The Radio Girl

Crossing the Nogales Border

Our drive in to Mexico was posted here last week so this post will be mostly pics.

Whether you are crossing from Nogales, Mex to Nogales, Arizona by car or RV, the lanes are well marked and there is new signage up everywhere in both Spanish and English.  It's very clear that cars, small trucks and RV's stay left and cargo trucks or semis cross in the right hand lanes. 

The word 'estacionamiento' means parking in Spanish, which explains the big letter E with a red line through it - NO PARKING!

There were four border lanes open for cars/RV's but there were quite a few folks ahead of us so it took almost an hour to inch our car up to the US immigration officers.  The guy was nice and asked us 5 or 6 questions and then we were on our way.  Don't know about your experiences with immigration officers but the American ones have always been more polite to me than Canadian ones. 

After crossing back into Arizona, there was another check point within a half hours drive.   

This one was set up by US Border Patrol guards and it was a lot quicker.  Not sure if they were checking for drugs or illegals but they took one look at our Canadian license plate and basically waved us through.

Although we did slow down long enough to point out this sign to Shelbert.  

Yes, my little four legged friend, some dogs really do have to earn their kibble.

Roughly three hours after this check point we hit the outskirts of Tucson and were ready to pick up JohnnyDisco from the RV dealership.

Quick money stats about the round trip to San Carlos:

• Gas:  $60 CAD, included touring around San Carlos and Guaymas
• Mexico highway tolls:  $22 CAD, round trip
• Food/booze/snacks:  we spent $150 for food at the Walmart in Guaymas and then a few quick trips to the local market for fresh veggies.  The Walmart bill included a kitchen knife, a can opener, some Corelle dishes, 3 dish towels, 2 dish cloths, liquid dish soap, salt and a few things I'm forgetting. Without these items the groceries would have cost less than $100 and the bill did include expensive items like meat, cheese and pistachios (and if course, BEER  :) 

*One more thing to mention:  Before we crossed the border, we did stop at the Mexican immigration building where you get your tourist card and we returned ours.  Not sure if this was necessary and I've never returned my tourist visa during past trips, but since the process has changed this year we decided to stop and return them.  The building is right across the highway from where you need to return your car permit, so it's not a big deal to return your tourist card as well.  

Back in the USA

Actually we returned to Arizona late Thursday afternoon.  

The return trip from Mexico was as easy, if not easier, than our drive south last week.  First off, some shots of beautiful San Carlos in Sonora, Mexico.

Isn't this part of Mexico gorgeous?  And it's an easy 6 hour drive from Tucson, including a stop for the border crossing and customs/immigration.

Another plus for San Carlos:  it's in the Hassle Free Driving Zone, so a Mexican car permit isn't necessary for foreigners.  And if that's not enough, the world famous blogger, Brenda lives right next door in Guaymas and she's a wealth of information about the area  :) 

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, our round trip to Mexico was incredibly simple this year.  Not to mention safe.

Except for one strange incident that occurred about ninety minutes from the border, when we were heading back to the States.  My Fella and I were northbound on the highway when traffic in front of us suddenly came to a complete stop.  We had no idea what was going on because big semi trucks were blocking both lanes ahead of our little car. 

Out of nowhere, this camo-military vehicle zoomed up beside us with one of the soldiers training his automatic rifle directly at highway traffic.  After hovering and staring in our general direction just long enough to spook us, they rolled up to the trucker that had stopped in front of us.

Our view was partially blocked but there were several angry words and pointed gestures (with guns) being tossed around for a few minutes.  Then as quickly as they appeared, the guys with guns hopped back into their military vehicle and zoomed off.

Long story short, we were coming up to a military drug/weapons check stop and the big trucks in front of us were traveling in the wrong lane. They should have been in the right lane so they didn't block auto traffic, but these clowns thought they could shoot past all the other truckers and just cut in again at the front of the line.  The military guys gave the truckers hell for slowing down the check stop, which was still 2 miles in front of us.  And now vehicles were backed up for several miles behind us too.

Finally the truckers in front of us were dealt with and we were free to pass all the semis and head up to the check point.

This check stop was different than any I've seen.  

The soldier at the front of the check point had about 7 or 8 cars line up in a row, then we all got out and watched a big black x-ray truck circle our vehicles, looking for weapons.

After the x-ray inspection, a couple of cars were pulled out of the line-up and physically searched.  We just happened to be one of those vehicles, but the military fella that went through our car was really sweet and made the search a quick one.  Within minutes we were back in the car, heading north to the USA border.  

