cavebiker
Active Member
Hey Big Lou. Thanks a lot man for the good words. We are having a blast and posting the report to sites like this makes it even better.
No Return Ticket – Just a Ride Report /w Pics
- Thread starter cavebiker
- Start date
cavebiker
Active Member
Mazatlan was great:
I made a deal at Hotel Del Sol for 2 weeks, enough time, I thought, to get the bike parts shipped to us from the US. We got the parts right away and could have been out of here a week earlier, but an extra week in Mazatlan is not a bad thing.
If you don’t mind heat and humidity, Mazatlan is a great place for marathon walking tours. The beach is almost endless, the malecon is at least 5 miles long, the tourist section and old Mazatlan Centro are all fun areas to explore.
When Heidi & I look for a long term place to hang out we minimally look for good walking and hopefully a gym. We signed up for 2 weeks at JB Gym. It’s a 20 minute walk right on the malecon.
We saw a Madonna movie a couple weeks ago. I tell Heidi “You use to have arms like that”, “You can have them again!”, “I’ll be your trainer and we can work out together”. A dream, an opportunity, a focus. Adventure travel is a great medium to evaluate where you are, where you want to go and start something new.
We do an intense 4 day split using progressive resistance / pyramiding techniques. I count out the reps, Heidi ‘grunts out’ the last one or two. We are discovering all over again why we fell in love in the first place…..
ONE More!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m getting ready to meet a hero of mine. Heidi says I’m running around like someone getting ready for his first date. I say to her “How would you be acting if you were getting ready to meet Madonna?” She backed off and said she understood, but she still enjoyed razzing me.
He is coming over to pick us up, a guy I have never met before but I feel like I have known him for years. Glen Hagsted, an extreme world motorcycle adventurer and author of “Two Wheels through Terror”. I have been reading Glens motorcycle ride reports on the internet since 2001’, from his ride through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, his Central and South American ride which included being kidnapped and held prisoner by Columbian rebels (book) and his most recent ride, two years round the world (book coming soon). Glen has inspired thousands, including several rides of ours. This is a big event for me.
It was like meeting a brother I haven’t seen in a long time. “Where are you riding from?” “Where are you going?” Glen wants to know all about our bike and if we need anything. He says” You are just starting out. On the way back from South America is when you will need parts” Glen is offering tons of information about our route south. We get a comforting feeling that help is out there, all the way to South America and back.
We all head out to get some carne asada, Glen knows of a great place. I have a million questions formed in my head.
Our bike was unloaded and it felt like a dirt bike. I’m having fun chasing the StrikingViking to the carne asada stand. Heidi, on the other hand is hanging on a lot tighter than normal. Yeehaw!
We will stop here again. Glen has fun giving ‘crap’ to the guys working here, everyone knows him. He says this place sells more carne asada than they can make. We can see why, delicious big thin hunks of beef, grilled to perfection, right in front of you.
I tell you, I have never been so speechless in my whole life. All I could say was “Wow”, “Cool” and “Unreal”. Glen is bigger then life, telling the stories, giving the emotions with his eyes, bursting with new big ideas. I couldn’t absorb what he was saying fast enough. The experience was overwhelming. To say Glen was a gracious host to us would be a gross understatement.
Thanks man, I hope we meet again.
Mazatlan was great for us but a travelers desire to hit the road again is never far away.
Hang on! Much more to come….
I made a deal at Hotel Del Sol for 2 weeks, enough time, I thought, to get the bike parts shipped to us from the US. We got the parts right away and could have been out of here a week earlier, but an extra week in Mazatlan is not a bad thing.
If you don’t mind heat and humidity, Mazatlan is a great place for marathon walking tours. The beach is almost endless, the malecon is at least 5 miles long, the tourist section and old Mazatlan Centro are all fun areas to explore.
When Heidi & I look for a long term place to hang out we minimally look for good walking and hopefully a gym. We signed up for 2 weeks at JB Gym. It’s a 20 minute walk right on the malecon.
We saw a Madonna movie a couple weeks ago. I tell Heidi “You use to have arms like that”, “You can have them again!”, “I’ll be your trainer and we can work out together”. A dream, an opportunity, a focus. Adventure travel is a great medium to evaluate where you are, where you want to go and start something new.
We do an intense 4 day split using progressive resistance / pyramiding techniques. I count out the reps, Heidi ‘grunts out’ the last one or two. We are discovering all over again why we fell in love in the first place…..
ONE More!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m getting ready to meet a hero of mine. Heidi says I’m running around like someone getting ready for his first date. I say to her “How would you be acting if you were getting ready to meet Madonna?” She backed off and said she understood, but she still enjoyed razzing me.
He is coming over to pick us up, a guy I have never met before but I feel like I have known him for years. Glen Hagsted, an extreme world motorcycle adventurer and author of “Two Wheels through Terror”. I have been reading Glens motorcycle ride reports on the internet since 2001’, from his ride through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, his Central and South American ride which included being kidnapped and held prisoner by Columbian rebels (book) and his most recent ride, two years round the world (book coming soon). Glen has inspired thousands, including several rides of ours. This is a big event for me.
It was like meeting a brother I haven’t seen in a long time. “Where are you riding from?” “Where are you going?” Glen wants to know all about our bike and if we need anything. He says” You are just starting out. On the way back from South America is when you will need parts” Glen is offering tons of information about our route south. We get a comforting feeling that help is out there, all the way to South America and back.
We all head out to get some carne asada, Glen knows of a great place. I have a million questions formed in my head.
Our bike was unloaded and it felt like a dirt bike. I’m having fun chasing the StrikingViking to the carne asada stand. Heidi, on the other hand is hanging on a lot tighter than normal. Yeehaw!
We will stop here again. Glen has fun giving ‘crap’ to the guys working here, everyone knows him. He says this place sells more carne asada than they can make. We can see why, delicious big thin hunks of beef, grilled to perfection, right in front of you.
I tell you, I have never been so speechless in my whole life. All I could say was “Wow”, “Cool” and “Unreal”. Glen is bigger then life, telling the stories, giving the emotions with his eyes, bursting with new big ideas. I couldn’t absorb what he was saying fast enough. The experience was overwhelming. To say Glen was a gracious host to us would be a gross understatement.
Thanks man, I hope we meet again.
Mazatlan was great for us but a travelers desire to hit the road again is never far away.
Hang on! Much more to come….
cavebiker
Active Member
A couple motorcycle repairs before leaving Mazatlan:
Our new rubber foot peg got ripped when the bike fell over on the ferry ride over to Mazatlan. We are carrying Goop and JB Weld glue so it’s time to use it. Goop is great stuff and seems to have worked well on the foot peg.
