Trip from Playa Ventura Guerrero to Puerto Penasco, Sonora, day 2 of 3. We went thru Jalisco, Nayarit, and Sinaloa, I need to look at the map to see how many states I've been thru now, with the trip down, and other visits. Well Jalisco and Nayarit, like Michocan have lots of jobs and so nicer cars, nicer roads, pretty towns. I just noticed I can never spell Michocan the same way twice and even when I correct it I'm not sure I'm write. Sorry Michocan...
Guadalajara is huge. It was very early in the morning so most of it was even before commute traffic altho' we did get stuck at the end. We were driving thru on the highway and we still were in the downtown area for more than half an hour. I got to google it and see how many people. It's another place I'd like to visit. The lady who is our neighbor, we're sharing a yard, well she's also our landlord for a couple of more weeks, but se moved here from Guadalajara and she was saying how she took her kids and moved to this small town. Ha ha after Playa Ventura, for me, this town is big! But really, I think I'm starting to understand how some of the streets work- ha ha and I mean SOME cause I'm still totally unclear about all of it. I did however navigate alone to the store yesterday that was back down by our motel. Ok I had a striaght line for the most part. Out to the corner of this street, left and up 10 blocks, then right onto the main drag....ooops this is supposed to be about the trip- gotta finish so I can write about whatever is tumbling around in my peabrain at the second I think it...
One cool thing that happened was we were running low on gas, and at a toll booth Everardo asked how far to the next station. Well it was pretty far, so the toll booth people, they sold us 100 pesos of gas! So again, and area in better financial shape. This is highway 15 (I think) and it goes from lower than where we caught it in Michocan all the way up to Mexicali/Tiajuana. Nice highway, usually more than one lane in each direction, mostly divided road. In these 3 states (Jalisco, Nayarit, & Sinaloa), they have emergency phones all along the highway, for things like breakdowns or running out of gas. And if you call them, the people from the toll booths come out to help you, and can sell you some gas to get you to the next gas station. I found this very cool.
They also have cool road signs that I think I also saw in Sonora, that say things like Drive with care, your family is waiting, or don't drive when you're tired, or secure your belt, save your life...all in Spanish of course. There was one other really good like the one about your family is waiting but I can't remember it right now...So I love the toll roads but hate the tolls! We spent almost as much in tolls as gas...ouch!
So, Sinaloa is an agriculture state (no I'm not talking about drugs). Corn, peppers, potatoes, sugar cane, cucumbers, tomatoes, mangos to name a few...When Everardo was living in Micocan as a teen he came up to Sinaloa to work in the fields. He said if anyone was unemployed, it was because they did ot want to work. There were jobs for everyone in Sinaloa, and for anyone who came from another state. But the drug trade took all the local workers and so now all the people who work in the fields are from other states.
He pointed out the mountains in the distance. I think he said they were connected to the range in Durango, and somewhere in there is an area called "Espinaso de Diablo" Spine of the Devil. It 800 curves in the moutains and where drug trafficking happens. Lots of people trying to migrate north (from any southern beginning) go undetected there cause the federales don't go there; it's just too dangerous. Anyway it was interesting to learn that Sinaloa has so much more to offer than what we hear about it being famous for the drug cartels. It's a very beautiful state and everyone we talked to was very nice. And there were hundreds of miles of crops growing along the roads.
So we made it within an hour of Sonora and stopped for the nite. Found another hotel along the highway and ended up chatting with a guy who travels back and forth across the border bringing things both ways, used items mostly. He said he started with just bringing things to/from family and friends and it's grown into a small business. He asked to buy us dinner, we think cause he just wanted the complany, somone to talk to; he'd been on the road for a week or maybe two, and he'd also had a couple of drinks already ha ha...so we said sure and there was a resturant in the hotel so we met him there an hour later. Our room had a shower from heaven, I tried to soak in all the hot water, and Poppi tried to, too. It was a really pretty room and very comfortable, and no biting creatures ha ha.
Anyway we ate and chatted and traded emails, but later when we were alone we discovered we both thought something didn't ring true about the guy. I don't know what, but something was a little off. As it turns out he did try to talk to Everardo about getting into his business, so hmmm wonder what he's really importing/exporting, since we actually talked about who gets stopped at the border and on the road by federales and state police and how we looked so normal with our little trailer and our doggy in the back of the truck, tongue hangin' out and tail waggin'....hmmmm is all I can say. But Everardo dodn't bite so...yes the conversation was in both English and Spanish, he was bilingual and currently living in San Jose, California, and I could follow some of the conversation when it was in Spanish. But we left him and went to bed so we could get up early and make our final destination the next day.
