Click on a photo to enlarge it.
It took us a bit longer than usual to get Winnie sorted out to leave the campground and by the time we had said goodbye to all our new friends, it
was after 1pm when we left. We stopped on the way to get water, shopping and petrol and wondered whether we would make it to El Fuerte in daylight.
Fortunately, Bob had given us a hand-written map to show us how to get around a toll. We would never have found the right route otherwise. (Thanks
Bob!) That saved us a lot of time, but we didn't quite make it to El Fuerte before the sun set. But it was quite a spectacular sunset and so we
kept stopping every few minutes for more and more photos!!
On Tuesday, we went for a walk into El Fuerte. It was extremely hot and we kept getting bitten by fleas - they were nasty bites! So we didn't stay
too long in the town. We had a look at the main Plaza and went into the Palacio Municipal where we saw murals on the wall, a central courtyard with
a fountain and a wooden staircase leading up to the second floor with balconies overlooking the courtyard.
We walked up to the fort which has been restored and by that time we had seen everything there was to see here. When El Fuerte has been restored
then it will be just as quaint as Álamos, but it will be some time before that. The main reason people come here is to get the train up to Copper
Canyon.
We tried to get into the internet but it was very slow and after 15 minutes of trying to get into our email account, we gave up! When we got back,
Helen made her version of a Mexican hot dog - tortilla with a Mexican sausage and ketchup on top! Not quite the same!! There's some things in life
you only do once - Helen's Mexican hotdog is one of them!
On Wednesday, we spent most of the day writing the website. On Thursday, we got woken up at 5am by some people leaving the campground and it was
still pitch black outside. Later we cleaned up Winnie, drove over to the dump station and then went on a really muddy roadworks detour to get onto
the main road.
Despite our efforts to avoid tolls, we ended up going through two today, one of which we didn't even know about as it wasn't on any maps. It was a
long driving day and we eventually found a Wal-mart in Culiacán where we did some shopping and parked up for the night.
We had to move Winnie at 1am in the morning, because we were parked in the middle of a now empty car park, and the locals were using it to practice
handbrake turns!!! By 1am they had burned so much rubber that we were a bit concerned they'd crash into Winnie. So we moved to the other side of a
wall, and out of danger!
On Friday we had to concentrate a lot to get through the very busy town and find the right way. But after that it was plain sailing all the way
south to Mazatlán. We got to the northern outskirts of the town and went to have a look at one of the campgrounds. It was a very nice campground
right on the beach, but it was also expensive ($18 per night).
So we drove into town looking for the accommodation where our friends Phyllis and Russ from Portland, Oregon were staying. We knew their
appartments were called "Balboa" something, but unfortunately everything had Balboa in the title!!! We finally managed to find the right place
and took photos of the sunset with them as their appartment was right on the beach with a fantastic view of the bay.
We went out for a meal together and caught up on the last few weeks since we'd seen them. It turned out that we only just missed them when we were
in San Carlos and Álamos. We arranged to meet up on Sunday again, and then we drove to a Pemex station for the night.
On Saturday, we spent the whole day going to all of the campgrounds, checking them out and comparing prices. We also tried to find out where the
large Sunday market was, but we must have missed something in the directions we were given!
We went to Soriana supermarket to do some shopping and stayed on the car park for the night. On Sunday, we drove to the Mar Rosa campground which
is right on the beach and was the cheapest at $15 per night. We hooked up and immediately got invited to a Salvation Army event at the campground
the following Friday, performed by orphans.
That evening, we walked down to meet Phyllis and Russ and went out for a meal at the Las Playas restaurant where they have fireworks every Sunday
at 8pm. There was live music for the whole evening and Phyllis and Russ got up to dance! The fireworks only lasted for about 5 minutes but were
very good. The view from the restaurant over the bay was fantastic!
Afterwards, we went to a large Mexican bakery for coffee and, of course, cake! The waitress brought along a trolley with so many cakes we couldn't
decide what to have!!
We walked back with our friends and had to say goodbye again as they were leaving the following morning to drive across Mexico to Texas, heading
eventually for Florida for Christmas.
