Update Day 5, 331 Miles

January 15, 2008

I woke from a deep sleep to find a beautiful day outside with a cool breeze and the sun shining. We were out and on our way at 8:45. We rode for a while along the coast and then the road headed inland for a bit. While in the mountains we stopped at a little restaurant, we will call it a restaurant but it is once again no where near the fine dining of San Fernando Blvd. There were two very nice ladies who promptly jumped to attention and started cooking. I had ham and eggs scrambled and Mike had the Breakfast Americano. Go figure, his had Jalapenos.

As the road headed back to the ocean it was warming up a bit but the ocean breeze helped. Once we got near Alvarado we ran into our first military check point. We had seen them before but they only were stopping the northbound traffic. They pull us to the side and ask us to open our luggage. They look through it without a care and at this point it all becomes clear. They start asking questions about the bikes. How big? How fast? How much? I know realize that I should not tell anyone how much the bikes cost. I told the truth and their eyes all got big and they were telling the ones who did not hear. After everyone had settled down just a little bit they were very helpful in telling us how far and how long it will take us to get to our destination for the day and they sent us on out way. The one thing they neglected to tell us was how beautiful it was going to be. The next two hours or so were spent winding through the mountains at the narrow part of Mexico between the Pacific and the Gulf. The road took us into the tropical jungles and many neat villages. We would stop at the fruit stands and do our part in contributing to the local economy. We would eat whatever they were selling and it would cost us about $0.30 but we were generous and would leave them $0.50.

Our goal for the day was to make it to Villahermosa but when we entered the town we found it to be way to big and modern for us. We made the decision to go to the next town. All day we had been passing town after town about every 5 miles or so. This time we move on to the next town to find out there is no next town close by. Our Problem is we are running out of daylight and you never ride after dark here, or so we are told. We find out that the next town is about 25 miles up the road but now we have no choice. We arrive there fine at 6:15 about 30 minutes after dark and check into the only hotel in town. Down here they have hotels that are called Auto Hotels. They have a small garage that you can park your car in and pull a drape closed behind it so no one can see your car at the hotel. As we later find out this is a hotel where one might take his mistress for the evening and no one will see you there. All that I can say is if I took Sylvia there I can count on getting nothing for a long while. It was pretty bad but it would have to do for the night.