Visit to Gringoland

No worries we're still in Mazatlan but we presently reside in old Mazatlan in the centre of this historic city with some freshly renovated buildings and some crumbling ones as well,many are too far gone and are beyond repair. New Mazatlan which is much further down the malequon (beach promenade) is home to most of the newly minted condos and the ever present all inclusives. This is where most of the tourists end up for their one or two week stays. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just not for us. We took a bus to see if there were many of them around and sadly, for Mexico and workers from the area, the answer is not very many. The beach was almost deserted, it's a huge beach, plenty of sand and sea but not too many bodies. The problem is there are so many of these spots in Mexico and only so many gringos to go around.

Furthermore Cancun and Puerto Vallarta have eclipsed Mazatlan in recent years. They are perceived, wrongly in my estimate, as having more panache and more allure thus their appeal to tourists who might not know any better. In the end it doesn't really matter. As far as I'm concerned all inclusives are probably all alike regardless of their location. They offer the same pre-packaged antiseptic types of environment, free of germs, lots of food and booze and easily recognizable signposts which scream "nothing threatening here". For Mexico's sake it would have been nice to see more white bodies on the beach, the vendadores walking from one end to the other are looking mighty lonely with nobody to sell their holiday trinkets to.

Today Sunday was a big day in Mexico. It was 400 years ago that the Virgin of Guadeloupe appeared to a poor peasant just out of Mexico city. She is venerated across Mexico and people traveled all the way to Mexico City to request her favours, not really sure it's working but faith is important in this country, they believe with a lot of fervor.
We went to the Cathedral to check things out and the party to celebrate the Virgin's arrival was in full swing with the usual attendant chaos.
All the childrens and there were many of them were dressed in traditional Indian costumes, cute as buttons, down to the littlest babies. There was also a concert going on with incredibly bad singers, nobody was getting paid, this was all pro bono, which party explains the lack of quality. Nobody seemed to mind with the crowd happily singing along. There was the usual array of vendors of all stripes and colors and lots of finger food to be had. It's going to be a royal mess tomorrow to clean up, nothing unusual about that. At one end of the plaza there is a huge fake Christmas tree courtesy of Coke, coke logos are everywhere on it, even the star at the top is a coke logo. Coke dollars hard at work in Mexico and they do love their Coke, they drink it by the bucket even early in the morning.
We didn't go swimming today. It was windy and the sea was rough plus the water
still hasn't warmed up that much. We're holding out for Melaque, it's further south and it should be warmer by the time we get there. Tomorrow is our last day here. I'll try and post some pictures some time next week. Was able to buy some postcards, strangely enough, not an easy proposition. I don't think people write too many of these anymore. They weren't the prettiest but they will have to do. We've really enjoyed our time here. It's been mellow and relaxed but time to move on. No worries we'll be back Mazatlan.

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.

Heading for Nogales and the border tomorrow

Yesterday was another day of non stop driving. I love road trips under certain conditions which feature great weather, no rain but not too sunny, no snow and especially no other cars or trucks on the road. So far none of these ideal conditions have been met but I'm still hopeful.
We got to the outskirts of L.A. when it was starting to get dark. Stan was tired of driving and I was tired of sitting watching him drive. It was very difficult trying to find a motel so close to L.A. thus we had to settle for one in the lap of luxury, that is luxurious by our standards but really it was quite posh. We went swimming in the good size pool and sampled the hot tub. We opted for microwaved soup in our room. There was nothing around and we were too tired to brave the traffic again. The driving is incredibly fast, everybody is in a terrible rush to get to wherever they're going. A very stressful life with these endless freeways, not something I would enjoy on a permanent basis. A couple of observations:
there must be over a million acres of almonds and pistachios planted which is weird since neither of those is a staple food. We just wondered what they do with all those nuts! Our little orchards in the Okanagan are so
puny in comparison, 10 acres is considered quite big. Here we're talking hundreds of acres planted with one single crop.
We finally made it to Yuma, looked for our friend Karl but it was too dark and he had given me pretty sketchy directions. We opted for the Ramada this time and are quite happy. We had our first Mexican meal, it brought back fond memories. Yuma almost feel like Mexico. A lot of the working population is Hispanic, with all the gringos sampling the good life in their RV parks. There are literally dozens and dozens of those. Again not for us but they seem quite happy, it does beat the cold and snow.
We'll be in Mexico the day after tomorrow, it should be smooth sailing. Adios for now.

