We came home on a friday, a sunny almost warm day in february, it felt like spring.
Perfect - we are looking forward to gardening and mucking outside.
Well, mucking we are. Since then, a minimum of 8 inches of snow has fallen. We are snowed in almost exactly like we were when we left on dec. 26!
It is strange being home. We are here physically but not mentally. Our mentality is now to slow down, enjoy the day, do things together as a family and not be pressured by schedules and "must do's".
We've ripped out a wall in our house. There's a lot more light in here now. The floor's next. We are also finishing the kitchen, slowly but surely. This house is incredibly big. Well, we've lived out of a van for a couple of months, of course the house is big!
Hindsight is 20/20 the saying goes, and in hindsight we shoulda, coulda, woulda stayed another month but having this big house and small farm comes with responsibilities that you just can't shove onto someone else's shoulders. That's something to think about for our next trip. And this snow of course is hard to get used to...I'm still wearing flipflops!
By the way, we are also not throwing toiletpaper down the potty but into the wastebasket, like in Mexico. Our septic field will thank us.
We are eating a lot of fresh fruits, fruity shakes with yoghurt, and fresh veggies and salsas. Our stomachs will thank us for that.
Our t.v. doesn't work anymore (everything's gone digital) so we are playing games, reading books, I've picked up weaving again and playing with clay (making beads). By the woodstove. It is all very peaceful and I hope we can keep this peace, love and happiness with us, and share it with our friends - when we can dig ourselves out of the snow of course!
Thanks for travelling with us, I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did.
Thank you for your comments and e-mails, and we'll see you on our next trip!
Live life and learn - happy lifelearning!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
last days on the road
Well then, the journey on the road has almost ended. We'll be home tomorrow.
But the journey in our hearts and minds will continue. We will continue to learn from what we've seen and experienced, and look forward to our next trip to Mexico.
Our last few days consist of driving, driving, driving. Here's a little plug for Comfort Inns and Holiday Inns, they are truly comfortable and clean places to stay. Not cheap but if you are doing lots of driving, a free drink at night with snacks and a large complimentary breakfast are very welcome.
I will update the pictures as soon as we're home, I can't seem to recharge the battery of the camera..
But the journey in our hearts and minds will continue. We will continue to learn from what we've seen and experienced, and look forward to our next trip to Mexico.
Our last few days consist of driving, driving, driving. Here's a little plug for Comfort Inns and Holiday Inns, they are truly comfortable and clean places to stay. Not cheap but if you are doing lots of driving, a free drink at night with snacks and a large complimentary breakfast are very welcome.
I will update the pictures as soon as we're home, I can't seem to recharge the battery of the camera..
Here is one of our analogies of our trip. This is what it feels like to be on this trip, to us.At home, imagine everyone is on a 5 lane freeway. Most everyone is driving fast, heads down, trying hard to keep up. Sometimes some lift their head up, eyes closed, to straighten their necks for a bit and loosen their stiff neck and shoulder muscles but then they quickly put their heads down again to go, go, go.We feel like we lifted our heads, slowed down, opened our eyes, SAT UP and actually veered off a side road. We slowed down even more (Mexico does that to you) and got off whatever vehicles we were on or in, and walked. Then, we slowed down even more and actually stood still and took in our environs, our space, our surroundings. Now our eyes were really opened. Our head cleared, and are still clearing even though this part of the trip we are heading back to that 'race' back home. We hope to hang on to this feeling of being off on the side road and off the road all together. We hope to keep our minds cleared and our eyes wide open, able to take in our surroundings and take deep breaths of the life we live.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Here are some scenes from Las Vegas. The statue of Liberty is by the New York, New York hotel and casino.
The pyramid is the Luxor and is where we stayed.
The Eiffel tower lights up at night, the whole hotel there is like being in Paris.
And the last picture is at the Venetian, where they have little gondolas ferry you around in canals going through the hotel area. We will not show other huge billboards and ads on taxis and trucks concerned with some of the nightlife and some shows. There were magic shows, a ventriloquist, comedians, and then girls, girls, girls....
This is the Hoover Dam. They are really building furiously here. There is a new visitor center and parking garage, and new viewpoints. They are also building a huge bridge right beside it and higher up. Picture on the right shows one of the sides of the arch that will support the bridgedeck. A new fourlane road is also connected to the bridge, so that traffic will not go directly over the hoover dam anymore.
Happy Birthday Ryan!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, we have to report on Las Vegas.Woooooooaaaaaah.The hotels are like huge shopping malls. I think we much prefer nature.We drove through on the Vegas Strip, from north to south, oooooh-ing and aaaaaaah-ing at all the hotels and casinos. One minute we drive by Rome, then Venice, then we visit New York (with a statue of Liberty!) and Paris (with an Eiffel tower!) and then we found it: our hotel for the night is a pyramid, the Luxor hotel. A huge black pyramid out of which at night shines a bright light straight up into space. This light and the Wall of China are visible manmade structure from the International Space Station!So our room is on the 11th floor, the elevator goes up diagonally and inside the pyramid are huge Egyptian statues, waterfalls and a small city with skyscrapers. I mean, this place is HUGE. And it is just one of the hotels here. The first floor is the casino.The room costs the same as the Comfort Inn in Surprise, last night, but no in-room coffee, no free waterbottles, no complimentary breakfast. And, WiFi internet is $15USD a day!We visited the hotel/casinos next door, the Mandalay (great shark/lizard/tropical aquarium) and the Excalibur with it's Medieval theme. All enormous and huge.And not cheap. But then people come here to play and spend money, right? Coming here on a budget is equal to not having that much fun. You are restricted in where to go, but it is possible to find certain buffets that are 2 for 1. There is A LOT of advertising. It is like living in an ad. You are bombarded with it. And some of it is pretty sleezy. This is after all known as sin-city. Also, it's kinda sad to see the people sitting at the slotmachines pressing a button (not even the excercise of pulling the handle on a one-arm-bandit) and wasting their money/time. Well, you never know, maybe this next one will be a winner......We figure it's all about addictions. Sex, liquor, gambling. And you can get it all and do it all here. Our addiction is Nature, we've discovered. Leaving Las Vegas behind we leave on tuesday and treck through Death Valley.Now there's something spectacular to write home about.
