No gunfights at the Mexican border

We crossed the border in Nogales and luckily although it is hyped as a "dangerous border", it's the same old Mexico that we know and love, nothing has changed. The border crossing may have been uneventful but later on dealing with all the paperwork hassles was another story altogether.
It took 2 hours of going from one spot to the other, a total of 9 counters and very "Kafkaesque" all in all with us dutifully going from one to the other and back again. Apparently there was a purpose to this madness if a total lack of efficiency. It turns out that if you've been to Mexico with your car before it's more of a problem. You have to fill out endless forms, get copies go from one counter to the other to get more copies and this avalanche of useless papers can be quite frustrating. After we got
copy number X we were told to bring out car around, cross over to the other side, as though we're going back to Nogales, and give a guy the requisite two pieces of paper. He then takes our old sticker off the dash and takes a picture of our vin number. He then sends us back to the other side to fill out more paper work, pay for the license to drive across all of Mexico and finally get our new sticker. It's hard to understand why they would insist on cancelling a previous permit, acquired two years ago and which is, in effect, NO LONGER VALID.
Yes, it's crazy loco that way but "asi es Mexico" you got to love it.
The driving on the quotas was fine, not much traffic except when so-called highways go through major cities and then it's not for the faint of heart. We stayed in a lovely town called San Carlos, near Guyamas, it wasn't hot enough to swim and we got there quite late around 5 P.m.
We left San Carlos bright and early and drove for almost 12 hours to Mazatlan.
We're staying at The Belmar, this totally funky hotel, parts of which are literally falling apart. They renovate as the need arises. We have a room with a splendid view of the ocean. It's not the Ritz but it certainly has a million dollar view. The door to our balcony came off its hinges because the wood was so rotten. Yep, that's the kind of place this is and I'm trying to score a better discount than the one we already got. So far we have a 10% discount and I'm holding out for another 5%. The water is never hot, only tepid but it's fine since the weather is warn enough for a cool shower. The room is clean and big and there's even a pool. I will post some pictures of it. The architect must have been on some weird shit to come up with this construction. Obviously he was a lover of art deco, plenty of tile work some in better state than others. It's totally cool. Apparently there are 20% more tourists here than last year but nobody believes it as it doesn't really translate in sales.
There is a tribute concert to John Lennon in a lovely plaza not far from here and we're going. We will be here one week so I won't be posting much unless something phenomenal happens. It's going to be beach time and relaxing time, no car for a while and that will be a relief. I had my first pina colada yesterday and it was wonderful.

Pretty pictures in my head and fun facts

I wanted to jot down some general impressions of our drive so far.
Both Arizona and California must consume an enormous amount of water to grow all the food that is grown there.
Twenty five per cent of all food consumed in the U.S. is grown in California.
One thousand big trucks leave Yuma everyday for parts near and far.
Five thousand workers from Mexico are bused in every day over the border to work in the fields. These workers are essential to the food economy.
Without them nothing gets picked or tended.
They had a day called "Dia del Campesino" to actually celebrate them.
Hundreds of acres of cotton are grown in Arizona. Since the textile industry is pretty well nul and void, as is the one in Canada, I wonder where they ship all this cotton to, possibly Mexico, Honduras but I suspect a lot of it ends up in China and is reshipped as finished goods.
There is a railway in Arizona and hundreds of huge containers, many labeled Costco, are also shipped this way, that's in addition to all the truck movement from one end of the continent to the other.
Arizona enjoys 300 days of sunshine a year and has more solar panels than any other state in the U.S.

Thought I would share these interesting nuggets.

Pretty pictures:
Some truly gigantic snowflakes, the biggest I had ever seen, the branches heavy with them.
The hundreds of wind towers like silent sentinels standing guard over their dominion waiting for the wind to rouse them out of their contemplative torpor.
The name 29 Palms always reminds me of the film by French philospher turned director Bruno Dumont. One of these days I will rent it, watch it and maybe even like it.
The mountains silhouetted against the blue desert sky.
The Sonora desert home to the Sequoia cactus not as impressive as its cousin the mighty cardon from Baja California but formidable nonetheless. The desert home as well to sage brush and the unlovely
creosote bush as well as the Mesquite tree, not an easy to tame landscape.
The sight of a mesquite tree hung with Christmas decorations by the side of the road.
The deceptively pretty bits of glass and plastic which shine so brightly in the sunlight yet will take decades to decay.
A solitary hawk on a solitary branch, proud looking and imperious even from a distance.
These are some of the pretty pictures I wanted to share.

We got a little turned around on our way to Nogales but ended up in a Casino called Desert Diamonds which featured a lovely lunch of salmon on a bed of salad and fresh fruits, possibly one of the best salds we will have in a while. Took a stroll through the casino, tried to put one dollar in the machine and were so inept we pressed on cash back and our dollar came back in the form of a ticket. We played it and promptly lost it, such an incomprehensible passtime. Row upon row of zombified, stupefied people, hard to understand the attraction.
C'est tout, relaxing in our hotel, tomorrow Mexico.