Month: January 2007

We got home from Mexico last night. What a wonderful trip. I’m busy unpacking, doing laundry and getting back in the grove of things. While it is still fresh in my mind I am going to finish the journal of the trip.

Day 19 – January 14 – Culiacan to Alamos, Sonora, Mexico – Today 264 miles – Total 4048 miles

Today we drove from Culiacan to Alamos. Lonely Planet Mexico lists Alamos as one of the top five places to visit in northwest Mexico. The town was founded in 1683 when silver was discovered in the nearby mountains. It is a beautiful old town with colonial architecture. According to the Alamos town web site188 structures in the Colonial City of Alamos have been declared National Historic Monuments.

We drove into town and started checking out hotels. La Puerta Roja Inn where we ended up was definitely the nicest place we stayed on this trip, it included a full breakfast and was very reasonably priced.  Our room had high ceiling a beautifully tiled bathroom, pink adobe walls and a fireplace! The fireplace was especially nice because the cold streak that has hit the U.S. also hit Mexico. It was so luxurious to snuggle under the comforter next to the fire and read. We got up the next morning and enjoyed a gourmet breakfast next to another fire on the patio.

After checking in we wandered around the town, checked out the sights, and explored the museum. We also had some fresh hot corn on the cob with butter and cheese from a street vendor in front of the church. Later we had a great dinner at Papillon Restaurant. In the morning before we left we drove up to El Mirador – the lookout an a hill southeast of town.

Apparently something like 250 internationals live in Alamos. We saw some of them and the beautifully restored houses they live in (from the outside).  I loved Alamos. It was one of the highlights of the trip.

Day 20 – January 15 – Alamos to Bahia Kino, Sonora, Mexico – Today 275 miles – Total 4323 miles

Bahia Kino is a fishing village on the Sea of Cortez. The part of town we were in cnsisted of one street with a long line of vacation houses on the beach. I thinkthe only peopel in town were Americans or Canadians. We didn’t see many people because the wind was blowing and boy was it cold! When I say cold I mean in the high 40s and low 50s. The cold is all part of the cold weather that hit the whole continentthis last week.  After checking in to our hotel we bundled up and went for a walk on the beach. We didn’t see another person but did see thousands of shells. Our hotel La Playa RV & Hotel was beautiful, right on the beach. It has rooms with stone floors and balconies that open right on to the beach and they have heaters (Thank God!).

Day 21 – January 16 – Bahia Kino to Phoenix, Arizona, USA – Today 358 miles – total 4681 miles

Back to the U.S. today. It was an uneventful day except for the 2 hour wait to cross the border. When we finally go to the checkpoint they looked at our passports and waved us through. I really felt sorry for the truckers. Their line was enormously long and I can’t imaging how long they had to wait.

Day 22 – January 17 – Phoenix to Union City, California, USA – Today 807 miles – total 5488 miles

We had planned to drive from Phoenix to Barstow today but once we got on the road we decided to just head on home so we got to Union City at 1 am this morning.

It was a wonderful trip. I enjoyed Mexico much more than I thought I would. It is hard to characterize Mexico and why I liked it so much. I think I’ll try to do a summary tomorrow but it will be hard because although I have learned a lot about Mexico on this trip I know now how little I really know or understand. 

I finally have Internet access again so will bring my posts of our trip up to date. Our grand Mexican adventure continues. We have now driven more than 2000 miles in Mexico and are on our way home.

Geoff made a comment on my last post asking about where the pictures are. The answers is that pictures have been a problem. I am using a borrowed Apple PowerBook G4 on this trip and I am not very proficient using Apples. I have managed to upload my pictures to the PowerBook from my camera but when I try to use Typepad to insert them into a blog entry TypePad just hangs. I assume that it is a problem with how TypePad works with Safari. I think I’ll try to load the picture to Flickr next and if that doesn’t work I’ll just wait until I get home to load them.

Anyway I’ll continue now with my journal of the trip

Day 11 – January 6 – in Manzanillo Mexico

We had lunch at Juanitos. Our list of restaurants says that it is a favorite of locals and tourists since the 70s and they have Internet access. The food was good and we went back later to use their wireless. The charge was $1 for an hour of use. My last posting was from Juanitos.

During the afternoon we wandered around downtown Manzanillo. According to the Lonely Planet Mexico Guide Book, the Manzanillo port is the largest in Mexico. We saw several ships being loaded and unloaded and walked along the shops beyond the port on the waterfront town square.

