10-27-05

It was a long day in town. We didn’t get going until late but the good news is that I finally got the malaria preventative medicine. We went out to eat at a very fancy restaurant in Manzanilla. The sun was getting really low in the sky when we got home and I think we are all very tired.

10-28-05

It was a very interesting night. The girls got into a big cat fight and I fortunately was able to roll over and sleep through most of it. They were getting a little drunk and after the long hot day they let it all out.

I got up early and gathered up all my gear that got sort of strung out by staying so long. When I left it was still pretty early and the temperature was nice and cool.

I saw the guy that runs the sheep and goats along the road to the highway and stopped and snapped these. The sheep are called something like Boar-A-goes. The are hair sheep.

 I stopped off at a beach that was recommended to me from someone who stayed there years ago. The place is named Tenecatita.

It turned out to be mostly a string of small restaurants on a little beach but there were a couple of nice hotels and this little place that caters to the gringo campers. There is supposed to be a hostel here too but it was so early in the morning that very few people were up.

I had to stop and take this of a guy hilling his corn with a horse. He waved at me when I showed him I was taking a photo. Nice quiet work in the morning.

It was one of the most beautiful days on the road. The weather was nice and the road spectacular all the way down with little traffic. If every day of riding could be this nice…… I finally stopped and took a photo of the trees in bloom and other flowers along the road as it was early morning and little traffic.

It was getting toward late afternoon when I saw a little sign along the road pointing toward the beach. I thought it looked like I might be able to get to the beach that way so I took it. I didn’t go far when I met a guy that spoke some English and he explained that it was a tortugas recovery station. He was from Italy and was there for three month working with the turtles. He said he thought it would be ok if I camped in the parking lot so I set up my little tent without the rain cover as it didn’t look like any rain about to happen.

I walked up and looked at their camp.

This is where they burry the turtle eggs that they gather from the female turtles that come up on the beach at night.

the deal is that the eggs hatch 45 days after they are laid so they keep track and put a screen around the place where they were buried and they come straight up from down two feet or more depending on which kind of turtle it is.

This is Mario who is from Germany and is also spending three months working here. There were maybe ten Anglos working here. About half of them were beautiful young women. It made me wish I was thirty years or more younger…..

They turn the little ones loose at night so the birds and other predators don’t get them.

I suppose there are lots of predators that get them when they are in the ocean. Mario said that it takes 20 years for them to grow up and come back and lay eggs. I guess there are several different kinds of turtles that use this beach but 80% of the Negra, Negro or Black turtles use this beach (that is world wide).

I took this photo of a poster and the black one is on the far right.

the work at the camp starts at nine at night and runs until eight in the morning. I waited up until pretty late and finally went out on the beach and looked at the surf. This beach is steep sand and the three foot breakers hit with fury on the beach. No swimming is allowed as it is too dangerous. Those breakers just slam the beach hard. At night the phosphorescence of the wave hitting is spectacular, it is almost like a flash bulb going off. While I was sitting there in the dark a few girls were walking down the beach and they stopped not too far from me and I could see their flashlight flicker for an instant. When they came by I asked if they saw one and they said yes. So I walked down in the area and found the one they saw. It was about three feet long and they are really big girls. I decided to head back and ran across another one that was even bigger, maybe almost four feet long. They ask not to use flash so I wasn’t able to take a photo but I did get these tracks. When I first went out walking I thought they were atv tracks but they end in a big hole.

I went bed and when I woke up in the night I got up and went out to see what was going on. A four wheeler brings the eggs in to be planted. When I arrived a load was dropped off and there must have been about a dozen sacks of maybe ten pounds each with maybe three dozen eggs in each sack. I held the flashlight while a little Mexican guy dug down as far as he could with a post hole digger and then got down on his belly and scraped out a larger place at the bottom. He then dropped the eggs in the hole and filled it in with sand and placed the paper that identified the eggs (?) by number. The eggs were warm and the shell was something like a ping pong ball but soft and easily dented. Maybe sort of like leather jelly filled sacks. I helped plant a few and then went back to bed.

10-205

I was up early again as the local Mexican crew leaves early to go home. It was another beautiful ride this morning and I  sure was enjoying it. I pulled into a gas station and there was another BMW there sort of like mine. We were both surprised to see each other. His name is Alex and he is from New York city. He is taking a vacation and is meeting up with his girl friend for a week just north of Zihautanejo.

We rode together for a while and stopped for something to eat. I had about a half of a roasted chicken from last night and he bought some fresh tortillas and some piquante sauce to go with it. We stopped in the town square and had a nice meal. We talked bikes and travel and it was sure nice to meet a fellow traveler on the road. He would like to go with me down south but he owns a business and his girlfriend wouldn’t want him gone that long. humm, females are sometimes like an anchor.

I rode fairly late today, as I really couldn’t find a nice place to camp. I stopped at a couple of hotels but they were pretty sleazy. I finally found a nice place on the ocean but it was a GS motorcycle road to get here. I find some regular cars here as well as a couple of those little taxis that they use down here so I guess there must be another road in or they are really good drivers. There is a restaurant here too and the chicken fajitas were great other than there was some white bread slices rather than corn tortillas which is strange.

Tomorrow is my birth day and I will be 60 years old or young, what ever……

10-30-05

Not much to say about today so far other than I made it through Acapulco and know I never want to come back through it. It wasn’t that bad of a road through it, it is just a huge city around a bay. There are a lot of people here and the size of the hotels and all that bull shit was enough to really turn me off from all the tourist stuff.

There are a lot more hotels but they are out of the picture to the right. Gee that doesn’t look like a very good photo because I stitched three together but what the hell, it doesn’t matter unless you like built up stuff.

It wasn’t easy to find a parking place either so the only thing I did was stop at a big store and buy some bread, batteries in case the camera needs them, and two breaded stuffed chili rellanos. The chilis are wonderful. I ate one for lunch along with a bread roll and I am still not hungry and it is getting late afternoon.

I stopped in a section of town out on the edge and took this of a street scene that is quite common all over mexico.

I stopped and have a hotel room here in San Marcos (or that is where I think I am). I didn’t want to get caught out on the road late like last night so I stopped here and checked the room out. There is a big pool in the courtyard and I have been allowed to park the bike in the courtyard. They lock up the area at night and I feel that it will be just fine here. I sort of talked with the hotel man and I think there is an internet shop not too far away. It is a fair size town and I took a ride up the main street and it must be nearly a quarter mile or so plus many side streets that are full of things going on. I thought it would be fun to go up and see what is happening. Tomorrow is Halloween and I think the next night might be their night of the dead. I think I am probably the only gringo in town as this definitely is not a tourist place. That is all way back there in Acapulco. I think I am out of the tourist stuff for the rest of the way south.

One good thing about being out of the tourist area is that the room only cost $12 and it has a big fan over the bed that wobbles like crazy and I hope doesn’t fall on me tonight. There is only one plug in and it is in the bath room but fortunately I can sit on the bed and the charger line reaches.