Chaos Leaves Town

After a couple weeks in PV, Stacy finds a friend with a truck, picks up her and her friends stuff from her apartment and brings it to my RV. We load it all up in the bathtub. It’s piled 3 feet high in there.

Off we head for Mazatlan with the plan of staying there a couple days then off to the US. This time I decided I’d stay in the newer RV park named Punta Cerritos. It’s a few miles north of the Golden Zone…the tourist area of Maz. The old downtown area is a few miles south of the GZ. So this park is way north of old downtown. Usually I stay at the California RV Park right on the south edge of the Golden Zone but I wanted to try this park. Got to the park after a nice drive from PV in fine weather around 2-3pm. It’s a little pricy but it’s in a pretty nice location, very near a popular beach with large restaurant and bar. The park itself borders a strip mall of several newer business. Small tourist shops, a sports bar, store, and a couple of older seafood restaurants. I’ve taken the bus here many times and other years, when I stayed at the Las Jabias RV park 2-3 miles south, I use to ride my bike up there. The beach nearby usually has a bunch of fishing boats on the beach as the fishermen generally go out very early in the morning and fish till around noon.

All settled in…

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A few days later, Stacy comes over to visit around 10am. Around 11ish she gets hungry. There’s a nice restaurant just 2-3 blocks away so we stroll over there for brunch. I’d already eaten breakfast so when the waiter came over, I ordered fruit juice…fresh squeezed. Three times he asked me what I wanted to order and three times I told him nothing but the fruit juice.

Twenty minutes later he shows up with TWO meals. And tries to drop this horrible spaghetti and shrimp dinner plate in front of me. I really don’t care for pasta (really, hate the taste actually) so when he tries to insist that I ordered it, I got pissed. There is no way in hell I’d order something with pasta in it. I also know this is an old trick by restaurant staff to increase the days take from tourists that aren’t fluent in the language. Usually they will meekly accept the food they didn’t order as they assume they made the mistake. Bull. This con has been going on all over the world for centuries. And I knew that.

So I start by telling him, “I told you 3 times I only wanted the fruit juice, so take this back, I’m not paying for it!”. He starts arguing with me, insisting I did order it, which is a big tip off that it was a scam. Anyway, Stacy gets nervous and jumps in and says that she’ll take it for herself. I couldn’t convince her that it was a scam (and I felt that she was frightened that we’d get in trouble somehow) so, eventually, I let it slide. She brought the meal back to my RV and it sat there until it spoiled. Since there was no way in hell I’d eat it, and since she’d paid for it, didn’t bother me much.

After that little unpleasantness, we head to downtown PV and the malecon to wander around.

Art!

Love this stuff.

The PV malecon stretches off into the distance.

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It’s an older RV park here in PV, but with WiFi only in the office I wander over there the next morning to check my email. The gate at what I thought was the office was open so I just walk in and make myself comfortable in the main, open air court. Nice. It was past it’s glory days but you could tell how nice it had been. Big comfy couches, nice coffee tables, big kitchen, etc. The WiFi was a little weak but I came in there twice a day for 3 days before the owner mentioned that I’d been wandering into their living room! I thought it was a common area for RV’ers but no, the owners live there. That explained why their bedrooms were right off the common area. Huh. Sorry! From then on, I used the buzzer and asked to come in for the WiFi instead of just walking in like I owned the place. There were always people in there when I walked in but no one had said anything. Finally, they started locking the gate. That was the tip off. They’re nice people though and didn’t seem to upset about my lack of manners.

All settled into my space.

The RV park, Puerto Vallarta Trailer Park, on Francia, is on the north side of town so it’s in a newer part…but it’s been here for 30 years. Old town is a short bus ride away, the coast the same. With Stacy off checking out her apartment, I had the chance to wander around this area of town and enjoy the flavor and culture by myself. There’s a near by Walmart too. Never went there because I prefer to shop in Mexican stores.

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So, after Stacy and I hung around Mazatlan for a couple weeks, she sweet talked me into taking her back to Puerto Vallarta, so she could grab all her stuff that was still there. She’d paid for the apartment for the month and there were still a couple weeks left on it.

Back on the road…heading to Puerto Vallarta.

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Sunset from Olas Atlas, Mazatlan, Mx.

I visited my friend Stacy at her hotel on Olas Atlas several times. We’d wander around and enjoy ourselves with this and that. She’s an artist so we’d often wander into art galleries to check out the art. Looking doesn’t cost much but there were a couple pieces I’d have loved to have had…if I had a sticks & bricks home instead of a small RV. Nowhere to put anything. This particular evening, there was a sidewalk festival going on with a comedy act, food, music from several areas and plenty to see and do.

Stacy enjoying the music.

We eventually wandered to the heart of old downtown and had an absolutely perfect steak dinner. Incredible. And, before dinner, we ordered some coffee drinks with brandy and the guy poured the burning brandy into our cups from a height above our heads. Very cool. But…the coffee was so strong, couldn’t get to sleep that night until very late. Watched movies until around 3am. Wasn’t till next morning we figured out the reason.

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So, the next morning I went out and about to see how Mazatlan was doing. Take a look at the empty streets. It’s looking like a ghost town. But the city administration isn’t helping because they haven’t made it very attractive for cruise ships to keep coming here. I don’t remember the details but a story I read in the local English newspaper really blasted their hard-assed attempt to wring too much money out of the cruise lines, and they simply stopped coming as often. Really cuts the crowds down. Which is good for me because it was a bitch jostling with the crowds here six years ago. Now, I could browse without getting pushed along with the crowds. And of course there is a lot of tourists that are just deciding to go somewhere that there isn’t a drug gang war.

Nearly empty beach.

