Sunday, February 6, 2011

ACAPULCO TO PINOTEPA NACIONAL- costa chica

                                             this guy's leather saddle was really beautiful


                                     such an abundance of water - this is in the town of marquelia



                                           Arthur - this is seen all day long and we think of you in Somerset !!!


                                                        GUERRRO = ENDLESS RIVERS

we are now in the state of oaxaca !!!  the trip down was different today - we noticed a dramatic change in both temps

it got hotter and hotter as we drove

and as soon as wel crossed the stateline from gerrero to oaxaca, we saw that:

GUERRERO has rivers everywhere, mangoes and more mangoes, trees in general cover every spot of land for the most part, rivers abound



as soon as you cross into oaxaca......the rivers seem to suddenly disappear, all plants seemed brown and dead and dry trees ??????


the town of pinotepa is where we are in a lovely hotel called san antonio - 350 peso room includes air conditioning (300 pesos = room with a fan) and internet in the room. which is not true as i am sitting in the lobby cause i cant get a connection in the room. les, who is doing ALL the driving (it must a a Polish thing) is out cold.  we average 5 hours of hard driving minimum.  thank goodness for our gps but even she gets lost .... as soon as we hit oaxaca, she began going a bit haywire. since the map we have doesnt even show the road we took, I am not surprised.

I am pleased to report that all the roads are excellent for the most part. some have small potholes, almost all of them have some roadwork, but they are all easily driven.  toll roads are freeways that take you from A to B with no views. so we are totally enjoying the mostly non-toll raods ....

however, i MUST NOT FORGET to mention the topes.  they come unannounced and really send you flying into the air....impossible to avoid.....scary stuff, really scary at times.

road south to acapulco - COSTA GRANDE

TIZUPAN


EXQUISITE
BEACH AFTER BEACH AFTER BEACH ....




COCONUTS, ORANGES, MANGOES, BANANAS



AND GOAT BBQ SEEMS TO BE THE SPECIALTY, WE SEE SIGNS FOR IT ALL OVER



 
SIGN SAYS: BARBACOA DE CHIVO

Now, I have been looking forward to acapulco fromthe day we started talking about this trip .... and the beqaches before the city are just like those you see above or even more dramatic since there are huge cliffs

but acapulco itself was such a letdown. it is filthy. it is old.  it is not historic. the cathedral was nothing special IMO, the rotten smell of ???? by the ocean was so overpowering that we gagged.

we ended up finding a nice enough place to eat, right on the water, called 100 % NATURAL. and the omelet was good but I would neveer ever ever go back to acapulco again.

ZIHUATANEJO

we skipped ixtapa and went to zihuatanejo and we loved this town !!!!  it was a pleasure to walk the streets, shop the shops ..... it came highly recommended and did NOT disappoint !!

the first place we noticed as we parked was tahhhhhhhhhhhh dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

this town has everything one could want - internet cafes and restaurants and beaches and a museum for blanca to wander around in:
a woman who offerred to make me look like BO DERRICK with my braids:


it was soooooooooooo fun to pretend but when i saw my self in the mirror that night - i hated the look since i looked more like bo derrick's derrierre than anything else :((((((((((((((((  so, i took all the braids out - took over an hour - and washed my hair in COLD water since the absolutely horrid hotel we were at that night in acapulco had no hot water. actually, that was not the problem cause the weather is HOT AND I MEAN SWELTERING HOT but, we hate mosquitoes and turned the air on as soon as we got to our room. hated my hair so cold shower in a cold hotel room .....

but we loved zihuatanejo ...


now for the raod south

Thursday, February 3, 2011

colima

a town of 2 volcanoes.....i am too ill to write about it now, but more later !!

so this is later, much later, sunday feb 6th to be exact

on the way to colima, w stopped by a town that was full of tourists, but was so ugly and rundown. we were starving and it was late, so we ate at a horrid restaurant. it was right on the beach. the service was horrible - a huge girthed waiter threw the margaritas at us, scowled when we asked for nachos, and threw the nachos at us when we got them...we paid and left to walk around.

we had found ourselves an ugly rundown hotel called los delfines, that, as it turned out, was next to a 24 hour store, so we were slowly walking back when I saw a hair salon and decided to color my hair. Les went back to the hotel and I stayed for over an hour. the woman, Alejandra was very nice - she has just moved to this town last november, with husband, and has 4 grown up kids - we exchanged horror stories about our kids - hers was:

one of her daughters one day said she was going to dye her hair green. her mom said - if you do that, I will cut your hair off. the daughter did it and her sister forewarned her mom about it. "well, she has 2 choices" my new found friend told daughter 2. "she can redye it toight or I will cut it off". I guess the girls spent all night, but they got the hair right back to it's original color !

