February 10 to 16, 2013 ; Las Glorias, Sinaloa to Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

Sunday ; Happy 64^th birthday to my sister Sharon

Today was overcast and cool.

This morning Bo and I were invited to join the neighbours on a beach walk. I extended the invitation to Louis the Jack Russell, one of the caravan people’s dogs. Three men, two women, two little girls, two little dogs, all gringos, walking on the beach. The other two men walked ahead quickly, the women and girls stuck together, and me and the dogs were a “pack”. Bo and Louie were interested in some surf play, so we turned around after half a mile or so and walked back to the RV park, playing in the surf along the way. The rest of the group walked down the beach all the way into Las Glorias and then walked back through town.

Right after lunch we went exploring by truck. We drove through Las Glorias and over to the nearby village of Boca del Rio. OH ! ! ! DUH ! ! ! Mouth of the River ! ! ! That explains all those large fishing boats just offshore. Sunday is “Family Day” in Mexico, so both Las Glorias and Boca del Rio were filled with people young and old enjoying a rowdy day at the beach. There were cars, trucks, motorcycles, dune buggies and ATV’s roaring up and down the beach. So … when in Rome … !
I shifted Lanoire into six wheel drive, and … ZOOOM ! Onto the beach we went. Joanne disapproved.

 
We found the “doughnut shop” in Boca del Rio. Out in front of a house, a man was preparing doughnut dough on a table. His wife was frying large doughnuts one at a time in a pot of oil. We bought four doughnuts at five pesos each. Large, wonderful doughnuts ! We bought some milk and tortillas de harina at an abarrote. We drove back through Boca del Rio and Las Glorias exploring. At the far end of Las Glorias I once again drove onto the beach. I wanted to drive on the beach past our RV park. Once again Joanne disapproved. Just as we were driving past our RV park, a small aircraft, a Piper Cub, I think, flew over us, about ten feet above us ! Holy mackerel ! Like rules of the road in Mexico, I guess aviation regulations are just “suggestions”. I wonder what would be the consequences if I flew a Cessna 172 about fifteen feet above the beach on Skaha Lake in Penticton. HA HA HA !

I < ahem > hacked into the caravan’s Wi-Fi and got a lot of online work done this evening.

Monday ; Today started out a bit cloudy but by afternoon became sunny, warm, and windy.

This morning we had a beach doughnut play session with Bo and Louie the Jack Russell Terrier. Gee … Louie is as eager and fearless about playing beach doughnut fetch in ocean surf as Bo was four years ago. I suppose age brings wisdom and caution.

I used my machete to whack open coconuts for neighbours twice today. I guess I’m the only gringo around that has a machete. HA HA HA !

We had a late afternoon and evening planned with the next door neighbours who are departing tomorrow morning. First I built a campfire on the road in front of their rig. I’ll clean up the remnants of it tomorrow. Then we had a Mardi Gras parade. The girls had spent part of the day making masks and costumes. Joanne and I have masks and beads from spending Mardi Gras in and around Lafayette, Louisiana in 2006 or 2007. While the girls paraded around their motorhome to zydeco music I threw chocolate bars and beads at them every time they came around their RV and hollered “throw me something, mister”. HA HA HA … I taught them that Mardi Gras parade tradition today. Nicole had prepared packets of aluminum foil wrapped chicken and vegetables which we cooked over the campfire. While supper cooked I performed a magic show. It was great ! A five year old and an eight year old are a great magic show audience ! After the magic show we ate supper. Dessert was a chocolate brownie type cake Joanne baked today in the Sun Oven. We spent the evening sitting around the campfire chatting.

Tuesday ; Mardi Gras

This morning we went on a day trip outing to Bird Island ( singular in English ) / Isla Pájaros ( birds / plural in Spanish ) and Shell Island ( self-explanatory in English ) / Isla Macapule ( the Spanish name of a type of tree found on the island ). It was a tour arranged for the caravan group. Some in the caravan group obviously did not like that we came along on their day trip, but … I don’t really give a right royal **** ! We were invited by both the owner / operator and the assistant manager of Mr. Moro Hotel & RV Park, the organizers of the trip, before the caravan even arrived here, and again yesterday ! And we paid the same fee to go on the trip as they did ! ! !

We car pooled to the little nearby village of Pitahaya. The caravan group should have realized where our invitation came from when they saw that all the food coolers for lunch were in our truck, and the two Mr. Moro employees leading the trip were in our truck ! The group of about thirty people loaded into three pangas ( little fishing boats ) which then drove for about an hour to reach Isla Pájaros. Much of the trip was through a maze of mangrove swamps. The last part was over choppy open seas and the ride was brutally rough ! Joanne pointed out that we should take a boat trip every five years or so to remind ourselves how much we hate small boats !

Isla Pájaros was astounding ! It’s a small island filled with thousand of nesting birds, mostly Cormorants and Pelicans but also Ospreys and Vultures and who knows what else ? We wandered around for a couple of hours finding and photographing nests, eggs in nests, hatchlings in nests, fledglings in nests, mature birds in trees and cacti … ! After a couple of hours we climbed back into the pangas and headed over to Isla Macapule to eat lunch and wander around finding interesting shells to collect. The boat ride home in mid-afternoon was a lot smoother than the morning ride.

After returning to Mr. Moro we took Bo for a beach play session and after playing beach doughnut fetch for awhile we went to recruit Louis the Jack Russell and Latté the Miniature Dachshund to join us. We don’t invite Louis to join us until Bo has had enough beach doughnut fetch. Louis is too rough with the beach doughnut, having already destroyed the one we gave him a few days ago.

Tonight’s sunset was probably the best one of our trip so far !

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday ; Another beautiful, sunny day in paradise. The caravan left this morning. We have the entire place to ourselves ! Joanne decided she wanted us to have lunch in Mr. Moro’s restaurant. Before noon we placed our lunch order with Horatio to be ready about 1 PM. Dos sopas de tortilla, y dos tacos camarón, a jug of limonada and a piece of tarta limón / lemon pie for Joanne.

Joanne prepared a beef stew to cook in the Sun Oven. She hand washed a few articles of clothing and hung them out in the sun to dry. She’s been doing that most days that we’ve been here.
I worked on processing yesterday’s photos. WOW ! See above ! Since no one else was here,
I allowed Bo to be outside, untethered. I thought he would stick around our trailer, like the three Mexican dogs who were snoozing in the shade of the trailer. But NOOOOO … not Bo ! After
I finished some routine preventive maintenance I realized I hadn’t seen him for awhile. UH-OH !
I called and called him, and he finally showed up, wagging his tail furiously. I think he was “helping” the restaurant’s cook in the kitchen ! Why is it that the Mexican perros know better than to go wandering into the restaurant, especially into the kitchen, and the little gringo dog / perrito doesn’t ? ! ?

Sully wanted to go outside in the warm sunlight. I opened the door and followed him out. Usually he just wants to walk around for a few minutes. The snoozing Mexican perros saw us and wandered over. Luna sniffed Sully’s tail. Sully was indignant ! He immediately turned around, walked back and climbed up the trailer steps, wanting to be allowed back inside. That’s odd ! He usually just uses his big outdoor Siamese voice to intimidate dogs away. What’s the matter, Sully ? You can’t intimidate Mexican perros ? ! ? HA HA HA !

When he’s not the assistant manager at Mr. Moro Hotel & RV Park, Horatio is a part time English teacher at the university in Guasave. Yesterday he asked if I would teach him a magic trick / illusion that he could use to teach English. YES ! My “three ropes” illusion is full of patter and audience interaction. Today around noon we brought all the employees into the restaurant.
I performed the illusion … in English. Horatio translated into Spanish. And he was an audience member when he saw the magic trick for the first time. The staff returned to work. I taught the trick to Horatio. I forgot how difficult it is to learn.

Lunch was great ! Albeit expensive. While we were having lunch Horatio came over for some coaching on “patter”. I guess “BLAH BLAH BLAH” while performing an illusion comes easier to some than to others. And since he intends to use this magic trick as part of an English lesson, patter is integral.

We had a great beach play session after lunch. After playing beach doughnut fetch for awhile we went for a long walk on the beach. Bo’s pack of Brenda, Luna, and Sergio joined us. Late in the afternoon we all returned to the beach to watch our final sunset here.

