Turnkey Camping

After San Carlos, we headed to Santa Ana.  We stayed at a nice desert campground with full hook ups.  The caravan had a final potluck dinner - which gave us the chance to eat up any remaining meat, dairy, and fresh fruits and veggies.  We had a campfire and debriefed by sharing our favorite memories and moments.  It was a fun way to close out the caravan.  Our departure time for Nogales was 8 am.  We stopped by the banjercito to turn in our truck and trailer Temporary Import Permits and  Traveler's Visas.  About 15 minutes down the road, we reached the border crossing.  There was a bit of a line, but it didn't take terribly long to reach the front.  After a brief inspection of the truck and trailer, we were on our way!  We stopped at Walmart to restock on food and then drove about 20 minutes to Patagonia Lake State Park.  As it happened, the Four Corners Unit had an Airstream Rally going on this weekend!  We met up with ou...

​ We drove to San Carlos yesterday - it took about 6 hours due to the road conditions. We arrived at a campground that was the most “Americanized” I have seen in Mexico!  Full hook ups, nice showers, laundry, etc. Yay!  Dinner was at a restaurant across the street starting at 5. The water views were beautiful!  A mariachi band came at 7 but we left after a few songs because we were tired from the drive.  Today we boarded the tour bus at 8:30 and headed to a sea life center. We were the only ones there for the dolphin show - that was a real treat!  The kids and I all got to pet the dolphins - it harkened me back to when I was 7 at Sea World and was chosen from the crowd to “meet” the dolphins.  (Lucy getting a kiss on the cheek from the dolphin). Next we visited a pearl farm. I hadn’t realized that farming pearls takes years!   We had a nice Caravan seafood lunch and then drove to a mountain lookout spot. Several movies had been filmed at this spot incl...

​ The morning started with an 8:30 am open air trolley tour of the old colonial city. Our tour guide, Juan, was a professor and historian and showed us many houses of famous people who had lived in Los Carlos.  The architecture was really pretty. We went into the City Hall (which had a theater inside)  and then a Catholic Church.  After that, we had about an hour of free time. The trolley took us back to the campsite to let the dogs have a break and then took us to a great restaurant for a Mexican lunch - enchiladas, chile rellenos and a tostada. We came back to the campers for a little siesta and then our friends, Fred and Cheryl cooked delicious California Tritip for dinner.  Tomorrow we head to San Carlos - our second to last city on the caravan!

​ We had a long journey to Los Alamos. The roads were really bad - full of pot holes, topes (speed bumps) and vibradores (rumble strips). Our microwave continues to not want to stay in place and we had a friend whose upper cabinets came unbolted. Yikes!  The day was 6 hours and we arrived at a less than favorable “campground”. It was a dirt lot full of garbage and broken glass.  It was 90 degrees so we pulled put the generators to cool the trailer off. We had no services.  Carpooling into town, we found a lovely restaurant for dinner and then the rest of the crew headed back while I joined half of the caravan for an evening walk around the city. I’m feeling the weight of the final part of my pregnancy and sitting in the car for so many hours had my legs feeling restless. A troupe of minstrels led us around the city singing and dancing. The town square was lively on the Sunday evening and many people from the town joined in the festivities.  A 33 year old donkey name...

​ Our itinerary changed a bit and we diverted to Las Glorias. We are staying at a campground that closed down during covid so things have been a little dicey (our plug was reverse wired and had no ground, so Stuart was shocked so hard it rattled his teeth when he touched our metal door!). The owner is so nice though and wants everything to be nice for his guests. They had an electrician come over today to fix the electrical issue.  Yesterday we carpooled to a mangrove area and boarded 2 panga boats. We drove thru lots of mangroves until we arrived at Bird Island, a refuge for sea birds. We were told that they had allowed no visitors for the last 5 years but we were granted permission. The birds were leary of us but we were able to see so many amazing birds. There were blue herons about every 10 feet and hundreds of pelicans, cormorants and vultures. We even spotted a pink spoonbill from a far distance away.  My favorite sight were the white baby pelicans. They reminded me of t...

We had a nice rest of our stay in El Fuerte.  We spent some time in the cute downtown area - visited a museum, had lunch in a cafe, got ice cream down the road and then re-provisioned - groceries, water, laundry, etc.  The following day, we had a morning tour.   It was a river raft excursion.  We loaded onto inflatable zodiacs and a guide pointed out local birds on El Fuente River.   We got off the boats at one point and hiked to some petroglyphs and native plants.  I have never seen so many mosquitoes in my life and we are all itching like crazy.   We went back to the Zorro restaurant for a brunch and then the group went on to a Mayo village.  The kids were kind of over the tour after the bugs, so we went back to the campground (equally as buggy) and ran the generators and sweated out the afternoon.  We walked to a local taco stand for dinner.

​ From Creel, we took an hour bus ride south to Divesidero. Our tour took us to an Adventure Park where we rode a cable car across the canyon.  The views were gorgeous. Some of the native people live in the bottom of the canyon and are able to ride the car for free.  Their crafts are remarkable and we bought more baskets and some carved waking sticks. None of us ended up taking the zip line - the kids weren’t tall enough - but the views were amazing!  Three canyons come together to form one large canyon. Pradit went hiking with our friend, Fred, and Jude and Stuart went on an ATV tour.  We came back to a different hotel - this one was like a castle but it’s heyday must have been decades ago.  Our room didn’t have hot water and we appeared to be some of the only guests there.  Our room was like a little cave but the kids were excited about the loft bedroom area. In the morning, we took the train back down to El Fuerte.  Buster was so happy to see us and...

​ Yesterday we had a 7:30 am departure for the train station. We boarded the Chihuahua Pacifico train for the 8 hour trip to Creel.  This train line took almost 100 years to build and there were 87 tunnels and 37 bridges!  The scenery was beautiful. At some points the train made 90 degree turns. There was a also a terraced portion as you claimed from 300 ft above sea level to 7800 ft!  We will be away for three days, so I told the kids that this could be their spring break so we didn’t have to add school books to our luggage.  Today we toured the city of Creel. First we stopped at a cave where a lady lived with her ten daughters. Her husband was killed in a mining accident and the cave has become a tourist attraction and it is how she supports her family.  Next the bus took us to a horseshoe shaped lake that had “elephant rocks” on the way. The native people make baskets and crafts to sell.  Tarahumara is the name of the native tribe here. Next we visited S...

​          Today is one of our longer travel days. We head from Celestino to El Fuerte (the Fort). It should take us about 5 or 6 hours. We are heading straight up highway 15 and there are lots of toll plazas. The highway is quite bumpy so we can’t really go much above 80 kilometers per hour. We stopped for fuel and got a great lunch deal - three small burritos and a drink for 50 pesos - about $2.50.  We met up with our tour guide, Juan Leon and he shuttled us to a local hotel for a Zorro Dinner Show.  It was a very old hotel and the architecture was beautiful!  There were lots of hummingbirds too.  Pradit even danced with Lady Zorro during the performance.