Hola from San Carlos

Hello everyone from sunny San Carlos, Mexico. We arrived here yesterday at about 4:00 p.m. after a somewhat stressful drive. We left Tucson at about 9, after loading the car on the dolly and torquing the wheel nuts. The drive as far as Nogales was fine, but after crossing the border the road turned to a pretty good 4 lane highway, but there are no shoulders and the drop-off on each side is sharp. We passed through the U.S. border guard checkpoint, then proceeded about 5 miles down the road to the first Mexican control area, and the first customs check. After that we went to the 21 Km. control station where we had to stop for a while and get our tourist visas. This entailed going to the immigration office and filling in the forms (Marlene was nervous as always crossing a border). Then we had to walk to the Banjercito office to pay for our visas, then return to the immigration office to get the visas stamped. Then it was back on the road, through another customs check.

From then on the drive was slow, but uneventful until we reached a military checkpoint. Here Mexican army troops survey each vehicle passing through, while under the guard of Humvees mounted with large machine guns. We got a smile and a wave, and proceeded through.

The next obstacle in the trip was the drive through Hermosillo, the state capital. This is a typical Mexican city: Crowded and congested with really rough roads and many huge speed bumps (Topes). We followed the directions we had downloaded from helpful websites, and navigated our way through. Now it was only 75 miles to San Carlos.

Shortly before reaching the city of Guaymas we turned onto the San Carlos exit, and entered a nice, divided road lined with palm trees. The water appeared on our left as we approached town. The main road was closed for repairs, so we had to detour to find our RV park, but they had put temporary signs along the route and we were able to find Totonaka RV park with no problem. We checked in, and were given our choice of several sites. We chose one with a nice shade tree, not far from the dog run. This is a nice place, and it is mostly populated by people from B.C., with some from Alberta and Manitoba, and a few from Saskatchewan. One fellow from B.C. asked if we remembered to turn off the lights when we left Canada!

Marlene made a nice dinner of meatballs in gravy with mashed spuds, and we turned in early after a tiring day.

We woke this morning to a beautiful sunny day, and after breakfast we went for a walk along the road through town. This is a very nice little tourist town, and the views of the ocean and the mountains are fantastic.

Later, we took the car and toured around the area a bit more, then went to check out a couple of beaches. We found a beach we like, and will go back tomorrow with our chairs and a few Cervezas (beers). We stopped at a fresh fish stall, and bought a kilo of flounder and a kilo of giant scallops (none smaller than 2" across) for just $18.

Ben seems to like it here, with lots of new things to sniff. People are friendly here, and helpful. Many of the visitors here stay for the winter, and it is easy to see why.

Next week we'll venture into Guaymas and do some shopping (Tequila and other staples). Stay tuned...