Puerto Escondido
Nov 12
We arrived in Puerto Escondido just as the sun was starting to set. Being a little tired from the riding, we stopped at the first place we saw. Too bad it turned out to be a first class resort, complete with 4 swimming pools, 6 bars and a beautiful beach. After twisting each others arm a few times, we checked into this pricy place. We immediately ran down to the beach swim before the sunlight was completely gone. The waves here are the biggest we have seen, and the water was just wonderful. We played in the waves until way after dark ….. Good thing there was a moon out. It turns out that Escondido is a world class surfing area. More arm twisting and now we are staying 2 days!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
On The Road
By LB
One of the greatest things about traveling is meeting other travelers from all over the world. While on the road to Puerto Escondido, we stopped by a typical remote road side cantina for our usual late morning breakfast. Along comes Mike on brand new KTM motorcycle and joins us for breakfast. Mike, who is currently living in England but is actually a South African, is riding a KTM that he bought in San Francisco, California to the tip of South America. With 3 motorcycles parked in front of the cantina, we attracted the attention of 2 guys driving in a car that are from Switzerland. It turns out they are world motorcycle travelers, including riding the entire continent of Africa. They were currently riding around Central America with a car they borrowed off a friend that lives in Mexico City. They have a travel web site that is written in German. Click around their site for some pictures of their adventures, if your German is a little rusty. http://www.motoventure.ch/
By LB
One of the greatest things about traveling is meeting other travelers from all over the world. While on the road to Puerto Escondido, we stopped by a typical remote road side cantina for our usual late morning breakfast. Along comes Mike on brand new KTM motorcycle and joins us for breakfast. Mike, who is currently living in England but is actually a South African, is riding a KTM that he bought in San Francisco, California to the tip of South America. With 3 motorcycles parked in front of the cantina, we attracted the attention of 2 guys driving in a car that are from Switzerland. It turns out they are world motorcycle travelers, including riding the entire continent of Africa. They were currently riding around Central America with a car they borrowed off a friend that lives in Mexico City. They have a travel web site that is written in German. Click around their site for some pictures of their adventures, if your German is a little rusty. http://www.motoventure.ch/
Road Tips (First Edition)
Speed Bumps = Topes
I think Mexico should win an award for the biggest variation of speed bumps. When traveling on the highways you will drive through towns where you have to slow down to safely pass through inhabited areas. Outside of the normal speed limit signs you will encounter a series of speed bumps or topes upon entering, driving through and exiting a town. These topes can very from smooth mounds to vehicle shattering vertical obstacles similar to our sidewalk curbs.
In an ideal situation there are signs telling you that there is a speed bump or tope coming up and lets you know how many meters away it is. Then there will be a sign next to the tope and the tope its self will be painted yellow and white. This is an A-typical situation. Usually it will be some sort of combinations of the above: signs but no paint, paint and no signs, or nothing at all. When there are no signs is when it is really dangerous. Learn from me. The last time I was in Mexico I was driving a car from Morelia to Guanaguato and hit an unmarked unpainted speed bump at 54 mph. You can imagine the damage. It was probably left behind from some old rest stop that used to be there. Watch out for those.
Speed Bump Type
The rolling ones are great but, there has been a bunch of times I came up to fast on what I thought was going to be a smooth one and proved to be more like a curb. I looked like a chicken on a pogo stick. On the flip side sometimes they will paint the street like there is a speed bump and there is nothing there at all. Dad says, “ I feel like a cow staring at a painted cattle guard.”
It’s best to really slow down for the first speed bump because it’s hard to see which type it is until you are right on top of it. There is a plus to all this, usually which ever type of speed bump you encounter first will be what they use throughout the whole town.
Coming into big cities they typically don’t have speed bumps they usually use Vibradores (easy ladies).. These are a series of reflectors ran across the road to let you know you need to slow down.. I guess they figure you don’t need speed bumps when you are about to smack right into traffic.
Speed Bumps = Topes
I think Mexico should win an award for the biggest variation of speed bumps. When traveling on the highways you will drive through towns where you have to slow down to safely pass through inhabited areas. Outside of the normal speed limit signs you will encounter a series of speed bumps or topes upon entering, driving through and exiting a town. These topes can very from smooth mounds to vehicle shattering vertical obstacles similar to our sidewalk curbs.
In an ideal situation there are signs telling you that there is a speed bump or tope coming up and lets you know how many meters away it is. Then there will be a sign next to the tope and the tope its self will be painted yellow and white. This is an A-typical situation. Usually it will be some sort of combinations of the above: signs but no paint, paint and no signs, or nothing at all. When there are no signs is when it is really dangerous. Learn from me. The last time I was in Mexico I was driving a car from Morelia to Guanaguato and hit an unmarked unpainted speed bump at 54 mph. You can imagine the damage. It was probably left behind from some old rest stop that used to be there. Watch out for those.
Speed Bump Type
The rolling ones are great but, there has been a bunch of times I came up to fast on what I thought was going to be a smooth one and proved to be more like a curb. I looked like a chicken on a pogo stick. On the flip side sometimes they will paint the street like there is a speed bump and there is nothing there at all. Dad says, “ I feel like a cow staring at a painted cattle guard.”
It’s best to really slow down for the first speed bump because it’s hard to see which type it is until you are right on top of it. There is a plus to all this, usually which ever type of speed bump you encounter first will be what they use throughout the whole town.
Coming into big cities they typically don’t have speed bumps they usually use Vibradores (easy ladies).. These are a series of reflectors ran across the road to let you know you need to slow down.. I guess they figure you don’t need speed bumps when you are about to smack right into traffic.
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