What an amazing scenic area this is! We go from elevation 3000 feet all the way down to -200 (below sea level), through amazing rock formations. All kinds of colors due to the mineral conditions. Pioneers came through here hungry and thirsty looking for water they could drink. They found places like "salty creek" and "devils" hills, death valley and funeral creek being the result.We find some dried up streams (there was a rainstorm here last night and so new snow on the mountains too) but not too dried up for us to check the clay situations. Back in Casa Grande, with the Native artists, we learned how to look for clay, what color, consistency and how to collect it so you can use it later. So out we go checking here and there where we see the tell-tale cracked dirt signs of a clay deposit. We got some nice samples! I have a strainer full of clay samples between the seats in the van, I don't have to tell you what that looks like...hope we don't have any kinds of inspections coming up...On the west side of the park, after passing through some funky little 'towns' or settlements with RV parks (which we figure we will come back to on our next trip...) the road climbs up, every 2 minutes a sign - 1000 ft, 2000 ft - and big snowy mountains loom ahead of us. According to the map the pass is only 4900 ft. so we may encounter some snow. Ears are popping!By the way, yes it IS hot at the bottom of the Valley. And this is winter time. We were trying to imagine this place in the summer. Better to avoid it then, we figured.The valley is beautiful and we definitely recommend coming here for a visit or drive through. It takes a minimum of 3 hours to go from one side of the park to the other, without stopping; but you'll want to make stops here and there. Also not for vehicles of 30 ft. or longer, and not for the faint of heart; steep dropoffs and narrow roads (scarier than driving in Mexico!) the van just fit...On the other side of the park you come through a couple more valleys, and then a historic village at Owen's Lake (Olancha).
From here we turn north. This was a bit of a gamble as we will have some passes to go through at about 8000 feet - there will definitely be snow there. The other way is south and through Bakersfield. But we've already been there on this trip on the way South. No use repeating ourselves!
We end up not having much snow at all through the passes. Smooth driving, careful at over 8000 feet because there was some blowing snow but nothing major. Not like in Canada! We had to laugh at the Californians we met with their parkas and rabbitfur hats, and here we are driving around (and stopping along the way) at 8000 feet in the snow with our hawaii print shirt and flip flops and tans...wimps! :o)
After more driving, we end up at 10 pm at Carson City.
Okay, we have to report on Las Vegas.Woooooooaaaaaah.The hotels are like huge shopping malls. I think we much prefer nature.We drove through on the Vegas Strip, from north to south, oooooh-ing and aaaaaaah-ing at all the hotels and casinos. One minute we drive by Rome, then Venice, then we visit New York (with a statue of Liberty!) and Paris (with an Eiffel tower!) and then we found it: our hotel for the night is a pyramid, the Luxor hotel. A huge black pyramid out of which at night shines a bright light straight up into space. This light and the Wall of China are visible manmade structure from the International Space Station!So our room is on the 11th floor, the elevator goes up diagonally and inside the pyramid are huge Egyptian statues, waterfalls and a small city with skyscrapers. I mean, this place is HUGE. And it is just one of the hotels here. The first floor is the casino.The room costs the same as the Comfort Inn in Surprise, last night, but no in-room coffee, no free waterbottles, no complimentary breakfast. And, WiFi internet is $15USD a day!We visited the hotel/casinos next door, the Mandalay (great shark/lizard/tropical aquarium) and the Excalibur with it's Medieval theme. All enormous and huge.And not cheap. But then people come here to play and spend money, right? Coming here on a budget is equal to not having that much fun. You are restricted in where to go, but it is possible to find certain buffets that are 2 for 1. There is A LOT of advertising. It is like living in an ad. You are bombarded with it. And some of it is pretty sleezy. This is after all known as sin-city. Also, it's kinda sad to see the people sitting at the slotmachines pressing a button (not even the excercise of pulling the handle on a one-arm-bandit) and wasting their money/time. Well, you never know, maybe this next one will be a winner......We figure it's all about addictions. Sex, liquor, gambling. And you can get it all and do it all here. Our addiction is Nature, we've discovered. Leaving Las Vegas behind we leave on tuesday and treck through Death Valley.Now there's something spectacular to write home about.
What an amazing scenic area this is! We go from elevation 3000 feet all the way down to -200 (below sea level), through amazing rock formations. All kinds of colors due to the mineral conditions. Pioneers came through here hungry and thirsty looking for water they could drink. They found places like "salty creek" and "devils" hills, death valley and funeral creek being the result.We find some dried up streams (there was a rainstorm here last night and so new snow on the mountains too) but not too dried up for us to check the clay situations. Back in Casa Grande, with the Native artists, we learned how to look for clay, what color, consistency and how to collect it so you can use it later. So out we go checking here and there where we see the tell-tale cracked dirt signs of a clay deposit. We got some nice samples! I have a strainer full of clay samples between the seats in the van, I don't have to tell you what that looks like...hope we don't have any kinds of inspections coming up...On the west side of the park, after passing through some funky little 'towns' or settlements with RV parks (which we figure we will come back to on our next trip...) the road climbs up, every 2 minutes a sign - 1000 ft, 2000 ft - and big snowy mountains loom ahead of us. According to the map the pass is only 4900 ft. so we may encounter some snow. Ears are popping!By the way, yes it IS hot at the bottom of the Valley. And this is winter time. We were trying to imagine this place in the summer. Better to avoid it then, we figured.The valley is beautiful and we definitely recommend coming here for a visit or drive through. It takes a minimum of 3 hours to go from one side of the park to the other, without stopping; but you'll want to make stops here and there. Also not for vehicles of 30 ft. or longer, and not for the faint of heart; steep dropoffs and narrow roads (scarier than driving in Mexico!) the van just fit...On the other side of the park you come through a couple more valleys, and then a historic village at Owen's Lake (Olancha).