the other story she told was that none of her kids ever spent one night away from home. that was her rule. the dad traveled and  took his sons with him, but no one ever spend the night at a pijamada or slumber party. now the kids forgive her, but they raised hell when they were teens. one nice thing - they wd sometimes call their dad and he never disagred with his wife. so why did she have this unusual for mexico rule ???  she figures that sexual abuse is rampant and she wanted to protect the kids. they could invite anyone over, butnot go out.....

enough about alejandra - and back to blanca and les.

when les came back, i was not done with my hair, so he went and got us 3 an icecream. mine was mango and boy was it delicious.  so we ate and bynow it is dark and we go back to the hotel.  les goes to bathroom and says, blanca, i dont feel well and sits on throne for 15 minutes straight with horrible noises.  he comes out and i state: i dont feel so hot either.  and proceed to barf all night long.  i was defintely the sicker of the 2 of us. 

miserable. i take some alka seltzer which always works for me. no good.  4 hours later, more alka. nada.  we now think it was the nachos. they were really cold and horrible and i am sure the beans were bad.    but i am ok enough to go to colima

once in colima we go straight to a hotel.  i go to bed and pretty much stay there. then we go to a pharmacy and they give me magic stuff and give les magic stuff and we can go onnnnnnnnn and seeeeeeee things !!

colima is small and really nice.  there is really only a small square with a european looking long building that houses cafes and such and it is really beautiful. its claim to fame are the 2 volcanoes - one active !!  this is the first real volcano i have ever seen !!


the symbol for the town are 2 dogs - the old one is whispering the secret of life to the young one. i end up buying a little clay version. these were found in ancient tombs, is what i understood.

puerto vallarta - costa alegre

absolutely gorgoues city. took my breath away !!!  beach after beach after beach. a must see. flowers everywhere, water everywhere, heat and humidity everywhere !!

http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab45/BajaBlanca/PUERTO%20VALLARTA/3-1.jpg

the southrn beaches are called costa alegre. les, smart man that he is, had us stopping by and visiting tons of beaches along the way .... but we were headed towards playa azul.

what a disappointment it was. filthy. dirty. rundown. ugly. and we, tired as we were, did not stay as there was nothing that looked viable.  and trust me, at this point we are not too picky any more !!  some wonderful well traveled friends suggested that staying at motels was a good thing - much cheaper than hotels - they can be quite expensive. whenver we find a good motel - we negotiate for time since we are going to be there all night (hahahaha) and depending on the state, you can stay only for 6 or 8 or 12 hours. the good ones are spotless and have ummmmm hmmmm wel ....many amentities :)

all kidding aside - we have our life inside our car - and the motels let you drive in, park in your own garage and close the garage door. peace and tranquility supreme for us.

we ended up gong onto lazaro cardenas. equally horrid.but we found the marbella hotel for 370 pesos that was acceptable and had internet included.



above are some indians who practice rope swinging as part of their culture.  the original pole swings them around 365 times. upside down. the colors of their clothes are so bright and detailed. spectacular.

the car


this is the car that is heroically taking us safely thru mexico since it looks loke we are soooooooooooooo poor and desperately need a new car hahaha no one and i mean no one looks twice at us and we are waved thru all checkpoints....

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

TEPIC, Nayarit and GUAYABITOS, Jalisco

Tepic was really beautiful in the one block historic area and really ugly in the surroundings.... the historical part which is just a couple blocks is only pretty in front of the gvt bldg. there is a wonderful hotel with a wonderful restaurant kitty corner to this bldg.. we had a snack and coffee there. the rest of the city is horrible. old. run down. dirty. ugly.



so we are now in guayabitos which is the town before puerto vallarta. it is ridiculously inexpensive, very cute, on the Pacific. hotels run around $35 for 2 people a night. one block from the beach. there is no malecon, which seems unusual but that means that the restaurants are on the sand. you sit at your table and you can run down to the water in less than 5 minutes. come back, drink and eat, run to beach again.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm isn´t that just wonderful ??????  we think so !!!!  the ocean is not clear and the owner of the restaurant we ate at said that it is a red tide. aparently, it is usually really clear and gorgeous.  i believe him !!!!  well, maybe i don´t  and we shall just have to come back and verify .....


the ride here went thru some heavy duty mountains. and they are verdant and the soil must be beyond good cause we saw plantation after plantation of avocados and bananas and sugar cane. at least those are what les recognized. this city girl saw plants and trees. unidentifiable !!!!