Week #10: Alamos, Las Glorias y Mazatlan

Greetings from hot and sunny Mexico. I know much of the US is freezing cold this weekend so I hope you're all staying warm and cozy! If any of you want to meet us down in Mexico this winter, we would love a visit and are happy to take a break from van living and get an AirBnb for a while! We're likely to be in Guadalajara, Guanajuato, San Miguel do Allende and San Luis Potisi over the next two to three weeks. Then we'll maybe head south to Mexico City (if we think we can handle the big city) and eventually on towards Oaxaca. Let us know if you're interested and we can coordinate dates and locations. 

After our first stop in Bahia de Kino, we decided to head inland to the small mountain town of Alamos. It's a pueblo magico which is a collection of over 100 towns in Mexico that are known for their cultural and historical significance. Alamos was founded in 1685 and was designed by architects from Andalusia, Spain including the Plaza de Armas which is a beautiful central square complete with historic church, palm trees and meandering gardens. We stayed at a great RV park that had a beautiful pool and had only two other guests there so we had plenty of room to stretch out.  The Parque La Colorada is a beautiful park in Alamos with lots of hiking trails which leave right from the edge of the city. See photos below of our visit to Alamos.   








Like a pinball ball making its way down the board, we headed back towards the coast after Alamos and landed in this secluded beach town called Las Glorias in the state of Sinaloa. Sinaloa is known for having a strong cartel presence so were a little apprehensive about traveling through this state. There were a number of road check points and lots of military vehicles on the highway so it felt as though the government was doing their best to contain the cartel activity. The military drives around with lots of guys in the back of pickup trucks and there's always at least one of them standing holding a semi automatic machine gun so they're pretty intimidating to say the least. Our experience so far is that Mexicans have been very friendly, hospitable and go out of their way to help us out. I think it helps that we always try to speak Spanish and are hopeful that our Spanish improves throughout our visit. 

We spent two nights in Las Glorias which was just about right as there was not much going on except for endless miles of secluded beaches (if that's your thing). The RV park there also only had one other guest - another couple from LA who were staying for a month for $275 including showers, water and electricity! See photos below of our campsite and the beach at Las Glorias. 



We left Las Glorias yesterday to drive to Mazatlan where I had a dentist appointment to have my teeth cleaned and a tooth inspected as my filling fell out last month when we were in New Mexico. We stopped for lunch at a place outside of Culiacan recommended by a former coworker. We had their specialty which was aguachiles which is raw seafood (shrimp, scallops and octopus in our case) drenched in lime juice and chili and served with raw onions and cucumbers - we both thought it was some of the most amazing seafood that we've ever had - thanks for the pro tip Ryan! 


Today I visited the dentist in Mazatlan and learned that my filling is not as easy to fix as I would have liked. It requires a crown and a filling of the tooth next to it and a total of four additional trips to the dentist! The good news is that all of this work will only cost $500 and the dentist appears to be very professional and even speaks English - thank goodness! I've scheduled these appointments for April when we'll be coming back through Mazatlan on our way back to the US. I had dental surgery (implant) on our last big international trip in Hanoi, Vietnam so this one seems like a piece of cake. Ginny did read that Mexican dentists aren't as generous with the novocaine so really hoping it's not some up-sell once I'm already reclined in the seat. 

Comments

  1. Bridget HannaJanuary 15, 2022 at 6:18 PM

    Wow, amazing! This is making me long to visit Mexico again.

    ReplyDelete

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