The new windshield we put on seems a little wobbly. The screws are tight but the posts still wiggle around. I think a little dap of JB Weld epoxy glue should remedy that.
San Blas:
We hit the road early out of Mazatlan and are heading for San Blas, a small fishing village that has become a surfer destination. We thought this was going to be a short ride but it seemed to take forever, the going was real slow. We arrived in San Blas around 1:00 PM
There are no hotels on the beach here so we rented this small cabana, $18.00 / night and it’s right on the beach.
Inside the cabana:
View:
We paid for 3 nights here because we didn’t want to chance finding a vacancy in Puerto Vallarta, our next destination, on a Saturday night. Good enough reason for us (ha, ha)
The food was good, the beer was cold and there were a lot of surfers around partying. Having a little too much fun the first night we crashed early and didn’t bother putting on any bug dope. Big mistake, we got eaten alive by mosquitoes and no-see-ums and didn’t do anything about it until morning. We had bites all over and were itching like crazy. San Blas is famous for mosquitoes and now we know why.
We saw a few guys drag something down to the beach and it looked like they were burying it. Heidi and I always like to come up with theories about what people are doing and why. This was a mystery.
It seemed a lot of others were curious also and went to check out what was going on. We finally realized they were filling sand bags and hauling them out to the surf at a marked spot. We think they were making an artificial point-break for the surfing competition happening tomorrow.
Later a truck came down to the beach and set up this tent and tower for the surfing competition. (Click)
San Blas:
This police truck picked up a pile of kids from the school and hauled them away. We suspected some type of field trip or something. What a great use of, I’m sure, a normally idle vehicle and police force.
Church
Market
Sunset (Click)
Our new rubber foot peg got ripped when the bike fell over on the ferry ride over to Mazatlan. We are carrying Goop and JB Weld glue so it’s time to use it. Goop is great stuff and seems to have worked well on the foot peg.
The new windshield we put on seems a little wobbly. The screws are tight but the posts still wiggle around. I think a little dap of JB Weld epoxy glue should remedy that.
San Blas:
We hit the road early out of Mazatlan and are heading for San Blas, a small fishing village that has become a surfer destination. We thought this was going to be a short ride but it seemed to take forever, the going was real slow. We arrived in San Blas around 1:00 PM
There are no hotels on the beach here so we rented this small cabana, $18.00 / night and it’s right on the beach.
Inside the cabana:
View:
We paid for 3 nights here because we didn’t want to chance finding a vacancy in Puerto Vallarta, our next destination, on a Saturday night. Good enough reason for us (ha, ha)
The food was good, the beer was cold and there were a lot of surfers around partying. Having a little too much fun the first night we crashed early and didn’t bother putting on any bug dope. Big mistake, we got eaten alive by mosquitoes and no-see-ums and didn’t do anything about it until morning. We had bites all over and were itching like crazy. San Blas is famous for mosquitoes and now we know why.
We saw a few guys drag something down to the beach and it looked like they were burying it. Heidi and I always like to come up with theories about what people are doing and why. This was a mystery.
It seemed a lot of others were curious also and went to check out what was going on. We finally realized they were filling sand bags and hauling them out to the surf at a marked spot. We think they were making an artificial point-break for the surfing competition happening tomorrow.
Later a truck came down to the beach and set up this tent and tower for the surfing competition. (Click)
San Blas:
This police truck picked up a pile of kids from the school and hauled them away. We suspected some type of field trip or something. What a great use of, I’m sure, a normally idle vehicle and police force.
Church
Market
Sunset (Click)
cavebiker
Active Member
Barra De Navidad:
Taking off from San Blas we were on the road by 7:30 AM, our earliest start since we entered Mexico. We were planning on a short ride to Puerto Vallarta today and hoped to find an inexpensive place to stay on the beach outside of town. We got to Puerto Vallarta super early but couldn’t find any place along the coast in out price range. It was early so we decided to continue on and shoot for Barra De Navidad, a pretty little tourist village on the Pacific coast.
Puerto Vallarta to Barra De Navidad was a heck of a ride. The scenery went from palm trees to pine trees to some type of large flowering tree. While riding along we would suddenly hear loud buzzing sounds, like swarms of crickets or something. It was weird. The road is super twisty, hilly and shaded with sections of huge pot holes. The pot holes were far enough apart to avoid if I could see them but in the dark shaded areas it was impossible to tell a pot hole from a dark shadow. Still we were lucky and only hit a couple of small holes, the big ones would have hurt for sure.
Waiting for some on-coming local traffic to pass.
9 hours later we made it into Barra De Navadad, around 4:30 PM. We were toast. The first hotel we tried was full, and this was a Sunday. We were glad we stayed an extra day in San Blas and didn’t try to travel and find a place on a Saturday. The next hotel we tried had vacancies and was a lot cheaper, $23 / night. We spent 3 nights in Barra De Navidad two years ago so we only stayed for one night this time. This is a very friendly and fun place to visit but we were looking forward to spending more time at places we haven’t been to before.
Barra De Navadad
It seemed weird not spending anytime in Barra De Navadad but we were anxious to push further south.
Before entering Mexico I planned on buying a 19 inch inner tube for emergencies, like if we get a flat and can’t stop the leak with a plug. I forgot to get one in Yuma AZ and have been planning on getting one in Mexico. I spent a good part of a day looking for a tube in Mazatlan but no luck. I will not leave Mexico without carrying a tube. Every town we travel through Heidi and I look for a motorcycle shop. We tool through the center of Manzanillo with the sole intent of finding a tube. This is a big city with confusing traffic but just before the end of town we see a large modern Honda motorcycle shop. I tell the guy at the parts counter what I want “Quiere camara de aire por moto. 19-100/90” He nods with assurance and heads back to the parts room. I give a huge silent cheer.
Oh Yeah!
We chewed up a lot of time in Manzanillo looking for a tube and getting lost. The next good destination, Playa Azul, is a long drive with not much in between. We decided to look for a hotel early in the day at Tecoman, a non-tourist Mexican town with a lively atmosphere and friendly feel. We find a nice place, Hotel Plaza.
Good food all around, cocktails in hand, pool at our feet and emergency inner tube in our backpack . Live is good…..
We hit the road early. We are shooting for Playa Azul today. I remember reading something about this place in the guide book we left at home.