Thursday ; Día de San Valentín / Valentine’s Day ; Las Glorias, Sinaloa to Alamos, Sonora 
Well … consistent with all of our other travel days in Mexico, this one certainly could have gone better !

This morning Horatio asked if we would take him to Guasave on our way out. He had been staying in one of the Mr. Moro Hotel rooms for the last week because of the caravan workload, and now he wanted to return to his home in Guasave for a few days off. Certainly, no problem ! Our departure was slightly “different” than usual, Joanne to the back seat with Sully to make room for Horatio in the front, loading Horatio’s bags into the box of the truck, and so on. As a result … apparently
I forgot to close the tailgate of the truck after loading some of Horatio’s stuff. Or the tailgate bounced open on the rough roads ? I don’t know ! In seven years of travelling with Lanoire, her tailgate has never opened before. I must have forgotten to close it !

When we departed Mr. Moro Hotel & RV Park, Horatio tied four different coloured ribbons around Lanoire’s rear view mirror. They are prayer ribbons from his tribe. He is a Mayo Yoreme Indian. Each ribbon represents one of the four compass points / directions. Together they represent a prayer / wish for the recipient’s family, and peace, and traditions, and prosperity. I shall leave them on the mirror and remember his prayers for us whenever I see them. He was eager to get home to attend a sweat lodge ceremony today. It’s interesting that Canadian and American and Mexican Indians / Natives all have similar traditions and practices.

When we got to the place in Guasave where we were dropping him off and his sister was picking him up, I stopped, we got out of the truck, and … OMIGAWD ! The tailgate of the truck was open. A bag of Horatio’s had fallen out of the truck ! It contained some dirty laundry and a small vacuum cleaner that he was taking home to repair. I AM SO SORRY ! ! ! I felt terrible ! And still do ! He declined my offer to drive back to Las Glorias and look for the bag. < sigh >

On the outskirts of Guasave I saw a Santa Fe Supermercado. I stopped, we needed some groceries. Santa Fe isn’t as nice a supermarket as Ley or Soriana. We bought our groceries and were walking back to our truck and trailer parked on the edge of the highway outside the supermarket’s parking lot when we saw … HEY … GET OFF MY TRUCK ! A “car washer” was standing on the top of the storage chest / tool box in the bed of the truck, “washing” the truck roof.
I was furious ! NO ! NO, GRACIAS ! NO PERMISO ! ! ! He had a filthy bucket of water, and a filthy wash towel. The truck was mostly “washed” already, but very poorly.

I will NOT succumb to this practice of bullying extortion in Mexico, whether it’s a cop looking for mordida or a car washer trying to get paid for a really bad car wash that I did not ask for nor did I want ! ! ! While Joanne put the grocery bags in the trailer door, I made my displeasure known to the car washer. As we drove away, he intentionally scratched the rear door of the truck ! YOU ****ING A**H**E ! ! ! ! !

And while I had my hands full with the damn car washer, Joanne had her own problems. A “grocery helper” was determined to wrestle the grocery cart away from her, then wrestle the grocery bags away from her, and load them into the trailer door, then wrestle the grocery cart away from her again to return it to the store, all “services for a fee” ! YEAH … **** OFF, PAL ! Neither of you a**h***s gets a single peso out of us ! ! ! I was impressed with Joanne’s strength of character !

You know, sometimes, for some people, some places just seem doomed. For us, I guess that’s Guasave ! And Mexicans wonder why gringos don’t want to come to Mexico any more ? ! ?

We continued northbound on MEX 15. At the border between the states of Sinaloa and Sonora we had to stop at a food inspection station. OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD ! ! ! ! ! They confiscated a bag of mandarin oranges and a bag of limes we had bought just minutes earlier ! ! ! And Mexicans wonder why gringos don’t want to come to Mexico any more ? ! ?

At Navajoa we refilled with diesel. Joanne washed the truck windows and then was trying to clean and dry our long handled window squeegee. I intervened and “showed her a better way”. CRACK !
I broke the squeegee’s long handle ! < rolling eyes in despair >

We turned east at Navajoa to head up into the mountains to Alamos. Each of our two Mexico highway maps showed the same route but with different highway numbers. And the actual highway signs showed it as yet a third highway number ! And Mexicans wonder why gringos don’t want to come to Mexico any more ? ! ?

We found our way to Alamos and our chosen RV park in the small city. We were parked and set up before dark so we decided to walk to centro / downtown and explore. And decide whether we were going to leave tomorrow morning, or spend the day here exploring. After walking around and exploring for a couple of hours we decided to stay here tomorrow and explore more.

We walked around and found both of the town squares / plazas, including the old one beside El Templo Parroquoial de la Inmaculada Concepcion built in 1786. Now isn’t that church name a mouthful ? The Parochial Temple of the Immaculate Conception !

Día de San Valentín / Valentine’s Day is a big deal in Mexico. Almost all women we saw today were wearing some bright red clothing. Valentine’s Day chocolates and cakes and balloons and long stemmed roses and all sorts of other Valentine’s Day stuff was on sale everywhere today.

As we were wandering around we decided we might as well have dinner out. We stopped at a comida economica and had ( yet another ) amazingly good supper. A comida economica usually has a prix fixe menu with limited offerings at a very reasonable price. The one we went to tonight had four offerings. Joanne and I shared two of them. I ordered caldo de queso / cheese stew. It was a huge bowl of soup … a spicy chicken broth, I think … filled with vegetables, potatoes, and chunks of queso fresca. Joanne ordered bistek ranchero, a grilled and diced thin steak in a spicy gravy, con arroz y frijoles / with rice and refried beans. As always, the meal included a large bowl of hot tortillas, so after we shared the large bowl of soup we made many tacos with the contents of Joanne’s plate. Just as we were finishing our meal a group of nine “blue collars / hard hats” came in for dinner after a hard day at work. It’s always gratifying / reassuring to know that we chose a restaurant that appeals to the locals. By the way, la cuenta, including dos refrescos / two soft drinks was noventa ( 90 ) pesos, about $7.35.

 

 

Friday ; A beautiful, sunny, hot day in the lovely colonial city of Alamos.

This morning when I woke Joanne said she had a big surprise for me. I looooove big surprises ! When she walked Bo before I woke she found an orange tree in this RV park. She picked three large, juicy oranges to make fresh orange juice for me for breakfast. How wonderful ! Thank you, my dear. EEEEUUUUWWWW ! ! ! How is it possible for oranges to be that sour ? ? ? This was truly an example of “it’s the thought that counts” !

Today was dedicated to more exploring of Alamo by foot. Unfortunately, Joanne had a bit of an upset stomach today, putting a bit of a crimp in her ability to enjoy the day. After morning chores we refilled a water jug ( the agua purificadora is adjacent to the RV park ), paid for another night in the RV park, and headed out. We wandered a few blocks over to the Mercado, adjacent to Plaza Alameda, one of the two plazas / town squares. While in the Mercado browsing and sightseeing we selected one of the small food counters as the place to have lunch. I was intrigued by what we saw at one of the counters. The lady was friendly and engaging when I asked her questions. So … we had her gorditas for lunch. Her gorditas were made of masa ( tamale cornmeal ) formed into little bowl shapes, then cooked on an upside down bowl shaped grill so that they were like little masa bowls after cooking. She spread frijoles on them, then carne de res ( grilled, diced beef … like carne asada ), shredded lettuce, slices of tomatoes and guacamoles. While she prepared our gorditas she served each of us a cup of her “consommé”, a spicy chicken broth with thin slivers of vegetables and peppers. Following her suggestions I squeezed lime juice and added some of her salsa picante to mine. WHEW … now that was a cup of soup ! The gorditas were pretty good.
I initially ordered one for each of us, then as she was preparing them, I changed my order to two for each of us. Should have stuck to the original plan ! By the time we were finished we were stuffed ! Her daughter went out to a local abarrote to buy us the refrescos / soft drinks we ordered that she didn’t have in her fridge. Two bowls of consommé ( I think they were complimentary ), four gorditas, two soft drinks were sesenta ( 60 ) pesos / almost five dollars ! When I asked for la cuenta / the bill I misheard and thought she said setenta ( 70 ) pesos, so that’s what I left on the counter. Oh, well … first numbering mistake I’ve made on this trip. The extra ten pesos could either be a tip or payment for the cups of consommé.

