Jalisco

This morning started with eggs and salsa roja for breakfast, so we were ready for another exciting day on the road. We first went to Puerto Vallarta, a pretty big, but quite interesting harbour city. When entering the city, we passed everything that is huge and famous: Walmart, The Home Depot, the cruise ship terminal with a huge cruise ship anchoring, the Hilton and Sheraton, shopping malls... Getting closer to the center, the names of the shops and hotels became less famous, the buildings are colonial style and the beach is public. We were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people and bars and restaurants, but enjoyed the atmosphere. Because of the boat people or because it was Saturday or just because it's Mexico, there was music and artists everywhere. In the end, it took us quite a while to pass Puerto Vallarta, as we stopped several times for photos and watching people. But also, because there was a lot of traffic and because the roads were bad cobblestone - a nightmare to cycle!
Leaving Puerto Vallarta, we first cycled through the gay quarter with hotels catering for the LGBT community, before passing more luxury resorts located along the Southern coast.
We stopped in Boca de Tomatlán for lunch, a cool fishing village with some restaurants on the beach. Touristy, but relatively quiet after the hustle bustle of Puerto Vallarta.
Afterwards, we left the coast again and climbed up in the mountains. Bad timing in the middle of the day, but luckily it was shady under the trees. On the way up, we stopped for fresh traditional bread, prepared in a firewood oven. Our destination for the night is El Tuito, a sleepy mountain town famous for its cheese. The only ATM was out of service, but we were able to find a shop that provided cash out (for quite some commission fee though...). Anyways, we could at least to pay the hotel and some food 😉Read more