a life made simple: DOWN TO THE BEACH

Since the last time we took this route I named the post PATZCUARO TO THE BEACH, this time I went with DOWN - which is totally appropriate because that is how it is - 7,200 feet down.

Although there is a lot of up with the down we find.

So, Sunday was the day to make the trek from one of our favourite RV parks to our winter destination.

We were up bright and early - but the Hotel/RV Park managers weren't. We were ready to leave by 8:00am but didn't push off until 9:00am. It cost us $1,400 pesos for five nights $23.33 CAN per night. A bit steep - but it's so nice there we can't really complain. Interestingly, for the two of us it would have been $180 pesos or $15 a night. Cassia cost $8.33 a night. They charge for extra people four years and up. I'm thinking that 10 and up would be more appropriate. We watched a C Class come in and leave again - looked like they had maybe 6 people - no wonder they left - that would have been almost $50 per night!

First stop was the Pemex station - we had to back track a couple of kilometres - we only needed about $10 but since I knew that stations are few and far between down to the beach I thought that we should top up.

Since we were at the Pemex we decided to head back that way to the highway.

Just off the ramp and we ran into this. A short stop - lots of activity for a Sunday morning.

The trip starts with a definite climb. We will do about 300km today to reach Zihuatanejo.

Our first toll booth. Notice the sign for water, garbage, parking and medical treatment. On this highway rest areas are common at the toll booths.

Today's ride was more expensive than most. We crossed over 6 toll booths with a grand total of $22.25. I'm suspicious about the last one onto the 200. Anybody know if there is a toll there - there was no sign stating the price but the guy told us it was $68 pesos. Strange.

This is how they roll in Mexico.

Derek and I thought that your driving would have to be REALLY bad in order to be pulled over for it.

Smooth sailing.

A runaway ramp. We are descending very quickly here - this is the second ramp in about 5km.

North of Uruapan we need to move onto the cuota. The crazy thing is that there are three signs in close secession. So - why did we miss that two years ago and get our selves turned around in Uruapan for the better part of a two hours?!

Now, this was a tricky section. There were about eight trucks with African animal statues on them - as you can see. For the longest time we held back and let everyone else pass - we just didn't want to take them all on - and they were quite close together. But after a while that got old so we had to gun it - not fun but all ended well.

At this point the landscape is becoming very aird. And HOT! We were now sweating - no air conditioning in Hraefn. Plus, it didn't help that we were headed south with the sun pouring into the cockpit.

It was around this time that we were stopped by the police - just as we passed under a bridge. Not sure why - the bus ahead kept going. In the end the Police Officer had been to Victoria and in fact his son was born there - he spoke very good English. Maybe he just wanted to talk to us - who knows - but we were there for a while as he and Derek had a nice chat - it was only getting hotter. Ultimately he wondered why we weren't in a larger and nicer RV and why we weren't going to Ixtapa. Guess he had us mixed up with the gringos with mucho dinero.

A bit sloped - not sure why - but it's one of the best photos I got of all the orange and yellow bridges on this route. There are better photos of them on the other post.

Pass on a curve? Why not. Actually the trucks here are fairly considerate and move over for you - they ride 1/2 way onto the shoulder. Plus - in most cases the oncoming traffic will move over as well.

For such a short drive it seemed to be taking a long time. Guess it was the heat. Around this time advertisements for Ixtapa begin to appear - $999 pesos for a night - for Canadians that's about $83.

Definitely not a stellar picture but the first time we saw the ocean!

Here, we leave the cuota to get on the 200 going south.

It's not the worst road but lots of construction this year.

We notice that topes seem to be disappearing here in Mexico - although in some areas they are alive and well. This one was HUGE! Good thing they gave a ton of notice.

So happy to see this Pemex. We stopped here last time to because there are no Pemex stations after the Nueva Italia turnoff. I was kind of sweating it but now notice we had only come 247km.

Forty five or so kilometers later and we were pulling into Zihuatanejo.

Sadly, I got us turned around a bit even though I knew where we were going. The turn off is a bit tenuous so I got Derek to turn off sooner - it didn't work. We started heading into the centro - thankfully there was a returno - I then proceeded to miss our turn!