Playa Azul (waiting)

Sun 21st to Fri 26th August

We are still stuck at Hotel Maria Terese, Playa Azul. This is now the longest we have stopped anywhere so far on this trip and although it is giving Bob a chance to recover from the aches and pains resulting from his spill, I think we are all ready to move on.

Resident Gecko

We believe we have discovered the source of Terry’s problem. The wire that came off the alternator brushes can apparently cause an open circuit and allow unchecked voltage to the battery and ignition module and fry them both. We are now awaiting a replacement battery from a supplier in Mexico and an ignition module plus Thunderchild Diode board from Jonathan Souders in the States. Hopefully both will be here by Friday.

Playa Azul Beach

Playa Azul is a beach resort catering for the Mexican holidaymaker and very few foreign tourists venture to this part of the coastline. Apart from weekends the town is effectively shut up as the children are back in school and apart from the beach there are few attractions to entice the visitor.

Rain, rain and more rain

For a couple of days (Tuesday & Wednesday) we were effectively prisoners in the hotel as torrential rain from Hurricane Henry kept us from venturing out too far. Having said that, we all feel a little lethargic, not really wanting to do much whilst we wait for the parts to arrive, so it is not really affecting us.

Joel who is heading for Bolivia

Joel a fellow traveller from New Zealand appeared at our hotel on Tuesday evening looking like a drowned rat. He arrived soaked to the skin and has had to spend two nights here to dry everything out. We first met Joel on the Baja and he has been roughly following our route since. We spent a couple of enjoyable evenings with a few beers before he set off again towards Cancun where coincidentally he is also meeting up with friends. If you are interested in travel blogs, Joel’s trip is chronicled at: boliviabound.squarespace.com/joels-blog

Playa Azul

Wednesday. You wouldn’t think it could be so difficult to source a battery. The original distributor has said he can’t source one after all, so we have now ordered one from the main BMW dealer in Mexico City and hopefully it will be here on Saturday.

Friday, the first package we were awaiting turned up today. The new ignition module was fitted along with the battery from Bob’s bike. With fingers and toes crossed the starter was pressed and thankfully Terry’s bike burst into life. The charging system was tested and appeared normal, so all we need now is the new battery.

The rest of the day was spent rather lazily like the previous few.