Santa Ana, Mexico to Why, Arizona.

We left Edgar and Ana’s at about 9:30 am on Thursday morning. 

Windshield is dirty so the pictures will be spotty!

Heading out of town.

Garden centre.

Selling?

50’s vintage Chevy.

Someone’s very cool ride!

Last Pemex on the way out of town with a huge lot. 

Hmm…..construction already!

Bridge repair.

We are on the concrete side of the highway and although it is humpy it has no potholes.

As we drove along it was amazing how green everything was.  All the rain we got down south must have been here as well.  We have never ever seen it this green.  Absolutely stunningly beautiful!

Green, green, green!  

Palo Verde, creosote bush, grass, cacti….everything is green!

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Today’s route from Santa Ana to the border at Sonoyta and then north to Why, Arizona.

In Altar they are building a new or adding on to make wider bridge which is a really good thing.  This temporary lane is very narrow.  The old bridge was a narrow two lane bridge.

Next stop Pitiquito Aduana and customs and import sticker return.

Right across the highway from Pitiquito is a huge feed lot.  Bet is smells nice if the wind is blowing the right way.

Pitiquito on the left up ahead.  We will pull in at the south end.

Around to the left and make a big turn. 

We will leave the way we came in and head north. 

Eric has gone inside to find someone to remove the stickers and do the paperwork involved. 

Not real busy!

Oh goody….he found someone. 

We decided to turn our RV sticker in this year in case we want to buy something else.  A huge problem if you haven’t turned in you sticker as they won’t let you bring another RV in if the old sticker hasn’t been returned.  

All VIN numbers are photographed.

Now….back inside to the banjercito or bank to complete the paperwork.  We want to make sure we get our deposit money back for the Harley and the truck.  Over a thousand dollars!

The Federales were rolling through while I waited. 

The whole process took about 20 minutes and we were on our way.  Back out through that opening and left to head north. 

Away we go!

The town of Pitiquito to the left. 

Coming through Caborca.

A lot of the traffic turned left to Puerto Peñasco or Rocky Point where they will drink, party, rage on Quads and Jet Skis and just generally make noise over Semana Santa.  Sounds like fun….not for us. 

We always fuel up at the north end of Caborca on our way north.  We usually get fuel with a quarter of a tank left in an 80 liter tank.  The Mexican pump reads 5 to 7 liters more than what we receive on every fill according to our onboard computer.  Our onboard computer is very, very close in the USA and Canada to the pump readings.  Everyone knows they are being cheated but….what can you do.  Fuel prices for diesel have remained a constant 14.2 pesos a liter and although they haven’t risen recently they had not gone down like they have globally.  That works out to about $1.12 a liter in Canada which is about the same.  Also a rip off in Canada as oil is half of what it was. 

Eric had a long discussion with two Mexican truck drivers while he waited for the gas attendant to appear.  They wanted to know if we were heading to Puerto Penasco.  Eric said “ No, not now, not ever, never!!! during Semana Santa.”

The beautiful green continues.

Bad stretches of pavement as the concrete highway ended on the south side of Caborca.  This road was new when we started coming to Mexico six years ago.

This stretch of highway is home to the “ Flying Puentes!”  Sounds like a circus act but is really just bridges or Puentes that aren’t level with the highway that make you airborn if you are going too fast.

You go up a very long hill and then come down a long hill to San Emeterio which is for immigration and truck cargo inspection.  We will turn in our tourist visas here.  There is no longer a bank here as that has all moved to Pitiquito.  It would be nice if they would put it all together like it used to be at San Emeterio.  It only took a minute to turn in our Visa’s and get our passports stamped. 

We pulled over to the left in the blocked lane to park and turn in the Visa’s. 

The line of trucks is huge today.

Longer than we’ve ever seen and they must have to wait hours and hours to get through. 

The mountains are beautiful and….green as we continue north. 

We are in Sonoyta and you can turn left to Mexacali or right to the border.

Leaving Sonoyta….Good trip!

The traffic hasn’t been heavy today and it isn’t heavy at the border.

They couldn’t make it any narrower if they tried.  They also have a hanging bar that bumps over our air conditioner when we pass under.  Eric wonders what the point of all this is.  Has anyone ever tried to run the border in a vehicle.  The border attendant looked at our passports, asked it we’d bought anything in Mexico (just t-shirts) and then asked if we were Snowbirds.  He said that was a good thing and he wanted to be one too!  What a boring job.  No questions about vegetables or anything else.  Bueno!

We used to go left and out onto the highway where we will cross over to the north end of the gas station and stop for lunch.  But…..another idiotic turn to be done.   Eric must swing to the left so he can straighten out the rig for the right hand turn to get through the very narrow gate.  The concrete narrows at an angle at the bottom and has been barked by large vehicles going through.  We have removed our side mounted ladder and carry inside as we would never fit through without damage. 

We pulled over in the gravel lot on the north side of the gas station and had lunch.  Glad to be through all the paperwork and on our way north. 

Even the Saguaros are green here. 

We are now in the Organ Pipe National Monument.  A pretty drive.

Hickiwan Trails RV Park and we made it.

Not too many people here now and it is very quiet.  Just the way we like it except for the burros.  It is mating season!     

Shortly after we parked honey bees started showing up.  Pretty soon there was a huge amount buzzing outside our  screen door.  What is going on.  I thought maybe we’d disturbed them in the tree outside but there was no sign of a hive.  They were very interested in the underside and wheels of our rig. 

Just as it was getting dark they started to disappear and were gone.  Just then the door in the rig across the way opened and a man got out dressed in pants, shoes and a zipped up jacket.  It’s hot…not cold. 

While we were eating at about 6:45 he came over to tell us what was going on.  That morning his trailer had been swarmed by bees and they were making a hive under his rig.  He called the fire department who said the bees were arriving from the west!   Sounds odd.  In any case he had to get cans of insecticide and spray them.  He didn’t want to as they were honey bees but he had no choice.  Not sure what else he could have done. 

Tomorrow we will relax and go into Ajo for a quick shop.  Note….diesel here is $2.86 a gallon.  Even with our lousy Canadian dollar it is a good price.