Sayulita to Barra de Navidad

Once again we delayed leaving Sayulita. While preparing to leave on Sunday morning, I discovered that the new rear tire was extremely low on air.... only 10 psi. Since it was Sunday and the MC shop in PV would be closed we decided stay in Sayulita one more night. We carry a 12 volt pump so we decided to wait until Monday, over inflate the tire slightly and ride into PV to return to the shop to rectify the problem.

Shortly after discovering the problem, I inflated the tire to the recommended pressure (41 psi) to try to determine how rapidly the tire was loosing pressure. I was surprised that by evening tire did not loose any pressure at all. I surmised that the probable cause of the low pressure was that the tire was not completely seated on the rim when it was mounted but it seated itself when ridden. 

Monday morning, the tire pressure was still normal, so we packed up and left Hotel Diamante for a 275k ride south. 
 
Every time we travel though Puerto Vallarta we are stuck by the amount of development since we first came here. In 1971 PV was a small fishing village up aginst the mountains at the south end of the bay, Bahia Bandaras. The airport had just been upgraded and the only paved road was from the airport to the village. 

Now it is a metropolis that has gobbled up surrounding villages and it extends from one end of the bay to the other. High rise hotels and condo stretch along the beach front. Sam's Club, Walmart, Costco, time share sellers, children hawking cheap dolls, overpriced accommodation and restaurants... all covered with a hazy layer of smog that hangs over the the low lands around the bay. 

However, there are jobs in Puerto Vallarta that don't exist in the smaller villages nearby. The population of Mexico has grown much more rapidly that it has in Canada. In the 1960s the population of Canada was roughly 20M and the population of Mexico was roughly 30M. Since then, Canada's population has increased to almost 35M while Mexico's population has almost quadrupled to 110M.

Enough about this... The ride to after leaving PV climbs up into the hills for 100k or so before returning to the coast or Costa Alegre (the happy coast). We are now settled into the Hotel Posada Pacifico in Barra de Navidad. It is an inexpensive family run hotel a couple of blocks off the beach. Unpretentious and friendly or cheap and cheerful, as the Brits would say. $25. / night.

Barra (as the locals call it) is a quiet laid back town at the south end of a beautiful 5 mile long beach. At the north end of the bay is located the sister town of Melaque. Melaque is the larger of the two and is the centre of commerce.

Barra is much less "anglified" than Sayulita, probably because it is bit more off the beaten path. Tourism is down dramatically here. Therefore it is less expensive. We met a fellow from Kelowna that has an apartment in the hotel that he has rented for the season. He is paying 4000 pesos per month (c$325.) He had to add bit of furniture that he will leave behind, but nevertheless quite a good deal!

We are staying here for 5 days and taking some Spanish lessons. We have been walking quite a bit but my knee is irritated and swollen. I've been popping vitamin I but the swelling doesn't seem to be improving. Today I decided to try to catch up on the blog and park myself at an outdoor coffee shop while Linda cruises the shops.

We are meeting our teacher at noon. Linda is nervous about the lessons but really she is doing quite well.