(22) Durango to San Patricio
It’s been a slow moving few days. We left Durango on September 27th. It was a good long day out of the highlands, and relative cool, of Durango down to the hot and muggy coast at Mazatlán. The road down through the mountains was beautiful though and there are a few pictures of it in the gallery. We did it in a combination of the toll road and secondary road routes. All the pictures are from the secondary road. By law in Mexico if there is a toll road there must be a secondary toll free road available. By and large we try to take the secondary road option but sometimes the need to just get somewhere takes over and we jump on the highway. The secondary roads are almost always in worse physical shape and definitely take much longer than the toll roads.
By the time we finally got into Mazatlán we didn’t have much time to do anything except check into the hotel, get a drink and dinner and then relax before bed. The next morning it was time to get up and moving before it got too hot and start the ride to Puerto Vallarta. I’ve been to PV several times, but Neil had not been before. So we made the decision to stay there for two full days and three nights. I wanted to stay in the old part of town (Zona Romantica) and secure parking can be an issue there. So I decided it was time for a big splurge and we spent our three nights in one of the places John and I have stayed before because I knew it had an underground secure parking garage. A beautiful two bedroom condo for the time there was a nice break from our budget rooms to this point.
It was still hot and humid so all we really did for our time in PV was wander around town, eat, drink and sweat! We did manage to drop into one of my favorite local restaurants, Mariscos el Colera, for shrimp tacos. Neil is tired of Mexican “water beer” so we also managed to find our way into Los Muertos Brewing for some good craft beer.
I noticed on the way into PV that my bike seemed to be running a bit hot. I took a look at our coolant levels and both of our bikes needed a bit of a top off. Mine more so than Neil’s. So one morning I hopped into a cab and went into town to Auto Zone, bought some coolant and a funnel so we could top things off. A nice quick bit of work in the garage of the hotel to get that all sorted out.
After a couple days rest it was time to hit the road again and head down the coast to San Patricio/Melaque to stay at the Villas Camino del Mar. Terrie, me and the boys have come here to this hotel in various family combinations several times over the years. Neil wanted to come down here so he could see the place again. I’m guessing it was between 10 and 15 years since he was last here. About two thirds of the way down we started to hit our first rain since we crossed into Mexico. We stopped on the side of the road and donned the rain gear before it really started to rain. The last hour or so of the ride was difficult. The road was narrow and windy as we descended out of the mountains back down to the shore again in the pouring rain. Both our visors were fogging up making visibility difficult.
It had obviously been raining quite a bit here. We had to ride across one flooded street to get to the hotel At least we saw a bus go through it so we knew about how deep it was going to be and there was no current to it so we felt safe riding though. We arrived very wet, on the outside anyway, but no worse for wear. We were debating how long to stay here. I looked at weather forecasts and realized we had arrived just a day ahead of hurricane Orlene. It was slated to make landfall as a category 3 or 4 somewhere between Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. San Patricio would be on the outer bands of the storm with lots of rain forecast here. So the decision was made to stay here and just hunker down until it passed. We booked in for four nights and three days to let the storm pass. This is our third day here and the rain has finally stopped and there are spots of blue sky. We have spent the prior two days pretty much cooped up in our room watching the rain. It will be nice to get out and wander around town today.
The original plan was to take highway 80 out of here toward Guadalajara. However, it’s a narrow, windy mountain road that’s prone to mud and landslides. With all the rain over the last few days we’ve decided that it’s best to take the main road through Manzanillo and up toward Guadalajara. It’s another toll road that way but I don’t want to get stuck on the mountain road and have to backtrack if there is a significant slide event. We are headed to friends of John and mine who live outside of Guadalajara in the town of Ajijic on Lake Chapala. We’ll spend a couple days there seeing them, resting (we’ve been doing a lot of that lately LOL) and doing some maintenance on the bikes. It will be good to see our friends. I haven’t seen them since they moved to Mexico from Alaska a couple years ago.
While in Ajijic we need to change 3 tires (my rear and both front and rear on Neil’s bike). Watching us fumble our way through that process should provide some comic relief for our friends Jim and Christopher. We will also take some time to do an oil change while we are there. I’m hoping to get into Guadalajara and find a place to replace the oil filters we will use in the change and to pick up a set of brake pads for both bikes. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the dealer in Guadalajara will have those parts. We don’t need the brake pads yet, but if I can get them now they are small and easy to carry and we will need them at some point. The same with replacement oil filters. Here’s hoping.
That brings me up to date. The weather is supposed to be clear and dry tomorrow for the ride to Ajijic. It’s also up in elevation so should be cooler and less humid than here. It will also be good to see friends. I’ll post again later.
