What a day today!

Took our time leaving San Carlos for our next stop on the way to Mazatlan - El Mirador RV park in Huatabampito, Sonora, MX. http://www.elmiradorrvpark.com. It was only 160 miles away and we thought we would get there in good time. WRONG!

If you look at a map of Mexico you won't even see it. But you will see Huatabampo. Huatabampo is not on the Sea of Cortez, but Huatabampito is. It's a wild ride about 36 miles to the Sea from Huatambato and I had what I thought were good directions from the RV park itself for a short-cut there from the toll road. All I'll say is that we ran into a detour at a road construction site and no signage to direct us in the right direction. No one down here speaks English, and we don't speak Spanish. We stopped several "locals" for help and they tried to assist, but we just could not figure out what they were saying. We drove around the city of Navajoa (which we tried to avoid in the first place) through narrow streets, with wild local drivers ignoring stop signs, stop lights, and doing anything they pleased to get where they were heading. We turned here, and we turned there trying to find our way back on course. We ended up driving through a construction zone that was not even open to traffic and did a little damage to Blue Boy but we finally got back on the right road. We have no idea how we did it but it worked out. Ellen told me as I complained about the situation "you wanted adventure!" I got it today! I was exhausted by the time we finally got to the RV park.

As promised, it was well worth the drive to get here. We are right on the Sea of Cortez (Pacific Ocean) with the nose of Blue Boy facing the water. Dogs are allowed everywhere (beach, restaurant, bar) anywhere you want to take them. This RV park is a restaurnt, bar, motel that has added RV sites as time went on. Way out in the middle of nowhere, not too many people know about this place, and not too many of those who do will make the trip to get here. It took us 6 hours to travel the 160 miles and was such a hard trip that we decided since it took so much to get here, we might as well stay awhile. Paid for two nights up front upon arrival, and went back one hour later and paid for two more. I'm not driving anywhere for a few days!

Water, electric, and sewer hookups. Free wi-fi. $20.00 American per night! Outdoor restaurant and bar right on the beach about 50 feet from our door. The two girls sat with us at the table while we ate tonight.

The biggest problem down here is the language barrier. Especially when help is needed as we did today when we got lost. This was a departure from the 4-lane toll road we planned on taking all the way to Mazatlan, but the allure of the ocean RV park for a few nights was too much to resist. Now that we are here, we are happy. There is a much easier (so we've been told) route to take heading south from here back onto the MX 15 toll road to Mazatlan.

Pictures tomorrow. This wi-fi connection seems fast enought to upload them but I am just too drained tonight, 8:30pm, to do it now. It's 61 outside now. The high today was 95. Not a cloud in sight.

Buenos Notches

Well, I got the pictures uploaded afterall. I'm too tired to sleep. And I was told tonight by someone who has been here for 10 days now, that it's best to do whatever you can while you can. Water works sometimes and sometimes it dosen't. Same for electricity, wi-fi, and everything else. It's Mexico and we are miles from anywhere.

In case you are wondering, we are not and will not drink any water in Mexico that is not bottled. We add water to our water tank for flushing, bathing, and dishes, etc., but not for us or the dogs to dirnk. And we add bleach to the tank before filling it up. We do not use the water as a direct hook-up. We fill up our 30 gallon tank, add bleach to kill bacteria, and use our "on board" water pump for pressure.


Just pulling into our site

View out the front

Blue Boy and Blue Sky (oh, the girls are there too)

All three girls on the beach - our front yard

Blue Boy from the beach. The stone wall is just a few months old. A hurricane in late 07 wiped out the entire front row of RV spaces and they were just recently replaced and the stone wall built.

The beach and restaurant from our beach front spot

Closer view of the outdoor seating. The Jeep in the picture is parked on the beach. You can drive anywhere you want here, beach included. A few people live out here and they just drive the beach to the restaurant/bar

The old man and the she having dinner tonight

Blue Boy as seen from the bar