Let’s take a ride to Teacapan

Today was a day for a ride….where to go?  Eric said “ How about Teacapan?” and we were off and on the road by 9:30 am. 

Today’s journey is about 92 miles each way so it’s a long one.  No we didn’t stop at all those markers on the map.  I have to put those in to make MapPoint go the way I want it to.

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Here you can see the second half of the French Canadian Caravan that pulled in last night.  About 29 rigs so we are full to the gunnels out back!  On the right up ahead they are having a meeting of some sort.  That seems to happen once or twice a day.

So…where are we now.  Well, we left the park, went north out to the maxipista and then south to the bypass which will take us to Villa Union.  Here we are exiting the bypass and will go west and take the free road to Escuinapa and Teacapan.

A bit tricky to turn left here as the traffic from both south and north does not have to stop.

Made it!  The first town we will pass through will be El Rosario.

Mango trees in bloom everywhere.  The air is sickly sweet with their scent.

29 Km to El Rosario.

 

We are on the free road passing through El Rosario and you can see the big church that sits in the middle of town. 

Isn’t this the most beautifully painted hotel!

Over the bridge and we head south.

Coming into Escuinapa where we will head west to Teacapan. 

If you take the free road through Escuinapa it is quite convoluted.  You want to follow the signs to Tepic which is south of Escuinapa and then watch for the sign that tells you to turn to Teacapan.

Here we are in Escuinapa looking for a sign.  We have the TomTom running on the bike so that will give us a heads up as well.

Teacapan straight ahead.

 

We followed the TomTom’s instructions and made it to this sign that says turn right for Teacapan.  It’s been a number of years since we’ve been out this way and last time the road was horrible.

So far so good.

Look at the amount of blooms on these mango trees.

The estuaries start to appear. 

At this time of year many of them are dry but when the summer rains come they will fill up again.

The one that that you can see is white with salt and these fellows are filling bags and bags of it.

You can see where they have shoveled the salt into piles.

There is road construction here and it appears that they are making a four lane road. 

There is a major bridge construction under way over this area.

Huge agriculture out this way.  Lots and lots and lots of chilies. 

             

I would guess this is a water storage tower for an ejido just past the bridge. 

The mangos are even growing under the palm trees. 

Some sort of a gated plant….perhaps chemicals?

As we rode along I spotted this vendor.  He even had a good supply of bicycle tires for sale.

The whole Teacapan area was slated for huge development that never happened.  I wonder what kind of business this hotel is doing.

I thought these trucks made a colorful picture.  All lined up and ready to go.

Really green out this way.

Hmm…..that’s the road we remember from last time!

High wheeled crop tractor up ahead.

Pretty slim pickings for the cattle.

They must have lots of water available for the crops.

Nice pavement here.

And….not so nice here!  Where those shadows are up ahead it’s really dangerous because you can’t see a pothole…no matter how deep it is.  We did hit one really bad one.  Good thing Eric aired up the shocks or I’d be crippled!

The air is heavy with the sweet scent of drying chilis.

Hopefully these chilies are on fabric and not just on the ground.

Coming into Teacapan.  We first came out this way back in 2010 and had a great lunch at Otto’s Japonesa restaurant.  The last time we were here about three years ago he was closed. 

We are heading down the main street to the end where we’ll turn right and go to the malecon that runs along a salt water estuary. 

The malecon is somewhere up ahead.

I just love the blooms on this tree.

Lots of construction going on.

There it is. 

The pangas are all tied up.  I guess fishing is over for the morning. 

This is a beautiful malecon which may have been built in hopes of future development that has never happened. 

Many small restaurants along the malecon.

Look at this castle like house.

Lots of people relaxing by the water….there’s even a hammock.

Little Mexican dogs in front of an election sign.

When we road into town we noticed that Otto was back!   Yeah we get to have a Japanese lunch. 

Eric has parked the bike across the street in the big paved Pemex lot.

