| This is one of the more unlikely campsites on the
northern edge of Culiacan. This is in the grounds of a five star hotel. Full hookups but no showers. An excellent overnight stop and not as noisy as we
expected. It is just across the road from a Walmart and a Sam's Club. |  |
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The rooms are also mostly motel style and about 900 pesos a night which we
didn't think was bad. The surroundings are attractive. |
| There is a swimming pool for you to cool off in and a
bar. We did see a few residents but not many. Culiacan has over a million
inhabitants and is a typical bustling city. |  |
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Getting out and away was better than it has been from some Mexican towns.
There are some signs. A big army convoy was passing the other way, which
surprised us on a holiday weekend Sunday. The
Mexican army is very visible. We have passed through several checkpoints
although we are usually just waved through. |
| Back in the country, cattle this time, feedlots are
not the most attractive places either to look at or to smell. But we do tend
to like our steak..... |  |
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Most bridges are over dry river beds but occasionally we find one still with
water in it. The local kids are enjoying cooling off in the water. |
| Sometimes the road is just endless and absolutely
straight for miles and miles. This is still Mex 15 the main north-south highway on
the west side of the country. We plan to return to the US on the
equivalent road on the east side. |  |
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This is a lightly loaded pickup, taking the family on a holiday outing. And we pass signs every few miles telling
us it is obligatory to wear our seatbelts. At least the kids here are mostly
sitting down. These generally do go over the 'topes' slowly! |
| Jan liked these because she thought they looked like
stick drawings of
little girls with pigtails. I think she watches too much Channel 4. |  |
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We are not sure what they are picking but there are lots of them doing it,
and it is still a holiday Sunday.
It is possible they are picking chillies. A reminder that a lot of
agriculture here is still very labour intensive. |
| More trees in the central reservation. The main road
is often divided in the towns. They also sometimes have laterals - roads
running alongside the main road as feeders for the businesses. Sometimes
there are rules about what travels on which road and it is not very clear. |  |
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And so we made it to Mazatlan, the first coastal resort on the mainland which is
on the Pacific rather than the Sea of Cortez which is sheltered by long
peninsula of Baja California.
There are about 130 sites here all with full hookups. There were two other campers on
this site but we only saw one other person and he was waiting for a house
deal to complete. |
| We had to walk across the road to the beach but the
sunsets were not as spectacular as we had hoped. |  |
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