31 enero - playa Tenacatita, noche @ Boca de Iguana
Tenacatita was about 10km from the main highway 200 between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. It has a number of cabana style restaurants. Since there aren´t that many tourists, there were quite a few walking vendors.
We stayed here for a few hours, then we cycled out and encountered some friends we met previously from New Hampshire who have bike toured in the past but were travelling now by rental car. More on them if we see them in Manzanillo.
We camped at Boca De Iguana, a less developed beach with one small convenience store. A large inn restaurant complex was already underway.
30 enero - Plaza Careyes
We accidentally rode by the town of Chamela and we were both getting tired. Finally, we could go no further so we rested and ate some food before continuing to Playa Careyes, a fishing beach.
Playa Careyes. South of Puerto Vallarta there is no shortage of nice beaches, even with the many tourists who flock south. There was a security station protecting the nearby private residence, so presumably this makes camping on the beach a bit safer. It is wise to choose a camping location away from unsecured touristy areas because of the so called banditos.
OK slow internet no photos, in El Tuito
My flash drive came under attack by viruses from unprotected internet
cafe computers. I finally got the viruses off but it is read only
seemingly permanently so I cant put photos on it.
We stayed last night in the new botanical garden south of PV which has
been open a year, hosted by Bob the curator and his family (dad: add
to PV notes). There is a bus from the central PV to the gardens for
about 10 pesos but of course we took our bikes.
Now we are in the town of El Tuito heading south. The other internet
cafe in this town infected by second flash drive which Jen was using
but fortunately we cured the viruses using Norton. This internet
connection is unbelievably slow, a dialup shared among many users so I
wont do much.
It is pretty sparsely populated until Manzanillo Colima so I dont know
when you will hear from us again or see photos, perhaps 2 or 3 days.
It is hilly terrain but fortunately the traffic is greatly reduced.
28 enero - Jardìn Botànico
Highly recommended about 25 km south of Puerto Vallarta is the new Botanical Garden, which has been open just over a year. The entrance fee is 50 pesos, but they give you a restaurant credit of the same amount.
28 enero - Maria the housekeeper, local Aramara knife sharpener
Maria takes care of my Dad´s house and readies it for guests.
This man sharpens knives, walking down the street whistling to let people know he is around. He sharpened our knife for free, but we insisted that he take 5 pesos.
27 enero - Miguel cooking fish
Miguel, the husband of my Dad´s housekeeper Maria, catches his own fish out in the Bahìa de Banderas (the bay of Puerto Vallarta) and cooks them fresh. He was nice enough to offer one each for Jen & me.
Getting really comfortable in Aramara (PV), maybe too comfortable
We have been having a good time hanging in Aramara / PV. It was nice that Jen could see the place where I would vacation with my Dad as a boy. Unfortunately, he didn't come for significant periods of time so I missed an opportunity to be bilingual at an early age. I have been practicing my Spanish a lot since we crossed the border in Tijuana on 18 Dec 2006, although even my Spanish practice has slowed in PV since it is not an unfamiliar environment and thus less challenging.
Buying local food like tropical fruits, oranges, bananas, and seafood like shrimp, one can eat very well here at a modest price. Jen will write an article on the food when she has time.
I think Jens health has been improving as she recovers from the turista and or dehydration, but she can talk about that now that she is blogging herself.
Although we are partly tempted to stay here and relax for a bit longer, our adventurous selves are calling us back to the road. We are hoping that if we depart tomorrow on Saturday traffic out of PV southbound on 200 should be lighter and we wont be white knuckling it all the way to Manzanillo, Colima. My Dad says that that road is boring, although that was years ago when he last drove it.
Another rainy day in PV
Jen is wondering if every day in the subtropics is rainy. I have tried to assure her this is not the case... I went in the water anyway.
Dancing at the Zoo
After our 3 movie marathon, we decided that we had to go out on the town, which we really hadnt done since leaving Berkeley. We had a good time dancing to mostly 80s music at zoo, there was no cover and we didnt have to get any drinks.
