November 2
We are back on the road. Culican is a large city (1M so it took us sometime to get through the traffic and out to the toll road. By 10:30 it is well into the 90's in the sun. The toll road has a good berm but it is rougher than the road surface and is covered with gravel, glass, and road debris, so we try to stay upon the highway. We are passing agricultural spreads on both sides of the road. Mountains off in the distance to the east, slightly rolling terrain with what seemed like a constant head or
cross wind of 10-15 mph. We averaged right around 10 mph as we trudged south.
We stopped at an "exit" to inquire of a trucker what he knew of services down the tollway - none until La Cruz - but if we get off on the local road - 1 K to a market west and 5K to a town and hotel east. Of course. none of this was on any of our maps or tourist info. Off to the market we went with our tongues hanging out. Yes - 1K to the Super Meracado where we bought drinks and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I never used to drink Cokes, now I (Art) look forward to my first Coke about 10-11am.
The local kids crowded around us with lots of questions. After lunch and info about road services from a man who joined us as we ate, we decided to call it a day (1:30pm) and head up the road with a good
tail wind to the hotel. The Francisco for $12 had a shower (cold), roaches (1), and AC that worked. We took it, put the bike in the all concrete room (including the bed platform), showered, did laundry and took a nap.
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Our evening walk into town wound up at the local cemetery - WOW! Day of the Dead festivities were in full swing. The cemetery was absolutely packed with families - graves and tombs were over the top with \ decorations of flowers, wreaths, candles and families sitting around the gravesites - some solemn, some festive. There was a 12 piece band celebrating with loud music. We walked all around wide-eyed. We had never have seen so many candles, flowers and decorations- every grave had something and someone - hundreds! Outside the cemetery grounds, it was like a carnival setting with food vendors of all kinds, trinkets, snacks, and police to to insure crowd control.
Dinner, later, was street food from a vendor in the town plaza. We satin the plaza park and watched the kids, teens and families stroll around the food vendors. Good Day!
Grave Yard - Day of the Dead
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Grave Yard Band
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San Francisco Motel
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November 3
Quilo to La Cruz via the toll road.
Straight and boring! (Sort oflike the Natchez Trace). When we stop for a rest under over passes, we tend to draw a crowd. Today two families, one in a car, the other wafting for the bus, wanted to see the bike and to know more about us. Good positive interchanges!
Around 12:45 at 65K we pulled off the road on to a dirt road that leadto a campisimo (a worker camp) for agrictultural workers. This one had a small store and the guard said we could enter- Hundreds of men, women, and children live here and are bused each day out into the fields to their jobs.
There was no school, so there were lots of children hanging around - all eyes on these funny looking gringos and their bike. Got two cokes and made a PBJ sandwich next to the store. The store was 2 cargo containers, one with an awning and service area. We sat on empty bottle cases. The camp buildings are all unfinished concrete, bathrooms and showers buildings surrounded by rows of small apartments both single and two story. The
women
workers were just coming in at 1:30pm as we ate. They were covered
head to
foot: trousers, long sleeved shirts, bandanna over their faces, hat and
gloves, boots. It was in the 90{s and humid!}
La Cruz is about 5 K off the tool road and is a large farm town...lots
of feed and hardware stores, restaurant only open at noon, only one
bar,
lots of bike shops selling and building mountain bikes. Lots of life
here;
many people working on buildings. Our hotel is being fixed up. We
seem to
be the only guests ($18 p-night) in a large room with two beds, chair,
TV,
ceiling fan, new AC, cold shower, but it was lean and felt great. The
only
real restaurant we found open was serving Chinese and we cleaned our
plates!
November 6
Our longest day yet, 107K rode us into Mazatlan, an American
enclave
and Mexican tourist resort. La Posta, a 40 year old well maintained
RV
park played host to our eating, drinking, swimming, shopping,
internetting,
mailing, washing, napping, healing activities for 4 nights. It seems
odd to
hear English - we can even eavesdrop on conversations. Seasoned RV'ers
and
snow birds are giving us alot of tips for the next leg or two of our
journey. Travel books and maps don't have enough information to be
helpful
to us and the local people don't seem to know much about areas beyond
where
they live.
Here we met 5 young men who bicycled Baja and ferried over to
Mazatlan
from La Paz! One of them even road the entire distance from Vancouver
alone! We were impressed!
