Archive for March, 2010
Posted on March 11, 2010 by jason
We headed into town to explore a bit and ended up on the beach having a few cervezas and watching the waves roll in. Boogies boarders hopping on and off giant waves that would break right on the beach – looked fun.
Anyway, since we’re being lazy this week I suggested we go easy on the blog posts. Here’s an idea: just take a picture of each person that comes to sell us junk over the next 20 minutes. Angela grabbed the camera, but didn’t last 15. That’s about one vendor every 30 seconds.
Posted on March 10, 2010 by jason
We have been persistently pushing south the past few days because we had a date in Puerto Vallarta. We made it exactly on time in order to take advantage of an incredibly generous offer from Dee. She set us up in her condo here for an entire week! Amazing!
We were hoping that she would be able to join us for some relaxing in the sun, but it turns out she could not make it. Sorry we missed you and best wishes Dee! Thanks again!
On the way down, we stopped near a sleepy little town called Monteon, right on the beach. Nice place – very quiet. We then cruised to the airport to pick up a visitor… Julie! We didn’t scare her off the first time, so we’ll see what happens this time.
We retired to the condo to start the R&R proper. It’s nice – REALLY nice (thanks again Dee!) Bode is in heaven, with multiple pools and giant water slides right on the beach. Without a doubt, this is the nicest place we’ve stayed over the entire trip (no offense to anyone who’s hosted us, but you don’t have a giant alligator water slide in your backyard.)
A few nights ago we met a guy that gave us a little barrel of tequila (he was on a bike and couldn’t carry it.) Angela’s rule for the week is “You can say ‘no’ to anything you want all week… except the tequila.”
Also, if you are up on your Portuguese, we were just mentioned here.
Posted on March 9, 2010 by angela
Every guidebook mentions them. Phrases like “a great campground, but usually empty because of the horrible jejenes.”
My idea was to go to this town and beach but to get out before sunset. We didn’t make it, and Jason is not so scared of biting insects. He doesn’t have my track record.
San Blas is a beautiful beach town with some amazing history, great surf and nice people. It would be on the resort town list if not for the nasty bugs. In most towns around here, these buggers are around before and after sunset, but no longer. Here, they come out at 4, and it isn’t safe outside until 9am.
Why do people come and stay here? Then again, we grew up in Texas with giant mosquitoes. You can get used to anything.
I guess my real question is why I’m covered in bites despite trying to stay in the bus all night. Jason has only a few despite being out several hours around sunset and early this morning, and Bode has none. These voracious flesh eaters left only small marks on our bodies, but they have itched for days.
These guys were having trouble with their VW bug, so we tried to help. But in true bug fashion, once we got there, the car suddenly started and ran just fine. They thanked us profusely and gave us some insect repellent.
We headed further south and found a cool town at Playa Chacala. Muy bueno…but we had to move on. Jason wanted to stay. There is nowhere to camp, but you can generally park and camp outside the restaurants if you buy something. Everyone here is very cool and it is a neat little village crammed into just a few blocks on the beach.
Instead, we went and found an RV park with hot water, laundry and the works. Tough choice. It was absolutely packed full of Canadians and it was “hamburger night” too, so our complete lack of food wasn’t a problem. And, we got to do the macarena with the Geritol crowd. We thought we were sacrificing the cool happening beach town of Chacala for a quiet night’s rest here, but these folks partied late into the night. Watch out for hamburger night in La Penita.
Posted on March 8, 2010 by angela
We heard about this small island village off the coast and we set off to find a boat to get to it. Legend has it that the man-made island city of Mexcaltitan, was Aztlan, the ancient home of the Aztecs. The birthplace of the Aztec civilization. This island is also known as the Mexican Venice when it’s streets flood each year.
We traveled several hours and came in from the north. The last 5 miles or so were down a dirt road with big construction trucks in search of the boat launch. After a while we came upon a bunch of wooden boxes across the road. A guy stops us, tells us this is the end of the road and that we can take a boat from here for 70 pesos. Well, that’s about the price we’d heard, but it didn’t feel right to us. There was no boat launch and the guy looked sketchy. Mostly, we were just afraid to leave the bus behind with him. As we pulled out to turn around, a Mexican family jumped out of their very nice SUV and got in the boat. We started to reconsider, but decided that if something happened to the bus we’d feel very dumb not to trust our instincts. Besides, he just put some boxes across the road.
