South of the border, down Mexico way!

Our second experiment with living out of the motorhome for an extended period of time brought us south of the US/Mexico border to San Carlos in the state of Sonora.  We took the Mariposa crossing in Nogales, driving the jeep some 330 miles from our RV park in Tucson.  Mexico's international highway 15 provided an easy direct route south with stops at km 21 to obtain a tourist visa, approx. $25 each, and 3 toll stops that totaled $15.  You do not need to get a vehicle pass if traveling in the state of Sonora but do need to get the tourist visa if staying longer than 7 days. 

The only real obstacle is navigating the streets of Hermosillo, a very large city and the capital of the state of Sonora.  It does not have a proper peripheral bypass like most big cities. Fortunately Mike and Terri Church's Traveler's Guide to Mexico gave us clear, concise directions with GPS coordinates that we used both now and in 2010 when we drove to Puerto Vallarta in the motorhome. 

Our home for the month of April is a one bedroom condo at Playa Blanca resort, located on Bahia Algodones in the west end of San Carlos. We arrived about 3 in the afternoon after driving approx. 7 hours.  We were forced to have a Margarita in the beautiful lounge while waiting for our 4 pm check-in time.  Interestingly there is very little English spoken by the staff, though they are extremely polite and accommodating.  In fact, most of the other renters are young upscale Mexican families on vacation during Spring break.

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View from the lounge!

We unpacked a month's worth of stuff with the help of a young, strong porter and transported by high speed elevator to our new home on the 13th (out of 15) floor...Wow, this place is incredible.  I won't know how to operate all these fancy gadgets: dishwasher, washer and dryer, electric stove with mucho burners, garbage disposal.  Lights, and switches, and fans and beautiful decor.  Did I mention a jacuzzi tub and a second half bath! Seriously, we've lived in a motorhome for 18 years; this is luxurious!

52' widescreen with all the channels

and into the kitchen !

But then there's the view from OUR balcony...

Looking down.....

Looking west..

Looking east..

And the nightly spectacular sunsets....

And now the weekend...from OUR balcony!

Up the road at the public beach, winding down Spring break!

$10 or 120 pesos bought us a kilo of shrimp from the roadside fish monger and provided delicious homemade stir fry the first night and shrimp tacos the next...with leftovers!

Howard's shrimp stir-fry served al fresco!

Yummy shrimp tacos for night 2!

We're here, we're loving it, we'll show you around.  It will be interesting to see if we get the Week 3 itch.  Hey, if so we have our own wheels!  For now this is working out just fine...