We got super lost trying to get out of Tecoman. Arriving at our hotel we thought we never left the main highway. After zigzagging around some one-way, stone embedded residential streets we finally see what looks like a highway. After a few miles of nothing but palm trees we turn back to town and look for a gas station. I wanted a full tank because the map didn’t show much for the next 150 miles south. We had to go all the way past our hotel to find gas. After, we get back on the highway we ride through the palm tree groves again. About 8 miles later we hit a little beach village. When we reach the village and the Pacific coast the road turns right and heads back north. Crap, this is the opposite direction we need to be heading. Heidi and I are getting tense. She’s trying to read road signs and bark out which way we should go or not go. Heidi is getting mad because I’m having trouble hearing her, plus I have completely different ideas about which way we should go. After about 2 dozen topes (speed bumps) in a 1 km stretch, the road dead ends. Heidi yells out “You need to look at a map!” At this point I had to agree. OK, we are hosed, we shouldn’t be at the coast at all and need to head back to Tecoman, again, and find the correct highway south. When we get back to town I see a group of policemen at a small station. I stop, take off my helmet and one guy says “Como estas?” (How are you doing) I say “No muy bien” (Not very good) we are all smiling. I ask for directions to highway 200 south. The policemen were very helpful, using hand gestures saying “derecho, izquierda, derecha” (straight, left then right) This helped a ton. When we were on what we thought was the correct road I pull over one last time to look at the map. A guy walks up to us and offers help. He confirms that we are on the correct road for where we are trying to go. Sweeeet! People in Mexico have been so nice to us it’s sometimes overwhelming.
We hit a military check point and for the first time we get inspected. We open the panniers and a couple guys do a very minimal search through our stuff. The guys were friendly and asked a few questions about our bike and what we are up to. I thank them for helping keep the highways safe for us. Heidi said I was a little off with my Spanish but they got the gist and smiled.
The road from Tecoman to Playa Azul is in good shape and is a bikers dream with constant twists and turns. The landscape is getting much more tropical now and has a jungle feel. The growth along side the road is dense right up to and sometimes reaching onto the roadway. At times the trees arch over the entire road and give the feeling like we are riding through a dark tunnel. This is cool….
Getting close to playa Azul we start seeing some beautiful costal scenery.
Playa Azul was beautiful and I wish I stopped to take some photos. It was like a scene out of some fantasy dream. We rode through town and several miles out of town along the coast looking for the right hotel. We never found one. All the hotels were off the beach and didn’t look inviting and I didn’t like the parking security either. Heidi and I discuss our options. I think I remember what I read about this town in the guide book now. Years ago the Mexican government designated several spots for tourist development and this was one of them, but it never took off. I think the reason was because of the extreme surf break here. Anyway we decided to push on to a town not far away, Puerto de Lazaro Cardenas.
Puerto de Lazaro Cardenas is a large bustling city. We were driving through heavy rush hour traffic and it was getting a little tense. A lot of one way streets and even the two way streets looked like one way streets, everyone parking on both sides of the street pointing in the same direction, opposite the direction we were traveling. We see several large hotels in the middle of town but none with a court yard for parking. All the parking was underground under the hotel. This would be fine if we were planning on staying here for a couple days but we didn’t want to unload all the stuff from the bike just for one short night. Bummer, because the downtown was busting with activity and looked like it would be a lot of fun to explore on foot.
Driving into town I saw a drive in auto hotel (sexo hotel) Heidi says “We aren’t staying there” I say “These places are perfect for us and have a private garage attached to the rooms” She gives in.
We pull into the compound and drive right into a garage stall attached to the room. The room had a king size bed, huge 6 foot by 10 foot mirrors in front and behind the bed, a big TV with a large variety of channels (if ya know what I mean) And the room comes with two complimentary bottles of beer. The place also has room service with a dumb waiter window.
We order food and some more beer and enjoy the rest of the evening.
Hang on! This one is not done yet…..
Taking off from San Blas we were on the road by 7:30 AM, our earliest start since we entered Mexico. We were planning on a short ride to Puerto Vallarta today and hoped to find an inexpensive place to stay on the beach outside of town. We got to Puerto Vallarta super early but couldn’t find any place along the coast in out price range. It was early so we decided to continue on and shoot for Barra De Navidad, a pretty little tourist village on the Pacific coast.
Puerto Vallarta to Barra De Navidad was a heck of a ride. The scenery went from palm trees to pine trees to some type of large flowering tree. While riding along we would suddenly hear loud buzzing sounds, like swarms of crickets or something. It was weird. The road is super twisty, hilly and shaded with sections of huge pot holes. The pot holes were far enough apart to avoid if I could see them but in the dark shaded areas it was impossible to tell a pot hole from a dark shadow. Still we were lucky and only hit a couple of small holes, the big ones would have hurt for sure.
Waiting for some on-coming local traffic to pass.
9 hours later we made it into Barra De Navadad, around 4:30 PM. We were toast. The first hotel we tried was full, and this was a Sunday. We were glad we stayed an extra day in San Blas and didn’t try to travel and find a place on a Saturday. The next hotel we tried had vacancies and was a lot cheaper, $23 / night. We spent 3 nights in Barra De Navidad two years ago so we only stayed for one night this time. This is a very friendly and fun place to visit but we were looking forward to spending more time at places we haven’t been to before.
Barra De Navadad
It seemed weird not spending anytime in Barra De Navadad but we were anxious to push further south.
Before entering Mexico I planned on buying a 19 inch inner tube for emergencies, like if we get a flat and can’t stop the leak with a plug. I forgot to get one in Yuma AZ and have been planning on getting one in Mexico. I spent a good part of a day looking for a tube in Mazatlan but no luck. I will not leave Mexico without carrying a tube. Every town we travel through Heidi and I look for a motorcycle shop. We tool through the center of Manzanillo with the sole intent of finding a tube. This is a big city with confusing traffic but just before the end of town we see a large modern Honda motorcycle shop. I tell the guy at the parts counter what I want “Quiere camara de aire por moto. 19-100/90” He nods with assurance and heads back to the parts room. I give a huge silent cheer.
Oh Yeah!
We chewed up a lot of time in Manzanillo looking for a tube and getting lost. The next good destination, Playa Azul, is a long drive with not much in between. We decided to look for a hotel early in the day at Tecoman, a non-tourist Mexican town with a lively atmosphere and friendly feel. We find a nice place, Hotel Plaza.
Good food all around, cocktails in hand, pool at our feet and emergency inner tube in our backpack . Live is good…..
We hit the road early. We are shooting for Playa Azul today. I remember reading something about this place in the guide book we left at home.
