Puerto Vallarta
Motorcycle Ride in Mexico
Our Motorcycle Trip

Having travelled through quite a lot of the rest of North America on a motorcycle, we wanted to add Mexico to the list of places we've ridden, so we found PV Cycles and arranged with the man behind the business, Brian, to rent us a Harley Davidson big enough for Joyce to enjoy riding pillion. We also arranged for him to give us a guided tour for our day long ride so we could enjoy the trip without worrying about where to go or what to do if we ran into something we might not want or be able to deal with ourselves; like a police stop.


We took a cab to Brian's shop in Nuevo Vallarta and following a short time for introductions and paper signing were ready to begin our ride. We had beautiful weather the whole day and proceeded through a few small towns and rode a lot of winding roads up and down the coastal mountains to the town of San Blas which is about 100 miles North of where we started. We had very light traffic for almost all the ride and we were fortunate enough that when we did hit a bit of traffic it didn't last long or it was easy to make a pass.


Driving in Mexico is a little different than in the States. Some of the left turn rules and the way you slip from one road to another took some getting used to but since we only had to follow Brian, we had no trouble. There were several times we had to ride over speed bumps, sometimes in the towns but sometimes right in what seemed like the middle of nowhere on the highway. That is also something unusual in the States. We have speed bumps on side streets, but not on highways; at least not yet.


We made a couple of butt break stops on the way and enjoyed a great shrimp lunch when we got to San Blas. After lunch we rode back to Nuevo Vallarta, mostly on the same roads we took to get to San Blas, but they were very fun roads and worth doing both ways. We stopped at a town square on the way back where a carnival was being set up and streatched our legs for a little while. At one point we saw a vehicle that was pulled over by police (or military). They were dressed in camo and shouldering their big automatic rifles. I'm no gun expert, but I'd say they were similar to M16 type weapons. A bit scary to see for someone who is used to what a vehicle stop looks like in the States. Brian explained that there are several layers of police and military services in Mexico and a lot of stops are made to check for drugs. Anyway, we were past that scene pretty quickly and back to enjoying the ride.


Even though we didn't get back to the shop until about 6:00pm, the ride felt like it ended too soon. It was such a gorgeous day and for someone from the midwest who had only been able to get out once since last year, I didn't want it to end. Since we were riding most of the day we don't have many pictures, but Brian sent us a couple he took on his cell phone and we have a few from a couple of our stops. Enjoy.