Fri, Apr 12 - Back to Green Valley

 

We met up at 7 AM in the hotel restaurant for eggs, bean and chiliquilies, packed up and set off at 8.  We headed north towards Agua Prieta on roads of varying quality, at last climbing over the Sierra Madre mountains on a narrow steep road between jockeying huge freight trucks!  

We could see Trump’s fence as we crested the top.  We entered the border town of Agua Prieta searching for the Banjercito, the government bank where we have to return Hilary’s auto permit.  You pay $400  for autos when you enter the country which is returned when you leave.  The bank was nowhere to be seen, and as the city was rather chaotic, we headed 50 miles west to the tiny town of Naco where we have had an easy time in the past. 

Trump's Wall

Graffitied fence on Agua Prieta side

 Again we couldn’t find the bank but met up with an official who turned out to be American  to whom we tried to speak Spanish.  He laughed and said he didn’t speak Spanish…(seem amazing that the officials on the border wouldn’t be bilingual!!).  We made an U-turn and pulled up to the Mexican soldiers who started looking under the hood and in the trunk as they thought we were entering Mexico!!  Apparently there is no place to return the permit, but Hilary has until Sept to do so and can probably drive to Nogales from her house.  Most people don’t live so conveniently close, and I guess forfeit the $400!!

Anyway, back in the states, already missing colorful Mexico!  Grabbed some food at Macdonald's, and made it home to Hil’s by 2 PM.

Thu, Apr 11 - Driving to Nuevo Casas Grandes

  

We met at seven for a large buffet – a young man was even making tortillas from a large vat of masa, good eggs, etc.     We set off north, trying to find a ATM as we’re very low on pesos and the toll booths won’t take US$.    We finally found one at a highway rest stop but the machine was empty! 

Our colorful motel

We hit eleven toll booths today with an average of $4-7 US equivalent….but in the state of Chihuahua we found that they will accept credit card so we’re saved!

We started driving through huge orchards that we think are pistachio trees.   Beautiful golden grasslands with cattle and cowboys.

 

We stopped for a lunch of Magnum ice cream bars and continued driving until 5:30 when we turned into the pueblo mágico of Casas Grandes and found the Posada del Soul, a beautiful adobe hotel full of artwork and other cool touches.   Desafortunadamente, it only has four rooms and three were occupied, But we’ll keep it in mind  if we come down to visit Mata Ortiz for their lovely pottery.

Giant Mata Ortiz Pots

Pistachio monument!

Probable next President of Mexico!

 

We returned to Nuevo Casas Grandes, a much more business like town, and found the comfortable Hotel Hacienda where we had stayed in 22 years ago!

We had Cuba Libres sin coke strangely enough, but ordered Cole on the side to remedy it.  Taco and grilled chicken for dinner.

Wed, Apr 10 - Starting the Drive Home

 

Bob, Hilary and I packed up the car and had our plastic bracelets ceremoniously cut off to make sure we couldn’t get back on hotel property!

Just south of Mazatlán, we turned east on Rt 40 and drove 318 km to Durango through the mountains on an amazing new highway.   We  drove through 70 tunnels and over almost as many bridges including some really beautiful suspension bridges.  It was a brilliantly engineered road, but without any turnouts  to park in to see the steep canyons and gorges.    They are still installing the lights in some of the longer tunnels, so maybe miradores will come  in the future.

 

Seedy area near our nice BW

Amusing trash can!

We drove to Palacio Gomez where we had reserved rooms in a Best Western.   Thank God for Hilary’s phone directions telling us where to turn as the route was very convoluted  and through a pretty seedy area.  We were glad to be safely locked inside the BW’s gate for the night.

Great beer from Modelo!

Tue, Apr 9 - Exporing Mazatlán

We decided to try the hotel massive breakfast buffet which certainly had a lot of variety and wasn’t too bad. At 9 AM we waved down a pulmonia,  the local open air taxi, in front of the hotel which took us to downtown Mazatlán, quite a ways away. He let us off at the malecón, the waterfront esplanade that almost all seaside Latin cities have.

