Dec. 21, 2014- Highway 200

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Family at the Parade in Melaque
The Pan American Highway, also known as Highway 200 in Mexico, is the road which runs up the coast from Guatemala, through all the coastal towns including Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta and then continues north from there. In some places it is the main road between towns, in others is it definitely a back road, the major routes being those which radiate to and from Mexico city.

It was Highway 200 on which we drove to bring the car to Vallarta. We could have gone inland and hit the freeways but we wanted to see the coastal towns, and we did.

For a Mexican back road it is pretty good but it demands the full attention of the driver; there are countless obstacles including topes (speed bumps), potholes, sudden surface changes, road work, and curves, to say nothing about a lot of crazy drivers.

The topes are everywhere. Some have warning signs but many others are not even painted and those become visible only just in front of you and hard braking is all there is between launching off into the sky with a broken suspension instead of just a simple bounce and bump. We hit one at speed, a little one, fortunately, and don't want to do it again. Often the topes seem to be placed in the shadows of trees, making seeing them even harder. After a while you learn to anticipate the topes; when you see a clearing ahead and a house or two, you can guess there will be speed bumps, and you begin to slow down. Then one appears and you brake like hell. There are plenty of skid marks going right up to the topes but the skid marks disappear at the apex of the tope where the wheels of the car which made them ostensibly left the road. They are scary.

Then there are the sudden changes in the road surface where the good black top suddenly becomes a potholed dirt and gravel one-laned mess. You slow for these too, as you do for the road work projects, amazing road work projects, which are also encountered virtually anywhere, with diversions and mystifying lane manipulations, none of which you want to come upon at speed, and finally curves, endless curves.

Tight curves.

We passed through forests and jungles as well as valleys and plains. We zoomed around headlands far above the ocean where the road clung to the cliffs and which provided spectacular views. Before we reached Vallarta we got high up into the mountains among pine tree forests, which surprised us, before dropping down to sea level again at Banderas Bay. It was all hard driving.

To cover ground you have to drive fast when you can. So you drive 60, maybe 70 MPH to keep the average up, and then when you encounter an obstacle, hit the brakes hard, drive at 10 mph for a while, get through the tough spot, then you go again. Sometimes there is traffic, other times none. For two hours north of Lazarus Cardero we saw not a single car going nor coming. It was like there was a road block at either end and we were the only car allowed to go through. But it was a curvy section, and we were constantly turning, barely able to go 30 or 40 MPH. It was hard driving and we were glad to have the road to ourselves although in the back of our minds were the warnings we'd heard about driving on lonely Mexican roads. But we saw no banditos.

One other thing we didn't see much of on this trip were the macho Mexican daredevil drivers we've encountered on other stretches of Mexican highways.
Those crazy guys in sedans, large or small, and particularly in pickup trucks, who appear in your rearview mirrors and stay glued to your bumper no matter hard how you yourself drive, then pass you, grinning, at the first opportunity, or maybe not even an opportunity, and simply disappear around the next curve never to be seen again. We saw those on the freeways south of Mexico City and on the twisting roads south of Oaxaca, also on the road to Huatulco, and we gained a huge respect for the capabilities, or at least the cojones, of these drivers and their vehicles, but on this trip, we saw not many. Maybe they were sticking to the main roads.

But traffic or not, obstacles or not, we drove, and we drove hard, and the rewards were the miles covered.

More than that we were rewarded by the stops we made in the fishing towns along the way: Puerto Escondido, Zihuatenejo, and Melaque.

These towns were the reason we came this way. They are not big tourist towns. They don't have the high rise hotels and big airports. They have those funky beach hotels and little bars that we all dream of when we think of Mexico, "Night of the Iguana" and all of that.

We found them, found them all. We found small bars at night with good music and cheap tequila, and in the day we found fishermen on the beaches, working on their boats, getting ready to go to sea, and working their trade. We found the fishermen to be hardworking but relaxed as they went about their shoreside tasks, quick with a smile and a joke.

In the towns we found little stores and shops and quiet streets and we ran across celebrations, street fairs, parades and minor festivals with kids and moms and fireworks and costumes. But all very low key and charming, giving a happy view of Mexican family life.
We passed through these towns and chose them in which to stay the nights.

And in the end we found Puerto Vallarta where we've decided to stop for a while.

