Looking for Silver Linings

 As we post this things have drastically improved in our lives.  We are exploring the beautiful state of Hidalgo and can eat solid food (and take solid poops)!.   These, surprisingly, are huge accomplishments and we can not wait for the days ahead!!!

January 4^th – Happy Birthday Kendra

Our Airbnb was the perfect place to spend Kendra’s birthday.  The pool, although cold initially was the perfect place to relax in the heat of the day, which happened to be 32 degrees.    While it was still cool we walked to the gold zone of Mazatlán and went into various tourist shops.  We left our wedding rings at home as we didn’t want anything to occur that may require us to part with them but found ourselves missing them as a symbol.  We didn’t find anything that we wanted to purchase, but we will keep looking for less sentimental rings.

It was nice to walk along the beach and enjoy some Pacifco beer, a national beer made in Mazatlán; we agreed we still like Corona or Tecate better.

Paul had purchased Kendra a cake and a bottle of wine and both were enjoyed, along with more beer, laughs and good times.  It was a great day for Kendra to turn 32 for the second time.

January 5th & 6th - The arrest of Guzman while we were in Sinaloa

We wrote about these days in a previously, so if you haven't read about these stressful days, feel free to click the link below:

https://gogogauthiers.blogspot.com/2023/01/our-experiences-during-unrest-within.html

January 7^th – Debrief

After the last couple days, we needed to take a couple days off. We spoke and documented the last couple days while sitting on a beach and eating ceviche.  It was what we needed!  Unfortunately, we had an outstanding issue we had to address, Rupert’s paw.  We thought it was getting better in Mazatlan, but we were wrong, it was definitely infected and he could barely walk on it.  We decided to walk to El Centro San Blas, (with Rupert in his backpack) and ended up hanging out at a bar, talking and people watching.  Thankfully with decent service we learned that there was a vet in San Blas and it was open 7 days a week!  We had a plan; we would go to see the vet first thing in the morning!

San Blas is famous.  If you speak to anyone who has been there for any amount of time they will tell you about Jejenes, which are little sand flies.  These things bite and their bites result in extremely itchy red dots all over your legs.  If we had bothered to do any googling we would have known that it is a requirement to dose your legs in bug spray before going anywhere where the sand flies live. We were also told they are the worst when it’s a full moon, which was when we were there. Unfortunately, we didn’t know this so paid the ultimate price; our legs looked like we had leprosy. We had prepaid for two nights in San Blas but knew we wouldn’t be staying there any longer than we had to.

 

January 8^th – We have to stay longer than we thought

We took Rupert to the vet where his paw was cut into to allow drainage, and various shots were given.  We were also told that he would need follow up appointments for the next 3 or more days.  We didn’t really  want to stay in San Blas due to the flies so we started to look for communities close to San Blas that did not have the sand fleas, this is where we learned about Aticama and some Permanent Residents from the US that rented out their driveway to overlanders.  This place was awesome with an outdoor kitchen, pool, bathrooms and hot showers!!!  It was exactly the place to stay.

We spent the afternoon doing a deep clean of some key areas of the van, namely the fridge which was coated in dust since we drove up to the Arctic Ocean.

 

January 9^th – A Day of Grazing

After Rupert went to the vet we decided to stress him out some more.  He was also in desperate need of a grooming, especially with temperatures in the high 20s and there was a groomer in San Blas.  We assumed we would have to make an appointment, but turns out the groomer could groom him in that moment so we dropped him off and went for breakfast. 

After breakfast we decided to keep on enjoying ourselves and go for fresh fruit smoothies trying the fruit local to the area, known as Yaka, or Jackfruit.  We were told that the consistency is odd, but in a smoothy it was delicious. The smoothies were in the municipal market, a daily farmer’s market that most communities seem to have where you can buy local produce for pennies.  We decided to buy ingredients to make Pico de Gallo and Guacamole. 

Next we did a little bit of exploring. San Blas is described as the Mexican middle class tourist destination and for years various resorts have been built, then fallen in disrepair meaning that the community has a few ruins of resorts of 50 to 60 years ago and some more recently.  We had hoped to do some urban exploring but unfortunately it was clear we were not allowed to go any further than the signs and fence allowed us to.

Rupert was still not done being groomed so we ended up killing more time, by having some ice cream; honestly the best ice cream we had ever had.  It really made us think maybe we should be eating out more and spending more money on delicacies. Not knowing much Spanish Kendra assumed the ice cream with queso/cheese in the name must be cheesecake even without knowing what the other word was. It could have been carrot and cheese ice cream, but luck was on her side and it was berry cheesecake.

We spent the afternoon continuing to graze, eating our Pico de Gallo and guacamole and trying out the cheapest alcohol we could find at the local grocery store- Cane alcohol for $29 mxp a  bottle.

 

January 10^th – Jamming it all in

The vet gave Rupert his thumbs up, he had recovered faster than he thought he would so we would be able to leave San Blas tomorrow, if we wanted to. The consultations and medications over the last few days had only cost $15 CAD.

We discussed the pros and cons of leaving and in the end decided we would do everything today that we had planned to do in the next two days and head east.

We saw crocodiles and purchased (and ate) delicious banana bread (the area was known for its banana bread) we also made our way to a waterfall. 

The waterfall was beautiful, the hike down was easy, but we knew that the hike up would be rough.  Frustratingly an American ended up showing up at the exact same time as us who wanted to make “content’ (1 guy with 1 GoPro on a tripod and 1 GoPro in his hand).  His content was jumping from the top of the waterfall to the bottom.  Paul had already swum the area before he attempted and knew that the depth of the pool of water the American would be jumping into fluctuated wildly, and if he jumped at the wrong spot he could seriously hurt himself, or worse.  We did not realize this was his plan until he was out of ear shot.  It took a long time for him to climb up to the top of the waterfall, so much time that another American family had also hiked down.  We were quick to disassociate ourself from this lone content creator, and when it looked like he was about to jump we ended up walking away.  We could not watch.

He jumped and didn’t die, but did hurt his knee.  He ruined the vibe of the area and in general was a really weird guy.  Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if I see an obituary for him on a facebook group in a year or two.  He seems to prioritize content over other people’s enjoyment of nature or himself.

Thankfully, after his stunt we, along with the other American family where finally about to enjoy this beautiful spot and re-enter the water without fear of a deceased person floating by.

As this was our last day in San Blas/Aticama we decided to go for a seafood dinner.  We found the busiest and best reviewed place in the area and somehow were able to get a table (probably because it was 3:30) [we hadn’t eaten lunch yet]. 

As seems to be a consistent issue, we ordered way too much food, but it was the best seafood we had ever had. We decided to suffer through it.

