Durango-San Blas
Trip Start
May 20, 2006
1
3
9
Trip End
Ongoing
San Blas,
Mexico
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Spent the day relaxing with Senor RUM and cokes, took a nice walk and cooked a fabulous meal. Set up the tent- watched Dodgeball in Spanish and I spent the next few hours feeling really bizarre- shaking, chills and short of breath. Oops... all these years I thought that a rum and coke was equivalent to an 8ounce glass of water? Apparently in 120degree heat....not so much. Downed a giant bottle of water and was on the road to recovery!
Packed up the next morning and headed for Copala, down the Espinazo del Diablo (Devil's Backbone) Honestly one of the most nerve wracking roads I have ever been on. (Think of 3 Waipio's stacked on top of each other. Up and down for 100miles) I am surprised that our "oh shit" handle is still attached to the truck and not permanently glued to my hand.
We had lunch in Copala and decided not to stay- so friggin hot and the coast was only another 40km. The road ends just south of Mazatlan and we ended up at the closest possible beach for the night.
Camp spot in mountains
Playa El Caimanero. It was definitely not an tourist beach- but it was very crowded with Mexican families, drinking, eating and throwing all of their garbage on the sand. It was filthy, but we were sick of the truck and they had a few restaurants that served ceviche and cold beers. We set up camp while the dogs scavenged for food in all the trash. We had really good ceviche but the waitress wouldnt serve us beer- she said that they didnt have any(there were several other people with beer in front of them?) Oh well...it wasnt a real friendly place but the restaurant next door served us icy cold Negro Modelos and a little boy sold us some delicious cake.
The beach was deserted at around 8pm except for a few mangy dogs and a little old man in white pants and a white cowboy hat that watched us from the restaurant until it got too dark for him to see. When we woke up the bastard was at it again- he must have been in dire need of entertainment.
Next, we headed out for Isla Mexcaltitan, the birthplace of the Azteca people, but got in an argument about directions and decided that it was too far out of the way- and too much of a hassle with the dogs to go there and headed to San Blas to stay put for a week or two.
We stumbled upon a perfect little place to stay in a brand new house 2 blocks from Playa El Borrego. It is owned by a Canadian woman and her Mexican husband and has a fenced in yard for the dogs. We rented it for a week for $130. It has been really nice to get out of the truck and stay put for a few days.
Copala
Preston went surfing yesterday- the swell is pretty shitty but fun- water temperature has to be close to 90degrees. We are definitely taking midday siestas between 11 and 3pm- it is too hot and there is little shade on the beach to do anything else.
San Blas is a town of around 9000 people. There are some friendly ones and a lot of not so friendly ones. Surprisingly, the people who suck the most are a couple of aussie ladies that work at a supposed surfer hangout/restaurant/rental place called Stoners. They have the " I've been here for a couple months so I own the place" attitude. Irritating. I tell ya -its people like that who give Stoners a bad name.
Our dogs have actually turned into mexican street dogs- they are filthy, you cant stop em from eating and rolling in trash/fish on the beach and they really seem to enjoy their superiority over the local mangy mutts -needless to say- they are loving it. When not finding some leftover tacos on the street Chief spends most of his time in the water and the beachside restaurants. Hurley loves chasing crabs around along the shoreline and has been pinched in the nose several times.
Anyhoo... we have been eating delicious seafood, drinking pina coladas and negro modelos and chillin on the beaches of San Blas. Last night we bought a DVD to watch- 8 Below..in spanish...the best part? The DVD was a taped at the screening of the movie- and every so often there are silhouettes of people with popcorn standing up to get a drink or walking down the isle- it really makes you feel like you are in the theater. Hilarious.
From here we are headed back up into the mountains to stay at a Laguna Santa Maria del Oro and cool off for a bit. Laters.
