Barra de Navidad

Decided to cut the movement short a little. Part of it is due to the very nature of bus travel and the fact that I was often assigned aisle seats and couldn´t see out the window. Part of it was due to bad food availability- I was living off trail mix and Cliff Bars from home, mixed with the occassional street quesadilla. And part of it was due to a sort of Come to Jesus experience, of which I will spare the details here... mostly because it´s embarassing and personally revealing. Who wants to read about such things?



I´m in Barra de Navidad. It is one of two towns on a cove made of jungle covered mountains. The streets are cobblestone, chaotically created, and the buildings bright. The beach has a steep approach so just one big green-blue wave crashes repeatedly onto the shore. They sell peeled mangos on a stick: $1 during the day, 50 cents at night. My hotel is cheap, very clean and has a balcony overlooking the street. There´s no AC and the bed is a touch softer than sleeping on a wooden floor but a good fan... and the people are extremely nice. I feel safe and at home. I´m staying here instead of continuing the bus hopping. There´s transportation directly to the Guadalajara airport and I´ve booked a flight to Cancun for about the same price as overland travel. And I get to swim in the ocean, snorkle, eat fish and sleep lying down.

Bus transport was getting repetitive and old and I felt I had mastered that course- maybe with a B+ even. I had logged over 50 hours already and had another 60 hours to go, sleeping sitting up and doing little coloring or writing because of the bumping and swaying. And anyway, what´s the fun of (solo, especially) travel if you don´t get to change your mind? It´ll be nice to get to know the entire layout of just one place, if only for a couple of days. Viva Barra de Navidad!