Coldtohottour2

Well hello jolly fun seekers, this is my new blog. I created this because I couldn't remember the passwords to my other blog it had been so long since I last used it. So I will bring everyone up to date. I left to continue on May 1 to continue my jourey south. The first day I made it to El rosario just in time to have my chain break. I was carrying much too much stuff but bore with it for a while. The next day I managed to have the chain fixed but I stayed the extra day anyway just to check the place out. It really is a nice colonial with a rich history. Most of its history revolves around mining and abusive spaniards. Of course this is true of a large percentage of Mexican towns. From there I headed south staying in such towns as Acaponeta, Santiago Ixcuintla and San Blas. I stayed in San Blas for a couple of days. It is a nice little place, I can understand why people like it. The reason I stayed for a few days is a friend from Alaska who comes to Mazatlan for several months every winter spends about half his time there. I just wanted to see the attraction was. Very nice beaches, muy tranquilo, locals seem friendly but I still like Mazatlan better. I took the free or libre highway from Mazatlan to most of the way to San Blas and basically I hated it. One very narrow lane in each direction and no shoulder. Also desert, desert and more desert. When I headed out of San Blas it finally started looking like more of what most people consider tropical. Lots of trees, SHADE, and much less traffic. It has been hot high 80s low 90s almost every day. It did not, however, stay nice and lush and green from that point on. It would go back and forth between desert and lush green. An example of this is the town of Las Varas. A decent sized town with nothing much to recommend it except a cheap motel. I stayed at the Florida hotel, 17 dollars/night. 4 walls a ceiling fan indoor plumbing (with hot water!) and a tv with cable. From Las Varas I seemed to be doing a fair amount of climbing. At one point I wondered if it was ever going to end. Finally it did and I kept on going down and down and said "thank you god it's about time" and did not stop until I got to Bucerias where I stopped for a well deserved and intensely necessary beer, well actually more like 3. Bucerias is about 10 km outside Puerto Vallarta. I got a room there instead of going into Puerto Vallarta with the idea that I would go into PV the following day, which I did. I HATE COBBLESTONES! Which if for no other reason is why I could never live in PV. Also there are no bicycle shops in PV. Probably because no one rides them because of the goddamned cobblestones. I liked it well enough but I don't know it just seemed too commercial or something. Imagine if they just took Venice Beach CA and plopped in Mexico. If you like Venice Beach then you'll probably like PV, if you don't you probably won't. When I got to PV I noticed that my carbon fiber seat had a big chunk missing out of the back of it. Well decisions, decisions finally I decided that since this trip is probably going to be 3 years or possibly more it was best not to take a chance. So I decided to replace it. Since it is a recumbent and the seat is unique and it is built in Oregon that meant I had to fly to Oregon to replace it. As my Finnish friend Peter would say Perkota Perkota(private joke if you don't know Peter) So I left on a Monday and came back on Wednesday with my new seat. So continuing from PV I head south, I go about 2 blocks south of the hotel I was staying at made a left turn and immediately proceeded to go straight uphill. It was a terrible day, great scenery but too much climbing. At the top of the first hill outside of PV I stopped to rest my legs and a local policeman pulls up to talk to me, says I look like his grandfather(I'm guessing he is 20something) and we had a nice conversation for about 15-20 minutes. I continue on and it is short downhill lo-o-o-ong uphill all day. I hardly make any distance at all. I spend the night in a wide spot in the road town named El Tuitlo. The next day I get up thinking "probably more of the same" and not very happy about it. I have never been happier to be wrong about something in my life! The first 30 km was almost all downhill; IN THE SHADE I mean there were a few places where it got flat for about 100-200 meters but then it continued downhill, YEEEEHAAAA! That day I make it to the tranquilo almost somnambulistic town of LaPerula. Don't look for it on the map, it isn't there. The road that goes to the town off of hwy.200 isn't there(right now you should be hearing the Twilight Zone theme in your head) there is a sign for it just before the turnoff however. For those of you who want to try and find it on map go about 130 km south of PV and you'll see Punta Rivas just north of Chamela. If you want to escape the 20th century let alone the 21st century it is a great place to go. Beautiful beaches good restaurant on the beach with cheap prices very relaxing, it was actually difficult to leave the next day. But leave I did and proceeded south to Melaque. I mentioned my difficulty with my seat in PV well about 30 km outside I had another problem with my seat the whole damn thing came off the bike. Well I hitched a ride and got to melaque in a pickup truck where I got a hotel room for the night. Very interesting hotel, cheap clean, meets minimum standards (believe me my minimum standards are pretty minimal) so I took it. there were a couple of people sitting around outside the hotel and one of them gave me a sort of a strange look but I didn't pay any attention to it at the time. At any rate come to find out later there is a drag queen convention in Melaque that weekend and it is being sponsored by the hotel I am staying at, lucky me. Later that night there were several queens in front of the hotel and I recognized the one who gave me the strange look as one of them. After a night of not much sleep and much consideration of my situation I went to the bus station and got a bus back to Mazatlan having no more faith in my bicycle with the idea of switching it off for my other one. This is where I have been for about 2 weeks and it is time to continue so on Monday June 2 I'm flying to Guatemala City which is where I will continue trip from and my next blog will be from Guatemala. As that great american once "hasta la vista baby"