Arrived at Isla de la Piedra, Mazatlan

We've been to Mazatlan a couple of times before, and we've been to Isla de la Piedra once before, but without the motorhome. This time, we're staying at Isla de la Piedra with the motorhome, but we have no interest in going into the city of Mazatlan itself.

A bit of an interesting drive to get here, and not one that we'll ever make again!

We didn't have far to go yesterday...only 100 kms (62 miles) or so. We got an early start and were on the road by 8:30am. First order of business was to make our way through the city of Escuinapa (pop 30,000). We were on the free highway 15, and a lot of trucks use that highway so the route through town wasn't too difficult.

Driving through Escuinapa.

After Escuinapa, the libre (free) road is in good condition. 

Scenery along the way.

Some sections have a lot of topes (speed bumps) though!

A field of young agave plants.

Before we knew it, we were at the turnoff to Mazatlan airport. This is the route that you need to take to drive to Isla de la Piedra. It's not really an island...not sure why it's called that. Probably because the only logical way to get here is to take a boat from the Mazatlan port. You can do that easily, and it's the way that most people come here. Because if you absolutely have to drive, you have to take a 13 km (8 mile) dirt road that's in horrible condition.

And there's an RV park here with some people that we wanted to visit, so we had to do that drive!

As with many photos, this one doesn't do it justice. The road is much worse than it looks!

Getting ready to pave one small section.

The road is scheduled to be paved in 2015, but they've only begun work on one very small section. I'll be surprised if it's finished by the end of next year. In fact, knowing how quickly things like this happen in Mexico, I'd bet against it!

It took us an hour to do the 13 km (8 mile) drive. Terrible. Unfortunately, we do have to make the drive again, because it's the only way out of here!

There is one RV park here, called "Tres Amigos". There are two sections to it, and it's really just a gravel parking lot with hookups. But the attraction is the front row of sites that are located with a beachfront view. These sites are usually full, with RV'ers who come in order to stay the whole season.

But with prices quoted in U.S. dollars, and at dry camping rates of $20 USD (or 250 pesos, which actually adds up to about $18 USD) per day, it's not our style. We simply couldn't see what we were getting for our money other than a parking spot and use of the showers and bathrooms. So we decided to look around.

We parked, and went for a walk.

Cruise ship in Mazatlan port.

There are actually a lot of places that you could park for free. But it depends on your level of comfort, and we didn't think it would be totally safe to leave the motorhome alone while we visited with friends so we needed a little bit of security. Then, we found exactly what we were looking for.

A woman named Margarita who runs a little taco stand and palapa restaurant on the beach. She's really friendly and with a big smile and said that we could park the three nights for a total of 200 pesos ($16.50). That's only 66 pesos ($5.50) per night. Sold!

We'll make sure to eat at her little restaurant at least once while we're here. Perfect little spot for us, and we can even use her beachfront chairs and hammocks. Now that's our style.

A little difficult to get to, but no worse than the 13 kms dirt road!

We were driving through when we had to wait for traffic to clear up!

All parked up. GPS 23.18783 -106.41111

Now, the reason we came here? Friends Chris and Juan are here for Christmas and it was going to be our only opportunity to see them on this trip. Also, we get to meet up with some other bloggers and blog readers, and that's always fun too!

We found Chris and Juan (helping themselves to food!) at reader Carol's (with her dog Bandi) birthday party! Nice to meet some new people here.

We then went to Colin and Contessa's place to watch the sunset.

And the six of us went out for dinner to a little local restaurant. Ruth and I each had enchiladas. For only 50 pesos ($4.10) each. Great meal deal!

And so we're here for two more nights and then we head up into the mountains.

One of our readers bought a reversible RV Patio mat from Amazon. This is on our list of things to buy when we get into the U.S....

Camco Reversible RV Patio Mat (9' x 12')