The morning I left Teacapan I headed North to Mazatlan but after 12 miles, stopped in Escuinapa for some bike repair. Turned out the shop was just a block off the main road I was on, and there was a nice parking spot for my RV right along the main drag! I felt lucky that I didn’t have to try to negotiate my huge RV around town any more then that.
I had him diagnose the skipping gear problem and OK’ed replacing the entire gear assembly on the rear wheel and got a new chain. Then I started to leave and realized I didn’t have a kick stand so he put one of those on for me. The whole job took just over an hour and cost $140 pesos. That’s around $12 US. Nice.
After that, it was around 11am, and I headed onto Mazatlan, two hours away. The trip was uneventful but it was soothing to be on a road in Mexico that I was so familiar with. Every bend in the road brought up a section of highway that I was familiar with. I didn’t take any pictures until I got to Maz(atlan) because I’ve posted pictures of this section of Mexico before.
I stopped for fuel and afterward parked along side a small park in order to get some pesos to pay for the RV park. I stopped at this particular place because across from the bank is a nice restaurant named Taco Loco that serves a large tray of fresh veggies along with your lunch or dinner order. I really like that. I wish they would do that in the US.
After lunch, I drove straight to the California RV Park and parked outside the fence on the shoulder. I was around a block from the building shown below. I didn’t drive into the park because it’s difficult to turn around in there and I didn’t know if they were full up or not.
After I talked to the office gal, paid my money, wandered around the park looking for an appropriate spot, got the neighbor to move his car, I went back out to the RV and tried to start it. Nothing, dead. Not even a click. So, I am sitting there aside a major road in Maz and the rig won’t start. I have visions of trying to get a tow truck operator to just tow me inside the RV park but the spaces are back in and it’s crowded in there. Then there is the problem of not being a Spanish speaker. Of course I could have imposed on the office gal but she had her own work to do. Anyway, in desperation, I slam the shift lever forward and backward hoping that the switch is just stuck or corroded. Suddenly, it starts right up! Crisis avoided again! So I creep into the park and get set up in my space, connected to electric and water, change into my shorts and T shirt and fire up the computer. After an hour or two of online silliness, I go talk to the office gal and she calls and gets me an appointment with a mechanic. All Mexican RV parks that I’m familiar with know someone that does RV work on site.
With that all arranged, I rode my bike over to the ocean…a block away, and took my first picture of Maz this season. I really like this fancy place. It’s got a cool restaurant and piano bar, then a separate big party bar and dance hall, then a hotel. I like the architecture too.
The restaurant right on the beach in Maz.
Behind me where I took the above picture is a wide, fancy, sidewalk up top of a twelve foot high seawall. It goes for a couple three miles right along the coast and it’s exclusively for walkers, joggers, and bikers. There are several large pieces of art along the walkway, and they put up even more during the mardi gras. Maz has the worlds 3rd largest. Behind that sidewalk there is a four lane road, and then lots of motels, hotels, and touristy businesses lined up along it. Then there is a wet land behind all that, with ponds and all. So if the ocean tops the seawall, it has somewhere to spill. There are even some fishermen toward the South end of the seawall, but I understand that 50 years ago there were hundreds here but they were chased off in favor of a more pleasant experience for tourists. Twenty stinky boats is much more acceptable then 200 stinky boats. One of the things I noticed across the street right off was a bar & dance hall that was being built back in ’07 when I was here. It was all fancy and brightly colored and I expected it to be a big hit; multi-story building right across from the ocean, lots of parking, it couldn’t miss, I thought back then. But, unfortunately, the economy killed it…the place was already closed. I could tell that it had opened for a while, but I never had the chance to have fun there. (Tears in eyes).