Click on a photo to enlarge it.
We drove down to San Carlos in two days and stayed for 12 days at our beach spot. We got out our solar panel and finally finished our Central America trip on our website. Then we headed south again as Helen was flying over to England for Christmas and we needed to get down to Mazatlan for her flight.
Kirsten drove to Teacapan and then returned to collect Helen from Mazatlan airport in January and Helen had brought her lots of German chocolates from England as a Christmas present.
We stayed at the camp ground at Los Pelicanos for 2.5 months and had the camp ground virtually to ourselves. It was only a few years ago when we were packed in like sardines. Our friends Brian and Lily came to stay for just over a week on their way south and for a few days on their way north so we weren't lonely.
We also had a visit from Phyllis and Russ where we went out for a night on the town as there was a festival taking place and watched the "burning of the effigy" which was a basket of fruit and veg made out of paper.
A large dead whale about 45 feet long landed on the beach and was slowly being moved towards Teacapan by the tides. It was a baleen whale and when we looked it up on the internet it looked as if it might be a small or young blue whale. (Fully grown they are 90 feet long and weigh 170 tonnes or more.)
Young dead blue whale on the beach in Teacapan.
Kirsten wasn't able to go fishing this time but she did buy freshly caught fish from the local fishermen and then filleted it herself.
Kirsten filleting a Dorado and feeding the bones to the pelicans afterwards.
We also managed to get some repairs and cleaning done. We took out our toilet which is quite a big job, so that we could clean it and we also needed to clean our ventilator above the gas rings and re-paint it. The oven cleaner we had bought worked really well but unfortunately, the chemicals were too strong for the metal filter and melted the aluminium! So then we had to repair the filter!
In the process of looking for a self-made replacement, we were invited to a school concert in town where children from several schools in the area perform. Some of them are really gifted.
Tec School Music Festival.
We enjoyed our time on the beach and mid-March we headed north again and met some friends literally on the highway! They overtook us and then we all pulled off to the side to chat and catch up for an hour.
At one of our overnight stops at a Pemex (petrol station) there were a group of men from Puebla (near Mexico City) who travel in their small van loaded up with goods for sale but have to sleep outside on the petrol station floor as there is no room for them all to sleep inside! They are on the road for months!
We stayed in Alamos for 5 weeks which is another one of our favourite places. It was late when we arrived and we stayed with our friends Rosemary and Andrew for a night and then went to a camp ground.
We had a musical afternoon with Andrew and Annabelle playing the violin and Helen on the flute and went to the beach for Rosemary and Helen's birthday (which is on the same day) for a beach walk and good food with friends. Unfortunately we were attacked by mosquitos but when the wind picked up they were blown away.
Andrew, Helen and Annabelle playing for fun.
A friend of ours in Teacapan who lives in Mexico year round, gave us some very good tips on e-books and films. We are planning to take Winnie to South America and know that we won't be able to get many second hand books in English and book swapping opportunities will be very few and far between.
So during our stay in Alamos we took advantage of the wifi at the camp ground and downloaded free e-books even though we don't have an e-book reader yet! Kirsten passed on all our tips to friends and we watched quite a few of the latest films using live streaming.
Helen started to plan her summer trip to do the Camino de Santiago through Spain which is 500 miles long. She then extended it twice, once because she found out that the walk starts in France, and the second time when a friend from Oregon arrived at the camp ground who has already walked the Camino and showed Helen her guide book. As soon as Helen saw that there is a path all the way from Geneva, Switzerland, she decided to start from there - 1,250 miles (or almost 2,000 km)!! Crazy or what?!
At the end of April we headed north and returned to San Carlos for 3 days where Kirsten collected some shells for Helen as they are a Camino symbol.