 Hilary had downloaded a walking tour of the city and we set off. Even for a Latin city, Mazatlán is amazingly colorful! We really didn’t aim for any museum, but used the guide mainly so we wouldn’t get lost. We walked into Machado Plaza which was full of eclipse-themed sculptures, photos, posters – it must have been quite a sight yesterday crammed full of enthusiastic Eclipsos! 

 We made our way back to the malecón, and as we were feeling peckish, stopped at El Muchacho Alegre, a fish restaurant overlooking the beach. It appeared to be quiet until we were taken to the rear of the restaurant which was jammed and quite noisy. We had a delicious lunch of shrimp in garlic with Pacifico beer. A small mariachi band appeared next to our table and any conversation we were having was obliterated!   

We took a pulmonía back to our hotel for a short nap. I joined the girls and we walked along the beach as we hadn’t actually set foot in the sand as yet! We sat under a palapa for a while and chatted with our favorite waiter, Antonio, who had enjoyed the eclipse so much!

 At 5:30 we walked across the street to an Italian restaurant, Victtore, for a pleasant meal of pasta, some of which wasn’t too oversized! We said goodbye to Janet who is leaving at 4 AM to fly to Mexico City to continue her adventure. We will drive through to Durango tomorrow and start the journey back to Tucson.

Mon, Apr 8 - Eclipse Day!!

 Bob had been watching various websites checking on where the clouds might or might not be for Eclipse Day.  The cloud situation appeared to be improving but it is so hard to tell.  We had contemplated needing to drive to Durango or heading south or north or ?  to avoid the most clouds.  We decided that staying at the hotel would be okay - fingers crossed.  The forecast was still for some clouds in the AM and increasing in the PM.  The eclipse was to start at 9:51 AM with the first bite taken out of the sun.  Totality was expected at 11:07.  

From our friend, Emily - one version of a total solar eclipse

Monday morning we got up and met at 6:45 to head down the street to have breakfast at Pancho’s - a restaurant right on the beach that Margaret, Bob and Debbie had eaten at a couple of days earlier and really liked.  They open at 7 and since it is so crowded in town, we figured early was better.  They weren’t quite open yet when we got there but opened a few minutes later.  Since we were the second group to arrive, we were able to grab an outside table right on the beach.  It started off quietly but people started to arrive on the beach and at the restaurant.  




Pancho’s starts you off with coffee and then a huge very varied menu.  Little by little we got silverware and then a small plate of biscuits and muffin.  We ordered eggs and shredded beef and orange juice since Margaret had said that it was fresh juice.  As we waited for food, we people watched and it was a worthy venture.  People were setting up tents, tables, and other paraphernalia. 

 A woman with a lovely bouquet of flowers, white dress and narrow gold band around her head arrived with some friends.  We thought that maybe there 

Mystical moments on the beach with the longest selfie stick I've ever seen!

going to be a wedding but no…… it took them some time but I looked at one point and saw that the flowers were now spread out across a cloth on the sand and she was placing votive candles amongst them.  Hmmm.  Then one man faced the cloth with his hands in a prayerful manner.  She then took a small drum and had some sort of ceremony over the flowers but not a wedding.  Something “mystical” was apparently going on.  

We also watched lots of people go out in kayaks as there is an island a short distance away with perfectly aligned beach.  A larger boat went out periodically and most sitting inside of it got a bit wet as it was pushed over the waves.

Our food arrived and it was very good albeit generous. Katy and I definitely could have shared - maybe we’ll remember this tomorrow.  We walked back to the hotel and checked out my balcony as I thought it might be a good spot for eclipse viewing.  I’m on the second floor and my balcony extends out so that the 3rd floor balcony only covers the back part of it.  We were going to have a clear view just sitting right on my balcony.  What could be easier?  

