to Tampico Alto: is the rainy season over?

July 15, 2017

"What's the first meal you want when we are back in the States?" Patrick asks as we are clicking off the kilometers. Today is a long day. "Chef's salad with red French dressing" Rachel says but then reconsiders when Patrick said he wanted a medium rare steak. "Oh maybe that instead with A-1 steak sauce and a baked potato with lots of butter and sour cream. I'll have the chef salad for lunch the next day" Rachel says pedaling up the flat hill. Lots of flat hills today until toward the end. The hills got steeper or maybe the oomph is just gone.

As we were about to carry our gear down, Patrick notices his front tire is flat...again. He replaces the Schwalbe Mondial tire with another more worn tire we were keeping as a spare. The problem tire is a head scratcher; we cannot find anything sticking through it, but it will cause a slow flat within a day of riding on it. Something must be stuck in the rubber that punches through when riding on it. We are not sure what to do, the tire is still in great shape and would be needed to get us home. Any suggestions on how to find the culprit are welcome.

We are back on the busier route 180 with no shoulder. Lots of long haul trucks with double trailers and back to seeing the car dealers driving and towing wrecks. Also in this part of Mexico we see lots of old VW bugs. There are not many shops today and the temperature rises fast. It seems we might have moved out of the rainy season; it has not rained on us for almost a week and there are fewer clouds. Today we start off with a blue sky and it gets hot.

The hills are mostly rolling and not too steep, but it is a tough day again. After a long stretch with no gas stations we finally get to see an Oxxo and a cold drink. About 8 kms from town is a small tienda that we stop one more time for a cold coke. As we enter the town we are happy to see a nice looking hotel.

The Hotel El Corral in Tampico Alto is set back a block from the road so it is quieter, cheap at 350 pesos and all the amenities we want. Plus an Oxxo around the corner for a cold beer, and a restaurant at the main road for dinner.

View as we set off from Naranjos. There is a humid fog that quickly dispels as the temperature rises.

We think this is some kind of company housing. All identical small boxy units with a water tank and satellite dishes on the roofs.

Curvy section of a mostly straight road.

Car dealers driving wrecked cars with another one in tow down to Belize.

Farmer taking his wife to town. It is Saturday night after all!

Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 35,175 km (21,844 miles)

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