San Vicente

The ride back down the dirt road was a lot easier than going up.  We had finished the 20km of ride back to the highway within an hour or so, and started just before 9.  The highway south had a couple substantial hills to welcome us back to riding as we were going inland following the Mex 1.  The wind, when it was blowing, was behind us but it was not very strong.   The downhill ride into Santo Tomas was so steep, I set a new speed record for myself of 74.4 km/hour.  Yow! I whipped by the town going 60 and missed Bryan and Maggie waving at me.  Erin talked to them and then met me where I waited a few kms on.  The highway has a lot of construction, including the first of a few bridges over dry rivers. The highway had an immediate detour around the bridge that was under construction - the detour was a dirt road running immediately next to the future bridge!  Amazing what you can do when there isn't any actual water to avoid.

Bridge under construction on Mex 1 just south of Santo Tomas

We ended up having our first Mexican wild camp.  We made it to just north of San Vicente and stopped near a ranch.  The building next to the road was just a cement shell without a roof, and covered in graffiti.  The area was fenced off with barb wire, so we pulled back the wire and lifted our bikes over it. Cimbing the hill was trying, but we didn't go far, just behind some trees and out of view of the highway.  We camped with the road runners next to the dessicated horse and cow dung (I've heard they're good fuel but we didn't make a fire).