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Tropic of Cancer
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Hair Cuts |
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Hair Cuts |
11-8
Mazatlan to Rosario
Out of the city and burbs into a green lush countryside - mountains all around, dense vegetation, few plowed fields. We chose the free road, a two lane with and without a shoulder. Lots of truck and bus traffic and the road is know as "the road of death". The five young men we met in town two days ago were bumming rides past this section of road because of its reputation. There are lots and I mean lots of road side shrines on both side of the highway. Judee kept a sharp eye out back for developing situations. 48M-75K of rolling green with no mishaps or even close calls - thank you bicycle gods!
The town of Rosario is quiet, narrow streets, old: established in 1550´s. The old church was moved stone by stone due to cave ins of the extensive mine tunnels under the town. Gold and silver mines were a big part of the early history of this area. A young woman from the museum took us around the town to show us the sights: solid gold plated alter in the church, burial place and home of singer, Lola Bel Tran, the local personality.
We are cooking tonight for the first time since Los Mochis, one or two weeks ago. Our hotel ($12) has an enclosed courtyard and is perfect for reading and cooking. Outdoor living is now a big part of life. This reminds us of our experience in the Caribbean islands, especially Cuba. Open courtyards with rooms off, open kitchen, and also a clothes washing area. The hotel family is just over the wall and starting their dinner preparations. The father joined us and gave us books. He was quite the self-taught gentleman!
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Rosaria Street Scene
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Road of Death |
November 9
Into the wind, over the hills through the jungle we go...brilliant flowers vine their way through the lush greens, morning glories and more...range cosmos dot the landscape as colorful butterflies dart everywhere. The sounds of the birds are different- loud and raucus, and we often hear rustling the the grass next to the road as lizards and small mammals scurry away from our bike. It is steamy, but truly enjoyable riding.
Breakfast was a bust! We ordered an egg dish with something else...it ended up being pork bits - the whole thing in a red sauce with a partially cooked single sunny side up egg and slab of cheese. BLAH. The orange juice was fresh squeezed and good. So was the coke and cookies Art finally ate!
You would think that after being on the road for over 6 weeks that we would be well broken in with no aches and pains....well we are butt sore and tired by the end of a 55 mile day. Heat and humidity add to the discomfort. A good shower and nap starts to revive us so we can explore our new surroundings at the end of the day.
Tonite we are lodging at the Casa Blanca hotel ($17) on the town square and next to the church. The simple room, two beds - one double, one singe - a desk and chair and bath room with a good shower, but no curtain.
Note: Church bells in Mexico "Clunk". They do not "peal". They are rung to call parishners to church - long, noisy. They are not used to count hours, as in Europe.
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Morning glories
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| Casa Blanca Hotel |
11-10
Acaponeta to Villa Hidalgo
Today we rode the "road of death" again, and almost didn´t survive! Buses and trucks passed within inches - at one point Art took the bike off the road and we fell! A few bruises and abrasions, a bent handlebar bag, but we are alive! The jungle heat is oppressive. But, despite everything, we ended up in a really upscale by-the-hour motel that a young man took us to on his bike through town. The young lady working here was from Riverside, California - small world.
I (Judee) am having a lot of trouble with the new expensive bike shorts I bought. The Black Bottoms make huge welts on my bottom land the fancy Pearl Izumi rub a spot on my inside front let raw. The only pair of shorts that is completely comfortable are my old Performance shorts - that are no longer made. Oh for some decent riding shorts. This hot, sweaty country is not forgiving to bicyclists!
11-11
Hidalgo to San Blas 18M
A ride through marsh lands, fish farms and open country for cattle in early morning coastal mist mixed with sweat left us very wet in short order. A short ride into San Blas by 9¨30am and checked out the local hotels - choosing one where we could put the bike in the restaurant below our room. Took showers and headed off to check out the local river tour through the mangroves.
We walked to where the Rough Guide said the longer tours started and established a price of $42 for the 3 hours tour including the crocodile farm, restaurant and swimming in the clear spring pool at the head of the river. Wonderful - we had the boat to ourselves- lots of birds, saw a "croc" winding our way through the very narrow passageways through the mangroves - very Disneyish!
At the restaurant the spring water was absolutely clear and inviting for swimming. Of course, off came our clothes down to our swim suits we swung from the trapeze to enter the water - WOW! What fun!
I (Art)am sore from yesterday´s fall - ribs are talking to me. Napped and then started exploring the town - mosquitos do come out at dusk. This town has a bad reputation for "bugs" so we put on insect repellent and sat in the zocolo (town center). Starlings by the hundreds made quite a racket. They came and went from the trees in the square. The trees are shaped - by machetes.
