July 18
We are so very tired. And now we know why it is so lush. Storm #1 (of 2) hit about 2-3 am. Yet again we were the two naked gringos in camp dealing with their tent, but this time digging for the rainfly in a surreal downpour. At least one inch in one hour, maybe two inches in two hours. We were so far beyond unprepared… Everything that wasn’t in a moto case got totally soaked. Most of it dried out in the hot morning sun, but that meant we stayed in camp longer than we wanted. When all was as dry as it could be and it finally came time to put on our moto gear, the worst to put on was definitely the boots… They felt like the warm rain itself. Mmmm… warm wet boots for the next 6-8 hours… Let the foot funk begin.
With our late departure we were hoping to take a “shortcut” from San Blas to Hwy 200, but about 30 km into that plan, that plan proved a bad idea. They were working on the road, and, well… those that could figure a way around and/or barrel over it could go through to the other side. And those that couldn’t either parked and siesta-ed (which at least three big trucks were doing) or turned around (like we did). So 50-75 km we went back to Tepic, then 150 km to Puerto Vallarta (PV). We had no interest in “doing” Puerto Vallarta, it was simply a known location that had Google-able places to camp. In our research however we discovered that PV is one of the new and open gay and lesbian communities in Mexico, which I think is really great and want to support. But we decided we are just a little “done” with tourist towns after last week. Anyway, getting here - that 150 km stretch from Tepic… it was the first time we had been on motos and wanted the windy road to stop. Lots of traffic, lots of crazy drivers. Narrow winding road. Lots of speed bumps (the big ones you need to go super slow on or you risk cracking your skid plate). It was exactly the kind of road/day that made our parents worry about taking this trip. And it made us very, very tired. In fact looking back… last night was no sleep from the rain storm, the night before was no sleep from the heat storm, and the night before that was no sleep on the ferry… we haven’t had a good night sleep in days.
Mexicans sure do love their loud music. Any time, any purpose - blaring it. Ok.
Animal highlight of the day: the giant black and red heliconious butterfly I chased around camp this morning while our things were drying in the sun. Gorgeous. Huge. The bugs are getting so good.
Fast forward to Storm #2. Downtown Puerto Vallarta. Exhausted from the 4 hour 150 km ride (so four hours of about 30 mph and inhaling truck fumes). Stoked to get the campground and still hopeful we are ahead of the daily rain that will eventually come. (Side note: we’ve talked with some locals and from here on out it rains once a day then over. We knew this was coming in Guatemala, but not this far north. So as long as we aren’t setting up camp IN the rain, we should be good. We are prepared for better decisions now). So yeah, we are tired and excited and navigating the frontage road system (which, go us. That is non-trivial on a moto). POOF. La lluvia (the rain).
And so came our next lesson about the frontage roads… While convenient for avoiding u-turns and actually accessing the places you want or think are close by, they are lower (as in lower elevation) than the main road. And a bit more rough. More potholes and manholes and gopher holes and whatever holes. More garbage, more buses, more pedestrians, etc. But if you want to easily access the services off the highway, you gotta stay on it. And now add the rain. The hard rain. Ernie called it “driving rain” today. Our little frontage road quickly filled to what I would call a mote or a pond, and before long I was watching Ernie’s tires disappear into the street. There was a half a block where I could feel that the water was up to my ankles. Hadn’t ever thought about motorcycling through a pond… Then buses would drive by us on the left and the wave of water felt like a tsunami. Ernie guesses there was 10” of rain on the road (and remember, he doesn’t exaggerate). There was no seeing the road under the water. Might we have dove into a pothole at any moment? Sure! There was no clear view of the watery road from behind our waterfall visors. Could. Not. See. I was so freaked out I skipped the panic part and went right to self-calming mode by singing. I sang (very poorly) all the way until we could both see a big “S”. “S” is for Sheraton. The End.
