We slept well, there was traffic but it didn't bother us. We left before 10am - early for us - and drove a rather back and forth route to get to Tuxpan. It involved going south a ways and then across on a yellow road and then back north until we could get the road east to the coast. The road was 2 lane and narrow and there was a lot of traffic. We had to drive through Huejutla including making a 90° turn at this busy intersection - we had to turn in front of that red truck. This was another of those times that Mimi wished she hadn't agreed to some shortcut I saw on the map!

This was the street we turned onto! Once we got out of the city center we stopped for gas (OK OK and for a cigarette too).

I'm amazed sometimes at how low tech and labor intensive many things are in Mexico. There was a guy at the gas station washing a huge bus with a bucket and a cup to throw the water with.

He would throw a cup of water on the bus and then wipe that little spot and then rinse it by throwing a cup from another bucket then he would start over on a new spot. Leapin' Lizards! That is a lot of work for a clean bus. He didn't seem to be in a hurry though and I think that is the saving grace in how things are done here. It's hot and the work is hard but by moving slowly and steadily it all gets done. There is no one yelling for you to hurry and if, at the end of the day, you can feed your family then it works pretty well.

I also shot this pic out the windshield of a woman walking home with a 5 gal bucket on her head. I'd guess the bucket either had water or masa in it, it was not empty or light. She has a piece of material wound into a ring under it to cushion her head.

All over Mexico and Central America women carry heavy and unwieldy stuff on their heads. Amazing big, lopsided looking loads sometimes. When I was a kid, in an attempt to civilize me, my mother sent me off to some kind of charm school where one of the things they made us do was walk around with a dictionary on our heads to improve our posture. That is hard! Even at 11 or 12 I found it hard and I've seen girls that small with huge loads walking on uneven paths through the mountains. I love Mexico and I love traveling here but I am grateful that I was not born a women in these cultures.