Tough days on the Road.......

The mountain tops afforded excellent views of the ocean bluffs below.

The policia wanted 1000 pesos, (100 US) for illegally parking in a bus zone.  Puerto Vallarta is a tough town to get through, even with directions, when pulling a 26' trailer!  Luckily, the young policia led us to the main road, stopping traffic to get us the f#** out of his town before we caused a major accident or jam!  I dont know whether it was worth $100 US, (later we were told it was a 200 peso fine normally), but he wanted us to stay the night and pay his police station 1000 pesos the next day, in return for J's drivers license.  The other option was to pay it in Manzanillo (which is where we told him we were headed) and wait 5 days  while the license was mailed to us!!!! Yeah, right!!!!

We had been told that under no circumstance should we give the original drivers license to a policia in Mexico-- only a copy.  J had tried that, but the officer insisted he needed the original.  At least he got us headed in the right direction!  We had to twist his arm to take the 1000 p personally so we didnt have to wait for the license.

Anyhow, we got past Manzanillo, which is a huge port (we were told the largest on the Pacific Coast of Mexico) and on towards Playa Azul.  We climbed horrendous mountain roads with hairpin curves and no shoulders for miles.  We were hitting 20-30mph on these hills, and passing dump trucks and busses with no room to spare!  Yikes!  Then we hit the road resurfacing; oiling the road and laying gravel down............  We drove about 2 miles or so behind the pilot car and another pickup with vehicles behind us before reaching the end.  Just as we got out of the gravel, our truck and trailer started screaching like we were pulling the trailer across the pavement with no tires!  We finally came to a spot and pulled over.........to find nothing but an electrical hum from the trailer brakes.  We decided there were some tarred rocks scraping grooves in our trailer brakes, and after we played around with the brake controls, it quit screaching.  We decided to have them looked at in the next town if not before!!!!!!!!!!!!  Next, we encountered extensive road reconstruction.  Apparently the flooding last fall took out a number of bridges and stretches of road.  Instead of rebuilding the bridges, the state of Michoacan undertook filling in the ravines ( big ravines) and widening the Mex 200.  It was still in a state of dirt and partial asphalt for about 10 miles, with big bumps preceeding and following each stretch.  Our trailer was a shambles by the time we reached our destination!!!

Playa azul was not the town we needed.  If you wanted groceries or restaurants, the beach or a car wash, you were in luck.  We were almost out of clean clothes; no laundry place in town.  We needed a mechanic, no mechanics around.  They didnt even have a tire shop, which every wide spot in the road had!  The only saving grace of our host (playa azul hotel), was the pool!!!  Actually two pools and a ping pong table.....and free water.  We were the only people in the hotel for about 40 hours, then the mexican weekend tourists showed up and took over the pool.  By then, we were ready to leave.  We were hoping Zihuatanejo held more promise and better access!



Eli enjoys a great romp on an empty beach after a long drive.





Move over Pancho Villa!  J stars as bartender at Don Crispin tequila factory.