Mexico Mainland
I took the ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan arriving on the morning of Friday, Oct-9. I spent a much needed rest day in Mazatlan at the lovely Ocean Front Inn Bed & Breakfast hosted by Jim and Candace – a place I can highly recommend. Their hospitality and great location right on the water and near the “centro historico” did wonders to recharge my batteries, which had been depleted after the 2 week nonstop Baja ride…
On Saturday I started riding South towards Guadalajara. It is much more tropical here, with high humidity and temperatures in the mid 90s. It feels just like riding in Florida in the summer! Sweating from the moment you get on the bike until you take a shower at night…
I covered quite some distance in the first two days – nearly 300km to Tepic. I stopped at the occasional little town, usually heading straight for the central plaza, often at the local church with plenty of shops, restaurants and mostly also some form of Internet access.
Initially it was all flat, and riding on the cuota (tollroad) is safe (wide shoulder, little traffic) and fast (straight-line, bridges and hilltop-cutouts). That changed yesterday afternoon, when I ran into the hills leading up to Tepic. I had no idea how much climbing was involved to reach this town (at 900m sealevel). So I ran out of daylight (and options to stay), so I had to finish the last hour in the dark, going uphill, with lots of traffic. It was hot, humid, stinky from the trucks, and I was tired after more than 9 hours on the bike. Not a scenario I would want to repeat anytime soon. I stopped at the first small hotel and got some of Ricos tacos next door – too tired to look for anything else.
But today is another day, and I got caught up on email and Blogging. I’ll probably do a much shorter day today, continuing towards Guadalajara and then Lago de Chapala…
Add comment October 12th, 2009