Report from Puerto Escondito

Next time I'm riding my own bike!



Happy hour in Zihuatanejo



Coastline from winding road. note drop-off, no guard rail!


Typical fish (pescado) meal at beach restaurant.


Pemax gas station. all new and modern.



Beach Babe!



Road above coast view (above)

January 23/06

Election Day in Canada. Who cares? (at this point, anyway!?) We are currently located at Barrra De Navidad, a laid back beach town just north of Manzanillo. The town is built on a narrow sand bar (hence the name) with a large bay on one side and a lagoon on the other. Essentially there are two one-way streets. One brings you onto the barra, the other takes you off. Beautiful expansive beach and what looked like some reasonable surfing near the point. Also there is a very fancy hotel here. Grand Bay is it’s name. It is located on another peninsular on the far side of the lagoon. It was a complete surprise to find it here. Too rich for our budget.

To this point on the trip, we have put 2538 K behind us and it is still almost another 2000 K until will reach Guatamala. The ride to day was a hot one. We started fairly early but it took quite a while to get through Puerto Vallarta. The traffic was heavy and it was slow going. PV is the only place Linda & I have visited in Mexico prior to this adventure. To us it is not recognizable. Back in ’72 it truly was a sleepy fishing village. Then, the only paved road into PV was from the airport to town. Now it is a huge resort city… we even saw a Wal-Mart Supper Centre!

From PV Hwy 200 turns inland and climbs onto a high dry plain for over 100 K. Even though we were up around 2000 ft. a.s.l. it was hot and dry. It is interesting how one picks up info and advice along the way. Just stopping for a drink or to check the map usually involves a conversation with another tourist, a snow bird or a local.

We took a suggestion for a hotel and managed to locate it this time. Hotel Caribe… an old place in the centre of town. Room with 2 double beds, bathroom with H&C water and shower. $30. Nothing fancy but clean and comfortable, friendly owners. Once again the bikes are in the lobby.

I’m back into the local food again and feeling fine. Everything runs a leisurly pace here. When you order food it sometimes takes so long I think that they run out and buy the raw materials, then make it. We ordered some guacamole and nacho chips with beer on the beach. When it finally arrived, the guacamole had obviously just been made. Mmmm…so good!

January 24/06

Happy Birthday Karla!

We were up with the roosters again. Also, we are located next to the church. The bells started ringing before 6 am…on the hour and half hour. That’s OK, we are finding that it is good to get an early start and try to put a few miles behind us before the heat of the day.

I really like Barra de Navidad. We discovered that the airport that services Manzanillo is only 20 K from Barra de Navidad. If you wanted a laid back, inexpensive Mexican holiday in a reasonably authentic Mexican costal town, this would an easy place to get to. Buy airfare only to Manzanillo and a $20 cab ride will get you here. You can get basic accommodation for two for $20. a night (or less if you do some research or stay for a couple of weeks.)

This evening we are at Maruata. This is one of only two places where the Black Sea Turtles breed. It is the end of the breeding season so it is not likely that we will see any. We have been told that we will have to walk a mile down the beach just before 9 pm if we want to see them. We are camped on the beach next to a palapa restaurant. There are a couple of small coves here as well as long beach. We are in one of the coves alongside a small lagoon.

The coast south of Manzanillio is very scenic. The road continually winds up the hills and down again to the coastal plains. The quality of the road is deteriorating as we move into less traveled areas. The highway is still paved but the surface is rougher. We are still able to maintain or normal cruising speeds (80 to 100K) when the road is not too winding.

We managed to get lost a couple of times today. Once leaving Manzanillo and essentially were uncertain of our position for 60 or 70K. Signage is poor and it would help it they didn’t make a habit of using the same numbers for different highway. I saw a sign for Hwy 200 and turned onto the access road. Once on the highway there was no way off. Unfortunately I had turned onto Hwy 200D (there was a small “D” under the number) and 20 K later we reached the toll booth. It cost us 85 pesos ($8.50) each bike for that mistake. It would help if we had a better map! The GPS Is doing a great job of keeping track where we have been, but a crappy job of helping us navigate. The Garmin GPS maps for this area are poor. Hwy 200 is on the GPS map but according to the GPS we are seldom on the road. Still… it’s nice to have. Once we get south of Mexico we have very good maps (Thanks to Lee.) and we will be able to cross check our lat and long with the map if (when) we get lost.

The bikes are running well (touch wood). I am continually bottoming out on the skid plate or centre stand over the topes (speed bumps). Also the rear shock bottoms out over some dips in the road. The V-Strom 650 has plenty of power but it needs a firmer rear spring for this load. I did some calculations and surprisingly we are not over max gross weight (950 lb.), but we are pretty close. We both have arranged for new rear tires in Panama City and we are both due for an oil change soon.

January 25/06

The section of road this morning was a great ride. Almost new payment (so much for my comments on deteriorating roads). The road twisted up and down the coastal cliffs for 80 K. Some very tight turns and occasionally some precipitous drop-offs. In most cases there are no guard rails. The weather is definitely getting warmer. I’m kicking myself for not wearing my mesh MC jacket. Linda and Jenny both have mesh jackets and they are ideal under these conditions.

