5C's Que Pasa

When your bed is full of sand every night.  It doesn’t matter how carefully you clean off those doggie paws!

When the Pacifico truck needs to be pulled off the beach by a tractor!!

When each day ends with a beautiful sunset!

…we have been here a week now but are still setting up.  Four more rv’s arrived yesterday, so the ranks are starting to fill in.  Still having internet issues at RV1 but help is on the way so they say.  Yesterday I went into Mazatlan with a friend for lunch and to get my Mexican cell phone working.  Turns out that I needed both a new SIM card and a new battery as the phone is about 5 years old.

Typical side street in Mazatlan, love the colors!

Our neighbors to the left have arrived and we are coping with the tight situation.

Fortunately we have a huge front yard.

Sadly lacking in vegetation...working on it!!

Our patio and view!

The Tres Amigos RV Park here on the Isla is actually  one park but in two locations.  RV1 is a smaller park, next to it is Cordon’s Restaurant, a private home, the Maria Coral Hotel and finally RV2, a much larger park.  We go back & forth either via the beach or the road behind the parks.

RV1 on the left; Rv2 on the extreme right!

Maria Coral Hotel has been under construction for a few years and now is open for business.  It is the perfect location for Rvers to have friends & family stay while they come visit.  Plus we are about 14 kms from the airport, driving time depends on using the road or driving down the beach! The $120.00 price includes 2 balconies and a jacuzzi.

It has opened a lovely restaurant.

The night we arrived here the entire group from the RV Park went to dinner where we were able to sit out on the patio and enjoy the sunset.

The hotel has a website ,www.hotelmariacoral.com with more photos.  Their email address is relax@hotelmariacoral.com!

It seems that before we arrived, lightening had hit a tree that part of our wifi system was attached to and this is the source of our ongoing problems. The router has been changed as well as some wiring but we are still without internet. Finally J. here at RV1 put up an old router which should have given us internet but a large rig came in just at dusk and parked in front of the signal box!!! Today I should have limited internet access and will do my best to catch up with the online stuff!

There are 2 more rigs coming in today so between the two parks we will have 12 RV’s so far. Many more are on their way. Colin & I are surprised at how hot it is in early Nov. Last year we arrived Nov. 21 and it was cooler but there had been the hurricane that hit.

From De Anza RV Park, which is the perfect place to spend the night before crossing at Nogales. You might want to make a reservation for a pull thru site at this time of year…..

….Hi to Contessa and Colin from De Anza RV Resort in Amado!

I hope you had a good travel day and wanted to thank you again for mentioning our park to other travelers.  We know that word of mouth is the best advertising and we really appreciate it.  Look forward to seeing you again soon.  The next time you come, we will have two new 9 foot pool tables to add to the one 8 footer we have now!

Amy at De Anza RV Resort

From Chris at Celestino RV Resort……

..and from Mary, our travel buddy who went onto La Penita….

Today is a big day on the Isla, the birthday of the Ejito. Basically it means a huge party day complete with a parade, marching bands, a noon meal for all, a rodeo for the very first time ever on the island and then a huge dance party tonight. As the band plays till 2AM I don’t expect too much activity in the community tomorrow!!!

Having been here just a few days we have come to see how much the people here on Stone Island (the Isla) are suffering financially. They say that Mazatlan is suffering also with some restaurants & hotels closed as well as night spots. The cruise ship industry has cancelled 92 port calls to Mazatlan this winter which seriously affects the economy. Tourism is down. The people here on the Isla were so happy to see the RV’s pull in because to them we represent some income for them whether buying water, food, cerveza, getting your rig cleaned, buying soil for plants, having steps made, etc. One vendor remembered that we requested zucchini last year so he made a point of having it on his truck for us that first morning. Very touching. One young beach vendor I spoke with yesterday said he had not sold one trinket all week, even with three cruise ships in port.

I imagine that this scenario is being repeated through much of Mexico. We have met 2 sets of American friends who live here fulltime, one in Mazatlan and one here on the Isla. They say that they have not altered their way of life and still go about their normal lives here. This is not to say that things are not happening with the drug gangs but other than possibly being in the wrong place at the wrong time life is continuing. We chose not to live in fear and will continue to enjoy our time here.

We are creating a home for five months so all has to be done just so!! There is actually a great deal to do. For instance the ants found us before we had a chance to build our defense….thank goodness they are only the tiny sugar ants but still….why not the neighbors? It takes hours and maybe even days to figure the best place for the patio chairs. You need to take into account the morning light, high noon heat and sunset…..all of this takes a great deal of study, best done with a favorite cerveza in hand and cold glass of white wine. One needs to sit, to sip and to look out towards the beach & ocean. Yes, another sip is required! Actually another and another, yes the sunset does look pretty magnificent from here. I think we should wait and check it out over coffee in the morning and if that doesn’t work out well we’ll start all over again about 4:30PM manana! Si, comprende?

The one different thing we do, is fence in the dogs which gives us freedom from watching them all the time and we are all free to come & go from the RV at will. That reminds me, gotta get my Hawaiian beaded door curtain out. Now where did we pack it?

Another big task is to clock the cruise ship coming in and again check it out of port at the end of the day. A tough job but someone has to do it!!! The job I really dislike is asking almost everyday why we have no internet? Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost forget about counting all the horses & ponies going home every night along the beach. So much to so and so little time!

We are have ‘chores’ to do from raking the rocks, to setting up the TV (Shaw aka Star Choice) dish, to plant seeds for basil, etc.

I almost forgot, all the grocery shopping….actually delivered to your door.

all for 37 pesos

And so on and so on…getting here is a breeze compared to all the work you have do do when you actually get here!!! Even the girls are totally exhausted as you can see.