We decide to try to reach Mexcaltitan from the other side. So, we drove south and an hour and a half later we got to Santiago Ixcuintla. This town had a hotel, a beautiful town square and a large market. It was getting late, so this was the perfect stop for the night.
The best thing is that there are no other tourists, so we got to experience a real Mexican town. No one here seems to care about or pander to a gringo walking around. A nice change from the big tourist mecca of Mazatlan.
The square was hopping on this Friday night and there were lots of kids out and about. We stopped by the Mexican market the next morning for some fruit, pastries and a cheap toy to keep Bode entertained for the day.
Then, we tried Mexicaltitan from the south and had much better luck. A paved road, an obvious boat launch, and water taxis.
Shrimp are the big deal here, and they are drying out on the streets as you walk by. Jason got some shrimp tamales for 7 pesos each and chowed down. Inside, they still had the shell on. He said they were good, but a bit weird. Bode and I passed.
Besides that, there isn’t much to do. It’s a very small town, Jason and I took turns walking around because Bode was having so much fun at the town square. I tossed a football (American) around with a local boy, while another played cars with Bode.
An interesting day of just doing whatever… and it included a boat ride. Nice. We headed back to the mainland and back to our safely parked bus. On to San Blas.
Posted on March 7, 2010 by jason
Some folks had asked about the custom sleeping platform up top, so here are some photos. I also posted a full how-to over at TheSamba. Enjoy.
Posted on March 5, 2010 by jason
Today we didn’t really have a destination as much as a general direction. We headed south, avoiding the newer toll roads and took the free (“libre”) backroads through the small towns. We spent a fair amount of time behind slow trucks, farm equipment and a never-ending number of topes. No matter, we weren’t really in a hurry.
The buses are in a hurry. The local buses here have an impressive amount of acceleration and will pass you on any curve or hill regardless of perceived danger or oncoming traffic. You will pay attention.
We decided to head down to Teacapan and find a camping spot right on the beach. It’s mostly farm land and a very nice and slow drive. When we got to Escuinapa, I looked over to see the Policia standing on the side of the road and waving me over. Great. I tell Angela to get ready for the ole’ back and forth and that these guys were going to try to liberate some cash from us. Even if it takes an hour, we’ll stand our ground and won’t hand out any propinas.
Communication is tough because of my limited Spanish, but they tell me I was speeding. They have no radar and I never saw any signs, so I actually don’t know if I was or not (doubtful.) They take my license and go back to congregate behind the bus and I expect the worst. The kind officer comes back and tells me to slow down and have a nice day and we’re free to go. What about all those bribes and crooked cops we’ve been hearing and reading about?
It’s coming eventually, I know.
We found a nice spot just outside of Teacapan right on the beach with a palapa for a whopping $6 USD a night.
One fisherman walks up with the largest shrimp I’ve ever seen and is looking to sell. When he walked up, I thought he was holding lobster! I was plenty tempted, but we already had food we needed to eat and I didn’t want to store the shrimp. I’ve been thinking about those shrimp ever since.
A bit later, another local fisherman and his two sons row up in front of us and spread their nets just offshore and then pull them in from the beach.
I don’t know what it is about watching other people do strenuous manual labor that is so relaxing. It just is.
They catch about 20 medium keepers, throw back two giant puffer fish and a ray and are on their way. Bode watches the entire process from 2 feet away and they don’t mind at all.
We start a fire, cook some dinner and have a nice quiet evening with just us and the mosquitos. It’s quiet. Muy tranquillo.
We sleep great and then lazily start the next day with some fresh coconut from one of the nearby trees. I’ve missed my regular dose of macapuno from Tucker’s in Alameda. And, it feels good to put the axe to use on something other than dead wood.
Mental note: don’t park under a coconut tree.
