I'm not lost, the road is...

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April 2, Thursday

Check out time is 2:00 in the afternoon for many of the Mexican hotels, so we knew we weren't in a rush this morning. We planned to ride only as far as Paplanta, not a very long ride. We had coffee in a nearby shop that Deb had spotted last night, checked for a cash machine, and walked along the river for a bit. Tuxpan is where Fidel Castro departed for the conquest of Cuba. He was given a boat, and some money from an American, and off he went for Cuba. We mounted up fairly late in the morning, and began our ride with a little detour. I had decided to take the road closer to the coast, as it looked less like a highway with more twisties and little towns. We crossed the bridge and rode about 2 kilometers when I decided we had missed the turn, so 180 degrees, and back to the only turn I'd seen, right next to the bridge. There was a lot of truck traffic, and I had to work my way past about 6 dump trucks hauling full loads of dirt while bouncing over topes and negotiating 90 turns through little tiny burgs. Fun for me, but a little anxiety producing for Deb. The road, such as it was, became more and more a series of pot holes and less a road than I've seen before in Mexico. Then while passing by obvious port facilities and truck depots, the road turned to just dirt. Not gravel mind you, dirt and some rock. It was firm, and actually better riding than the tank-trap pot holes and topes earlier, so we continued on. I was hoping to find the first little town before long, as we were headed east by southeast, and I knew we should be going more south. Soon we came upon a new road construction site, going at right angles to our path. No more road south, instead it was east only. We turned left, and in a short time came upon a small shack with a few trucks parked outside. A gentleman kindly waved us down, came over to us and with a little back and forth in my limited Spanish came to the conclusion that the road we were on was 1. not the correct road and 2. Not on any maps or the GPS. (The GPS is woefully inadequate here in Mexico, it's almost like using a globe to navigate Indiana). We reversed course, according to what I had understood of the directions, crossed the “puento” (bridge) and eventually came to several sections of road that were completed as a major highway. Of course after a 1/4 mile it would be dirt again. Eventually we came to a spot where a bridge was going to be built, rode down the steep incline to the bottom, up the other side - hooray for the R1200 GS Adventure - and then crossed another bridge, this time over a small country road that was headed in the proper direction. We bounced off the new section of highway, slid between the concrete fence posts that would soon be strung with wire, and down a bit of dirt and gravel to the road. Eureka ! It was the road I had been looking for originally. This all took about 60 to 75 minutes to reconnoiter, and was definitely on the “adventure” side of our trip. I enjoyed it, but Deb was not as thrilled. The proper road turned out to be full of pot holes and topes in every small town also, and when we finally arrived at the entrance to the highway abeam Posa Rica, I had decided the “slab” would have been worth it, if only to save time, rubber, shocks and clutch. We continued on the toll road, ended up paying 30 pesos at the end of only about 6 kilometers, so I didn’t save any money anyway by skipping most of the toll road. Sometimes the plan isn’t always perfect. We arrived in Paplanta, rode through the town trying to find hotels, and continued following signs to El Tajin. This is a very famous archeological site, with mayan-like pyramids etc. It has 17 ball courts, and many temples, including one “calendar” pyramid that has exactly 365 niches built into it. Hmmmm, wonder what that was for. We still hadn’t found a hotel, so we had some lemonade at one of the many (read - many ! ) food spots available around the parking lot, and asked the local semi-english speaking Senorita about hotels. Since it was 103 degrees F ( 39 C ) and we’d been riding for a long time, we decided to just go back to Paplanta, find the hotel, and get a shower. So we did, although it took some time to figure out how to get to the front of the Hotel Tajin. The town is full of one way streets, they all wind around and it is all set into the hillsides of about 7 or 8 surrounding hills. At one point we could SEE the hotel, but couldn’t figure out how to get there. Deb gave a quick “Turn right here” and all of a sudden, there we were. 530 pesos, “por una nocha, dos persona y no deseyuna” but they did have a courtyard with a pool. Parking is about a half block away down the hill, with a 24 hour guard, Senor Roman. Showers, a walk around town, enjoying the opening of the Carnaval de los Reyes with dancing, singing and the crowning of the “royalty”, and a late supper on the balcony of a restaurant overlooking the plaza ended the day nicely.

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