July 19
The plan as we bumbled to the hotel and to bed was to be rested from the hotel and get up and make the ~200 km drive to our next campground. At 10:45 we got a knock on the hotel door - one of those fake-housekeeping-get-up-and-get-out-of-here-knocks. Oops. It is about four hours from when we should have been up and moving. We talk… There is no way we are getting to our next stop before dark, we refuse to ride in dark if it can be avoided, if we need to find a new stop we need wifi and new plans… Our bug bites and gnarly feet are finally unswollen… Probably best just stay in the Sheraton another day. We actually had to talk through our guilt about it. It was too nice of a hotel for us. And it was easily one of the best showers we have ever taken… The words I am thinking of to describe it are not appropriate for this public blog. So Ernie goes to the front desk to get us another night, and no bueno. No more rooms (which is still hard to believe - there are at least a dozen floors to that hotel and it is off season). We make coffee, Ernie gobbled up his breakfast, and we head to the free Wifi lobby. Right, that was our one stop last night post- arrival and before bed - we walked to a big grocery store and got stuff for E to have a breakfast and fresh ingredients for a dinner of Tacos al Ernesto(bagged beans, fresh tortillas, avocado, crushed salsa verde chips) and baked goods for breakfast. Frustrating slow wifi session, we learn there isn’t much before our planned destination as the highway diverts inland so much/not touristy there, and its getting late in the day. The concierge remembered us from yesterday and gave us a two hour late checkout. YES. We decide to get out of central PV and find a cheap hotel as far south of town as we can. www.expedia.com.mx. Check. Talk to random guy in the lobby who knows PV. Check. He said he was married with kids but we think he was gay. He mentioned “Pepe’s Tacos”. We load the bikes and chat about that random guy in lobby. Check. Ernie has a hypothesis that because PV is a rising gay community, the food might actually be good. Not to be totally stereotypical (but to be totally stereotypical), we decide there is validity in the idea that a booming gay community would not tolerate crappy food. Hmmm… We convince ourselves of this and decide we shall head to Pepe’s. It is only five or six blocks away, and the first thing we notice is the sign posting their hours. They are open from 1 pm to 6 am. Yep, you read that right. 1 in the afternoon until 6 in the morning. Hypothesis about the gays gains additional support. Then we notice the pastor twirling out front. Then we notice the adorable man, probably Pepe himself at 80 (but looks 50) working in “the kitchen”. We are sucked in and feliz. Six pastor tacos. YUM. That will last us through tomorrow.
It is ~2 pm by this point, and we are ready to head out of town. Our new hotel is only 15 km away. Yet this ends up taking ~2 hours. Not joking. Cobblestone streets, one way streets, streets with elevation, streets with no signs. The map looked so easy!!! The path we took to get from the Sheraton to highway 200…. good grief. Getting around the Mexican town on two wheels is non-trivial. We understand why the moto’s here are all mini. 50-100 cc. Agile like swallows and finches. Our heavy beasts on these bumps and dips! It is all making us much better riders. Our final stop was a pharmacia somewhere up some hill… we stop there only because she actually had a sign about what her casita was and there was something flat out front we could park the bikes on. We ask the owner and she gives us the sketchiest directions yet. We trust her and keep following the road she tells us. Important side note: so much trust is required on this trip… trust in the bikes, trust in our gear, trust in the roads, trust in the people that point and wave and say “si - sigue” (yes, follow). It is hard to trust this much…
And yes, seemingly 1000 meters higher and later then when our adventure began, poof! There is Hwy 200. Easy cruise to our “hotel”. Hotel Mar Sereno is… old. Quirky. Quiet. There are probably 100 rooms total, 20 functioning rooms, and 3 occupied rooms (us and two Mexican families on vacation). It is ~$40 a night. It was the bomb at some point, but the way things get weathered here who knows. Our guess is the 1940’s or 50’s…. Some floors and rooms are so run down. Everything is not clean but not dirty. We almost feel like it could all crumble into the ocean at any minute. Right now we are on the deck and we are up high enough on the cliff side that the pelicans are eye-level. And flying right in front of our little patio. Ernie says the pelicans are 20 feet away.