From here we turn north. This was a bit of a gamble as we will have some passes to go through at about 8000 feet - there will definitely be snow there. The other way is south and through Bakersfield. But we've already been there on this trip on the way South. No use repeating ourselves!
We end up not having much snow at all through the passes. Smooth driving, careful at over 8000 feet because there was some blowing snow but nothing major. Not like in Canada! We had to laugh at the Californians we met with their parkas and rabbitfur hats, and here we are driving around (and stopping along the way) at 8000 feet in the snow with our hawaii print shirt and flip flops and tans...wimps! :o)
After more driving, we end up at 10 pm at Carson City.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Well we spent a lovely few days at Mr. Moro's at Las Glorias. The side trips made it really special as we felt not like tourists but like guests. A great big thank you to Horatio at Mr. Moro's!
Our next stop was El Fuerte, a colonial town inland. The Copper Canyon Railroad runs by this town and you can catch it here to go on the train to Creel in the Copper Canyon. The Canyon is larger than the Grand Canyon in the U.S.A.We found the campground recommended by the Church's in their book, but there was only one camper there and many, many, many mosquitos. We also found out already that the price for the trainride was a large chunk of our budget, and decided against the train ride this time around. We'll save that for next time.
So we hoofed down to the main highway again and went further north to another little colonial town called Alamos, recommended by our friends at Mr. Moro's. There we found, just before dark a campground at the beginning of town (we drove past this one as it looked less appealing than the one in town, but the one in town steered us away after eyeing us up and saying he wanted $200 pesos for camping. The other one was $150. The bathrooms left something to be desired and the showers...well we didn't even check the water if it was hot. There were some bugs flying around but more moths and such than mosquitos. It got pretty cold at night but still not too bad, because we were more inland than at Mr. Moro's by the ocean.In the morning we packed up and checked out Alamos. It was a mining town which was deserted and almost ghost-town until a group of expat Americans and Canadians with a bit of money came and rebuilt the town. Some grande casas and mansions are rebuilt, the town theatre and hotels, the old zocolo or town square and the church, we walked around town for a few hours admiring all the sights. We wandered through some of the restored mansions which are now hotels, boy, are they awesome. Magnificent fountains, paintings, woodwork - enormous wooden carved doors and furniture for example - we were surrounded by colonial Mexican splendor.We took the van (which fits into the little narrow cobblestone streets quite nicely, by the way) up to a lookout point and met some people who recommended a campsite on the other side of town, by the graveyard. We'll remember that for next time.
After Alamos, and some snacks from a streetvendor (beef tacos! yummmmm) we drove to San Carlos. Got there in the late afternoon, and some folks remembered us from the first time we came, over a month ago! The place was way busier than we remembered, but we got our original spot again by the toilets and showers and laundry. We spent the next day doing laundry in the morning and then taking off to the beaches in the afternoon. There was a Valentines party that afternoon, potluck with free beer and marguaritas.We brought some nachos with sugar and cinnamon, talked to a few people and turned in early. We're hoping to make it to the border tomorrow. Appearantly it is a long weekend in the States, President's Day on Monday so we are warned that the borders will be busy sunday and monday.
Saturday, Valentines Day we say goodbye to San Carlos at 7 a.m. We totally recommend staying in San Carlos your first night in Mexico. It is all American and Canadian, the owner speaks English, superclean and friendly and we paid for camping $16 usd per night. A great intro or adios to Mexico for us Gringos.From here we hit the border at Nogales at noon. An easy drive on a 4 lane divided toll highway. We got stopped a couple of times, army checkpoints, and by the border we actually had to get out and the army guys did a search of the van. "you are vacationing? In THIS? All of you sleep in this?" Why do people find that so hard to believe? Anyway, no problemos. We return our driving permit at the Banjercito, then cross 4 lanes of highway traffic to return our touristcards, and then off to the U.S. border checkpoint. Well, the line-ups were for truck traffic, lined up for a few miles, but we ended up waiting about 40 min. in line, then had to go through a search (we had 4 eggs in the cooler and 6 potatoes - a 'no-no' to bring across into the U.S.A). So then, around 1:30 we were back on American soil and into the culture of materialism, the HAVEs as opposed to the Mexican HAVE NOTs. We decided right away we much prefer the Mexican way. Much more respect and friendlyness. Ever tried to say hi and wave to an American stranger? You sometimes get a weird face or they just ignore you....although yes there are a few that may smile.We are still speaking Spanish here and there and luckily most people here in southern Arizona speak both languages too...we don't seem too out of place yet but we sure feel out of place.Our stop here is in Patagonia State Park where we stayed on the way South.
We had heard about snow in Tucson, and even in Nogales! Well, at night it went down to 0 degrees celcius. Very VERY cold for us! We are SO not ready for that! But then we are at an altitude of 4000 feet or so..We leave early in the morning 8 a.m. under partially cloudy skies. We totally recommend this State Park for staying in before or after crossing the Mexican Border. The Church book recommends an RV park next to the Sanborn insurance place in Nogales - we do NOT recommend this. It looks very run down. The State Park is beautiful, a lovely scenic half hour from the border, a large lake, a haven for birders! This weekend there were lots of families as well, and there's a wonderful visitors center with snakes and a Gila monster!
Sunday the 15th we visit Casa Grande National Monument in between the cities of Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. There was a Native Music Fest going on as well, and we had fun trying out several handmade wooden flutes and recorders but the prices were a little on the high side so we have to 'think about it' before buying it. The music was incredible and we talked to many of the artists making arrowheads and bows, and making native pottery and beadwork. Got some great earrings with juniperberry seeds and silver. Lots of ideas for things to make at home to trade for or barter with at Rendezvous throughout the year at home. (you know, the period 1850 gatherings we go to).
Then we drive through Phoenix and emerge on the west side in the town of Surprise! where we find a hotel and hot showers. We can rest comfortably and WARM here at a $$$price$$$$ of course. And figure out our next course of action.