3 movie marathon
Wednesdays are the cheap movie nights in Mexico. We saw a triple feature of Friends with Money, Night at the museum, and Invincible for $25 pesos. Well, it was the usual making our way surreptitiously from theater to theater, and there seemed to be a fair number of others doing the same thing. In fact, its possible that they dont even care since there is nobody monitoring this.
At the beach, Rio Cuale
If you can ignore the hordes trying to sell you tourist trinkets and the tourist shops that prevent even seeing the river, it is quite nice. Actually there are fewer tourists than I remember from future trips. Im not sure if this is a post 9/11 thing or because the weather has been overcast / rainy for the past week. This is a good break for me because I have had fairly intense sun nearly every day since about the middle of June 2006.
Recommended restaurant Le Fabula Pizza Pitillal, Jal
On Wednesdays, Le Fabula Pizza on the road between Aramara and Pitillal has a 2 for 1 special. It is about a block away from the central square.
23 enero - staying in PV
Jen is still hurting from the turista / dehydration but we think she's getting better with time.
We´re staying in Puerto Vallarta for a few more days. Today is 2 for 1 pizza day at a place in Pitillal and Wednesday is discount movie day ($25 pesos at the Cine de Bahía in town and $34 at the new fancy Cinépolis near Pitillal).
I'll be meeting with Maria's husband Miguel about some of the house repairs.
22 enero - night on the town PV curtailed
We walked along the beach all the way from Playa de Oro near the Cruise ship terminal, where you arrive at the beach walking from my Dads place in Aramara, to downtown. Our intent was to go dancing at one of the clubs but after all the walking we were tired so we took the bus home. There is a new bus route which was faster to Pitillal but then we had to walk more to Aramara.
arriving in the mainland-From Jen
I knew from all the conversations with locals that the traffic would be greatly increased on the mainland, but you really can´t
imagine how scary it can be until you are riding the small (sometimes no) shoulder that is constructed for traffic to pull of the road and yes for crazy cyclist to ride on.
The buses are like the big greyhound ones in the US and pass by every 5 to 10
minutes. They are usually accompanied by a semi trailer that is
pulling a double semi, so just when you think the semi has passed the doulble trailer starts (this is when you really want to hang on and stay the white line, to right of it if
their is any right). The best shoulder(about 1/2 to a foot) in general is where you need it on the up hills and the curves, so thank goodness for them. I have only had to jump off my bike twice in the mainland
because of the shoulder ending while a semi was beside me. In
Baja the traffic was so light that
their was not usually on-coming traffic at the same time, this is not true of the mainland. It is very nice to be resting in
PV for a couple of days. Thank you
JM!
Dads house in Aramara near Puerto Vallarta, Jal deferred maintenance
My Dad has had his hands full working in Seattle on apartment stuff and keeping up with his symphony, ballet, and sail racing obligations so he hasnt been here to maintain his house for a few years. Jen and I have been talking with Maria to take care of maintenance like a broken window, peeling paint, damaged door, and some ceiling damage. Maria's husband Miguel can do all the work but I need to make the arrangements.
Ceiling damage photo 1 in Dining room.
Ceiling damage photo 2 in Dining room.
Jen inspects missing bricks in chimney like structure on the roof.
Jen to start writing blog articles
When we are in a city at an internet café, I am usually working quickly to upload photos and write captions, whereas Jen has hardly anything to do. So, I suggested that she write articles of interest to her.
The blogger program has the capability to allow additional authors or administrators to write and edit content. Expect Jen to publish her first article today.
Pitillal, Jalisco near PV
Pitillal is a nice smaller city inland from Puerto Vallarta in my opinion in many ways superior to Puerto Vallarta as long as you dont want to do anything beach or water related. We havent been to Puerto Vallarta yet (at least on this trip for me). I suspect that most food and lodging is considerably cheaper here in Pitillal than in Puerto Vallarta.
Jen and I share a nice 10 peso ice cream cone.
