El Golfo Road Update

I did a little digging as to the highway route and I found these two crude maps.....but they both confirm the route. Once the highway gets past the estuary, it turns and follows the ocean! Very cool. I hope to make this trip very soon. Check out the attached link.....

http://gulfofsantaclara.com/coastal-highway.php

New Places to Explore!!!

As many of you know, exploring when one is in Mexico is part of the fun. I have not done much of that lately, but my Mom and Dad were down this last week and had some time. They took the new El Golfo highway over to Santa Clara as my dad was hoping that he could turn off and run down to our old stomping ground. In my minds eye I thought the new highway would run parallel to the railroad tracks and at the old salt depot ( I think on the old map I had it was called El Tornial (spelling ???)) turn off toward the ocean and you would be there. Well....as my dad describes it, the highway turns west and the tracks are on the east of the road with the highway running very close to the ocean......and very close to the cliffs near our old camp ground. He said that at about kilometer marker 73 there were trails right down to the beach. I have not confirmed yet if one can get a vehicle down at this location, but he said that in less then one hour from the house you could be there. In fact, they made it all the way to Santa Clara in about 1 hour. He said town was odd with many tent like stores and as he described "like a mining town" feel to the place. There are a couple new hotels, but they did not stay long so they basically just drove through town.

The other thing he discovered was that East of Playa Encanto, past the houses, there is access down to the beach where one can drive an ATV on the beach for about 3 miles before you get to the sign for the Mayan Palace......that could be another cool trip. Leave it to my dad to find two new spots in one week.

I have got to go hit the El Golfo road and see that beach again before it is all gone....fenced off....or with houses, hotels and such.


Chris,
I can still see Sybil blasting down that beach......good times.

Semana Santa (Easter to all Gringos)

Being at the house over Easter has been fun the last two years. Last year we took down Matthew's friend Shane...this year it was Debbie and Darren Parmiter, Cougar and Shelbie.....and we had a great time. We were able to get out of the valley Thursday night and had an easy trip down until we got to Why....where we were pulled over for speeding. It turned out ok as the sheriff just gave us a warning, but it did delay out progress for about 20 minutes. Darren gave him the sad eyes and the "we have never driven down here before" line and he let us go.....good for Darren as paying a $120 ticket would not have been good.

I have to make a quick statement about the red cross. On the outskirts of Sonoyta, they have a Tecate tent set up, that has been there for years now and on most week ends they man this station to collect donations. Most contribute something; a dollar, pesos...whatever. Now as part of your donation, they stick a red cross sticker on your window as a sign that you are a good citizen...or at least a kind soul. I took the sticker off when we got to the house this last time right away but I forgot and today tried to remove the sticker and now I will need a razor blade.




Rough seas on Friday




Thursday night was good. We all settled in and enjoyed cocktail hour for our first night. The weather report before we left called for wind on Thursday night and Friday.....and it did not disappoint. It was windy and cool on Friday. The ocean was rough (the photo above does not do it justice), but it never got to the dark grey green color that it can in the winter. Shelbie and Darren hit the tide pools looking for sand dollars and found a few. Cougar and Shelbie had not been to the ocean before so this was a new experience and one my family hopes we can share with them many times. We got some odd jobs done around the house.

It was Friday and we needed some shrimp. We packed up the gang and had planned on going to the malecon to the fish market....planned was the operative word. The traffic was bumper to bumper. As we got over to the harbor we could see that the road had been blocked with temporary fencing and we could not drive down to the malecon. So we went over to the other fish market we knew La Chi Chi and picked up some shrimp (two kilos) as well as a fillet of what they called "manta" but what we would call sting ray just to see what it tasked like. All in all the total was $21.00. It would have been a little less if we had pesos on us, but it was still a good deal. We asked the lady at the fish market why the road was blocked and she told us it was a recreation of Christs procession with the cross. We thought that could have been an interesting thing to see and that next year we would get there much earlier.

Tough day on the beach.....everyone asleep at 10:00pm

A quick note about the water tank (I know....is that finally done?). I think that this issue will be in the past. Gerry re-piped all of the connections. Built a bracket to support the water filter, and added coupling connections to allow for the pump to be removed without having to cut the pipe. It worked well while we were there except for a little rough starting once in awhile that Gerry came back to fix on Monday.....lets keep our fingers crossed.

