Mazatlan at last....

It seems like forever. But we finally dodged all the potholes we could, straddled the middle line, traveled the fast lane when empty and still managed to jolt the propane hose loose, toss half the small items around in the camper, and worry about the damage it was doing to my already problematic back.

But (she says sweetly) we are HERE.  HERE is Mazatlan, our last stop before HOME. It is hot and humid...31C  (88F) at 3:30 PM, and we have the air conditioner blasting out full. We are pretty tired, and don't really care for dining out or seeing the sights. We are eating the last of the available food in the refrigerator tonight. It might be an interesting combination....eggs, toast, beans, lots of salsa and guacamole, cheese. It sounds good to me though.  Last night we had no internet at our overnight stop in Los Mochis, so no blog entry. But the entire length of this highway has been flat as a pancake since we left Guaymas and not so interesting as what came before. The major change was from Sonoran desert with cactus and the odd few cattle grazing, to a greener more lush and productive agricultural vista. The farms are huge and commercial in grade. The coastal plain is 30 plus miles across in places, and I saw huge huge fields of tomatoes, and rice paddies (empty). The plains are crossed through with many irrigation canals, and a complicated system of smaller canals irrigating the fields themselves. The rows are contour ploughed, and formed into ridges and furrows. The plants are on the ridges and the furrows hold the irrigation hoses. Everything by the time we got halfway to Mazatlan was extremely green...thanks no doubt to hurricane Raymond who just blew through last week or so. I can't be more exact, as I have completely lost track of time, day, month. All I know is that we are tired of jolting ourselves down the endless highway and we just want to get HOME.

I did manage to get some photos snapped before the battery went dead today...sigh...haven't you noticed how all these glitches attack once you start feeling a bit under it all?? So here is a small sample to keep you entertained and up to date...

Before we leave Guaymas and Hotel Playa de Cortes, I thought a few more photos would be nice:

Here are more interiors of the lobby and the entrance courtyard:

After leaving Guaymas, the first major city is Ciudad Obregon which is the centre of a huge fertilizer industry. This serves most likely the entire agricultural plain between Guaymas and Mazatlan (about 500 miles). It certainly provides a total contrast to the loveliness of Guaymas:

Fortunately, Ciudad Obregon was soon behind us and the rest of the 500 miles just looked like this:

Well, this just about brings us up to date. Hopefully tomorrow will be an uneventful trip up the 5,000 foot ascent to the central plateau of Mexico where we find Lake Chapala and our home overlooking it. I did forget to mention that the regulator on the propane tanks seems to have been cracked by the jolting it received today, which means that we might have a wee problem with cooking dinner and keeping the fridge cold. Not to worry. We can always eat out and buy a cooler for the food. We consider ourselves lucky to have traveled 4500 miles in all sorts of conditions and made it this far before something broke!!!