My Dad has a house in PV that he had built in 1974. Unfortunately I never learned much Spanish as a child but I am doing much better as an adult. When my Dad and I would come I would often eat corn flakes in the mornings. So I decided to get this huge box of corn flakes from the huge new Soriana store in Pitillal since we will be here for several days.
Sayulita Nayarit - not sleepy anymore
We passed through Sayulita while making our way south to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. It is a far cry from the sleepy deserted beach I remember from years ago. There are lots of tourists there and the corresponding support staff and accomodation. It was nice but we didnt need to spend more than a night there.
They do have camping for something like 5 bucks a person per night, or 3 per person per night if you stay a week. We didnt want to camp on the beach because we heard the banditos raided and cleared everything out so we went inland and free camped. It was nice and quite though we did let some sort of bug inside the tent which was apparently biting me.
19 enero
Compostela, Nayarit is a nice small city in Nayarit near the water. Although, I preferred Acaponeta a bit because there were so many Mexican cyclists there. I think small cities are excellent in Mexico because they are large enough to have something happening but not big enough to have all the cars and affluenza diseases as in the US.
We had a nice half chicken dinner with tortillas and salsa for 32 pesos. Dolores of Grilos Pollos prepares the tortillas by hand using a press, which are thicker and tastier than machine made ones.
Lenin, lead singer of the band Escorpión, chatted with us as we were leaving Compostela. He often plays in Puerto Vallarta and in other places around México. His music is banda, an offshoot of mariachi. Salsa is unknown on the pacific coast but is popular on the atlantic coast near the caribbean.
Tepic, Nayarit
When we arrived in Tepic yesterday, a city of some 300,000 I was as usual dismayed by all the cars, noise and traffic although people werent aggressive. Although many Mexicans have few material possessions, we havent seen much grinding poverty here certainly not enough to motivate Mexicans to head north on the dangerous journey to sneak across the US border. Our conclusion is that the people doing this live to the south or in the interior of the country. The Mexicans here not just in touristy areas but in general seem quite prosperous.
We have been staying in hotels in major cities. Here we were initially seeing hotels in the 270-350 peso range for 2. I recommend the Hotel Pasadena which is walking distance of the central plazas and is 100 pesos for 2, with private bathroom and television. I think the rooms without bath are downstairs, we ended up carrying our bikes up to the first floor. Note that rooms are available for 2 hour rental for half the regular rate, you can guess what that means.
This morning, we have had time to explore the central plazas which are quite nice and see the Governors Palace, etc. I have a better impression of it now although as a visitor I still prefer smaller places like Acaponeta, Nayarit. It is worth stopping here though one night was enough.
18 enero Acaponeta Nayarit
Both Jen & I really like Acaponeta. It is a relaxed city of 35,000 or so with everything you need. In comparison with Baja, bikes are everywhere and people are more fit than in Baja as a result of the riding and biking. I recommend the excellent Hotel Casablanca right on the square, 140 pesos for a simple and nice room with nice bathroom and hot water, probably the best room we have had thus far.
A reasonable breakfast of Huevos a la Mexicana (eggs with veggies) for 20 pesos in the mercado municipal. Prices seem to be lower in the mainland at least outside touristy areas than Baja.
17 enero - Acaponeta, Nayarit: Jen suffers heatstroke, treated in urgent clinic
You may recall several weeks ago, when we had been in Mexico about a week and we were in the northern part of Baja, I came down with Turista. We anticipated this might happen and figured it was the price of living as the locals do and eating their food, and that I would recover and henceforth would be relatively immune therafter. That was true in my case.
About a week and a half ago, Jen came down with something similar. Unfortunately, her condition took a turn for the worse several days ago and she was in pain much of the time. She just didn't seem to be getting better. After riding 90 km from El Rosario, Sinaloa to Acaponeta, Nayarit I talked her into making an appointment for the clinic. I tried a couple of places, and the staff agreed that being in near continuous pain was justification for going to the urgent clinic.
We paid the 100 pesos, a bit over US $9 and the doctor saw us almost immediately. The diagnosis was turista, with complications from heatstroke and dehydration. They injected her with a rehydration solution and prescribed an electrolyte drink and a few other medicines.