Our final evening was full of laughter and drinks, the couple who allowed us to camp in their driveway took us to a local hotel for margaritas, and the drinks continued after we returned.  It ended up being a pretty late night.

January 11^th – The long drive that wasn’t

We had planned to have a long day of driving, we would leave relatively early and drive as far east as possible so we could slowly work our way back to Nayarit, specifically Puerto Vallarta. 

Although we did leave early, traffic and a few missed exits resulted in us getting into Guadalajara far later than planned.  We also had a new (but old) problem.  Our van was making the same sound it was making when the sway bar was loose.  We thought, due to the size of Guadalajara that we would look for a mechanic, but, every one we went to was closed for some reason.  As the afternoon started to turn into the evening we knew we had to change our plans and camp somewhere close(ish) to where we were.

The campground was a mess.  It was the first “state campground” we had heard of (or found) in Mexico.  There were no bathrooms and there was garbage everywhere.  There was nothing nice about this campground, but it was free and safe, (we later learned the police patrolled it every night to ensure anyone who was there was safe).  We were the only people there and based on the state of the park were sure we would be the only people to willingly camp there.

 

January 12^th – Can we skip to the good part…no

Paul had chosen the state campground, very purposely, it was the last safe campground, after it the locations accessible were not safe.  Paul, did not tell Kendra this fact and woke up feeling ill and sort of forgot.

It was Kendra’s decision day, so she decided that the goals of the day where to go to the nearest large community, do laundry, get water, and get the van fixed.  That brought us into La Piedad within the state of Michoacan a state that the government of Canada says to avoid.  We dropped off our laundry at the first well reviewed laundromat and was told it would be ready at 4:30. Our next stop was finding somewhere to get some drinking water.  A quick google search yielded a spot, but it was at that time we realized our issue, we were somewhere we didn’t want to be, and the next safe location with a campground was over 2 hours away, right around, if not after sunset. 

Although we were worried about finding a mechanic and being able to communicate our issue, we ended up finding one very easily; Paul knew how to say that there was a weird noise and had learned how to say sway bar in Spanish.  That doesn’t mean it went off without a hitch, they asked many questions with many words Paul had never heard before, and in the end ask if they could just drive the vehicle themselves.  Without thinking, we gave one of the guys our keys and he was driving down the road with our van. 

A few minutes later he returned saying he had heard the issue and could fix it.  $60 CAD later, Paul and the mechanic were on the road (Kendra and Rupert were left at the mechanic shop, as he wanted to make sure that it was no longer making the weird sound and that Paul would know that he fixed it byt not hearing the sound.  It wasn’t!!

There was a huge Walmart in the community so we thought to pick up some groceries, but after doing so Paul finally said he was not doing well.  He had made comments most of the day saying that something wasn’t right, but could no longer hide it.  We still had 3 hours to kill until the laundry was done and Paul was adamant he couldn’t do anything adventurous.  Around this same time a local couple who spoke English approached us asking us if we where camping in the area.  We said no and planned to leave soon, the couple smiled, looking relieved and let us know that we are not in a safe community….great…

5 minutes later Paul started throwing up (in a plastic bag lined puke bucket).  We decided to stay in the Walmart parking lot until the laundry is done and just return to the dirty campground that we were at last night.  Although we wanted to get a hotel, there were no hotels within a 2 hour drive that were both dog friendly and decent reviews that didn’t talk about bed bugs, cockroaches and other insects in the rooms.  This was also the first time that we probably would have paid anything to stay somewhere half decent, there was just nothing available.

The next 3 hours were some of the worst for Paul, without fail every 30 minutes he would throw up everything in his stomach, then he’d clean himself up, start drinking water, and repeat the process. 

The laundry was done a bit later than planned, closer to 5pm, so we really didn’t have any other options.

The drive back to Jalisco and the campground was not enjoyable.  Paul felt that if he was driving he could focus on that rather than being sick, and that that would be better than being a passenger, so after throwing up once more, we jumped in the van and started our 1 hour drive back.

Like clockwork, 30 minutes later Paul knew he needed to throw up, but cranked the A/C to freezing and hoped that would delay the inevitable.  It did, and by the grace of god we returned to the campground.

Kendra set up the vehicle while Paul laid in the grass trying to feel better.  Within an hour Kendra also threw up and we learned another “fun” symptom we’d have to contend with for the next couple days.  Diarrhea, but again, no bathrooms here…so you can imagine how much fun we would be having.

 

January 13^th – A Proper Friday the 13^th

Neither of us could function today and had the same symptoms of yesterday.  It was a horrible day and all we wanted was a place with a bathroom.  Unfortunately, we were in no shape to drive so we spent the day napping, drinking electrolyte drinks and water, and trying to eat anything. We were successful this evening when sharing a pack of chicken ramen.

 

January 14^th – The worst had passed

I
t was time to leave, we knew we could at least drive so we packed up knowing that we had somehow made this terrible “campground” worse and drove towards the state of Hidalgo.  Trust us, we usually try to leave places in the same or better condition, but it was unfortunately not possible this time.  After 6 hours and quite a few bathrooms stops we arrived at a proper campground on a river with toliets, flush toilets!  It was beautiful and everything we wish the place we had stayed at for the last three nights had been.  We even got to watch a group of goats as they wondered around the campground while a newlywed couple took photos in the canyon, all from the comfort of our van.

 

January 15^th – Maybe this isn’t food poisoning

We woke up feeling far better, better enough to start exploring and enjoying the area.  Within a couple hours drive east where three Pueblo Magicos, so we decided to celebrate our return to relative normal we would explore them.  The first one brought us into the mountain of El Chico National Park.  It blew our minds how much it resembled the Kootenays.  This whole state is full of mountains, trees and hot springs and it felt like we were back in B.C.

The first Pueblo Magico was Mineral del Chico, a mountain town that looks like it had been thought up by Disney.  We were not surprised at the number of visitors exploring the town, what surprised us is that we were the only international people visiting.

The community starts near the top of a mountain and follows a river down towards where the people of the community used to mine.  We decided to walk this route but after coming to the end we realized we were exhausted.  We seriously were concerned how we would be able to walk back up the hill, thankfully we were able to take a public bus that allowed Rupert on it for $1 CAD.  We half joke that we would have paid ANYTHING to be taken back to the top of the hill, ANYTHING, because for some reason we were completely drained after our downhill walk.

Once back to the main part of the community we grabbed a table at a little café, drank the most delicious (non-alcoholic) drinks we had ever had, known as fresquitos and had some delicious pizza.  We assumed we were exhausted due to not eating anything for days so hoped that some pizza would give us the energy we need for tomorrow. We always used to wonder who would go to Mexico and eat pizza or hamburgers when there are so many good national/regional/local dishes to enjoy, but after 6 months on the road and having not been feeling well, we realize that we have become THOSE people who will order pizza or a hamburger when in Mexico.

