Over all it was another exciting day for the adventure and the dream of Freedom 45.
We left the hotel at 845am headed to Maz and as we left town, we saw some remaining evidence of yesterday's heavy rain.
As we were about to enter Sinaloa, we came upon a Federal Policia checkpoint. We stopped and he looked at us with the look of "you don't speak Spanish and I don't speak English, so just proceed"...so we did!!
After a few more "caseta de cobros" (toll booths) and a few areas of un solo carril (single lane), we were bombing down the highway. Yesterday I forgot to mention the hundreds of road side memorials along the highway. Same thing today. These deaths could be caused by the bad driving, the bad shape of cars, booze, poor highway conditions, no highway lights at night or who knows what else.
Talking about road side memorials, see if these three photos tell a story.
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| Did a u-turn to take this photo |
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| Helping hand |
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| Back over 4 lanes |
Here's a word (or close to it) we saw..."fitazoosanitaria"...it was a checkpoint at the border to check on livestock transportation.
Had another day of crazy weather. Just past Los Mochis it came down hard again. But the whole country side is green and lush, something I have not experienced before as tourists normally come down during dry season. It was quite beautiful.
We continued on the "cuota" (toll) roads vs the "libre" (free) and made good time. We did have a day of poor gas mileage even though I checked tire pressure in the morning. It could have been the head winds or maybe the quality of gas in Mexico.
Around 90 km from Mazatlan we finally got to see the ocean to our right. So far the route down has been mainly in-land and was getting a bit (hee x3) repeated. Also saw a convoy of some 31 army vehicles, mainly pick ups, but a few troop transport vehicles and a medic Hummer. The President of Mexico really wants a safe country, free of drugs and guns, but he fights corruption, drugs headed north to the USA and Canada, and the flow of the guns from the US to Mexico. Guns are illegal in Mexico...if someone has one, it came from the USA...home of over 200 million privately owed firearms.
Guns in America Check out this wikipedia article.
We had packed a spare gas can in case we thought we would not find a Pemex when we needed one. We have seen many of these stations except for the area 90-30km away from Mexico. We didn't need the gas, we needed the bano and with no Pemex in sight, it almost became Pee-Bex time in the truck!!
We lost an hour due to the time change, but pulled off the highway and into Mazatlan at 330pm after another 550 km day. At a stop light, about 10 minutes drive from our hotel, Playa Mazatlan, a friendly older Mexican on a motorcycle made mention that we had a flat tire. Argh. We pulled over and in my quickest time (Nascar speed) and in the hottest heat I have ever had to do that task (35 degrees or so), changed the tire and hit the road for the hotel. The tire had the right pressure at 9am, but don't know when the puncture occurred and if this was affecting the mileage. We did buy some octane booster to see if that will help the Mexican gas.
Dirty and hot from the tire change, we checked in and hit the playa (beach), for an hour. It is soooo low season here. The two areas on the beach that the guests relax in, were empty. No one!! The streets around the hotel are quiet and we saw one other person in the whole building...a guy who was amazed at how long it must have taken to drive "UP" to Mexico from Canada. lol
Around 5pm we decided to drive to the Nissan dealer we had seen as we drove into Maz. They were helpful in broken English and our Spanglish. The friendly lady sent us down the street to a small place next to an "ugly" hotel (as she put it), where the quality of work would be bueno and the price cheap. These tire repair/sales places are called llanateras.
What is a coincidence, is that as we drive, we see words and look them up in the the 6 dictionaries we have in the truck. We had seen the word "llanatera" several times, but hadn't found the meaning of the word...until we pulled into the shop (if you can call it that).
We found the place and communicated with the gentleman in flip flops that we had a "desponchar llanta"...a flat tire. I got the tire from under the truck and off he went to work with his set of tools. This was no mechanic's garage...more like the back door of his house. He showed us the leak, pulled the tire off by standing on it, patched it, filled it, put it back on the truck and reinstalled the spare.
We forgot the golden rule...ask "cuanta questo?" (how much?) BEFORE the work is started. The gal at Nissan said it would probably cost 20-25 pesos and when Bex asked the guy "cuanta questo", he stated cincuentas...or 50 pesos. We were not going to argue as all that work cost us $4.25 Cdn.
Next was a car wash. The two boys pre-washed the truck, we went through a manually operated wash line, and then two more people hand dried the truck, windows and sills...all for another 50 pesos.
We found out that my favorite BBQ joint (No Name Cafe) is no longer around, but had a good dinner down the other end of the Zona Dorado (Golden Zone...tourist area). Ribs, salad, fajitas, a Negro Modelo beer for me and agua con gas for Bex.
The town has really changed and the lavanderia is now gone as well. We found one by the Nissan dealer, but tomorrow we will look for one closer to the hotel.
Tomorrow, it is gym time first, followed by breakfast at the hotel (cheap and good eats) as we have a $15 (170 peso) food credit per night, lavanderia time and then sit in the sun!! We have the hotel to our selves!!
Next update will be Friday from Manzanillo. After that, it will be only 2 or 3 more days until Huatulco.
Thank you to all that are following the adventure, leaving us comments or dropping us an email. Your encouragement and support is appreciated.
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