Changes in Lattitudes...

Just north of Mazatlán runs the Tropic of Cancer and a bit north of that the weather took a noticeable change from cool and cloudy to sunny and warm. It makes me wonder if Jimmy Buffet is right in the thought that when you change latitude you can’t help but change your attitude.

Today we are sitting 50 yards from the Gulf of California at the Mar Rosa RV park.  We have been on the road two days since the last post from San Carlos. We stayed at a nice RV park, Totonaka, in San Carlos where we were able to rest and clean up.  After that we left the beauty of the beach and drove highway 15 through Ciudad Obregon, and stayed the night at a Pemex truck stop just outside of Los Mochis.  From the lap of luxury, to a dusty slot between 40 semi-trucks, we had made it another day and 240 miles closer to Melaque.

Our daily routine has become one of waking, eating, driving, paying tolls, finding a RV stop, eating dinner, playing cribbage and going to bed.  We will repeat this for the next two nights and then we will arrive in Melaque. It’s not the best lifestyle but it is a necessity to reach our goal.

Today Linda and I realized that driving in Mexico is like a huge Frogger game.  The game works about the same except that you are not the frog, you are one of the vehicles and instead of you getting points for hitting the frog, you amass points by avoiding and passing all the obstacles that the game throws at you. People crossing the road or highway, buses and trucks moving in and out of your path, herds of cattle, old men on bikes, tractors, anything you see along roads and highways must be avoided.  Construction zones are amazing! They are worth mega points. We actually entered an area under construction where the highway went from four lanes into two lanes with no real caution signs giving you any warning.  The poor fellow behind Larry pulled out to pass him and then realized that the lane was filled with traffic coming straight at him. He made a dynamic move back into the lane behind Larry as a semi roared past.

There are even toll gates in the game where people of all varieties attack like ants swarming.  These obstacles commence to spraying your windows with water, selling nuts, fruit, bread and even furniture!  You pull up to the stop and spend the next two minutes shouting “NO” to the window washers, “gracias, no” to the food vendors, and then you hand the toll attendant 200 pesos and they hand you a receipt and change back. You hit the throttle, avoid the stragglers, edge back into the flow of traffic and collect 10,000 points. Then the game continues.  We laugh each time we make it through a toll, a small town or big city.

San Carlos where the yachties stay. 

Our game ended today south of the Tropic of Cancer, on a beach in the warm sun.  We used the points we accumulated to acquire drinks and dinner at a small place on the beach;  our attitude readjusted again.

Our camp at the Pemix. Well it was safe and cheep.

 

Mazatlán!!!

Changing up the plans.