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Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Guaymas to Los Mochis the whole blog!

No big blog tonight.  Left Playa de Cortez at 9am and got into what used to be Pemex 4925 and is now a Smart Gas station just after 3:30.  Roads were the best they've been since our first trip in 2009.  Yes, some rough areas but those areas are to remind us how bad it used to be!  No blown tires or broken springs so it was a good day.  Otto and Edna traveled with us and we had a nice happy hour when we got here.  I took pictures but I'm too tired to add them all in.  May add them in later...may not.
Nighty night.

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Okay it’s three day’s later (Saturday Nov. 17th) and we’ll see how good my memory is of our first day’s journey.  Here we are getting ready to hook up and leave Playa de Cortez.  That’s Otto and Edna beside us.

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Many of the sites were cleaned up but…many were not.  There is an older man staying in the park who has been babying all the new trees that have been planted to replace the large trees that died in the center row and they are doing well under his care. 

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Coming through Guaymas around 9:15am and it’s busy.

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Just passing over the causeway heading towards Las Palmas.

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Hmm….did the bridge fall down or is it just so old it’s being replaced. 

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We join the northbound traffic for a bit before switching back.

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Past Las Palmas heading for the maxipista and it is very, very narrow here.

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Heading onto 15D.

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And..we are detoured onto the northbound lane.

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Most of the roadwork now seems to be puentes or bridges that have to be finished before the road can be fully open.

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Construction.

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There is too much glare to see it but that is rich brown dirt and if they use that as a road bed everything will fall apart.

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Gravel here.

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Here the goats are grazing at the edge of the road. 

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A bit of bad pavement in between the concrete stretches.

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We are sharing the northbound lane and this home made trailer is going very slow.  The traffic is piled up behind us but there isn’t much we can do about it.

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Coming into Vicam.

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I always seem to take a picture of the pottery they are selling and wonder who the heck would buy this stuff.  Okay, Nancy the flamingos would look nice in front of your rig. 

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Isn’t this just lovely!

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Coming up to the huge Yaqui statue.  There is a big meeting area around it that must have cost a bundle and it appears no one has every used it.  Money not well spent.

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It is massive.

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And now for the Obregon bypass.  As Contessa said in her blog it is very well marked as the Navojoa cuota.

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Nice but really banked to the right. 

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Away we go at a cost of 380 pesos for our five axles.  The steepest toll we will pay on the trip. 

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Concrete.

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And we leave to rejoin 15D south.

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As you come off the bypass there is no lane to blend in with traffic…you are just on, which is not very safe so be careful.

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At this point we have stopped for lunch at the Pemex at the north end of the Navojoa bypass and are now rejoining 15D south.  Navojoa is easy enough to go right through if you don’t mind a dozen or so traffic lights.  We aren’t in a hurry and now that they’ve redone the bypass…we use it.

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The toll booths in Sonora have been taken over by a citizen’s group protesting tolls in general and especially tolls for poor roads.  I’m with them on that although Sonora’s roads are now in pretty darn good shape.  We did not have to pay a toll but put 20 pesos in their collection tin. 

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In some areas the concrete is already showing wear and small potholes have started to appear.  My cousin Garth says they need the German lads that designed and built the autobaun to show them how to do it.  He says it’s like driving on velvet! 

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The agricultural fruit check…we didn’t have to stop.

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Hmmm….a nasty gravel crossover here.  On a portion of the road where we were travelling with the northbound traffic we noticed Federalies, ambulances and many many buses and then more Federalies.  I didn’t clue in fast enough to take a picture thinking there must be an accident but then Eric realized it must be the migrant caravan getting a lift north.  No pics….too slow. 

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Some of the old highway but not too bad.

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The north and southbound traffice are travelling together here and this bus took it upon himself to pass us and then this huge truck.  No wonder so many people are killed.  No passing allowed here. 

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Off in the distance they are burning. 

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The cows are being hustled away from the highway.  No steers or cows we ever had would have been controlled this way. 

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Welcome to Sinaloa.

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Roads are decent here and to the left you can see the trucks lined up for the military check point.

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Not good here but…we are now in Sinaloa where we will pay huge tolls for really crappy roads.

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Getting closer to Los Mochis.

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More bridge repair.

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Lovely and green here but they did get torrential rains. 

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This was repaved a few years ago and is still holding up.  I’d wondered how much road damage we’d see in and near Los Mochis as there was huge flooding back in late September due to a tropical depression.  70% of the people in Los Mochis suffered because water got into their homes.  There was huge damage to agricultural land.

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Coming into Los Mochis where we’ll park just south at what used to be Pemex 4925 in a fenced truck lot. 

So…all in all it was a good day. 

2 comments:

  1. It takes a lot of energy to do a blog post after a long day on those roads.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes it does and some times I just dont have it!

    ReplyDelete