The real surprise and gem of the place is the ocean pool. There is a pool with freshwater, but then below that (a total of 197 steps below us) is an ocean pool (see Google pics). Built with such care and imagination! And luckily, we were there are high tide was coming in. More water, more fish. The fish were so great! The pool wasn’t large and there was no coral or otherwise colorful substrate. It was entirely a feeding hole, and lots of fish ere coming in to feed on the red and brown algae during high tide. Feeding frenzy! Low diversity rating but high behavior rating. Aggression, feeding. Most excellent. Another million sally lightfoot crabs. And my first spiny lobster! It was dead sadly, but fresh dead, so its body still revealed every color of the rainbow. Red, pink, yellow, green, blue, white, orange - all visible on this little buddy. He looked so beautiful underwater. Outside of him, the two highlights were watching and interacting with the moray eel and the cornetfish. Emphasis on “interaction”. Truly and interaction! It was all very enjoyable and by far our most unique and bizarre ocean experience. I have a hypothesis that Ernie and I are probably two of ten people to have actually walked down and snorkeled in those pools in the past few years. The bottom of the pool was riddled with tiles that have fallen from the hotel above. Visit soon as it might all be gone in the next tropical storm.
Tara is still in awe at the roads she has done on two wheels.
Alarm is set. We will continue on tomorrow. Ready to arrive in camp before the afternoon rain. We got this.
“Ernie, what would you like to say about yesterday and/or today?”
“In a short distance from a town like Puerto Vallarta where there is a lot of outside money coming in, there is a place like this that exists. Or the little town that we drove through today (Tara insert: to the south to look for gas) - it was not touristy at all - and so close to Puerto Vallarta. We are so lucky to get to see those things. I also liked it that there are only two other rooms filled here and there are ~20 people at the pool right now. From a sensory perception point of view I’m also very appreciative of the fact that I can barely hear right now.” (Ernie has water in his ears from our hours of snorkeling :)
July 20
Sorry for so much writing without posting. The Sheraton wanted us to pay for internet (which we didn’t) and last night was so spotty that I got frustrated just trying to post a few pics so I gave up and just went back to our room. Ernie was watching the television - Mexican Public Broadcasting. It was the only chanel the TV got. Was nerdy goofy.
Today = successful. We got up and out early - on the road by 9. (Side note - we are now two hours ahead of Portland time, so we are trying to adjust to new time and that sun rises at 7 am and sets around 8-9). Hwy 200 South-West of Puerto Vallarta isn’t nearly the mess that it is North-East. There were a fraction a number of the cars and the towns were a bit sleepier. Fewer mangos, more cows, and drier and cooler and more inland pine-like habitat (which was appreciated). There was some construction, which we expected, but we are such pro’s now that main-road-Mexico construction was a piece of cake. Ha! Seriously… the side road of sand and gravel would have stressed us (ok me) out tremendously a few weeks ago, but after riding through roads where we couldn’t see or couldnt go down without walkign the bikes - that packed sand-gravel mix was a piece of cake! We (ok me) concentrated rather than panicked. It took a bit out of our day, but all was safe at all times. There is probably much more construction to come, so we are planning on lowering our km per day expectations.
Pretty much rode for four hours straight. Our one 20 minute stop was at a pullout that, post-parked, turned out to be a police station. Bonus! There was a police officer outside watering the agave’s with a bucket. They all stared as we got off, sat in the gravel, and ate peanuts and drank water. After about 10 minutes one of the officers came over and engaged - offered us use of the bano (bathroom). He was very kind. A few police vehicles came and went and we were the point of focus for all of them.
By 1 pm or so we reached our planned destination - Playa de Iguanas. It is tucked inside a little bay that is also home to Manzanilla to the south (which we think will be very touristy and wanted to avoid). At peak season (Feb-March) I bet this place is rippin. But for now it is super sleepy and there are all of 20-25 groups in a place that holds much much more. We got a “palapa” (palm thatched roof cover thing) right on the beach. What you can’t see in the pic we post is that there are RV’s on either side of us. We actually picked this spot on purpose… that way when they go to bed at night we can be naked in this heat and don’t have to walk all the way to the banos to pee.
