Topolobampo - Acapulco

Ferry day......5th December 2017....we caught the ferry from La Paz, Baja to Topolobampo, Mainland Mexico as it is often referred to. We arrived at the ferry port early as we'd only come from down the road at La Paz....found the right entrance, passports quick check and waved along. We weren't sure which queue to get in but found ourselves with everybody else waiting to be weighed???

In Mexico they weigh your vehicle before it goes aboard.....for the Sportster and Heritage Softail it cost us 88 pesos each.....that's about £3.43 each.....

We were then waved to park up outside the main port building until the ferry was ready to load. Here we collected our tickets that I had previously booked online and chatted to a couple of guys from Texas and watched wagons loaded with Baja 1000 vehicles returning home....it's an off road race with various classes.....and no we didn't see any of it unfortunately.....next time.....

Eventually we got loaded and found that our tickets included a meal on boarding and coffee and cake later on....nice.......P & O could learn a thing or two from their service!!

7hrs later and we landed in Topolobampo.....it was dark.....we don't ride in Mexico at dark on bikes.....too many unseen topes (speedbumps) and livestock. As it was I'd booked the little motel in Topolobampo .....Hotel Marina.....not much of a place, very basic but the staff were friendly, there was safe parking for the bikes, internet not too bad and a restaurant on site....oh and there was a pool as well.....not that we were going to use it......as it was about 10pm.

Next day we got up had brekkie...packed the bikes...you know the routine....checked the maps.....turned the sat nav on and headed for Mazatlán. To get there on this stint we just used the tolls......we were meeting our new friends James and Anna again and had all managed to book the same hotel.

Had another fun night out with these two....such a giggle and never tire of swapping travel stories....I shall always remember this evening as having .....a 'Shell Museum' in the background......you had to be there...lol

Said our goodbyes after the evening as we were getting up reasonably early the next day to continue our route towards Acapulco.......so we carried on along the toll roads to Tepic initially before turning off for the Mexico 200 that would take us to Puerto Vallarta and then onto the coast. We didn't have anywhere booked and ended up pulling into a hotel that again looked 'dead posh'.....you always have to try we've found, as a lot of places are not as expensive as you think.....they had a room free , got settled and then walked round the corner to the ocean.....wow....what an amazing pool....one of those 'Infinity' ones.....coolio.....you just had to get in. This hotel had a restaurant on site overlooking the beach and very safe parking for the bikes. There was a locked double access gate below our room......the security guard unlocked it and let us put our bikes right outside our room....excellent....the hotel Los Picos.....the hotel was actually just outside Puerto Vallarta at a place called Bucerias.

We passed through Puerto Vallarta the next day....shame it looked a good place to see but we're kind of on a time line here at the moment. For now we're enjoying riding the 'Mex' 200....it's a bit varied.....hills....curves etc and we passed through lots of Mexican villages with sellers by topes and roadworks......they get everywhere you know. We ended up in Manzanillo.....sorry nothing to report from there...we just overnighted and the next night....we stayed in Lazaro Cardenas but neither of us can remember where.......whaaat.....seriously......

Well whatever day we've got to....oh yes it's Sunday 10th December 2017.....so we're booked into the next place......best get on with riding.....next stop Acapulco!!!!!