5C's Que Pasa

I was going to publish this this morning but for some still unknown reason, we had no internet but such is Mexico.  So I had added today to the post.

Longtime blog readers and now good friends Chris and Roger had stopped here at Tres Amigos on the Isla en route to a new Mexican destination for them about 1o days ago.  They were planning to leave on the 15th and we were to arrive the 17th.   Fortunately a game of golf and the long weekend  persuaded them to stay and spend some time with us.  Our first few days were rather busy with a basic set up but we manged to have a good visit or two on the Sunday.  Monday morning we went for a long beach walk with them and their dog Scooter who just turned 14. ( Carmeh’s age ).  It felt so good to be walking the beach with a dog.  We were so involved that we didn’t take any photos.

Chris and Roger first came to the Isla on January 31, 2013.  They live in California and also owned a home in the Baja .  Reading my blog about the Isla drew them here in 2013.  Looking  back for that link to their visit I was surprised to see how many other people we greeted that week   😯   This was the furthest that they had come on the mainland.  They are now heading further south for the first time to see what new adventure may present itself.  However they do love the Isla and are on the wait list for a front row site.

Monday we headed up the beach for dinner and caught a wonderful sunset.

A perfect meal with very special friends.

It was the end to a perfect day in paradise.

Then they were off to the Lo de Marcos area first thing this morning.

Our plans this morning included taking the Playa Sur panga over the Mazatlan and then doing a 30 minute walk over to the Freeman Hotel to get tickets for the Carnival fireworks.  They were already sold out 🙁  So we trudged back to the panga, my fit bit got a good work out this morning.

Saw this interesting palm tree during our walk.  Nature is amazing.  It comes out of the ground sideways and eventually manages to reach for the sky.

It was so hot in town with no breeze.  I almost melted.

The panga ride is always refreshing. Several tuna boats are in dock at the moment.

Once back home Colin started putting up our gazebo while I mostly worked at getting our garden back in shape.  I only managed about 1/4 of it as it was extremely humid and I tired quickly.  Tomorrow is another day.

Our gift from Mother Nature this evening.

We didn’t push ourselves today but just moved from task to task with no plan nor reason.  Because of the high tide at our usual walk time we didn’t walk today.  We had planned to walk  the beach later in the afternoon but went out to play in the ocean instead.  We spent more time today talking to the neighbors and some friends from earlier years.  The day passed quickly but we were very relaxed with the flow.

This past March when we put the girls to sleep we had two incidents with butterflies which I explained in this post.  Earlier today I was cleaning out a bin of bug spray when a large monarch type of butterfly approached me, although it was more yellow and black than orange.  What was strange is that it came into the middle of the palapa while I was working with not so pleasant fragrances and flew around me.  Actually it flew around me in a tight radius over and over and over.  I finally twigged in and called out to Colin.  He could not hear me so I moved to go to him.  As I did so the butterfly flew out to the front of our site and I thought had flown away.  I called Colin as I ran to him and told him to come quickly.  As he did, we both saw the butterfly approach us at the back of the RV ( in fact in the same area that the butterflies had appeared to me last March just before it was time to said goodbye to our beloved girls ).  Many of you won’t believe this but I feel ( as does Colin ) that this was a sign that our girls are here with us.  Needless to say tears were shed but our hearts were full.  I can’t explain the intensity of the feeling but it was also calming.

Later while swimming we noticed this 45′ RV come into the park. It wasn’t until we got back to our site that we saw the situation and figured out that he was supposed to be in RV2.  Why would someone who drives such a large unit drive blindly into an area they are not at all familiar with.  Most of  us would stop outside and walk in to check things out and be sure that we could get out again.

They were here on a cruise last season and loved the RV park and location so booked and came here for the rest of the winter just as we have.  I can’t imagine how tired they must be from driving and then have jackknifed so badly that his truck had some damage.  Fortunately most of the fellows helped unload the truck, physically move the trailer and then help the fellow get out of RV1 and turn him around.  They then helped him get settled in RV2.

Yet another wonderful sunset.  I was next door watching it with a friend while Colin finished a few chores and did a bit of practice.

We were all happy when he suddenly showed up and gave us a bit of a concert.  A wee crowd of seven soon gathered.  It was the perfect way to end the day.

..poco a poco, little by little.  Another long day but things are coming together, enough that our yard is organized and we can just now deal with one project at a time as we feel like doing something.  We have a place for all the little piles of to dos and other areas to sit and relax and enjoy the view.

Colin and Ismael (the park handy man ) went out in the Jeep and hired two drivers and two trucks to get all of our things from the bodega ( our storage area ).  Colin commented on how we had much less this year.  It is because we gave away many things after the girls passed last March.  No need for fencing or dog beds or ramps, etc.

The next thing was for Ismael and Colin to put up our dust screen. This helps keep the dust from the road on the other side of the fence from coming into our site.  Most of the dust is kicked up from horses going past or ATV’s.

Meanwhile my job was to power wash most everything that came out of storage.

After a good six hours we decided to call it a day and walked up the beach for an early dinner. The meal was good but the margarita not so much. This was our second walk of the day, we had walked down the beach about 7AM just before the high tide came in.  I walked close to 13,000 steps today.  Quite the step up from sitting around all day traveling in the RV.

A colorful sunset as we walked back to the motorhome.

The view out of our front window.

Our home away from home.  It was a short drive @ 194 miles but as I type this I am beyond tired.  We have driven 2,591 miles over the last 11 days 😉

A lot of new greenhouses in the Culiacan area and they are all sporting new netting.

