Having spent the night at a room in the El Palomar I had a chance to cleanup and recharge my gear. When the grocery store opened at 7am I got my supplies. I had loaded the wrong track into my eTrex and so went off course coming out of Santo Tomas but it didn't take me long to get back on track and find the road climbing steeply out of town towards the Pacific coast.
My first view of the wild Pacific coast was a special moment and I was tempted to descend to the beach and go in the water but was satisfied with stopping to eat and take a photograph. I rode on to the Mercado in Erindeara where I met a bikepacker couple but they did not seem too interested in conversation or perhaps did not speak english. By the way, there is a big chainlink fence across the route just after Erindeara. I went down to the beach to get around it and then continued on the route as marked toward Punta Colonet. At this point I was thinking I would have to make up some time in order to get to La Paz by the 20th of January so when I got to Punta Colonet I rode south on Mex1 to Vincente Guerrero and checked into the Posada San Martin Hotel which was very nice for 600 pessos, about $30 US.
The next day did not look like a hard day on paper but from San Quinton to Nuevo Odisea there was lots of deep rutted sand sections and my left knee was starting to hurt so I started an advil regime. As I got close to Nuevo Odisea it looked like the route got wiped out by a high tide so I detoured and came into town through the Ejido, got some street tacos for 18 pesos each, then rode up into the hills and camped hoping tomorrow would be a better day.
The next day January 8th was another long day but my knee had responded to rest which was good because the first 30k had some steep, eroded, unrideable climbs. After the route turned south again I got onto some nice dirt road with long decents and made it to the roadhouse at El Sacrificio by 4:30pm for a hot meal and resupply costing a grand total of 220 pesos. Once again rode on up into the hills until after dark then glad to lie down and sleep. That night it started to rain at about 3am and got very windy and cold. It rained off and on most of the morning and I was wearing all of my clothes to stay warm. By the time I got to Catavina I decided I needed a rest day so I booked two nights at The Mission Santa Maria Hotel. I met Max and Willow just outside the Roadhouse across the street. I had been following their tracks for awhile. They were staying the night just up the road.
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