March 11th, 2016
Mexico’s highway system continues to amaze me. It just seems to go on forever, mostly with no shoulder much of the time except for today! So, we took Hwy#200 through only one other town today really, and that was La Cumbre where we ate lunch. Then we rode until we saw the sea, at Punta Perula.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: El Tuito, Jalisco Mexico
Destination: Punta Perula, Jalisco, Mexico
101.1 km trip, 6:26 time, 51.1 km/h maximum speed, 15.7 km/h average speed
Route Description:
A solid 25km of downhill to start the day and then the terrain changed to rolling hills. There were signs of both recent, as well as ongoing road construction, and we had a nice wide shoulder for 3/4 of the ride.
Accommodations:
Many many hotels and RV campgrounds and what-not in Punta Perula, and we even found one as cheap as $200MX. We instead elected to just sleep on the beach since it was deserted, and free.
What happened…
Andrew writes: Every rooster in El Tuito must’ve heard my alarm clock ring this morning, for no sooner had it gone off, than began the cry of “Ki-Ki-ri-Ki!!!” all throughout the town. We somehow timed our breakfast and packing up and everything to coincide with Ramon’s unlocking of the gate, just as we were pushing through the grass to get to it. We found an OXXO and another hotel towards the highway, and set off with our hearts set on seeing the Pacific.
Yeah so that’s probably the most exciting part of the day…stopping at the OXXO for cookies and gatorade. Sure, we were cycling downhill for the first hour, and quickly put 25km into the bag. Then the day just dragged on. The road surface was terrific, mostly new asphalt, and we had our own lane/shoulder, so there isn’t a lot to complain about now is there? I guess I could complain about the brain-freeze I got when we finally arrived in Punta Perula and had chocolate-coated frozen bananas, but that’s silly. They were awesome!
Looking back on the day I’m just surprised at how little distance we made in such a long time. We made 25km in the first hour and then only 75km in the next five hours. I guess I just expected, or hoped, that we’d go further. Oh well, I’ll have to just sit and enjoy my beautiful, quiet, beach camp that we made in front of Villa Serenidad; how aptly named is that!?
Amanda writes: The ride today did seem slower for me also. The downhill to start the day was very nice however somehow the rest of the day dragged on. Arriving into the town we decided to stop in at was nice. We immediately saw a little sign advertising choco bananas which is something we had wanted to try. After we sat down in the shade and ate them, the proprietor asked us if we needed a place to stay. We confirmed we were in search and he said he knew of someone with a nice apartment for rent. He called them up and we were quoted 600 pesos; yikes! His gesture was very nice and appreciated however we politely declined and went on our way. We quickly realized we were in yet again, another gringo community.
Hotels on almost every corner and signs in English. That combined with the multiple RV campgrounds and a few older looking non-Mexican folks and we knew what type of community it was. We ventured around looking for options for a place to sleep and along the way saw a sign advertising showers for 10 pesos. We decided to pay for the showers and then just pitch our tent on the beach. While a hotel is nice every now and then, I really do enjoy the comfort of our own tent with our own things. Andrew did a fabulous job of securing our bikes and belongings with extra care after our friends Brandi and Lewis were recently robbed on a beach. We take a few more extra minutes now to be sure that we don’t end up in a similar situation.