Day 19 to Day 20

October 26th: Bucerias, Mexico (Puerto Vallarta by bus)
October 27th: Bucerias, Mexico to Tecoman, Mexico

On the 26th we took the local bus from Bucerias to Puerto Vallarta. It was an interesting trip to say the least. I don´t gather that the bus had a tune up in the last decade or two, and our destination of Puerto Vallarta was written in fading paint on a window of the bus. ...the local custom here for all bus signs. A lucky rabbit foot was hung on the rear view mirror by the bus driver, and we were really hoping that he wasn´t relying soley on luck for a safe drive. We ran into a Canadian who was working at a souvenier shop/covert timeshare condo operation who told us it was a bad day to buy anything in the city....as a gringo you´re charged double what it´s worth, and since four cruise ships were set to come in that day, it is double the double price. We don´t even have enough space for souveniers anyways. We can barely squeeze everything in our luggage now that all of our sweaters and riding gear is packed up. We spent the greater part of the day searching for a design store that could make us some Canada flag stickers for our bikes...most of which was spent trying to figure out what the heck a sticker was in Spanish and what the type of store was called that would sell that word. FINALLY in the late afternoon we got them made! Then when we picked them up we had yet another set back! Instead of red and white, they made our flags red and clear.....which, on a red bike, probably wouldn´t show up all that well...ugh! Finally the confusion was sorted out, and our trip to Puerto Vallarta was at an end. We took another rickety bus back, so we could be up bright and early to head to Manzanilla. Unfortunately, we actually wanted to head to Manzanillo, which is another 50kms up the road, which again, caused some confusion. Then we got a little off track in Manzanillo, and ended up having to abandon that mission and head to another destination, hence ending up in Tecoman. The drive was neat today. I saw a monster tarantula crossing the road, 2 snakes, and a whole ton of lizards crossing the road. I´ve seen quite a few lizards in the hotels, but the hotel ones look like geckos, and the road ones look different. They look more like iguanas. Also on today´s trip we met two people who were doing a similar trip/route as us on bikes....only instead of motorcycles, they had bicycles. Here I thought we were roughing it.... I can´t imagine how they do it, that´s for sure! I´d pass out trying to drive over half the stupid topes they have here, let alone a 300m high mountain range! Topes, by the way, are a staple on every Mexican road. It´s pretty much another word for "death trap" if you´re not paying attention. They´re just large lumps/bumps/humps on the road that are either made of pavement, cement, or metal. They can be one mega speedbump, a series of rumble-strips in succession, an up-ramp-then-platform-then-down-ramp combo, or a bunch of metal domes tacked onto the road (the most dreaded of them all as the bike tires tend to pull to one side of the bubble or the other, and just never seem to go right over smoothly). I won´t even mention how much I LOVE driving over cobblestone/rock/mixed media roads that they tend to pair up with the topes!!!