Our next stop was El Fuerte, a colonial town inland. The Copper Canyon Railroad runs by this town and you can catch it here to go on the train to Creel in the Copper Canyon. The Canyon is larger than the Grand Canyon in the U.S.A.We found the campground recommended by the Church's in their book, but there was only one camper there and many, many, many mosquitos. We also found out already that the price for the trainride was a large chunk of our budget, and decided against the train ride this time around. We'll save that for next time.
So we hoofed down to the main highway again and went further north to another little colonial town called Alamos, recommended by our friends at Mr. Moro's. There we found, just before dark a campground at the beginning of town (we drove past this one as it looked less appealing than the one in town, but the one in town steered us away after eyeing us up and saying he wanted $200 pesos for camping. The other one was $150. The bathrooms left something to be desired and the showers...well we didn't even check the water if it was hot. There were some bugs flying around but more moths and such than mosquitos. It got pretty cold at night but still not too bad, because we were more inland than at Mr. Moro's by the ocean.In the morning we packed up and checked out Alamos. It was a mining town which was deserted and almost ghost-town until a group of expat Americans and Canadians with a bit of money came and rebuilt the town. Some grande casas and mansions are rebuilt, the town theatre and hotels, the old zocolo or town square and the church, we walked around town for a few hours admiring all the sights. We wandered through some of the restored mansions which are now hotels, boy, are they awesome. Magnificent fountains, paintings, woodwork - enormous wooden carved doors and furniture for example - we were surrounded by colonial Mexican splendor.We took the van (which fits into the little narrow cobblestone streets quite nicely, by the way) up to a lookout point and met some people who recommended a campsite on the other side of town, by the graveyard. We'll remember that for next time.
After Alamos, and some snacks from a streetvendor (beef tacos! yummmmm) we drove to San Carlos. Got there in the late afternoon, and some folks remembered us from the first time we came, over a month ago! The place was way busier than we remembered, but we got our original spot again by the toilets and showers and laundry. We spent the next day doing laundry in the morning and then taking off to the beaches in the afternoon. There was a Valentines party that afternoon, potluck with free beer and marguaritas.We brought some nachos with sugar and cinnamon, talked to a few people and turned in early. We're hoping to make it to the border tomorrow. Appearantly it is a long weekend in the States, President's Day on Monday so we are warned that the borders will be busy sunday and monday.
Saturday, Valentines Day we say goodbye to San Carlos at 7 a.m. We totally recommend staying in San Carlos your first night in Mexico. It is all American and Canadian, the owner speaks English, superclean and friendly and we paid for camping $16 usd per night. A great intro or adios to Mexico for us Gringos.From here we hit the border at Nogales at noon. An easy drive on a 4 lane divided toll highway. We got stopped a couple of times, army checkpoints, and by the border we actually had to get out and the army guys did a search of the van. "you are vacationing? In THIS? All of you sleep in this?" Why do people find that so hard to believe? Anyway, no problemos. We return our driving permit at the Banjercito, then cross 4 lanes of highway traffic to return our touristcards, and then off to the U.S. border checkpoint. Well, the line-ups were for truck traffic, lined up for a few miles, but we ended up waiting about 40 min. in line, then had to go through a search (we had 4 eggs in the cooler and 6 potatoes - a 'no-no' to bring across into the U.S.A). So then, around 1:30 we were back on American soil and into the culture of materialism, the HAVEs as opposed to the Mexican HAVE NOTs. We decided right away we much prefer the Mexican way. Much more respect and friendlyness. Ever tried to say hi and wave to an American stranger? You sometimes get a weird face or they just ignore you....although yes there are a few that may smile.We are still speaking Spanish here and there and luckily most people here in southern Arizona speak both languages too...we don't seem too out of place yet but we sure feel out of place.Our stop here is in Patagonia State Park where we stayed on the way South.
We had heard about snow in Tucson, and even in Nogales! Well, at night it went down to 0 degrees celcius. Very VERY cold for us! We are SO not ready for that! But then we are at an altitude of 4000 feet or so..We leave early in the morning 8 a.m. under partially cloudy skies. We totally recommend this State Park for staying in before or after crossing the Mexican Border. The Church book recommends an RV park next to the Sanborn insurance place in Nogales - we do NOT recommend this. It looks very run down. The State Park is beautiful, a lovely scenic half hour from the border, a large lake, a haven for birders! This weekend there were lots of families as well, and there's a wonderful visitors center with snakes and a Gila monster!
Sunday the 15th we visit Casa Grande National Monument in between the cities of Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. There was a Native Music Fest going on as well, and we had fun trying out several handmade wooden flutes and recorders but the prices were a little on the high side so we have to 'think about it' before buying it. The music was incredible and we talked to many of the artists making arrowheads and bows, and making native pottery and beadwork. Got some great earrings with juniperberry seeds and silver. Lots of ideas for things to make at home to trade for or barter with at Rendezvous throughout the year at home. (you know, the period 1850 gatherings we go to).
Then we drive through Phoenix and emerge on the west side in the town of Surprise! where we find a hotel and hot showers. We can rest comfortably and WARM here at a $$$price$$$$ of course. And figure out our next course of action.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
One more thing to mention...
We have to add another animal to our list of ones we've seen. We couldn't believe it but Sunday the boys came running saying they found a dead snake on the beach.
We've come to learn now that in this area we have Constrictors, of the Boa kind. Uhm, yeah....what else can I say about this? It was as long as Megan is tall, so around 5 feet. Looks like a dog had killed it that morning, it wasn't even stiff yet.
Last thing I expected to see here... No one was interested in disecting it, and Horatio took it away in the evening as he figured it may be bad for business...no one ate at the restaurant that night...haha!
The tour..
The dance troupe and the tri-maran....
Beautiful statues in the churches.Mural in Dr. Torro's mansion in Lleva.
The tower ruins in Lleva.
More from Las Glorias.
