to Naranjos: finally getting away from traffic

July 14, 2017

"I saw the dogs come running down the hill from the house" Rachel says. It's been awhile since dogs have chased us. "Just say Johnny be good, Johnny be good" she adds. We had seen a video about this working to calm dogs down. Rachel believes it does. Patrick just nods and smiles not quite believing. Anyway, the dogs stopped the chase.

We took a restday in Tuxpan yesterday with not much worth mentioning. After a short walk to the city center we taxi out to the mall, shop in the nice supermarket there, have a Chinese buffet lunch and pick up a Subway sandwich for dinner. That's about it.

Today another early start, another beautiful sunrise. We have to make our way out of the hotel through the reception area, the parking area is full of cars. After the rest day yesterday, we are now looking for what to do the final week to the USA border. Tuxpan is a nice town along the river, and a nice place to stay. There's a few shops along the way, we have pastries we picked up in the large supermarket in Tuxpan, so we stop at a bus stall. Here two local cowboys are also waiting for a ride. We enjoy a somewhat limited interaction, helped by one speaking a little English along with the little Spanish Patrick knows.

We really enjoyed today's ride even though still hilly and no shoulder, there was very little traffic. The traffic is mostly taxis. The landscape is so green with corn, trees, and grasses and huge haciendas, with Brahman bulls in large pastures. We pass a fair amount of cowboys on horses or donkeys. Even with the little traffic, it was perilous for a turtle to be in the middle of the road. Patrick stopped and turned around to rescue the poor thing. This has us remembering two years ago cycling in Turkey and rescuing turtles. We stopped one more time at a shop for a cold drink and then ate our cheese and crackers also purchased yesterday in the big supermarket in Tuxpan. After one downhill the road turns and boom! a nice surprise, water flowing over the road. Patrick takes his shoes off to check it out by walking, the bottom looks slippery and for us precarious to cycle. After Patrick gets across with no problems, Rachel follows.

It's a good sight to see a hotel as we near the town. As we ride past, we decide to check out the other one closer to city center, Hotel Naranjos. From the outside, it looks nice, just that we had to find the entrance that is not street side but from behind the building. It looks like the building was some kind of religious center at one point, maybe a convent. We get a good room with AC and a hot shower. The wifi works!

Patrick finds some nice tacos down the street and we settle in to rest-up for tomorrows longer ride.