Also, if anyone’s interested, we’re featured on the Drive the Americas web site today. It’s a neat site that is aiming to be the central source of information for driving all of the Americas. There’s lots of useful information there, so if you have any interest in what’s involved in, say, crossing the Honduran border, then you should check it out.
Posted on March 4, 2010 by jason
We shipped ourselves as cargo to Mazatlan. From the time we drove onto the ferry to the time we drove off was about 21 hours. Total cost to ship the three of us and the bus from La Paz to Mazatlan was $290 USD. Three people and 5 meters / 1800 kg of vehicle. We chose Transportation Maritima de California (TMC) over Baja Ferries simply because of the large difference in the cost. TMC is the freight carrier and it seems some folks don’t know they exist and insist Baja Ferries is the only option. Maybe because it’s hard to find. If you want to make the trip, here’s a quick summary.
Drive out to Pechilingue to the shipyard and pull in through the main gate. On your left is a set of lanes you can’t enter and on your right is drive-through customs.
If you don’t have your vehicle import permit for the mainland, just park anywhere and walk through the gate on the left to the big yellow building to find the permit office. Ask for “vehicular permissio” if you can’t find it – it’s about $30 and is good for 6 months. You can’t go through customs without it. You’ll need photocopies of everything – passports, license, registration,etc.
Now, get back in the bus and drive through customs and you may or may not get inspected. Next, drive onto the scale right in front of you- “Bascula” – and get weighed. You’ll be asked for your carrier and destination (you won’t have a ticket yet.) They’ll give you a paper with your vehicle weight and length and now you can go buy your ticket.
On your right is a permanently closed TMC office and an open Baja Ferries office. If you want a cabin and a nicer boat, Baja Ferries is for you. Everyone there speaks English and they have another office outside the port as well (go past the entire terminal on the main road and turn left after the fence.) If your family is cargo (like us,) loop around the scale and park next to the other big yellow building and go find the TMC office. No one in here will speak English, so be prepared. All prices are clearly posted. We came here a week prior to make a reservation, but no one seemed to be interested in looking it up – we just bought our tickets on the spot.
Figure out when to load (usually two hours prior to departure) and drive over to the ship and wait for someone who looks official to recognize that you want to get on the boat. He’ll go through all your papers and tickets. Before driving on, ask if you can be loaded on top. If you’re on the bottom, your car will be sealed up and you won’t be spending any time at your vehicle. On top, you have fresh air… and you get to ride a big elevator.
Officially, on both carriers, you are not allowed in your vehicle at any time during the trip. The closer you get to the boat, the more lax personnel get about this regulation (at least on TMC – Baja Ferries may be more strict.) Just keep asking. We stayed in our bus for most of the trip (16 hours on the water) and slept in it – way better than the seats in the tiny passenger cabin. Apparently, dinner is included with your ticket in the little galley, but we skipped it and had sammys in the bus.
The other passengers are almost exclusively truck drivers and most of them sneak away to sleep in their vehicles too. Everyone we encountered was very nice. Walking around the boat is not really something you want to do unless you need to. The ride was pretty wild, and the boat not exactly the safest place for a child. Angela, who has never been seasick, had to take Dramamine. There are bathrooms and showers, but you will probably want to avoid these too if you can. This is not the Love Boat and there is no one named Issac mixing drinks(“Outta sight!“)
We arrived in Mazatlan exhausted at about 11 am (now, two consecutive nights of very little sleep) so we grabbed another cheapy hotel (about $20) right near the Old Town and took naps before wandering around. Oh yeah, driving in this town is crazy. Maybe it was because there were two cruise ships in the port and taxis everywhere, but it was total mayhem. Stop signs and individual lanes aren’t really recognized here. Multiple close calls with tour buses and plenty of loco taxi drivers later, I tried to park the bus… and backed into a tree… twice. They let the trees grow out of the street here. Pick your parallel parking spot wisely. Fortunately, our rain gutter took all the impact.
Shopping seems the be the primary activity here, so we got bored pretty quickly after one day. A trip to the aquarium was the highlight. For $6, it’s also the best bargain in town.
Mazatlan is a nice enough place, but we decided we were done and continued south.
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
