January 20 :: Puente de Ixtla, Mexico

January 20 :: Puente de Ixtla, Mexico :: 87 km / 1607km total

A short, but not easy day today. We did drop quite a bit in elevation but a few steep climbs in the middle of the ride had me pedalling out of the saddle in my lowest gear. Tim has even lower gears, and he's been using them. The air is still brown-ish, as we are still within a day's ride of Mexico City. As we push towards the coast the temperatures will climb, but the air will get cleaner once again. The Pacific is still a few days away, with several big climbs to get ourselves over.

Mexico is easily one of the safest countries I've been to, in terms of personal safety. Road conditions and driving standards are variable, however, and pose the only sense of danger (at times) on this trip. Mexico is definitely safer than the neighbouring countries to the South. The only moment where I felt a sense of heightened tension was a few days ago at a railroad crossing - a train loaded with Northbound migrants was stopped on a parallel track, and with so many desparate eyes watching us, I put a little extra effort into accelerating out of there.