Most exciting thing about Playa de Iguana = there are actually iguanas! Wow! Two feet long and climb the palm trees like there is nothing to it. Striped tails. Equally gorgeous and prehistoric. I don’t think they masturbate like the marine iguanas of the Galapagos, but I shall keep my eyes open.
The ethology of Mexico has been spectacular. And Ernie has such a great eye - he has pointed out at least half the stuff we have seen. I am so happy we run at the same pace when it comes to watching animal behaviors. Even when we are hot and miserable and heading to somewhere comfortable, if we see a cool critter doing something interesting, we stop and watch :)
After starting to set up camp and both the bikes fell down from sinking in the sand (ha!) we did some troublshooting and experimenting about our gear and the rain and how can we quickly do this or that. All with a strong breeze and no bugs. Most excellent! I truly hope it rains this afternoon or evening so we can see how we did and how to adjust for next time. Post-troubleshooting we walked to a Mini Super (a.k.a. mini-market) and buy them out of their last 12-pack-ish batch of beer that is a mix-match of Corona Light, Corona, and Estrella (none of these are good beers). Sadly, they were out of everything in the mini-super for “Tacos al Ernesto” except tortillas, and the only noodle bowls they had at the mini-super were shrimp flavored…. We reluctantly bought them for $.60 each. We’ll see if and how we participate in those noodles. We have a bag of Doritos as backup.
I must be happy. I just saw a hermit crab and thought “even the hermit crabs are cute here”.
Ernie still had lots of trouble hearing today… It is like it is too humid for the water in his ears to evaporate. Hopefully it clears up soon as it is affecting his ability to interact with other people (on the bike it is OK because he can turn our microphone volume up to a billion and hear me even if I’m whispering). He is taking a nap right now.
Thank you to everyone interacting with us! Ultimately I write all of this for ourselves… so that when we are old and forgetful we can remember this adventure. But it is fun to share with those we love and might enjoy it :)
We are so very tired. And now we know why it is so lush. Storm #1 (of 2) hit about 2-3 am. Yet again we were the two naked gringos in camp dealing with their tent, but this time digging for the rainfly in a surreal downpour. At least one inch in one hour, maybe two inches in two hours. We were so far beyond unprepared… Everything that wasn’t in a moto case got totally soaked. Most of it dried out in the hot morning sun, but that meant we stayed in camp longer than we wanted. When all was as dry as it could be and it finally came time to put on our moto gear, the worst to put on was definitely the boots… They felt like the warm rain itself. Mmmm… warm wet boots for the next 6-8 hours… Let the foot funk begin.
With our late departure we were hoping to take a “shortcut” from San Blas to Hwy 200, but about 30 km into that plan, that plan proved a bad idea. They were working on the road, and, well… those that could figure a way around and/or barrel over it could go through to the other side. And those that couldn’t either parked and siesta-ed (which at least three big trucks were doing) or turned around (like we did). So 50-75 km we went back to Tepic, then 150 km to Puerto Vallarta (PV). We had no interest in “doing” Puerto Vallarta, it was simply a known location that had Google-able places to camp. In our research however we discovered that PV is one of the new and open gay and lesbian communities in Mexico, which I think is really great and want to support. But we decided we are just a little “done” with tourist towns after last week. Anyway, getting here - that 150 km stretch from Tepic… it was the first time we had been on motos and wanted the windy road to stop. Lots of traffic, lots of crazy drivers. Narrow winding road. Lots of speed bumps (the big ones you need to go super slow on or you risk cracking your skid plate). It was exactly the kind of road/day that made our parents worry about taking this trip. And it made us very, very tired. In fact looking back… last night was no sleep from the rain storm, the night before was no sleep from the heat storm, and the night before that was no sleep on the ferry… we haven’t had a good night sleep in days.
Mexicans sure do love their loud music. Any time, any purpose - blaring it. Ok.