Great news,the road from the airport to Estrella del Mar has been recently repaved. It had pot holes last year but we didn’t find it all that bad. They are currently installing guard rails. What a treat!

Even better there are finally some signs for Tres Amigos with directions.

The best news of all is that the last unpaved km is being worked on right now.

We had to wait a few minutes for the grader to move out the pile of soil and for this machine to smooth it out. He was rolling backwards as we followed him. Likely this project will be completed in just a few days.

The rest of the road was finished over the last two years. There is no reason to not stop in for even just a few days as you head further south for the winter. Or just come to the Isla for the rest of the winter.

Once the pavement ends the signs show you were to go.  Left for a very short period of time and you have arrived in paradise.  We suspect that by next year this area will also be paved.

Sadly the photo I took of our empty site was blurry.  That’s okay as we want to create some new memories this trip.  It is very hot here as well as humid, right now at 6:30PM, 70% 😯   Everyone says that it is getting much better and cooler.  Perhaps tomorrow I will notice a difference.  Meanwhile we are living in AC.  The inside of the RV becomes very hot as we travel as the engine is under the bed.  I know that in a few days we will acclimatize, we always do.  Due to the heat we did the minimum outside and concentrated on sorting out the inside while staying cool.  So now we have the rest of the evening off but first I need to make us some dinner.

Our first sunset. Not a great shot but the jejenes were out and biting. The other RVers continued to sit outside as they are now used to the noseeums.

Sadly we did not get out for a beach walk but it was really too hot and sticky.  Tomorrow promises to be a full day and then we may just let some of our stuff sit while we relax.  However we both prefer to push through and get it all done and then we will truly relax.  No matter, it is still wonderful to finally be here.

What a long day 🙄 Even though we only drove 317 miles today it was tiring.  When the roads were good they were excellent but when they were bad they were the worst we have ever experienced in our 18 years of RVing in Mexico.  What we called bad roads last year have deteriorated and today it was either good or bad.   Colin says that it gave the black tank a good shake up.  Seriously, the roads were so bad at times that at our slowest we were were only going 20Kph or 12.5Mph.  I had to wait for the smooth new concrete roads to be able to take a sip of my hot drink.  We usually average 60 – 63 Mph in the US and here in Mexico it is down to 50 – 55 Mph.  The slower speeds today made us just over an hour later than our anticipated arrival.  Tonight we are staying at Pemex 3970 which is at about KM 75, south of Los Mochis.  They have free WiFi here 😀 and it is much faster that the one we paid 420 pesos for last night.  By the way we found out that several folks had burned out electrical devices, etc. this morning, which is why we never plugin at Totonaka.  This morning it was spiking to 145 volts.  We boiled our water outside at the electrical post.  Colin spoke to an RVer who says that he bought a special device to bring the voltage down.  Tonight we are running the generator as it was so hot today that the RV was like a sauna.  We have a heavy curtain that we pull closed behind our driving seats and that keeps the AC right where we are sitting where we need it the most as we drive into the sun.

There is so much more road construction happening in Sonora.  In this photo they are working on both sides of the road.  As you can see it is a two lane road and rather than being two lanes in one direction as intended it is now single lane in both directions.

One little thing I would like to mention is that they are no longer selling wild parrots at Vicam.  Nancy will appreciate that.  There is a long story that goes with this but suffice to say that this is a good thing.  I was too caught up with the roads today to take many photos.

This giant Yaqui statue is just north of Ciudad Obregon and is meant to be a memorial but the park is not yet open.

I love all these bright city signs going up all over Mexico.

Finally we are in Sinaloa 🙂 This is the state where Mazatlan and Isla de la Piedra are located.  I can’t crop out all the bug splatters but you get the idea.

We came across some lovely countryside today.  The dirty windshield hides the stunning beauty of these hills.

There are always interesting things to see in Mexico that likely would not be allowed north of its border.

Then there is the price of fuel which has gone up 4.65 pesos per litre since this last November.  But Mexico is worth every extra penny.  Having said that we had a wee incident earlier this afternoon when the Pemex attendant attempted to trick us out of 1000 pesos ( 66.87CAD or 52.60USD ).  The cost for our diesel was 4200 pesos and I gave the guy 4 x 1000 peso note and 1 X 200 peso note.  I watched as he palmed one of the 1000 peso notes and put it into his lower jacket pocket. He then turned back to me and said that it was 4200 pesos and not 3200 pesos.  I told him in English ( which he suddenly understood ) that  I saw him put the bill into his pocket.  He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a few small bills to show me that I was mistaken.  I pointed to his lower pocket and pointed to my eyes and asked him to take the large bill out of his pocket which he did.  He then said in English “it’s okay” and walked away.  Colin always does the money transactions at the Pemex stations but today I did for some reason.  I simply handed over the 5 bills splayed out like a hand of cards.  Colin would have placed one bill at a time in the attendants hand and count out 1000 pesos, 2000 thousands pesos, etc.  We think that they had us pegged as mere tourists as we started with one guy pumping fuel and another came and took over.  FYI this was Pemex 3539 @ km 210 just south of C. Obregon.   Just another incident in our lives.

Meanwhile we are counting every hour until we reach paradise.

PS  Welcome to all the new commenters to my blog.  You are the inspiration to keep me going.  Last night it took so many hours to post, tonight less than half that time.  Sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth it and then I get a lovely comment, so thank you for leaving your comments.  It means a lot to me.   I hope to go back later this evening and answer your individual questions.