We found a campground in the national park and unsurprisingly it was packed full of people enjoying the last day of the weekend in nature.  We, decided to go to bed.

We woke up after a couple hours with terrible muscle pain and a cough and a runny nose, it was the first time we really started to wonder, what if we don’t have food poisoning, what if it was covid, we had all the symptoms over the course of the past few days.

 

 January 16^th – Being Ignorant

We decided we would take a hike in the national park; we had eaten and should have the energy to do something.  We hiked 3 kilometers return to a mountain lake.  It was beautiful, the hike started at the campground and went down the mountain, meaning after we got to the lake we had to make our way back up.  We did it, we did struggle but we took this a proof we were okay, but we decided we would start wearing our masks because we took significantly more breaks to catch our breaths and regroup along the way back.

The next Pueblo Magico was Real del Monte, another mining town.  Once again it was beautiful, except they had just finished a 2 day festival (that unfortunately, but probably for the best) we missed. Even though it was 1pm when we were exploring the town, the whole community felt like it was HUNG OVER.  We’ve never experience this but so many people were sitting on the ground trying to hold on for dear life, chugging Electrolit (Mexico’s brand of Pedialyte), or drinking Micheladas.  They community was trying to clean up and take down all the vendor stalls and stage but it was a slow process.  Everything was more or less closed and although the people watching was 10/10 we decided to continue to the final Pueblo Magico, Huasca de Ocampo. 

Fun fact, Paul was able to purchase a “road trip wedding ring” at Real del Monte.  We had left our actual wedding rings in Quesnel as they hold a lot of sentimental value and we knew we didn’t want to be in a situation where we could lose them so we decided we would eventually buy new rings when the price was right.  With the area known for silver Paul was able to pick up a silver plated wedding band for $25 CAD that checked off all the boxes.  Kendra is still looking for the right ring.

We learned that Huasca de Ocampo was the very first Pueblo Magico, and it was well deserved, once again a very beautiful community with a lot going on. 

It was around this time that Kendra started to develop a cough, so we decided we would get a hotel and try to get a good night sleep while avoiding everything and other people.  We wanted to do more in the community but thought it best to stay in our hotel.  After the streets went quiet we did go for a little walk around the town again to get some fresh air, it was really nice to see the place without it being full of people and vendors.

 

January 17^th – Memories of Korea (Avoiding people)

We slept in, and left just before check out.  We had one stop we wanted to do before heading to western Hidalgo again, which was the basalt columns.  We had guessed correctly that there would be no one there if we went mid week.  It was neat to see a geological feature that we often hiked to in Quesnel, but this one had a waterfall right at the columns as well. 

We then picked up some pies as the whole area was famous for its pastries (thanks to European miners in the 1800s who shared the recipe with locals) and we finally had an appetite again. We got them for the road and ate them in the van, they were delicious and we regret not buying more.

We did stop in the big city of the area, Pachuca, for a view of a bunch of painted houses, which remined us of Gamcheon Village in Busan, Korea.  In fact the whole day reminded us of Korea, from the tourist infrastructure around nature and the pastries we found ourselves reminiscing about wandering the streets of Busan.

Our day ended at the campground we had stayed at when we first entered Hidalgo, but this time we knew we were almost 100% well again.

Our experiences during the unrest within Sinaloa

 

This blog may contain factual error.  Everything we write was either told to us by local Mexican people or experienced first hand.  If it turns out things we were told are not correct, it is not because we tried to sensationalize the situation.  There were a lot of rumours and misinformation during the first day after the arrest of Ovidio Guzman.  This is an account of the scariest two day of our trip and how the amazing people of the community El Rosario ensured our safety.

January 5^th – “Get off the road, it is not safe for you!”

We woke up late on account of our celebrations of Kendra’s birthday.  We slowly packed the van and cooked some brunch.  We had until noon to leave our Airbnb so we were not in any rush. 

The owner of the Airbnb approached Paul asking where we were going, as there had been “an incident” up north resulting in highway closures.  When Paul told him we would be heading south he seemed relieved.  He then asked where we were going and Paul said “San Blas” in the state south of Sinaloa.  He was curious why we had chosen not to see any other sights in his state and recommended a few communities.  He was confident that they were safe communities to go to and so close to Mazatlan that we could take the free highway.  [Most blogs recommend tourists stick the toll highways].  After a bit of discussion and assurances that it was both safe and that we would be doing ourselves a disservice to not go, we jumped in the van towards the first town, a Magic Town known as El Rosario.

Paul did Google “the incident” and learned that it was the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, El Chapo’s son and the defacto leader of the most powerful cartel in Mexico, the Sinaloa Cartel, responsible for most of the fentanyl entering the US and Canada.  According to the news at the time, the epicenter of the violence was the capital city, Culiacan, but the cities of Guasave and Los Mochis were also experiencing some violence.  We were counting our blessings as our ferry that we had originally reserved was to Topolobampo, just outside of Los Mochis, and the campground we had selected to celebrate Kendra’s birthday was just outside of Culiacan.  Thanks TMC ferries for selling us a ticket to Mazatlán when we had a reservation for the ferry to Topolobampo!

As we drove through Mazatlán we noticed that all the shops were closed.  It was still before noon and we assumed that maybe things didn’t open up until afternoon in the city, or maybe it was siesta time so things were closing down for a few hours.

We turned on Highway 15 (libre) going South and we were surprised at how empty it was and how good the road condition was.  We assumed that because the highway was free that it would be packed with people.  It was a little annoying constantly having to slow down to 60 km/h for bus stop areas, but that was something we have become accustomed to.  Once again we assumed that most people were at work (it was a Thursday) and/or were driving the toll road. 

Highway 15 was a divided highway leaving Mazatlán and we were shocked when we saw a large number of cars driving on the wrong side of the divided highway. Luckily they were travelling in the same direction as use, just on the other side of the fence and barricade.  We didn’t understand why until we got to the turnoff for the Mazatlán airport where we encountered, what we thought was, a horrible accident.  We thought somehow two semitrucks and crashed into each other, resulting in them blocking all lanes of the southbound section of the highway and bursting into flames.  Thankfully, there was a little break in the divided highway that the van could barely squeeze through allowing us to join the couple of cars driving on the other side of the divided highway.  We found it surprising how much military personnel were near this accident but they didn’t seem to be trying to put out the fire.  After about a kilometre we were able to get back onto the correct side of the divided highway and continue on our way.

