Well, a lot has happened since the last entry. We left you as we were about to catch the
ferry from La Paz to Topolobampo, on the mainland of Mexico. You would be surprised to know that the ferry
ride wasn’t as straight forward as we thought it would be. Being that we only bought our tickets on the
day of departure, we were not able to get ourselves a cabin for the 6 hour
voyage. That meant that we were
relegated to the public areas on the boat including the restaurant, the bar,
and the other common spaces. However, it
turns out that I was one of the first on
the boat, that there aren’t many comfortable seats in these areas and so I made
myself at home on a couch awaiting Cookie’s arrival onboard. Passengers are not allowed to travel in the
vehicle with the driver, only 1 person per vehicle...I know, what an annoying
rule. When Cookie joined me on the couch
after a quick look around to see the layout of the boat, we watched as slowly
but surely the boat filled up and eventually every seat and bit of visible
floor space had someone taking up that space.
For a while, we watched boxing on the big screens in the bar. Then, as people had drinks and food, they got
comfortable as this was an overnight trip leaving at 11pm arriving at 5am. Well much to our surprise, after the sports
were over, the karaoke started. And I
don’t mean pop music....it is full on Mexican mariarchi bands and everyone was
getting in on it. Sounds entertaining,
but unfortunately it wasn’t. All we wanted
to do was sleep. We did though, and so
did most other people around us, anywhere they could lay their heads. After about 10 hours on that boat, we arrived
in Topolobampo.
It rained on us for
the first time in many weeks, it was a relief, but it was still hot and
sticky. We spent that day driving south
to Mazatlan where we rewarded ourselves with a nice hotel room with air
conditioning and a king size bed. The
nicest place we had stayed so far. Not
many tourists in Mazatlan at this time of year and we were mellow just
wandering around town a little and have a nice meal overlooking the beach. The next day we were off again and made our
way to the cool little town of Sayulita.
It was nice to see few tourists there and with forecasted rain we
decided on a hotel there as well for the night.
There is potential for surf in the beautiful bay but none to be had
during our stay. We enjoyed the ocean view
with some tasty fajitas, a few cervezas, and a good rest. Feeling the need to cover some ground we
continued south the next morning to a little town with its very own break
called La Ticla. We opted for a cabana
just near the beach and settled in for a few days. Cookie got some awesome waves with photos to
prove it and there was a few other crew there to enjoy the time with. It has been passed along to us that La Ticla
is not the safest place to be in Mexico and the reason was because, not that
long ago a tourist was cut up into pieces right there on the beach at La
Ticla...it’s hard to hear that and not think hard about why one is in the spot.
Despite the stories and a sleepless
night or two thanks to the snoring Irishman staying next door, it was a
worthwhile place to hang out. With a
couple of Americans hooking up with us for a ride, we headed to our next
destination, Rio Nexpa. Watching the
sets roll in here was impressive to say the least. It is big, powerful, and has a shore break
that you do not want to mess around in. “La
Liquadora” or the Blender as the shore break in referred to by locals, will not
only humble you but probably break your board and make you pay if you aren’t
very attentive to timing while entering or leaving the ocean here. We had a great view of the beach with our
tent set up underneath a restaurant on the sand looking right out at the
break. There were a few victims during
our day and night spent at this spot but importantly only boards were lost and
no one got hurt. Needless to say they
are not the conditions for just anyone to go out. I sat back and watched as Cookie got some big
waves. There were other travellers at
this location and a good mix of nationalities making it an easy and safe place
to hang out. We were camped next to a
couple of Texans who had travelled down by bus, who informed us that days
before in a town west of our location they were detoured from a particular
place where a bus had been bombed and people killed in an act of retaliation by
the cartels against the police. It had
been front page news. We were happy we
weren’t travelling by bus. And this did
not deter them from their travels or future travel to Mexico. With recent storm action, our facilities had
no running water and we ended up chucking the tent into the van in the pouring
rain in the morning and we left for Acapulco.
