Getting Warmer....

We have finally made it to some warmer weather. We have put some shorts on, but haven´t made it into the water yet. We did enjoy our time in Alamos. A very interesting town - unlike any we have seen. From Alamos, we planned to push straight on through to Mazatlan, but came up just short. Driving in Mexico can be quite spendy as they have many toll booths along the main highways. Up until now, this toll road (that you don´t really have any choice but to take) hasn´t been the highest quality road for what you have to spend on it. Nice pavement, but literally no shoulders and some less than sane drivers. But at least it had four lanes. Coming out of Alamos we now had the option to continue on the toll road or take the "libre" (free) highway. We had heard the free road was also more scenic, so we took that.

It was more scenic for sure and it takes you directly through more small towns, so we had a few more cultural (i.e. cheap and authentically local eats) experiences. However, the traveling is a bit slower as it is only a two lane road and the truck drivers seem even less sane here. A bit of white knuckle driving, but lots of nice amapa trees to look at (a hardwood tree with beautiful purple blooming flowers). About 100 km north of Mazatlan, it was coming on night, so we pulled into a random hotel in a very small village (a quite large hotel for the size of the village....a bit strange) and settled in for the night. The surrounding scenery was lovely and as we were the only ones staying, it was a very peaceful stay. The further south we move, the more interesting and pretty the scenery gets. It is becoming more lush and more mountainous.

On our way out the next day we saw a road to the left to a town mom had briefly read about and decided last minute to drive up and check it out. A very scenic drive with lots of views of lakes and more dramatic mountains and a few military drug checks. The town, Cosala, is another old colonial town with nice buildings and cobblestone streets. We walked around in the rain for a while, had a very nice lunch practically in a woman´s kitchen, then headed back down, arriving in Mazatlan by dusk.

On the way up to Cosala.


Our first major gringo area, but we wanted to keep with our low-budget theme and so we did not stay on hotel row, but instead in "Old Mazatlan" where we found a pretty decent place at by far the cheapest rates yet. There was one old gringo we met there that has been coming to this hotel (Hotel Lerma) for about 20 years now! A real basic place, but in the heart of the "real" Mazatlan. We spent two nights there and spent our time riding bikes up along the strip, walking through the mercado, and walking around the true "Old Mazatlan" where the historical colonial buildings have been restored a bit. It was nice to stay put for a couple nights and the city was beginning to grow on us, but my folks have been to Mazatlan before so we pushed on today.

Hanging out in Cosala.


We are now north of Puerto Vallarta in a small beach town called San Blas. It is much warmer here and it has a long flat beach that at some times of the year apparently has the longest surfing wave in the world (I feel like I heard that claim somewhere in South Africa...). We got here kind of late, but found a cute hotel that has a communal kitchen, so for the first time in a while we cooked our own dinner. We will probably push a little bit further south tomorrow to try and find some more remote beaches, and maybe even do some Mexican beach camping.

I saw these guys in the main square today here in San Blas, and just had to take their picture. So I told them how handsome they were and asked if I could take their photo. They agreed.


I am finding that my Spanish isn´t half bad. Granted, I can´t understand overheard conversations, but when I have a very specific conversation directed right at me, I think I get about 50% of the words and 85% of the meaning. Everyone else is trying very hard to learn as well, and I am impressed at their efforts. Dad seems to be the most gung-ho, or at least the least shy about trying. He will work very hard to learn a word, and while it may take many repetitions to get it right, he doesn´t give up. A funny story - we were sitting at a very local taqueria eating tacos and the waitress gal came up to dad and said (in English), "Do you speak English?". Everyone´s first reaction when anyone local speaks to them is to turn to me immediately to see what they said. So, dad immediately looked to me in panic with that look on his face that says, "What did she say??!!". I calmly say, "She´s asking you in English, whether you speak English". We all got a kick out of that.

An old shot. Keith and Dad literally wormed their way into this mine somewhere in the middle of Joshua Tree.


Another shot from earlier. A very old door at the hacienda in Alamos.