Jen has been making sure she drinks more and seems to be getting better now. We were both impressed that she could get in to see the doctor right away for only $9. I shudder to think how much an urgent clinic visit would cost in the US.
Labels: Announcement
17 enero - highway of death between Mazatlan and Tepic
I recommend riding the toll autopistas whenever possible because they have a shoulder and traffic is less because, presumably, most Mexicans don't want to pay the toll. The authorities may want you to get off to autopista, reactions will depend on the specific officer so always be courteous. We have not been asked to pay a toll on hwy 1D between Tijuana and Ensenada and 15D between Mazatlan and Semblas, short of Acaponeta, Nayarit.
South of Mazatlan, the autopista 15D goes only as far as El Rosario, Sinaloa. Fortunately, there is a new section of 15D under construction between El Rosario and just short of Acaponeta, Nayarit. There was almost no traffic so we had a whole highway with shoulders to ride on, it was very nice. We did have to navigate some obstacles, like a bridge under construction with the rebar exposed and various roadblocks.
When we did have to merge back onto hwy 15 short of Acaponeta, its reputation among cyclists as being the deadliest section between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego is deserved. There were semis passing other semis, blasting air in our faces as they passed us a few decimeters away going the other direction. Fortunately, we only had to ride about 10 km on this deadly road.
We don't plan to continue on hwy 15 to Tepic on our bicycles so we will hitch or take a bus if possible.
16 enero - Mazatlan, Sinaloa, journey to El Rosario Sinaloa
Last photo: Jen picks up a chile that fell on the highway from a passing truck. There were more chiles than we could carry.
On our second night in Mazatlan we decided to be like regular tourists and see a movie. We went to a double feature of "Eragon" and "Casino Royale" at the Zona Dorada (Golden Zone) theater for 38 pesos each. Actually, it wasn't officially a double feature but there was hardly anyone there and nobody seemed to care what we were doing.
We stayed at the Hotel Venados (80 pesos, considerably cheaper than the 220 pesos we had paid in the old town Hotel Vialta). It wasn't too nice with dust and dirt on the walls and a complimentary nudie picture in the bathroom but it had a private bathroom with warmer than freezing water and it was a place to stay.
18 enero - autobus del Rosario a Tepic
Our own private highway under construction, 15D, seemed to come to an end. We had to ride for about 10 km to get into el Rosario and it was pretty hairy just as other cyclists had reported with many semis and buses and no shoulder. We decided to take the bus to Tepic for 90 pesos each. We were lucky, the bus had lots of capacity below in the hold for our bikes and we didnt have to dissassemble them. We saw glimpses of a deserted new looking road during our ride which might have been 15D but we werent sure.
15 enero - Mazatlan, Sinaloa
We are staying with adventure tourists, John, Nancy and their sons David & Daryl at the Hotel Vialta in old town Mazatlan (220 pesos for 2). The room rate is more the 150 pesos or so we pay for a decent room with private bath but we're in Mazatlan.
Mazatlan sprawls on the water; it is worth it to take the express bus for 8 pesos to the Zona Dorada or 4.50 pesos for the slow bus rather than walk. I can appreciate that Mazatlan is a cheaper beach holiday than Puerto Vallarta. Here in Mazatlan there are seemingly decent hotels on the water in the 300 pesos range, you definitely couldn't touch that in PV.
Other than respecting Mazatlan's marketing position I don't like it that much. But I'm glad I saw it. Maybe it is because the weather was cloudy so we couldn't swim in the water. The presence of tourists isn't crushing but there are just so many cars and it is quite noisy and busy. It is fun walking along the beach.
14 enero - la tierra continental Mazatlàn
We took the ferry yesterday at 1530 (the departure time of 1700 I previously posted was inaccurate even though it was printed on the window at the Baja Ferry office in downtown La Paz on 5 de febrero street). Fortunately, we arrived in time to take the ferry despite not knowing about the early departure. On the plus side, the price for bikes is 150 per bike, not 300. 1 basic dinner and 1 basic breakfast are included, which may remind you of the school lunches of your youth.
