Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta area...

We were on the ferry all night, but slept through most of it.   Getting in to port about 3 hours late, we quickly disembarked, and made our way out of Mazatlan and onto the road.

We ran into another biker named Ian, also from Australia, who was travelling alone on a Triumph.  We rode with him briefly, but we had to get to Puerto Vallarta that night to meet up with a friend (Christine) from Calgary who had brought down some stuff for Cory.

So we rode fairly hard, and on into the night.  Around twisting, turning curves coming in and out of the failing sunlight.  It was difficult riding, but a lot of fun.

We ended up behind 4 police trucks, with 4 guys in each.  Two in the cab, two in the bed.  The two in the bed of the truck were manning belt fed .50 cal machine guns.    All four trucks had their lights on and they were patrolling the road. The guy in the passenger seat had a shotgun.  

The demeanour of the police here is so different than at home.  Here, they have their hands on their guns.  They are NOT slung over their shoulders and they are NOT for decoration.   They are ready to go, at a moments notice.  Scary.

 We fell in behind them and rode that way for about 100km.  

At a stop light in one of the towns I caught the drivers eye in the rear view mirror and he gave me a big smile and a wave.   Guess they didn't think we were threatening.  :)

Our first night was spent in Bucerias, at the Royal Decameron.  A nice 4 star all inclusive.  :)

We didn't set out to splurge that day, but we stopped at an OXXO (think 7-11) and were buying some fruit when I looked over and saw the gates for the Hotel Decameron. 

I was here 4 years ago for my buddies wedding.  So we had to stay there.  Great memories!

We spent the evening with Christine (who we last saw at our send off party in Calgary a month ago).  

Troy and Neal had been a couple days ahead of us, but had run into some issues of their own.

I'll let Troy take over the story here...

Well Neal and I have had a crappy bit of a time... Yesterday we were on a beach somewhere between Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta and camped and rode on the beach.  

I started filming Neal riding on the beach, (he had watched "Dust to Glory" on the ferry over) and he got carried away, rode into the ocean and got caught by a wave.  He was nearly thrown from the bike, got covered in water, but recovered and rode on.
We stopped after to laugh but when he tried to start the bike up it was no go... After a few hours of screwing around it somehow kicked back into life, we rode 100 mile no worries, were too late to get to Sayulita so we stopped in Santa Cruz. 
This morning we packed the bikes... Neals wouldn't start... its now about 6 hours later and after pretty much stripping it we got it working!!!! MAYBE!!! (it started on the last turn we were gonna try today!!)

Cory and I left for Sayulita, which is only about 20km north of where we were to try and meet up with Troy and Neal.  They had sent a couple emails the day before letting us know they were on their way, so we emailed them back and told them we would just go to Sayulita and sit on the main street and wait for them.

We found a nice little Eco-hotel where we could park the bikes and killed a couple hours sitting on the beach.  I was walking out to the bike to grab something, when I just happened to see Neal ride by...  So, barefoot, I ran after him into town (about 3 blocks) and caught up to him parked on a side street.

It was great to have the guys back together!  

With everyone in one place, we hooked up with Sonny, who guided us to his mothers place (friend of Troy's), which is an absolutely spectacular Mansion on a large private piece of land, where we are spending a bit of time, working on our spanish, and fiddling with Neals bike.

Our Mansion in Sayulita

One of our hosts.. Sonny.

 

A local bug.  It was dead or I wouldn't be within 10 feet of it.   Yes.. it can be deadly.  [shudder]  It was laying in the grass about 15 feet from where I would be sleeping....fitfully.