3 x M = Barra de Navidad October 24, 2004
Posted by Administrator in : nomadika, from LA 2 Panama , add a commentSo we zoomed past Vallarta or ìPee Veeî as the gringos like to call it, cause its basically a gringo colony full of Wal Marts, Mc Donalds and the like. My favourite things were the buses with their diagonal stripes on the sides. On the way to Barra we went on a boat ride from Boca de Tomatlán to Playa las Animas, a little closer than Yelapa, and spent a few hours on one of those idyllic beaches: crystal clear waters, white sand and crooked palm trees. I snorkeled like krazy and was amazed by the little yellow fish, and the big fish with yellow stripes, the ones that had their blue make-up on and the long, skinny ones with a shark-like faceÖthe whole lot of them floating, flying underwater following their aquatic order.
Always headed South, all the way on route 200, we arrived at our next stop: Barra de Navidad, low season, and we’re lucky. We landed at the Hotel Jalisco, run by Mario, a friendly guy who gave us the kind of welcoming that makes us stick around. He’s got a winning Marketing plan: free mota, plus we’ve been going very fast so far, so we’re staying in town for a week. Barra is pretty chill right now, there aren’t too many tourists around and I’ve read Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios at record speed. We live well and our hosts took us on an excellent excursion to Manzanilla beach on Sunday. He barbecued forever, Marta taught me how to make the most delicious ceviche and we even experienced our first tropical storm! We ran for cover and protected the coal with our life, it looked like Sunday was over for about 20 minutes as it poured and poured…and then, sunshine again. Around us an assortment of animals that Jorge looks after: the chick that thinks it’s a duck, the duck that thinks it’s a rooster and so on. A pretty amusing makeshift nature reserve type place this german guy has going, relaxed and with an amazing view.
full moon in michoacán October 24, 2004
Posted by Administrator in : nomadika, from LA 2 Panama , add a commentWe kill whole states as we zoom down the 200, we only stopped in Tecomán in Colima state, without even realising that was our last chance of using an ATM til Lázaro Cárdenas, on the other end of Michoacán. Oh well, we adapt even to the unexpected on this trip. Everything South of Manzanillo is virgin, we´re following Marco´s surf route, and our next stop is La Ticla.
I dig the low-key development in this area, nothing more than cabins and campsites: a simple life and waves for the US surfer. Gringos catch waves forr fun whilst Mexicans fish for food. But surfers are really the least of the evils the US beholds, their passionate folk that know the route of good surf by heart and they follow it year after year. They can´t get enough of the waves and how cheap the whole excursion is for them. On the other hand, the natives can´t get enough of their luck, they make a living out of gringo toursim and they probably thank God every day for the waves. I´m pretty sure of that. You gotta get over any gringo allergies you may have cause they´re the only travellers we encounter everywhere we go. I´m happy, I like them, especially the ones that are eager to part with sack fulls of the good stuff. You have to be grateful.
We continued to Nexpa with a few dollars we changed (Lesson 1= always use the cash machine and nuy supplies when in a big town; Lesson 2= ALWAYS keep some dollars on you, they are ALWAYS exchangeable when there´s no ATM) and we slept just a few meters away from the beachline, we watche a spectacular lunar eclipse without even being sure thats what we were witnessing. The moon turned red bit by bit and we watched in awe.
on the road amigos October 20, 2004
Posted by Administrator in : nomadika, from LA 2 Panama , add a commentSo far, no matter where we go we find a friend, or at least someone nice enough that I feel like writing about the whole deal now. Even Mazatlan which was as ugly as hell, a Mex style Benidorm of sorts, provided us with Raimundo, who sped off on his Harley to score a little smokability. Soheil wasn’t as enthused as us…but we do enjoy a bit of mota on occasion.
melting miles October 11, 2004
Posted by Administrator in : nomadika, from LA 2 Panama , add a commentSo at last we left the USA_tired of preparing for The Big Trip and eager to start our journey…we get all sorts of reactions, admiration and envy on one hand, and family worry on the other. but we are travellers and we must dive into the journey, thats just the way that it is. Our one and only Mexican Gypsy friend, Talisman, joined us and the three of us boarded our beloved pick up PAKA PAKITA, headed to her hometown, Tepoztlán, Morelos, just south of Mexico D.F.
And we discovered Mexico is a BIG country…we left Los Angeles early in the morning, headed straight for Tijuana. What a contrast between the Empire of Consumerism and Mexico Lindo, total opposites …How can I forget the junkie shooting up on the streets of Tijuana, yards away from the border fence?
Our motto is “always forward” and so we crossed the Altar Desert, just what you associate with Arizona: super photogenic but hard to endure. 
Soheil at the wheel, mercury high on the thermometer and tali and I stuck to each other in the front seat. Our Cali plates and castillian accents make it hard to totally blend in, even Tali is deemed a foreigner (?) So I´ve started adopting the local lingo, sponge that I am. A mix ture of determination and toll fees got us to the coast and the ghost town of San Carlos, some sort of yankee colony-tourist trap, but we were glad to get wet in salt waters and escaped towards better places…Las Bocas turned out to be a far better destination, we had our fisrt taste of local character: Aquileo offered us his hospitality “with tust” and even played his jukebox so wer could hear Maná under the stars…he pointed out the constellation of la Virgen de Guadalupe and offred us fresh fish off his hook. Kind man that sent us on our way with the typical “que les vaya bien” and back to the road towards Mazatlán that turned out to be a tourist trap.