Day 6 – Bad car day
After posting to the blog yesterday, we thought we had everything under control to enter Mexico. Little did we know that our radiator had other plans. Between driving the 100 meters between Starbucks and McDonalds, our radiator decided to spew out its entire 10 liters of fluid and the engine overheated. We were rather sad and were forced to sleep where the car stood in the McDonalds parking lot.
Waking up, we searched for an auto repair store. Everything I found on google for Nogales looked horrible. Fortunately, a shopkeeper recommended “Alex’s Tire”, and after nearly ending up at a fake “Alex’s Tire” a block away, we had the van being looked at. The bad news – it would be $400, with 5 hours of labour to take the engine out and replace the “manifold intake gasket”. The good news – hopefully the leaking should cease. After a day of wandering around, we had our car back, and were assured by the mechanics Rene, Javier, and Jesus that we’d be all set for Mexico. Javier made us promise to not drive at night, so we did.
Day 7 – Across the border
After breakfasting in the Best Western, we cruised through the border, with laughably little border security. We got a “random check” red light, which involved the guard opening our side door, half-heartedly lifting up a corner of the mattress, then waving us through. We were in Mexico!
It was a six hour drive to San Carlos. We took a detour around the toll roads, narrowly avoiding hitting some huge unmarked speed bumps along the way. We listened to our first Mexican music, continued listening to some of the audio book “Mexico”, by James Michener, and stopped to have real Mexican burritos for lunch.
The road brought us to Totonaka RV Park, where we decided to pay the $14 per night for a secured parking spot, electricity, showers, laundry, and a swimming pool. After a quick dip in the pool and a romantic moonlit walk by the sea, we dined on delectable shrimp and octopus, overlooking the sea.
Back at the van, we watched our customary episode of Game of Thrones (we’re just starting season 2), and had a tough time sleeping with the stifling heat (32 degrees in the day, 27 being the low at night) and our stomachs not being accustomed to the food. We were extraordinarily relieved to have our usb powered fan blowing for some of the night.
Day 8 – Rest day in San Carlos
Today was nice and slow. We lazed by the pool, did laundry, and took a walk through town to the marina. We used the computer for a while, planning the next section of our trip, and took a rather terrifying bus journey back to near the campsite. We bought 1.5kg of watermelon plus three mangoes for $1 and then had dinner at the same seafood restaurant as last night – Viki having poblano crab and I had a dorado fillet Mexicano.
Extra Notes
- We have had a few animal encounters over the past few days. We narrowly missed hitting a tortoise, slowly crossing the main highway in Mexico. Yesterday we saw a pair of turkey vultures having a feast on the beach. Finally, last night we saw a skunk lurking by our van and quickly took cover to avoid being sprayed.