We continued south and were happy to be on the correct side of the road when three state police trucks passed us heading towards Mazatlán.  We laughed happy to not be breaking the law in front of the police as we didn’t want a ticket.  A couple minutes later an unmarked truck passed us on the other side of the divided highway full of people with machine guns.  They were not wearing uniforms and wore bandanas over their face.  We do not know who these people were but they did not look like military personal, nor look like the local or state police officers.  Seeing these people put us on edge, we started to question if the incident we had heard about was actually impacting the south of Sinaloa.

As we continued south we were surprised that all Oxxo and SIX convinces stores had shuttered their doors.  This was very unusual; they are usually always open.  But we were in rural mainland Mexico for the first time and thought again that maybe it was just siesta time as it was between 12pm and 2pm.

We arrived in El Rosario, and saw a few of its sights, but we could feel how tense the community was.  Many people were in the church praying.  Most businesses were closed and we were getting a lot of stares. So we decided to leave to the next community that was recommended Escuinapa de Hidalgo, which was only 20 kilometers away.  We got back on Highway 15 (libre) and started towards the community.

Another odd unmarked truck drove past us in the other direction with many people in the back with bandanas.  This time most were wearing camouflage.  They had no weapons.  We don’t who they were but once again it was unnerving and we were feeling more unsettled as we drove down an empty highway. 

After another kilometer there were three guys sitting under and underpass, they started waving at us, telling us to stop, but this time we were freaked out and raced passed them.  After another kilometre we got to what they were trying to warn us about, it was a semitruck fully engulfed in flames, it looked quasi recently started (at least more recent than the truck near the Mazatlán airport).  There was no more denying it, the incident that occurred in the north was impacting the whole state.  The Sinaloa Cartel had placed roadblocks on the major highways throughout the state of Sinaloa.  We didn’t know what we should do.  Our first thought was to get to the toll road, the only access point we had to that road was in El Rosario, so we returned to that community.

As we approached the community we had countless people waving us down, we were still on edge and freaked out so didn’t stop to talk to them.  We thought we had to figured this out by ourselves.  Thankfully, right around the town square a person with some English walked out in front of our van.  The man firmly told us we needed to get off the road, it was not safe for us and that due to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) involvement the cartel were targeting tourists.  He offered us accommodations at his house, but we told him we would try to get a hotel for the night.  Before leaving he told us that if we weren’t able to find anywhere to stay to come back and he would take us to his house.

We went from hotel to hotel but they were all booked up for the night.  As we were leaving one hotel we ran into a man named Mario, who once again echoed that the roads are unsafe, especially for us and that he was going to take us somewhere safe.  We were taken to a school in the community that had been set up as a temporary shelter.  There was water, bathrooms and they were working out where and how everyone would sleep there.  By the end of the day this shelter would accommodate 700 people that were trapped in the area of El Rosario due to the roadblocks.

Once again we were told what was going on by people in the shelter.  We were told that the DEA had placed a $5 million bounty on Ovidio Guzman and many had talked about US air craft in the area of Guzman’s compound around the time of his arrest. We were told that tourists would likely be targeted in retaliation of as a way to negotiate with Mexican or US governments.  After a short time Mario returned saying that we would be moved to a more secure location.  There was some thought that our international license plate on our van may attract the wrong type of attention. 

It was around this time we learned that in November the Grande Prairie Alberta Rotary Club along with neighbouring Rotary Clubs and the Highway to Mexico non-profit had donated a fire truck to the community of El Rosario and that the mayor had become aware that Canadians were stranded in her community.  We also met Enrique, a tourism director for the community who spoke English well.  We were moved to the Museum and told to park the van a block away just in case anyone came into the community looking to cause trouble.  We removed all our food, clothing and bedding from the van.  We thought we had taken everything we needed until they pointed to the propane on top of the van being clear that that had to be taken off the van and taken inside the museum.  We were told we could stay at the museum for as long as we needed to and if we needed anything to let Enrique know.  The community was very appreciative of the Canadian Rotary Clubs and felt obligated to keep us safe.  A short time later a couple from Arizona also joined us in the Museum.

Before Mario and Enrique left they told us, do not leave.  Stay in the museum and they will come back with any news we need to know. 

Feeling like we had to figure out what the current situation was for ourselves, we went on to Google to try to figure out what was going on.  We read from Canadian news source, the first one was from Global News which had talked to a woman who had texted her brother.  She had reported that Mazatlán was “on fire”.  The second article, from CTV quoted another woman who had said she had heard machine gunfire.  The following day we learned they were all unverified claims and were false. Much later we learned that with school being cancelled for another day there were fireworks and firecrackers being lit in Mazatlán, which is definitely not gunfire, something we have experienced on holidays and weekends in our travels around Baja California.

Unfortunately, because this was the only news we had at the time we were feeling more stressed.  I can not image how this inaccurate reporting must have affected people in Mazatlán, because it caused us a lot of anguish. We are now looking back at those individual encounters and reports and people claiming everything was calm and safe.  Unfortunately, everything is calm and safe for those who are in safe communities and places in the state, but that unfortunately this cannot be said for all places, and our hearts go out to the communities that are still locked down and are not yet safe. While we were safe, we still were concerned about this uncertain situation.

 

January 6^th – A run to the border

We woke up early and tired.  Although we had a restless night sleep, we did feel safe and the city was quiet.  We learned that there was no violence in El Rosario, however, the community we had tried to get to yesterday, Escuinapa de Hidalgo, did not have a quiet night.  The community of El Rosario was waking up and business were starting to reopen.  Mario and Enrique told us the community is safe and we could leave the Museum, but the highway was still closed.  They said if it would open up they would let us know.
We felt truly blessed to be “stuck” in El Rosario, this Magic Town was so accommodating and beautiful.  We spent the morning walking around the Lagoon and trying to find some sort of souvenir, we both bought T-shirts. 

We even tried to eat something, settling on some very cheap but delicious street tacos.

Around noon we were told the highway had reopened and was safe.  We decided to hit the road and go south to Nayarit, ideally going to San Blas, Nayarit, around 250 km’s away.  The first 100 kilometers had us dodging burned out semitrucks.  There were burned out trucks at almost every entrance and exit to the toll road.  There were some people taking sacks of flour out of a burned out of a few burned out trucks, we figured they were looting as they drove away on their motorcycle balancing these giant sacks of flour and figured that the highway had just been reopened since the trucks left to burned were just beginning to be looted from. The locals knew that to be safe you had to stay off the roads and stay in your home, so we weren’t the only ones excited for the highway to be opened. The free highway was still closed, due to the burned vehicles blocking the road, but there was no toll being charged on the toll road.  We were about 1.4 kilometers away from the border to Nayarit when the border closed.  Very quickly a line up behind grew for many kilometers as many others tried to leave the state.  Big groups of people left their buses or vehicles to try to figure out why it had been closed.  We overheard some people wonder if they would have to sleep on the side of the road.  Others talked about a security issue or the prevention of the cockroach effect (preventing cartel members from leaving Sinaloa).  Really they were all guesses; no one knew anything.

