My nightly maintenance routine for the bikes discovered that I had a antifreeze leak from one of the return lines. A quick adjustment and this was fixed, but now I needed some antifreeze to top up the reservoir. I ended up walking to the Pemex twice because the first time I did not take enough money.
We thought we could make it to Playa Azul today, thought being the key word. We were running out of daylight in what was appearing to be a “no hotel” zone. Town after town had no hotel, finally there was a sign that said “Hotel 3km”, ya not so much. So we pressed on and just before dark we made it to a little town, Caleta de Campos, that appeared to only have a couple of roadside shops and an outstanding looking Hotel. The Real Campanario, is owned by Gabino Vega Meraz, a very personable fella who spoke fluent English. This is the first hotel that we got to park in the lobby, Gabino had built a special door for wheelchair access which also doubles as a bike entrance. We got to talking and he owned this hotel and a landscaping company in Aspen Colorado, and splits his time in between the two. He told us all about his little town of 5000 people, where they all lived I do not know as all we could see is a couple of houses. He also recommended a nice clean restaurant to eat at which was just across the street. See photo below, and yes we ate there, and no we did not get sick. We did however have some very tasty tacos. 3 filled us up, 24 pesos ($2), so not a bad deal for supper. The next morning Gabino, greeted us with fresh coffee and a little tour of the gym and restaurant he was building in the hotel, the restaurant was almost ready to open but the gym still needed some work, he had brought all new equipment from the US. Being quite talkative he also let us know that he had some motorbikes as well so if you are ever in the area and need some help, he is the guy to call. 753-531-51-23.
Restaurant
Next stop Acapulco.
Brenda was having a bit of an off day today, probably because she ran out of water and did not mention it to me so we could stop and buy some. This lead to some slight dehydration and heat management issues as it was 34C. At a gas stop, that didn’t have a store, her gas cap was not closed all the way and as she pulled away from the pump gas spilled on the side of her bike (the gas tank is under the seat), then somewhere between this gas station and the first tight curve she lost her gear shift lever. Great more wrenching. Once I noticed that she was not behind me anymore, thanks to a kid on a scooter and a checkstop, I returned a couple of km’s to find Brenda’s bike on the side of the road but no Brenda. She had stopped beside someone’s yard but not in their driveway, so the family could sit on their "porch" and watch these weirdly dressed white people fix the large motorcycle.
I asked the lady, via some hand gestures, where Brenda went. She pointed down the road in the direction of the gas station, the kid on the scooter got the message across to me that she had a flat tire but upon inspection they both seemed fine, so I jumped on my bike and went to find her. Just around the curve Brenda was walking along looking for he lost gear shifter, I told her to keep looking and I would go fix the bike. The family seemed impressed and even laughed a bit when I pulled a spare shift lever out of tool tube, held it up so they could see it and said “Vamanos”. Which usually mean “to go away” or “get out”, so it seemed like a rough translation of what happened to it anyway. Couple of minutes and it was all fixed, I then rode all the way back to the gas station hoping to find the one that fell off, but to no avail, the grass on the sides of the road is literally 10ft tall and there were alot of people walking and on bicycles so they may have picked it up if it was on the road. Oh well, kiss that one goodbye.
We arrived just before dark once again and coincidentally that is also rush hour, so the 3 million people that live and work here are all trying to get home. Rush hour in Mexico adds a whole new dimension to the phrase “rush hour”. We managed to avoid the Centro area, but got caught up in the traffic on the beachfront strip, which is also Rte 200 through town, kind of like funnelling half a million people down Jasper ave, plus horse drawn carriages. These horses must be so desensitized to traffic and noise. We managed to find a great hotel thanks to Carlos (aka Chuck), who is one of those street agents who gets paid to bring in customers to hotels or restaurants. He started talking to Brenda at a traffic light and suggested “his” hotel. We took a chance and it paid off, nice clean room with a/c, and a small balcony. Not on the beach but one block up, so we still had a nice cool breeze on the balcony that worked great for a little relaxation and even better for drying our clothes. We walked down to the beach and around the strip area for a while then returned to our hotel for some balcony sitting. The next morning we headed off early enough to miss rush hour or so we thought, I guess we changed time zones again or something because it was very busy. Somewhere in the process we apparently ran a red light, or at least that was what the police officer said once he caught up to us about 4 miles down the road. He had been following us for a while I just didn’t see him and he never turned on his siren. Nice enough guy, he wanted $1500pesos for the ticket and for me to return to the police station. I refused both and explained that it is impossible to just pull me over when everyone is breaking the rules, plus I did not even know what I did until he told me. This went on for about 10 minutes, then he said if I pay him $500pesos the ticket would go away. I also refused this and told him that just because I am a tourist does not mean that I should be a target. This must have been the final straw because he walked back to his partner, then returned quickly and to me to go.
The rest of the day was smooth sailing, all along the coast to Pt Escondido, a guy at work went on and on about this place so we thought it might make a good layover for a night. The road in was the usual Mexico fair with a good number of curves and an even larger number of small towns. All with Topes (speed bumps). This is generally for speed control and a place for some locals to stand and watch traffic. Maybe they are collecting hubcaps that fly off of cars or something?? In any case it gives us great opportunities to pass vehicles because they have to slow to a snails pace to get over these things, we do not, we can stay in second gear and usually not feel too much of a jolt.
Pt.Escondido did not disappoint. At first we thought it was a bit shady as the sign that directed us to the Hotel Zona, took us to somewhat deserted area with no hotels.??? We carried on down the highway further into town (45000 population) and things improved. All kinds of services and even car dealerships, big grocery stores, motorcycle dealers (Yamaha and Honda), so overall pretty good. Brenda said we should get gas, which is code for “I gotta pee”, we circled back a couple of blocks to the Pemex, where we met Brian. Brian was filling his scooter and as soon as we took our helmets off he commented that our suits looked very warm. I assured him he had no idea, later to find out that he in fact had a very good idea. He had ridden his Harley from PEI to Gualtemala a few years earlier. He had also been coming to Mex and Escondido, in particular, for 34yrs. After a bit of chit chat, he invited us to a beach side bar for a beer and to give us the lowdown of the town. We stayed for two nights, at the bar/hotel he took us to. It was called Liza’s, and was of course owned by a very nice little Spanish lady of the same name. Her and her two sons run the place, which gets very busy during the peak seasons. This is still the shoulder season so they were not technically open for guests but because Brian is such good friends with them they let us stay and made us feel very welcome.
Today is Nov.19 and the blog is up to date. We are moving on to San Cristobal Del Las Casas today. We spent the night in Juchitan, and the ride is was very windy and hot. 36.5C. once again boohoo. beats shovelling snow.
Great blog, and gotta love stewie, sticking to the man (policia) even in a foreign country......
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