The journey lasted 18 hours; we arrived in Mazatlan around 0900. We met a couple travelling with a triple bike (husband John & 2 boys) and the wife (Nancy) had her own mountain bike. The triple tows a bob trailer. It is so long that it is very difficult to manuever in city and it won't fit in many hotel rooms. They have a website but I don't know the address right now. I will post the URL later.
We are staying at hotel Vialta in the old town center (180 for 2 people, John & Nancy are paying 220 for 2 adults and 2 children in a 2 bed room). It is well located to explore the old town.
So far Mazatlan seems pretty nice though we aren't doing too much regular tourist sightseeing of cities. We have been to the nice central market and seen the Cathedral, which has mass in progress. Fortunately, the stores selling tourist wares and not aggressive and brushing them off hasn't been a constant chore.
We checked in early so we have the full day to see Mazatlan and tomorrow until checkout which I believe is 1300. Then we ride south in the direction of Tepic. We have heard that part of the road between Mazatlan and Tepic is two lane very heavy traffic and nearly suicidal to ride on, so say cyclists who have done the entire Pan American cycle odyssey from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Likely we will ride only the portion which is 4 lane then hitch the rest of the way to Tepic, avoiding this dangerous section in the name of discretion.
13 enero - nos quedamos un poco màs a La Paz
The blog will remain in English for the time being due to popular request.
After spending so much time in the country and villages being in the ¨big city¨ of 300,000 in La Paz took us by surprise and we were not fully prepared. Pension California is a decent place but less interesting for me because it is full of Caucasian backpackers with limited Spanish.
The sastre (seamster) did a nice job resewing my whole silk sheet for 30 pesos. I still have to retrieve my biking sandals at 1 pm today (60 pesos). I have been walking around barefoot and in an extra pair of ladies sandals that Jen has. My feet got extremely dirty walking around on the street.
A few of my teeth are aching, presumably the 2 filling I got from Dr. Alvarado in Vizaino are holding but I have 4 more to get in the next month.
12 enero - Pensiòn California La Paz
We are staying at the Pensiòn California in downtown La Paz (price dependent on number of people, 220 pesos for 2) today, to take care of errands like repairing my bicycle sandals (60 pesos) and reinforcing my silk sleep sheet (30 pesos). Our intent is to take the ferry to Mazatlàn at 1700 tomorrow (770 pesos per person, 300 additional per bicycle, 18 hour trip).
11 enero - fuel for stove
We bought some alcohol industrial at Ace Hardware in La Paz so we now have a working stove. I didn´t realize that combustible alcohol would be hard to come by, since Mexicans don´t need it for deicing and the pharmacy alcohol is weird and doesn´t burn very well.
11 enero - Azteca airline - possible return for Jen
We haven't planned next month but recently formed Mexican low fare carrier Azteca airlines (1-888-754-0066 from USA, http://www.aazteca.com.mx) is a possibility for flying from Acapulco, Oaxaca or Cancun to Tijuana. We don't have pricing information yet because their website is very basic but we'll try calling them.
Feel free to do research on our behalf for departure options from this area of Mexico. A Orbitz search turned up a one way flight for about $290.00 on Continental including taxes so this is a possibility, as is the bus.
11 enero - Encountered Heino (De/Fr) from Todos Santos to La Paz
Heino has been travelling for 2 years on his bike and had tons of stuff loaded on there. Naturally he swears by Ortlieb. He was on his way south to Todos Santos where we just were so we may see him on the ferry or in the mainland.
11 enero (photo) breakfast at little cabana restaurant
10 enero - playa de Pescadero 3
A pretty beach with very few tourists. Perhaps the tourists are turned off by the lack of services or the real Mexicans that use the beach for their livelihood.
The view from the precarious hiking path above playa Pescadero.
Our friend Carlos. He claimed to be a fisherman, though he didn't go out in the morning with the others.
Moi (in yellow shirt) and his fellow fisherman after their returned from their morning run. In the afternoon, after playing and relaxing they will filet the fish.
Sunset
