When we finally dragged ourselves off of the balcony and away from the mesmerizing views, we started looking around for places to explore. We do not fish or dive and the water is still a bit cool for swimming, nor do we have any desire for expensive yacht excursions or banana boat rides. But we do love to eat, take walks on the beach, and drive to the "end of the road", taking a few thousand pictures along the way. Our tourist visa prohibits us from traveling beyond Empalme, just south of Guaymas, without obtaining a car permit, so we do have rather close boundaries.
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| An overview of San Carlos with Mount Tetakawi always dominating the landscape! |
An overview of our area would be in order: San Carlos is to Guaymas what Ixtapa is to Zihuatenajo; a newer subdivision of condos, hotels and tourist attractions, with a large American/Canadian population and located in a beautiful beach side setting on the outskirts of the older colonial city.
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| A forest of Organ Pipes in pretty indicative of the Sonoran Desert environment! |
Guaymas is a major industrial and port city with a huge shrimp and fishing fleet, much to our dining pleasure (we're now on our 2nd kilo of shrimp). It also has the major shopping delights of Walmart and Home Depot plus a mega Leys Supermarket. There are ferry connections from Guaymas to Santa Rosalia and La Paz across the Sea of Cortez on the Baja Peninsula, and an international airport with flights from Phoenix. Located in the Sonoran Desert, the climate is hot and dry, though now we are having daytime temps in the 80s with an afternoon breeze....very pleasant!
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| Guaymas fishing fleet |
In the 1960s, San Carlos caught the eye of the motion picture industry, going "Hollywood" as the site of many movies including the classic film Catch 22, based on the Joseph Heller novel. We had heard that remains of the airstrip and remnants of the buildings used in the filming could still be found out in the desert in our Playa Algodones neighborhood. Now this is right up our alley! I finally found a Catch 22 Airstrip satellite map that gave us a pretty good idea where to look, when all we had to do was look out our front balcony at the vast desert landscaping...
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| Remnants of airstrip with our condo in background |
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| Skeletons of buildings used in filming... |
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| A eureka moment... |
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| And there it was, visible from our front balcony |
An afternoon walk down the beach to the Soggy Peso Bar for a Margarita and delicious shrimp quesadilla is an opportunity to meet lots of fun folks and share travel experiences. The entertainment starts as the wind picks up and kite surfers put on a real show!
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| Gotcha! |
There are camping facilities for every budget....
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| $24 per night |
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| At Totonaka RV Park |
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| Or free on some beaches! |
Good advice hanging on our wall....
Once again we're drawn to the balcony at sunset....Peace!
2 comments:
Absolutely gorgeous countryside and very cool to find the ruins.
Gorgeous sunset! There's a Soggy Peso here on Isla Mujeres! Really enjoying your trip. San Carlos is now on our list!
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