California here we are

Left Summerland bright and early around 8 in the morning. Crossing the border was uneventful, the language is the same the only thing that's a bit of a problem is getting used to miles and gallons after having dealt with the metric system all these years. The price of gas is per gallon,relatively cheap at around $3,00, the distances are now all in miles thus making it appear as though it takes much longer to get wherever you want to get to and the temperature is in balmy Fahrenheit. After one day on the road these little discrepancies don't represent much of a hassle at all.
The first night we stopped in Hood River, Oregon. Hood River is an absolutely charming little town, full of quaint shops and proud of its historical past. It sits right on the mighty Columbia river. It's a favorite hangout for aficionados of wind surfing. Apparently the wind really blows in the summer and you can cover huge distances. We checked out the Hood River Hotel, mostly empty, but no deals to be had at over $100.00 a night, courtyard view only.
We politely declined, so early into our trip I can't afford to blow that kind of money on a hotel. We settled for something far seedier up the hill a ways from there. Still not cheap at $59.00 a night and extremely basic. Fifty nine dollars doesn't buy that much in terms of accommodation in trendy Hood River.
Two beds with "not so lovingly worn" bedspreads, sheets were white, not incandescently so but passable. The T.V. was your average box, no flat screen for this puppy and the bathroom was utilitarian, even the faucets were the old star shaped faucets that one rarely sees anymore. In any case the water was hot and the toilet worked and the beds didn't sag in all the wrong places. We managed an okay night after a supper of Chinese, no smorg, just a chicken dish with plain white rice. We're really trying to eat well while on the road, it's always such a problem with all the fast food joints along the way which we religiously avoid nevertheless. I'm not a fan of Wendy's, had never been there before this trip, but they now offer four quite pleasant salads which are more than palatable. That's what we're sticking to.
In the morning we went for breakfast at the same restaurant we had been to on the way back from Mexico two years ago. Our motel was right opposite it. While there we also chanced upon a Polish friend which Stan had made while we were staying in La Ventana, in Baja California. His daughter owns the restaurant and he goes there for breakfast every morning. It really is a very small world, sometimes.
The road was great till we hit some rain in Oregon where it doesn't just rain it pours. Driving was very difficult, there are so many big trucks on the road, passing them is a lousy experience which we had to repeat, unfortunately over and over again. It's hard to imagine how many of those trucks are on the road at any one time all across this continent, it simply boggles the mind. We saw our first 3 trailer truck, a truck for which the word behemoth could very aptly be coined it's that frightening. As we got closer and closer to California and Mount Shasta the rain rapidly changed to snow, huge flakes which combined with the mountainous nature of the terrain made driving very hazardous. It was a tense two hours but we made it out, safe and sound. We are now ensconced in the Vagabond Inn, a step up over what we had yesterday which explains why I'm able to file this report.
We're going to relax, have supper and watch a little mindless t.v. We watch a lot of Spanish t.v. need to freshen our mastery of the language, even commercials sound okay in Spanish. Tomorrow we're aiming for Lake Havasu in California and ultimately Yuma, Arizona where we might spend a couple of days.
I won't update my blog every day, possibly once or twice a week depending on what we're doing and on whether any of it is worth sharing. Adios for now.

Winter 2010- Leaving for Mexico, part 2

We were ready to leave today November 30th but changed our plans to tomorrow. The car is almost fully packed and I think we're ready. I've made a sort of list and checked it twice and everything is where it should be. Impatient to get going. My posts will get more interesting once we hit the road, I promise.

Winter 2010- Leaving for Mexico, part 2

We're still in Summerland, British Columbia but we're all packed and ready to go. We will be leaving in our little Subaru on Tuesday, November 30th. We want to get an early start to avoid driving in the dark. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, it has gotten warmer in the last few days. We didn't put any winter tires on our car. We don't want to be stuck driving with those in Mexico. Our car is all wheel drive and we have good all around tires, I think we'll be all right. If the weather is intemperate with lots of snow and ice we will make a beeline for the coast and head towards Portland instead of taking the interior route. I will post again soon. I've been having some trouble accessing my own travel blog account in the past but I do think I have it figured out now, not excessively computer savvy as you can see. I am learning.
If you do access my various posts don't hesitate to leave a message. It's nice to hear from family, friends and strangers in equal measure. Gracias.