Day 11 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First the good;

Playa Azul, looks MUCH better after a good nights sleep. Yes, it’s still a VERY small and somewhat rundown and dishevelled little town but it has a certain charm in an almost Caribbean poverty stricken kind of way. But, oh my God, the beach! Yes, the beach is incredible. It’s really just an extension of the fantastic Michoacán beach we saw on the way down and here, in Play Azul, it‘s a 200 meter wide swath of fine white sand that goes on in both directions to the horizon. It’s HUGE! And, because it’s such a shallow slope, the waves break way out and then gently roll into shore in knee deep shallow water. It’s warm, clean, and fantastic for swimming - and taylor made for frolicking (if I was to do such a thing) Today we spent several hours swimming, soaking up the rays and drinking a few cerveca before heading back to the hotel for a cool off dip in the pool and a nap. And this evening we look like lobsters.

But…..that leads us to the bad…..
I fired up my e-mail just to check messages before my swim and nap and we received some bad news. We have a family emergency back home and we need to get back ASAP. With Brad’s help I was able to book Rosi a one-way flight out of Zihuatanejo tomorrow. We’ll head south out of here as early as possible, maybe even 30 minutes or so before full light, so that we can grab a room there and she can shower and re-organize our luggage off the bike before she flies out at 12:00. She’ll overnight in Phoenix and should be in Kelowna by 5:00 on Saturday.

The ugly….is me carrying on sans my co-pilot. We always wanted this trip to be our inaugural run two-up to test the waters so to speak. So far Rosi has been a real trooper. She’s been a great second set of eyes and has suffered the odd missed tope taken too fast with gritted teeth and a great attitude.

We were already making our map and timing plans to leave here in the morning and head inland to visit Uruapan. It’s only 2 ½ hours from here via the autopista and is supposed to be a beautiful colonial city. After that we were considering Lake Chapala and then dog legging back down to PV to visit family already staying there.

But it’s not to be - this time anyway. I’ll stay in Zihuatanejo for at least a day because by the time I see Rosi off it’ll be too late to hit the road + we’ll have checked into a hotel overnight. I’ll get some rest and stay out of the sun and start my way back north on Sunday.

It’s been approx six full days and two half days of riding to get here and I should be able to cut that down a little flying solo. My major decision will revolve around which route. Take the inland autopista route, which may be quicker and is patrolled by the Green Angels or backtrack up the coast on a route I’m familiar with and which has the greater chance of finding English spoken in each major centre? Hmmmmmm? Between now and 6:30 on Sunday I’ll have to decide.