One of the best things about having no destination are the places you end up. Some are better than others but it is always exciting to be driving down an unknown road to find a beach town at the end. Today we said goodbye to Oaxaca and entered the state of Guerrero, which has been hit hard with a drop in tourism over the last few years.

We are in Playa Ventura, about 1.5 hours south of Acapulco. It looks as though it was once a thriving coastal town but now it is empty. Really, really empty. We are the only non Mexicans here. We pulled in at 3:30, hot and hungry, the streets were quiet and so were the hotels. I had looked on Trip Advisor and found 4 possible places to stay-all of them were crap. The first one was very dirty and over priced, the second one had 2 pit bulls come barking at us and when we jumped back in the car the owner came out and got all huffy that we called her dogs crazy. And the other 2 places we couldn’t find. Thankfully we happened upon a small bungalow rental with secure parking. The couple that own it are very nice and have been quite helpful.

The town has a bad vibe though. Really desperate. We have been told the place is always empty and the people seem unhappy. The small vegetable market is poorly stocked and the produce is all spoiling. Nick and I don’t like the feel here so we are going to get back on the road really early.

We were up at 6 am and on the road by 7am. Whew. I’m not going there again! The owner of the place we stayed said it is totally safe, there is just no work and since the drug wars started the tourists stopped coming. The place made me feel sad. Nick and the girls said the same.

I like being out early, we got to see the kids on their way to school, the roosters strutting and doing their thing. Packs of mangey dogs having an early morning scratch and a look around before the heat sets in. We watched the sun rise over the incredibly tropical coastline and went in search for coffee.

The girls were also quite alert this morning and we talked about education, drug wars, practiced Spanish, and how to give adequate notice in roadworks so you don’t almost crash…We also explained the toll road system down here, it seems to me that you charge a cuota, and thenyou start building the better highway. Today I paid 100 pesos for 13km of road that was under construction the whole way. So irritating but if we went around we would have ended up driving through Acapulco. Not fun. I saw today, for the first time, another gringo tourist travelling by car. Seems unlikely, doesn’t it? We have covered a lot of miles and it was at a military checkpoint that I saw them. Almost stopped for a chat but given the circumstances we carried on. Holy police and military around Acapulco!! Three levels: state police, federal police and the military. Faces covered, big machine guns mounted on pick up trucks-pretty intense. They were only around the city and once we cleared through we didn’t see them again.

Off to Zihuatenajo next and the Michoacan coast. Very Excited:)