Nootkase heads for Mexico again

[nootkase]

We left BC in December, but went to Hawaii. Not in the Deli! Now in S. Cal. Hope to cross the border in a few day and head down the west side of the mainland. Not ready to return home yet.

Any other delis down there?

Bob

[deltadeli]

LUCKY!!!
Have a great time and make sure you hit Sayulita and San Pancho. Pictures please.

[after oil]

i was just there! make sure no to drive hwy 2 from yuma/san luis to sonoyta! thats a deadly hwy.. cross at sonoyta..
http://www.delica.ca/forum/wvo-delica-h ... -4336.html

[konadog]

Hey and welcome back! Thanks for the posts and and the pictures - They helped me through the darkest days of this rather gnarly winter I esp. like the shots from Joshua Tree (would love to go climbing there!) and the one of the centrifuge at work in your campsite. Great stuff

[nootkase]

OK, OK,

So here I am back again without having posted anything. Not sure why. Seems like once you get used to one sunny day following another, there is no great incentive to accomplish anything right away. Needing to do something immediately for no particular reason simply seems compulsive-obsessive. It's about mañana.

We basically drove straight down from Nogales, sleeping in trailer park/campgrounds at San Carlos, Teacapan, Los Mochis (Hotel), and San Blas before rolling into the tracks we left last year in out favourite coconut grove.

I'm going to do this bit-by-bit, so please bear with me..

Hasta quien sabe..

[FalcoColumbarius]

They helped me through the darkest days of this rather gnarly winter

Like, totally.

[nootkase]

Ay ay ayy!

I had it all written up with pix, and it seems lost in cyberspace!

I'll try again, poco a poco, so I might not totally lose it.

[nootkase]

Mexico 2009

This time Jacquie and I started from LA County, since we had been visiting my mother there. I had heard of a strange place called “Slab City” out by the Salton Sea. It’s an abandoned military base permanently occupied by RV’s. Many Canadians winter here. It’s free and there are no rules, so it appeals to some even though it is a desolate, service-free location. The denizens operate a church, library, and a few places for entertainment. There is a hot spring shower nearby, and a store a few miles away in Niland. So we spent out first night there, just checking it out. Lots of folk art; decorated cars, a mountain painted with Biblical passages, yard art.
We got a little lost crossing the border at Nogales, which proved to be par for the course. Once a day, get lost. The paperwork (tourist cards, car permit) went as smoothly as it ever does in Mexico. They have offices set up away from the border, so you can go through the formalities without the usual chaos at the border itself.
Not wanting to stop anywhere else, we pushed on to San Carlos, where we stayed at the Totonaka Trailer Park. It’s nice and reasonable, has WiFi and you can walk on the shore there, but it was cool. We fooled around and rode our bikes and got a late start the next day, so we only got to Los Mochis. The trailer park there did not look good at all, so we opted for a Hotel. It offered enclosed parking, which was good what with our van full of stuff. Trouble was, next morning the lot was chock full behind us, and not everyone was interested in leaving early. Once on the road again, we pushed on past Mazatlan to Teacapan, a small fishing town on a peninsula among the sandbars and lagoons that make up this part of the coast. The trailer park there has a good beach, but you have to watch the tide. The showers here have electric shower heads. The water is instantly heated as it runs through. The wiring is very Mexican. Wires twisted together and wrapped with a little tape right behind the shower head. So don’t be groping around.
Next stop, San Blas. The first really tropical scenery. Huge trees over the highway. Exotic flowers, crops of sugar cane, mangoes, coconuts, bananas, papayas, and odd stuff like yacca and noni and I don’t know what. We bought several big woven mattes “petates” for camping. San Blas is notorious for biting gnats at night, so we went south to Cocos beach “Playa de Amor” trailer park. On a low bluff over the shore, this is a pleasant little spot with a Happy Hour tradition, though the waves can make startling crashes that wake you up at night.
From San Blas, it’s an easy day down past Sayulita and its neighbors, thru Puerto Vallarta and down to our destination on Tenacatita bay. There were only a few other campers in the place we stayed last year, so we rolled into the tracks we left, under the shade of the palms. But not under them. Every day a few nuts fall somewhere in the lot, so you don’t want to be right under them. The car remained in the sand for three weeks except for one excursion to Tenacatita for snorkeling. We had our folding table and one we salvaged set up with the stove, ice chest, and chairs and so our home was complete. The campground provided toilets and showers, and stores were a 5-minutes bike ride away. In fact, a lot of things were delivered to our doorstep, as if we had one. The water man came by every few days to switch 19-litre jugs (80¢). It costs about $4 per day per person to reside here, right on the beach, with convivial neighbors and a feeling of security. The palms are inhabited by woodpeckers, San Blas Jays, Yellow-winged Caciques, various doves, and so on. Across the road is a mangrove concealing wonders of its own. Crocodiles bask on the shore just steps from a beach restaurant, but don’t seem to bother anyone except a few former owners of small dogs. Countless birds feed, roost, or nest here. In the evening the grackles make a huge exotic racket, and ibises, storks, Great Egrets, herons, cormorants, etc, etc, pile in to spend the night among the fireflies. The iguanas never seem to move.
For excursions and exercise, there are 5 Km. of beach to walk, or bike if the tide is out. Back roads meander through farm land and jungle, under towering trees and up dry arroyos. Might see anything here from armadillos to parrots.
Between the morning coffee, sipped while sitting in our folding chairs on the beach, and the sundowner sipped in the same place, there are not all that many hours. Camp chores, shopping, an outing, and another day is gone. In Mexico, with one sunny day following another, there is always mañana. All too soon it becomes time to follow the geese back north. And so we followed our tracks home, except for crossing into Arizona from Sonoyta, a small, easy crossing, recommended by our campground neighbors. Then we traveled north through the Owens Valley in eastern California, just to be different. And it is different from the usual I-5 route. High, arid sage lands with snowy mountains all around. Hot pools to soak in. Then the forests and volcanoes of the Cascades. And suddenly we were back in Canada.

