I was hoping to leave tomorrow but that’s not going to happen. The only thing still not working as it should is my stomach. I need at least one healthy day before I start riding so maybe 2 more “rest” days. This kind of stinks. This is officially the longest I’ve been sick in possibly my entire life. Not sure what I have. A cold/flu started things (runny nose/mild fever) but now I think some food poisoning was introduced at some point too. On a positive note I can rule out any new cases of head trauma. Picture below. Who ever said Thermarests are just for sleeping on?

Met up with Karin and Marten for tea (lame I know but I’m sick). We were in a coffee shop on the main tourist drag so we quickly became targets for kids coming in to try and sell us little trinkets. I managed to “no, no, gracias” the first kid away but this little girl came over with the quietest little voice and saddest face I’ve ever seen. My heart kind of melted a little. These kids are like 6 or 7 and I felt kind of bad so I gave her some change. I suspect she went out and told the other kids because it was like a train after that. Next up were a brother and sister. The boy thought it would be fun to pinch the skin on my hand together so I pinched his hand right back. That went on until we were both laughing. After that adventure we went over and had the best soup at place that I’ll get the name of tomorrow. K/M even met a Mexican guy there that spoke Dutch.

Took a stroll around town after class. One of the places I went into was El Refugio. When it was built in 1865 it was one of the largest buildings in the world. Now it’s a cultural center and museum. The museum was free and it was pretty remarkable. The first thing that struck me was just how many items were just sitting on display tables unprotected by glass barriers. Some of the things looked very fragile. It was work from all over Mexico and a lot of it was extremely vibrant and detailed. I would have liked to have taken some pics but they had lots of signs saying no photography.

Finally got around to ordering this gadget from eBay that another touring rider introduced me to. It’s call an immersion heater and all you do with it is plug into the wall, drop it in your water-filled cup and wait for it to boil. It’ll save me a lot of aggravation in the mornings where normally I’d be struggling to find a place to get coffee and some food. Now I can make my own right in the motel room. Should help save some cash too.

Tomorrow I’m taking a trip out of town to a place called Los Guachimontones. It’s a pre-Columbian archaeological site near the town of Teuchitlan. There are some pyramids along with some other building complexes. Should be fun. It’s through the school so I’ll even have a guide.