Day 12 – January 7 – from Manzanillo to Puerto Vallarta and back- about 347 miles total 2894 miles

Today we drove to the Puerto Vallarta airport and back to drop of Vicky’s friend. Manzanillo has an airport but all the planes were full when Duke booked the flight for Vicky’s friend to fly back to school. We had lunch near the airport but other than that didn’t spend any time in the town. From the car Puerto Vallarta is as different from Manzanillo as night and day. They are both in beautiful settings and to me Puerto Vallarta is more dramatic but it is also 100% more touristy and Americanized. In Puerto Vallarta we saw KFC, Burger King, Dominos, Hooters and Chucky Cheese none of which are in Manzanillo. There were also several high rise hotels unlike Manzanillo. Basically Manzanillo is smaller, sleepier, and much more to my liking.

Day 13 – January 8 – in Manzanillo Mexico

Another lazy relaxing day. We went back to Tacos Sonrisa to eat lunch and then drove around the luxury houses and hotels on the point. But other than that we just walked on the beach, read and relaxed. This place really is paradise.

Day 14 – January 9 – in Manzanillo Mexico

This is our last day here. We went for a swim in the ocean and then had a lazy lunch at the Oasis restaurant on the beach. For dinner we went back to Margaritas which is built right over the beach and had another wonderful dinner.

Day 15 – January 10 – Manzanillo to Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico – today 290 miles, total 3184 miles

Today we drove back to Ocotlan where Duke’s girls stayed before we arrived. They left a bunch of stuff there. As I said before it is a beautiful drive. There were lots of fruit stands selling mainly watermelon, coconuts and bags of salt. We bought some cocos helados – cold coconuts – The guy chopped the top off the coconuts with a machete and put a straw in so we could drink the juice. When the juice was finished he opened the coconut and used a special rounded knife to take the edible coconut out and put it in a baggie. We took it with us and ate it in the car. Yum! One of the girls’ relatives uses the phrase taking coconuts to Colima to describe taking something to where there is already lots of it.

It was cloudy when we drove to Manzanillo but on the way back we had a great view of two volcanoes west of the road, Volcan de Fuego and Volcan Nevado de Colima. Volcan de Fuego is Mexico’s most active volcano. it was cool to see the steam coming from the top of it.

I think I mentioned the canyons that we drove through on the way down. I copied some of the statistics from the billboards beside the bridges and deep cuts of the new road. Apparently the road shortened the trip from Guadalajara to Colima from 2 hours and 52 minutes to 1 hour and 23 minutes. One of the viaducts was 80 meters high on one end. An amazing road.

Day 16 – January 11 – Ocotlan to Guadalajara and back, today about 80 miles, total 3264 miles

Today we went shopping at the enormous outside market in Tonala in a suburb of Guadaljara, bought some souvenirs and then drove into the center of Guadalajara to see the museums and cathedral. It is an impressive city. But the smog and horrible traffic definitely take away from the enjoyment.

Day 17 – January 12 Ocotlan to Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico – Today 105 miles – total 3369 miles

We dropped Duke’s girls at the Guadalajaro, airport for their trip home and then drove to Tequila which is just north west of Guadalajara. The tour of the Jose Cuervo Tequila distillery was excellent. We got to see the agave being put into the ovens and then taste some before it was crushed and distilled. The building is old and beautiful and the whole place is fascinating. I loved the town of Tequila. After dinner we sat in the town square in front of the church and people watched. There was a stand with a bubble machine selling toys and blowing bubbles and we watched as the girls for a quincenara assembled to go in for the mass.

Day 18 – January 13 Tequila to Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico – Today 415 miles – total 3784 miles

A long drive today but good roads. We are staying at the same Microtel in Culiacan that we stayed at on the way down. We also ate at the same Italian restaurant as we did on New Year’s Eve. The restaurant is in a shopping mall. On the way down the mall was closed. But tonight it was very busy. We sat and people watched after dinner just as we have in some of the town squares in other towns. I guess this mall is the modern Mexican town square. The mall which included our restaurant had a casino with slot machines, a sports book and a big Keno hall. The mall also had a Honda dealer and a big movie multiplex. What a contrast from last night. But there were still lots of couples and families strolling by.

For the journal of our adventure day 1 through 5 see my earlier posting made in Culiacan.