[nootkase]

We took the pay highways where possible. Fast, smooth, uncrowded, but they take their toll.

Stats:
12,000 km
986.77 Loonies for dino juice
Av. 11 L/100k
Mex. price $.66/L
US price $.80/ L

[konadog]

Awesome post! - sounds like a thoroughly pleasant adventure! Welcome back - I expect to make a few runs out to Tahsis this season and will keep an eye out for your white bus on the way. Thanks for the trip report:-D

[nootkase]

Mo pix

[after oil]

tenacatita looks great! wish i knew about that place when i was down there. loved salton sea and slab city.. so yours was not the first delica seen there, but maybe theyll even start to get used to them.

we drove about 13,500 kms on our trip down (we returned through texas) and did most on veggie oil. according to my math we saved about $1000 by driving veggie oil, exactly what you spent!

thanks for the stories!

[fexlboi]

Nice photos and write up nootkase.
Haven't thought about Mexico as a road trip destination, but with more and more reports (after oil etc) showing up I'm getting interested.

We usually don't go to any campgrounds for the night. Is this something you could do in Mexico without any concerns too?
Also I don't speak and understand Spanish. Is it easy to get in touch with people in English?

[after oil]

i speak spanish, but it didnt seem like the other travelers had any major problems communicating. it might be different in an emergency or what-have-you... get a "learn spanish" CD or something and listen to it on the way down!

other tourists in mexico say dont camp anywhere unsecure, but if we did, we wouldnt have camped here:


or here:


they say dont do this within a few hundred miles of the border, or where you can be seen from any major road

its a matter of attitude i think, my attitude is if i never took any risks, i might as well stay home(or be dead for that matter)... most mexicans where super nice and didnt seem to covet my belongings or have any attitude about the gringo-paisano divide (paisano=national) the exception is the people who are paid to serve you.. (hotels campgrounds restaurants etc.. ) alot of those folks are jaded...

[nootkase]

I wouldn't sit under a coco tree like the pretty lady in the picture. They drop nuts. Big, heavy ones. and from a considerable height and all you hear is a whisper as they slide free of the fronds, then BAM!

Risk management is somewhat personal, but the main thing is to get things in perspective. Crime is worse near cities, like everywhere. Tourist destinations attract greedy types, but the little towns are good. For instance, we got our drinking water in 19-litre jugs which were delivered by a man every few days for 10 pesos ($.80). We once ran out, but were going to be away, so we left the empty where he could see it from the road with a 20 peso note on top under a rock. Upon returning we had a fresh jug of agua purificada with a 10 peso coin on top. Still, don't be dumb and leave your camera out on a beach with lots of people wherever you go. Fellow campers are a good source of info, but opinions vary. Basic Spanish is easy and fun, and Mexicans are always game and appreciate your efforts.