While everyone got ready - and eyes still on the clouds - I pulled out 2 more chairs from my room and we were set up.  This was also a great place from which to watch the hotel crowd on the beach and under the covered tables.  Now we just wait for 9:51.  There were telescopes set up here and there and various groups of people gathering for viewing.  





9:51 finally arrived - clouds were thin and we hoped would keep moving past. We saw first contact and the bite slowly grew bigger as about an hour passed.  We continued to worry about the clouds but there we were.  Just before 11:07 as the sliver of sun was getting smaller and smaller, there were many whoops from the crowd as excitement built.  At 11:07, bigger whoops and we put down our filters and pulled out binoculars.  We saw the diamond ring and great scarlet prominences especially at about 4 o’clock (as on a clock face).  Totality was just over 4 minutes here and that can seem like a long time but it went fast.  We saw some great sunset colors at the horizon and the temperature fell quite a bit.  The diamond ring reappeared and whew, it was over!

Wonderful photo taken by Robert Brucato a few miles from us!

 As Bob says, there is nothing so over as a total solar eclipse.  That was #10 for me and I’m 10 for 10 meaning that I’ve gotten to see all 10 and not (yet) been clouded out.



We immediately wondered what other friends and family in different geographic areas were seeing. I turned on the tv and found CNN where they were doing a place by place viewing all along the path of totality so that was cool. We saw clouds in some spots and clearing skies in others.  They had a couple hundred people getting married in Arkansas.  It looked quite good in Cleveland and great in Stowe, VT where some guy’s proposal was captured on film.  I doubt he thought that would happen when he planned his eclipse proposal- suddenly seen round the world.

Katy, Janet and I had observed quite a few different eclipse t-shirts on people wandering by.  I was wearing my shirt from 2019 in La Serena, Chile but Katy had forgotten to pack any of her old eclipse t-shirts.

 We normally get to a site at least a day ahead so that we can explore etc., but that wasn’t the case so we hadn’t been shopping yet.  We walked down the road to see if we could find any of the shirts but store after store said no, they didn’t have any left.  We must have asked at 6 or 7 places before we found one small vendor who still had a few.  We each grabbed one so at least we have a souvenir from the Mazatlán eclipse.

We wanted a snack since we hadn’t had lunch but couldn’t find satisfactory ice cream anywhere.  We thought that maybe French fries from the pool snack bar would be good instead but we don’t have the right color resort bracelets on and the snack bar is only for those with all inclusive - truly bizarre especially since no one mentioned anything when we checked in.  There are white, red and green bracelets and only the green ones are all inclusive - who knew?  I understand the concept but hadn’t ever been somewhere where there are different levels and no explanation.  But Janet went to registration and found that she could buy a voucher for French fries at the buffet and then take that to the snack bar.  Yikes.  but she was successful and we got a snack.  We got a beach side table and snacked while 1 then 2 then 3 bands played on the beach in competition - quite the cacophony.

We joined the Brucatos for a celebratory dinner at Pancho's with more bands on the beach, plus some women juggling flaming torches!

 

Sun, Apr 7 - Driving to Mazatlán

 

 

We got up at six and were ready to leave when Steve, brother of the owner, Diane Carpenter, brought out a full breakfast for us!!   He had said he would have coffee, but he also had homemade savory tamales, fruit salad with yogurt and donuts!    We bade a sad farewell to Álamos as who knows if we’ll ever see it again at our ancient ages?

 

We left at 7:30 and set off towards Route 15, the north-south highway, passing once again through beautiful dry deciduous forest with views of the Sierra de Alamos, tiny ranches, and huge cacti.

We turned south on 15 in heavy truck traffic, past corn fields, large cloth covered “green houses”, tomatoes and several unidentifiable veggies.  Mexico is our #1 trading partner and a lot of it must travel up and down this four lane highway!     Hil drove the whole way!   She tried to stop for ice cream, but could only find dubious-looking heated up snacks, so we subsisted on the cookies and nuts we had fortunately brought along.

