Click on a photo to enlarge it.
On Monday, we left the campground and headed south on Highway 15. We took a detour off the main road to avoid a toll station and, after lunch, we
drove into Hermosillo. We tried to find Wal-mart and Sam's but managed to miss both of them!
So we carried on south, and just outside Guaymas, we stopped at a Pemex station. Then we had our petrol problem again but couldn't pull the hose
off and neither could two men at the petrol station! So we parked up for the night and decided to leave the problem until tomorrow!
On Tuesday, Kirsten managed to get the hose off so that we could fill up with petrol. That's the first time we've managed it!
We drove into Guaymas, did some shopping and got 5 gallons of drinking water for only 5 Pesos ($0-50 cents!) Then we had a look at some of the
campgrounds in the area which are all really good and then drove through San Carlos and up to a lookout point over a lovely rocky bay and blue
sea.
Nearby is the El Miramar campground which is supposed to be the best campground in Mexico. Well it is a really nice, clean campground but it is
also expensive ($22 US per night!) But then all of the campgrounds are expensive here. We decided to stay for 3 nights and Kirsten put her posters
out to try and sell some photos on CD - a get some money back! (Didn't sell even one!! - but it might have been due to the wind which kept blowing
the posters over!!)
Wednesday was hair cutting day for Helen as she looked like a poodle! Kirsten wrote on the computer and then went to use the free internet at the
campground - one of the main reasons why we decided to stay here!
Kirsten spent hours downloading music and found a duet with Dolly Parton and Melissa Etheridge and then drove Helen round the bend by singing it in
a high pitched voice all the time!! It was so bad it hurt!!!
On Thursday, Kirsten disappeared for hours again to download more music and in the evening we walked up to the lookout point again to watch the
sunset. We could see lightning in the distance and an ominous black cloud rolling towards us. Lo and behold, when we got back to Winnie it started
raining!
On Friday, it was hot and sunny again. We unhooked and got ready to leave. We set off further along the coastal road heading north. We thought we
could stop along the coast further up, but the road turned into a rough dirt track and so we had to go back to San Carlos.
We stopped at the marina in San Carlos for lunch and then drove into Guaymas. We were looking for a place to stay for the night somewhere on the
water front but there wasn't anywhere really suitable. So we got back onto the 15, continuing south and stopped at a Pemex for the night.
On Saturday, after a loud night despite the ear plugs, we left early and stopped on the side of the road for breakfast. Then we went in search of
the free road to try and avoid two tolls on the main highway.
Avoiding the first toll was quite easy and didn't take very long. But then we went wrong somewhere. At first it wasn't too bad because the roads
were quite good. But then we hit a town called Villa Juarez.
By now we were back on the correct route, but it seemed that every road out of Juarez, except for the one we had driven in on, was blocked off due
to road works. We asked several people including a police officer who sent us on a bad dirt track even though he insisted that it was the correct
way! Maybe its OK for the locals but not for Winnie! So we gave up and went back into the town.
Then we followed a detour which we knew would take us too far south and mean a lot of extra mileage. At first the road was good. But then it badly
disintegrated - good tarmac stretches ferquently interspersed with huge pot holes!!
Needless to say it took us a very long time but we eventually managed to get back on track. It had taken us over 3 hours to do an extra 27 miles
just to avoid 2 tolls (about $17). Was it worth it? NO!!!
Decidedly pee'd off we took the road inland to get to an old colonial town in the hills called Álamos. In Álamos, the facades of colonial
mansions line the narrow cobbled streets, concealing courtyards lush with bougainvillea. It is set in the forested foothills of the Sierra Madre
and is a serene town replete with beautifully restored colonial buildings. No wonder it has been declared a national historic monument!
The town's charms have proven irresistible to a community of retired Americans and creative people who have snapped up many decaying colonial
buildings over the last 30 years and renovated them.
It is set between the desert to the north and the lush tropical jungles to the south. In 1540 it was a campsite for the Spanish during the wars
against the indigenous Mayo and Yaqui. But the Spanish did not know about the vast amounts of gold and silver later found by prospectors.
During the Mexican Revolution, Álamos was repeatedly attacked by rebels and the fiercely independent Yaqui and by the 1920s most of the population
had left and many of the once beautiful haciendas had fallen into disrepair. Álamos became practically a ghost town.
In 1948, the town was reawakened by an American who bought and restored a mansion on the main square. He brought publicity to the town and made a
fortune selling real estate to Americans who set about the task of restoring the town. Many of these people still live in Álamos today.
We discovered all this when we got here and ended up staying for 9 nights - a lot longer than planned. We headed for the Acosta campground, a quiet
place behind the town. Well, Mexico is never quiet! There will always be the loud "boom, boom" of Mexican music which probably hasn't changed for decades. It's always the same "boom, boom"! And it is invariably played late at night - i.e. midnight! Occasionally we would hear Boney M or other music from the 70s but always very loud!
Music is just part of Mexico!
On Sunday, we walked into town (about 1 mile) and wandered around one outdoor and one indoor market. We bought lots of fresh vegetables and fruit
which were really heavy and carried them back to Winnie. It was very hot so we were quite exhausted when we got back. Kirsten got her hammock out
and went to sleep!
