Lazaro Cardenas! (el norte)

So.. after more than 85 miles yesterday with a morning full of mountains, here we are in lazaro cardenas. I had no idea how difficult it would be to ride fully loaded touring bikes up mountains. Yesterday was a challenge. We were both exhausted and sore and it was late, so we treated ourselves to the finest (and only) accomodations in this grand town: the motel romo. Two bonuses to this motel: karaoke and billiard bar attached, along with a taco place. Just about perfect. The karaoke bar was a blast until we wanted to head to bed and it was thumping mariachi and raggaeton into the night. Jeff and I did a couple of english selections: "brown eyed girl", "total eclipse of the heart", and "ain't no mountain high enough" (which turned out to be the backup singing version). It was fun..for us. Maybe not for everyone else. :)

Also, we camped two nights ago for the first time. Our cooking skills could use a little work.. the vista outside of our tent was fabulous though! The land here is really pretty beautiful. A good mix between agriculture and rugged landscape. We did pass evidence of some serious rain that they saw here last week. Trucks and buses out in the middle of riverbeds and just about every major bridge was under construction after being closed last week. One bridge had a detour through the dry riverbed because an entire chunk of bridge was missing! And maybe for me the saddest flooding evidence I've ever seen: we passed a poorly placed vineyard that was flooded all the way up to the cordons! I haven't talked about wine much on this winemaking blog, but flooding and vineyards don't get along very well..at all. And I'm a little bummed that we haven't had tons of extra time to check out some wine. Maybe on our way back through..

Well, we have a couple of errands to run in town today. We may stay another night if we head to the beach or we may head on. Time will tell....