 

We could finally see the ocean and Hil’s phone guided us into Mazatlán and to the Playa Mazatlán Hotel.   There were masses of people arriving and checking in. 

 We had long since paid for our rooms, were quickly processed, and had red plastic bracelets clamped on our wrists.   I think this lets us into the breakfast buffet.   We went to room 354 which is right on  the beach, overlooking straw palapas, oompah band complete with tubas serenaded the beach goers.   Our room is rather bleak with no wall decorations, or curtains for the balcony, no hooks in the bathroom, and a dangerous camouflaged step in the middle of the room, but at least we have a room and it is right on the beach!  (We figured out that the hotel was refurbishing rooms and ran out of time before the eclipse!)  If the  sky is clear, we can see the eclipse right from our room!

 

This was the last uncertain step in this journey!   I hadn’t even brought any one of my many eclipse T-shirt as so many parts of this trip were unlikely to happen, starting with the online Mexican travel permit which said we needed six months (untrue) on our passports and we only have five.   Trying to get the car into the country, finding our Álamos hotel, and finally getting to and checking into the Playa Mazatlán and having them find our reservation!  Several people we know, and others we have met, had had their reservations abruptly cancelled!

 

We joined Hilary and her friend, Janet, with whom she had taken a river cruise last fall, at a table near the beach.  We thought we’d get a  drink and perhaps a snack, but that turned out to be complicated.  Our friends, Robert and Margaret and their friend Debbie,  joined us from their rented apartment.  The hotel refused to serve them as they are not staying here.   I had to go find a bar and order their drinks which Robert was allowed to pay for in order for us all to enjoy a drink!   I never heard of a hotel that refuses your money…I guess they are so crowded that they need any more customers!

 

At seven,  Hilary, Janet, Bob and I went to the hotel’s Brazilian restaurant which was mediocre but somewhat entertaining.   Tomorrow is Eclipse Day!!

Sat, Apr 6 - Exploring Álamos

 

 About 8 AM, I went out to the terrace where I saw some birds in the large tree with wonderful yellow flowers so went back and grabbed my bins.  I identified a Hooded Oriole and there were quite a few of them obviously loving the yellow flowers.  Steve Vollertzen (Diane the owner’s brother who lives in Phoenix) offered me some coffee which I gladly accepted.  Katy joined me and then Bob and we sat enjoying the view and the various birds in that same flowering tree.  We eventually got to the breakfast area where the cook (don’t know his name) was just waiting for us.  He brought us huevos rancheros that were some of the best I’ve ever had as he had crisped up the tortillas so that they were crunchy under the eggs and salsa - really excellent.  We also had a bowl of cut up fresh papaya. 

 

Caracara

We discussed whether to drive out to the local cemetery for bird watching but decided to drive part way out the alternative road that would take us back to highway 15D tomorrow.  We could go back to Navajoa but wanted to see if this smaller road would be okay.  On the map, it looks as if a large part of it is dirt but actually the part we drove was mostly paved and in good shape.  There roughest part was closest to town.  We may run into more dirt road tomorrow but it looks like a good option and brings us back to 15D farther south than if we returned via Navajoa.  We have about a 7 hour drive tomorrow to get to Mazatlán from here. 

We drove across a couple of arroyos - all dry at this time of year and saw a Cara Cara up in a dead tree.  After 15 miles or so I turned around and we headed back.  Coming from town, we had been on a short stretch of dirt road when it joined a paved section so we took the paved section on our way back to see where it went.  It didn’t go too far turning back into dirt and then pavement again as we wandered around the small streets of Alamos. I finally found a street that I recognized and we ended up back at the Plaza. 

