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.