Because of the hundreds of people in the area all using the same cell towers, the cell service was non-existent.  We were unable to communicate with our families or search for any news or updates.  We were nervous we would be spending the night on the side of the road in Sinaloa.

After 3 hours of waiting, in 33 degree heat, the border opened up. We then learned they had closed it to properly clear all lanes of the highway by towing the 6 semitrucks off of the road.  We were told that previously they had just opened a gap for a few vehicles to get through at a time.

We excitedly crossed into Nayarit and decided to break one of the key rules associated with driving in Mexico, do not drive at night.  Sunset was an hour away but we could not find a campground anywhere near by, the closest place we could find camping was in San Blas, almost 2 hours away. 

The last 36 kilometer entering San Blas was exhausting.  It was a windy road and it started to hit us just how tired we were and stressed we had been.  Getting to the campground felt like one of the first times we were able to properly breathe. We called our families, drank a beer and spent a couple hours silently processing the last couple days.

We are writing this as we sit with a beautiful view of the beach, knowing that we can breathe a bit easier since we are no longer in Sinaloa.  We are truly grateful and appreciative to the entire community of El Rosario, to Mario and Enrique, and all the strangers who were trying to keep us safe. While we were never in a place of immediate danger, we feel (so stereotypically) blessed for all the people we encountered in this challenging situation. While their state of Sinaloa was in chaos and conflict, they not only reached out to help us but hundreds of others, and they did it with such calm and certainty that this will pass. Who knows what stupid mistakes or decisions we would have made if we didn’t encounter those helpful strangers in El Rosario.

The downs and ups of Baja

 Although we were enjoying Mexico, Baja wasn't meeting our expectations, until all of a sudden it was.  We are not to sure why, but after December 28th we fell in love with Baja and found it very difficult to leave

December 20^th – SPRIKETS!!!

We had nothing but good things to say about our hotel is Ciudad de Constitution until around 10pm when we started to notice odd sounds coming from the area around the garbage can.  Kendra was convinced that it was something in it, but every time Paul looked he could find nothing, that was until he noticed something crawling up the wall.  It was similar in size to a cockroach, but not quite as wide, it also had legs like a cricket.  Our friends from New Hampshire had seen them previously in their lives and named them Sprikets; however, we do not know their actual name.

Paul spent the hours between 10 pm and 2 am killing these Sprikets with a shoe.  Each kill resulted in an echoed crunch in the room.  He placed a towel under the door, but it seemed they were coming in from the door jamb.  We are not too sure why after 2 am they stopped entering the room.  It could have been because Paul tried to decrease the width of the door jam by using his hand as a hammer, or because we had scared enough of them away by leaving the bodies of dead Sprikets around the room, but by 2 am we at least started to think about trying to sleep. Unfortunately, sleep came much later due to the fears of these bugs jumping at our faces.

We wandered to a little hole in the wall restaurant for coffee, although it was 10 am when we arrived at the restaurant we were both exhausted. After breakfast we had some time to kill since we were waiting for our laundry to be cleaned [in Mexico you drop it off at a Laundromat and the workers wash, dry and fold your clothes for around 200 pesos ($15 CAD)].  There was a “hiking area” close to the city so we headed towards that, unfortunately the “hiking area” was the city dump.  Thanks Google…

After our little adventure, purchasing some groceries and some much needed soft serve ice cream we were able to pick up our laundry and head down the coast.  Originally we had hoped to get to La Paz today but decided to stay at a camping spot an hour north of the city so we could set up our camp before night fall.  To our surprise when we arrived to the camping area our friends from New Hampshire were in the area so we decided to camp near them.

We spent the evening watching whales jump in the far distance and playing Rummy while we told the horror story of our previous night.

 

December 21^st - Blowing through La Paz

We woke up, said goodbye to our friends and left towards La Paz.  Unfortunately, after an hour of driving down a dirt road we remembered we had placed our solar light on the roof of the van to charge and, to no great surprise, it was no longer there.  After a short discussion we decided to drive all the way back to where we camped and look for it.  It didn’t take long to find it, roughly 10 meters from where we had camped, but it meant that we got to the area of La Paz later than we had planned. 

We grabbed a couple of groceries that we forgot to purchase the previous day and kept driving to another Magic City, known as Todos Santos.

We decided we would explore Todos Santos tomorrow so we went to the main camping spot for the area.  It was easy to tell we were in the correct place as the beach was full of campers from all over the world.  We found a little spot near some foliage just in case nature called in the middle of the night and cooked some dinner while watching sunset.

 

December 22^nd – Exploring Todos Santos

We arrived in Todos Santos pretty early.  Most shops were not open yet, except for a place that does free Tequila tastings.  Although tempted we passed as it just seemed too early.

Todos Santos was definitely a cool city, we were even lucky enough to run into a family from Cabo who allowed us to tag along with them as they explored the city, showing us all the interesting places to see. 

After a few hours of exploring, we decided to grab a pint at the local brewery; unfortunately, it didn’t open for another hour so Paul decided to find the old town cemetery, assuming it would be an interesting place.  This started an hour of driving 4x4 ish roads thanks to bad google directions.   There was a lot of reversing down hills and blind corners, but eventually we did make it to the cemetery.  It was nothing special…

The beer was fine, but probably not worth the price (for the price of one pint we could purchase a 12 pack of Corona).  We decided to return to the campground and relax for the night.

We didn’t spend too much time relaxing; however, as when we returned to the campsite we were accused of pooping on the sand and NOT burying it (there were multiple poops not buried when we arrived yesterday, too much for just two people to do in one day).  We don’t know why but this accusation, which was 100% false, really got under our skin.  How we were accused and why we were accused became the topic of conversation for the rest of the night.

December 23^rd – In memory of John

Today is John Racher’s funeral, which thankfully will be live streamed for those unable to attend.  We found a spot in Todos Santos to set up the van to watch and were about to leave our camping spot when we noticed that our friends from New Hampshire were camping.  We were only able to chat with them for a few moments before we drove into the city.

After the funeral we went out for tacos and had hoped to get a few bottles of cheap wine, John’s favourite was homemade white wine, but in lieu of that cheap wine was acceptable.  Unfortunately, we don’t think cheap and wine go together in Mexico so we opted for cheap Tequila. 

We spent the evening reminiscing about times with John as well as other family members while sitting watching the waves crashing against the beach.

Before we knew it the bottle of tequila was gone, it was late and it was time to go to bed.

 

December 24^th – HOW IS THIS A HIGHWAY??!?!