Animal highlight of the day: the giant black and red heliconious butterfly I chased around camp this morning while our things were drying in the sun. Gorgeous. Huge. The bugs are getting so good.
Fast forward to Storm #2. Downtown Puerto Vallarta. Exhausted from the 4 hour 150 km ride (so four hours of about 30 mph and inhaling truck fumes). Stoked to get the campground and still hopeful we are ahead of the daily rain that will eventually come. (Side note: we’ve talked with some locals and from here on out it rains once a day then over. We knew this was coming in Guatemala, but not this far north. So as long as we aren’t setting up camp IN the rain, we should be good. We are prepared for better decisions now). So yeah, we are tired and excited and navigating the frontage road system (which, go us. That is non-trivial on a moto). POOF. La lluvia (the rain).
And so came our next lesson about the frontage roads… While convenient for avoiding u-turns and actually accessing the places you want or think are close by, they are lower (as in lower elevation) than the main road. And a bit more rough. More potholes and manholes and gopher holes and whatever holes. More garbage, more buses, more pedestrians, etc. But if you want to easily access the services off the highway, you gotta stay on it. And now add the rain. The hard rain. Ernie called it “driving rain” today. Our little frontage road quickly filled to what I would call a mote or a pond, and before long I was watching Ernie’s tires disappear into the street. There was a half a block where I could feel that the water was up to my ankles. Hadn’t ever thought about motorcycling through a pond… Then buses would drive by us on the left and the wave of water felt like a tsunami. Ernie guesses there was 10” of rain on the road (and remember, he doesn’t exaggerate). There was no seeing the road under the water. Might we have dove into a pothole at any moment? Sure! There was no clear view of the watery road from behind our waterfall visors. Could. Not. See. I was so freaked out I skipped the panic part and went right to self-calming mode by singing. I sang (very poorly) all the way until we could both see a big “S”. “S” is for Sheraton. The End.
July 19
The plan as we bumbled to the hotel and to bed was to be rested from the hotel and get up and make the ~200 km drive to our next campground. At 10:45 we got a knock on the hotel door - one of those fake-housekeeping-get-up-and-get-out-of-here-knocks. Oops. It is about four hours from when we should have been up and moving. We talk… There is no way we are getting to our next stop before dark, we refuse to ride in dark if it can be avoided, if we need to find a new stop we need wifi and new plans… Our bug bites and gnarly feet are finally unswollen… Probably best just stay in the Sheraton another day. We actually had to talk through our guilt about it. It was too nice of a hotel for us. And it was easily one of the best showers we have ever taken… The words I am thinking of to describe it are not appropriate for this public blog. So Ernie goes to the front desk to get us another night, and no bueno. No more rooms (which is still hard to believe - there are at least a dozen floors to that hotel and it is off season). We make coffee, Ernie gobbled up his breakfast, and we head to the free Wifi lobby. Right, that was our one stop last night post- arrival and before bed - we walked to a big grocery store and got stuff for E to have a breakfast and fresh ingredients for a dinner of Tacos al Ernesto(bagged beans, fresh tortillas, avocado, crushed salsa verde chips) and baked goods for breakfast. Frustrating slow wifi session, we learn there isn’t much before our planned destination as the highway diverts inland so much/not touristy there, and its getting late in the day. The concierge remembered us from yesterday and gave us a two hour late checkout. YES. We decide to get out of central PV and find a cheap hotel as far south of town as we can. www.expedia.com.mx. Check. Talk to random guy in the lobby who knows PV. Check. He said he was married with kids but we think he was gay. He mentioned “Pepe’s Tacos”. We load the bikes and chat about that random guy in lobby. Check. Ernie has a hypothesis that because PV is a rising gay community, the food might actually be good. Not to be totally stereotypical (but to be totally stereotypical), we decide there is validity in the idea that a booming gay community would not tolerate crappy food. Hmmm… We convince ourselves of this and decide we shall head to Pepe’s. It is only five or six blocks away, and the first thing we notice is the sign posting their hours. They are open from 1 pm to 6 am. Yep, you read that right. 1 in the afternoon until 6 in the morning. Hypothesis about the gays gains additional support. Then we notice the pastor twirling out front. Then we notice the adorable man, probably Pepe himself at 80 (but looks 50) working in “the kitchen”. We are sucked in and feliz. Six pastor tacos. YUM. That will last us through tomorrow.
