Onward to adventure

I know I have been negligent in writing. The lack of quality internet has been a major factor. That and coupled with the fact that I got behind made it hard to catch up. So here is what has happened in the last week:

[buying bread out of the back of a VW bus] Left Mazatlan.
Went to San Blas and stayed in a dump. The town had just suffered from high rains and wind so it was clean but still recovering.
Drove south from San Blas, through Sayulita (a nice town but extremely touristy) and continued through Puerto Vallerta on to Tomatlan. A peaceful farming city known for tomatoes and mangoes.

Then we continued down the coast and found paradise in Maruata. A turtle sanctuary way out in the middle of nowhere with hammocks, crystal blue waters, and incredibly nice people. The 4 gringos that were there became our best friends and we decided to stay two nights to indulge in the beach.

[Kris, Ken, Paula, and Jerry- after retirement living the life] After that we cruised north into the mountains and up through Arteaga and into Patzcuaro.
In search of the Monarch butterfly, we now find ourselves just outside of Zitacuaro. Unfortunately (for the locals more so than for us) this is exactly the site of the big mudslides that happened last week. Apparently, it never rains here this time of year, but it rained heavily and washed all the mountains down. Our access to the butterflies has been blocked so now we will head to Oaxaca.

The riding has been incredible. Endless curvy roads. I thought I had video'ed a bunch of them, but I accidentally filled up my memory card and didn't realize it until today, so when I thought I was taking video, I really wasn't. Sorry.

So now we are headed back south to the food capital of Mexico. I've traced out a route that should take us off the main roads and through some great terrain. We are going to flank a large Volcano which, as a geologist, this excites me. We will pass some lakes and hopefully experience some culture in far out farming communities. We have found people in Mexico to be nothing but nice, but farming communities are extra helpful. Should be fun.

View mexico route in a larger map