{"id":708,"date":"2009-10-16T20:22:48","date_gmt":"2009-10-17T01:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/?p=708"},"modified":"2012-06-24T16:38:03","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T21:38:03","slug":"big-city-big-lakes-big-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/big-city-big-lakes-big-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"Big city, big lakes, big hills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PA141626.JPG\" alt=\"Sunset over Lago de Chapala \" \/><\/p>\n<p>Crossing Guadalajara by bike was a high-energy activity. One has to be aware of everything around and ride a bit more aggressive to assert oneself in the lane so as to not be squeezed into impossibly small corners. After 2 hours of this I needed to seek refuge in the &#8220;sanctuary&#8221; of an A\/C and quiet hotel lobby. This is not for the timid rider&#8230; The biggest city, Mexico City, I won&#8217;t try to cross by bike. Instead I plan to ride into and out of it by bus; I think this will be a safer proposition.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PA141613.JPG\" alt=\"Guadalajara city traffic - not for the timid rider\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After Guadalajara I reached the first big lake, Lago de Chapala. I stayed at the town of Ocotlan, where I was able to camp right on the lake shore. The folks in a hotel \/ restaurant took me in for free one night and even invited me for dinner, very generous of them (I donated in their name to my cause).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PA151633.JPG\" alt=\"Camping right next to Lago de Chapala on the hotel premises\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then I continued on the cuota for another 125km or nearly 7h until the sun set. It&#8217;s not always easy to fidn a good spot, as sometimes there isn&#8217;t an exit for some 40km or so. Yesterday I got to a toll booth and exit, so I rolled into the little town of Panindicuaro. There I found Internet access, some food and a small, quiet and clean hotel room.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PA151666.JPG\" alt=\"Evening mood riding on the Cuota near Panindicuaro\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today I continued on the cuota for another 75km or so &#8211; this was one of the toughest head-wind stretches of my entire trip. Also ongoing big hills &#8211; I reached 1900m altitude for the first time. The first 40km took 3 hours! That&#8217;s tough on your mind. One nice aspect was that I crossed the 10.000km mark here. Ten million meters under pedal power from Alaska to Mexico. Beautiful scenery, though, with clear air at higher elevations and cultivated farmland.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PA161703.JPG\" alt=\"Bike at Lago Cuitzeo\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then I got to the second big lake (Lago Cuitzeo) which was scenic to look at. From there it was another 20 hilly km to Morelia. This town is very attractive, with a large historic center, cathedral, museums, cafes, and just lots of people everywhere. A very immersive, Mexican experience. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/PA161711.JPG\" alt=\"Cathedral in the center of Morelia\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Only 250km to go to Mexico City, where I will catch a plane next Tuesday back home for 1 week vacation in FL&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crossing Guadalajara by bike was a high-energy activity. One has to be aware of everything around and ride a bit more aggressive to assert oneself in the lane so as to not be squeezed into impossibly small corners. After 2 hours of this I needed to seek refuge in the &#8220;sanctuary&#8221; of an A\/C and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2288,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/2288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}