day 6-queretaro, mx to orizaba, mx-4-19-17

Mostly just road time today from Queretaro to Orizaba. About a 300 mile jaunt. The main thing I am encountering that I wasn't prepared for is the altitude we have maintained. We were at about 6,000 feet above sea level level in Saltillo on Sunday. Since then we have traveled about 500 miles with the altitude ranging between 6,000-8,900 feet. Today we went through a lot of green farmland and it was all around 7,500 feet.

Well, that is enough geography. We came to Orizaba to meet with more missionary friends that were sent out from High Street Baptist Church in Springfield, MO. 4 of our ride team are from there. What wonderful people! I would slay all of their names if I tried to put them on this post. Maybe Gary Wilson could add them if he chooses.

They put us up in the hotel shown below. Rustic and clean. Just the way I prefer it! ​

They then took us to the restaurant pictured. Look at that platter of food! That is all to make tacos with. We all ate until we were stuffed and I think there was still more stuff left on the platter then what we ate.

I sat at dinner with Paul Leamon, a fellow rider, along with Rosybet and Joel Perez Varela. They are brother and sister. During our discussion I discovered that Orizaba grows some of the best coffee in Mexico. More on that in a minute.

After dinner Rosybet, Joel, their friend and mother took me on a (late) quest to buy some coffee to bring home. They speak some English, enough to communicate, but were quick to translate on their phones when there was a hang up. I asked for the translation of "a pound" and was shown that it was a libra. When we got to the coffee place I ordered 2 libras of regular and one of decaf. Well, it turns out that a libra is 1000 grams which is more like 2 pounds. I don't have enough space for all of that so I will try to give some away to my fellow riders in the morning. ​