RTW North to South: Sayanora Sayulita

KS-Saturday

Sayulita is a sleepy beach/surf town that's quickly becoming a tourist hotspot. I definitely enjoyed going back there, having spent my 40th birthday there with friends just last year. Its a cool feeling to ride your motorcycle to a place that you have flown to, requiring a passport. As Chip said before, we did have a bit of work to do on his bike, which has become the norm for this trip so far. I am happy to report that the operation was a success, his bike performed almost flawlessly today, except for the part where he ran out of gas, 200yards shy of a gas station. That's gas outage #2 for those are counting. I believe we set the over/under at 5. We left Sayulita this morning, heading down the coast towards Manzanilla where we are tonight. We did hit some traffic going through Puerto Vallarta, even though I tried to take us through the middle of town, thanks to a green arrow that decided to go red while I was in the intersection. Running down the coast is beautiful, and not too hot while moving. The road turned inland from the coast for a while, taking us up and over some of the best mountain riding we've had yet. Good tarmac, cooler air, and nice sweeping turns make for an enjoyable day, and the scenery doesn't hurt either; These are the days I wish for my GS with its much bigger engine, and sticky tires. But the longer I travel on the 350, the more I like it, its light, great suspension, and decent power makes it great for maneuvering around rough roads, and tight traffic. I might feel sad selling the bike at the end, Chip might not, even though his bike had a good day today. Dirt construction zones are also great passing zones, get up on the pegs and twist the throttle for some fun times. If you haven't noticed yet, I like to go fast.
Lunch today was a stop at a roadside seafood stand. Chip had cevieche again, and I went for the seafood soup, that came complete with half a lobster in it, all good stuff. Running more coastal road through banana plantations, and palm trees, traffic was light, On arrival in Manzanilla, we stopped by the beach, pulled out our phones, and found a hotel for the night. We got the cheapest one. There is a pool, where we gave our riding undergarments a good wash, and an air conditioner, which is struggling to keep up. For about $20 you can't be too picky But we walked to a restaurant and had a great meal, we have yet to have a bad meal in Mexico. Now we are sitting at a picnic table outside our room by the pool while a family plays in the water. We've seen this before, in Korea, Russia, Mongolia, and many other places that we've been able to travel by motorcycle. It doesn't matter what country people live in, they want what's best for their family, and they want to be happy. The world is not a dangerous place, we just don't all speak the same language. Mexico has been wonderful, safety hasn't been an issue. Even walking into the convince store this morning and finding a couple armed guards with shotguns in there, just an armored car service picking up the money, no big deal. So to wrap this up, we're heading further down the coast tomorrow, then we'll be heading inland to Oaxaca for some of their famous food, and cooler weather. I will say that the highlight of my day was being able to video chat with my wife and show her our "luxurious room" even though she had sent me a picture of the porch thermometer reading 18degrees this morning. Until next time...