Then we thought we would try to find the Mercado of Artisans that someone had mentioned.  It is back on the road to Navajoa but before the large building with a dome - those were our instructions!  From the Plaza, I followed a tram and 2 4-wheelers until they circled back and I kept going.  What we found was a much better way of coming into town than we had been on on Thursday so that was helpful.  We turned left onto the Navajoa road and drove past the building with a dome without seeing the Mercado.  I turned around at the big welcome to town archway with large Álamos sign and we went along until - there it was - the Mercado on the right.  Bob stayed in the car while Katy and I walked slowly through the open area of the inside mercado.  There were about 5 artists there with a variety of touristy stuff, nice embroidery, some fun painted hats and lots of ceramics - skulls, lizards etc. 

I found an embroidered pillow that I really liked as did Katy.  We told the woman who had stitched them that we didn’t need to pillow but just the pillow case which was well made with a zipper.  She removed the soft insert which makes it much easier for us to transport. 



We then found our way back to Serena Vista by reversing our steps and now approaching it the way I wish I had known about 2 days ago. We lounged around for a while until Katy and I decided we would wander back down the steps and explore the Plaza some more and of course that might require a stop at the gelato place since we had skipped lunch. 

We headed for gelato first enjoying some excellent chocolate gelato.  We were going to follow the walking tour contained in the Guide we both bought yesterday (the B&B owner is one of the authors though we didn’t realize that when we bought them!).  But neither of us had brought the guide with us so we improvised.  We walked along the side of the Plaza that we had not been down and then turned left to see if we could locate the ATM that we all needed.   

I had googled ATMs near me but hadn’t yet been down the street where it seemed to be.  We walked down following the directions going up and down the sidewalks.  The sometimes really high sidewalks are potentially treacherous as they are both narrow and very high but you can get away with walking down the street most of time too.  We got to an area that looked like a round about where the ATM should be and found the bank.  Being Saturday afternoon the bank was closed but there was a door just passed it that was open and had 4 ATMs inside.  So a successful trip to the ATM for both of us.  Next door was a very small farmacia which we also explored and found a couple of items we needed. 

We walked back to the Plaza passing a touristy shop that we had been in yesterday.  I really liked some of the painted straw hats thinking that they might look great on a wall at home.  These hats are very stiff so I’m not sure if anyone wears them but they are decorative.  We then walked all around the Plaza square checking out the street food and other entertainments available on a Saturday afternoon.  We found a bench somewhat in the shade and next to a booth where they were making very elaborate drinks. Katy and I tried to figure out what these were.  The closest thing I could find online was a Cantarito though that should have tequila in it and these were alcohol free.  The woman making them started with a clay cup.  She put ice in the cup and red powder (some kind of chile), then pineapple juice, lime juice, a stick that looks a bit like incense but with much thicker powdered stuff on it, then topped off with Squirt and slices of lime and lemon with a paper umbrella in the lemon.  They seemed to be very popular. 

We wandered back up all of the steps to the B&B and read for awhile on the terrace. 

About 5:30, we walked back down the steps and returned to Charisma where we were the only ones in the dining room.  We were determined to order small dishes tonight so that we a) would not end up wasting food and b) have room for more gelato. We started with Cuba Libres all around and then Bob and I succeeded by ordering a really good Cesar salad with freshly grilled chicken.  It came on a perfectly sized plate and we both enjoyed it.  Katy ordered the pizza on the appetizer menu figuring that it would be a nice personal size.  Well, the pizza that came out was one of the largest pizzas that I’ve ever seen.  Katy could barely eat a single slice as each slice was so large. 

The pizza was on a large plate but overlapped it by inches all around.  The kitchen crew will devour it so we weren’t worried but it was an impressive sight. 



Bob hadn’t been to the gelato place yet but it is part of the same restaurant/hotel.  You can walk from the restaurant through the bar and out to this lovely courtyard.  At the other end of the building is the gelato place where we finally had room for dessert.  Back up the steps and our last evening at the Casa Serena Vista.  We plan to leave at 7AM on Sunday for our drive to Mazatlán.