The rest of the story will be posted in the next few days, including our total cost for gas and tolls.  And I applaud you if ya stuck around to the end... this was a looooooong one.  Even I fell asleep a few times while downloading the many pics.

Course I'm usually snoring waaay before most of the seniors here at Dodge City Snowbird park.  Since it's Saturday night, the folks are probably all out carousing at the clubhouse, smokin' cigars, drinking wine and blasting the Rat Pack classics 'til all hours.

I love Dean Martin, but My Fella and I just can't compete.  Give us fifteen minutes and the only sound you'll hear coming from JohnnyDisco will be "zzzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzz ZZZZ..."

Buenas noches... nitey nite.

Safe in San Carlos, Mexico

We've been settling into our Mex rental with little time to blog.

But tonight when I finally fired up my computer, I was hit with the news about a fatal shooting outside a Tucson Safeway, an area we just left on Thursday.  A gunman shot and killed 6 people with an automatic weapon in broad daylight, outside the grocery store.

Tragic senseless violence.  And it can happen anywhere.  

My Fella and I were a little apprehensive about driving south to Mexico this year. Although we've driven these roads many times before, we were worried about crossing the border and navigating the Mexican highways.  And quite a few folks who knew we were heading south, voiced their concerns.

But the most descriptive word I can think of to explain our drive south this year would be:  boring.  

No danger.  No crazies.  No gun battles or drug fights.  No cartels or federales at war, at least not in our path.  Just long stretches of straight, flat highway.  And there were a few areas of the drive where we didn't even see another vehicle for at least twenty minutes.  

After all the warnings and all that worry about driving into Mexico this year, this was likely our easiest crossing ever.  It took less than fifteen minutes to:

• fill out our tourist visas (the forms have changed a bit this year)
• joke with the customs dudes 
• get our visas stamped
• hop back into the car and head to San Carlos

The immigrations officer gave me a hard time, but all in good fun.  He started the conversation by speaking in Spanish so I replied in Spanish, which I should never, never, NEVER do when I first arrive in Mexico.  I'm always rusty for the first few days, waiting for the words and phrases to come back to me.

Anyway, he had a great sense of humour and insisted we continue speaking in Spanish.  We brought Shelbert in with us and with a straight face, he asked if she needed a visa card too.  He was quite the comedian, but maybe you had to be there. 

There are two border crossings at Nogales - one that goes through the center of town, and the other is a big truck route (Mariposa road) that skirts city.  We opted for the truck route - it's well marked and much easier to navigate.

Every other year we've been pulled over and had the trunk checked and a quick conversation with the customs guards.  This year we were waved through both checkpoints, no problem.

And within 3 hours we were pulling into San Carlos.

More pics and stories to come about our week in Mexico, but we arrived safe and sound.  

And if CNN is to be believed, now we should probably be more nervous about our trip back into Tucson than our stay here in Mexico.  

Heading South for the Week

Shelbert has an ear infection.

She doesn't seem bothered by it and we didn't actually even know until we took her to the groomer yesterday for a trim and nail clip.  Lydia, the groomer (who clearly doubles as a pet detective) spotted it after she cleaned and trimmed The Berts right ear.

Shelbert has special ear cleaner now, and really good meds which means she'll sleep in the car the entire way to Guaymas, Mexico tomorrow.  Our little family is crossing the Nogales border after we drop off JohnnyDisco at the RV dealer for annual maintenance.  

A lot of folks have been warning My Fella and I about driving into Mexico this year, and to be honest, the drug violence in the border cities does seem worse than past years.

I've been exploring Mexico (cruising around in a rental car alone) on and off for the past 15 years and My Fella and I have been driving across the Mexican border together every winter since 2007.  

We have never witnessed any drug related activity or experienced problems of any kind.

We didn't want to bring JohnnyDisco into Mexico this year because he's new.  And he's our full-time home.  

But I was pretty disappointed that we wouldn't be going further south as this would be the first winter since 1995 that I wouldn't touch Mexican sand; and My Fella was bummed out about missing out on his fave homemade churro snacks.  

So we decided to pack up and take a mini road-trip while JohnnyDisco is getting some RV lovin'.

My Fella and I will stay very alert on the highways, follow our intuition and keep our eyeballs peeled.  Neither of us is showy or loud, nor do we wear expensive clothes or jewelery.  We speak enough Spanish to be comfortable in most situations and we're both respectful towards everyone, although My fella is much better at shutting up than I am.  Blame it on my birth sign ... I'm a Gemini   :) 

Neither of us have ever been involved in drugs or guns in any way, which seems to be at the root of most of this violence.  That's not to say we couldn't get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

But in reality, that could happen anywhere.