With Christmas upon us we started to discuss how we actually wanted to spend Christmas.  We wanted to do something special and have access to wifi to contact family so our best option seemed to be an Airbnb or hotel.  After a lot of searching, we found on the other side of the peninsula an AirBnB in a place called La Ventana.  Google said it would take a couple hours to get there so we asked if we could get an early check-in and left Todos Santos.

It is at this time two things happened, first, Paul decided that we would purchase gas closer to La Ventana, assuming it would be cheaper, and second both Kendra’s and Paul’s phone ran out of data, so we needed to go to Oxxo to add money to our phone accounts. 

We knew roughly how to get to La Ventana, we had to travel north on highway 19, then south on highway 1, then turn somewhere to get to highway 286, which would take us roughly to La Ventana, but again we had no internet to confirm what road to take.  Paul assumed it would be Highway 3 so turned off the highway at that exit.  By this point we were under a quarter tank of gas and we had some concerns about this “highway”.  The start of the highway was a huge drop off onto dirt, followed by a single lane cattle guard.  The highway consisted of washboard, single track dirt road, washes (some with water in them), deepish sand, steep hills, and confusing turns.  We did get lost.

When we were halfway through the highway the fuel light turned on exclaiming “LOW FUEL”. We immediately turned off the A/C.

When we were ¾ done the highway the fuel gauge looked like it was empty and our fuel economy was terrible.  We spent the final quarter going down hills in neutral and coasting up the other side of the hill as best as we could.

After what seemed like forever (approximately 35 kms in total) we returned to pavement.  We had 20 kilometers of downhill driving to get to a gas station, so Paul put the van in neutral and we coasted down the hill.

We made it!  We did not run out of gas, but frustratingly Paul’s assumption was wrong, the gas was more expensive here.  All that stress was for nothing.

The Airbnb in La Ventana was beautiful, definitely a place we could see ourselves living in.  We spent a couple hours relaxing inside before driving to a well reviewed restaurant for a delicious Christmas dinner.

 

December 25^th – Merry Christmas

We had the exact type of Christmas we wanted.  We slept in, video called our families and sat on the beach.  La Ventana is known for its Kitesurfing due to its winds, so we spent a couple hours watching the countless kitesurfers on the ocean.  It was amazing and if we were here on an unlimited budget, it would definitely be something we would have tried. 

Lunch was ceviche and beer with dinner being pasta made by Paul.  We did open the wine we purchased on our first day in Mexico, and finished it; it was delicious.  We spent the evening eating snacks and drinking beer while listening to Christmas music and enjoying the plunge pool on the patio which overlooked the ocean.  It was the Christmas we needed!

 

December 26^th – Mexican MOSQUITOS

Although we seriously thought about extending our Airbnb in La Ventana, the house was booked by another person so it was time for us to leave.  We both felt that it was time to think about leaving Baja.  We had heard that sometimes the ferry to the mainland books up weeks in advance so we decided to make a reservation.  We could make a reservation by calling the ferries reservation line, but decided to go into the ferry’s office at the ferry terminal instead just in case Paul’s Spanish wouldn’t do the trick.

We arrived at the ferry terminal and before we knew it we had a reservation for January 2nd to Topolobampo. 

We had hoped to get the ferry to Mazatlán but unfortunately the ferry to Mazatlán was broken meaning the only financially responsible option was to go to Topolobampo.  The issue was that this was in the northern part of the state of Sinaloa; this is a state the Government of Canada says to avoid. (Mazatlán is in the southern portion of Sinaloa but the Government says that that city is safe).

Regardless we were happy that we had a plan, explore the portion of the Baja peninsula south of La Paz until January 2^nd, then leave for the mainland.

We spent the afternoon eating too many of the best shrimp tacos in La Paz then immediately trying to walk them off by exploring El Centro (old town) and the Malecón (sea walk).  Paul even bought a new T-shirt after his CBC shirt was chewed up by a dryer at a laundromat in the US.

There is a large spit between La Paz and the Sea of Cortez where we thought to camp.  The spit itself is known for its Sand Dunes and we saw many people sandboarding and traveling up and down the dunes with their dune buggies.  We, unfortunately, spent the evening fighting off mosquitoes rather than taking part in any fun.  I don’t know how the mosquitos found us, but it was Northern BC levels of mosquitos.  We even retrieved our bug spray and heavily coated our bodies.

 

December 27^th – American Invasion

We didn’t want to cook breakfast at our camping spot as the mosquitos were waiting for us to leave the van and we decided to not be their breakfast.

Instead, we ventured back to the south end of the Malecón and explored the area a little better. 

We left La Paz for a community many Americans had recommended known as Los Barriles, the road itself was good and although Highway 3 was a potential route to Los Barriles, we avoided it.  The road we did take, brought us through the historical town of San Antonio which we explored before cooking lunch at a viewpoint of the town, much to the amazement of various Mexican people taking their own pictures of the town.

Los Barriles is our least favourite place we visited in Baja California, it was full of Americans on side by sides drinking beers i.e. drinking and driving.  The city itself was unlike any Mexican city we had visited, there was no Centro, instead there was sprawl.  There was no free or reasonably priced camping, instead there were massive resorts.  The supermarkets were full of Americans annoyed at the supermarkets USD/MXN exchange rate [They expected it to be 20 pesos to 1 USD, but the supermarket said it was 17 pesos to 1 USD].  We still don’t understand why Americans don’t use Peso’s, they keep on losing out with the exchange rate and annoying locals.

We did find a spot on the beach 30 minutes north of Los Barriles where an American had set up a campsite and had been living for the last 4 months.  He was an interesting guy who had decided more or less to just camp on the beach for the rest of his life with his dogs Dave and Archie.

The cool thing about this camping spot was that there were a dozen stingrays that kept jumping out of the water putting on a great show for us for most of the evening.

 

December 28^th – The start of good things

Our time in Baja up to this point has been fine.  It has been full of adventure and stories but not full of the pure enjoyment that we had hoped for due to weather and our expectations probably being too high.  Today, however, was the start of something good.

We decided to drive to a community that had been advertised on various billboards across Baja California Sur; Santiago.

Santiago was known for three things, its cute downtown/church (known as a mission), a waterfall oasis and hot springs. 

We decided to see the waterfall first as it was not dog friendly so we needed to find a shady spot to park.  The waterfall oasis, known as Cañón de la Zorra is part of a Natural Reserve and it was amazing.  We were one of the first people there and got a great parking spot for Rupert.  There were a few tourists from Cabo at the waterfall, all, like us, thinking they had found a special spot to explore.  This spot was beautiful and although the water was too cold for the Mexicans (and most Americans), we couldn’t not go for a swim in such a beautiful place.

We can not explain just how much we enjoyed this place and how much we needed this experience to get us excited about our time in Baja.

