It only took us about 5 hours to drive from Tucson to San Carlos, Sonora. So we got to Carole's home at about 3pm. We were so happy to have survived the border crossing (green light!) that we were just happy period. We unpacked the car (well, at least what we needed out of it), then drove to the San Carlos Marina to have a drink at the Marina Catina - this is where there is free WiFi! We met a lovely server there - Sheila - and we had a great time talking about Mexico, and life in general. After two margaritas we headed to dinner at a small outdoor restaurant that specializes in seafood. Muey Bueno! We actually walked to the restaurant from the house so it was good to walk around and see the local homes (and just stretch those legs!).
The next day I woke up at 5:15am and we decided to just get up and go. Our original plan was to drive to Culiacan (5 hours) but we altered that to attempt to reach Mazatlan (8 hours). We did it! Mazatlan is a big city of 300,000+. I thought it was going to be tough to find where we needed to go to get a hotel (I have never been there...so wanted to get some tourist experience out of it). We were successful in finding a hotel (a supposed 5 star hotel for $100 - I would actually rate it 3 star). I didn't really care as long as there was a bed and A/C!
We took a taxi into old town and ate dinner in a lovely square (Plazuela Machado). We then walked around old town and marvelled at the old buildings. So much character! Denni now has dreams about buying one and fixing it up! Anyway, after walking a bit, we stopped at one of the two gay bars in town - Vitrello's. It was too early for much activity, but we had a beer and talked a little bit with the server.
The next day we left Mazatlan around 8:30am and headed to Puerto Vallarta. There is a brand new toll road for 5 hours of that drive but there are no gas stations so luckily we had enough to make it (the gas light came on about 10 miles before we got to the first gas station - whew!). This was in Tepic. From there, we got off of Hwy 15 for the first time to take Hwy 200 along the coast to PV. It was raining and the road is really curvy so it was a white knuckler for awhile, but we survived.
We got to PV around 6pm (we think - the time zone changed and we forgot to move our clock ahead in Mazatlan so at this point we were two hours behind in our car clock/watches). When we finally got into Bob & Gil's condo, it was just heavenly. Not just because we were happy to be out of the car after a long day of driving. But because they have a jaw droppingly beautiful condo up on the hills above PV. We were a bit stunned. So we made ourselves a martini and went and swam in the pool, then made dinner in. We're going to really enjoy staying here for 3 nights!