Back at the house we cleaned the shrimp, enjoyed the sun set and had a great shrimp dinner. We had grilled shrimp, steamed shrimp with peppers and onions, as well as shrimp quesadillas. The manta we fixed the way were told to cook it; boil it for a few minutes then grill it.....not the best but I think we just did not fix it right. If you recall, back in January we saw some fishermen landing ashore in a cove east of the house and they had a lot of sting rays in their catch. I was wondering then what it tasted like and I hope we just cooked it wrong, as the meat was tough and had almost no flavor.



Did Shelbie have a good time.......what do you think?

The wind stopped over the night and we had a great day on Saturday. I purchased an 4x4 ATV to use at the house that has big steel racks on the front and rear. The hope was that this would be the ticket to haul stuff to and from the beach; chairs, coolers, sea kayaks, etc and it worked great. We just loaded it up in the garage and drove it all down in one trip. What a back saver. The day was great on the beach.....a little cool for me, but all in all a good day with clear sky's. Matthew did not get to play in the water all that much as he thought it was a little too cold as well, but Shelbie and Cougar had a great time. I can not wait to take them down again at the end of May when the sea is like a big swimming pool.

We decided to run to town as we really did not get a chance to do some tourist shopping on Friday. It was very crowded, but fun. Mexican drum bands playing in the square and just a festive atmosphere. Lourdes had to get a Mango Tango at the Thirsty Parrot, and their patio was a great place to people watch. After we left there we did the tourist thing. Darren and I found a place that had beer on sale for 15 pesos; and with the dollar to pesos conversion @ 14 to 1, that was very cheap price for a Bud Lite....so we had two each.

Sunday was Easter and we awoke to a nice clear day. Lourdes and Debbie made an egg, sausage, bacon, cheese, etc casserole that was very good. As it was Easter, the kids all got a chocolate bunny, and my wife got me one as well...she must love me. We also had an egg hunt for the kids. Darren and I hid the 60 some plastic eggs outside around the house. Not an easy task when all you have is sand and very small bushes as your landscape. But we made it work and it was somewhat of a challenge. The kids are all getting older and who knows if we will keep doing the egg hunt....that said deep down I think even Vincent had a little fun. About 11:00 we went back down to the beach and enjoyed the middle of our day. Around 1:30 -2:00 we got back to the house, did a little packing and I took a quick nap in preparation for the drive home. We had to leave on Sunday as we had work to get back to, but the Parmiters had Monday off so they stayed over night (lucky dogs).

Vincent found the golden egg.

We were a little concerned about a big line at the border. Town was very busy and usually that translates into a long wait on a Sunday. I had read that most of the bookings for the hotels in the area were not by Americans, but from within Mexico. The crowd in town confirmed that was the case, but as we cleared the small hill by the old "Wendy's" and we could see the border we were still surprised and relived.....there was no wait at the border crossing. We breezed through; stopped for some gas in Why, and pulled into the garage in Phoenix at 9:30.

It was a great time and a big thanks to Debbie, Darren, Shelbie and Cougar for spending the weekend with us.

Thinking about getting away???

This time of the year is what started the Mexico itch for me those many years ago....a little free time, good weather, and dreams. There are many of us out there in search of those same feelings......maybe trying to find them selves in this world; or maybe "re finding" or redefining". I do not know. I have found a couple of blogs out there that are much better at writing about this then I am. Most are retired and have found a place in Mexico that reconnects them to who they were before, or to who they want to be.

One of those blogs that I have been reading is http://hammockmanpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/living-in-mexico-every-mexicophiles.html

Here is one of the lines from this Blog; 

"Mexico is for those of us who are pioneers or adventurers or swashbucklers or whatever. If you are not, you would be better off in Hawaii or Disney world or Sun City. But if you crave new experiences, want to see what you're made of, like challenges and have an ability to stretch and give a little, then the border calls to you, "Cross me. Let the adventure begin."

I feel that way on days like this....in need of a little change in latitude, and maybe a little adventure.