Restaurant in San Carlos

John sitting at the dining bar.
View from the dining bar, looking toward the city of Guaymas.
Picture of the restaurant area, taken from the bar area.
The restaurant is at the end of this little beach, perched on the rock.

campground setting, too

One couple here is traveling in their camper van.

Life is good in the shade of palm trees.

There is a cement patio at each site. The scooter ramps came in handy!

Walking into town....

Having the scooter with us on this trip makes all the difference! The RV park is about 2.5 miles from central San Carlos but with the scooter for John, walking into town is no hay problema! We stopped at a beach restaurant, near an older condo complex that seemed fairly unkept. The pool was empty and in need of repair. But the beach was nice, the food was good, and the drinks were cold. Days are in the high 70s-low 80s and we're working hard at getting used to those temps!

Sights along the way...

So on our walk to town we saw this apartment with a lift mounted to the wall so we decided to investigate. The guy saw us taking pictures and must have thought we were taking pictures of him. He was very excited and friendly, and decided to wave for the picture. We ended up talking to his wife who explained they use the lift to bring their groceries up in a box from the carport. It saves them carrying the bags up the stairs. We told them we thought maybe it was to lift a person but she said it doesn't have a big enough motor for that. We've noticed there are alot more handicap parking spots and wheelchair ramps into many establishments.

OK Robert, this one is for you! Obviously the owner of this boat--"Gettin' Bent"--is a diver!

How 'bout a drive-thru beer store? Modelo is a Mexican beer, the store is Modelorama!

Satallite picture of San Carlos

OK, we're trying a new method to blog our pictures. John has been using Google earth to "look around" and we found we can take these snapshots and then include them here. The pics in the previous blogs about the marinas can be explained here. The marina where we stayed before is that narrow inlet at the bottom of the sweeping bay on the left of the pic. The central San Carlos harbor/marina in that large natural enclosed bay in the center.

Our access to technology continues to amaze us!

Getting our bearings....

Friday started slow but we did make it out to explore around and have our first meal out. Gracie and I enjoyed a morning walk on this beach across from the campground where there are new condos. This picture looks the opposite direction from the condo buildings below. The building sitting on the rock on the right, at the end of the wall, is the restuarant where we ate later in the day. There are some pics of it later. One condo building under construction

the other is finished.

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There is a large marina in central San Carlos but we drove out to "Marina Real", about 3 miles out from San Carlos, where we were on our boat in 2000. The roads in this area on which the houses in the foreground are now located were under constuction when we were here back then. There are now many very nice waterfront homes. We took this panoramic picture of the marina area to try to capture that area. There is a multi-story condo building under construction on this large bay. It is the white square shaped object in the distance, breaking the tree line around the bay, you can slightly see it in the distance. It's an area where gringos and well-to-do Mexicans own, mostly, vacation homes. The only homes there when we were there before were those on the little spit of land in the center of the pic. The beach here, Playa Esmerelda, is a beautiful small inlet to the south of Marina Real. Friday was a little cloudy, Saturday was clear and warmer. We're planning to spend the day there Sunday if the weather is at least as warm.

Sisters to the border to San Carlos

After being gone from home for 17 days, we're finally in Mexico. We had a great visit with family and friends on our way south and crossed the border today. We spent our last two nights in Amado, AZ. at a campground named "Mountain View RV Park", which seemed fitting as we live on Mountain View Road at home.

When we arrived Tuesday at the campground in Amado I'd asked if there was anyone at the park who would be crossing to Mexico today. We were interested in crossing with a "buddy". There was a knock on our trailer door last night. A guy had arrived from the Seattle area, asked the same question and the management directed him to us. We quickly discovered we had a lot in common with Dan. He is heading to Puerto Vallarta to work for six months, and maybe longer, as a boat broker. That's Dan's truck/camper behind us. We only traveled together as far as San Carlos as he wants to arrive in PV by Saturday. We bid him Adios, agreeing to meet up in January when we are in that area.

We admit it...We were a little anxious about the crossing but once we were across and through the main entry point about 14 miles south of the border, we wondered why. A nice bureaucrat "Luis" helped us process our tourist visas, temporary import permit for the truck, and, though we didn't specifically request it, our 10-year import permit for the trailer! Now we have to come back, right?

Mexico's Highway 15 is a fine road with 3" shoulders (yikes!!) and occasional widespots. The topography in this region is, obviously, a continuation of southern Arizona. We passed a very large vineyard area and many cattle ranches. We are pleased to be back in San Carlos, where we spent the month of September 2000. We are staying at a very nice campground owned by Joseph, a 30-something Mexican who speaks accent-free perfect English, who we've heard is an internet aficionado, and to whom we thank for the great Wi-Fi connection! We'll explore around tomorrow and post some pics.