Well, we were going to stay here for 2 days, friday and saturday. We met this wonderful homeschooling family from BC (same school as we are with, SelfDesign!) and the kids get along great, so we had a wonderful couple of days. We built campfires at night, everyone hangs out on the beach and in the pool and ocean and listen to eachother's music, and we exchange loads of info.
But on Saturday, the manager of the campground came with the idea that he is setting up a tour of the local area, some archaeological sites and ruins, and some folklore. This is the first tour he's setting up this way and he is wondering if we are interested in doing this. The bird island tour on saturday was in the same fashion, kind of an experiment as he would like to provide guests with an option of tours of the area. Well, that sounded interesting as it would be a non-touristy thing and we would be the guinneapigs, so to speak. Later in the day he came with the marvellous idea that we would not pay for this tour, but please give him input on it and recommendations and suggestions and such. We were to take our own vehicles and pay for our lunch and a boatride on a river somewhere, and there may be a small fee for a museum too. Well that sounded great so, we add on a couple of more nights.
Sunday we loafed around, another car/tenter pulled in, a man and his 2 daughters (under 10) who is on his way south. Adventurous bunch, his little VW rabbit runs on used vegetable oil from the restaurants (this restaurant here gave him 6 gallons for free!) so that was big fun for the boys in our company. These folks also lived in Costa Rica for a year, have travelled extensively all over the Americas and then some so lots of storysharing around the campfire at night.
Monday we caravaned early, 8 a.m. we were on the road. Almost everyone from the campground went, 4 trucks (well, our van was in there). First stop was a museum in the town of Tamazula (I hope I'm spelling that right) and it was wonderful. A small old school/church building in the middle of this little town explained about the indiginous people here who were sort of 'giants', more than 2 meters tall, which totally shocked the Spaniards when they blazed through the area looking for gold in the 1500's. And, the people were war-like and cannibals to boot. We saw some of their burials - they would dismember and stuff in a pot - and their tools
and toys and such. Then the museum told the history up through the revolution until about 50 years ago. The lady was extremely informative and Horatio our guide from Mr. Moro's was very good at translating. He had made lots of notes and did his best to accomodate everyone.
Next up was a ruin of a Jesuit church in a graveyard in Bamoa. This is one of the oldest ruins in the state, very cool to see and we would have never found this on our own. It is not on any map, none of the things of this tour are in any brochures so we were the first 'tourgroup' to go through. Then we went to another ruin of a larger church and a new one built right beside it. The statue of San Ignatio is carved from stone and carried to the water canal when there's a need for rain for this fertile agricultural area. He is then asked to bless the harvest and put back inthe church. But if he is not so inclined, story goes 'there is no man that can move the statue'.
Then we had a long drive to the town of Sinaloa de Lleva, which used to be the capital of this state (it is now Culiacan). There some people met us, several ladies in suits and a distinguished looking older gentleman with cowboyhat who spoke english. Horatio explained that 'it's out of my hands now, these folks have set up a tour of the town for you'. This was all new for him as well. We arrived an hour late, due to driving conditions we think, and so the tour started later and we had to wait for lunch later....not at 1 as we expected.
We toured the tower in the town which is the oldest building -we were told- in north Mexico, the Californias, Baja, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah. An old Jesuit Mission, it was the base from where priests would go out and convert the natives. The tower is all that is left and it is just now realized this is of cultural value and tourists may want to come and see, so the new Mexican government is helping financially to make this town more appealing for tourists. As mentioned, we were the guinneapigs! We were asked many times on the tour how we liked everything and were we enjoying ourselves. More pictures were taken OF us than BY us!
We also got to tour the 'new' church built in 1600's and recently stucco'd and painted over by the current priest, reasons unknown, and we visited the municipal hall and the room where decisions are made with its pictures of all mayors since the town's beginning, and a prominant doctor's home which is now a cultural center and houses a museum, library and such.
Then, at 3:30 and noticing we were fading in and out with our attentionspans, we went to a restaurant by the grand Sinaloa river and had a wonderful meal of which some was free, provided by the folks giving the tour. The Ceviche was new for us, made with raw scallops, and pickled fish, all not cooked but 'cooked' in lime and onion. Very tasty and our stomachs are still o.k. today..!
By 5-ish we figured that is the end of the tour, long day and seen a lot. Nope.
We drove a couple hundred yards up the road and a dancing troupe was waiting for us (by now we're several hours behind schedule so who knows how long they've been waiting for us). These were highschool aged dancing school students performing 3 local dances for us, a ranch wedding, a traditional Sinaloense dance and ? another one oh yes a native dance in native costume.
And they did a fabulous job. Lots of colour, loud music, enthusiasm and pride. And it was all put together for us! We felt very humbled and priveledged. Again, more pics were taken OF us than by us. And some of us were asked to join in the dancing.....Earl and I haven't danced since our wedding....but the kids guided us well. Lots of fun.
THEN, we thought that was it for the tour, getting late now. But nope, on to the riverboat tour. A half-hour jaunt on a trimaran which looked like it could barely hold 5 people let alone 25...very interesting and more dancing here, by us!
We could not get the kids involved in the dancing, they are too shy!
THEN, we thought THAT was it, but no...one more stop on top of the hill overlooking the pueblo. It is not a big town, 11,000 inhabitants only, and we had a great view up on the hill into the state of Chihuahua, up and down Sinaloa state. There is a shrine of the Lady of Guadelupe up there that people pray to for the wellbeing of Mexico, and their homestate, and their hometown and everyone they know. Candles were lit.
Then, THAT was the end of the tour. The people made an emotional speech thanking us and saying, like they say Viva la Mexico! - Viva la Canada and the canadian people here with us today (there were a couple from U.S.A. and Quebec but we were an all-inclusive friendly bunch of tourists).
Well, we arrived home at 7:30 in the dark, it was a long long day but what a fabulous tour. We definitely recommend coming to Mr. Moro's and doing this tour - the kinks will be worked out and it will be shorter for sure - to everyone.
More fireside talk and reminiscing and a good nights sleep. It's cold here at night, though.
