The Cousins Mexican Adventure

[Jeff]

Day 15 - Our First Day in Mazatlan

It seems hard to believe it has been two weeks since we left Presidio but when you look at the palm trees and tropical plants in Mazatlan and enjoy the 85 degree weather we have certainly come a long way in the past two weeks!

Mazatlan is a growing city and so different from being up in the Copper Canyon. Here billboards are in English, most businesses have someone who speaks English, and it is obviously a city catering to the American and Canadian winter snowbirds. Construction of condominiums is everywhere, hotels line the beaches, and restaurants are on every block.

Fotunately we are still on line with MotoSat which means we should have coverage for the entire trip as this is as far south as we go.

Today was a free day that was supposed to start with golf but a tournament postponed those plans until Wednesday. Instead we enjoyed the afternoon downtown with Portuguese friends from Toronto Geno and Isabel including a delightful lunch on the beach downtown.

It was also a day for laundry, haircuts, and shopping as we have pretty much been limited to buying baskets, etc the past week and a half.

Tonight was another pleasant evening enjoying shrimp and Margaritas and enjoying our group's company. Tomorrow we tour a colonial village nearby.

 

[Tom]

Jeff,

You've certainly had great sat coverage. Was that you parasailing?

 

[Jeff]

Jeff,

You've certainly had great sat coverage. Was that you parasailing?

Tom:

That was me taking the photo. ;D

 

[Jeff]

Day 16 - Capala, A Colonial Village

Today has been another day of contrasts that is modern Mexico. We traveled 60 miles east of Mazatlan into the Sierra Madres to Capala, a Spanish colonial town developed in 1623 to mine silver. Less than 10 miles outside the city this morning we stopped to see a brick maker in action making his 500 or more bricks a day by hand for a salary of 10 dollars a day. He starts by mixing clay, shoveling it by hand ten feet up out of the river bank, laying out molds that dry in the sun, and then firing the bricks in ovens made of the bricks themselves. Today was 90 degrees but he also toils in the hot summer sun of the Mazatlan area.

From there we drove a short distance to see colored floor tiles being made by hand, an artist finger painting his sketches, and furniture being made out of mahogany and cedar also by hand. All this was within miles of the city buildings, highrise condos, and hotels next to McDonalds and Wal-Marts!

In Capala we had lunch in an open air restaurant and visited the town on foot. The small boy on the burro wanted to be paid for his photo as well as offering the women a ride back to the bus for two dollars.

We returned to clean laundry, motohomes washed and waxed for those that ordered the work, and repairs done, in our case a chip repaired in our motorhome windshield. We had a short happy hour but everyone was ready to call it an early night as tomorrow is a long day beginning with brunch and a city tour followed by Fiesta! tomorrow evening.

 

[Shayne]

Jeff  Again  Thank you for the enlightening pics.

 

[Jeff]

Day 17 Touring Mazatlan

Well, everyone got to tour Mazatlan today except Jeff! A good bout of the flu means the photos and reports are from Sue while Jeff recovered in the RV.

The morning started with brunch in the Rivera district and continued with a trip around the city including old Mazatlan with its Spanish and French influence, and watching Mazatlan's version of cliff diving. With plenty of time to shop everyone returned with their arms full.

After a three hour rest period everyone got to dress up for a night on the town at a large hotel on the beach for dinner and entertainment. The name of the show is Fiesta! and featured singing, dancing, magicians, and comedians. With an open bar the evening passed quickly!

 

[Wendy]

Hope jeff's feeling better....Montezuma's Revenge can be a nasty thing.

You guys have a lot of pics with food titles ("Brunch", "Shrimp", Margaritas") but I have yet to see any FOOD on the tables ??

I guess you can see where my mind is.

Wendy

 

[Jeff]

Wendy:

By the time we get around to photos it is all gone! ;D ;D

 

[Jeff]

Day 18 - Our Last Day in Mazatlan

Today is our free day to catch up and enjoy Mazatlan before heading back north to the Ferry to the Baja. Jeff, Bob Close, and Hex our tailgunner also decided it was a great day for golf and enjoyed an early round at El Cid, a beautiful development of very exclusive homes in downtown Mazatlan. Since the course required caddies we decided to walk like the pros. (The only differences were the scores, the lack of crowds, and the funny ball Hex tried to knock off the tee!)

