0079 12th August - P Vallarta to San Juan de Alima

I ended up staying in PV another day.  I had packed up and set off with all intentions of heading down the coast, but decided to drop into Starbucks to do my blog, banking, etc.  As often happens when you get on the computer only occasionally, there are so many things you need to do, and one thing leads to another and suddenly it is well into the afternoon before you know it !!  So at about 4 pm I got most things done, even had a couple of short skypes, and I also got a Mexicab SIM card for my phone because using the US one was getting too expensive, and then just drove back to my camp site up the road !  Mike was surprised to see me, so we had a chat before I cooked some supper and turned in.  I am not sure if it is the heat or old age or what, but I find I am exhausted by about 8 or 9 pm !  Tomorrow I would have another go at leaving !!

So I packed up again in the morning, and once more set off down the coast – This time not stopping at Starbucks for wifi !  Highway 200 along the coast is a fairly narrow and winding road but fortunately not a lot of traffic, so it is quite pleasant.  I enjoy passing through the little villages and seeing the roadside stalls and activity.  At one tope in a small village was a man all dressed up in a (not so clean) white suit with a can for money – He looked so out of place I had to put a few pesos in his can, for which I was told “Gracias – Go with god, my Amigo”.  Had a smile on my face for a while after a lovely moment in the middle of nowhere.

Most of the day I saw crabs crossing the road – Not in their thousands, but they were always there.  And as we were up in the hills most of the time, and certainly not beside the beach, it was an interesting phenomenon.  Banana crabs ?  There was certainly a lot of banana, coconut, and pineapple farming along the way, with the produce on sale alongside the road.

Came over a hill and there was a great view of the town of Manzanillo.  The name rang a bell, but it wasn’t until I was driving through town and saw all the container cranes down in the port, and then saw a whole lot of brand new cars on car transporters, that I remembered that Manzanillo is a big transhipment port for the RoRo car ferries that go around the world.  In fact, Elsie my Lotus has been to Manzanillo in 2012 – She was transhipped here en route between Seattle and Brisbane when I shipped her home after my trip !  This is the last place you would expect to find a big port, but whatever…..

After some time I came into Tecoman where I had hoped to hook up with Mark and Bri off the Baja Ferry, but I could not find a surfing beach where they planned to be staying, and I seem to have lost their Mexican phone number.  Bugger.  Anyway, plodded on down the road, and eventually came to a little beachside town right beside the water.  So I deviated into the little town where there were lots of hotels, and wandered up the little track asking about camping, and eventually found this little place where for a few pesos they let me camp right on the beach.  Very pleasant, and had a good sleep with the cooler sea breeze blowing most of the night.

 

Pics are here https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0080PVallartaToSanJuanDeAlima?authkey=Gv1sRgCI3I_cvWou3WBw#