Guadalajara is huge. It was very early in the morning so most of it was even before commute traffic altho' we did get stuck at the end. We were driving thru on the highway and we still were in the downtown area for more than half an hour. I got to google it and see how many people. It's another place I'd like to visit. The lady who is our neighbor, we're sharing a yard, well she's also our landlord for a couple of more weeks, but se moved here from Guadalajara and she was saying how she took her kids and moved to this small town. Ha ha after Playa Ventura, for me, this town is big! But really, I think I'm starting to understand how some of the streets work- ha ha and I mean SOME cause I'm still totally unclear about all of it. I did however navigate alone to the store yesterday that was back down by our motel. Ok I had a striaght line for the most part. Out to the corner of this street, left and up 10 blocks, then right onto the main drag....ooops this is supposed to be about the trip- gotta finish so I can write about whatever is tumbling around in my peabrain at the second I think it...
One cool thing that happened was we were running low on gas, and at a toll booth Everardo asked how far to the next station. Well it was pretty far, so the toll booth people, they sold us 100 pesos of gas! So again, and area in better financial shape. This is highway 15 (I think) and it goes from lower than where we caught it in Michocan all the way up to Mexicali/Tiajuana. Nice highway, usually more than one lane in each direction, mostly divided road. In these 3 states (Jalisco, Nayarit, & Sinaloa), they have emergency phones all along the highway, for things like breakdowns or running out of gas. And if you call them, the people from the toll booths come out to help you, and can sell you some gas to get you to the next gas station. I found this very cool.
They also have cool road signs that I think I also saw in Sonora, that say things like Drive with care, your family is waiting, or don't drive when you're tired, or secure your belt, save your life...all in Spanish of course. There was one other really good like the one about your family is waiting but I can't remember it right now...So I love the toll roads but hate the tolls! We spent almost as much in tolls as gas...ouch!
So, Sinaloa is an agriculture state (no I'm not talking about drugs). Corn, peppers, potatoes, sugar cane, cucumbers, tomatoes, mangos to name a few...When Everardo was living in Micocan as a teen he came up to Sinaloa to work in the fields. He said if anyone was unemployed, it was because they did ot want to work. There were jobs for everyone in Sinaloa, and for anyone who came from another state. But the drug trade took all the local workers and so now all the people who work in the fields are from other states.
He pointed out the mountains in the distance. I think he said they were connected to the range in Durango, and somewhere in there is an area called "Espinaso de Diablo" Spine of the Devil. It 800 curves in the moutains and where drug trafficking happens. Lots of people trying to migrate north (from any southern beginning) go undetected there cause the federales don't go there; it's just too dangerous. Anyway it was interesting to learn that Sinaloa has so much more to offer than what we hear about it being famous for the drug cartels. It's a very beautiful state and everyone we talked to was very nice. And there were hundreds of miles of crops growing along the roads.
So we made it within an hour of Sonora and stopped for the nite. Found another hotel along the highway and ended up chatting with a guy who travels back and forth across the border bringing things both ways, used items mostly. He said he started with just bringing things to/from family and friends and it's grown into a small business. He asked to buy us dinner, we think cause he just wanted the complany, somone to talk to; he'd been on the road for a week or maybe two, and he'd also had a couple of drinks already ha ha...so we said sure and there was a resturant in the hotel so we met him there an hour later. Our room had a shower from heaven, I tried to soak in all the hot water, and Poppi tried to, too. It was a really pretty room and very comfortable, and no biting creatures ha ha.
Anyway we ate and chatted and traded emails, but later when we were alone we discovered we both thought something didn't ring true about the guy. I don't know what, but something was a little off. As it turns out he did try to talk to Everardo about getting into his business, so hmmm wonder what he's really importing/exporting, since we actually talked about who gets stopped at the border and on the road by federales and state police and how we looked so normal with our little trailer and our doggy in the back of the truck, tongue hangin' out and tail waggin'....hmmmm is all I can say. But Everardo dodn't bite so...yes the conversation was in both English and Spanish, he was bilingual and currently living in San Jose, California, and I could follow some of the conversation when it was in Spanish. But we left him and went to bed so we could get up early and make our final destination the next day.
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