We got super lost trying to get out of Tecoman. Arriving at our hotel we thought we never left the main highway. After zigzagging around some one-way, stone embedded residential streets we finally see what looks like a highway. After a few miles of nothing but palm trees we turn back to town and look for a gas station. I wanted a full tank because the map didn’t show much for the next 150 miles south. We had to go all the way past our hotel to find gas. After, we get back on the highway we ride through the palm tree groves again. About 8 miles later we hit a little beach village. When we reach the village and the Pacific coast the road turns right and heads back north. Crap, this is the opposite direction we need to be heading. Heidi and I are getting tense. She’s trying to read road signs and bark out which way we should go or not go. Heidi is getting mad because I’m having trouble hearing her, plus I have completely different ideas about which way we should go. After about 2 dozen topes (speed bumps) in a 1 km stretch, the road dead ends. Heidi yells out “You need to look at a map!” At this point I had to agree. OK, we are hosed, we shouldn’t be at the coast at all and need to head back to Tecoman, again, and find the correct highway south. When we get back to town I see a group of policemen at a small station. I stop, take off my helmet and one guy says “Como estas?” (How are you doing) I say “No muy bien” (Not very good) we are all smiling. I ask for directions to highway 200 south. The policemen were very helpful, using hand gestures saying “derecho, izquierda, derecha” (straight, left then right) This helped a ton. When we were on what we thought was the correct road I pull over one last time to look at the map. A guy walks up to us and offers help. He confirms that we are on the correct road for where we are trying to go. Sweeeet! People in Mexico have been so nice to us it’s sometimes overwhelming.
We hit a military check point and for the first time we get inspected. We open the panniers and a couple guys do a very minimal search through our stuff. The guys were friendly and asked a few questions about our bike and what we are up to. I thank them for helping keep the highways safe for us. Heidi said I was a little off with my Spanish but they got the gist and smiled.
The road from Tecoman to Playa Azul is in good shape and is a bikers dream with constant twists and turns. The landscape is getting much more tropical now and has a jungle feel. The growth along side the road is dense right up to and sometimes reaching onto the roadway. At times the trees arch over the entire road and give the feeling like we are riding through a dark tunnel. This is cool….
Getting close to playa Azul we start seeing some beautiful costal scenery.
Playa Azul was beautiful and I wish I stopped to take some photos. It was like a scene out of some fantasy dream. We rode through town and several miles out of town along the coast looking for the right hotel. We never found one. All the hotels were off the beach and didn’t look inviting and I didn’t like the parking security either. Heidi and I discuss our options. I think I remember what I read about this town in the guide book now. Years ago the Mexican government designated several spots for tourist development and this was one of them, but it never took off. I think the reason was because of the extreme surf break here. Anyway we decided to push on to a town not far away, Puerto de Lazaro Cardenas.
Puerto de Lazaro Cardenas is a large bustling city. We were driving through heavy rush hour traffic and it was getting a little tense. A lot of one way streets and even the two way streets looked like one way streets, everyone parking on both sides of the street pointing in the same direction, opposite the direction we were traveling. We see several large hotels in the middle of town but none with a court yard for parking. All the parking was underground under the hotel. This would be fine if we were planning on staying here for a couple days but we didn’t want to unload all the stuff from the bike just for one short night. Bummer, because the downtown was busting with activity and looked like it would be a lot of fun to explore on foot.
Driving into town I saw a drive in auto hotel (sexo hotel) Heidi says “We aren’t staying there” I say “These places are perfect for us and have a private garage attached to the rooms” She gives in.
We pull into the compound and drive right into a garage stall attached to the room. The room had a king size bed, huge 6 foot by 10 foot mirrors in front and behind the bed, a big TV with a large variety of channels (if ya know what I mean) And the room comes with two complimentary bottles of beer. The place also has room service with a dumb waiter window.
We order food and some more beer and enjoy the rest of the evening.
Hang on! This one is not done yet…..
cavebiker
Active Member
Zihuatanejo:
We tool into Ixtapa and ride up and down the hotel zone. It became obvious right away that this is all way out of our price range, all inclusive resorts in huge compounds and all on the beach. -> Plan B.
A twin city to Ixtapa is Zihuatanejo, an older and more Mexican tourist town. We’ve heard good things about Zihuatanejo from an owner of a hotel we met in Todos Santos. Riding into Zihuatanejo we soon found ourselves lost on some narrow and steep stone studded residential street. The road was going nowhere, we turn around. This was Halloween day and we see this kid standing in the back of a pickup truck.
What a great photo! Sometimes it pays off to get lost.
We cruise straight through Zihuatanejo centrol zone and to the beach area on the south side. We get all the way to the end of the beach where I stop the bike and have a talk with Heidi. A nice guy walks up to us and tells about the hotels close by and the prices, how great is that. We pull into the second hotel from the end because it looked like it had the best parking.
I roll in and look closer at the parking. The owner, Fidel greets us right away and shows us a room. I say “?Tiene habitacion cerca de estacionamiento para de moto? (Do you have a room close to where I can park the motorcycle?) He shows us the first room and says I can park the bike practically right next to the window. While I’m moving the bike Fidel shows Heidi a photo on his camera phone of his Honda Gold Wing with a nice flame paint job. While registering for the room Fidel explains to me about a moto fiesta (motorcycle rally) he goes to that’s about 600 km from here. He says it goes on for about a week and he has a good time there. Wow, what a score. The room is right on the beach and Fidel treats us like VIP’s. If anyplace can be called a paradise this is it. The price was close to our high end, $45 / night, but we just had to sigh up for three nights. We could have stayed here for months.
Check it out, Hotel Casa del Mar. Recommended……www-zihua-casadelmar.com Hotel Ecologico
The hotel has a great restaurant with service on the beach or at your room and the food is fantastic.
View from the room.
There is a stream that runs right through the hotel. Some local crocodiles hang out here. The hotel restaurant is called cocodrilos, this is why!
Heidi and I go for a marathon walk along the beach and into town. Enjoy……
A big bluff has to be climbed before heading into town and to beach centro.
We tool into Ixtapa and ride up and down the hotel zone. It became obvious right away that this is all way out of our price range, all inclusive resorts in huge compounds and all on the beach. -> Plan B.
A twin city to Ixtapa is Zihuatanejo, an older and more Mexican tourist town. We’ve heard good things about Zihuatanejo from an owner of a hotel we met in Todos Santos. Riding into Zihuatanejo we soon found ourselves lost on some narrow and steep stone studded residential street. The road was going nowhere, we turn around. This was Halloween day and we see this kid standing in the back of a pickup truck.
What a great photo! Sometimes it pays off to get lost.
