November 6, 2007

The winter influx of retirees from Canada and the US has begun.

I stopped counting after 20 the RVs that were passing us going south, as we motored the opposite direction on Highway 15 from Mazatlan to San Carlos.

Many of the big rigs - usually traveling in packs of twos and threes - had British Columbia license plates.

It was somehow comforting to us; we didn't feel alone on the road anymore as we had for so much of the trip. Traveling in off-season can do that to you.

The RV traffic also provided a useful diversion for the eye, as the scenery was less attractive than it had been on the way down, the fields beside the highway now harvested and laying brown and bare.

- - -

This 796 kilometre, one-day push tested our endurance, but given that I started my new job on November 23, and that we still had a lot of ground to cover before then, we were left with little choice but to bite off these big travel days.

It also emptied our wallets, as we had opted to take the faster toll roads the entire way. In total, we passed through nine (!) toll booths and paid out a whopping $55 in tolls.

Some respite was to be found at “La Pilarica” in Los Mochis. It is the only North American style rest-stop we saw in all of Mexico and Central America. With picnic tables, clean washrooms, a food court and a gas station, it could compete with rest stop complexes that we have seen in the Eastern US. In a pinch, it might even be an okay place to camp for the night.

The already long drive had been made even longer by a massive military checkpoint.

Just before the Sinaloa/Sonora state line, a row of semis was parked on the highway, blocking all traffic. Without exaggerating, it probably stretched for two kilometers.

We quickly decided that if we didn't follow the car in front of us and cut across the median and then down the wrong-way in one of the oncoming lanes of traffic, we would be held up in the line up for days.

Once we got to the front, we could see that every truck was required to stop and have its trailer searched (presumably for drugs and/or illegal immigrants).

This kind of inspection must be an enormous inefficiency for business, as the transportation of goods literally comes to a stand still.

We drove into Guyamus at 5:15, just as the sun was setting. It took another half an hour to crawl through town and make our way to the massive Totonaka RV Park in San Carlos, the next town over.

The front desk person at the campsite, as well as the server at the restaurant, refused to speak to us in Spanish.

Tuscon is now an easy five hour drive away.

Key Facts & Figures:

-Totonaka RV Park: $12/night
-Tolls, Mazatlan to San Carlos: $55