Estamos En Mexico

I am relaxing at the Hotel el Toro in Magdelena de Kino, Sonora Mexico as I write this. This is our first night outside the USA and the first of a hundred that will take us to Tierra del Fuego. Marty and I came in to Mexico at the Nogales downtown crossing. Where we immediately met our first traffic jam due to a local parade. Immigration and vehicle documentation actually took place about 20 miles inside Mexico. It was time consuming, but all our papers were in order, so we got 2 bikes fully documented and visa issued by 1:30. We headed down the road and stopped about an hour later for our first Taqueria.

We are heading south to Baja via a ferry at Guaymas down the Mexican version of the interstate, except it has speed bumps, side traffic, and animals on the highway; not much different than Iowa now that I think about it. About 3 pm we started looking for a hotel. Marty stopped at a Pemex station for direction and was told there were a lot of good hotels near the church he could see in the distance. As we approached Magdelena and the place where we thought we could get off the highway it started to turn into a toll road. So Marty said “we are turning here” Well “here” was a dirt trail someone had made to the divided highway. Just like that we were off road and headed down hill on a dirt trail that was the equivalent of skiing moguls. When we got to the bottom Marty turned right, and I followed. I thought he actually got directions for this. Turned out he was using his “developing country skills" to feel his way to the commercial zone. It worked. After about a mile of dirt we found some paving, followed it to a highway. And lo and behold this Hotel magically appeared!

So we pulled in, got a room, took a shower and found another Taqueria. Now we are having real fun. It is difficult to describe how the sound and feel of Mexico invigorates one. This is not a frightening experience at all.

That’s enough for today. We have a long way to go to the ferry.