We cruise straight through Zihuatanejo centrol zone and to the beach area on the south side. We get all the way to the end of the beach where I stop the bike and have a talk with Heidi. A nice guy walks up to us and tells about the hotels close by and the prices, how great is that. We pull into the second hotel from the end because it looked like it had the best parking.
I roll in and look closer at the parking. The owner, Fidel greets us right away and shows us a room. I say “?Tiene habitacion cerca de estacionamiento para de moto? (Do you have a room close to where I can park the motorcycle?) He shows us the first room and says I can park the bike practically right next to the window. While I’m moving the bike Fidel shows Heidi a photo on his camera phone of his Honda Gold Wing with a nice flame paint job. While registering for the room Fidel explains to me about a moto fiesta (motorcycle rally) he goes to that’s about 600 km from here. He says it goes on for about a week and he has a good time there. Wow, what a score. The room is right on the beach and Fidel treats us like VIP’s. If anyplace can be called a paradise this is it. The price was close to our high end, $45 / night, but we just had to sigh up for three nights. We could have stayed here for months.
Check it out, Hotel Casa del Mar. Recommended……www-zihua-casadelmar.com Hotel Ecologico
The hotel has a great restaurant with service on the beach or at your room and the food is fantastic.
View from the room.
There is a stream that runs right through the hotel. Some local crocodiles hang out here. The hotel restaurant is called cocodrilos, this is why!
Heidi and I go for a marathon walk along the beach and into town. Enjoy……
A big bluff has to be climbed before heading into town and to beach centro.
cavebiker
Active Member
Next we shoot for Acapulco :
just a short ride south along the Pacific coast. The roads start out twisty with high dense foliage right up to and sometimes sticking out onto the roadway. About 50 miles later the road straightens out at times with more open fields, a few tractors, pigs and burros on the road. In route I see a small taco stand along the road that looked friendly and decide to stop for a bite.
Heidi and I try so hard to speak proper Spanish but at times I really fumble it up. For some reason we always are treated so well at places like this. Here we had four or five people all taking turns waiting on us and trying to communicate, a few words of English here and there but mostly Spanish. Heidi is getting much more comfortable speaking Spanish and is, I think, really good at it. Anyway, the owner, Jose, is super friendly and proceeds to tell all about what it is like to live and work in Mexico and in the US. Jose skipped across the border to the US several years ago and worked in Chicago for three and a half years. He explains with emotion what it was like to be stopped by the police in Chicago and how well they treated him. Jose came back to Mexico with a nice pickup truck and enough money to start this small business, employing his son and four of his friends. Jose explains how in Mexico you can earn enough money to eat a few tacos a day, cloth yourself but nothing more. This is a big part of why we like traveling in Mexico and stopping at places off the beaten path. What a group of beautiful and kindhearted people. We feel very blessed to have met them.
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Acapulco:
To say Acapulco is like Mazatlan on steroids would be an understatement. There was what seemed like billions of people everywhere, on the streets, bobbing in the water and on the roads. This is not our kind of scene. We look at a map and see a stretch of highway south of Acapulco running along the coast. We think that there will be more low key hotels there. We ride through town and are just glad to make it out of there alive and in one piece.
Acapulco is beautiful though. We were disappointed to miss out seeing the cliff divers but safety is more important to us then seeing some tourist attraction. We are out of here……
Well, the stretch of highway where we were hoping to find a hotel had nothing. We continue south hoping to find something in a city further on. This is rural Mexico here, pigs, chickens, farm fields and coconut fields. It’s getting late and we are both starting to get a little concerned. It’s dark by 6:30 PM now and We Will Not drive in the dark. I am fully prepared to ask a farmer along the road if they can put us up for the night. I’m practicing Spanish phrases in my head to ask for help. I did this my first motorcycle trip into Mexico back in 02’ and it was a wonderful experience. I have full confidence we will be helped out if we need it.
Finally around 5:30 PM, 30 minutes before I start begging for help, we pull into a small town, San Marcos. This is a cross road town for two highways and it had several hotels. Yes, we are set. We ride back and forth through town and pick a hotel that looked the friendliest for motorcycle parking. We pull in and see a couple of adventure motorcycles. Heidi says “These are the same bikes we saw at that hotel in Tecoman” We both recognized the weird looking plates.
Unreal, out pop Matthias and Manuela from East Germany ( www.outdoorbiker.com ). Just like us, they both quit there jobs to do this ride. What a nice couple. We enjoy a long conversation about our ride, our life philosophy and what it is like to live where we are from. It is just unbelievable how two couples that live half way around the globe from each other can be so alike in the way they think and live, AND we just happen to bump into them in a small, rural town in Mexico, both on our rides of a life time. This experience feels like some kind of cosmic event. All of a sudden fireworks start exploding in the sky from across the street. We can see them from where we are sitting. I brace myself for what may happen next (uhh aww, uhh aww)
just a short ride south along the Pacific coast. The roads start out twisty with high dense foliage right up to and sometimes sticking out onto the roadway. About 50 miles later the road straightens out at times with more open fields, a few tractors, pigs and burros on the road. In route I see a small taco stand along the road that looked friendly and decide to stop for a bite.
Heidi and I try so hard to speak proper Spanish but at times I really fumble it up. For some reason we always are treated so well at places like this. Here we had four or five people all taking turns waiting on us and trying to communicate, a few words of English here and there but mostly Spanish. Heidi is getting much more comfortable speaking Spanish and is, I think, really good at it. Anyway, the owner, Jose, is super friendly and proceeds to tell all about what it is like to live and work in Mexico and in the US. Jose skipped across the border to the US several years ago and worked in Chicago for three and a half years. He explains with emotion what it was like to be stopped by the police in Chicago and how well they treated him. Jose came back to Mexico with a nice pickup truck and enough money to start this small business, employing his son and four of his friends. Jose explains how in Mexico you can earn enough money to eat a few tacos a day, cloth yourself but nothing more. This is a big part of why we like traveling in Mexico and stopping at places off the beaten path. What a group of beautiful and kindhearted people. We feel very blessed to have met them.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Acapulco:
To say Acapulco is like Mazatlan on steroids would be an understatement. There was what seemed like billions of people everywhere, on the streets, bobbing in the water and on the roads. This is not our kind of scene. We look at a map and see a stretch of highway south of Acapulco running along the coast. We think that there will be more low key hotels there. We ride through town and are just glad to make it out of there alive and in one piece.
