I did spend half the night finally uploading the last pictures from my ride through the US. Gomez Palacio was the first town so far where I had decent wifi. If you haven't noticed, make sure to check out the album Lower 48 for all the amazing landscapes in Utah and Arizona.

Therefore I sleep in, do some groceries, have two breakfast meals and get going around noon. It takes a while until I leave the city [they are actually three cities grown together, Torreon, Gomez Palacio and Lerdo that probably add up to a million inhabitants]. About half an hour later I am out of the town, right in the middle of rural Mexico again. Horse wagons, poorly looking but colorful villages, an enormous amount of trash an both sides of the road. The air is filled with dust from a close by open pit mine. It basically looks like they are tearing down a whole mountain. Never seen something like this.

Once I see my first mountains ahead, I am excited. The climbing is moderate and I have mostly smooth sailing through an endless valley of either grey, yellow gras or agricultural land and with beautiful mountains left and right. No cloud, the sun shines relentless which makes for a high consumption of sunscreen. With 20 degrees it's warm but the wind chill cools me down aproprietly.

About halfway through the day I get a flat tire in the back. I pull out a huge thorn out of the tire and have to patch two different punctures.

I am undicided whether it is good or bad that I am taking this quite unemotional. Flat tires are part of the game. However, it's getting a bit too much here in Mexico. As I pack everything back together I count my remaining supplies. I still have two spare tubes but only three patches left. I hope I can make it to Guanajuato with that since I cut out all bigger town on my route.

Having listened to my Spanish course for most of the day, I enjoy taking notice of the silence in the valley at my last break. There is simply no sound, nothing. A few cars per hour on a brand new but tiny country road. I decide to skip my last Spanish course to enjoy the silence riding through the Golden hour of the day.

Once again I push Klaus through a field of nasty thorny plants to find a hidden spot to camp. As I like to point out, I don't know much about plants. But I learned by now that at least 90% of plants in this part of Mexico have thorns. Horrible! As I pitch my tent I find some entertainment by rephrasing the German song "Ein Bett im Kornfeld..." into "Ein Bett im Dornfeld...".

While I enjoy one of the most clear star skies of the trip [and that says something] I can hear the merry Mexican music from a village close by. It has only 5 houses but I feel like no matter the size of a settlement, as soon as it gets dark the Mexicans get in party mode.