Los Mochis and a celebration

Saturday, March 24, 2012

The Celestino Beach RV park was in a beautiful location, had a friendly caretaker, friendlier cats, etc., etc., but brought one huge disappointment:  WiFi was no longer available.  All three parks on the beach had dropped the service due to their hard economic situation.  Ordinarily a day without WiFi would not constitute a major catastrophe but this was not an ordinary day.  This was the day the next NDP leader was to be chosen at the Toronto convention and I wanted to watch.  My plan had been to take a layday, keep the computer charged up and check on ballots in between beach walks.  It was not to be and there was no point staying put and fuming in frustration.  

Our Saskatchewan friends filled us in on the results of the first ballot, which they were able to pick up via satellite.  But their priority for the day was watching championship curling, so we couldn't cosy up to their TV.  At Happy Hour the previous night we had noted the conservative views of the other Canadians in the park who had satellite, so no hope there.  Might as well move on.  We knew the next park had no WiFi but we might as well make progress toward our ultimate destination.

The coastal highway made for good driving, with a relatively flat autopista flanked by inland mountains.  Jim drove most of the way, with me doing my best to cherry-pick the easy stretches.  We were to spend the night at Los Mochis, where there is a down-on-its-heels RV park close to the interchange.  Unfortunately we did not exit at THAT interchange.  Our mistake in exiting a few hundred meters too soon was compounded by an error in our guidebook.

Now, it is impossible to RV in Mexico without constant reference to A Traveler's Guide to Mexican Camping  by Terri and Mike Church.  It's a wonderful book which describes all the RV parks, how to get to them, what to do and see in each area -- absolutely all the essentials.  The Churches are real genuine people, quite down-to-earth.  They research their books extensively, travelling in their truck camper.  This was the first of our four winters in Mexico that we did not encounter them.  Their advice has rarely led us astray.


But here we are on the wrong approach into Los Mochis.  We begin to suspect we may not be on the right road, but I have entered the Churches' lat/long coordinates for the park into our GPS and we think this will rescue us.  Oddly though, the GPS wants us to take a route right through the town for 6 km.  So we do.  Once again we drive our fat contraption through streets not designed for our girth. And when we reach the waypoint, where are we?  No, not at the RV park.  They have sent us to a bloody Walmart!  Now what does that tell us about the homing instincts of our *American* RV gurus? 


Okay.  After a few more adventures we acquired a pollo asada from a street stand.  Four workers assembled all the accompaniments for our chicken -- plastic bags of fresh warm tortillas, salsa, rice, lettuce in water (new one on us) -- while simultaneously arguing over the best directions to get us to the RV park.

Finally, finally we are at the park.  Most of the big Class-A RVs are from Quebec and are sitting empty.  Their owners were clever enough to figure out how to catch the train to the magnificent Copper Canyon.  We'll have to see it another time.  I snapped a picture of all the Quebec rigs sporting maple leaf flag license plates.  Let's hear no more talk of our Quebecois friends denying their Canadian citizenship.

A bright young man came to check us in, so we completed the little form and handed over our tarif.  Then he said the magic words, "Would you like the WiFi code?"  Well!! I did my happy dance, we broke out the vino and the cervesas and cranked up the computer.  We were able to follow the last ballot and, for the one and only occasion this winter, we were able to stream live video, so got to watch Tom Mulcair's acceptance speech and toast our new leader.

Note the orange shirt -- we both wore them for the occasion.