It is ~2 pm by this point, and we are ready to head out of town. Our new hotel is only 15 km away. Yet this ends up taking ~2 hours. Not joking. Cobblestone streets, one way streets, streets with elevation, streets with no signs. The map looked so easy!!! The path we took to get from the Sheraton to highway 200…. good grief. Getting around the Mexican town on two wheels is non-trivial. We understand why the moto’s here are all mini. 50-100 cc. Agile like swallows and finches. Our heavy beasts on these bumps and dips! It is all making us much better riders. Our final stop was a pharmacia somewhere up some hill… we stop there only because she actually had a sign about what her casita was and there was something flat out front we could park the bikes on. We ask the owner and she gives us the sketchiest directions yet. We trust her and keep following the road she tells us. Important side note: so much trust is required on this trip… trust in the bikes, trust in our gear, trust in the roads, trust in the people that point and wave and say “si - sigue” (yes, follow). It is hard to trust this much…
And yes, seemingly 1000 meters higher and later then when our adventure began, poof! There is Hwy 200. Easy cruise to our “hotel”. Hotel Mar Sereno is… old. Quirky. Quiet. There are probably 100 rooms total, 20 functioning rooms, and 3 occupied rooms (us and two Mexican families on vacation). It is ~$40 a night. It was the bomb at some point, but the way things get weathered here who knows. Our guess is the 1940’s or 50’s…. Some floors and rooms are so run down. Everything is not clean but not dirty. We almost feel like it could all crumble into the ocean at any minute. Right now we are on the deck and we are up high enough on the cliff side that the pelicans are eye-level. And flying right in front of our little patio. Ernie says the pelicans are 20 feet away.
The real surprise and gem of the place is the ocean pool. There is a pool with freshwater, but then below that (a total of 197 steps below us) is an ocean pool (see Google pics). Built with such care and imagination! And luckily, we were there are high tide was coming in. More water, more fish. The fish were so great! The pool wasn’t large and there was no coral or otherwise colorful substrate. It was entirely a feeding hole, and lots of fish ere coming in to feed on the red and brown algae during high tide. Feeding frenzy! Low diversity rating but high behavior rating. Aggression, feeding. Most excellent. Another million sally lightfoot crabs. And my first spiny lobster! It was dead sadly, but fresh dead, so its body still revealed every color of the rainbow. Red, pink, yellow, green, blue, white, orange - all visible on this little buddy. He looked so beautiful underwater. Outside of him, the two highlights were watching and interacting with the moray eel and the cornetfish. Emphasis on “interaction”. Truly and interaction! It was all very enjoyable and by far our most unique and bizarre ocean experience. I have a hypothesis that Ernie and I are probably two of ten people to have actually walked down and snorkeled in those pools in the past few years. The bottom of the pool was riddled with tiles that have fallen from the hotel above. Visit soon as it might all be gone in the next tropical storm.
Tara is still in awe at the roads she has done on two wheels.
Alarm is set. We will continue on tomorrow. Ready to arrive in camp before the afternoon rain. We got this.
“Ernie, what would you like to say about yesterday and/or today?”
“In a short distance from a town like Puerto Vallarta where there is a lot of outside money coming in, there is a place like this that exists. Or the little town that we drove through today (Tara insert: to the south to look for gas) - it was not touristy at all - and so close to Puerto Vallarta. We are so lucky to get to see those things. I also liked it that there are only two other rooms filled here and there are ~20 people at the pool right now. From a sensory perception point of view I’m also very appreciative of the fact that I can barely hear right now.” (Ernie has water in his ears from our hours of snorkeling :)
July 20
Sorry for so much writing without posting. The Sheraton wanted us to pay for internet (which we didn’t) and last night was so spotty that I got frustrated just trying to post a few pics so I gave up and just went back to our room. Ernie was watching the television - Mexican Public Broadcasting. It was the only chanel the TV got. Was nerdy goofy.
