The gods of mud decreed New Year statutary holidays were to be observed. There had been a lot of rain on NY day and the roads were a muddy mess. While local stores were trading, sadly there were no restaurants open so we indulged in the standard cold fare of tortilla, refried beans, fresh cheese, avacado and tomato. At least we were able to get hot water out of our rooms basic coffee machine.
We were excited to bike out of town after breakfast at Rositas on the third day of 2023. The dirt roads had dried out considerably and it was very rideable till the last steep pitch before the high point of the day. The descent was steep and challenging to start with, continuing into flowing fun downhills for a vertical km or so.
The next village of Uruapan features Agua Termales (hot springs) where we headed first. I met my namesake Josephine there. She is from a family of 12 and all still live in the area. Her brother Jaime lives 500m from the hot springs and loves taking in waifs and strays on 2 wheels. We set up camp in Jaimes garage where we were visited by a cousin who unlocked the house. We returned to the hot springs to have food from the kiosk made by one of the 6 sisters, talked to another sister, Josephine and a nephew and then took a shower-bath in the facilities. As well as show-bath stalls there are numerous automatic washing machines along with manual lavandería (washing) stations. People arrive with armloads of washing because of the online hot water. Our soak was a great end to the day.
We caught up with Jaime next morning, a very lovely man, and helped extinguish the spontaneous fire in his tractor’s starter motor!
The ride to the Pacific coast that day was in the sun on smooth dirt roads till the final rocky descent to a beautiful bay with large crashing waves. While lunching above the bay 3 surfers pulled up and contemplated the surf but there was no rush to get amongst it.
The coastline to Erendira was gorgeous and only marred by the dogs chasing Alan on the final downhill. He did manage to outrun them but he had his legs in the air away from yapping mouths just in case!
We found the motels in Erindera and while enjoying the last of the sun saw a cyclist roll by. Bec is from Utah, biking solo and we enjoyed her company for hamberguesa sand cervesas eaten at a streetside stall.
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