The Best-Laid Plans

"If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans..."

Did I say we were leaving for the boat on Sunday at "0-dark-30?" Silly me. It was more like 10am. The first leg of the journey, San Carlos to Mazatlan, was somewhat uneventful for me, mainly because I snuggled in the back of the van with the dogs and read most of the way while the Capt drove. The book held my interest -- Disappearing Acts by Jody Picoult.

With our late start, we'd almost reached Culiacan, when we took a break in a truck stop restaurant parking lot where we were lulled to sleep by the sound of semis entering and leaving. Our alarm was set for 3am so we could be on the road and into Maz by 8-- we had an important appointment, a blogger breakfast meetup, in fact, with Countdown to Mexico Nancy.

The Capt, buzzing nicely on a cup of Nancy's gourmet java

Nancy with Lucy (foreground) and Henry in their new back patio

Nancy had fresh-squeezed orange juice ready for us when we arrived at her place in Old Town Maz at 8 on the dot, just in time to see Paul off for his first printmaking class. Next she brewed up some excellent coffee with her high-tech machine and served us stacks of yummy French toast. A real comfort food breakfast. We got to meet her rescue birds and see the transformation she and Paul have made to their "back yard" -- last year a stark slab of cement baking in the sun, now a little outdoor oasis with grass, cool tile, lots of shade and flowers...

The Sofia/Chica dogpile

Back on the road, we took the toll road toward Tepic, which we're not sure was worth the tolls (a couple of them over 110 pesos), considering it was two lanes the whole way. It followed high ground so we looked down on jungles and farmland, agave fields and villages. Nancy had mentioned we'd see wetlands, and they were a birdwatcher's treat, with white pelicans, herons and egrets nesting and flocking all along the road. Traffic would slow down to a crawl, I'd switch on the camera, get a shot in focus, then traffic would speed up and I'd get a blur. Oh, well...

Nesting white pelican

Suddenly we realized we were going into a long empty stretch of road and running low on gas, so we had to double back and reroute to Rosario, which turned out to be one of the high points of the day. Rosario was established in 1655 and a few of the oldest buildings are still standing, including one structure that seems to be the remains of the front of a grand government palace...behind its elaborate facade I could see little open-air markets.

Historic building in Rosario...the blur in the middle was windshield reflection

We were filling up at the Pemex when a truck towing two wagons full of circus animals. A sorrowful young elephant, two Shetland ponies, a couple of llamas, burros.

Before Tepic (capital city of Nayarit state), we found the turnoff to San Blas and left the toll road, winding west into the jungle. Much cooler, we escaped the city driving and we had the prospect of seeing the ocean again.

We pulled into La Cruz well before sunset and began the unloading process, which took us two days. Who knew we'd packed so much stuff into that little Westfalia van? Now we're in the settling-in process and in a few more days we'll be ready to sail south.

Meanwhile, we're enjoying meeting our neighbors in the La Cruz marina: Escapade, Castaway, Lotus, and our former fellow travelers on Sol Mate. When we're not busy on the boat we can escape to ad hoc dock parties, provisioning expeditions to Walmart and Home Depot (ugh!) and group outings for dinner and live music. As always, we're behind schedule and wondering why we thought we had to have a schedule to begin with.