Acapulco is beautiful though. We were disappointed to miss out seeing the cliff divers but safety is more important to us then seeing some tourist attraction. We are out of here……
Well, the stretch of highway where we were hoping to find a hotel had nothing. We continue south hoping to find something in a city further on. This is rural Mexico here, pigs, chickens, farm fields and coconut fields. It’s getting late and we are both starting to get a little concerned. It’s dark by 6:30 PM now and We Will Not drive in the dark. I am fully prepared to ask a farmer along the road if they can put us up for the night. I’m practicing Spanish phrases in my head to ask for help. I did this my first motorcycle trip into Mexico back in 02’ and it was a wonderful experience. I have full confidence we will be helped out if we need it.
Finally around 5:30 PM, 30 minutes before I start begging for help, we pull into a small town, San Marcos. This is a cross road town for two highways and it had several hotels. Yes, we are set. We ride back and forth through town and pick a hotel that looked the friendliest for motorcycle parking. We pull in and see a couple of adventure motorcycles. Heidi says “These are the same bikes we saw at that hotel in Tecoman” We both recognized the weird looking plates.
Unreal, out pop Matthias and Manuela from East Germany ( www.outdoorbiker.com ). Just like us, they both quit there jobs to do this ride. What a nice couple. We enjoy a long conversation about our ride, our life philosophy and what it is like to live where we are from. It is just unbelievable how two couples that live half way around the globe from each other can be so alike in the way they think and live, AND we just happen to bump into them in a small, rural town in Mexico, both on our rides of a life time. This experience feels like some kind of cosmic event. All of a sudden fireworks start exploding in the sky from across the street. We can see them from where we are sitting. I brace myself for what may happen next (uhh aww, uhh aww)
cavebiker
Active Member
Puerto Escondido:
Today we are pointing for Puerto Escondido. I know nothing about this place but I think it’s a big surfer destination.
Along the way we see a nice looking church as we roll through a small town.
Here we stop for some nuts and juice. It’s so easy to just keep riding through all these small towns and villages but we recognize the need to stay nourished and hydrated for staying alert and safe. We have fun practicing speaking Spanish with the people here.
Getting close to Puerto Escondido. Nice…….
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We check out a few hotels in Puerto Escondido before finding one in our price range that had good parking. When we pull into the chosen hotel we see a BMW road bike fully loaded for cruising. Here we meet Dan and Bonnie from Canada. Of course, they are on their way to Panama and are spending the entire winter cruising through Central America. (I can’t believe this!) This is Dan’s 3 rd ride to Panama and he is bubbling over the top with information, anything and everything about biking and destinations. They are both retired and have attended several HorizionsUnlimited travelers meetings and really enjoy being on the road.
Bonnie and Dan. I gave Dan crap the first day while he was polishing his bike saying he is as bad as some Harley riders who spend so much time washing their bike. Dan pretended like he didn’t hear me but Bonnie got a good chuckle from it. We all enjoyed several long talks together and look forward to hopefully seeing each other again on the road in Central America.
A few pics of Puerto Escondido:
8:00 AM, a fishing boat arrives with its catch.
One happy customer.
This just seems like a place where beer commercials should be filmed or something.
Puerto Escondido is divided into two beaches and what seems like two separate towns. One beach (photo) is more protected and is where all the fishing boats are and is where more Mexican families go. The other beach is exposed to the open Pacific Ocean and is where all the surfers hang out. It’s so distinct, the only thing that separates the two is this small outcropping of rocks in the middle.
Our last day in Puerto Escondido Heidi and I went to the surfer side for breakfast. The Pacific swell was big that day. The waves were building up to over ten feet high and all the surfers were a buzz about the event. People were practically racing to the beach with long lens cameras and surf boards.
After breakfast Heidi and I walked down to the beach where all the activity was. Surf boards, big dog cameras, ocean jet-skis, babes in itsy bitsy bikinis, people standing around with there thumb and pinky sticking up in the air. It was so cool. The swell was not coming in at a very good angle so the waves would build and break fast, almost all at once. This made it very difficult to catch and ride a wave without getting hammered almost immediately. That’s what the jet-skis were for. This is serious business. The jet skis would tow a surfer at high speeds into the lip of the chosen wave. The surfer would let go at just the right moment and ride down a huge wave, duck down low while the wave curled into a tube and a second later get smashed when the wave collapsed onto them. Heidi and I were standing on the beach right in front of all the action with our mouths hanging open. It was like watching Wide World of Sports but a hundred times more dramatic. After the surfer would get smashed by the huge wave, out of nowhere the jet-ski would appear running at high speeds straight at the downed surfer. The surfer would grab onto the handholds of a flat raft being towed by the jet-ski. The jet-ski would then gun it’s engine and peel off, towing the surfer away from the next breaking wave that would have crashed right on top of him. This was almost as dramatic as the surfing itself. We couldn’t believe the skill and timing of the jet-ski driver. It was all done with split second timing and if the driver was off by a second or two both the jet-ski and the surfer would have gotten smashed. I have never seen this before but the surfer wore a life vest and didn’t have a tether line attached to his ankle and the surf board. The surfboard would eventually just wash its way up on shore. Way Cool……. I wish we had our camera along.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Local dwellings less then a block from the tourist area.
Puerto Escondido was great but Heidi and I are anxious to push on. We are so close to getting out of Mexico we can almost taste it. All these great bikers we have met in Mexico have gotten us so fired up it’s hard to describe.
Next we are shooting for the city of Oaxaca, a culture rich and beautiful Mexican city. Sounds like a good way to say goodbye to Mexico.
Today we are pointing for Puerto Escondido. I know nothing about this place but I think it’s a big surfer destination.
Along the way we see a nice looking church as we roll through a small town.
Here we stop for some nuts and juice. It’s so easy to just keep riding through all these small towns and villages but we recognize the need to stay nourished and hydrated for staying alert and safe. We have fun practicing speaking Spanish with the people here.
Getting close to Puerto Escondido. Nice…….
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We check out a few hotels in Puerto Escondido before finding one in our price range that had good parking. When we pull into the chosen hotel we see a BMW road bike fully loaded for cruising. Here we meet Dan and Bonnie from Canada. Of course, they are on their way to Panama and are spending the entire winter cruising through Central America. (I can’t believe this!) This is Dan’s 3 rd ride to Panama and he is bubbling over the top with information, anything and everything about biking and destinations. They are both retired and have attended several HorizionsUnlimited travelers meetings and really enjoy being on the road.
Bonnie and Dan. I gave Dan crap the first day while he was polishing his bike saying he is as bad as some Harley riders who spend so much time washing their bike. Dan pretended like he didn’t hear me but Bonnie got a good chuckle from it. We all enjoyed several long talks together and look forward to hopefully seeing each other again on the road in Central America.
