Acaponeta

After a great lunch break in the plazuela in El Rosario, we got on the toll highway out of town. Unlike the Baja, where we had to sneak on and off toll highways, we have been welcomed on toll highways on the mainland, we just generally have to bypass the toll collection booth by lugging our bikes onto the adjacent sidewalk at the suggestion of the guards - a small price to pay to ride on well-paved roads with large shoulders! With the road fairly flat and more people for drafting we made good time. Robert wanted to head to Acaponeta for a hotel with some wifi, so we pushed there - our longest day on the trip so far, at 128.5 km. When we arrived in Acaponeta we stumbled on the plaza mayor packed with people and kids playing all kinds of games - jumping on trampolines, in bouncy castles, etc... that's when we realized it was January 6th, which is part of Christmas celebrations in Mexico. Apart from the fiesta, the town itself was pretty neat - not touristy at all, but really colourful and full of shops along a labyrinth of streets. After some looking, we found a cheap pension (less than $15, thankfully cheaper than on the Baja), then headed out for some gorditas for dinner. The next morning we wandered around the mercado central finding all the veg and octopus (?!) we could use, then loaded up and headed out of town. We tried the free highway for a while, but really didn't enjoy the lack of shoulder, so found a road back toward the toll highway, and with the advantage of being on bikes, followed a dirt path back onto the otherwise inaccessible highway.Read more