We wandered around the town, admiring the old colonial architecture. Some homes had their front doors open, and we could peek inside. Some were very nice, especially the ones with front “courtyards”. In a climate this warm, it’s sometimes a bit hard for gringos like us to know what constitutes “inside” and “outside” the house. Where we come from, inside and outside are easily defined. Not so much here !

While wandering around after lunch we found a veterinary pharmacy. While browsing in there I found and bought some medications and medical supplies that I thought would be a good idea to have on hand. HA HA HA … ya never know ! We wandered over to Plaza de Armas, the other town square. It‘s newer ( 1904 ! ) and larger. And the big church is there ! We also wandered into the local government office, a large building with an interior large courtyard and stage. There was some manner of federal government job fair taking place in the courtyard. By then Joanne was feeling poorly, so we sat on benches outside the plaza and rested, then walked slowly home. By the time we got back to the RV park, we were both pretty tired. We had walked far.

We spent the late afternoon and early evening resting. We went for supper to the comida economica again. On the way we dropped into Elektra, an electronics and appliance store, and browsed. I picked up their current flyer. WOW … you can buy an iron for only twenty-five pesos / two bucks a week … for a hundred weeks. HA HA HA ! Must be pretty steep financing charges ! Supper was not quite as good as last night. And a bit more expensive. I had pescado empanizado / breaded fish fillets. Joanne had carne adobada / marinated "meat" ( pork cutlet ). Both dishes were served with frijoles, arroz, y ensalata, and, of course, a bowl of hot tortillas. La cuenta tonight, including dos refrescos, was ciento viente ( 120 ) pesos, close to ten dollars.

I've just turned "auto-correct" off in my word processor program. I was re-reading what I just typed and "pescado empanizado" became "pescado emphasized". HA HA HA !

 

 

 

Saturday ; Alamos to Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

I have been hoping, during this entire trip, for a travel day that didn't leave one or both of us feeling demoralized and defeated ! Finally ... today was that day.

This morning we prepared for departure and left Dolisa Hotel & RV Park in Alamos. We drove west back to Navajoa on the mystery numbered highway, then around Navajoa on their "periphery road". Shouldn't have bothered. Should have just driven through the city. We stayed on MEX 15 Cuota, the toll road, from Navajoa to Guaymas. Two toll booths today, each one costing about ten dollars ! Maybe it's worth it. There was actually reasonable direction signage on the toll road.

We stopped for lunch in the large parking lot of a Pemex station. While Joanne prepared lunch
I walked around the truck and trailer checking that everything was okay. It wasn't ! All of the truck tires' valve extensions and valve caps were missing ! Retribution by the ****ing "car washer" that
I hadn't noticed before ! Perhaps the disruptive "grocery helper" was a diversion while the "car washer" stole all the valve caps and valve extenders and scratched the rear door of the truck ? You know ... we regularly encounter boys, usually ten to fifteen years of age, who think that as soon as they see a gringo, they should ask for money. I don't know who or what has given them the idea that gringos will literally throw money at them. This car washer, and his ilk, are just grown up versions of those misguided and badly behaved boys.

At Guaymas we found our way to Hotel Playa de Cortés. Very nice, upscale resort hotel on the Sea of Cortez ( Cortés in Spanish, I guess ) with an adjacent large RV park. We selected a site ... lots of selection, only two other rigs in the RV park ... then went over to the hotel to pay and look around. Very nice resort, lovely grounds on a bit of a cliff overlooking a pebble beach. No beach doughnut play for Bo here. There was just enough daylight left for me to set up the satellite dish so that we can watch the season premiere of Amazing Race tomorrow night.

WOW ! ! ! ! ! We have just returned from a late night walk where we witnessed the most amazing spectacle ! We strolled across the RV park and over to the hotel to see what was the source of the music Joanne heard while walking Bo. There was a wedding taking place on the hotel's manicured courtyard facing the Sea of Cortez. What a lovely setting on the cliff looking out over the moonlit water, and the lights of San Carlos visible across the bay. Despite being a relatively small wedding ... less than 100 guests ... there was a full stage with elaborate lighting, a live band with about eight or ten instruments, and two singers. We watched the band and singers perform a couple of very lively Mexican music pieces and then ... HUH ? The guests began to unfold what looked like ... white pillowcases. They opened them up and .... HUH ? ? ? ... assembled some small frame like contraption underneath them, and ... HUH ? ? ? ... lit candles under them ? ? ? ! ! !

OMIGAWD ! ! ! They're little hot air balloons ! ! ! As the candles burned the balloons slowly filled with hot air and then ... very slowly, very gracefully, one by one by one, rose slowly into the air. WOW ! ! ! ! ! What a privilege to be able to witness this ! The glowing white balloons slowly rose, and drifted right over Joanne and me and out to sea where after a few minutes the candles burned out and the balloons fell. Some fell into the sea. Some got stuck on trees in the hotel courtyard and slowly burned themselves out. Some drifted over adjacent buildings and fell. Mexicans certainly do like to live dangerously !

Walking back to the RV park I was teasing Joanne. While she and Bo have each been to one Mexican wedding, I have now been to two ! HA HA HA !
 

 

 

DSK

February 3 to 9 ; Celestino Gasca to Las Glorias, Sinaloa, Mexico

Sunday ; Another beautiful day ! Joanne baked an orange & carrot cake in the Sun Oven today. And she made me a batch of orange marmalade. She’s searching for ways to use up the huge sack of oranges I bought recently.

We’ve just returned from watching the sun set. WOW ! Big orange ball sinking into the Sea of Cortez !

My plan for today was to go into the nearby tiny village of Celestino Gasca and get a haircut. BUT … rather than going into the village and trying to find an estetica who likely doesn’t speak a word of English and who probably has never cut gringo hair … Joanne offered to cut my hair. I accepted her offer and after she finished cutting my hair, I trimmed hers. We’re both satisfied.

I spent much of today doing repairs and scheduled preventive maintenance. Right ! So what else is new ? ! ? The biggest challenge, and of course the job that went the least well, was fixing a problem with the fridge door. It was difficult to close. Because everything flexes and twists while travelling down here in Mexico ! ! !

Nancy the feral cat visited today. I think she was looking for “breakfast”. Which I gave her !

A serving of dry cat food, and a saucer of milk. She spent a long time afterward lounging in our site, sunning and grooming herself. No need to go hunting today, is there Nancy ?

Late this morning a young man on a motorcycle came into the RV park. He had two large coolers strapped onto his motorcycle behind his seat. One was filled with freshly butchered chickens.  One was filled with rounds of queso fresco / fresh cheese.  We bought a large round of queso fresco for ochenta pesos.  It's wonderful soft cheese.

We went for a long beach walk this afternoon. We walked north, instead of south, the direction we usually walk here. A quarter mile or so north was a rocky point extending out into the sea. I think it’s the beginning of an underwater reef where oysters exist. And to our surprise, beyond the rocky point the beach changes from pebbles to sand. There was a dead seal washed up on the rocks. Stinky ! Where are the buzzards when you need them ? We saw a bird that we’ve never seen before today on the rocky point. Back at home I asked Joanne to try to find it in our Sibley bird book. Of course ! ! ! An Oystercatcher ! ! !

For supper tonight I poached Corvina fillets in fresh coconut milk, then sprinkled almond slivers and freshly grated coconut on them, then squeezed lime juice on them. Joanne made an orange risotto using fresh orange juice and queso fresco, as well as an orange and date salad with orange vinaigrette.

Monday ; day trip to Cosala

This morning while doing regular preventive maintenance I discovered that one of the truck’s rear tires had lost half its air pressure < sigh >.

Our plan for today was to make a day trip to Cosala, a small colonial city about 100 km. away up in the Sierra Madres. We drove to La Cruz. At a Pemex station I refilled the truck with diesel and put air in the leaking tire. I’ll check the air pressure tomorrow morning and determine how fast it’s losing air. While still in La Cruz we found an LP gas place and had an empty propane tank refilled. Okay … diesel, air, propane … ready to head to Cosala.

