Hermosillo wins Mexican Championship

We had a great time at the game on Friday night. We went out for tacos, oysters, etc. before the game and then headed over to the stadium. Their stadium holds about 10,000 and it was full. They really support their team and enjoy the partying at a function like that. We got to see Mazatland even it up and make them go to game 7 to decide the championship. The fans celebrated with lots of beer thrown in the air and general celebrating. After standing in line for 4 hours to get our tickets for Friday night, we decided not to even try to get in for Saturday's game. Instead on Saturday we went into the Mechado Plaza and had dinner with friends. They were having the Carnaval Queen selection in the theatre and had a screen and chairs set up in the plaza for overflow crowd to watch. Wish we had realized what a spectacular show it was and had gotten tickets, we enjoyed watching part of it on the screen, but it would have been really neat to have attended. We also watched to baseball game on tv while we were there. Hermosillo won it 1-0 ... a real heartbreaker for Mazatlan. They will now go to Venazuela to participate in the Caribbean Cup.

Volleyball, Baseball, etc. etc.

We have been busy. The people in this park are very active and organized. They have volleyball on the beach 3 mornings a week. They have a golf date on Tuesdays at Estrella del Mar. Various card tournaments, outings, beach bonfires, etc. Merle is loving the volleyball and golf. They play 5 matches in the sand and then all take a swim in the sea. I join them for the swim. We have had our boogie boards out in the surf. I am tickled my back will let me boogie board! Merle has been looking for a surf board ... he considers himself a surfer since his lessons in Sayulito. I have found a great place in old Mazatlan to get a deep tissue massage, so now will make it a point to get over there at least once a week for that. Jeannie & I went shopping in the Mercado and out to lunch on Tuesday and then she took me over to this spa. It was Jeannie two years ago that put me on to the masseuse we used then. She is a great resource. The Mercado is an interesting market. All types of vegetables, fruits, meat, clothing and all types of tourist goodies too. It is housed under one roof right in the middle of old Mazatlan about a block or so from the cathedral. The building it is housed in is massive and covers a full city block. The Mazatlan baseball team and the Hermosillo baseball team are in a heated championship playoff … The Mazatlan team is owned by Pacifico and the Hermosillo team is owned by Tecate … So it is a beer battle. A bunch from the park buy a block of tickets for the games in Mazatlan. Merle and I had missed out on the beginning of this as when we got here the games had moved to Hermosillo. They are back here now and we are going on Friday night to the game. There will be 40 of us going over for the game. At the moment Hermosillo is ahead 3-2 in the series. Tomorrow night's game will be the end of the playoff if Hermosillo wins again. If Mazatlan wins on Friday, the final game will be on Saturday. The winner from this playoff will advance to the Caribbean Cup in Venezuela .. so it is a big deal. Merle brought his glasses prescription down here and has purchased two pairs … regular and sunglasses . The price for the two pairs were about 2/3 of what one pair usually costs in the US.

Which Way Amigo ... Lost Laundry

Stone Island week 1 … Second night here we took our drinks, snacks and bag chairs and sat out on the end of the breakwater to enjoy the sunset and watch the cruise ship leave. The veggie men … there are 2! … come thru our camp daily. What a luxury. Such beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables available daily. I could easily get spoiled. Did not plan on posting this quickly, but today was a real comedy of errors and almost irretrievable laundry. Today, Saturday, we needed to drive into town to get gas for the quad. We decided, since we would be going in anyway, we might as well take our laundry and see if we could find someone to do it. For those who haven't traveled with us... I consider it my contribution to the Mexican economy to never do my own laundry this side of the border. Two years ago, we had a lady on the island do our laundry and we were not too pleased with the job she did. Anyway, we found a lavendaria and negotiated a deal with the senorita … The problem was we were not on the road we thought we were on when we went into Mazatlan nor were either of the cross streets major streets … So our laundry was lost in Mazatlan for awhile as we tried to reconstruct our way. The good news is that we did finally find our laundry and we were very happy with the job she did. We think we can return there next week with our laundry …

