Mexico travels

This is our caravan of 9 rig families whom we travelled with in Mexico.  We went with the Escapees BOF (birds of a feather) club called Chapter 8 – the Mexican Connection.  We went last year as well, but travelled with other people.  First we gathered in Tucson at the Fairgrounds for our orientation to our travel group and the crossing of the border.  There were over 70 rigs all together, but we broke up in groups of 6-9 rigs and communicated on CB radios.  The groups travelled about 45 minutes

apart so that we would not overwhelm the border crossing with so many RVs at once, nor hold up traffic too much. 

We had an excellent leadership team this year, who had made at least two trips preparing the way for our caravan.  The border patrol was aware of our coming and looked for our decals on our trucks or rigs, and mostly waved us through.  A few got inspected, but mostly we sailed on by.  The Mexican “Green Angels” also were aware of our travels, and for the most part made their presence known to us all the way to Hermasillo.  There we turned west and headed too Kino Bay, where we camped for 10 days.  The picture above was taken there.  The push pin on the map is Kino Bay, and the toll road and westward road is shown.  

While there we visited a shrimp farm.  It was interesting to see how that was done.  They were probably the only employer in Kino bay aside from tourist business.  The town is very poor, but lots of Canadians and Americans live there part of the year, have beautiful houses, and have a club where they gather to socialize, promote charity projects, and generally enjoy themselves.  We were invited as guests, and attended a dinner there.  We also visited an oyster farm which was part of an esturary I believe it is called.  Sort of a huge wetlands.  There were open cafes there where you could order fresh oysters, they walked out and took them out of the water, shelled and cooked or served them raw.  Dave and I went twice, and paid for it with 2 weeks of digestive upset.  But it was good. 

We were royally entertained by the Hermasillo chamber of commerce to a day of touring the city of Hermasillo, cultural entertainment, a street car tour, and an historical tour of the governernment building there.  There were beautiful historical murals which outlined the history of Mexico.  Did you know that the main person against whom the Mexicans were revolting in the 1800’s was a man named Mr Green, who was very oppressive and not a nice man.  They shouted “Green – GO” outside his palacial home, and thus the term “gringo” became the not so nice reference to white people. 

When the Mexican Connection portion of the trip was over, we travelled up a 10 mile very bumpy road to a campground which is part of our membership group.  It was worth the trip.  There is a very happy little community there of folks who come every winter, spend the maximum time allowed, which is 6 weeks, then buy out a week which allows them to stay another 6.  We only stayed a week, enjoyed the company and the view.  We shelling on the beach, and David got to go fishing on the Sea of Cortez, pulling in fish as fast as he could reel them in.  We still have some in the freezer.  It was the highlight of the stay for him. 

Before our departure from the stateside we were warned about possible danger to our lives and property.  We saw no sign of this, nor ever felt fearful.  I won’t say were weren’t alert, and used a lot of common sense.  We did abandon the westward route from Santa Ana to cross the border closer to Yuma, as it was a long, unknown road, and we were alone at that point.  So we opted to take the toll road straight north and sat in line for 3 hours or more at Nogales to get back into the USA.  Had we been travelling in a group, we would have gladly taken the alternative route.   But not complaining.  We felt safe, the campground was close after we crossed the  border, and we were glad to get back to familiar territory. 

Wish I had more pictures for you.  I guess learning to use the camera, and transferring the pix is next.  But we have a new motor coach, and it will take all our learning powers for a little while.  We are delighted with it.  We picked it up in Casa Grande after coming back from Mexico.  I love driving it, so David has some time off that duty whenever I get a chance.  We slowly made our way home in it, timed our travels in between storms and snow.  It got cold as we headed north, but springtime in Colorado is definitely here, and this is where we want to be. 

Till next time.