We decide to stay another night....
But on Saturday, the manager of the campground came with the idea that he is setting up a tour of the local area, some archaeological sites and ruins, and some folklore. This is the first tour he's setting up this way and he is wondering if we are interested in doing this. The bird island tour on saturday was in the same fashion, kind of an experiment as he would like to provide guests with an option of tours of the area. Well, that sounded interesting as it would be a non-touristy thing and we would be the guinneapigs, so to speak. Later in the day he came with the marvellous idea that we would not pay for this tour, but please give him input on it and recommendations and suggestions and such. We were to take our own vehicles and pay for our lunch and a boatride on a river somewhere, and there may be a small fee for a museum too. Well that sounded great so, we add on a couple of more nights.
Sunday we loafed around, another car/tenter pulled in, a man and his 2 daughters (under 10) who is on his way south. Adventurous bunch, his little VW rabbit runs on used vegetable oil from the restaurants (this restaurant here gave him 6 gallons for free!) so that was big fun for the boys in our company. These folks also lived in Costa Rica for a year, have travelled extensively all over the Americas and then some so lots of storysharing around the campfire at night.
Monday we caravaned early, 8 a.m. we were on the road. Almost everyone from the campground went, 4 trucks (well, our van was in there). First stop was a museum in the town of Tamazula (I hope I'm spelling that right) and it was wonderful. A small old school/church building in the middle of this little town explained about the indiginous people here who were sort of 'giants', more than 2 meters tall, which totally shocked the Spaniards when they blazed through the area looking for gold in the 1500's. And, the people were war-like and cannibals to boot. We saw some of their burials - they would dismember and stuff in a pot - and their tools
and toys and such. Then the museum told the history up through the revolution until about 50 years ago. The lady was extremely informative and Horatio our guide from Mr. Moro's was very good at translating. He had made lots of notes and did his best to accomodate everyone.
Next up was a ruin of a Jesuit church in a graveyard in Bamoa. This is one of the oldest ruins in the state, very cool to see and we would have never found this on our own. It is not on any map, none of the things of this tour are in any brochures so we were the first 'tourgroup' to go through. Then we went to another ruin of a larger church and a new one built right beside it. The statue of San Ignatio is carved from stone and carried to the water canal when there's a need for rain for this fertile agricultural area. He is then asked to bless the harvest and put back inthe church. But if he is not so inclined, story goes 'there is no man that can move the statue'.
Then we had a long drive to the town of Sinaloa de Lleva, which used to be the capital of this state (it is now Culiacan). There some people met us, several ladies in suits and a distinguished looking older gentleman with cowboyhat who spoke english. Horatio explained that 'it's out of my hands now, these folks have set up a tour of the town for you'. This was all new for him as well. We arrived an hour late, due to driving conditions we think, and so the tour started later and we had to wait for lunch later....not at 1 as we expected.
We toured the tower in the town which is the oldest building -we were told- in north Mexico, the Californias, Baja, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah. An old Jesuit Mission, it was the base from where priests would go out and convert the natives. The tower is all that is left and it is just now realized this is of cultural value and tourists may want to come and see, so the new Mexican government is helping financially to make this town more appealing for tourists. As mentioned, we were the guinneapigs! We were asked many times on the tour how we liked everything and were we enjoying ourselves. More pictures were taken OF us than BY us!
We also got to tour the 'new' church built in 1600's and recently stucco'd and painted over by the current priest, reasons unknown, and we visited the municipal hall and the room where decisions are made with its pictures of all mayors since the town's beginning, and a prominant doctor's home which is now a cultural center and houses a museum, library and such.
Then, at 3:30 and noticing we were fading in and out with our attentionspans, we went to a restaurant by the grand Sinaloa river and had a wonderful meal of which some was free, provided by the folks giving the tour. The Ceviche was new for us, made with raw scallops, and pickled fish, all not cooked but 'cooked' in lime and onion. Very tasty and our stomachs are still o.k. today..!
By 5-ish we figured that is the end of the tour, long day and seen a lot. Nope.
We drove a couple hundred yards up the road and a dancing troupe was waiting for us (by now we're several hours behind schedule so who knows how long they've been waiting for us). These were highschool aged dancing school students performing 3 local dances for us, a ranch wedding, a traditional Sinaloense dance and ? another one oh yes a native dance in native costume.
And they did a fabulous job. Lots of colour, loud music, enthusiasm and pride. And it was all put together for us! We felt very humbled and priveledged. Again, more pics were taken OF us than by us. And some of us were asked to join in the dancing.....Earl and I haven't danced since our wedding....but the kids guided us well. Lots of fun.
THEN, we thought that was it for the tour, getting late now. But nope, on to the riverboat tour. A half-hour jaunt on a trimaran which looked like it could barely hold 5 people let alone 25...very interesting and more dancing here, by us!
We could not get the kids involved in the dancing, they are too shy!
THEN, we thought THAT was it, but no...one more stop on top of the hill overlooking the pueblo. It is not a big town, 11,000 inhabitants only, and we had a great view up on the hill into the state of Chihuahua, up and down Sinaloa state. There is a shrine of the Lady of Guadelupe up there that people pray to for the wellbeing of Mexico, and their homestate, and their hometown and everyone they know. Candles were lit.
Then, THAT was the end of the tour. The people made an emotional speech thanking us and saying, like they say Viva la Mexico! - Viva la Canada and the canadian people here with us today (there were a couple from U.S.A. and Quebec but we were an all-inclusive friendly bunch of tourists).
Well, we arrived home at 7:30 in the dark, it was a long long day but what a fabulous tour. We definitely recommend coming to Mr. Moro's and doing this tour - the kinks will be worked out and it will be shorter for sure - to everyone.
More fireside talk and reminiscing and a good nights sleep. It's cold here at night, though.
We decide to stay another night....
Friday, February 6, 2009
Hello from Las Glorias..again!