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Street Cleaning - San Blas
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Crocodile |
| Swinging and swimming |
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November 12
San Blas to Rincon de Guayabitos 56M
The morning was flat through the mangrove swamp along the coast over to the beaches, around coves, some development, then inland over Mt. ridges, one after another and finally back to coastal plains. Mostly we had the road to ourselves...what a treat. The first couple of hours were tough for me...ribs hurt each time I took a deep breath. We were rather slow. Judee shares her concern my laborious pace. Should we stop early and call it a day? No let´s press on and I´ll try harder. At that point the long climbs started so we used the "granny" for the first time in awhile. Good views and Judee was our power house. The second leg was lots of fun - green jungled mountains and valleys with almost no traffic. PB&J, coke/sprite for lunch at a small town market. We pressed on to the coastal plains and vaquero country: lots of cattle and horses: ranch country. We finally hit the connecting road to Puerto Vallarta - very busy, lots of traffic, narrow with no berm .... 24 K of white knuckle time. We feel a little like a target on these roads.
We end up in Rincon de Guayabitos at a small RV Park ($10 p/n) with a good shower. Here we met a Canadian couple: Murray and Karen who we are going to dine with. The weather has been lovely, but we have been told that the summers in this area are a bit wet. "Under four inches it is a mist; over ten inches it is rain. Temps at 100 degrees and 100ç% humidity - we are glad to be here now not summer! Spent two days in Rincon de Guayabitos nursing our wounds, doing laundry, walking the beach, reading and eating.
What was very nice was that people would stop by to visit with us about our adventure. Canadians for the most part, but one older couple from Florida took Judee to the fruit market out on the highway. Note: we have not mentioned the ubiquitous Mexican sound trucks/vehicles/cars usually blasting music, ads, or political messages that move up and down the street until all hours of the night! Usually not just one, but many cruising up and down - up and down. My next investment will be in Mexican hearing aids!
November 15
Bucerias 30M
The ride today was challenging. both because of the narrow road, heavy traffic, but also because we hit the Sierra Madre mountains and had to go up over them to reach our destination. No RV Park tonight, but a nice small hotel ($39) pool and access to a wonderful beach with million dollar homes, most of which are rentals or have rental units on the property. Off our bike and into our bathing suits and down to the beach for a good walk...back into the pool...beer and showers.
The owner of the hotel is from Israel but has been in Toronto and many other parts of the world. He and his friend Barbara shared their views of visiting Mexico and Central America. What is most interesting is how everyone has different views of where we should go, why we should go ...also how dangerous or not the road is and how difficult or not it will be. Judee feels I have picked up the negative view.... We are off to a dinner at a Veggie restaurant: Roots.
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Barbara and Morris
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Street Lunch
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Horse and wagon |
November 17
Ate at Root for the last two nights - WOW! Andrew, the chef and owner has developed a wonderful menu and restaurant with a beautiful ambiance. Yesterday we took the bus into Puerto Vallarta and explored both the new and old areas. Lots of tourists (cruise ship in port) and every other vendor on the street wants to sell you a condo or property. Lots of trinkets for sale on the beach and while waiting for lunch we could barely carry on a conversation because of the constant offers by beach vendors wanting to hawk their wares. I think we are coming to the realization that big cities and tourist areas are not interesting to us any longer. The little byways and Mexican villages are where we feel most comfortable.
Had our teeth cleaned down the street from our hotel. Cecilia was the dentist and she used a new technique - ultra sound and did the best job Judee says she has ever had. Cecilia wants to replace some of Judee´s metal fillings with a new material from Germany, much better than US metal! Further, I have three cavities next to the metal fillings that Cecilia want to replace ....I am going to pass on this and wait and see how things develop. One thing is certain: the dental care in Mexico is very good and inexpensive. The cleanings were $25 each and after the cleanings, a TV camera was popped into our mouths for a good look on the TV screen. Absolutely the latest technology and less invasive procedures used! If we chose to have the fillings they would cast $60 each!
Bucerias is laid back....had dinner with our hotel owner, Barbara (his Polish friend) and a Canadian couple who are inquiring about a home purchase. Long leisurely dinner of 3 1/2 hours with lots of discussion was delightful. We are falling slowly into a new pace of life.
To Central Mexico 3
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