On the way to Cosala, passing through one of the many little villages, there were children standing at each tope ( Mexican speed bump ) selling bolsas de gorditas, y bolsas de empanadas, y bolsas de bollos. We didn’t buy anything, but we certainly gave away a lot of CANADA scribblers and pencils. It seems that in the little villages of this area the Mexican children earn their “weekly allowance” by selling home made baking that they have helped make.

We arrived in Cosala and drove around for awhile, then parked and walked around all afternoon exploring. We had an excellent lunch at a lovely restaurant. Joanne discovered that the dulceria

( candy store ) in town had stock of Nugs Crujiente, her favourite Mexican chocolate bar. Everybody carries Nugs, Coconugs, and Nugs Recreo, but nobody carries Nugs Crujiente ! She wanted me to buy her the store’s entire stock of Nugs Crujiente as a belated birthday gift. HA HA HA … okay … Happy Birthday !

Around 4 PM, after a day of exploring Cosala, having a wonderful lunch, buying chocolate bars at a dulceria, and some medications at a farmacia in town, we were tired and decided it was time to head home. We arrived back at Celestino RV Park about 5:45 PM, just in time to head to the beach with Bo and watch the sun set.

After supper I stepped outside and “kitty called” for Nancy, my feral cat friend. And … HA HA HA … Pedro showed up ! Pedro is one of the other four feral cats living in the RV park. I guess Nancy and Pedro can’t really be considered feral any more since they are willing to come when called by gringos, and mooch food. And be petted ! Pedro loooooves smoked marlin. HA HA HA HA HA ! So does Sully. We still have some smoked marlin left. Joanne doesn’t like it. I’m ambivalent, so I’ve decided to share it with the cats.

 Tuesday ; This morning I checked the air pressure on the truck tire that’s leaking air. It lost half its air pressure in twenty-four hours so I decided it needed to be taken for repair today. Yesterday when we were refilling a propane tank Joanne noticed that there was a vulcanizadora across the street. A vulcanizadora is like a llantera but with tire vulcanizing capability. I removed the valve extenders, wheel liner, and hub cap in anticipation of removing the leaking tire and installing the spare. Joanne persuaded me to not bother. Just drive the truck into La Cruz and let the vulcanizadora jack up the truck and remove the tires, even if that costs a tiny bit more than repairing a tire that’s already been removed from the vehicle. She’s right, Mexican labour is so cheap, and they can jack up the truck and remove the rear tires so much faster and easier than
I can.

I drove to the vulcanizadora in La Cruz. He discovered that the tire had a huge gash in the sidewall. I’m of the opinion that sidewall damage renders a tire ready for the garbage bin, but the vulcanizadora said he could fix the tire. Okay … at that price, what have I got to lose. Jack up a one ton dually truck, remove both rear tires on one side, fix the damaged tire, reinstall the two rear tires … sesenta pesos, a bit less than six bucks !

Back home at Celestino RV Park I adjusted the lug nuts with my torque wrench, reinstalled the valve extenders, and the wheel liner. I won’t reinstall the hub cap until I check the lug nuts after driving tomorrow. After I was finished with the tire work I did the 210,000 km. inspection on Lanoire. Everything’s fine ! What a great truck ! I’m pleased that a few months ago I decided to replace the truck and trailer tires after Mexico rather than before. I’ve already damaged one trailer tire and one truck tire on this trip. Not to mention the windshield chip we got yesterday on the way to Cosala when an oncoming large truck tossed up a rock that hit our windshield ! I’m hopeful, but not optimistic, that we can make it back to the United States and have the chip repaired before cracks run from it.

We walked down to the beachfront patio to watch the sun set tonight. We chatted with some neighbours who were doing the same and got some travel recommendations from them. Nancy and Pedro both came by for some smoked marlin today. HA HA HA … feral cats, indeed !

Wednesday ; Celestino Gasca to Guasave

I’m typing this in the middle of the night. I have insomnia. Perhaps due to the antibiotic I took this morning. Perhaps due to the relentless traffic noise from the highway. We’re parked overnight in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Guasave. Perhaps due to the incessant barking of the dog locked into the business across the street behind us.

Like all of our travel days in Mexico, today was filled with difficult challenges, some overwhelming as they happened, then demoralizing afterwards. Oddly, Joanne was more affected than me today.
I guess it was her turn to feel defeated.

When I woke up this morning Pedro and Nancy were both waiting at the door of the trailer for breakfast. HA HA HA ! Yes, yes, feral cats, indeed ! I fed them both a large serving of Science Diet and smoked marlin. After eating breakfast Pedro left, heading in the direction of the gringo a few sites over who also feeds them. Nancy curled up on the bed I made for her a few days ago, an old towel on my folding chair.

We slowly prepared for departure. Nancy snoozed in the folding chair. When it became apparent to her that we were leaving, she threw a bit of a hissy fit, running up and down the two coconut trees in our site. It must be frustrating to her to repeatedly befriend gringos who then abandon her. My heart was breaking as we drove away and I saw her sitting forlornly outside the bathroom building, her permanent “home”. I wish somebody would adopt her and take her back to Norteamerica !

We drove the two mile donkey trail back to the village of Celestino Gasca. And as we reached the edge of the village … < sputter > … there was a wide, deep trench dug completely across the road from side to side. Some men were installing sewer pipe. I had to twist around the trench, driving through somebody’s “front yard” to get around it. The wheels of the trailer were just a couple of inches from the edge of the vertical wall of the trench dug in the soft sandy road. I was certain that the weight of the trailer would collapse the edge of the trench and the trailer would fall in !

We drove to La Cruz. We stopped at Pemex to refill with diesel, adjust the air in the repaired truck tire, check the lug nuts and reinstall the hub cap. There was a truck load of police at the Pemex station. It’s common for Mexico’s police to hang around Pemex stations and toll booths and “show the colours”, walking around with machine guns swinging off their shoulders, pretending to “inspect” people and vehicles. This bunch of cops had one who wanted to practice his terrible English on me while I was trying to get my work done. If he hadn’t been wielding a machine gun I would have been inclined to tell him to **** off !

We left the Pemex at La Cruz and headed for MEX 15 Libre. It was our plan to get onto MEX 15 Cuota ( toll ) before reaching Culiacan. As we neared Culiacan there was one .. and only one … road sign indicating the direction to the toll road. We never got there !

It is not possible to get on or off the toll road near Culiacan. It is not possible to drive through Culiacan unless if you know exactly the route you need to take in advance. There is no road signage to guide you through this large city ! ! ! We were hopelessly lost southbound at the end of December. We were hopelessly lost northbound today ! ! ! About ¾ of the way through the city, hopelessly lost and tangled in heavy downtown traffic on narrow streets, I rolled down my window and asked a passing motorcycle cop for directions. He motioned for me to follow him.

With lights flashing he guided me through downtown and out to the highway. I would never have found my way without his help. When we reached the edge of the city he pulled over to the side of the road and motioned for me to pull around him and stop. He swaggered over to my window and asked in Spanish if I spoke Spanish. I said “NO” ! “A little bit ?” he asked ( in Spanish ). “Okay … a little bit”, I conceded ( in Spanish ).

He asked for my driver’s license ? My driver’s license ? ! ? Are you kidding me ? You’re going to try for mordida ? ? ? I don’t ****ing think so, pal ! I handed him my license, he looked at it, handed it back to me, then proceeded to sternly lecture me. About what, you might ask ? I have no idea ! BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH ! If there was a suggestion / request for payment of a “fine” in there I missed it ! I think he was lecturing me for being downtown with my big truck and trailer on “no truck route” streets.

Well … **** you, pal ! If your country invested just a teensy bit of intellect and effort into road signage we gringos wouldn’t be driving big rigs through your downtown. And as for the muchos dineros I pump into your third world economy ? You’re welcome ! ! !

As soon as we were completely through Culiacan I pulled over at a large Pemex station to have lunch. It was then that I became aware of how incredibly frazzled Joanne was by the ordeal of once again struggling through Culiacan. Poor baby, come here and I’ll give you a big hug !

As we passed though a little village I saw a small frutas y verduras truck parked outside a little abarrote. They were restocking the abarrote with fruits and vegetables. I slammed on the brakes. The two farmers with the truck were happy to sell produce to us. We stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables. Cuanto ? Viente-cinco pesos ? ? ? Two bucks ? That works for me !

