The Colour of Happy

(Barra de Navidad, MX - Pinotepa, MX)

Our skin is not as white as it was a few days ago, and is perhaps a little more pink than it should be.
We stayed an extra day in Barra de Navidad, and that evening found ourselves on a beautiful rooftop bar overlooking the ocean at sunset. We were invited up by some very friendly part-of-the-year locals who we'd passed on the street half a dozen times in the 24 hours we'd been there! Andre from Canada has been staying in Barra each winter for 12 years and literally seems to know everyone, and Steve from La Conner, Washington who discovered Barra three or four years ago and is well on his way to knowing everyone if he keeps hanging out with Andre.
After a couple of beers and the sun finally gone to bed, they invited us and another friend to dinner with promises to show us a great place. Lo and behold, they took us to the one restaurant we'd eaten dinner at the night before, Mexico Lindo! It was delicious. Again. Thanks guys, for a great night and some seriously tasty chocolate cake!
The last few days my ankle had been causing a fuss. I´m thinking I bruised a nerve/tendon somehow, which has caused me to limp around rather pathetically. Putting pressure on it causes serious discomfort, which has luckily begun to fade. Adam has been calling me Gimpy.

Driving out the next day, we waved goodbye to our Orcas buddies, and even Andre came by for a photo.
Onward we drove, my ankle very upset. We arrived in Playa Azul as the sun dropped low, and enjoyed another great sunset with Kanye West blasting from a beautiful bar palapa (palm thatched roof structure). As we were standing out on the sand taking photos, a white guy strode up to us and started chatting. Super friendly, and we were both just a wee bit uncomfortable. Something about this guy was just not right. He wanted to show us a great hotel, and literally ran down the road ahead of us to point it out about a 1/4 mile away. Maybe it's not very nice, but I did take some video of it.
Strange man, but he led us to Hotel Andrea, where Lupe greeted us with a warm smile and a large, clean room with hot water. For 250 pesos, it was great, and just two blocks from the beach!

From Playa Azul we finally managed to leave early (10am!) and headed to Zihautanejo for a four hour swim break at the beach. Beautiful water, parasailing, funny little kids running around. Since it was still fairly early we decided to head toward Acapulco and ended up in downtown just as it got dark. Crazy traffic, so tired, we drove around seeking a hotel and were both grouchy and overly hungry by the time we found one! When we did, it was two blocks from a movie theater and had air conditioning, so after a bite to eat and a shower we headed down for the late showing of Valkyrie.

For anyone visiting Acapulco, I highly suggest avoiding the downtown area and heading up over the hill to the next bay to the South. The reason for this is the insane amount of chain restaurants, crazy traffic, and soulless-ness of that area. Too harsh? The author may have been a little hungry on arriving, and this may have coloured her view.

Now we are in Pinotepa Nacional, staying at Las Gaviotas Hotel where they've let us park the motorcyclce in the lobby, there is hot water, and English movies on TV. The air has finally cooled a bit, which is nice after a long hot day in the sun.

One thing I've noticed around this area, are the many houses and restaurants painted a sort of Caribbean ocean blue. Pale and pretty, it is the colour of happy. I want to paint a kitchen that colour.

We head toward Puerto Escondido and then toward Oaxaca, where we plan on spending a couple of days exploring.
I'm hungry and sleepy and it's getting late, so for now: ciao! And Buenos Noches.

Photos:
1) Andre, Grace, Yours Truly, Steve, and Mysterio...
2) "Grace," a self portrait
3) Playa Azul arrival just at sunset
4) Beach soccer at dusk
5) Birds make a break for it as we drive by on the sand
6) Driving on the hard pack near the water is easy, it´s getting there and back with the bike loaded down that gets me (and the KLR) to break a sweat.
7) SOME sections of the highway are absolutely spectacular!
8) Swim break on Playa la Ropa, Zihuatanajo
9) Scanning the guide book in downtown Acupulco
10) We just ran into these two guys, Clay and Kyle, today about an hour before arriving here in Pinotepa. They´re doing practiacally the same ride we are, except (unlike us) they´re on a time table of only 3 months :-( They are both on KLRs and were impressed to see the set-up we have for two-up riding. Check out their blog HERE.