Day 1 Union City to Escondido, California – 491 miles

Day 2 in Escondido

Day 3 Escondido to Tucson, Arizona – today 461 miles – total 952 miles

Day 4 Tucson to San Carlos, Sonora – today 354 miles – total 1306 miles

Day 5 San Carlos to Culiacan, Sinaloa – today 376 miles – total 1682 miles

Day 6 Culiacan to San Blas, Nayarit – Jan 1 -315 miles – total 1997 miles

After Culiacan we drove out of the desert into lots and lots of farm land, especially corn. 15 is the highway or carretera that goes from Nogales (where we entered Mexico) to Mexico City. It has been almost all good four lane road with not very much traffic. In many places we had a choice between Carretera Libre or Carretera Cuoto (the toll road and the free road). besides the cost the big difference is what you see. It is very much like the difference between what you see on our interstate and what you see when you get off the interstate. Because of the distance we need to cover each day we have mainly stayed on the Carretera Cuoto.

To get to San Blas where we stayed on Monday night we turned off la carretera and descended about 30 miles on a good two lane road to the coast. It was our first night without a reservation so we checked out a couple of places and ended up staying at the Hotel Posada del Rey. It was pretty basic but very clean, old, and traditional. The red tile floors in the courtyard and the room were polished to a high shine. The ceiling of the room was arched red brick. We kept the ceiling fan on all night and were quite comfortable. It cost about $45.

After checking in we walked down to the beach. The guide book said that hoards of sand flies come out at dusk. That was Duke’s experience last time he was in San Blas. We were lucky and saw virtually no bugs. The beach was lined with restaurants that were really just a thatched roof built in the sand with plastic tables and chairs. We ordered beer, ceviche and quesodillas, enjoyed the cool breeze and watched the sunset. There were lots of people probably because it was the New Year’s holiday and we saw very few Americans. It was the kind of warm beautiful night that makes you want to sit outside and just enjoy. Later we walked up to the the square in front of the church (la Zocalo) and people watched.

San Blas seemed like a village right out of the past. It appeared to be quite prosperous but all the streets were either paved with paving stones or were dirt and rock. The houses and stores all opened right onto the street. I would call it picturesque but it was too real for that. I really liked it.

Day 7 San Blas to Ocotlan, Jalisco – Jan 2 -260 miles – total 2257 miles
Tuesday we drove to Ocotlan on Lake Chapala just south of Guadalajara. We found a nice motel (La Cabana de Yeyo) and then went to the Zocalo. We met up with Duke’s girls and a friend In front of the cathedral. They had been staying with relatives in Ocotlan.

I briefly visited Lake Chapala about 20 years ago and remember that the lake was so low that I couldn’t even see the water from the shore. This trip the lake was full and much more beautiful.

Day 8 – Jan 3 – Ocotlan to Manzanillo, Colima – 290 miles – total 2547 miles
Wednesday all five us drove from Ocotlan to Manzanillo. We had so much luggage that we had to tie the trunk closed. The scenery and weather have become much more hot, humid and tropical. We saw enormous coconut palm tree orchards and banana tree orchards. (is orchard the right word?) along the sides of the roads. We also drove through some stunning mountains and canyons on the way to the coast.

We have rented a condo for a week in Club Santiago on Bahia de Santiago just north of Manzanillo. It is a big condo with white tile floors, wood stairs with blue and white tile accents going up to the three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The high ceilings, arches, ceiling fans and several balconies add to making it perfect.

After unloading we walked down to the restaurant on the beach and had dinner out in the open overlooking the bay and the beach with Manzanillo in the distance.

Day 9 – Jan 4 – in Manzanillo, Colima
I am writing this on my laptop in our condo. There is no internet here so eventually we will find an internet cafe and I will post it. The beauty of a vacation like this is that you don’t have to do much of anything if you don’t want to. I spent much of today sitting on our balcony reading. There is a cool breeze. The balcony is at the same level as the coconuts in the palm trees on the grounds and I can hear the children in the pool below.

Photo of me on our condo balcony

Day 10 – January 5 – in Manzanillo, Colima
We ate lunch today at what is supposed to be the best taco stand in Colima, Tacos Sonrisa. She made the tortillas with a wooden press and an outside grill as we watched. They were delicious, hot, and fresh. Her restaurant was open to the street. We parked at the curb and sat at a table just inside out of the sun.

For dinner we ate Spanish food at El Marinero. It was our first inside meal since we have been here. In between we went swimming in the ocean at the beach a block or so from the condo.