In the next couple of days I'll post about our border crossing at Nogales and let you know if it's any different from past years.

In the meantime, say 'hola' to my feathered little pelican friends who may, or may not be using this photo op to laugh at my Spanish.

We're Planning a Road Trip

JohnnyDisco is going in for her maintenance check-up in January.

That means we'll be homeless for about a week  :)  so My Fella and I are heading south to Mexico. 

We'll be crossing the Nogales border into Sonora sometime next week and driving south to the Guaymas/San Carlos area.  

Here's a few pics of what we did and saw on our last trip there:

No fishing in the marina so we hooked up with a couple Mexican fishermen and went out to the Sea of Cortez where the water was about 300 feet deep.

One of the first fish caught was full of surprises...

He had a live crab in his mouth.  I guess everyone likes fresh crab  :)

Here's the first fishie My Fella snagged.  As our morning Fishfest continued he caught at least two dozen more.

We probably won't be deep sea fishing this time around since it's not in the budget.  Plus we don't know how Shelbert would react to being on a small fishing boat - those waves get a little crazy.

But we can still enjoy the gorgeous scenery...  

the cheap veggies...

...and the sweet people we meet.

Hasta pronto, Mexico!

Brenda, My Hummingbird Guru

Okay, she's not really a guru.

But she's done a lot of research on hummingbirds.  Brenda is a Canadian gal who relocated to Guaymas, Mexico roughly five years ago with her fella.  She authors a blog called Brenda and Roy Going to Mexico and we first met when I interviewed her for a travel piece for CBC radio. 

I've been reading her blog ever since but somehow I missed her hummingbird posts including this one about a woman feeding the birds by hand.

The above pic is just one of the amazing photos on Brendas website, so if you like hummingbirds, or have a feeder, go check out her cool bird posts and pics.

Here's an edited comment Brenda left about feeding h-birds:

"My landlord here calls hummingbirds "chupa rosas" and when we discuss his grandson or a child that can't sit still we sometimes say, "como una chupa rosa ja ja ja", like a hummingbird lol.

I don't measure very accurately with the sugar to water ratio. If there are lots of things blooming around the neighborhood I use less sugar than if there is nothing blooming. I probably use about 1/4 cup of sugar to a cup of water; but I am sure you can google and see what is recommended.  Here is one site:  http://www.mschloe.com/hummer/huminfo.htm#long

This is a copy/paste of what they say about food:

"FOOD: Sugar water[nectar] for energy. Mix 1 part regular table sugar to 4 parts water. Use no other type of sweetening...No honey, no juice or artificial sweetner. Here’s something else you can do for hummingbirds. Though they get the bulk of their energy needs from sipping nectar or sugar water, they need more than that to stay aloft. Most of their PROTEIN requirements, for example, are met by eating small insects. One way you can help them get that protein is by placing overripe fruit near your hummingbird feeders to attract tiny, fruit-loving flies (putting the fruit in a hanging basket works nicely). Banana skins seem to be especially effective."

Muchas gracias Brenda for all the h-bird info.  Tu eres muy intelligente  :) 

Lizzards, Pelicans and Aliens

My Fella left the RV early this morning for a golf tournament.

He's a diehard golfer who believes it's fun whacking the ball around in arctic conditions when you can actually see your breath.  As I sit here cuddled up to my space heater, I hope both he and his long flannel underwear have a fun day on the course  :) 

My goal over the next few days is to sift through all seven squillion photos currently stored in my laptop and delete the ones I don't need anymore. 

Like this pic I took at a camping/hunting/fishing store in the States.  Next time you take your dog hunting make sure he's wearing these stealth little camo hunting boots.  Only $19.99 for a pack of 4.

 
Here's the view of the bridges as you're heading from Portland, Oregon into Vancouver, Washington.  I have about five or six of these pics since I take one every year.  For some reason I really like this view.

 
And these next three pics were taken in Mexico around mid-January. 

This little guy completely freaked us out as he lay in wait on a branch outside our casita.  I wonder how many times we walked right past him.

 
That's what lizards do best you know... hide and then startle you enough to pee your pants. 

 
Thin Lizzy and My Fella were almost nose-to-nose before he actually saw him.  That's when lizzard breath slowly turned his wierd looking spiky head to stare right at us. 

 
Creepy.  We called him Leroy, but his real name was probably Mr Freaky SlowMotion Lizard.