To first answer a question, the church altar in San Sebastian (see previous pictures) was covered because they were fixing it, which was too bad we really would have liked to have seen it. This way it will be finished for Easter which is a MAJOR celebration here. There are many, many catholics and roman catholic people here. But, Mexico is a land of contrasts as well and not just in nature but in the people and in the culture, get this: you may know how strict the church is on marriage, no divorce allowed, but the folks here find it quite acceptable for married men to have a mistress on the side, and special hotels are built for the purpose of discreetly and privately meeting your "other" in fancy places with walls all around for cheap rates. Hmmmm.
Another contrast: people are always cleaning here, sweeping and mopping and using lots of bleach, but don't put toilet paper in the potty or it will be plugged up (the pipes are smaller diameter here except in the big hotels of course) and you should be lucky to find a toiletseat on the potty and if you find toiletpaper available you've really struck it rich!
My purse contains a roll of t.p. at all times.
Well the kids are with Earl and another family we met here at Mr. Moro's (yes, we've been here about a month ago!) on a boattrip to the birdsanctuary and I'm the lucky one here doing some laundry (by hand) and cleaning out the pantry box and kitchen box. It is nice and quiet here, maybe 8 other motorhomes and 5thwheels. The family I just talked about is from Nanaimo and are with the same school we are with in BC! Another homeschooling family on the road - see we are not that crazy at all!
It is very much cooler here, or maybe we are very much wimpier now having been down south in the jungle. We are back to wearing jeans and hoodies in the evening!
I think we just have to climatize a bit. Not ready for snow yet, though....
We stayed the last night in Mazatlan in a cheap hotel between the golden zone and the old downtown. We walked through the old town, visited the church there, everyone is getting ready for the carnival which starts 19 february. This is the 3rd largest in the world, after another place and Rio de Janeiro. Oh yeah, New Orleans. So it is a big deal and buildings are fixed up, painted, streets cobbled, cleaned, neon signs everywhere...
As for us, we are glad to miss it. Reportedly it gets crazy busy, wall to wall people and partygoers.
Mr. Moro's is nice and quiet, one hour from the main highway. We have a nice little campfire on the beach at night, very cozy.
Another contrast: people are always cleaning here, sweeping and mopping and using lots of bleach, but don't put toilet paper in the potty or it will be plugged up (the pipes are smaller diameter here except in the big hotels of course) and you should be lucky to find a toiletseat on the potty and if you find toiletpaper available you've really struck it rich!
My purse contains a roll of t.p. at all times.
Well the kids are with Earl and another family we met here at Mr. Moro's (yes, we've been here about a month ago!) on a boattrip to the birdsanctuary and I'm the lucky one here doing some laundry (by hand) and cleaning out the pantry box and kitchen box. It is nice and quiet here, maybe 8 other motorhomes and 5thwheels. The family I just talked about is from Nanaimo and are with the same school we are with in BC! Another homeschooling family on the road - see we are not that crazy at all!
It is very much cooler here, or maybe we are very much wimpier now having been down south in the jungle. We are back to wearing jeans and hoodies in the evening!
I think we just have to climatize a bit. Not ready for snow yet, though....
We stayed the last night in Mazatlan in a cheap hotel between the golden zone and the old downtown. We walked through the old town, visited the church there, everyone is getting ready for the carnival which starts 19 february. This is the 3rd largest in the world, after another place and Rio de Janeiro. Oh yeah, New Orleans. So it is a big deal and buildings are fixed up, painted, streets cobbled, cleaned, neon signs everywhere...
As for us, we are glad to miss it. Reportedly it gets crazy busy, wall to wall people and partygoers.
Mr. Moro's is nice and quiet, one hour from the main highway. We have a nice little campfire on the beach at night, very cozy.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Hiking through the jungle on the way to Playa des Muertes, Sayulita. It is called Beach of the dead because it is next to a large graveyard, see picture on the right. The graveyards here are like mini-towns with steeples and spires and little houses and mausoleums, brighly painted and decorated with statues, balloons, flowers, candles etc. This cemetary is right in the jungle, up the hill from the ocean at the south end of town.
feb. 2/09 going north.
Well, I'm behind a bit with blogging. Saturday, we spent a lovely day in San Sebastian, a colonial town dating back to the 1500's, high up in the mountains, with cobblestone streets and whitewashed houses with red rooftiles and loads of lime and avocado trees. There's a beautiful old church which has a bell that dings every 15 minutes. It was nice and quiet, not many tourists. The drive to this town is hair-raising at some points, through thick jungle, the road washed out in places and rockslides that pushed the driving to the edge of the road. Roadsigns warned to watch out for armadillos, wild boar and jaguar but we didn't see anything like that. (too bad!). The town is high in the mountains east of Puerto Vallarta. It used to be a silver mining town for the Spaniards, some mines are still further up in the mountains but we didn't walk there. We walked around town, our van just made it through some of the narrow one-way streets so we parked it in the townsquare. The doors of the little houses and villas are thick solid wood with big iron hinges, very cool and historic feel and the people very friendly.
We came back to Sayulita to find the beach supercrowded, loud families until late in the night partying and singing.
We found out Sunday that it's a long weekend, constitution holiday I believe it is. People from the hills (ie. Guadalajara and other towns inland) come to the beach for the weekend. We didn't mind the singing and such, it was quite nice to see large families all spread out on the beach singing together, then rolling out the extension chords (hooking up where..?) for all kinds of iPods, ghettoblasters and then the barbequeing etc. Hordes of people in the water, the rescue guys (some of the surfers from our campsite) had a busy weekend as several people got caught in the riptides.
So Sunday was our last day in Sayulita. It was sad to go, in a way this place felt like home. Megan is very excited about buying a place there with condos to rent out and living there part of the year and part of the year in Canada...she checks out the real estate offices when we walk into town and is on the internet real estate sites....we'll let her do her thing who knows? She may find something. Ryan was busy surfing, boogyboarding and playing around with friends. We got lots of emails and may visit their new friends on the way north again, they live near San Francisco where they have 80 acres and a herbal medicine school.