We left in the early afternoon and tried to find some food, unfortunately all restaurants seemed to be closed so we ended up making a taco salad under a big tree close to our next stop, a hot spring known as El Churro also within the Nature Preserve.

Paul decided that we would spend the night at the hot springs with his Spanish skills was able to talk to the guard of the hot springs (who was described as grumpy in reviews) to give us a great deal since we had already paid to enter the Nature preserve at the waterfall.

The hot springs were not very hot, but perfect for a hot day.  They consisted of warm pools dug into the sand beside a reservoir.  We spent hours in these pools relaxing until the sun started to set.  It was a perfect day.

When we got back from the hot spring our camping neighbour Rick offered us a few starfruit he had picked from the trees. They were pretty good, a few were under ripened, but we enjoyed them.

 

December 29^th – An extension of the Previous Day

Because there isn’t much for us to do after the sunset we usually are asleep by 7 or 8 pm (colloquially known as Baja Midnight).  This means that we are usually awake around sunrise which was perfect for us as we were looking forward to a sunrise soak.  What a way to welcome the new day.

After many hours sitting in the pools watching the sun slowly illuminate the valley around us.

After thoroughly enjoying El Churro we decided to head to the other hot spring within the Nature Reserve known as Santa Rita Hot Springs.  Unlike the previous hot springs this one as not dog friendly, so we once again wanted to arrive to the hot spring as early as possible to find a shady spot for Rupert.

Santa Rita Hot Springs was beautiful, a mix of El Churro and Cañón de la Zorra with hot springs (that were actually hot) and a cold beautiful slow moving river.  We could have stayed here all day, but we wanted to get to Cabo Pulmo National Park.

We left the hot springs just before noon and made our way to the town of La Ribera for lunch where we purchased the most expensive thing on the menu (ceviche) and enjoyed it thoroughly.  We knew it was time to leave when a large group of Americans arrived to the restaurant with beers in their hands and obliviously a little tipsy after driving their side by sides to that location.  Picture loud obnoxious people and you have a good idea what we and the waitresses were experiencing, which was our cue to leave.

It was a nice surprise to turn the corner towards Cabo Pulmo and see our friends from New Hampshire.  They had just traveled through that National Park and gave us a few recommendations, namely Playa Arbolito.  We quickly caught up then went our separate ways. 

Cabo Pulmo was beautiful and definitely a place we wished we could spend more time.  The water was warm and turquois and the mountains were dynamic.  We camped at where our friends recommended us to stay and, wow, were we glad we did.  We had a calm sand beach to relax at with world renowned snorkeling just off the beach.  We couldn’t wait until the next day to truly explore the area.

 

December 30^th – World Class Snorkeling

The beach we camped at had snorkeling equipment for rent and Paul, who is not afraid of fish swimming around him, had to take advantage.  He spent most of the morning snorkelling various reefs, trying to take pictures of the colourful fish, eels and string rays swimming about.

Unfortunately allow good things have to come to and end so by 1pm it was time to leave, but not before taking advantage of the cold showers this campground included (it also had flush toilets which is always welcome by us).  Our next stop was San Jose del Cabo but the road was horrendous.   Although it was only 64 kilometers it took us over 2 hours due to washboard conditions requiring us to go only 15 kilometers an hour for quite a distance. We’ve heard of others skipping this portion of the road and going north through La Ribera and south past Santiago because it is paved and much smoother, but we didn’t want to take the same road twice.

Arriving to San Jose del Cabo was amazing, we were so excited to get off the washboard road and explore a new city.  Our first stop was at a laundromat where we were able to get our laundry done within 2 hours.  We spent these two hours getting groceries and trying to find a car wash as our van is filthy after so many days driving near the ocean and on dirt roads.  Unfortunately, every car wash we went to was either way to busy or closed.

We decided to stealth camp in San Jose del Cabo meaning we spent the evening at a small restaurant at the corner of two busy streets in the city’s el centro people watching.  San Jose del Cabo has a very photographic old town which we were excited to explore.

We found a quiet safe street to set up camp and Paul put in his ear plugs that he had used when he worked at the mill.  Kendra didn’t have ear plugs so did not sleep well as the road did have traffic and some people wanting to party late into the night.

 

December 31^st – Reuniting for New Years

The first thing Kendra needed after sleeping so poorly was coffee.  She found a local coffee place that had bathrooms and cheap food.  It was everything we needed.

We left San Jose Del Cabo to explore Cabo San Lucas, a location many people told us that we only need to spend a couple hours in, but we also wanted to pick up a few things at Costco which happened to be closed for another hour.  We decided to find a beach on iOverlander to reorganize the van and relax at while we waited for Costco to open where we met a couple from Quebec exploring Mexico and a couple from Powell River who had already done the Pan America.  We chatted with both and before we knew it, it was time to leave with new recommendations for the trip ahead of us.

We purchased our own snorkel gear at Costco and made our way into Cabo San Lucas.  We agree with everyone we talked to, Cabo San Lucas is a place you can skip when travelling in a van, if not for the boat tours to the end of the Baja Peninsula and a spot known as El Arco. 

We found some parking and walked with Rupert down to the Marina to see how difficult it would be to get a boat to the Arch (El Arco).  Turns out it was very easy and very cheap.  For 300 pesos per person we were on a boat taking us to all the sites only accessible by boat.  When we asked if our dog could also go on the boat, the guy shrugged and said, “ummm sure” Rupert also went on the boat ride.  We have no idea how many dogs have taken this trip, but based on the looks we received, not too many.

We highly recommend doing thing tour, it was great to see the Arc and get to the lowest part of the Baja peninsula.   We had thought about going to Lover’s beach, a popular beach only accessible by boat, but it was the busiest beach we had seen in Baja so decided against.

After arriving back to shore we thought about going to a restaurant but the prices were outrageous so we left Baja trying to figure out where to celebrate new years.  We were torn between a popular spot near La Paz or returning to Todos Santos.  In the end we decided to check out Todos Santos and if it didn’t seem right we’d continue to La Paz.

Once we returned to the campground near Todos Santos we knew this is where we would be staying as our friends from New Hampshire were there.  They were with their friends who had flown in from New Jersey and had agreed to allow us to celebrate with them.

The night was exactly what we needed! We swapped stories from the road, drank too many beers and popped sparkling wine at midnight.  We even did the Mexican tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight, unfortunately our grapes were half rotten causing Paul, among others, to almost throw up. Last time we had eaten 12 grapes at midnight was welcoming in 2020 and we all know how that ended, so we had to try this tradition again and hope for a better outcome.

It was without a doubt one of our most memorable new years!!

 

January 1^st – Our first hike of the year (and of Baja)

Since we would be leaving Baja tomorrow we decided to make our way closer to the ferry terminal.  Saying goodbye to our friends from New Hampshire felt a lot more final this time, we knew that previously there was always a chance we would run into them again, but after this point we knew we wouldn’t.