Breakfast...for $4US.

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Got into Mazatlan around 3pm and headed right for my favorite RV park, California Trailer Park, which is just a block from the ocean and the malecon and right on the  south edge of the ‘Golden Zone’. I’ve been here many times before so I’m use to the place. It too was less then half full. There were only 8 RVs and on inspection, only one of them had US plates. All the rest were from Canada.

All settled in at California Trailer Park in Mazatlan.

See my neighbor there? They were having some touch up painting done to their rig when I arrived. With the same crew I wanted to use. Didn’t take me long to wander over there and talk to Juan about painting my rig. But I did make a mistake and mention I’d be there in Maz until May. He quoted me $10,000 pesos about 20 minutes after I’d asked him and told him what I wanted done. I checked and the quote was only $776 USD. So I jumped on it. He thought he’d be able to start in 2-3 weeks. Fair enough. At least I was on the schedule.

The weather, as always, was perfect. Around 75°F days, with a cool breeze off the ocean starting up around 4pm. Then a nice cool night.

The peaceful Pacific.

And there's that cool looking bar/restaurant/dance club.

That club is pretty cool. Has a grand piano bar, sweeping stair cases, etc. But with tourist traffic down so much here, like all over Mexico, it’s probably struggling to stay open. Sad, I like it there.

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After three nights at San Carlos, I headed south on Mex 15d towards Mazatlan. I’d planned my trip so I would be able to stop at a RV park right on the coast in a town and area with impossible to pronounce name…El Mirador RV Park at Playa Huatabampito Km 15, Huatabampito, Sonora. It’s a 7 & 1/2 hour trip from San Carlos to Mazatlan, but only 4 hours to the El Mirador RV Park, so I didn’t need to leave the Tontonaka RV Park until around 11am. The El Mirador is around 33 miles off the freeway via a shortcut but the route is a main road to a rather large village, plus there was plenty of traffic so I wasn’t worried about a hijacking or anything. I was still short of pesos so I kept my eyes open for a bank but didn’t see any on the route through the village of Huatabampito. After that village the road is still good, but you’re into farm country so the traffic was light. Then you pass through a one street village and then you’re along the coast. The road is remote with few buildings the last 5 miles of so and for a time I was a little worried that the RV park might be closed…what with all the drug related murders in Mexico in the last 5 years there aren’t many RV’ers these days.

Finally spotted the RV park as I drove right by their gate…there was a wire rope strung across the entrance for some reason, probably lack of business so they were getting sloppy. Had to turn the rig around and backtrack, then jump out of the RV and drop the rope so I could get in. There wasn’t any ‘Closed’ sign so I figured they just hadn’t gotten around to dropping the rope themselves that morning. Sure enough, when I went into the office, they were happy to see me. But the gal that owned the place was very morose. When I asked about business this year, she said it was bad, bad, bad. When I’d driven up to the office, I could see the campground, but there wasn’t a single RV. Hmm, not looking to good for their business. I paid using the few pesos I had left, with a little left over for dinner. I parked right at the sea wall with a spectacular view of the Pacific.

Miles of empty beach...

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It’s a one day trip from Amado, NM to San Carlos, Mexico. I cross at Nogales because it’s not to crowded and there is a city bypass, SR-189, which I missed. Damnit. Well, no place to turn a 37′ RV around so I continued on to the downtown Nogales crossing. There wasn’t a vehicle there but me. Allot of foot traffic but no vehicles. The border guard had me stop, backup, and turn into a special lane for some reason. It looks like the Mexican side hasn’t been upgraded since the ’60’s and it was tight for my RV but the guard helped guide me into the correct lane. Which seemed just like all the other empty lanes. Anyway, he was nice and gave my rig a walk though without saying anything about anything. So, I’m off down the road into downtown Nogales. Tight streets and all. Back into Mexico after being gone for two years. I was very careful, drove slowly and didn’t have to make any turns. Soon I was on the outskirts of town and stopped at a Pemex for a fill up. Inexpensive fuel! Then a short 21 KM drive to the Import station. Since there is no visa needed in Mexico along the US border, they put these stations at 21 KM.

A quick visa app and I’m off down the road to San Carlos. The weather was fine, lots of sunshine and since this was January, it was nice and cool. Low 70’s.

On the road in Mexico...

It does seem a little strange these days in Mexico. When I first started coming down in my RV six years ago, the crossing was usually crowded with RVs, this time, none. None at the import station either. And I’d see the occasional RV on the road. This trip I could drive for days and not see a RV anywhere except near RV parks. And most of those would have Canadian license plates. I was wondering as I drove, how many of my favorite RV parks would be closed down.

Later in the day, Guaymas harbor.

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So, in January, I was still staying at my bothers and he and his son had gone to watch the Oregon Ducks in the bowl game. I didn’t have tickets but I was able to watch it on the computer. Anyway, after spending the day drinking & enjoying the game, my brother and nephew were driving back to Paul’s hotel in Dan’s Toyota Prius. Well, Dan was talking to his son, not paying attention, and POW, runs right into the back of someone. Even he is surprised the cop didn’t give him a field sobriety test. No one was injured but the Prius was totaled. Dan had spent many hours on-line trying to find a new car and had found a piece-of-crap Honda he wanted so we headed down to a local dealer and spent hours doing all the paper work, etc. He did, I just wandered around and goofed off.

I couldn’t talk him out of getting a horrible Honda,  and a couple weeks later we drove down to the wrecking yard. Poor, poor, Prius. We hardly knew ye.

Doh!

Can’t remember for sure, but I think Dan said that he was going slow enough that the air bags didn’t deploy.

To bad. Liked that car. And 49MPG, too.

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