So now we are in Marina La Cruz, at this moment in the act of starting a new life. One without travel.

We'll see how it goes; we've been sort of addicted to movement but perhaps we can change.

Click here for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle

December 9, 2014-Vallarta

Just a quick note to keep our followers up to date:

We sailed for Barra de Navidad on Dec 3, spent a night anchored in Melaque after a quick reunion in Barra with Gene and Sue and our sister Serendipity 43 Peregrine and then on to Puerto Vallarta, arriving in Nuevo Vallarta on Dec. 7 and moved to La Cruz on Dec 8, 2014. We had another two great sailing legs. The last section up the coast to Cabo Corrientes was amazing; 20kts of wind on the nose and some healthy waves but it was wonderful sailing and Wings went to weather like the thoroughbred she is. We wound up doing two sail changes as the wind lightened again as we crossed Banderas Bay at dawn. It's great to be back in Puerto Vallarta after sixteen years.

In La Cruz we've run into some old friends and the new marina, Riviera Nayarit, is truly luxurious.

Tomorrow we fly out to return to Huatulco to fetch the car.

Sorry, no photos yet.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Banderas Bay

November 26,2014-Fantastic Days of Sailing to Zihuatenejo

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Fred Sailing

Coming out of Huatulco we found a light sea breeze just as when we left Chiapas, and, from my perspective, this was expected; it’s a daily occurrence on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. There had been talk of storms going around the marina, but it was just that, talk.

What was worrying the other cruisers in Huatulco was that the first really big blow of the season was pumping up in the Tehuantepec with 50 knot winds and 25 foot seas and it was being called a “storm”.

Some thought that heading out when a storm was going on, even if it was seventy five miles away, was foolish.

But I was looking for some breeze up the coast and the forecast promised a couple of days of it. Anyhow, if there was some wind or swell in the Gulf it should be from behind, helping us. And 28 miles down the coast we’d turn the corner at Puerto Angel and after that anything coming out of Tehuantepec couldn’t reach us. We dismissed the worries of the other cruisers and left as planned at noon.

We set sail close hauled on starboard tack, standing out to sea to clear the headlands to the southwest of Huatulco. Then we tacked and the wind lifted us around and we found we could carry our course right up the coast. It was great sailing; winds around 10 knots and flat water. In fact, it was two fantastic days of sailing up the coast as far as Acapulco and beyond, some of the best ever, long beautiful sunny days with steady wind and Wings speeding silently along.

We loved it.

It was good sailing but I wondered how many of the other cruising sailboats would have thought so.

When we go out we put up our sails and then we look to see which way the wind is blowing. If it is from astern, terrific, but if it is a beat we just sheet in and resign ourselves to a day or two of tacking. People with a different view of cruising come out of the marina with the motor on and just turn onto their desired course. When they then look aloft and see that the wind is right on the nose and they say, “Can’t sail in this stuff,” and they switch on the autopilot and motor for two days.

Having the right boat helps. Wings, with its big sail plan and deep keel, can really go to weather. Actually we think we can go just about any direction we want in whatever conditions we encounter, not that we’d want to, but we can. On this trip it was easy sailing. We were close hauled, 44 degrees off the wind, going 5 knots in six knots of breeze. And that’s with the cruising sails; with the racing sails, well, who knows. At other times, on other passages, we’ve faced strong winds and big seas. The sailing has been tough but the boat can do it if the crew is willing. Usually we have been. This time we didn’t need to be tough, it was a piece of cake.

So we sailed up half of the Mexican coast. The Mexican Riviera they call it. Past towns like Puerto Escondido and Puerto Angel. On the morning of the second day we spotted Acapulco when the sun’s early rays glinted off something that could only be a high rise hotel. We might have gone into Acapulco, but the marinas there quoted us high prices when we inquired by email before leaving Huatulco. That, and the wind just didn’t seem to want us to go there. All day it blew us offshore, away from Acapulco. We might have tacked and gone in but for the marina rates. Instead we caught some good wind shifts and made tracks north. By dusk Acapulco was far astern.

Now we have reached Zihuatenejo and are anchored in that beautiful harbor. Z-town, we’ve been here before. It’s nice to be back after 16 years.

In a day or two we’ll sail on north to the next Mexican port of call.

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Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Zihuatenejo