Cabo to Guadalajara

After an extremely relaxing week in Cabo, the four of us saddled up and drove North, backtracking to La Paz where there is a ferry system linking Baja California with Mainland Mexico. The ferries only run on certain days of the week and because of this we made sure to do our homework so as not to show up on an off day. When we arrived at the ferry terminal, we had chosen the right day, but, because I guess none of us are very thorough with homework, we neglected to realize one key piece of information. Instead of choosing a day with an actual comfortable ferry, we chose the sailing which was on an industrial cargo ship. We had to drive the bikes onto the ship and onto a hydraulic lift that brought us to the top deck where we strapped them down for the 16 hour journey. The passenger area was roughly the size of a one bedroom apartment with a kitchen off to one side, and hosted about twenty or so stinky truckers. There were no beds. Only floor space in hallways and some recliner chairs placed strategically in front of two blaring TV's, which of course were playing Spanish cartoons??? So after piling our bags against a wall and eating our sloppy goulash that was included in the price of the voyage, we did as we normally do and made the best of our less than desirable situation by having a drink or two. It was a long night filled with card games and midnight drunken ship exploring.

After sleeping on three chairs in the kitchen (weak), we woke up and ate another gourmet plate of slop and prepared for our arrival in Mazatlan. Mazatlan is a cool, but somewhat Americanized coastal town on Mainland Mexico. I had visited here about four years ago on a previous trip around Mexico. We did a bit of exploring around the area but basically just relaxed on the beach and ate fresh marlin tacos for a few days.

We left Mazatlan driving East, bound for a city named Tepic. I didn't expect much, thinking this was just a stopping point for our actual destination of Guadalajara. But the inner core of this city truly had a lot of character with quaint parks, statues and monuments. It felt like a quiet, foggy little mountain town. That night it rained harder than anything we had experienced on the trip so far. The streets literally became mini ankle-high rivers. It must happen frequently because the city was designed surprisingly well to accommodate the runoff. Instead of having little sewer grates along the sidewalk as you'd find in most cities, the roadways in Tepic had entire cross sections of the street grated nearly two feet wide for the flood of water to be carried away.

Next stop- Guadalajara, a city of nearly 4 million. First on the list for this city was to find new tires for both Cam and my bikes. We were about 8000km's into the trip and the rear tires were nearly completely bald. After an entire day of searching and a lot of miscommunicating, we managed to find the tires we needed and a shop across town that would install them. We also purchased a bunch of other parts that we were going to install ourselves and with all this cargo, we looked a little rediculous driving through the city with everything piled on top of us. That night our friend Katie flew in for a visit. We introduced her to the game of 'hotel drinking' we'd become so good at. We toured around the city the following day and did some more repairs/upgrades to the bikes. The next day we drove 55km's west of the city to the town of Tequila. Cam had organized a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory. The factory was right in the center of town surrounded by cobblestone streets and old rustic buildings- really cool. We had a private tour complete with tastings of their entire product line.

After a couple more nights in Guadalajara, we sent Katie on her way, did some more maintenance on the bikes and headed toward the coast for our first real surf destination, Sayulita. We were about 100km into the trip and all of a sudden Cam started loosing power to his bike. We were at the top of a mountain pass so we coasted all the way down to the valley in hopes there would be a small town or maybe even a mechanic. No dice. We got to the bottom and all there was was a tiny shop selling beer to three or four drunk Mexican dudes. We pulled the bike apart and after tinkering with the engine, checking fluid levels and changing the spark plug, we realized we were not mechanics and were basically screwed. Roughly 45 minutes passed before a vehicle passed that we were able to flag down. Two guys in a flat bed truck stopped and helped us load the bike on for the slow, two hour drive all the way back to Guadalajara. Lame.




So here I sit. Back in Guadalajara waiting with Cam for his bike to be fixed. We sent Hartt and Laine to the coast to try and get a day or two of surfing in before we head off to Puerto Vallarta where Karen and 4 or 5 other of my friends are coming to meet me for my birthday on the 15th of October. Karen organized a villa in PV for 5 days and then another one in Sayulita for another 5. It's gonna be awesome!!