We arrived in Zihuatanejo about 3 pm and found a small camping spot near the beach. Another camper was a motorcycle aficionado (BMW) who has traveled through Central and South America. We spent to evening with Pierre and Charlotte starting with margarita’s on the beach and pizza down town.

Currently waiting for breakfast on the beach… then we are off to Acapulco.

January 26/06

As I mentioned, the weather is getting progressively warmer. By noon I was cooking and I abandoned my MC jacket for a wet long sleeve cotton shirt. We rode into Acapulco about 2 pm. and through the main beach tourist area. VW bug cabs all over the place weaving in and out of traffic. It was cooking! Eventually we reached the south side of town along a beach strip close to the airport and found a nice campsite. The area we found looks like it was (or potentially was thought it would be) a booming tourist area but many of the businesses and buildings appear to be abandoned. Most North American tourist would not have even bothered to stop but being frugal we decided to take a closer look. After riding down a sandy beach road we stopped to figure out which way to go. Soon we were approached by a local. Within minutes we were talking to someone who could speak a little English and the next thing we knew is that we had a campsite. Also, the gal we spoke to owned a nearby restaurant owner. She (Sandra) is whipping us up something to eat right now.

We came through a couple of busy little towns today. I wish I had a helmet cam so that I could take some pictures as we are riding. The towns have very narrow streets with stores and vendors on either side of the street. Sometimes the streets are one way traffic but often they are two way you have to work your way around buses and stopped cars while avoiding the pedestrians and dogs. There are no traffic lights so at busy intersections there is often someone directing traffic. With copious a mount of arm waving and horn toots everyone managed to progress through the intersection. As I mentioned, we stand out on the MC’s and so far the drivers have been quite courteous and often wave us through.

(Hope the battery in my laptop holds up. It does not last long enough now to finish a report. I’m currently using the MC battery for power.)

January 27/06

We were up with the sun today and got an early start. We covered 350K from Acapulco to Puerto Esconito. The longest day travel yet. As we move farther south the local scenery becomes increasingly interesting. You have to watch for animals on the road here too… just different ones than in BC. We had to slow today for donkeys, goats, cows, chickens , horses and of course dogs. Then there are those pesky topes! (you remember.. speed bumps) They are not as well marked as they where up north and they are everywhere. You have to keep them in mind all the time. Some are like mini mountains across the road. My brakes are getting good workout.

We are getting more used to the “rules of the road”. That is to say... we are ignoring the speed limit signs now too. Perhaps I should put it differently. It’s not that we are ignoring them, it’s that we just can’t figure out what they mean. For example, you will see an 80K sign, then 300 metres down the road a 60K sign followed by a tight bend in the road. The road then straightens out again but there is never another 80K speed sign. We assume that the 60K sign was just a warning for the curve. The speed limit generally reduces to 40K through the towns and villages. 40K signs mean “watch for topes”. When you leave the town, rarely is there a sign indicating a higher speed limit. Everyone simply goes as fast as they want from tope to tope. 90 to 100K seems to be the accepted speed on these two lane roads outside of built up areas. It is difficult to average better that 60 or 70K on a days ride. Road conditions have been very good. There is quite abit of road work in progress on this highway. One gets the impression that the government is attempting to encourage motor tourism. We noticed 3 new tourism offices under construction today. Also all the gas stations are new and many are being built. They are all Pemex stations.. the government owned petroleum company. Often they are accompanied by a convenience store and all have clean modern washrooms.

As I mentioned there are domestic animals in and out of the towns. Dogs are everywhere. Many of the dogs are pets but there are lots of strays also. Even the pets are allowed to wander freely. You seldom see a dog tied up. It is not uncommon to see dogs walking on roads both in and out of towns and cities. Nor is it uncommon to see injured or malnourished dogs. It seems that for the most part the locals ignore the dogs and the dogs stay clear of the humans. We have only been chased a couple of times.

Tonight we are staying in some cabanas above one of the beaches in Puerto Escondito. A cabana is a small cabin. These ones are made of brick with a tile roof. There is a double bed complete with mosquito net, a shower, toilet and sink. They are not air conditioned but there is a fan. Each couple has their own cabana since the price was the same for 4 persons whether share one or had our own. 150 pesos each. ($15.) It is 5 minute walk down to the beach but we are located adjacent to the highway so it might be a bit noisy. I don’t know how much traffic there is a night but we will find out I think!

January 28/06

Yep! It was noisy but it was comfortable bed. Off to find some breaky!

While I’m waiting for my huevos rancheros I’ll fill you in on our plans. Today we are heading for Zipolita, a beach about 60K from here. Time for some laundry and an oil change for the bikes. Then we are heading inland up to San Christobal de Casa before crossing into Guatemala. San Christobal is in the highlands so it should be a bit cooler. We are planning 2 days in the San Christobal with a border crossing on Feb 1^st. This will be our first Central Am border crossing. It should be quite interesting.