A few pics of Puerto Escondido:
8:00 AM, a fishing boat arrives with its catch.
One happy customer.
This just seems like a place where beer commercials should be filmed or something.
Puerto Escondido is divided into two beaches and what seems like two separate towns. One beach (photo) is more protected and is where all the fishing boats are and is where more Mexican families go. The other beach is exposed to the open Pacific Ocean and is where all the surfers hang out. It’s so distinct, the only thing that separates the two is this small outcropping of rocks in the middle.
Our last day in Puerto Escondido Heidi and I went to the surfer side for breakfast. The Pacific swell was big that day. The waves were building up to over ten feet high and all the surfers were a buzz about the event. People were practically racing to the beach with long lens cameras and surf boards.
After breakfast Heidi and I walked down to the beach where all the activity was. Surf boards, big dog cameras, ocean jet-skis, babes in itsy bitsy bikinis, people standing around with there thumb and pinky sticking up in the air. It was so cool. The swell was not coming in at a very good angle so the waves would build and break fast, almost all at once. This made it very difficult to catch and ride a wave without getting hammered almost immediately. That’s what the jet-skis were for. This is serious business. The jet skis would tow a surfer at high speeds into the lip of the chosen wave. The surfer would let go at just the right moment and ride down a huge wave, duck down low while the wave curled into a tube and a second later get smashed when the wave collapsed onto them. Heidi and I were standing on the beach right in front of all the action with our mouths hanging open. It was like watching Wide World of Sports but a hundred times more dramatic. After the surfer would get smashed by the huge wave, out of nowhere the jet-ski would appear running at high speeds straight at the downed surfer. The surfer would grab onto the handholds of a flat raft being towed by the jet-ski. The jet-ski would then gun it’s engine and peel off, towing the surfer away from the next breaking wave that would have crashed right on top of him. This was almost as dramatic as the surfing itself. We couldn’t believe the skill and timing of the jet-ski driver. It was all done with split second timing and if the driver was off by a second or two both the jet-ski and the surfer would have gotten smashed. I have never seen this before but the surfer wore a life vest and didn’t have a tether line attached to his ankle and the surf board. The surfboard would eventually just wash its way up on shore. Way Cool……. I wish we had our camera along.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Local dwellings less then a block from the tourist area.
Puerto Escondido was great but Heidi and I are anxious to push on. We are so close to getting out of Mexico we can almost taste it. All these great bikers we have met in Mexico have gotten us so fired up it’s hard to describe.
Next we are shooting for the city of Oaxaca, a culture rich and beautiful Mexican city. Sounds like a good way to say goodbye to Mexico.
cavebiker
Active Member
Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca:
Today we are shooting for Oaxaca, about 165 miles north of Puerto Escondido on highway 131. I read something about a village about half way that is in the mountains and has some great hiking trails nearby. We take off early just incase we need to make it all the way to Oaxaca (Yes, 165 miles can be a full days ride in Mexico)
To say the road out of Puerto Escondido is steep, twisty and windy and riddled with pot holes does not come close to describing it. Once and awhile we could average 30 miles per hour, I calculated in my head that we could make it all the way, including stops, in around seven hours. Then the road would get real steep and real twisty and our average speed would drop even further. This is a dream road for biking if you are into this kind of stuff and I am. I had to keep the speed under control because some of the turns were so sharp that long semi-trucks couldn’t make it around the turns without taking up the whole road. It was nice that road signs alerted you of such curves, saying, there is a single lane road ahead.
We were riding along and an oncoming car flashed its headlights at us. Through experience I have learned that this could be a greeting or a warning of something in the road ahead. This time it was the latter. When I first pulled over to take this photo there were three steers in the road. Not something you would want to come across at high speeds around a blind turn. Along this highway there were dozens of mules in the road also. It’s funny, the steers would want to move off of the road but the mules looked like they were frozen in place, like they were petrified.
We stop for gas at a small village.
There were close to a dozen young girls and a few old ladies that would mob over to any vehicle pulling in for gas. They were trying to sell nuts, roasted seeds or fruit. Only one old lady approached us, she looked at least a hundred and was selling some type of seeds. I wasn’t sure what they were but I bought a couple of bags, cinco pesos (45 cents) they were great. I walked up to the group of girls in the photo below and bought this bag of fresh cut papaya, about 90 cents. Good stuff….
About noon we pull into another small village. I think this is the village we were hoping to spend the night and do some hiking. I see a sign at this restaurant saying “Café Ole”. Coffee sounds good right about now so we walk in for a bite. This village was a buzz with activity. It turned out the place where I parked is a mini-van bus stop. I had to move the bike twice.
Heidi ordered carnie asada (grilled beef) and I ordered huevos asada (fried eggs) and coffee. The tortillas were huge and good. Heidi says the beef was a little chewy but good.
Heidi was a little concerned when she saw her raw beef hanging on a stick next to the grill (upper right). She said this will be a good test of her stomach. No problems though…
There was only one hotel in town and it had street parking only. Bummer, we push on.
We hit one other bigger village before Oaxaca that had a hotel with parking but it was still early and we were only about fifteen miles away from Oaxaca. We decided to just drive on.
Today we are shooting for Oaxaca, about 165 miles north of Puerto Escondido on highway 131. I read something about a village about half way that is in the mountains and has some great hiking trails nearby. We take off early just incase we need to make it all the way to Oaxaca (Yes, 165 miles can be a full days ride in Mexico)
To say the road out of Puerto Escondido is steep, twisty and windy and riddled with pot holes does not come close to describing it. Once and awhile we could average 30 miles per hour, I calculated in my head that we could make it all the way, including stops, in around seven hours. Then the road would get real steep and real twisty and our average speed would drop even further. This is a dream road for biking if you are into this kind of stuff and I am. I had to keep the speed under control because some of the turns were so sharp that long semi-trucks couldn’t make it around the turns without taking up the whole road. It was nice that road signs alerted you of such curves, saying, there is a single lane road ahead.
We were riding along and an oncoming car flashed its headlights at us. Through experience I have learned that this could be a greeting or a warning of something in the road ahead. This time it was the latter. When I first pulled over to take this photo there were three steers in the road. Not something you would want to come across at high speeds around a blind turn. Along this highway there were dozens of mules in the road also. It’s funny, the steers would want to move off of the road but the mules looked like they were frozen in place, like they were petrified.
We stop for gas at a small village.
