The journey has begun with a stop at a familiar location. We lived in Bahia de Kino (Kino Bay) Mexico for a few years, so we love returning to say hello to old friends and scenery. We parked at Islandia RV Park in “Old Kino” and enjoyed a few nights of ocean front relaxing. This space cost us about $7.00 per night (no hook ups) and the average meal in town was about $5.00 per person.
After ripping ourselves away from this comfortable spot, we headed down the highway to a colonial village that we had visited a few times before.
Alamos was once a silver town, which was rebuilt by American expats about 15 to 20 years ago. From what we saw, it has returned to more of its Mexican roots. Because the two purported RV parks (motel parking lots) are no longer accepting RV’s; we camped in a dirt lot across from the fire station (with their permission) for free. It was fairly quiet and felt quite safe. And walking around town was a great way to see the buildings. We explored the narrow cobblestone streets and eating from the street vendors.The old mission church was beautiful at night. But due to our parking situation, we decided to move on in the morning.
Driving down MEX15, just outside of Obregon we spotted this huge Yaqui sculpture. This area has a rich history filled with native peoples. The Yaqui remain strong in many villages and towns. Annual festivals are part of their culture and “deer dancers” in full costume are common at street lights in some of the larger cities. The culture struggles to hold on, as so many native peoples do, against a growing society and their dwindling heritage holders.
We pulled in to a roadside stand for lunch. Pollo Asado (grilled chicken) with fresh salsa, corn tortillas and an ice cold Coke. This location had a basic hand washing station made of a 5 gallon bucket on two plastic crates, with a spigot, and a second bucket (on a plastic crate) to catch the water.
Culiacan is a BIG city and traffic was terrible. One way streets, narrow roadways and those crazy city buses that break all laws of logic and reasonable safety. Negotiating the camper was a bit sketchy, but we managed to get through town and see some cool things we wanted to go and explore. We went to the hotel that reportedly had RV parking available; and were again told that they no longer serve RV’s. This was terrible timing, as it was after 5 and the next possible location was about 30 minutes outside of town. If we went there, we would not likely return to explore the big city. But we decided to go for it, and if it came down to impending darkness we would park at a Pemex on the highway for the night. (SOLID RULE: NEVER DRIVE AFTER DARK IN MEXICO)
We found the cuota (toll) road and headed to Jardines de Rinconcito. We were greeted warmly (yes, they were still taking RV’s) and immediately shown a flat parking space. We were the only RV there.
On the other side of us was a canal with trees and ducks. Zeb was elated. Not only was it his birthday, but he gets to swim and chase ducks! All this for $16. Not bad.