After saying our goodbyes, we drove north through La Paz toward Balandra Beach, a spot known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico.   Instead of going straight to the beach we decided to hike to a viewpoint of the bay and the beach.  Surprisingly this would be not only our first hike of the year but also our first hike in Baja.  It wasn’t very long, only around 4 kilometers return, but the heat made it feel more difficult than it was, but the view was worth it.

The beach, surprisingly, was deserted.  We learned by another group of Canadians that the beach was closed on holidays meaning we had a rare glimpse of the beach without hordes of people.  We also learned that only 400 people are allowed on the beach at a time and that it fills up by 9am or so. At that point we knew we would be setting our alarm for the next morning to ensure we got to properly experience Balandra Beach.

The well known spot for people to camp in the area is Tecolote Beach where we camped beside a few more Canadians. Once again it was great to swap stories and relax while the sun slowly set.  One of them was especially helpful in giving us some advice for Rupert.

Over the last few days Rupert had developed an infection in his paw. The vets were all closed and it didn’t seem like it was life threatening so we had decided to just wait until the mainland to get it seen to.  This is why in many photos you see Rupert in his backpack or us carrying him in our arms; we did not want him walking on his infected foot. One of the Canadians is a vet tech and gave us some solution to clean the infection with and some suggestions to speed up recovery.   After a thorough cleaning and putting the cone on Rupert that has travelled all this way with us that we forgot we had packed, we felt more confident that he would soon be on the mend. Thanks HomeARoam!

 

January 2^nd – Goodbye Baja

Like most days we were up for around Sunset. Balandra Beach opened at 8am and we had heard to guarantee access to the beach we should be there an hour before it opens.  In hindsight we didn’t need to be there an hour early, but it allowed us to get an awesome parking spot, a great spot on the beach and time to cook breakfast in the middle of the road.

The beach was, fine.  We had been to so many beaches but due to the amount of people on the beach we couldn’t enjoy it in the same way we had enjoyed other beaches.  Paul even tried to go snorkelling but there were no fish in the water.  The beach itself is very shallow, which we believe is a part of the appeal of the beach.  Kendra did venture off to see the famous “mushroom rock” on the beach, but didn’t think it was anything to write home about.  After 4 hours we left, glad to have experienced Balandra Beach but not sure we would have recommended it.

We had a few hours to kill before going to the ferry terminal to go to the mainland so we headed to La Paz for some groceries and tacos.  We then spent a couple hours trying to get the van washed with no luck.  Everywhere was either closed or too busy to even think about washing our vehicle.  Guess we would be entering the mainland with a very dirty van.

We had heard that today would be confusing and stressful, but it really wasn’t.

We arrived to the ferry terminal and went through an inspection point.  Next we were weighed and measured so the ferry could charge us the correct amount.  When the ferry representative asked us where we were going we said Topolobampo.  They seemed surprised but wrote on the form Topolobampo.  It was at this point we learned that the ferry to Mazatlán was fixed, but, although we wanted to go to Mazatlán, we had made the reservation for the only ferry running at the time, Topolobampo.

After the van was weighed Paul went into the ferry office to get a ticket, when he returned he looked quite confused as the price he paid was $2000 Peso’s more than he expected.  Turns out they had accidently sold him a ticket for Mazatlán, which was a happy mistake we did not want to correct.  The only issue is that this created a situation where we were concerned that someone would recognise the error and send us to the Topolobampo ferry.

We got in line with the other campers going on the ferry.  There are two ferries that go from Baja in La Paz to the mainland, the first is Baja Ferries a company that most tourists take as it has cabins for people to sleep in and is designed for leisure and comfort.   The second one is TMC which is a cargo ferry that allows vehicles to take it and happens to be half the cost.  The issue is that you need to sleep in your vehicle, which didn’t bother us.

One of the people traveling with us on TMC had made the journey every year for the last 8 years so we were able to benefit from their experience.  Another couple was the couple from Quebec we had met a few days previously.  We felt so fortunate to be able to do this crossing with familiar and/or friendly faces guiding us through the process.

Both Baja ferries and TMC had two great perks, especially for people living in a minivan, dinner and breakfast included in the ticket and hot showers.  Our dinner was amazing, and somewhat memorable as Kendra tried to help a child get a drink.  This child was very confused about this kindness and started yelling for him mom, who was not impressed that he now had this drink. Turns out we may have needed to pour ourselves our own drinks and that’s what he wanted because his mom brought us drinks shortly after.  Although the showers smelled terrible they were warm meaning we got to be clean.  We left Baja a couple hours after we were scheduled to leave but we were happy to start our next part of our adventure.

 

January 3^rd – Hello Mainland Mexico

Kendra had a restless sleep.  The boat rocked back and forth and it was hot in the van.  Paul, who typically gets seasick had taken a couple gravol and was out before 9pm meaning he got a great night sleep and woke up well rested.

Breakfast was tasty and before we knew it, it was time to drive off the ferry.  Mainland Mexico was far different than Baja.  There were international plates everywhere on Baja, but in Mazatlán there were next to none.

Somehow we were able to find an awesome parking spot in Mazatlán’s old town and walked its historic street to the sea wall.  There were 3 cruise ships in town so there were many English speaking guides and English speakers wondering the streets. The sea walk was awesome with many beautiful views of the water and divers diving into the ocean for tips from onlookers.  We tried our best to do as many touristy things as we could before trying to once again get a car wash. 

The car wash experience was an adventure, we found one that made a line that made sense to us, however, we are not too sure that the line up was followed.  Quite often cars, driven by the people who worked at the car wash would budge in front of us, much to the frustration of others in the same line as us.  After just over an hour, we were finally able to hand over our keys to the attendant to drive our van towards the people who wash the cars.  Paul had previously said that we just wanted the exterior of the van washed, and after 20 minutes every inch was washed by hand.  One of the people washing the van asked Paul, in Spanish, if we want in dried and vacuumed.  Paul recognizing the amount of sand and dirt inside the van said why not.  They started cleaning and drying after a brief exchange confirming we wanted this extra cleaning.  In the end we spent over 2 hours at the car was and spent 150 pesos ($10 CAD) for an amazing car wash and cleaning of the interior of our van.  Very much needed after exploring Baja California.

We decided to get an Airbnb in Mazatlán as Kendra’s birthday is tomorrow and she wanted to spend her birthday either relaxing at the beach or by a pool, but trying to find a campground that would accommodate us was difficult.  Thankfully we found a relatively cheap Airbnb with a pool for the next couple of nights.  We believe this will be the best way to celebrate Kendra’s birthday and our arrival to mainland Mexico.