Southern Exposure

Friday, December 5

After our two days of relaxation in Acapulco, it was time to get back to the task of riding south. Our plan was to get to Oaxaca in two days, with the stop over night being in the town of Puerto Escondido.

It was very much a business day of riding for us. We only stopped for gas as it was nearly 250 miles to our destination. The beginning of the ride was very much like Baja. You know the ocean is out there somewhere nearby, but you don’t see it. From Acapulco we quickly moved inland away from the water, and the landscape turned brown.

This section of the day’s ride reminded me of parts of California – rolling hills covered in dried grasses. The temperature kept riding as we rode along and it was by far the hottest temperature yet on this adventure. I looked at the thermometer on my dash and it registered upper 90s, but it felt even hotter. I’ve been very pleased with my Motoport riding gear on this trip. It’s bulky and ugly, but it’s made of a kevlar mesh that passes air very nicely. Despite being dressed in all black, I’m usually much more comfortable in the heat than Inna. This was the first time I really felt the jacket heat up. The jacket felt like it had just come out of the dryer. We both sweat more this day than any day prior. There are no pictures from this section because neither of us wanted to stop.

The bleak landscape continued for nearly half the day until finally the road turned closer to the ocean and the temperature dropped. We entered a landscape unlike any other we’d been through before. It was a Mexican savannah or wetlands. Cattle were grazing alongside palm trees in fields of lush, green grass. It couldn’t have been a starker contrast and this was one of Inna’s favorite landscapes of the entire trip. The air was cool, the grass was green, the ride was good.

We reached Puerto Escondido in the early evening hours, and after a few attempts, settled on a hotel. This town is famous for its surfing so it attracts a young crowd. The other guests were some German hip hop surfers and some other surfers who liked to play Mexican surfer/punk rock loudly while he showered. Not our favorite hotel.

As usual it seems, there was a festival going on for one of the Virgin saints. The process was quite noisy as it went by our hotel. We went into town for dinner, and it was standard tourist fare. A terrible traditional Mexican band was playing across the street from our restaurant. The owner of the restaurant came by to chat and share with us his dislike of nearly everything including the band and the dancers enjoying the bad music. He did give us some good travel advice on avoiding the road to Oaxaca from this town. He said it was an ugly road, full of animals and the dreaded topes, even though no one lived near it. “Nada. Nada. No hay nadie, pero hay muchas topes.” (Nothing, nothing, there is nothing and no one, but many topes.) We took his advice and took the better road the next day.

The rest of our day consisted of shopping for our standard convenience store breakfast of drinkable yogurt drinks, apples, and bananas. I never thought I’d eat so many meals from what are basically 7-11s with small produce sections. We went to bed early amidst all the noise as we knew the ride through the mountains the next day would be challenging.