We said goodbyes to all and
Monday morning we left early, 6:45 we were on the road. Destination: Mazatlan.
We decided to take the tollroads the whole way making the trip possible in 6 hours. Then we'd be there by lunchtime.
3/4 of the way, driving through El Rosario for some gas and having spent $20 on tolls, we take the libre or free road the rest of the way into Mazatlan. Those tolls get to you after a while! But you can sure go fast and make good time on them. The free roads go through towns so you deal with bustraffic, topes (speedbumps) and other bothers but it is a little more adventurous.
We passed through fields of tobacco, corn, and some unidentified as of yet plants. I took a picture maybe someone can i.d. it for us.
Around 1 p.m. we arrived in Maz. and we drove around the old town to see if there was a good hotel to stay in. I'd found one on the internet, we checked it out, but we also checked out in the Zona Dorado a 'luxury' hotel. We opted for the luxury, a two bedroom, 2 bath with kitchenette and view of the ocean with 2 balconies. There are pools on the beach with waterfalls. And the beach is supernice with a gentle surf.....we booked 2 nights. Not cheap (over $100 USD) but oh did we sleep well - and our very own shower and potty!!!!!!!
The campground we stayed in on the way down is full by the way, lots of big rigs.
It is soooooo nice to sleep in an actual bed, make coffee and drink from a real cup in the morning (not our tin cups), watch some news (nothing too interesting really, mostly we watch nature shows or the weather).
One thing about staying in a nice hotel: the condo sales people are like vultures, waiting for you downstairs in the lobby and outside on the streets. You almost HAVE to be rude and just walk by without talking or answering, I really dislike that. You can't even make smalltalk. They offer free breakfast, listen to a 'talk' or salespitch for 90 minutes and then a free trip ie. snorkeling or a city tour or something, swinging by the condos for sale of course. Or they'll give you $100 cash instead and just come for the breakfast and the salespitch. And they don't give up easily! Very persistent. We talked it over with the kids, then decided we'll do our own thing and not sit in on the salestalk even if a 'free' trip is involved.
This morning we made a nice fruitshake with yoghurt in our little kitchen, we're slowly getting up and running after a wonderful sleep in a BED (yes we are really, really excited about that) and we look out over the ocean with the little boats and little islands offshore, the pool and some lazy tourists.
Oh yes we had a great dinner last night, 2 for one ribs, beer etc. shrimp, and a mariachi band with a wonderful singer. It looked to be one large family, moms dads kids everyone.
Very enjoyable.
Hasta Luego!
We came back to Sayulita to find the beach supercrowded, loud families until late in the night partying and singing.
We found out Sunday that it's a long weekend, constitution holiday I believe it is. People from the hills (ie. Guadalajara and other towns inland) come to the beach for the weekend. We didn't mind the singing and such, it was quite nice to see large families all spread out on the beach singing together, then rolling out the extension chords (hooking up where..?) for all kinds of iPods, ghettoblasters and then the barbequeing etc. Hordes of people in the water, the rescue guys (some of the surfers from our campsite) had a busy weekend as several people got caught in the riptides.
So Sunday was our last day in Sayulita. It was sad to go, in a way this place felt like home. Megan is very excited about buying a place there with condos to rent out and living there part of the year and part of the year in Canada...she checks out the real estate offices when we walk into town and is on the internet real estate sites....we'll let her do her thing who knows? She may find something. Ryan was busy surfing, boogyboarding and playing around with friends. We got lots of emails and may visit their new friends on the way north again, they live near San Francisco where they have 80 acres and a herbal medicine school.
We said goodbyes to all and
Monday morning we left early, 6:45 we were on the road. Destination: Mazatlan.
We decided to take the tollroads the whole way making the trip possible in 6 hours. Then we'd be there by lunchtime.
3/4 of the way, driving through El Rosario for some gas and having spent $20 on tolls, we take the libre or free road the rest of the way into Mazatlan. Those tolls get to you after a while! But you can sure go fast and make good time on them. The free roads go through towns so you deal with bustraffic, topes (speedbumps) and other bothers but it is a little more adventurous.
We passed through fields of tobacco, corn, and some unidentified as of yet plants. I took a picture maybe someone can i.d. it for us.
Around 1 p.m. we arrived in Maz. and we drove around the old town to see if there was a good hotel to stay in. I'd found one on the internet, we checked it out, but we also checked out in the Zona Dorado a 'luxury' hotel. We opted for the luxury, a two bedroom, 2 bath with kitchenette and view of the ocean with 2 balconies. There are pools on the beach with waterfalls. And the beach is supernice with a gentle surf.....we booked 2 nights. Not cheap (over $100 USD) but oh did we sleep well - and our very own shower and potty!!!!!!!
The campground we stayed in on the way down is full by the way, lots of big rigs.
It is soooooo nice to sleep in an actual bed, make coffee and drink from a real cup in the morning (not our tin cups), watch some news (nothing too interesting really, mostly we watch nature shows or the weather).
One thing about staying in a nice hotel: the condo sales people are like vultures, waiting for you downstairs in the lobby and outside on the streets. You almost HAVE to be rude and just walk by without talking or answering, I really dislike that. You can't even make smalltalk. They offer free breakfast, listen to a 'talk' or salespitch for 90 minutes and then a free trip ie. snorkeling or a city tour or something, swinging by the condos for sale of course. Or they'll give you $100 cash instead and just come for the breakfast and the salespitch. And they don't give up easily! Very persistent. We talked it over with the kids, then decided we'll do our own thing and not sit in on the salestalk even if a 'free' trip is involved.
This morning we made a nice fruitshake with yoghurt in our little kitchen, we're slowly getting up and running after a wonderful sleep in a BED (yes we are really, really excited about that) and we look out over the ocean with the little boats and little islands offshore, the pool and some lazy tourists.
Oh yes we had a great dinner last night, 2 for one ribs, beer etc. shrimp, and a mariachi band with a wonderful singer. It looked to be one large family, moms dads kids everyone.
Very enjoyable.
Hasta Luego!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)