Jackson's Journeys: San Carlos to Alamos to Mazatlan

In spite of Art's unforeseen shower and cleanup we were rolling by 9:00 AM on Tuesday morning. Today was to be a relatively short to the old mining town of Alamos some 50 kilometres east of Navajoa. (The pen points in the photo mark the start and finish)

After 266 kilometres, 393 posos in tolls,($33.00) we arrived at Alamos, the entrance to the town marked by a large triple arch, reaching campground, Real de los Alamos, at 12:45.

We were able to get mostly off the road, the back end of the tracker partially blocking the traffic lane because the gate was closed. A moment later a man arrived to advise us that they weren't open for business yet – it was too early in the season, they wouldn't open until December! As we explained that we didn't need any services, just a safe place to park, a young man joined us and said a few very fast words in Spanish that we didn't understand, then we heard a voice call from the porch of the house and the man then told us that the owner said we could stay and that the boy would show us where to park. We quickly got off the road and were soon settled in. When Art checked the electricity (always necessary at most RV Parks in Mexico) he found the hot and neutral to be reversed. – no great skill to check this, a $10.00 plug in devise makes it easy.

This park is a large grassy field lined with trees and signs of a lot of recent rain. After we were set up Art went up to the house to pay our fees—260 pesos if memory serves and found the three men sitting on the porch. He was invited to sit and chat for a while; he learned that the owners name was Enrique, Cyrilo was the man who met us at the gate and Arturo was the young man. Art learned that a month ago the park had about a foot of water in places but was quite dry and firm now. Two years ago the place had been completely flooded from the rains of a hurricane. The owner said he had had a lake for several weeks! (The above photo was taken later in the day. Note the van. It had arrived while we were out sight seeing.)

Art mentioned what he had found with the power, but was told there was no problem, it was the same as the house used! Enrique seemed to understand about hot/neutral reversal, but didn't seem to believe that Art was correct and made no move to check it! Since we couldn't use it, (the inverter won't let it past into the coach) we didn't plug in. The batteries were fully charged and the inverter would supply any AC that we might need such as for the TV and satellite receiver. The weather was very pleasant so there was no need for the air conditioner. No chance of a discount on the rent either!

After a quick bite of lunch we headed into town. We soon found a guide, who led us around for an hour in his truck while we followed in our car. We stopped in several interesting places and learned quite a bit of the history of the place. The floods of two years ago washed out an entire neighbourhood of shacks and shelters of the very poor, many of whom were killed. The cemetery in the photo was flooded. The area between the cemetery and the river beyond is were the homes used to be.

(click to enlarge)

Entrance door to a private residence, the tree outside--we are always amazed at how well trees do almost encased in concrete! Right; the main foyer of the Palacio Municipal (City Hall).

Alamos has been here for centuries and was getting quite run down when discovered by wealthy American and Canadian ex-pats who have been buying the old residences and restoring them to their former glory. Unfortunately, most of their character is hidden behind high stone walls, although some tours are available. We may return here for a bit longer stay another time.

When we returned to the motorhome, we found we had company—a small van was parked a few spaces down. There was no one around that evening, though Gillian met Katheryn, who's rig is was, in the morning, just before we left.

As we were hooking up the car Art asked Arturo if the small trees were citrus, and was told yes—lemon, orange, mandarin, tangerine and grapefruit. As we were pulled away Arturo dropped out a nearby tree and presented us with the one and only ripe grapefruit on it!

Katheryn pulled out right behind us, but turned right to town while we turned left back towards Navajoa and the long day's run down to Mazatlan. The time was 8:15, one of our earlier starts, but we knew it would be a long day.

By 11:00 AM we were ready for lunch and so we pulled into La Pilarica, a Spanish owned Pemex and truck stop at Los Mochis. This is another of our favorite stops—the restaurant serves good Mexican truck stop food—far from the typical fat, sugar and carb food found in US and Canadian truck stops. This time however we decided to just make a sandwich as Art wanted to stretch out for 20 minutes as well. By 12:08 we were southbound again, taking another 20 minute rest at one of the many toll booths two and a half hours later.

This is also an expensive run—lots of tolls totaling 1174 pesos—almost $100.00 Canadian.

At 5:20 we arrived at Las Jaibas RV Park in Mazatlan, a 620 kilometre drive.