164 km (102 miles) – Total so far: 1,741 km (1,082 miles)
When at 5.45am I was pedaling leaving the posada behind me, it was still dark and had put my light. I easily found the road but what a pity! It started with a downhill that I couldn´t go down very fast because I couldn´t see very far – my light reaches only 20m ahead so I had to be very careful always watching out for potholes…
After all the descends the road started to climb. I just felt the up climbing. Because of the darkness I couldn´t see what was lying in front of me. I think that´s a nice way to climb up the mountains – steep stretches before you can´t bring you down, you just go. Like this I climbed up about 25km while daylight defeated the darkness. On the las part of the climb it started to rain a little bit. When I reached the top it wasn´t only raining, but it was very foggy, too. Amazing! Again I had to go down very carefully. Seemed like the weather today would betray me of a cool downhill…
The landscape in the mountains first seemed like jungle vegetation and later turned into agriculture fields. They have a lot of sugar cane plantations here that looked very simular to pampas grass. Meanwhile the road was going up and down and if there should be strong headwinds for the next 90 kms this would be a wonderful day…
Today there was a premiere – for the first time I met another cyclist! Really cool! It was a japanese guy who was touring already for 6 years cycling more then 120 countrys already. We chatted a little be about his route here in Mexico and I told him about mine.When we cycled on,I felt really tired about this always going up and down and the f… strong headwinds. I couldn´t go faster then 14,5km/h, that was really frustrating. I did a lot of breaks to eat and drink and so it was already dark when I finally arrived.
Veracruz is so big I was already at the entry of the city and needed to make another 14km to the center with the Zocalo. There were a lot of big avenues and a lot of traffic. Once I almost got hit by a SUV, they drive like crazy here. (like almost everywhere in the 3rd world). I reached the zocalo and there were a lot of things going on: Mariachis and life music on stage . I checked in in the „Hotel Colonial“ and I went to OXXO to get some beers and some water. After I took a shower and I went to eat. Just close to the hotel. I really dindn´t feel like walking around. I ate a huge milanesa and a dessert at „Don Julio“. Delicious! When I returned I immediately fell asleep like a baby. That was a tough day!