There were close to a dozen young girls and a few old ladies that would mob over to any vehicle pulling in for gas. They were trying to sell nuts, roasted seeds or fruit. Only one old lady approached us, she looked at least a hundred and was selling some type of seeds. I wasn’t sure what they were but I bought a couple of bags, cinco pesos (45 cents) they were great. I walked up to the group of girls in the photo below and bought this bag of fresh cut papaya, about 90 cents. Good stuff….
About noon we pull into another small village. I think this is the village we were hoping to spend the night and do some hiking. I see a sign at this restaurant saying “Café Ole”. Coffee sounds good right about now so we walk in for a bite. This village was a buzz with activity. It turned out the place where I parked is a mini-van bus stop. I had to move the bike twice.
Heidi ordered carnie asada (grilled beef) and I ordered huevos asada (fried eggs) and coffee. The tortillas were huge and good. Heidi says the beef was a little chewy but good.
Heidi was a little concerned when she saw her raw beef hanging on a stick next to the grill (upper right). She said this will be a good test of her stomach. No problems though…
There was only one hotel in town and it had street parking only. Bummer, we push on.
We hit one other bigger village before Oaxaca that had a hotel with parking but it was still early and we were only about fifteen miles away from Oaxaca. We decided to just drive on.
cavebiker
Active Member
Oaxaca:
We got a good tip from Bonnie and Dan in Puerto Escondido about a nice little hotel in Oaxaca that is right in the heart of the centro zone and had a courtyard for parking. Sounds good.
Coming into town there were numerous signs pointing us to the centro zone. We find it without a problem but had a hard time finding the hotel. In heavy traffic I see a tourist info building and tell Heidi to jump off the bike and ask for a street address of the hotel. She thought I was nuts because of the crazy traffic and all the streets were one way. She says “How will I find you again?” I say “I’ll find you, don’t worry”. Luckily I found her without too much trouble. We have a street and approximate location now. Yes, this should be easy. We circle around and around and around. We ask two different people where the street is. They both seemed like they knew where it was but it was not where they said. What The Heck. I finally pull over at the central park (parque centro) Heidi gets off the bike and walks over and looks at a couple of street signs. I ask for directions from a manager of the restaurant I’m parked next to. This guy is super friendly and tells me I go one block the other way, turn right and that is our street. Then I go 2 and a half blocks and that’s our hotel. Great! He says we must return later for the best margaritas in town. Deal!
Heidi returns and I tell her the news. Great, but she says I can’t go down the street that way. I say “Get on the bike and watch me!” We were both a little tense after our nine hour ride through the mountains and the crazy Oaxacan rush hour traffic. I drive down the street, it was blocked off from car traffic but the bike could fit through the barricades, no problem. I turn right after one block. Heidi yells out “This is not the street!” I say “I don’t care, we are taking it!” Good thing because two blocks later the street magically turns into the street we want and we pull right into our hotel. Sweeeeeet!
Later we find out that ALL the streets change names right around parque centro.
The next morning I get up early and take a walk around the neighborhood.
Along the street our hotel is on, people set up stalls right on the road selling just about everything.
About two blocks away is a huge central market building that takes up an entire city block. This truck is bringing in the catch of the day.
I go back to get Heidi, we take off to the central park for breakfast. Sometimes I like to try something new. I ordered Huevos Oaxpequeno (Eggs Oaxacan style) It looked pretty strange when it came out but it was really good.
View from our breakfast table. This guy would play the trombone for a minute or two then sing out loud for a couple of minutes. He was really good and we were glad to throw a few pesos in his hat.
After breakfast we take a walk around the centro zone. Enjoy…..
Here we buy some more roasted pumpkin seeds.
I had one more emergency item to buy before we head south of Mexico, a siphon hose in case we run out of gas. I see a small hardware store so Heidi and I walk in. The place was super small and dark and it didn’t look like they had anything. Just as we were walking out the door I look down and see a pile of coiled hoses, all different sizes and shapes. I measure out nine feet, 90 cents. We are set!
We got a good tip from Bonnie and Dan in Puerto Escondido about a nice little hotel in Oaxaca that is right in the heart of the centro zone and had a courtyard for parking. Sounds good.
Coming into town there were numerous signs pointing us to the centro zone. We find it without a problem but had a hard time finding the hotel. In heavy traffic I see a tourist info building and tell Heidi to jump off the bike and ask for a street address of the hotel. She thought I was nuts because of the crazy traffic and all the streets were one way. She says “How will I find you again?” I say “I’ll find you, don’t worry”. Luckily I found her without too much trouble. We have a street and approximate location now. Yes, this should be easy. We circle around and around and around. We ask two different people where the street is. They both seemed like they knew where it was but it was not where they said. What The Heck. I finally pull over at the central park (parque centro) Heidi gets off the bike and walks over and looks at a couple of street signs. I ask for directions from a manager of the restaurant I’m parked next to. This guy is super friendly and tells me I go one block the other way, turn right and that is our street. Then I go 2 and a half blocks and that’s our hotel. Great! He says we must return later for the best margaritas in town. Deal!
Heidi returns and I tell her the news. Great, but she says I can’t go down the street that way. I say “Get on the bike and watch me!” We were both a little tense after our nine hour ride through the mountains and the crazy Oaxacan rush hour traffic. I drive down the street, it was blocked off from car traffic but the bike could fit through the barricades, no problem. I turn right after one block. Heidi yells out “This is not the street!” I say “I don’t care, we are taking it!” Good thing because two blocks later the street magically turns into the street we want and we pull right into our hotel. Sweeeeeet!
Later we find out that ALL the streets change names right around parque centro.
The next morning I get up early and take a walk around the neighborhood.
Along the street our hotel is on, people set up stalls right on the road selling just about everything.
About two blocks away is a huge central market building that takes up an entire city block. This truck is bringing in the catch of the day.
I go back to get Heidi, we take off to the central park for breakfast. Sometimes I like to try something new. I ordered Huevos Oaxpequeno (Eggs Oaxacan style) It looked pretty strange when it came out but it was really good.
View from our breakfast table. This guy would play the trombone for a minute or two then sing out loud for a couple of minutes. He was really good and we were glad to throw a few pesos in his hat.
After breakfast we take a walk around the centro zone. Enjoy…..
Here we buy some more roasted pumpkin seeds.
I had one more emergency item to buy before we head south of Mexico, a siphon hose in case we run out of gas. I see a small hardware store so Heidi and I walk in. The place was super small and dark and it didn’t look like they had anything. Just as we were walking out the door I look down and see a pile of coiled hoses, all different sizes and shapes. I measure out nine feet, 90 cents. We are set!