Friday, January 18

I just realized its been almost two weeks since we posted so thought we'd better getting something on the blog just to let you all know we're still alive and well. For the most part, we have been mainly hanging around the RV park enjoying visits with friends, happy hours, doing a little reading, shopping and cooking, cleaning and a little RV maintenance. Most mornings we either walk two plus miles or ride our bikes to the north end of our boulevard and back, a four-mile roundtrip. And oh yes, we've also been hanging out at the beach.

A few days ago, while we were sitting on the beach, watching the surf roll and enjoying the warm sunshine, this curious fellow (a sandpiper) came strolling over close to where we were sitting. He didn’t seem to have any fear of us and kept coming closer as if daring us to photograph him. Then he stopped and posed for us.

In search of sea turtles, ancient Aztec gyrogliphs and good food!

Today five couples formed a convoy for a trip about 60 miles north of Mazatlan. Our first destination was La Tortuga Marina at Playa La Cueta, a beautiful virgin beach. And yes, that large building in the photo is designed and painted to resemble a large turtle. La Tortuga Marina is a sea turtle sanctuary where baby sea turtles are hatched. It was closed when we got there, but someone evidently sighted our group, because the Mexican attendant came racing down the beach on a four-wheeler, opened the building and gave us a tour of the small facility. In Spanish, and with a lot of sign language and show and tell, he explained the process. To protect the eggs from predators, they are harvested from the beach where hundreds of adult turtles come to bury them out of reach of the tides. The egg-laying adults leave tracks in the sand, making it easy to find the eggs. After the eggs are retrieved, they are buried in sand-filled Styrofoam coolers until they hatch.
The attendant then took a cooler with about 30 four-day-old turtles and we headed to the beach where he asked us to line up parallel to the surf, and gave each of us a baby to release into the ocean. “How cool is that?” we thought, as we watched them enter the water for the first time. Until we learned that only about three in 100 babies survive. Most become dinner for porpoise or large fish. No wonder some of them seemed reluctant to race into the water.

Heading back south, we stopped at Celestino Beach near the town of LaCruz to check out a newly opened RV park, Punta San Miguel. It is on a remote beach between two established RV parks and is quite nice. No nightlife, but a good place to stay if you are an avid reader and/or beachcomber.

It was now past noon and our thoughts turned to what we love to do----eat. And there just happened to be a great seafood restaurant in Dimas that was the perfect place (It’s name I don’t remember.) Larry had breaded shrimp and I ordered garlic shrimp. The were large and scrumptious. Since Mazatlan has the largest shrimp fleet in the world, shrimp are abundant here.
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Somehow we missed finding the gyrogliphs, so we’ll leave that for another day.

Christmas at Las Jaibas

Saturday afternoon, the children from Mazatlan Centro Salvation Army Orphanage entertained us with Christmas carols including the Spanish version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Captain Perez and his wife of the Salvation Army have dedicated their lives to helping these children. The children have at least one parent, however their parent(s) are not able to take care of them. The Perez’ take them to school, make sure they have clothing and feed them two meals daily, thus keeping them off the streets. The children’s appearance was arranged by Gilles and Laura Hebert, a Canadian couple residing in the RV park who have wintered here for several years. The Heberts also spearheaded a drive for donations, resulting in total of $8000 Pesos (equivalent of about $800 USD) to this worthy cause. After singing for us, the children engaged in a lively piñata party.

Sunday we celebrated Christmas with a huge potluck dinner. The park owner/manager donated five turkeys that were cooked by park residents, and each family brought at least one dish to share. The food was great, and the evening was topped off with dancing under the stars to a Mexican band that, to our surprise, played and sang American songs.

Mazatlan

Wednesday, Dec 19 we left the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Nogales, Arizona, our jumping off place to Mexico, where we had spent the night and did some last minute shopping. We headed south across the border stopping at Kilometer 21 for our visitor Visas and vehicle permits. We spent that night in Guaymas at a beachfront hotel built in 1936 with an RV park in back. The hotel is still a pretty classy place and the RV park is spacious and well-maintained. Thursday night, was a different story. The Los Mochis RV park is also old, but has seen better days. We won't be staying there again.

Friday we arrived at Las Jaibas (the Crab) RV Park in warm, sunny Mazatlan, where we will stay for the next five weeks. We made some great friends here last year, most of who were already here. The park is really full this year, due to closing of three other RV parks, the land having been sold to developers of high-rise condos and time-shares. Fortunately we had made reservations, as we took the last available spot. All told, we had a great trip down, the highways and weather were good and we didn’t get lost once.

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

December 15-16, 2008
The eclectic art community of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico is nestled in the mountains at 4200 ft. just off Interstate 25. Formerly called Hot Springs for its mineral rich hot springs, the town was renamed Truth or Consequences in 1950 after the popular 1940s radio show that was later broadcast on TV. (If you're too young to remember this, you can get the scoop here: http://www.truthorconsequencesnm.net/area_TorC_ralph_edwards.htm) The town's hot mineral springs have been used for centuries for rest, relaxation, rejuvenation and healing—both physical and spiritual.

Our friends, Woody and Genie Thomas, have been here for about a month, workkamping at the Riverbend Hot Springs Budget Resort & Spa. It is advertised as a relaxing retreat, a romantic getaway, and a unique adverture for the whole family. One of their perks is getting to “soak” as they call it, in the hot mineral pools.

Woody and Genie met us at the I-25 junction and led us to Cielo Vista RV Park. After checking in and having lunch, they gave us a tour of Riverbend Resort and the unique town of Truth or Consequences.

Sunday morning the Thomas’ took us to Elephant Butte, a few miles north of T or C, for a tour of Turtle Back Mountain. But first, we had breakfast at the Big Food Express. It took us a few minutes to absorb the décor—purple walls with with travel posters from all over the world; Oriental umbrellas hovered over small tables, and a small stage with a beaded backdrop. Contrary to its name, it is not a fast-food restaurant, although the owner (a one-man kitchen staff) quickly prepared our breakfast orders (Huevos Ranchero, Egss Benedict and steak and eggs), served them all at the same time, and they were hot and delicious. (We tried singing for our breakfast, but that didn't work.)

Back in town, we stopped at Dukatti’s Tie Dye shop and visited with the proprietor. He snapped our photo in front of his psychedelic rainbow wall, then invited us to browse in his spacious shop packed with tie-dye clothing. We felt we had passed through a time warp back to the 70s. There was rack after rack of tie-dyed clothing--canvas shoes, shirts, jackets, dresses, and even men’s Jockey shorts. It was hard to believe the amount of tie-dyed merchadise he told us he ships to numerous outlets.

In the evenings, as the temperature began its descent into the twenties, the four of us enjoyed a relaxing “soak” in one of Riverside’s hot pools overlooking the famous Rio Grande River. What a life! It was an enjoyable two days and we really hated to leave, but reservations elsewhere were calling.

On the Road Again

We're on the road again. On Thursday, Dec. 13 about 4:00 p.m. we left Dallas in our new (to us) 2001 39-ft. Tradewinds diesel motor home. After a year or more of looking at motor homes and going to RV shows, we finally found a motor home we both liked. In fact, there isn’t anything we don’t like about our Tradewinds.

Since we got a late start, we we drove only 180 miles and spent our first night in Abilene. The next night we stayed west of El Paso and Saturday morning with 630 miles behind us, we were in New Mexico headed for Truth or Consequences.