Today = successful. We got up and out early - on the road by 9. (Side note - we are now two hours ahead of Portland time, so we are trying to adjust to new time and that sun rises at 7 am and sets around 8-9). Hwy 200 South-West of Puerto Vallarta isn’t nearly the mess that it is North-East. There were a fraction a number of the cars and the towns were a bit sleepier. Fewer mangos, more cows, and drier and cooler and more inland pine-like habitat (which was appreciated). There was some construction, which we expected, but we are such pro’s now that main-road-Mexico construction was a piece of cake. Ha! Seriously… the side road of sand and gravel would have stressed us (ok me) out tremendously a few weeks ago, but after riding through roads where we couldn’t see or couldnt go down without walkign the bikes - that packed sand-gravel mix was a piece of cake! We (ok me) concentrated rather than panicked. It took a bit out of our day, but all was safe at all times. There is probably much more construction to come, so we are planning on lowering our km per day expectations.
Pretty much rode for four hours straight. Our one 20 minute stop was at a pullout that, post-parked, turned out to be a police station. Bonus! There was a police officer outside watering the agave’s with a bucket. They all stared as we got off, sat in the gravel, and ate peanuts and drank water. After about 10 minutes one of the officers came over and engaged - offered us use of the bano (bathroom). He was very kind. A few police vehicles came and went and we were the point of focus for all of them.
By 1 pm or so we reached our planned destination - Playa de Iguanas. It is tucked inside a little bay that is also home to Manzanilla to the south (which we think will be very touristy and wanted to avoid). At peak season (Feb-March) I bet this place is rippin. But for now it is super sleepy and there are all of 20-25 groups in a place that holds much much more. We got a “palapa” (palm thatched roof cover thing) right on the beach. What you can’t see in the pic we post is that there are RV’s on either side of us. We actually picked this spot on purpose… that way when they go to bed at night we can be naked in this heat and don’t have to walk all the way to the banos to pee.
Most exciting thing about Playa de Iguana = there are actually iguanas! Wow! Two feet long and climb the palm trees like there is nothing to it. Striped tails. Equally gorgeous and prehistoric. I don’t think they masturbate like the marine iguanas of the Galapagos, but I shall keep my eyes open.
The ethology of Mexico has been spectacular. And Ernie has such a great eye - he has pointed out at least half the stuff we have seen. I am so happy we run at the same pace when it comes to watching animal behaviors. Even when we are hot and miserable and heading to somewhere comfortable, if we see a cool critter doing something interesting, we stop and watch :)
After starting to set up camp and both the bikes fell down from sinking in the sand (ha!) we did some troublshooting and experimenting about our gear and the rain and how can we quickly do this or that. All with a strong breeze and no bugs. Most excellent! I truly hope it rains this afternoon or evening so we can see how we did and how to adjust for next time. Post-troubleshooting we walked to a Mini Super (a.k.a. mini-market) and buy them out of their last 12-pack-ish batch of beer that is a mix-match of Corona Light, Corona, and Estrella (none of these are good beers). Sadly, they were out of everything in the mini-super for “Tacos al Ernesto” except tortillas, and the only noodle bowls they had at the mini-super were shrimp flavored…. We reluctantly bought them for $.60 each. We’ll see if and how we participate in those noodles. We have a bag of Doritos as backup.
I must be happy. I just saw a hermit crab and thought “even the hermit crabs are cute here”.
Ernie still had lots of trouble hearing today… It is like it is too humid for the water in his ears to evaporate. Hopefully it clears up soon as it is affecting his ability to interact with other people (on the bike it is OK because he can turn our microphone volume up to a billion and hear me even if I’m whispering). He is taking a nap right now.
Thank you to everyone interacting with us! Ultimately I write all of this for ourselves… so that when we are old and forgetful we can remember this adventure. But it is fun to share with those we love and might enjoy it :)