Somewhere between Culiacan and Guasave we passed through an agricultural inspection station. My large sack of oranges was confiscated ! Fortunately, we had already used about ¾ of the contents. And last night I had squeezed myself another litre of fresh orange juice. But it still rankled me to lose my remaining ¼ sack of oranges.

My destination for today was a Pemex station on the north side of Guasave. I thought that as soon as we drove through Guasave we would stop for the night. BUT … as we drove through Guasave, about half an hour before darkness, so my timing was good for reaching the Pemex before nightfall, I spotted a Wal-Mart just off the opposite side of the highway. I got onto the “lateral” alongside the highway, flipped around on a retorno to the lateral on the opposite side, and drove back to the
Wal-Mart.

First thing I did was ask for permission at Security to spend the night in the parking lot. No problemo ! We shopped and shopped and shopped. First Wal-Mart since just after Christmas ! As we were eating supper in the trailer afterwards I noticed … HEY … Burger King across the street.
I wonder if Burger Kings in Mexico have free Wi-Fi like in the United States and Canada. After supper I grabbed my computer and headed over to Burger King. They do ! I spent two hours online.
I got my weekly journal posted to my blog. I retrieved January bank statements and investment statements. I reviewed … < sigh > … ninety-eight e-mails ! AOL’s spam filter isn’t working well !

Thursday ; Guasave to Las Glorias

Well … I really outdid myself today. I hit the underside of an overpass and ripped pretty much everything off the roof of the trailer ! ! ! ! ! < huge sigh >

This morning as I prepared for departure from the Wal-Mart parking lot in Guasave Joanne ran into the Wal-Mart and picked up a few more items. We pulled out of the Wal-Mart parking lot onto the southbound lateral and then immediately turned left into the retorno that passed underneath the highway, so that we could get onto the northbound lateral and then back onto the highway.

OH, GAWD … WHAT’S THAT SCRAPING SOUND ? ? ? ? ?

There was no clearance height marked. No clearance height marking implies “high enough” where
I come from ! Well … it wasn’t quite high enough ! While I ( fortunately, I guess ) did not peel back the roof of the trailer like opening a can of sardines, I scraped off everything up there. Except the air conditioner, although I did smash the air conditioner shroud. So I guess it could have been worse !

I destroyed the bedroom roof vent and its MaxxAir cover. I destroyed the bathroom roof vent and its MaxxAir cover. I destroyed the bathroom’s skylight. I destroyed the TV antenna and caused severe damage to the wood of the roof underneath the TV antenna. I sheared off two holding tank vent pipe caps, including damaging the pipes they were attached to and the wood of the roof where the pipes pass through the roof. I shattered the fridge’s roof top vent cover. And finally, I shattered the air conditioner’s shroud. I ripped a tear about a foot long in the rubber roof.

You know, the Wal-Mart is like a magnet to every gringo RV’er that passes through Guasave. And every single one of them is driving a rig that’s probably six inches to a foot too tall to make it through that underpass on the retorno. Wouldn’t you think that after seeing every rig that makes a
u-turn / retorno there hit the underside of the overpass that they would eventually put up some ****ing signage ? ! ? < FUME > I’m developing some really severe bigotry here, folks !

I don’t think there’s any point to making an insurance claim. Travel in Mexico requires Mexican insurance. Canadian and American vehicle insurance doesn’t cover travel in Mexico. My Mexican travel insurance has $1000 deductible. And if I file a claim, they’ll probably want me to take the trailer to Mazatlan and then wait indefinitely for parts to be shipped from the U.S. It would likely take weeks ! I don’t think the Mexican insurer will pay for repairs to be done back in the U.S. or Canada. And the damage would likely exceed the deductible only if all repairs were to be done by a repair shop. I’d rather buy all the parts myself and slowly do the labour by myself. I’m hopeful that all the necessary parts won’t exceed more than a few hundred dollars, and my labour is free, so to speak.

A few minutes after the underpass accident, I refilled with diesel at the Pemex station that was our original destination for yesterday, and we left Guasave. We drove north on MEX 15 Libre for awhile, then dipsy doodled around on a bunch of farming back roads until we reached Las Glorias, and the Mr. Moro Hotel & RV Park. We’ve been here before. It’s a lovely beachfront location, very wide, soft sand beach at the end of the little town of Las Glorias. There’s only one other rig here at the moment, although a caravan of nineteen rigs will be arriving on Saturday.

We got set up in our site, then I climbed up on the roof to assess priorities, and do emergency repairs. Using all the duct tape that I had I temporarily patched the bathroom’s shattered skylight.
I had a roll of Eternabond and used that to quickly and excellently and permanently repair the tear in the rubber roof. Looks like a huge shopping trip to Camping World in Tucson will be necessary on our way back to Yuma.

We went for a long walk on the beach. We were joined by Brenda and Luna, two of the three dogs that live here. Oh boy, Bo has a new pack and they want to pack walk on the beach. Rather oddly, we thought, the two Mexican dogs don’t like to get their feet wet on the beach. Bo splashes around like … a gringo on vacation in Mexico. HA HA HA !

Later in the afternoon we went for a beach doughnut play session. Joanne and me and Bo, and the two girls in the small motorhome next door, five year old Sedona and eight year old Georgia. The girls threw the doughnut, Bo fetched. It wasn’t very long before Bo and Sedona were both drenched. Maybe next time we should suggest that Sedona change out of regular street clothes to come play beach doughnut fetch with us. HA HA HA ! It seems as if Sedona and Georgia will be having a birthday party for Bo in two days. HA HA HA !

The RV park’s “second in command”, Horatio, speaks English quite well, as does his boss, Tavo. At dusk Horatio came over with his machete and taught me the correct method for whacking open coconuts. In the dark ! I saved the coconut milk, and gave the meat that I harvested out of the coconut to the next door neighbours. I’m eager to sharpen my machete tomorrow on Horatio’s workshop’s grinding wheel, then open a coconut myself using my new knowledge. Let’s hope
I come out of it with all my fingers and toes. My dull machete is deadly enough. I can hardly wait for it to be really sharp. Should old gringos be allowed to play with sharp machetes ? HA HA HA !

Friday ; Overnight I decided that there’s no good reason not to file an insurance claim for the damage to the trailer. This morning I asked Horatio if I could use a phone, and he let me use the phone in the restaurant’s kitchen. I phoned our Mexico insurance company and filed a claim. I got an agent who spoke English very well and was efficient and friendly. When we finished he advised me that an adjuster would visit me in about an hour. Really ? ! ? We’re in the middle of nowhere. He must mean a Mexican hour, which could mean any time between now and Monday. HA HA HA !

I borrowed Horatio’s small electric grinding wheel and sharpened my machete. I whacked open a coconut for the neighbours. About an hour and a half after my phone call to the insurance company … < blink blink > … an insurance adjuster showed up. WOW … I was impressed !

The insurance adjuster spoke no English, but was friendly and efficient. He filled out forms, inspected the damage on the trailer roof, and took a lot of pictures. He asked me questions about the accident. When I told him that I hit a retorno underpass in Guasave, he immediately said … “retorno a Burger King ?” Yes, yes ! ! ! DAMN ! Obviously I’m not the first claimant to file a claim after hitting the “Burger King retorno” ! When we were all finished I was surprised when he advised me that the next step in the process is to contact an American agent of the Mexican insurer when we’re back in the States. He provided me with the agent’s name and U.S. phone number.

The little girls next door, Sedona and Georgia, were eager to play beach doughnut fetch with Bo. He was tired out before they were.

I spent the afternoon up on the trailer roof. I removed the smashed MaxxAir covers off the bedroom and bathroom roof vents, then did the best I could to temporarily repair the vents. I managed to get the bent and battered vent mechanisms straightened out enough to allow the vents to be opened and closed a bit.

Late in the afternoon the restaurant chef came over to tell me that there was a phone call for me in the restaurant. HUH ? It was the insurance company calling back to verify that the adjuster had showed up and that everything so far had gone well. UHHHH … YEAH ! Very impressive so far ! ! !

