Highlands

One of my more peculiar travel habits is that I like to arrange my arrival in a city to happen in the - preferably early - morning hours. Thus there will be enough time to look around a bit, and — if it feels agreeable - to find an affordable place to stay. If things shouldn't work out, then I still could stock up supplies and make it out of town and into a decent camping distance within daylight hours.
So I had spent the night camping in some hills above Morelia and overlooked it now in the early morning sun, still lying sleepy under a blanket of blue haze. The old main city snugly fits into the mountain-rimmed bowl of a 1900 metre high valley, little synthetic colonies consisting of rows of cloned houses with likewise identical water reservoirs on their roofs creeping up the hillsides. One displayed on its entrance arc proudly the name 'Metropolis', which was worth the first smile of the day...

The journey up here on the 'Cuota' from Michoacán's border near La Barca had taken me four days.

I had decided to lower my daily average from 80 to 50 kilometres, though physically I could do double.

I increasingly struggle to see the point in racing through country that feels pleasant to me, like this here does.

The rural highland theme carried over from Jalisco: blue

skies spanning over golden pastures and harvested cornfields, green valleys — sometimes containing lakes — framed by majestic mountain ranges.
The land slowly rose to about 2000 metres altitude, yet the road kindly did not show any extreme inclines. A slightly irritated nose from very dry air and a stronger tan despite sun-blocker due to increased UV-radiation were the only side-effects I physically noticed.
On the last stretch to Morelia the bicycle's frequent little hick-up with the freewheel mechanism turned into a full malady of refusal of engagement, thus pedalling would no longer drive the rear wheel. So I stopped at a small town 20 kilometres north of Morelia to buy beer, cleaner and lubricant and a thorough flush without disassembly solved the problem.
But only temporarily...
This persisting hick-up was yet another vote for finding a place to stay in Morelia, on the coming day...