It was a great morning that others enjoyed with more shopping, fishing charters,doctor visits, and relaxing.

We got together at 5:00PM this afternoon for another hilarious happy hour including Art (sombrero) explaining why it took three days to get an oil change, saying goodbye to our Mazatlan Adventure Caravans hosts who brought out the lost and found to make sure we weren't forgetting anything, and a long briefing for tomorrows travels.

We have a very long day tomorrow, a 250 mile drive back north to Topolobamba, just west of where we left the train at Los Mochias last week. We are scheduled to arrive at 5:00PM and will then load by 9:00PM for a midnight sailing to La Paz.

 

[Shayne]

Great pics  Hope the unit that carries the party that wears those bloomers has plenty of pulling and braking power

 

[Jeff]

It was left by an earlier caravan. ;D

 

[Jim Johnson]

El Cid,

Jeff
My daughter lives on the course at El Cid.  She was also working the Tom Garcia tournament which kept you from playing there.  I called her and gave her heck for snubbing your group 

 

[Jeff]

Jim:

I probably was in her yard yesterday! ;D

Wish we had known we were so close, it is a beautiful area..

 

[Wendy]

Forget the giant undies....who does that great Coca-Cola chair belong to???

Wendy

 

[Tom]

Only Wendy or Mike would look past the bloomers and notice the Coke chair  ;D

 

[Jeff]

Forget the giant undies....who does that great Coca-Cola chair belong to???

Wendy

The chair goes with the bloomers and belong to the Adventure Caravan hosts at Mazatlan. I would ask where they got them but we are 200 miles north having lunch at a Pemex truck stop.

Terry:

You are going to love traveling with MotoSat! Ned and Russ are right, its more than a button.

 

[Jim Johnson]

I probably was in her yard yesterday

Jeff

You were playing out of bounds and from the water if you were ;D

 

[Jeff]

Jeff

You were playing out of bounds and from the water if you were ;D

Jim:

Did both! ;D ;D

 

[Jeff]

Day 19 - Mazatlan to the Ferry at Topolobambo

We are now sitting on the dock of the ferry to La Paz. We arrived here after an easy drive north on Toll 15 for 268 miles. Several of us decided we new the route since we had driven it in reverse last week so we set the cruise at 62 and headed for Los Mochias where we waited for the rest to arrive and pointed west for 19 miles to the ferry.

We have just shut down the Soupa Cocina (Soup Kitchen for all you Gringos) after making a hobo stew big enough to feed the entire loading crew. We had a great time including awards to our Wagon Master and Tail Gunner for getting us this far and a long joke from Ted about Two Guns With Two Guns, the infamous Mexican Bandito. We are still waiting for the ferry to dock and we will begin loading sometime after 9:00PM and then we are supposed to have a midnight dinner on-board before retiring to our staterooms. We are scheduled to dock at 6:00AM and will cover the voyage in tomorrow's report.

Miles Driven: 245
Fuel Purchased: 52 gallons, $98.50

 

[Jeff]

Day 20 - Baja California!

What a night! We arrived an hour and a half early for loading on the ferry so it was an hour and a half late. We had a good time waiting though and got to watch a very complex and interesting operation of preparing and loading a large seagoing ferry like the California Star. In addition to our 16 RV's there were approximately 50 automobiles and we think 80-100 semi trailers, some with tractors, loaded in about a two hour period.

When we finally were loaded we all gathered for a nice light midnight meal and retired to our staterooms for a few hours rest. If you remember our Portuguese friends have Ontario license tags "LuvShack" so it was probably kismet that they received stateroom 69!

Sunrise came early and we were all up to see our arrival at the port of La Paz in South Baja. The unloading went quickly and without a hitch for us but we then sat for almost two hours getting through a massive army inspection point looking for drugs and contraband. Almost all goods for Baja and up into California come through La Paz so it must be a natural route into the United States.

We drove through La Paz and 50 miles south over the mountains to Los Barriles on the east coast of Baja, It is an idyllic little town on the water and we will spend three days here 4 wheeling, boating, fishing, and relaxing. We arrived in time for a pig roast sponsored by the local Rotary Club in support of a local fund ldrive to raise money for air conditioning for the school. The club was started by a group of gringos who winter here (or live here full time) and it was a lively party.

Miles Driven: 78