Joanne baked a birthday cake in the Sun Oven for Bo’s birthday party tomorrow. Just before sunset I went next door to make balloon animals for the girls for the birthday party tomorrow. We all walked out onto the beach to watch the sun set then I performed a couple of magic tricks for the girls. They were an eager and interested audience. It’s fun to perform magic for young children that find magic fascinating.

Saturday ; Happy 9^th Birthday to Bo

Well ! Today was a big day ! For everybody !

Late last night Horatio, the park’s second in command / resident assistant manager came over to ask for a favour. Because of the pending arrival today of a very large RV caravan, this hotel & RV park needed a lot of extra staff today and for the next few days while the caravan is here. He wanted to know if I could drive to a nearby village early in the morning before the local busses are running and pick up three temporary employees and bring them back here ? Sure, Horatio ! He’s been very friendly and helpful to me, so I was happy to do the favour.

I got up very early ( for me ) and with Horatio as my passenger and guide we drove to the village of Palo Verde about 15 km. away. We picked up his three temporary employees and drove back to Las Glorias. Horatio and I chatted in English and Spanish. He learned a few new words. So did I. My Sun Oven is an horno solar en español.

When we got back to Mr. Moro there was a panga ( small fishing boat ) with a few pescadoras
( fishermen ) on our beach. They were emptying and carefully rolling up their fishing nets that had been in the water overnight. There were a lot of birds flying around them. When they were finished rolling up their nets, and left, the birds swooped in to eat whatever was left behind. Shortly afterwards, the little girls next door, Sedona and Georgia came over to ask if Bo could come out to play beach doughnut fetch. Okay … off to the beach we went. And found … that while the birds ate all the unwanted little fish left behind on the beach by the fishermen, they did not touch all the little crabs and … all the little Manta Rays. < blink blink > I had never seen little Manta Rays before. By the time we found them on the beach, they were dead … or close to it. As were the little crabs. Maybe they die overnight while trapped in the nets ? If not, they certainly die fast when left on the beach in the hot morning sun.

After playing on the beach for awhile, and going for a long beach walk, I went up on the roof of the trailer to do minor repair work with rubber roof cement. And when I was finished, and since I had the can of rubber roof cement already open, and a brush in use, I offered to climb up on the neighbour’s motorhome and do any necessary little repairs. Robin and I climbed up on his class C motorhome’s roof and did some small touch-ups.

Right after lunch it was time for Bo’s birthday party. HA HA HA HA HA ! A great time was had by all ! The neighbour Nicole had baked dog cookies. Her daughters Sedona and Georgia had made many birthday cards for Bo. Two of the park’s three resident dogs, Brenda and Luna came to Bo’s birthday party. Eventually even the third one, the shy Sebastian joined in. All the dogs ate some of Nicole’s home made dog cookies. All the dogs ate some of the birthday cake Joanne had baked yesterday in the Sun Oven, an applesauce cake. All the humans ate birthday cake. Sully came to the party briefly. Yesterday’s balloon animals attended, as did all of the girls’ stuffed animals.

 

 

 

Before the birthday party a new neighbour had arrived, a couple from Colorado in a small truck camper. And then after the party … the much anticipated arrival of the caravan of nineteen rigs. HA HA HA … our group of six adults, including the new arrival Colorado couple, amused ourselves all afternoon watching nineteen rigs come into the park one by one and get parked. Most of the rigs are huge ! Many class A motorhomes, some large trucks with large fifth wheel trailers, a few Class C motorhomes, and a few smaller Class B van conversion type motorhomes. Squeezing that group into this park was quite a challenge ! It reinforced for us why we are not caravan type people ! It must have taken three hours to get all the rigs in and parked. To stay out of the way of the arriving and manoeuvering rigs, the six of us moved our folding chairs to the beach and watched from there, enjoying the lovely sunshine and warm weather. < whispering > I may have got a bit sunburned.

To my surprise, late this afternoon the insurance adjuster from yesterday returned. He wanted to take pictures of the damage to the roof top of the trailer, as well as my license, registration, and insurance documents. Initially I misunderstood. I thought he wanted to take more pictures of the damage. No, no, no … he had lost all of the pictures he took yesterday. He needed to start over.

I thought he meant … he pushed a wrong button on his camera and deleted them, or some problem like that. HA HA HA … no, no, no … he lost the entire camera yesterday after leaving here. He was back today with a new camera !

When I picked up the employees in Palo Verde this morning, one of them pointed out a casa rosa

( pink house ) in the village that becomes a nice little restaurant in the evenings. So … tonight we returned there to have supper. What a great experience. As in many of the small restaurants we’ve been to in Mexico, the front of the family’s home becomes the restaurant. There were three generations of the family involved. We were the only guests. The mother was cooking in the kitchen. Her mother … the grandmother / Abuela was assisting. One of the three sons ( about ten years old ) was the “waiter” tonight, taking our “order” and writing in down in a scribbler, then relaying it to his mother … in the kitchen about ten feet away ! Of course, she had already heard what we wanted. Which mostly boiled down to what she had available. HA HA HA ! Tonight’s offerings were tacos de puerco ( barbecued pork ) y tacos carne asada ( seasoned, grilled, diced beef ). Sitting at one of the other two tables were the rest of the family ; two more boys, brothers and / or cousins, a dad, and another mom / aunt ( pregnant ). Another dad / uncle was outside manning a grill with a pork roast on it. When I ordered a Coca-Cola Light ( Mexican version of Diet Coke ), the “waiter” ran across the street to the abarrote to buy one for me. That’s not the first time we’ve experienced that in a little comida economica.

While waiting for our meal to be prepared, I went to our truck and got three CANADA scribblers and pencils for the three boys. The entire family was eating supper ( same food as us ), watching TV, and / or doing homework, at the same time as they were looking after us. I did some Spanish to English teaching with the three boys. Grandpa came out from another room of the house behind the kitchen. He was quite old, mostly toothless, and seemed senile. When he learned of the scribblers and pencils we had given the three boys … he graciously asked for a scribbler and pencil. I thought he wanted them for another child. The pregnant aunt explained, with some embarrassment, that Grandpa wanted a scribbler and pencil for himself. Okay, no problem. While I asked for and paid la cuenta, Joanne went out to the truck and got a scribbler and pencil for Abuelo. By the way, la cuenta por cinco tacos y dos refrescos was setenta-ocho ( 78 ) pesos, a bit more than six dollars.

DSK

January 27 to February 2, 2013 ; Teacapan to Celestino Gasca, Sinaloa, Mexico

Sunday ; Bo’s severe earache and fever had diminished quite a bit overnight. He was still quite subdued which suggests he still had a headache. We did not take him for our regular noon beach session. After we returned from Escuinapa late in the afternoon we took him to the beach, but just for a short walk and no beach doughnut play session. He seemed to improve throughout the day.
This morning many dolphins were swimming by our beach, just offshore. Their dorsal fins rose out of the water as their backs slowly arched. It was quite fascinating to watch. One of the new arrivals in the park was out on a surfboard, attempting to surf. The dolphins were swimming by just a teensy bit further out than he was. As well as watching dolphins swimming by I watched him attempting to surf. It seemed more difficult than I thought it was. He had to be in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time to catch the wave as it curled over. More often than not, he failed.

Late this morning we headed to Escuinapa to run shopping errands. First stop was the mercado. We shopped for fish at the pescaderias, but today was so hot, the ice the fish were on was melting so fast, and the fish were smelling so strong we decided not to buy any today. We did buy a few packages of little chocolate bars at one of the dulcerias. And we had lunch at one of the little restaurants around the periphery of the mercado. It was a restaurant where we had previously eaten and it was worth a return visit. Their tostadas de pollo are “to die for” ! After placing our order

I walked over to their drink cooler to look for a couple of soft drinks for us. I couldn’t find any Diet Coke for me. HEY … I’ll try a ToniCol. Never had one before. “Refresco sabor vainilla” / vanilla flavoured soft drink. “Es diferente” is their tagline. And it certainly is ! I liked it so much I bought a two litre bottle of it later at Ley.

