Dia 15: Puerto Vallarta to Melaque

Today had its ups and downs but ended on a really good note. After waking up this morning with a slight case of the old Montezuma´s revenge (if you dont know dont ask), we completely disgraced ourselves by going to the Walmart Superstore in Puerto Vallarta. Say what you will about Walmart, but I had been needing to grab a couple things since we left and was unsuccessful until Walmart reared it´s ugly head. Ugly but oh so beautiful...

We headed south out of town around noon on Mex 200 after a trek through old town PV to find some adequate 4-stroke motorcycle oil. It was at this point that Kyle´s blood pressure began rising at a very unhealthy rate. The road out of PV is an absolutely beatiful route, winding through dense jungle over-looking the Pacific Ocean. The problem is that its only one lane in each direction and there is a very healthy amount of traffic going each way, including tour buses, taxis and loco Mexican drivers. We had couple iffy moments on this ride but nothing we couldnt handle.

After finally making it out of town we started making a steady pace but soon learned to respct the Topes (speed bumps). These things literally come out of NOWHERE down here. Back in the US you can usually see speed bumps from a ways away due to there being painted in very bright colors but it seems that someone here is playing a nasty trick on foreigners by camoflauging them into the adjacent pavement. Another problem is that they are placed in very inconvenient and weird places where there really should not be a speed bump such as leaving a town or in the middle of the highway. This is evidenced by the fact that Kyle hit a very such Tope today literally at 50mph sending him flying 2 feet into the air. The landing was quite nice but I´m a little concerned about his stock back shock blowing up with some of the tough riding we´ve been doing. Don´t worry parents...it was sweet!

Around 3pm we decided we were tired of riding and would find the next turnoff we could to camp on the beach for the night. This was the good part of the day. We randomly pulled into the town of Melaque thinking we could find somewhere to set up camp. Driving through town we quickly noticed it was a really cool place but also that it was crawling with North Americans. Once again it was mind blowing to find another little Mexican town overrun with gringos who either live here full time or for part of the year. Melaque has a nice stretch of beach and we found a camping spot for only 40 pesos, or a little under $3 US.

Other notable things which I´ll attach pictures of were Kyles sand burnout tyring to get down to the camp spot, a huge old abandoned hotel right on the main stretch of beach, and fisherman with nets wading out into the water to catch dinner. Anyways, enough typing for now, talk to you all soon.