Isla de la Piedras

We arrived at Stone Island (Isla de la Piedras) yesterday afternoon. We are happy to be setting up camp for a month. Took a trip down the beach after we got here yesterday. Love having the quad in a place like this. There are a few changes in the village, but everything is pretty much like we remember from two years ago. The road in is a slow go with a camper. This 12 miles takes about an hour to negotiate with a rig, but is not quite as bad as the 10 miles we take into our camp at Kino Bay. We had just been on the dirt road a short distance when two policia pulled around us and stopped. Apparently they had picked up a part of our quad trailer that had shook loose! On closer examination, Merle discovered several loose bolts, so will be doing some work on that trailer before we head out. At Celestina Gasca, we discovered two cracks in the front of our 5th wheel. Merle has already purchased some glue and silicone to do a repair there. He has his work cut out for him before we head north again. Guess we will have to make a trip to Puerto Penasco and get something clever painted on the front. Have met a couple of our neighbors, plus looked up a couple we were neighbors with two years ago. Another couple is on a road trip to Guadalajara and will be back in a couple of days. He is someone Merle enjoys playing golf with. So, we are settling in. You tend to forget how beautiful this place is until you return.

Celestina Gasca

Left Huatabompita on January 17 … Skipped Las Glorias since we had not received any e-mail from them verifying that they had room. Have heard that they have been full most of the season and did not want to drive the 30+ miles back in only to find there was no room in the inn!!! We made it to just south of Culliacan. Stopped in a Pemex. Merle has become quite good at finding the guard that is on the night shift and tipping him to keep an eye on us. Early on January 18 we drove the 70 miles to Celestina Gasca. We are in a different RV park from two years ago and we really like it much better. It is smaller, friendlier and the beach is nicer. Another plus has been their swimming pool. The temperatures have been in the low 90's here and the pool has been refreshing. We made a trip south looking for the Institute Tortugas, but, once again, failed to find it. It is a place where they go out on the beach and dig up the turtle eggs, transport them to their facility, rebury them. Once they hatch and are ready to return to the sea, they take them back to the beach after dark and release them. This is so the birds don't get them as they return to the sea. We have been using ATM's as we are having difficulty finding banks to exchange our US dollars. The exchange rate is almost 13 to 1 right now. I understand that I should be able to exchange money in Mazatlan. We have never had this problem before, but the exchange rate has not been this good in our previous travels. Tomorrow, January 20, we will go to Isla De La Piedras (Stone Island). Our plan is to spend a month there.

January 15 & 16-- Doble Remolque

Arrived at Huatabampito yesterday afternoon ... The first people to greet us were people we have known for several years from Kino. Small world! We are enjoying a day of relaxation on the beach today. We will leave tomorrow for Las Glorias or somewhere just south of Los Mochis. I have not heard yet Whether Mr. Morro's in Los Glorias has space for us. If I do not hear from them, we will plan on a Pemex stay enroute to Celestina Gasca. Once you get south of Guaymas it is amazing how the area is prosperous. Around Obregon there is a lot of ranching, as you get near Navajoa you find a lot of farmland. Both of these cities are clean and bustling. The temperatures are mid 80's with a sea breeze to keep them comfortable. We took a sunset ride on the beach on the quad.

January 13 & 14

Crossed the border. Had problems with our import paperwork … They find it very confusing as we pull our 5th wheel and behind that we pull a little trailer with our quad on it. Seems like every time we cross the border we have to do something different. Last year we had to import everything in my name as Merle is still on the books with our old 5th wheel. This year they had me import the 5th wheel, but Merle imported everything else since our Colorado registration for the quad did not have my name on it. We spent 3 hours figuring out what had to be done and consulting the Aduana for approval. Still would have been ok getting to Hermisillo except about about 40 miles from our destination we got caught up in a military pest control operation. Still not sure what pests they were looking for, but they inspected our trailer inside and out until they found our Pepsi … Two of those put us back on the road 45 minutes later. Merle was worn out at that time and it was rapidly getting dark. We opted for a Pemex parking lot for our first night. After a good night's sleep we took off for Miramar. Arrived here a little after lunch and spent a leisurely afternoon and evening. Weather here is mid-70's with a bit of a breeze. Miramar is between San Carlos and Guaymas. We stay at an RV park that is part of the Hotel de Cortez. It is a beautiful old hotel with some wonderful ,very old artwork. Tomorrow we head for Huatabompita.

Another winter on the road. Left home with the snow falling, blustery and foggy on January 6. Arrived in Casa Grande AZ in the evening of January 7. Have enjoyed several days of visiting friends and family. Tomorrow, January 13, we will head for Nogales and another Mexican winter. This is the first year we have travelled without friends travelling with us. Will be a new experience, but, fortunately, we know people at both of our major destinations from past travels. With luck at the border tomorrow, we hope to make Hermosillo to spend tomorrow night. Any hangups with the border paperwork and we will have to settle for Santa Anna or Magdalena.