Monasano plant with vegetables growing in front.
Just us left at the Pemex everyone else is on the road to Mazatlan.

Friday, Dec. 12, 2009

We made it to Mazatlan. We arrived about 3pm yesterday with only a moderate amount of screaming and yelling. Need I say again how stressful this is or should I just say it is not for the faint of heart! But, we are doing it and it will get easier, right Croft? We left San Carlos on Thursday morning and were happy to leave our charming neighbour behind. She was very gassed by the afternoon and playing conga drums under our window by 5pm. Since they are living in a camper van they spend most of their awake time outside drinking and smoking. Not fun. Eric says we seem to be magnets for that type of people. Nice people when they were sober. We rolled through Guaymas with no problems and hit the highway. Still horrible highway with no shoulders and for that they charge you a toll and another toll and another toll! We got through Obregon with no problems and then on to Navahoa. The bypass route to the west was open again and we saw trucks heading that way. We had lunch in the Pemex and headed out. I had the GPS running on the lap top and could see us on Map Point. As we headed south into the state of Sinaloa the roads became better, wider with an actual shoulder. Okay there were still tractors on it (traffic moving at 100km) and the odd cow at the edge of the road. As we approached Los Mochis we tried to find the Pemex that Croft had stayed at but the traffic was heavy and it was on the other side of the highway. For those of you who don't know who Croft is try his blog, very interesting reading. http://croftsmexico.blogspot.com/. We passed that Pemex up and carried on. We do have printed directions from an On The Road Again download and it shows most Pemex stations so we knew there were more just ahead.

A short way south we spotted Pemex 4925 on our side. It looked huge and Eric saw some RV's parked in the back corner. A screech to a halt and we were in right next to some fields of potatoes and beans and a Monasano plant spewing black smoke. Sweet! So anyone who thinks the earth isn't choking to death better not come to Mexico as all those banned chemicals are in Mexico and they are on your produce. But, enough doom and gloom as we were stopped and happy to be there. There were two motorhomes and a trailer next to us and out popped a really nice guy, Frank who invited us over for happy hour! How nice was that. Turns out all three couples were heading for Las Jaibas, the same as us, they had been in Totonaka and also of course stay with Edgar in Santa Ana! They stay in Mazatlan for the winter and have become best friends after many times in the same park. Again, small, small world. We soaked up as much information as we could from them and then went back to the 5th wheel, had a couple of beers, a bowl of soup ( too tired to go to the restaurant) and off to bed. Everybody else always seems so perky and we are always dishrags. Maybe it's just they have more experience or maybe they are just more relaxed people. Next morning they left just before us and said they were taking 15 the libre road. We said we'll stay on 15D the toll road (cuato) and just buck up. Well, you really get to buck up! The highway south was now better but the air pollution is absolutely unbelievable through the farming areas and between the spraying and the vehicles spewing diesel and oil smoke we both had a sore throat. When you get to Culiacan you really have to watch for the toll road. I as usual tell Eric to turn when he shouldn't and he tries not to yell at me. You need to get fuel there because that's it until Mazatlan. As we drove south the air cleared up and we stopped at an SOS rest stop between 70 and 75 km mark. While having lunch a large chicken truck pulled in with chickens in cages stacked about 10 high and perched right on top was an escapee riding along at 100km per hour! He had a look around but with not many wing or tail feathers he was reluctant to fly. The truck driver crawled on top and snuck up on him and poor chicken he was back in his cage. I should have taken a picture but I was too busy feeling sorry for the chickens. What an idiot as I'm not exactly a vegetarian! So onwards to Mazatlan. We had been warned not to miss the Mazatlan playa beach road so we were very careful. Got on it and though it is under repair we came through fine. No mud. Found the park with the GPS and pulled in just up from the people from the night before. They had just arrived too and did not take the libra but bucked up just like us. We were totally bagged but got parked and set up. The park is old but okay and we stayed up front because the neighbour said there could be some problems with wifi at the back. We must get a hawking antenna for next year because it is really noisy up by the road. The traffic is much like the Kihei road in Maui and we never wanted to be next to that either. It is hot 30C and humid and we are not in a sleepy little Mexican town. Eric had his first difficulty finding the Starchoice signal and got help from a guy down the way who couldn't find it either. He just mucked it up worse but at least he tried. Eric then got help from Leonard behind us who has a Radio Shack satellite tone finder. It turns out Leonard who lives in Campbell River used to work up the Nass back in the sixties. He said some of the natives had never seen a white man at that time. Again, small world. We got it and it's at 54 so that is good. Dennis next to us still hasn't got his even though Eric gave him the readings. This morning we were up early and Eric was in the water by 10am and I just watched and talked to people on the beach. It's a beautiful beach and I will get up and walk tomorrow morning. Eric is a happier boy now he has found the oceon and he is now off on his bicycle looking for a beer store. There is a Tecate store (worlds worst beer in our book) next door so we hope to find a Pacifico store. We will stay here a week and plan our next move. It gets dicey at Christmas because all the Mexicans like to go the beach then and it gets crowded. We will see Adrian and Sandi who are moving ahead of us and try to keep in contact as they move. They are planning on Rincon to Guayabitos and that is close to where we think we want to be. Hard to think about moving when we just got here but this is not a final destination for us. Well that's enough for now and I will post again soon. Eric says, one sweet ride, oh yeah in the carefree RV lifestyle!
Kathy