I woke up this morning and the first thing I discovered was that I broke my flip flop. Not a good start cos they’re the only shoes I have. Zip-Ties cannot help this, though maybe SuperGlue can. No time to deal with it though, gotta get to the bike store. The bike store, after having to ask directions there a dozen times from a dozen disinterested pedestrians, was open and ready for our business. No more zip ties! Well one we kept on there just for nostalgia. And now I have a brand new bike chain!

We got on the road, after bike store, around 10:45.  The ride was so ugly and awful, I’m just being honest.

Highway roads–yucky urban cement, steel, exhaust. Small airless apartments with laundry hanging out the window. Basically where the majority of the world lives. We passed a couple on a tandem bicycle going in the other direction. They must have been high on opiates because I don’t know how any couple could pedal the same bicycle carrying 50 pounds of weight and not end in highway double murder / suicide but that’s just me. Temperature today was 88 degrees Fahrenheit.  After about 3 hours we finally got to Vigo. Which is a PIT. I mean, its like the worst city ever except you’re biking through it so its even worse. Calcutta style. Cars, pedestrians, buses, exhaust, everyone fighting for their tiny bit of street territory. Gabriel says I’m exaggerating here so ok. Not Calcutta. There were no farm animals. But I mean, the heat alone… In the city center, we stopped at a cafe / bar. Its one of those cities where even though you are sitting outside at a table three centimeters from your bike, you fear it may be stolen out from under you. This place is end times. So we laid our bikes down flat on the sidewalk as a deterrent and I’ll tell you why its a deterrent. You’d have to be Superman to pick up one of those bikes with any fluidity at all. With the panniers attached (that’s an extra 30 pounds), and the way its all awkwardly distributed in the back, I can barely lift my bike up from a lying position at all in the best of circumstances. So I’d really like to see some thief try to grab one of our bikes and run down the street. I’d cheer them on. I really would. As we started goint again, we were suddenly riding up up up a loooong street that was so crazy steep. (12%, for bike geeks). I neared a woman at a bus stop. She had stepped away, so she was way to my left. The bus stop was to my right. I had plenty of room to go through. I believe my trajectory was quite clear to anyone who might have been watching. But at the last second the woman–possessed by some suicidal demon perhaps–stepped back toward me into my path. I had to do a major heart stopping swerve maneuver not to hit her.

It took at least an hour to get through the city and out the other side to our hotel which is…a Palace By The Sea. The ocean backs right up to it and its stunning. Gabriel once again hit the jackpot. He actually has done a miraculous job planning this trip. Some days are just gonna be bad roads, you know? But so worth it when you get there. I never found a totem animal today so I chose one of the big marble lions that are posed at the front of the lobby. There’s a pool and a spa here, we’ll see if we get to those. The best part of our gorgeous hotel room is the big sunny stone balcony because that means clothes washing! Because the most important part of clothes washing is…wait for it…clothes drying! Which is what a sunny balcony is for. So everything got washed as soon as we got to the room. Then I ate a big plate of brie and wine over the ocean while listening to the Peanuts theme (?) so I’m totally happy. This hotel is the one of the most beautiful I’ve ever stayed in. Hotel Pazo Los Escudos. And actually the old part of Vigo is supposed to be amazing so I take back all my judgement. Its just a city. Everything is perspective.

Arrival time in Vigo: 2:15pm