Time is going by far too quickly! I think we need to change our plans. Maybe we should extend the trip by a month or so!? If we do one of these trips again, we need to make it six months! Especially when we are fortunate enough to have such a great group of people. It's difficult to get 14 people together who all get along without any apparent personality clashes, but it seems that is what we have this year.
Yesterday was a free day. Some chose to just hang around the beach, while some chose to take their bicycles into town and explore Mazatlan. We wanted to get some exercise.
We took Jim, Aron, and Owenita out with us to climb the hill with the lighthouse on it. We left at 8:30am so that we could get it done before it got too hot.
Tres Amigos RV Park.
The park is separated into two sections... RV1, and RV2. Our group is all in RV2. It's a popular park because it's located right on the beach here at Isla de la Piedra. And the front row people (pretty much all seasonals I would think) have a view and a patio overlooking the water.
But for the rest of the sites, it's really just a gravel parking lot with hookups. For us, we aren't quite sure what the people do here all winter, but of course that's just us. They seem to love it. It would be fine for a week, maybe even two but after that we would get bored. But then we are explorers.
We headed off down the beach to the panga (water taxi) to take us across the bay to Mazatlan. Then we had a walk around the port area to get to the hill with the lighthouse on it.
Heading towards the hill with the lighthouse and the viewpoint.
Faro (lighthouse) Mazatlan.
Ruth, Owenita, Jim, and Aron.
It doesn't take long to start to get a view.
There are a lot of friendly stray cats on the walk up the hill!
Made it to the top!
Jim, Owenita, Aron, Ruth, and Kevin.
Us!
Quite the view from up there!
Zoomed in a little bit.
Zoomed in on the hotel zone.
This is Isla de la Piedra.
Our RVs are parked just to the right of the larger building on the right.
They built a little skywalk at the top.
Looking off to sea.
The port area. These brand new Nissan minivans are being shipped off to somewhere.
The hotel zone is growing.
We walked down the malecon for a while.
People swimming in the saltwater pool.
Pretty street.
The central plaza.
We found a busy little mariscos seafood place. Lots of locals and no other gringos. Menus only in Spanish. Pacifico beer at 20 pesos ($1.40 CAD, $1.05 USD) each. Exactly the type of lunch spot we like to find!
Ruth had two shrimp ceviche tostados.
She couldn't finish them. Jim also ordered two and he couldn't finish his either! The other 3 of us all ordered shrimp tacos.
We had no problem finishing our shrimp tacos!
Delicious.
The bill for Ruth and I was 220 pesos ($15.25 CAD, $11.60 USD) including tip. I had 2 beers and Ruth had a big mug of jamaica. We love eating out in Mexico.
Back at the campground, I had a short nap and then got Sherman ready to leave this morning. Emptied the holding tanks and filled the fresh water tank and checked the tire pressure.
We enjoyed happy hour with the group and our friends Mark and Barbara and Michel and Louise joined us. They are two of the couples who were with us on our early 2018 Yucatan trip for 3 months.
Barb, Mark, Kevin, Michel, Louise, and Ruth.
We invited them over to Sherman after supper for more conversation. Lots of fun to see them again, and I'm sure we'll bump into each other again in the future.
So today, we are off to the city of Tepic. We have a 300 km (182 mile) drive ahead of us, so we better get going!
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And in Canada...
Still enjoying the Sights and Culture that Mexico has to offer. Meeting other friends along the way is a bonus.
ReplyDeleteBe Safe and Enjoy your travels to your next stop.
It's about time.
We are happy that you are enjoying our daily posts and pictures from Mexico, it certainly has been a wonderful trip so far.
DeleteGood thing you were moving most of your trip in Australia because for people who don't like beach, you did mostly beach travel then LOL My the hotel district has grown. Both Mazatlán and Rocky Point have grown so much over the years. I liked it when they were small towns/village. I remember tracking the exchange rate for two weeks before my trip to determine how low the peso would get to the dollar. We were walking down the business district in Mazatlán and saw a marque flashing the lowest exchange rate I'd seen. I jumped on it and changed dollars to pesos. Same recently when we went to Cancun. My whole two week trip was $200 US after changing to pesos. That included meals, tours, hotel....what a deal!!!
ReplyDelete$200 for two weeks that includes meals, tours, and hotel! At that rate it's just $400 for a month in Cancun, what a deal indeed!
DeleteThe huge difference between the beaches in Australia and the ones here in Mexico was that the temperature was perfect for hiking and exploring, there were no bugs and the shoreline the majority of the time was so interesting. If you noticed from that trip, we rarely spent any time on the flat, sandy beaches. Also if the weather had been warmer inland, up in the mountains we would have spent way more time up there.
DeleteDo you know Contessa and Colin from the blog 5C’s Que Pasa? They winter in RV1, and are from Kelowna.
ReplyDeleteYes, we know them and have met them several times over the years. When I was out walking on the beach with a few members of the group we actually saw them on the beach and stopped to chat for a few minutes.
DeleteIn picture #3, what is the make of the RV with the white top and blue skirt, just behind the Montana 5th Wheel? I saw one like that about 25 years ago, I think it was Americar of something similar. I like the low to the ground look. Fewer steps to climb. Phil, Phoenix
ReplyDeleteThat motorhome actually belongs to our friends, It is a 1998 National Tradewinds. When traveling in Mexico though you don't want anything too low, you definitely need some ground clearance. I don't believe they have any issues with their unit though, it seems to go over the topes fairly easy, you just have to go slow.
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