My other fave Mexico shots are of my buddies, the pelicans.  I could watch them for hours at a time... and I probably have.

 
Sometimes pelicans remind me of aliens.

 
And since I brought up aliens, this is a road sign we passed somewhere in Arizona (or possibly California) a couple years ago. 

You too can enjoy Alien Fresh Jerky just by clicking here.  Disclaimer:  No aliens were harmed in the making of this jerky snack.  Or this blog post.

The Art of the Siesta

More travelling today.

We're back in the seaside village of Lo de Marcos, which is only 30 minutes north of La Cruz.  Love this little town and love, love, love the beach.  It's actually my fave beach in Mexico.

 
My Fellas parents offered us the use of their motorhome while they travel to Puerto Vallarta to visit relatives.  In exchange we would hold their spot in the RV park and hang out with their sweet little mutt, Weaver.

We arrived in Lo de Marcos about 10 this morning, hauled in our luggage and groceries and My Fella gave his parents a lift to Puerto Vallarta.  I decided to take Weav for a quick walk before unpacking and settling in. 

After a little searching I found him here.

So I cracked open a Tecate Lite and got busy, unpacking everything and then checking the laundry hanging outside on the line.

When I got back to the motorhome Weaver had moved exactly 10 paces.

Instead of waking him up, I settled down in front of the computer to eat a mandarina and check my fave financial blogs. 

And almost an hour later Weaver is back in Bed #1.  He has really mastered The Art of the Siesta.

 
This is gonna be an easy gig.

Renting In Mexico

Renting a casita in Mexico can be tricky business.

Especially when you're booking online.  You really have to rely on the property owner to be honest about the positives and the negatives.

My Fella and I have had bad luck with rentals in the past.  We've been using VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner).  After the first few bookings we learned our lesson and I started asking more pointed questions before we committed with a security deposit. 

For example:  When you say you have internet, is it actually available IN the property we're renting or do we have to knock on your neighbours door every time we want to use it?  

Questions about bugs:  Will we be able to sleep at night, or is your palapa roof an indication that we should supply our own mosquito nets and RAID plug-ins? 

Questions about noise:  When you say "located in a wonderful up-and-coming area" does that mean that the construction workers at the condo development behind your property fire up the jack-hammers at 7 every morning?

The ad for the little casita we've rented here in La Cruz was a bit misleading.  The ad says free wifi - which we found out means you can get a weak wireless signal, but you have to steal it from the guys across the street.  There is also a palapa roof which is the main cause of our numerous night-time bug bites.  If you're a bug magnet, stay away from any rental with a palapa roof - they are the biggest nesting area for bugs.

On the bright side, our rental casita is in a great location.  We're only a few minutes walk to town, the beach and the new marina, which is just down these stairs.

The marina is a hundred different shades of blue.  Local fishing boats are pictured in the foreground and the expensive foreign owned sailboats/cruisers are in the back. 

 
In front of the marina is the brand new Mercado del Mar, or sea market, selling fresh fish and seafood seven days a week.

 
Every morning, local fishermen dock in front of the marina and haul in their catch to the market vendors.

Local fish butchers (not sure what they're called :) slice and dice up the fresh fish, weigh it and sell it on the spot.  The customers are mainly tourists, sailors and restaurants.

We've walked past the new marina and the mercado every day we've been here.  On Sunday there was a big crowd, lots of La Cruz residents and music from a local mariachi band.

 
The folks in La Cruz sure know how to spend a Sunday morning.  We're leaving the area tomorrow morning and I'm going to miss the marina and the locals.

Hasta la vista, La Cruz.

*Just wanna add that this post isn't meant to pick on folks who rent out vacation properties.  But I think Canadians/Americans that do own/rent out a place in Mexico should make a point of living in that property occasionally.  View the experience from the renters eyes just to make sure what you write in your online ad is accurate.  Vacation rentals aren't cheap.

The more properties we rent in Mexico, the more excited we are to get an RV.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

 
Cause that's how all the animals get around here in La Cruz.  Chickens, roosters, goats, horses...

The burros enjoy posing for pics, but they usually stay off the main roads and hang out in the grass...

 
And you don't see a lot of lizzards or iguanas on the streets of La Cruz.  They prefer to lurk in the foliage, like Leroy here who scared the frijoles (beans) out of My Fella.

Look how long and creepy his little fingers and toes are.  The lizzard, NOT My Fella.  Stay with me, people. 

But his markings are gorgeous.  He'd make a sweet little lizzard-skin backpack.

 
Whoaaa.  Just kidding, Leroy.