Day 17 - Posada del Pescador, Jocotepec

I wasn’t that keen on the cleanliness of the hotel. When I was getting into bed the night before, it looked like the sheets hadn’t been changed as there was sand and hair in the bed, long black hair, Mexican hair, which clearly wasn’t ideal. I refused to sleep under the sheet and ensured that I had my jammies on, including socks so that the least amount of contact was made with the bedding. We had a fan in the room, which was a bonus, but when I got up, I found a cockroach on the floor that was on its back and waving its legs around. It was a lot for me, a clean freak, to see that there were likely cockroaches flying around in the night that could have been crawling on me. Not cool. As there were no facilities at the hotel, such as a restaurant, or somewhere to get some coffee, we wanted to be up and, on the road, early as we were aiming for the coastline again. Unfortunately, having fulfilled our morning ablution needs, basically taking a dump, the water ran out so the toilet wouldn’t flush after it had been destroyed. A little bit embarrassing, but hey how, it is not really our problem, Jorik pulled a few pots and pans of water from the pool, and we found that the kitchen tap had a dribble of water coming out of it. We tried as best we could to tidy up but were ready to leave by around 09:30 with the toilet looking pretty horrific. We wanted to top up the brake fluid and check a few bits on the bikes before heading off, so we had about 20 minutes of prep to do. Just before departing, we checked again, and the water had come back on. Thankfully we were able to clear the toilet and not leave a mess for the staff.

The aim for the day was a little town called San Juan de Alima, a beachside resort town that appeared to have loads of hotels. Google identified a little guest house at the outskirts of the small town for about MXN$1,300 for a twin room, which was a little on the expensive side for us but looked to be at the cheaper end of the scale for the town. We didn’t book it, as we thought we might be able to get a better price, rather than paying booking fees, so the plan was to turn up and see what we would find.

The ride south from Jocotepec wasn’t exceptional. A long way at a little over 4 hours in blazing heat again. It did get a little cooler as we neared the coast, but it wasn’t the most spectacular ride, just loads of highway, which was broken up by passing through the odd little town. Colima was a pretty busy place, but we shot through it heading for the coast to make up the miles. As soon as we did get to the coast, which wasn’t for very long, we found San Juan de Alima was just off the main highway that follows the coast line towards Acapulco, so a good stop and great to get us back on track for the next day. Our original programme and itinerary had become mixed up a bit, what with the detour to Tequila and just generally making up plans as to where to stop and stay as we go. But when I checked, Day 17 was supposed to be in San Juan de Alima, so we were bang on track. I was surprised, but very pleased and I am conscious that things can drag out on these trips and delays are almost inevitable, so being on programme, was a relief to me.

We pulled off the main road into the little village to find our hotel. Which, as we suspected, was at the edge of the town, and not the nice end, in fact probably the pretty derelict end. But it was clean and had a pool that overlooked the sea. So not all bad. The very nice Senorita explained that it would be MXN$1350 for the night, but as she didn’t speak any English, we managed to negotiate this down to MXN£1,200, which was a couple of beers saving, so a win. We got settled into our room, which was pleasant enough, had a fan and AC, and more plug sockets than you could shake a stick at. 1 wall had 5 randomly positioned double sockets that were so bizarrely positioned, there is simply no explanation as to why they would have been installed, that I had to take a picture. With the room sorted, having had a swim in the pool, and a couple of beers in hand, we set off to explore the town and find some food. We had also finished the bottle of Cazadores Tequila the night before and we needed a new bottle, Don Julio, so that Jules can earn her heritage after the bottle of Cazadores from which Cassy has taken her name. It is clear that this town too must have been a very popular resort in its day, but following hurricane and economic impacts, the place was not in great shape. A lot of the buildings are not just dilapidated, but they should be condemned. I suppose that is just how things are in Mexico, but it was still quite a pretty little town and there was clearly a lot of Mexican people enjoying themselves. Absolutely no other Gringos, but everyone was very friendly. The first shop we passed, we checked out how much a bottle of Don Julio would be and the cheapest came in at about MXN$850. That is about US$50, which is a little dear for our budget, and besides, we didn’t want to carry the bottle with us for the rest of the evening as we still needed to find somewhere for some food. At least we had a reference for the cost of a standard bottle of Don Julio Blanco. We walked down the beach until we hit the end of the resorts where the damage and dilapidations were too bad for there to be any guests. So, we hit the main drag in town to see what we could find for food. A very friendly chap in a large restaurant invited us in for steaks and fish, his speciality. We didn’t want to stop at the first place so kindly walked on a bit further, but quickly realised that his spot was probably going to offer us the best options. As the town wasn’t very big, we were able to check out all the options, including a street food place where we were pretty much ignored, even though we sat down waiting to be served, so we headed back to the friendly chap who at least spoke to us in English. He was very keen to explain that they specialised in fish, but when I said that I am allergic to shellfish, he quickly shifted gear to tell me about the steak options he had. I haven’t eaten any straight up steak in Mexico yet, but nervous of the quality and the cost, I asked if I could see the steak. He pulled out a very nice 12oz ribeye that was partially frozen, a good sign I hoped, and said that he would cook up a treat for MXN$250, expensive, but not too bad a deal. Jorik had a whole fish, a red snapper (we think), which was also awesome, and it turned out to be probably the best meal we have had on the trip to date. They had a little supermarket on the side of the restaurant, and we checked out how much a bottle of Don Julio was. We were surprised that it cost MXN$750 for a Reposado bottle, which is much better. However, we didn’t have enough cash on us to pay for dinner and the tequila, so we settled up and had enough change to stop for 1 more cerveza and a shot of the good stuff on the way back to the hotel.