes from him and paid about 15 dollars more than they cost at Walmart. But he does all our maintenance, including little things he sometimes does for free,” Cliff says.
Among the many regular activities the Essers enjoy are thepopular Sunday rides in the Via Recreativa (8 a.m to 2 p.m.). “Now we go the whole distance down Vallarta, from the Minerva to where it ends on Javier Mina,” Cam says. “We had to work up to it. We leave at 7:45 and are home by 10:30.”
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