We said hello to Juanie, Otto’s wife and she called Otto out to see us.  He said he had moved south to Colima with his family for a couple of years but now he was back.  He remembered us as we always come out on the bike and have eaten here a few times in the past.  We placed our order and seated ourselves in the courtyard.

 

The flowers on the vine that cover the pergola at the rear of the restaurant are beautiful and scented.  I asked Otto what they were but he didn’t know.   The hummingbirds were busy dipping their beaks.

Eric looks pretty happy sitting here.  It is cool and breezy under the palapa and we have a cerveza while we wait for lunch.

We can see the road from where we sit and this tractor was pulling a huge load of seed bags.

Very tranquile here.

The bus stops here too.

                  

Eric ordered fried rice with sweet and sour chicken and vegetables and an egg roll.  Turned out to be pork and not chicken….no problem.

I had fried rice with shrimp and vegetables in a tempura batter.  Delicious as always.

Do I look happy?   You bet and I’m hungry and managed to all but a few bites of rice. 

Yum Yum!

That’s Juanie up front doing some paperwork.

                 

I asked Otto if I could get a picture of him and his family and they were happy to oblige.  Otto came back later to have a chat with us about his life these days.  We’d noticed there was another Japanese fellow about and Otto said this was his friend from Calgary, Alberta.  He and Otto had gone to school together in Japan when they were young.  Otto had visited his friend in Calgary and now his friend was visiting him for two weeks.  Otto has another job that involves importing seafood and he was hired because he can speak Japanese, English and Spanish.  He was away for three weeks and had just returned from a trip to Peru.  He also said his wife Juanie was as good as or better than he was at running the restaurant while he was away.  He wasn’t sure how long he was going to be doing this as it was a problem securing a reliable supply of seafood that would pass import inspection into Japan.  Anyway it was great to see him and we said we’d be back again next year.  If you want a wonderful Japanese lunch his restaurant is on your left just past the arch when you come into Teacapan.  

          

Otto with his daughter Yuki and wife Juanie.  I asked if they were home schooling Yuki because she wasn’t at school but was instead helping out in the restaurant but Otto said no that was not the case.  He said Yuki is Mexican and goes to public school and it was just that it was Friday and her teacher had not shown up for work!  He said it happens quite often on a Friday.

                     

Yuki is eight now and is helping out in the restaurant.  She is dressed just like her mother and very carefully brought us the sauces and cutlery for our lunch.  She was very sweet.

Time to hit the road.  It is about 1:45 and it’s a 2 1/2 hour trip back to the park.  We have a park dinner to attend and happy hour starts at 4pm.  Time to boogie!

Lots of drying chiles as we ride along.

Here the chilies are darker and off to the right you can see huge piles of wood that they use to dry the the chilies over a fire.

Huge pile of wood next to the chilies.

These ones are almost black.  I bought a few packages of dried pasilla, ancho and guajillo chilies to take home.  I learned how to prepare them at my Angelina’s kitchen cooking course.

Here there are peppers being picked off plants that have no leaves left on them.  Did they just die back or….were they sprayed with a defoliant…who knows.

This bull is keeping the yard tidy.

A tractor that is set up to spray….with what….on what I wonder.

At the back of this photo on the left there is a long, narrow and what appeared to be brick wood fired drying oven for the chilies.

Laundry day.

As we head back I spot the cattle grazing at the edge of the estuary.

Lots of water here.

The salt is drying along the edges.

Yonke or ….junk yard.

If you need a pineapple this guy has lots.

We are now back in Escuinapa working our way through the city to get to the free road and home.  Straight ahead to Mazatlan.

Follow that bus.

Back past El Rosario.

Those little white specks by the chicken barns are grazing goats and sheep.

Between El Rosario and Villa Union there are quite a few plant nurseries.

Everything is set out growing in rows and ready to be potted up.

Back through Villa Union, onto the Mazatlan bypass and home by 4:15.  Not too late. 

A good day and now for a good evening with friends.  I can’t believe it…two big events for the Tycho’s in one day.  Unheard of!