After lunch we drove over to Ley, the supermarket. We bought a lot of groceries ! And …

< whispering > … a tarjeta de cumpleaños / birthday card. And … I had previously promised Joanne I would buy her a pastel tres leches / “three milks” cake for her birthday. But … < drooling > … the panaderia in Ley also had a rollo de cajeta / goat’s milk caramel loaf that I was not able to resist. So … she gets both the pastel tres leches and the rollo de cajeta. Eat hearty, my dear ! HA HA HA !

On the way home we stopped to buy a huge sack of oranges from a roadside vendor. HEY … I’m in Mexico … I will squeeze my orange juice fresh each morning ! Cincuenta pesos … four bucks ! OLÉ !

I dropped my relatively new Nikon Coolpix camera today. It survived the bounce off a concrete parking pad with nary a scratch. I’m impressed. And lucky, too, I suppose !

 

 

Monday ; Happy 59^th Birthday to Joanne I just finished reading out loud my journal entry for this date last year, something I do almost every day. Gee … what a difference between Joanne’s birthday last year and this year. Last year was a great day, a huge success ! < sigh > Today wasn’t !

The day started with Joanne hurting my feelings. A lot ! Yeah, yeah, I know … it was unintentional. That doesn’t diminish it much for me, actually. I prepared a loaf of bread dough and baked it in the Sun Oven. Second time I tried this recipe. Second time I made a minor mistake. Second time the loaf turned out flat !

We walked twice on the beach today but no playing in the water for Bo. He’s still recovering from earaches due to seawater in the ears. We watched the sun set just before 6 PM then prepared to go into Teacapan for dinner at a restaurant. As often happens when we‘re preparing to go out, we squabbled because Joanne disliked the shirt I selected to wear ! Very bad habit of hers ! ! ! ! ! We drove into town, squabbling part of the way.

We drove back and forth through town, stopping frequently, me looking for velas de cumpleaños / birthday candles. Eventually I found some at a dulceria / candy store. I discovered a bit late that part of the problem was my pronunciation. I was pronouncing velas as if “v” sounds like Victor. It doesn’t ! It sounds like Bravo ! DUH !

We drove to the restaurant recommended by our neighbours. It was hard to find in the dark and … < sigh > … it was closed when we got there. In Mexico whether a business is open or not on any given day, or at any given time of day, is completely at the whim of the operator. So … Restaurant Pelicanos obviously decided that they were going to close by 6:30 PM tonight !

We returned home. I made a simple supper for us. Joanne was gracious about what a fiasco the day had been. As small consolation, the cajeta roll birthday cake was great !

Tuesday ; While the severity of Bo’s earache has diminished greatly, he’s still suffering pain between the ear and the jaw. Is that called the Eustachian canal ? So today we started him on oral administered antibiotic, in addition to the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antibiotic ear drops. We’re better stocked than some pharmacies, I think ! HA HA HA !

We went for a long beach walk just before lunch. About a mile or so down the beach to the north we found … some kind of massively huge, dead sea creature floating in the shallows. A whale of some sort, I guess. It was larger than our fifth wheel trailer. It looked more like some sort of prehistoric monster than a fish. The beach nearby was covered in dozens of buzzards … waiting. So … maybe it wasn’t even dead yet ?

We have newfound respect for buzzards. Every day or two something dead will wash up on the beach, more often than not, dead pelicans. The buzzards reduce a smelly rotting carcass on the beach to nothing more than a skeleton in twenty-four hours. They do a good job of cleaning the beach. And … < snicker > … Bo loves chasing them. They are surprisingly bold, refusing to fly away until Bo is almost upon them.

The other “new” thing on the beach today was … lots and lots and lots of crabs ! Big crabs ! Having spent a month here we’ve come to realize that a beach is constantly changing. The sand shifts around, the shells that wash up change every few days, crabs are here, then they’re not, jellyfish come and go, Sand Dollars come and go … every day is different !

Joanne did laundry. I prepared the truck and trailer for departure tomorrow. We shared some cajeta roll birthday cake with our next door neighbours, and said goodbye to them. Nice people !

At 5 PM I took Bo for a brief, final play session on the beach here. I threw his beach doughnut into the shallow water a few times, making sure that it was in only a few inches of water so that he didn’t get his ears wet. A few hours later, while sitting on the sofa watching TV with Sully and Bo cuddled against me … < sniff, sniff > … EEEEEUUUUUWWWWW ! HEY ! Whose feet smell like dead whale ? And why ? The dead whale was a mile down the beach ! We had to give Bo a bath. And after he dried … his feet still smelled like dead whale ! Today’s lesson ? Dead whale makes the water smell as far as a mile down the beach ! ! !

Wednesday ; Teacapan to Mazatlan to Celestino Gasca

This morning Bo thought … WOO-HOO ! No more earache, no more dead whale smell, and … we’re going drivey ! We prepared for departure and left Villas Onac RV Park, heading back to Escuinapa and then north on MEX 15 Libre to Mazatlan.

Mazatlan was our destination for today. As we entered Mazatlan from the south we stopped at a large Pemex station to have lunch then refill with diesel. We drove through and around Mazatlan then entered it again from the north, finding our way to El Zona Dorado / the Golden Zone a.k.a. El Zona Hotelera / the Hotel Zone. We easily found our way to Mar-A-Villas RV Park, our destination for today. We didn’t really like it, so … we went looking for Mar Rosa Trailer Park. It was harder to find. We liked it, but … it was outrageously expensive. AND … we weren’t very impressed with Mazatlan’s Zona Dorado. It was way too … gringo ! The “hotel zones” in all the major Mexican resort cities … Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Acapulco … they’re not “real” Mexico ! We left Mazatlan and continued north !

We found our way to the ocean side village of Celestino Gasco. WAAAAAYYYYY easier said than done. It was a long afternoon of difficult driving, especially through the city of La Cruz. After the ordeal of getting lost in La Cruz ( because a road sign had been hit by a large vehicle and spun around … and it hasn’t been fixed and likely never will be ! ) we were unable to make the turn to Celestino Gasco because of a detour around road construction. In Mexico, when a detour is made necessary by road construction … you’re on your own ! ! ! Figure out for yourself how to get where you want to be. After much difficulty we found our way to the village of Celestino Gasco and then drove down a dirt trail following the ocean for a couple of miles until we finally found Celestino RV Park.

It’s probably quite nice. We don’t know yet. We arrived at dusk. By the time we got backed into a site it was dark. We had supper and watched a movie on VCR.

A kitchen cupboard door latch broke today. The wood face of a kitchen drawer split. The bedroom roof vent handle fell off. I don’t know if the trailer is going to survive this trip. I’m likely going to be spending the entire month of March back in Yuma doing trailer repairs ! Once again a day of travelling in Mexico has exhausted and demoralized both of us.

Thursday ; Nice weather, nice place. This morning we walked down to the beach to investigate. It’s quite different from the beach at Villas Onac near Teacapan. That beach was miles of soft sand. Here it’s a pebble beach. No long barefoot beach walks here, I guess.

We decided to stay here a week. The price is very reasonable. And they give a discount to Escapees, one of only a handful of RV parks in all of Mexico that do so. We slowly got set up ; refill freshwater, connect water, connect sewer, drain waste tanks, unhitch trailer from truck. 
I picked up a coconut under the tree in our site ( they’re everywhere ! ) and with more effort than
I realized would be necessary drained out the milk to use for coconut shrimp tonight. HA HA HA … food preparation and cooking is quite different here in Mexico.

Bo’s earache is gone but now he seems to have a mild rash in one ear. Saltwater rash ? Heat rash ? Medication rash ? Parasites ? We cleaned his ears and applied a hydrocortisone cream. 
We had lunch and I began to work on trailer repairs. I did a few minor repairs then set up the satellite dish. I’m still not very good at that task ! We went for a walk through the RV park to the road out front. Road ? That’s a donkey trail ! On the walk back through the RV park towards the beach, I noticed … HEY … one of our neighbours has a machete. “May I borrow your machete please ?”

Using the machete ( gotta get me one of those ) I hacked open the coconut that I had drained earlier, and pried out the fresh coconut meat. Which Joanne and Bo spent the afternoon munching on. HEY … both of you … that stuff is hard to get ! What ? You think coconuts grow on trees ? ? ? HA HA HA HA HA !

We went for a walk on the pebble beach. And found a few pieces of coral.

