(Julia: we need a photo here please! :)
Ten or so minutes later we parked along side of the road opposite Comercial Mexicana where Gillian dashed in and back with 2 liters of Lala Light. (milk). On a side note, there is a popular brand of particularly soft and (to us) unappealing white bread in Mexico called Bimbo. It makes Art laugh saying: "Mexico, the land of Lala Milk and Bimbo Bread"!
We had thought (well, at least Art had mentioned) that if we got a good early start and reached Km 103.5 at an early enough hour, and he was still fresh, he might push on all the way to Melaque, a further 5 or 6 hours. Fortunately, our friends and neighbours on the park were leaving the same day and said that they would see us at 103.5
Northbound out of Zihuatanejo we soon discovered that the approaches had been substantially improved. There had been a more or less bypass highway under construction since we first came here 10 years ago. We used to joke about the "Bridge to Nowhere" which was a new crossing of the river with a nice wide road at one end and ending in rock and jungle at the other. This year we crossed it! Nice new road all the way to the Morelia/Uruapan toll road.
The toll road to Lazaro Cardenas was also in excellent condition as was the main road though that city. Then we were into the small towns between Lazaro and La Mira and all bets were off! S l o w doesn't quite describe it, however we were eventually through, and two hours from El Manglar we were at the Playa Azul turnoff, a couple more hours to our stop.
The Michoacan Coast is very rugged and beautiful, the highway winding up the valleys then back to the coast. Art has found that the diesel motorhome makes this a much less stressful drive than our previous gas engined rig. The biggest differences are the air brakes, the exhaust brake, and the 6 speed Allison transmission's cruise control.
Highway construction was rampant between Playa Azul and Coleta de Campo, here are a few pics of the old road, the new sections and in between. We were often sailing along at a great rate on a new piece only to find that we were on gravel again because the bridge wasn't finished.
Here is a comparison of what the highway used to be like almost all along the 200.
And here is a new bit!
Somewhere along one of the old bits of highway heard a loud bang which seemed to come from the right side of the motorhome. Couldn't tell what it was but supposed we had hit a tree branch hanging down, hidden amongst the greenery. We later found damaged fibre glass at the top right of the front fiberglass cap. marks indicated that it likely had been a largish branch. We'll try to get it repaired in Mazatlan.
This link shows where we stayed the night. Select the Satellite view and pan left and right to see the route. You can also zoom in and out.
This campground is run by a group of 8 families as an ecotourist area. It's full name is Zapote Tizupan Centro Ecoturistico so you can see why we refer to it by its location on this section of the 200, Km 103.5.
We arrived to find the restaurant palapa roof being repaired. It was quite interesting to watch. We quite enjoyed watching them work. Their efforts were continually accompanied by laughter and chatter. They quit about 6:00 PM and were back at work as the sun came up in the morning.
The interesting thing was that this side of the palapa was being thatched with different palms than the original. The new materials are fan shaped.
The damage was from storms last summer.
Although the restaurant was being repaired, the floor covered with pieces of dried palm leaves while the tables were covered with a thick layer of dust, when we arrived we were asked if we would like a meal. Gillian said that we would come later for a drink and perhaps dinner.
Just before dusk we wandered over to the restaurant, a worker appeared, cleaned off the table and took our order for a beer each. Later La Señora arrived to take our dinner order. We had a choice of fish or prawns. Gillian ordered prawns in garlic while Art asked for a filet of fish, also in garlic. She said "No hay filete, es entero" meaning it was not fileted but whole fish. The then decided that she could filet it for him!
Wish we had thought to take a photo because it tasted as good as it looked. Surprisingly the meals were not served with rice, the norm, but with some quite nice french fries. The bill for 4 beer, one large filet of fish and a serving of prawns was 305 pesos, about $25.00.
Come morning we were on the road again at 8:40, looking at a 5 to 6 hour drive to San Patricio de Melaqui. We again crossed many river valleys/canyons and again, road construction alternated with old and new highway.
By 1:00 PM breakfast had worn off and we were ready for lunch as we came across a view point overlooking the city of Manzanillo and Manzanillo Bay. Unfortunately, the haze made photography difficult.
From here on though the road was good and we arrived in Melaqui at 3:00 PM. We found space at the small RV park right in town. This use to be and I suppose still is, a very popular park. Unfortunately the owner died a year or two ago and the two heirs couldn't agree on what to do with the property. One wanted to keep the RV Park, the other wanted to develop it; cabins, apartments or what ever.
So a wall went up, and this is what is left. At least the RV Park owner has some income!
Next morning once again ten minutes before 9:00 AM we hit the road for a few minutes, stopped to fuel up and headed north for Puerto Vallarta.
The road had been recently resurfaced and was a pleasant though sinuous drive for the most part; we were half way to PV in less than 2 hours. Things were looking up. For the time being. Then at the end of some very new road surface we came across an 8 kilometer stretch of mostly unpaved potholes. It looked like the road had been dug up, widened, and seal coated then abandoned. There was no sign of equipment or recent work, just the 8K of crappy road. We were down to under 30 Km/H, often to 20 or less.
Then we got back onto the untouched old road which seemed good in comparison. Until we arrived in Boca de Tomatlan. At the enterance to Boca, we missed seeing several topes which we hit pretty hard, then the road surface really went to xxx . From here to Mismaloya the road had not seen any repair or maintenance for years. It was a continuing series of potholes. 20 Km/H and less for the most of it.
Finally we got onto the new concrete road into Puerta Vallarta, arriving at the Puerto Vallarta Trailer Park at 3:00 PM. At our site of choice we later found that the Shaw Direct Satellite signal was blocked by a palm tree. The site next to that would have been OK except for the large overhanging palm tree with a large crop of very large coconuts which appeared ready to drop. We elected to go without the TV. We have several things recorded if we get desperate for something to watch.
Posts
Do you still have both mirrors?
ReplyDeleteSo far so good!
ReplyDelete