The Road to El Capomo and The New Cuota

There is a new cuota (toll highway) under construction near La Peñita.  The main north-south highway (15D) brings traffic down the west coast of Mexico, and runs over to Mexico City.  It is fairly high in elevation, running from 3,000 ft at Tepic to over 5,000 feet at Guadalajara.  To get from the high Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains down to the coast at sea level is no mean feat; Highway 200 from Tepic follows the natural river valley contours down, and is steep, narrow, very tightly-winding, and often has a vegetation canopy over the road, only pruned back by the trailers of passing semi's.  Similarly, Highway 68 D, the main route from the coast to Guadalajara, a city of over five million people, is similarly constructed.  Throw onto this a mix of impatient holiday traffic and very heavy and slow double-trailer semi's, and you have a slow, sometimes dangerous journey. 

The antidote is a new toll highway that is being constructed, to bring the traffic down to the coast, in rumour, all the way to Puerto Vallerta.  The first section, from 15 D down as far as Compostela, has been completed and is open.  It takes between forty minutes to an hour off the journey to Guadalajara, and is much easier on your blood pressure.  The second section appears to be complete as far as Las Varas, but is not yet open.  As is the way in Mexico, no one is sure why it isn't open, or when it will be.  In the La Peñita area, the new cuota will run somewhere between the existing Highway 200 and the mountains, although, again, the exact route is not known to the public.

Anyways, I saw that the newly completed section terminated near the road to El Capomo, so Nancy, Kirk, and I decided to go have a look. (Remember you can click on the photos to see a larger version).

 There's the Cuota, over there.

Getting closer

And so it starts

 Pristine freeway, with not a soul on it.

The new Cuota runs through quiet agricultural lands.  You can see the vegetation is already sneaking up onto the road.  Around here, the jungle never sleeps.

 The new road cut, bringing the Cuota down from the mountains

 Still quiet, until the highway opens.

Heading back, the end of the road.

We decided to follow the quiet road into El Capomo.

El Capomo appears to be a nice little pueblo.  However, we forgot to take any pictures; regrets.