We’ve just finished supper. MMMMM ... I poached shrimp in coconut milk and freshly grated coconut. OOOOO … gotta get more fresh coconut milk !

Friday ; This morning we headed off to explore the area nearby. We drove slowly up and down the sand road in front of this RV park. It runs from the nearby town of Celestino Gasca for a few miles until it just finally … ends ! We drove onto the Sea of Cortez beach near the village of Celestino Gasca. We drove slowly around the village of Celestino Gasca. It’s smaller than Teacapan. We drove to La Cruz, a small city about ten miles away similar in size to Escuinapa. We found an aqua purificadora and refilled our water jug. I found a ferreteria ( hardware store ) and bought myself a … HA HA HA … machete. I have no idea how I’ve made it this far in life without having my own machete. HA HA HA HA HA ! We shopped for groceries at Ley Express.

After grocery shopping we drove around La Cruz exploring a bit. The small city of Escuinapa was more interesting. La Cruz didn’t even have a mercado. We thought all Mexican cities have a mercado. We drove back to Celestino Gasca and searched unsuccessfully for the fruteria where
Wi-Fi is available for an hourly fee. As we drove back down the sand trail to our RV park we went to check out a nearby beachfront restaurant and another RV park. We weren’t impressed with the restaurant. We were very impressed with the other RV park. And sadly … it was completely empty.

The RV park that we are in here has four rigs including us. The RV park we were in near Teacapan had thirteen rigs for most of the month we were there. Every week a rig or two would come in for a day or two. That park had 55 serviced sites. RV travel and tourism in Mexico is so down ! 
I feel sorry for tourism operators who work hard to maintain their businesses, and they just aren’t generating enough revenue to sustain themselves. Americans have simply stopped travelling in Mexico. And there just aren’t enough Canadians travelling in Mexico to keep the tourism industry alive.

There are four semi-feral cats living at this RV park. Two live at the front of the park, near the entrance and office. Two live near the beach and the restroom building. They’re a male named Pedro and a female named Nancy. I’ve fallen in love with Nancy. She’s SOOOOO sweet ! I’ve been feeding her some of Sully’s food. She comes to visit me in our site. She jumps up onto the little side table attached to my folding chair so that I can pet her and she can rub against me. Today
I learned the story of Nancy. She arrived here a few years ago, an unwilling stowaway in the storage compartment of an RV. She had climbed into the open storage compartment of a motorhome with one of her newborn kittens and they weren’t discovered until the motor home arrived here. Now … a few years later, her kitten is long gone, Nancy has a notched ear identifying her as a “sterilized feral”, and she lives here trying to convince gringos to adopt her and take her back to Norteamerica. HA HA HA … she just about convinced me !

With my new machete I drained the milk and harvested the meat out of three coconuts.

We went for a beach play session. Doesn’t matter to Bo whether the beach is sand or pebbles. “THROW MY BEACH DOUGHNUT ! ! !” Well done, Bo, good dog ! A few hundred yards out in the Sea of Cortez were a couple of human heads bobbing around two inflated inner tubes. HUH ? When they came back to shore I wandered over to see what they were doing. OH … they were oyster divers. They had large mesh bags hanging underneath inflated inner tubes. They were diving with neither air tanks nor even face masks and collecting wild oysters. WOW … tough job ! And they collected a lot of oysters. Each of the two divers had a large mesh bag filled with hundreds of oysters. And their little pickup truck on the beach already had about half a dozen full bags of oysters, each bag about the size of a large yard & lawn garbage bag. Productive day !

With the little bit of afternoon that was left I worked on repairs. I fixed a broken window shade.
I fixed a broken kitchen drawer. I fixed a truck battery cable. I worked on, but did not complete fixing a broken kitchen drawer wooden face that split. I cooked supper tonight. I squeezed orange juice.  I downloaded and processed photos.

Saturday ; day trip to El Quelite

Today was a beautiful day, temperature reaching 90 degrees.

This morning we headed out on a day trip to explore the inland colonial town of El Quelite. It took us a long time to get there. We missed our first point of reference, the town of Dimas. Our directions were to head south on MEX 15 Cuota ( toll road ) a.k.a. Maxipista. The Maxipista is a four lane divided toll road with almost no entrances and exits, retornos ( u-turns ) about 50 km. apart. Once on the toll road, they don’t want you to leave it ! One of the things we HATE about Mexico is … if you don’t know EXACTLY where you’re going, you’re not likely to find it based on road maps and road signage ! ! ! We wanted to get off the Maxipista at Dimas and head west on SIN 2 to MEX 15 Libre. We missed Dimas and SIN 2 ! We travelled 50 kms. to a retorno … at the next toll booth ! We came back 35 km. and were able to find that the dirt road to the town of Dimas was behind a restaurant that had many large trucks parked in front of it. No road sign to Dimas ! No road sign to SIN 2 !

We eventually made it to El Quelite, a colonial village in the foothills of the Sierra Madres inland from the Sea of Cortez coast. What a lovely village ! Beautiful town square. Beautiful church constructed from rough hewn marble blocks. Colourfully painted houses. Men on horseback. Boys on burros. Roosters on the sidewalk. Turkeys in the arroyo.

While I was taking a photo of a turkey in the arroyo two children walked up to Joanne, each patting her on the leg, and engaging her in mostly one sided conversation. The girl was about four. The boy was about six. Joanne was staring at some ducks outside a restaurant. The little girl walked up, patted Joanne’s leg, and commenced a long winded speech about … who knows ? The boy, older and wiser, said to Joanne … and remember, this is all in Spanish …

BOY ; Do you speak … English ?

Joanne ; Yes, I speak English.

BOY ; Well … in English, these say “QUACK” !

Joanne : Yes, in English they say “QUACK” ! What do they say in Spanish ?

BOY ( looking at her like she’s a moron ) ; In Spanish they say “QUACK” !

And he walks away in contempt for the old gringa !

HA HA HA HA HA !

So … she says to the little girl …

Joanne ; In English, these are called “DUCK”. What are they called in Spanish ?

And the girl gives her about a fifty word response. HA HA HA ! So Joanne looks it up in her dictionary as the girl walks away to join her older brother. DUCK = PATO

El Quelite had a lovely, somewhat pricey, upscale restaurant. Joanne wanted to have lunch there, but she indulged me in my preference to have lunch at a small comida economica I had seen a bit earlier about a block away. The fancy restaurant was filled with gringos. There was a tour bus parked outside. We realized that El Quelite is close enough to Mazatlan that the expensive, upscale, all inclusive resorts would offer overpriced day trips to a real, authentic Mexican colonial village.

We went to the comida economica. It was operated by a middle aged woman and an older woman … likely “abuela” / grandmother. The living room of their home was the restaurant dining area. The family kitchen was the restaurant kitchen. Their meal price was cuarenta cinco pesos. They had two offerings ; pork ribs or chicken. Joanne had ribs, I had chicken. Side dishes were frijoles, a macaroni salad, and queso fresco / fresh cheese, a local product of some renown. And, of course, a covered bowl of many fresh, hot tortillas. Joanne had a Fanta Naranja, I had home made horchata drink, especially effective at “cooling” the salsa ! Very nice meal ! Very nice ladies ! Very nice home / restaurant !

We wandered around town. I took many photos. We drove around more of the town. We drove back towards home. Now that we knew exactly where Dimas was, and how to get in and out of the village from the Maxipista, we explored Dimas before returning home to Celestino Gasca. As we drove through the very tiny village of Celestino Gasca about 4 PM, a woman and her teenaged daughter were setting up a table outside their home, with a sign advertising “pan casero” / home made baking. I slammed on the brakes and backed up ! They obviously enjoyed baking and were proud of their offerings. And many townspeople began showing up to get some fresh baking. In Mexico, it’s very helpful if one knows such things as “so and so” sells fresh baking every Saturday around 4 PM. Otherwise, ya just gotta be lucky, like we were today ! We bought dos empanadas de calabaza ( had to look that word up … pumpkin ! ) and some bollos / buns for sandwiches.

When we walked on the beach I found a chunk of natural sponge washed up on the sand. I considered keeping it until … I discovered a little crab lived in it ! HA HA HA ! YUCK !

 

 

 

 

 

 

DSK